The Washing 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, &c. 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 way 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 of these pits, I cannot say in what manner
they are worked under ground. 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 gold is sometimes found in a brown
coloured clay) is put into a large calabash, and mixed with a sufficient
quantity of water. The woman, whose office it is, then shakes the
calabash in such a manner, as to mix the sand and water together, and
give the whole a rotatory motion; at first gently, but afterwards more
quick, until a small portion of sand and water, at every revolution,
flies over the brim of the calabash. The sand thus separated is only the
coarsest particles mixed with a little muddy water. After the operation
has been continued for some time, the sand is allowed to subside, and the
water poured off; a portion of coarse sand, which is now uppermost in the
calabash, is removed by the hand, and fresh water being added, the
operation is repeated until the water comes off almost pure. The woman
now takes a second calabash, and shakes the sand and water gently from
the one to the other, reserving that portion of sand which is next the
bottom of the calabash, and which is most likely to contain the gold.
This small quantity is mixed with some pure water, and being moved about
in the calabash, is carefully examined. If a few particles of gold are
picked out, the contents of the other calabash are examined in the same
manner; but in general, the party is well contented; if she can obtain
three or four grains from the contents of both calabashes. Some women,
however, by long practice, become so well acquainted with the nature of
the sand, and the mode of washing it, that they will collect gold, where
others cannot find a single particle. 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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