Gold guinea

“ That gold exists in the western and northern portions of New Guinea has long been known, that it exists also on the south-eastern shores of that great island is equally true, as a specimen of pottery procured at Redscar Bay contained a few small laminar grains of this precious metal. The clay in which the gold is embedded was probably part of the great alluvial deposit on the banks of the rivers, the mouths of which we saw in that neighbourhood, doubtless originating in the high mountains behind, part of the Owen Stanley Range. ”

“ These natives of Guinea are very wary in driving bargains, and will not willingly lose the smallest particle of their gold, using weights and measures for the same with great circumspection. In dealing with them, it is necessary to behave with civility and gentleness, as they will not trade with any who use them ill. ”

“ If the pound weight (troy) of gold be divided into 89 parts, each of them will be equal to half a guinea, so that 12 ounces contain 44 1/2 guineas.—As this favourite coin is gradually disappearing, we think it superfluous to state its accurate proportion of pure gold and alloy:—it has been confidently reported, that English guineas have lately been exchanged on the Continent, and especially in Hamburgh, at from 24 to 25 shillings. ”

“ The same cause has been the occasion of the ill treatment they have sometimes given to innocent strangers, who have attempted to trade with them. As the Europeans have no settlement on this part of Guinea, the trade is carried on by signals from the ships, on the appearance of which the natives usually come on board in their canoes, bringing their gold-dust, ivory, &c. which has given opportunity to some villainous Europeans to carry them off with their effects, or retain them on board till a ransom is paid. ”

“ That the "Arabs and Moors" of the early fifteenth century could give the Infant detailed and correct information, not only about the Barbary states and the trade-routes of the Sahara, but also about many of the Western and Central Sudan countries, and about the general course and direction of the "Guinea coast" both to the west and south of the great African hump. Especially could they describe the kingdom of Guinea, centreing round the town of Jenné on the Upper Niger, which was the chief market of their Negro trade in slaves, gold, and ivory. ”

“ You can leave your “chamois” of gold knocking about the store for a week, if you choose to be so careless, and know that not a grain of its contents will be missing when you wake up to its existence again. The men who have stood the brunt of the fearful hardships and taken the atrocious risks that were, and are, the price of finding gold in New Guinea, are not the kind to play a fellow miner dishonest tricks. ”

“ But their mercantile interests very soon induced them to try to increase and strengthen their information concerning the regions of the East. What sort of country after all was this much-discussed New-Guinea, they began to ask. As early as 1602 information was sought from the natives of adjacent islands, but these proved to have "no certain knowledge of this island of Nova Guinea" [*] . The next step taken was the sending out of a ship for the purpose of obtaining this "certain knowledge": there were rumours afloat of gold being found in New Guinea! ”

“ For a number of years the Negroes had brought gold from the inland of Africa to the Dutch on the Gold Coast. There seemed every reason to believe that the source of this gold supply was none other than that described by the natives of the Gambia River, and that it might be discovered somewhere in that region. Prince Rupert was so much impressed with the possibility of finding these mines that his voyage to Guinea was still vivid in his memory when Charles II assumed the throne in 1660. ”

“ The life of the prospector in New Guinea is not fraught with many pleasures, but in my experience, oftener than elsewhere, he enjoys that exquisite sensation which attends the unexpected finding of gold, and here the dreary monotony of life in the Australian interior is exchanged for conditions more congenial to his wandering nature. ”

“ Gold has been worked or is known to exist in parts of the territory and adjacent islands. From 1888 (when British New Guinea was proclaimed a colony) down to 1916 gold to the value of £1,436,249 was obtained. On Misima or St. Aignan I. in the Louisiade Archipelago gold was little worked until 1914, when it began to be considerably developed, about 70 whites being settled in the island, which became the most important source of gold in the territory. Agricultural industries are developing (see (Australia) . ”

“ The Spaniards found traces of gold all along this part of the country, and Saavedra named the island Isla del Oro, the Island of Gold; but his description of the natives, whom he found to be black, with short crisped hair or wool, similar to those of the coast of Guinea in Africa, gave rise, no doubt, to the alteration in the name, for at a later date the island became known as Nova Guinea, or New Guinea. ”

