Those valuable commodities, gold and ivory (the next objects of our
inquiry), have probably been found in Africa from the first ages of
the world.
They are reckoned among its most important productions
in the earliest records of its history.
It has been observed that gold is seldom or never discovered except
in mountainous and barren countries - nature, it is said, thus making
amends in one way for her penuriousness in the other. This,
however, is not wholly true. Gold is found in considerable
quantities throughout every part of Manding, a country which is
indeed hilly, but cannot properly be called mountainous, much less
barren. It is also found in great plenty in Jallonkadoo
(particularly about Boori), another hilly, but by no means an
unfertile, country. It is remarkable that in the place last
mentioned (Boori), which is situated about four days' journey to the
south-west of Kamalia, the salt market is often supplied at the same
time with rock-salt from the Great Desert and sea-salt from the Rio
Grande; the price of each, at this distance from its source, being
nearly the same. And the dealers in each, whether Moors from the
north or negroes from the west, are invited thither by the same
motives - that of bartering their salt for gold.
The gold of Manding, so far as I could learn, is never found in any
matrix or vein, but always in small grains nearly in a pure state,
from the size of a pin's head to that of a pea, scattered through a
large body of sand or clay, and in this state it is called by the
Mandingoes sanoo munko (gold powder). It is, however, extremely
probable, by what I could learn of the situation of the ground, that
most of it has originally been washed down by repeated torrents from
the neighbouring hills. The manner in which it is collected is
nearly as follows:-
About the beginning of December, when the harvest is over and the
streams and torrents have greatly subsided, the mansa or chief of
the town appoints a day to begin sanoo koo (gold-washing), and the
women are sure to have themselves in readiness by the time
appointed. A hoe or spade for digging up the sand, two or three
calabashes for washing it in, and a few quills for containing the
gold dust, are all the implements necessary for the purpose. On the
morning of their departure a bullock is killed for the first day's
entertainment, and a number of prayers and charms are used to insure
success, for a failure on that day is thought a bad omen.
The mansa of Kamalia, with fourteen of his people, were, I remember,
so much disappointed in their first day's washing that very few of
them had resolution to persevere, and the few that did had but very
indifferent success: which indeed is not much to be wondered at,
for instead of opening some untried place they continued to dig and
wash in the same spot where they had dug and washed for years, and
where, of course, but few large grains could be left.
The washing of the sands of the streams is by far the easiest way of
obtaining the gold dust; but in most places the sands have been so
narrowly searched before, that unless the stream takes some new
course the gold is found but in small quantities. While some of the
party are busied in washing the sands, others employ themselves
farther up the torrent, where the rapidity of the stream has carried
away all the clay, sand, etc., and left nothing but small pebbles.
The search among these is a very troublesome task. I have seen
women who have had the skin worn off the tops of their fingers in
this employment. Sometimes, however, they are rewarded by finding
pieces of gold, which they call sanoo birro (gold stones), that
amply repay them for their trouble. A woman and her daughter,
inhabitants of Kamalia, found in one day two pieces of this kind;
one of five drachms and the other of three drachms weight. But the
most certain and profitable mode of washing is practised in the
height of the dry season, by digging a deep pit, like a draw-well,
near some hill which has previously been discovered to contain gold.
The pit is dug with small spades or corn-hoes, and the earth is
drawn up in large calabashes. As the negroes dig through the
different strata of clay or sand, a calabash or two of each is
washed by way of experiment; and in this manner the labourers
proceed, until they come to a stratum containing gold, or until they
are obstructed by rocks, or inundated by water. In general, when
they come to a stratum of fine reddish sand, with small black specks
therein, they find gold in some proportion or other, and send up
large calabashes full of the sand for the women to wash; for though
the pit is dug by the men, the gold is always washed by the women,
who are accustomed from their infancy to a similar operation in
separating the husks of corn from the meal.
As I never descended into any one of these pits, I cannot say in
what manner they are worked underground. Indeed, the situation in
which I was placed made it necessary for me to be cautious not to
incur the suspicion of the natives by examining too far into the
riches of their country; but the manner of separating the gold from
the sand is very simple, and is frequently performed by the women in
the middle of the town; for when the searchers return, from the
valleys in the evening, they commonly bring with them each a
calabash or two of sand, to be washed by such of the females as
remain at home. The operation is simply as follows:-
A portion of sand or clay (for the gold is sometimes found in a
brown-coloured clay) is put into a large calabash and mixed with a
sufficient quantity of water.
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