The Gold Dust Is Kept In Quills,
Stopt Up With Cotton, And The Washers Are Fond Of Displaying A Number Of
These Quills In Their Hair.
Generally speaking, if a person uses common
diligence, in a proper soil, it is supposed that as much gold may be
collected by him in the course of the dry season as is equal to the value
of two slaves.
Thus simple is the process by which the Negroes obtain gold in Manding;
and it is evident, from this account, that the country contains a
considerable portion of this precious metal; for many of the smaller
particles must necessarily escape the observation of the naked eye; and
as the natives generally search the sands of streams at a considerable
distance from the hills, and consequently far removed from the mines
where the gold was originally produced, the labourers are sometimes but
ill paid for their trouble. Minute particles only of this heavy metal can
be carried by the current to any considerable distance; the larger must
remain deposited near the original source from whence they came. Were the
gold-bearing streams to be traced to their fountains, and the hills from
whence they spring properly examined, the sand in which the gold is there
deposited would, no doubt, be found to contain particles of a much larger
size;[23] and even the small grains might be collected to considerable
advantage by the use of quicksilver, and other improvements, with which
the natives are at present unacquainted.
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