“ Pou, or Wood, is after the rate of a Fathom, for an old Guinea Sheet; their Water free, and easy come at, but is a standing Pool, and not so well-tasted therefore as Springs.
The Natives are harmless and inoffensive, never sell one another. But when Ships come in, flock towards the Bay with Wax, Honey, a few Teeth, and little Gold; which last, I rather believe, is brought thither, because not one of them seemed to know the Value of it. They are timorous, and therefore have their Habitations at a distance from the Sea, few of them venturing on board a Ship ”

“ And only experienced men of sterling physique can stand the awful labour and hardships of gold-mining in the Possession. Deadly malarial fever adds to the diggers' hard lot in New Guinea, and the natives, when not savage and treacherous, are as unreliable and as lazy as a Spanish priest.
In conclusion, I can assure my readers that there is no prospect for any man of limited means to make money in the South Seas as a trader. Any assertions to the contrary have no basis of fact in them. In cotton and coco-nut planting there are good openings for men of the right stamp ”

“ Nearly all the rivers in New Guinea yield "colours" of gold, but only in the Louisiade Archipelago has enough been discovered to constitute the district a goldfield. No auriferous reefs have been found. Black magnetic iron sand covers the shore in Milne Bay. Coal has been observed in the Purari sandstones. In the Gira river the valuable alloy osmiridium has been discovered. Earthquakes are rare on the mainland, but not infrequent in Bismarck and d'Entrecasteaux archipelagos. ”

“ If he lands anywhere in Polynesia—Samoa, Tonga, Cook's Islands, or elsewhere—he will have Customs duties to pay, house rent, and a trading licence. And everywhere he will find keen competition and measly profits, unless he lives like a Chinaman on rice and fish.
“In British New Guinea you can dig gold in hand-fuls out of the mangrove swamps” (O ye gods!) ”

“ He adds, "That this place seldom fails of an extraordinary good trade from the inland country, especially for slaves, whereof several are supposed to come from very remote parts, because it is not uncommon to find a Malayan or two amongst a parcel of other slaves. The Malaya, people are generally natives of Malacca, in the East Indies, situate several thousand miles from the Gold Coast." They differ very much from the Guinea Negroes, being of a tawny complexion, with long black hair. ”

“ It was so called as being made of gold brought from Guinea by the African Company, who, as an encouragement to them to bring over gold to be coined, wore permitted by their charter to have their stamp of an elephant impressed upon whatever pieces should be struck from the metal they imported. ”

“ In 1440 Anthony Gonsalez brought some Moors prisoners to Lisbon. These he took two and forty leagues beyond Cape Bojador, and in 1442 he returned with his captives. One Moor escaped, but ten blacks of Guinea and a considerable quantity of gold dust were given in ransom for two others. A rivulet at the place of landing was named by Gonsalez, Rio del Oro, or the River of Gold. And the islands of Adeget, Arguim, and De las Garças were now discovered.
The negroes of Guinea, the first ever seen in Portugal, and the gold dust, excited other passions beside admiration. ”

“ Had the Writer your happy Talents of multiplying the last Guinea, he could not have had the Leisure of being so poetically forrowful at its Departure. And as it comes forth now, only with the Hopes of an Increase, may it prove the Seed of more Gold! And being flung into so warm a Bed as yours, rise up and flourish to the Author's Satifaction. He, I assure you, thinks himself happy, that it gives an Occasion of applauding that Merit in publick, which he has always admired in private; being,
SIR,
Your very Obedient
Humble Servant. ”

“ That some good and extremely profitable reefs have been found, I do not for one moment wish to deny, but as I have just now said, these can be counted on the fingers of one hand. That gold is here and in large quantities is true, but it requires gold to get it, and there is such a thing as paying a guinea for a sovereign. ”

“ The famous Yodda Valley, where men at first made fifty ounces of gold (equivalent to £180 per day) , was discovered in such manner, and if the stories of some of the prospecting parties who crossed New Guinea in all directions were given to the world, doubtless a "rush" would set in towards the deadly fever-swamps, unparalleled in the world's history both for its general extent and the amount of victims. ”

