540 
length fall in with the great island 
of Malfi, a kind of religiouscapital 
which, placed in the midst of the 
river, is still upwards of 60 leagues 
from the coast, and the inhabitants 
of which, almost all brokers, and 
of course linguists, end by ac- 
companying them to the sea- 
shore. 
Whether it is in small grains or 
in dust, the gold of Guinea is ex- 
tremely pale in colour, although 
very pure ; and it greatly resem- 
bles the filings of yellow copper, 
with which Negroes or other 
cheats mix it fraudulently. When 
a Negro plays this trick, if he is 
discovered and this is easily done 
by aqua-fortis), he is instantly 
made a slave: a White man 
comes off a little better. But 
there is still another fraud which 
a buyer must be upon his guard 
against: this is, when the gold 
has not been thoroughly cleaned; 
and as the sand mixed with it is 
quartzous, the nitric acid has no 
effect on it: in this case it re- 
quires a keen eye, a glass, or even 
the crucible if it be at hand. The 
gold-dust is the only part of this 
precious metal which the Blacks 
sell to the Europeans. The lumps, 
of which there are some so large 
that the king of Assianti possesses 
one requiring four men to lift it, 
(the Negroes call these pieces 
“image gold,”) are held sacred, 
and when they do not exceed an 
ounce in weight are bored to make 
necklaces and bracelets’ for the 
arms, or legs. They know also 
howto work and melt them. The 
principal image or grand deity of 
Akra, is a man’s head of solid gold 
or perhaps even a naturally form~ 
ed mass which has assumed that 
form. 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1815. 
The black merchant is always 
extremely skilful in this com- 
merce: he knows the price of 
what he sells with the utmost 
precision ; and that there may be 
no fraud, he weighs it himself 
with scales which he always car- 
ries with him. Formerly this’ 
trade was much more considerable 
than it is now :—we shall see the 
reason presently. 
The Negroes have in common 
with Europeans two ways of pro- 
curing gold, digging and washing. 
The Negroes of the coast are 
washers only, while those who 
live among the mountains are es- 
sentially miners. 
The mountains of Guinea, at 
least those which we are acquaint- 
ed with, are in general granitic 
and schistous; thin masses of 
granite, as their summits prove, 
have formed by the lapse of time, 
and by their detritus the gneiss 
which forms broad beds on their 
lower flanks. In the rainy sea- 
sons, torrents descend from these 
mountains, carrying with them 
stones and gravel, which being torn 
from the higher rocks’ present the 
sameelements. These mountains 
are filled with mines of gold and 
iron. The first of these metals 
seems to have been sought for by 
Negroes from time immemorial : 
as to the latter they do not know 
how to use it, andit is not thein- 
terest of Europeansto teach them; 
gold is found in them in a primi- 
tive state in narrow stripes, and 
it is found as usual between two 
layers of a granite, finer, more 
compact, and more highly colour- 
ed than the rest of the rock: the 
Negroes have not yet thought of 
working the latter, but it is pro- 
bable that avarice will compel 
