ANNAMARU

Hokitika Guardian, 17 June 1929, Page 7

ANNAMARU

A CASTLE OX THE GOLD COAST The Gold Coast might just as well have been called the Cocoa Colony, for ha Ilf the world’s supply of cocoa comes From there. At the last stocktaking the exports were reckoned at £II,OOO, 000, and the imports were round about 010,000,000! 'That from a British colony held for the black man. Where no white man, I believe, may hold more 'and than just sufficient on which to ilant a dwelling place or factory. Close to the equator for three long 'enturies it has been known as the “white man’s grave.” It was no misnomer either, if or the Briton has always regarded the heat as a mistake on the part of the Creator, and so lived in the tropics that he has often dug that grave himsell (states Mary Gaunt in the Age).

Yet the Guinea Coast has, from the days of the Tudors, spelt wealth to the (fortunate nation that had trading posts, castles on its surf-bound shore. First the Portuguese's held it a close presreve. Gold and “graines ’ all the products of the tropics were to be had there, and Pope had given it to them Others they warned off as interlopers •mid when they caught them enforced lie.se warnings—drastically. Mhen -he Royal Venturers of England in 1024 made a landing at Annambau, a a day’s journey from the groat Portuguese 'fort at Cape Com, they took their lives in their hands. The surf is bad at Annumabu. Perhaps that is one reason why they close it. For no man in those days—no man 15 years ago even —marched by land from one- place to the other along the coast. The dense forest forbade. And not. only the dense (forest. The people who lived there had to be reckoned with. . The adventurers faced the tropical day and the dangerous landing ’in heavy broadcloth and stout leather jerkins. The blazing sun boat down on their iron helmets. They where weighed down with arms of offence and defence. For the Ivoromantynsthat is, the Ashantis—who crowded down to the shore were a stalwart and warlike people. These pallid, panting newcomers might expect to be received with honour only as long as they could hold their own. . , x The chief in all barbaric state planted his chair upon the sand. It was all studded with gold. The display made the mouths of the Venturers water. Gold was in the chiefs hair on his fingers and toes, round bis ankles and wrists, round his neck His attendants bore clubs studded with it, discs of the precious metal were slung on the breasts of some of them. Ihe King’s “souls” were these, to live bis his beloved companions, to die buried alive by his side when his time came. Land was bought, and slaves to build tho castle, 'for such trifles as a little cloth, a brass basin or two. sonm horse tails, and some bad arms .ml powder.

Then commenced that strenuous time that has lasted up to the present decade and given the Guinea Coast us evil name. , First they set to work to clear a . the trees and undergrowth for toe sur was often impassible; they ™ camp ami never for n moment *d the, trust the people of the ‘ ’ Urn stone had to be quarried, cut and bought to the chosen place, lhose stones wore drenched in tears and blood, for human life was cheap, and the slavers were merciless. ' ,,M ’ | )e _ ,l<f a slave was hurt or injured lie' lay out in the bush and died. There were plenty to take bis place.

When the lest stone was placed the traders took possession of their castle rejoicing. Prisoners they were in all bnt name, though they were laying the foundation of Empire, There was |mt one entrance, a low, narrow door, that a tall man must, stoop to enter, lead by a long tunnel into the paved courtyard, round which were built the rooms for dwelling and lor stores. ,No pleasant breeze could blow through them. In the thickness cif the walls without light, and with still less air. were the barrocoons, where the slaves were held till the ships would come for their cargo. Cramped there, the reek of their living and their dying went up to heaven. In the courtyard close to the well were buried the honoured

dead; those of no account were cast out beyond the walls, And then they

wondered when the ships arrived that the tale of the dead was so great.

They tramped the bastions where were the guns and piles of shot; they looked out to the empty soa, safest when it was empty; they looked landward, whore the dense forest hid the native villiage and tho tom toms beat unceasingly. They hated the wonderful forest with its mighty trees, kaku, mahogany and odum hound together an impeiie trahle wall by many a creeper and fern. 'I he elephants roamed there • there tlui leopard limited. hi due season came the tropical rains, running like rivers in the courtyard : tumbling from the walls like a waterspout. Sea and sky and forest alike were blotted out. And mould grew on everything in the steamy heat. But mostly the sun blazed in all its tropical fierceness. They feared the sun, but the rainy season they counted deadly. Only on occasion did they admit the dark people inside tbe walls. They wanted men, that most costly and valuable of all meehandi.se, therefore they incited the people to warfare, giving them arms and ammunition, welcoming them and their miserable captives with a barrel of brandy in the courtyard, the walls above the thronged with armed white men—to do them honour.

For forty years Annamabu sheltered the traders, then came de Ruyter, the butch admiral.

We have no record of the terrible day when the guns from the ships acmes the surf knocked breaches in those frowning walls and the Dutchmen stormed the castle and drove out the English. Imagine the horror ol it. They had held the place by might for more than a generation. They fought as long as they had strength to wield a cutlass or shoulder a musket; they died where they stood, or e:aw ! od away and were lucky if ;bry •passed out in peace and were not tak en and tortured by tho black people. Tln-.y had been cruel and ruthi'MS aficr the fashion o'f the times. D-d i-.•* i.hiof whom they had dazrdc'i Ia their power aid the beaten men? £ rob ably not. Woe to the vanquished! it is all unwritten history.

But the English are a tenacious people. They were not utterly crushed when their castle i oil and its holders were slain. The demand ifor slaves were great, and the fear of suffering never yet stopped a man. Eight years later out of the wreck that dc Ruytci had left the African Company rebuilt Annamabu. To this day it stands square on the sands right down on the shore. Always the sound of the sea echoes through its courts, and when a tornado breaks the wild surf of the Guinea coast dashes against its grim g re J Ways. _ But on its stones Ichahod is written. The day of trading “ castles ” is over. Ar.namabu was merely a stepping in the march of Empire.