Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1891. The Golden Shore.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 7 May 1891, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1891. The Golden Shore.

From the earliest recorded times, even unto now, the great continent of Africa has been celebrated -for it's gold. In the Old Testament, Abra-" ham is described as having been a ruan rich in silver and gold, and later on, when King Solomon ruled over Israel, he made silver as " nothing accounted of" from the abundance, of gold he introduced into his kingdom. This metal, the desire of men, was first found in the eastern parts of Egypt and Asia. The Egyptians obtained their gold from the copper mines of Nnbia, and also from parts of South Africa. It will be remembered that when King Solomon was building the temple he fitted out a navy on the shores of the Red Sea to fetch gold from Ophir. Till lately the country to which they voyaged has been unidentified. That it Jwas some distance is shown by Solomon having engaged his neighbouring King, Hiram, to send a navy with his, and to supply " shipmen that had knowledge of the sea." From this Ophir, they fetched, in their first voyage, four hundred and twenty talents of gold, and they made- other trips, so that the weight of gold, in a year, that Solomon received was reckoned as "six hundred three score 1 and six talents." The navy did not confine themselves to gold .alone, for Hiram's navy " brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones," and Solomon's navy of Tharsish, once in three years "brought gold, and silver, ivory and apes, and : peacocks." We are not informed whether the cargoes were got by force, or: trade, but later on we purpose to show that there is presumptive evidence that the inhabitants of Ophir, did nqt feel par-, ticularly secure. Guinea, is the name applied to the whole west coast of Africa, and the I old English coin of that name, affords evidence of where the metal was obtained. As far back as 1442 the Europeans commenced the trade in gold dust with the Africans, and since then the greater part of the African Continent has been harried to obtain the yellow metal. South Africa has aroused the world by its wonderful diamond mines, and in the ' Transvaal the gold mines are being worked. Savages roam over the soil, but are slowly though surely being displaced by the hardy gold digger, and now comes the question, Whom did the savages displace ? Events repeat themselves. Three thousand years ago Solomon, in all his glory* sent expeditions out to South Africa, to Ophir, to gather gold for the Temple and his palaces. A year ago, or three thousand years after Solomon, Mr Cecil Rhodes organised the British South Africa Company to open up and settle Mashonalaud, the Ophir of the past. And this is what they have found : — Some most remarkable ruins, built by a race that has left no record behind them, except undecipherable characters on-

graved on the stones of their buildings. The first appearance of tlie ruin is found in ah oiit^r Wall four fetit high running apparently, right round the entire " Kopje ", but, according to the correspondent of an English paper, owing to the high grass and dense juugle-like,.iirider-giwth, "itHras found* impossible to trace this wall more than half a mile Next come indications of a second and inner wall, which it was also ■Impossible to trace for ail} f distance 1 , for the sanie reasoris; aniid a perfect labyfihth of remains of small circular buildings— a mighty maze, bnt not, apparently, "without some plan — southwest of the "kopje" and 300 yards from its base 1 , We find oitrsdvgs Confronted with the startling and main feature of these remains—namely, a high wall of circular shape, from 30ft to 35ft high, forming a oonip'le'fee 1 e'iidds'ure of an area, eighty yards in diameter. This wall (about 10ft in thickness at the base and tapering to about 7ft or Bft at the top) is built of small granite blocks ) abdut twice tiie size of an ordinary brick, beautifully hewn and ■■ jdressed, laid in perfectly 6ven courses and put together without the use of a single atom of either mortar qr ; c£nie,nti. T/bia strange Enclosure is i.enterjed-ottits eastern side by what at first sight appears to be a mere gap in the wall, but which closer examination reveals to be what was once evidently a well-defined narrow entrance, as shown clearly by the rounded off courses. Inside the building itself (which is most difficult to examine thoroughly, owing both to the dense undergrowth and presence of quantities of trees hundreds of years old, : which conceal traces of, seemingly, a series of further circular or elliptical walls) and close to the entrance and outer wall; here 80ft high stands a conicalshaped tower, or turret, 35ft in height and 18ft in diameter at the base,-, built of the same granite blocks and consisting of solid masonry. Lastly, the remaining feature of this building to be touched upon in this brief account is that on the southeast front of the wall and 20ft from its base runs a double zigzag scroll, one- third of the distance round, composed of the same-sized granite blocks placed in diagonal positions. On the " kopje" and hillside itself, too, there are numerous traces of remains of a similar character, circular buildings wedged in among boulders of rocks, walled terraces, at least nine in number ; and, built on the very summit, an enormous mass of .granite .blocks to bo used, apparently as a fovt, and which, owing to the complete absence of any disintegrating forces in this climate, is in an .almost- perfect state of preservation. The view obtained from the summit of the " kopje" commands a panorama probably unrivalled in South African scenery. Dotted about are relics of the furnaces in which they smelted their ore. It appears evident that these men understood the art of gold getting, anil a'so understood the risk of attack, by the strong round keeps they raised around their work. Can it be possible that the earliest record of gold hunting on the African Continent was surrounded with as much misery (until the last few years) it has beeu, in this century ? Did Sol r omon barter for, or seize, the quantity of gold he imported ?