“ The third part of our Division is the Bay of Guinea, which takes in Whydah, Benin, Callabar, &c. to Congo and Angola in 8°° S. In this Extent Whydah is principal, there being more Slaves exported from that place before the late Conquest of it by the King of Dauhomay, than from all the rest of the Coast together, the Europeans being said in some years to have carried off 20000; but more of this by and by. I shall only observe, that as this part abounds more with Slaves, the other [158] does with Gold, and the windward Coast with Ivory. ”

“ Moreover, the Inland People are very jealous of those Negroes, who are under the Protection of the Factories; so that the account I have received from both when at peace (which has brought some of the former to the Sea side) has seemed so fabulous and contradictory, that it could not be depended upon; for the Negroes are very apt to impose on us. However, in this part called the Gold Coast, the Natives near the Sea side are much civilized, by their conversing with the Europeans, at their Settlements; and by going on board so many Ships to trade, as frequent this part of the Coast. ”

“ In the meantime I had no claim, and it behoved me to find one; whereupon, accompanied by Sione and Gisavia, I wandered off into the jungle of Woodlark in search of a gold-bearing gully.22 Creek after creek and gully after gully we sunk holes in and tried, sometimes getting for our pains a few pennyweights of gold, but more often nothing. For food we depended on a small mat of rice of about fifty pounds weight carried by one boy, and as many sweet potatoes, yams or taro we could pick up from wandering natives. ”

“ The same author speaking of the country of Ante, says,B "This country, as well as the Gold Coast, abounds with hills, enriched with extraordinary high and beautiful trees; its valleys, betwixt the hills, are wide and extensive, producing in great abundance very good rice, millet, jamms, potatoes, and other fruits, all good in their kind." He adds, "In short, it is a land that yields its manurers as plentiful a crop as they can wish, with great quantities of palm wine and oil, besides being well furnished with all sorts of tame, as well as wild beasts ”

“ It’s only within my Design to give a general Insight to such as are Strangers, and a Rule to improve upon by such as are not.
We may for this end divide Guinea into a windward Coast, the Gold Coast, and the Bay, a Tract of 6 or 700 Leagues from the River Gambia, in 13°° N. to Angola, about 9 or 10°° S. The Portuguese were the first Europeans that settled and built Forts here, tho’ now the least concerned, paying their Tribute to the Dutch for Leave: What remains of theirs is to the Southward on the River Congo at Loango de St. ”

“ Also, the Moors were acquainted with the country of Tokrur, [106] which may be supposed to occupy the upper valley of the Senegal, becoming perhaps, in Prince Henry's time, merely a province of Guinea. Further, they could give much information about the States of Timbuktu and Melli, to the east of Guinea, on the Middle Niger, about the gold land [Pg lviii] of Wangara, in the great bend to the south of that river, and about the Songhay, afterwards so powerful, whose capital was at Gao, at the extreme N.E. angle of the Negro Nile, or Joliba. ”

“ Most parts of the Slave Coasts are represented as equally fertile and pleasant with the Gold Coast. The kingdom of Whidah has been particularly noted by travellers.A William Smith and Bosman agree, "That it is one of the most delightful countries in the world. The great number and variety of tall, beautiful, and shady trees, which seem planted in groves, the verdant fields every where cultivated, and no otherwise divided than by those groves, and in some places a small foot-path, together with a great number of villages, contribute to afford the most delightful prospect ”

“ Yet, proceeds this record, the "river [of gold] is a league wide and deep enough for the largest ship. This is the Cape of the end ... of W. Africa."
[121] Nordenskjöld, Periplus, p. 114 (1897) , gives a confirmation from experience. "There is hardly any doubt that the ship-drawing on the Atlas Catalan is in the main correct.... Even in my time, Norwegians went out fishing on Spitzbergen in large undecked boats, somewhat like that of Ferrer."
[122] Such as dealt in Guinea products, especially malaguette pepper, at Nismes, Marseilles, and Montpellier. ”