Page 15 - Cameo 53

Figure 3 : Unpaid Book Post Wrapper from Victoriaborg to Kwitta

balancing mailbags on their heads while traversing known due to high European mortality from malarial
dangerous paths and streams and walking surf- and other diseases.
bordered ocean shores. We may imagine the
hardships of these men in the equatorial heat and There was little European trading beyond the coastal
absence of roads. This article is intended as a tribute strip, few incentives for visitors and no interest in
to them. colonisation by European settlers. Even development
of the gold and other mineral riches of the Gold
Background of the Gold Coast Postal Service and Coast did not progress quickly and the first serious
Overland Mails European gold exploration began about 1875. Land
transportation was impeded by absence of roads,
Ordinance 17 (1888) of the Gold Coast government forests and rivers presented physical barriers and
established and regulated an Inland Colonial Post frequent tribal conflicts often created political
Office, although the origins of the Gold Coast postal barriers. Coastal and forested southern interior areas
service may be traced to the early and mid nineteenth of the colony are home to the tsetse fly, the source of
century. Before the Letters Patent for the colony trypanosome infections, which prevented use of draft
were issued in 1874, the government established a horses or cattle. Mail delivery on land depended on
regular overland mail service. However, most of the people without benefit of wheeled or mechanised
little correspondence at this time, mainly official mail vehicles until the first trains came to the colony in
and missionary correspondence, was carried by sea 1901. Although light wheeled trucks were used about
between the coastal towns. Consolidation of British 1912 (Ref. 3), motorised mail transport began only
control including occupation of the Dutch in 1921.
settlements in 1872 and the successful suppression
of the Ashanti in 1873-74 helped to develop a Up to the early twentieth century the only aids for
regular administration and control of the coastal the inland transport of mails were native-paddled
areas in the Gold Coast. canoes and later motorised launches. The latter
operated on the southern reaches of the Ankobra and
No census of European populations in the Gold Volta Rivers. Surfboats were the only link between
Coast was recorded before the twentieth century. the Overland Mail service and the Ocean Mails.
Possibly there were fewer than 100 resident These boats carried mail and were paddled both in
administrative and military personnel, except during and out to anchored sail and to steam vessels since
periods of local wars. Traders and missionaries there were no dock or harbour facilities. Often, this
probably accounted for an equal number. A total of mail transfer was dangerous in rough surf
54 Basel Mission staff were recorded in the 1875 conditions. The 1898 Post Office Report described
Blue Book, including 10 then in Europe due to ill an accident to the mail boat in which the Mail Clerk
health. The notoriety of 'The Coast' was well narrowly escaped drowning, but happily, the mails