sor 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 TO 
 
 THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, 
 
 GEORGE THE FOURTH, 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 SIRE, 
 
 In confonnity with the permission which I have 
 received, I now place under the patronage of your Majesty's august 
 name, a volume exhibiting the intimate and political feelings of 
 the Sovereig-n of Ashantee, demonstrative of a friendly regard, as 
 well towards your Royal person as to the commercial prosperity of 
 the British Colonies on the Gold Coast : the contents of which I 
 stood pledged to make known to your Majesty. 
 
 With sentiments of the purest attachment to your Majesty's 
 service, and to the honour and interest of the crown, 
 
 I remain, 
 A\ ith the profoundest veneration, 
 Sire, 
 Your Majesty's most faithful Subject, 
 and dutiful Servant, 
 
 JOSEPH DUPUIS. 
 
 •1C7MR7
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Page 
 Introduction - - - - - - i 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 JOURNEY TO COOMASSY. 
 
 Departure from Cape Coast Castle — Mouree — Dutch Castle of Nassau — Beetles — 
 Ashantee Travellers — Ruins of Fantee Grooms — Emperou — Defeat of the Fantees 
 at that Place — Formidable Serpent — Second Party of Ashantee Traders ; Terror of 
 the Females — Moslem from Coomassy — Red and Black Ants — Description of 
 Doonqua — The Forests — Remains of Mansue — Provisions Plundered by the Fantees 
 — Courses of Rivers — Abandou — Crooms or Towns of Fooso, Yancomady, and 
 Akomfody — Annoyance from Rats — The Youne, a kind of Sloth — Dansansoo — 
 Mekaren — Passage of the Praa — Prasso — Kikiwhary — Enmity of the Inhabitants 
 towards the Fantees ; Seductive Arts of the Females — Site of Miassa — Defeat of the 
 Assins under Cheboo — Remains of Saporgah, Tibiassah, Bequama, and Ensamah — 
 Arrival at Ansah . . . . - 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Public Reception at Ansah — Description of an Assin House — Effects of Negro War- 
 fare—State of Health of the Pai-ty —Akrofroom— Superstition of the Inhabitants 
 with regard to White Travellers — Beasts of Prey — Elephants— Moisy — Frontier of 
 Ashantee— The River Bohmen— Sable Naiads — Chusah — Fomanah— Doompassy — 
 Offering to a Household God— Datchasoo— ^lessage from the King of Ashantee —
 
 iv CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Adadwasy — Amoafo — Visits from the King's Son and Daughter — Bequa — Assiminia 
 — Boposso — Agemum — Sarasoo— Process of Clearing Land for Cultivation in Fantee 
 and Barbary — First Sight of Coomassy — Public Reception by the King— Speech of 
 the King of Banna— Ceremonies — Observations on the Journey and Chmate - 41 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF NEGOTIATIONS. 
 
 Audience of the King— Objects of the Mission— Delivery of Presents— The Oath of 
 Friendship and Alliance, taken by the King and Principal Chiefs and Officers — In- 
 spection of the Presents, and Effect produced — Visits from the Ashantee Moslems — 
 Violation of Mohammedan Law — State of Religion in Ashantee— Characters of the 
 Caboceers — Second Audience of the King — His Ideas of Europe — His Presents — Visits 
 from Mandingo Moslems — Interruption by Ado Quamina— Dispute and Reconciliation 
 with Him — Misconduct of the Fantees— Third Audience — Prospect of an Amicable 
 Conclusion of the Nogotiations — Presents to the Great Men - 86 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUED. 
 
 Arrival of the Interpreter Abroah — Prejudices of the King against Him — The King's 
 Sister — Account of her Promotion to the Rank of Governess of the Empire — Magical 
 Rites and Superstitions — Barbarity of the King towards his Wives-fCommencement of 
 a History of the King's Wars for the Information of the Kingof England— Suspicions 
 entertained against the Interpreters — The King's Notes for Cape Coast Castle and Anna- 
 maboe — Remarks on the Conduct and Statements of Mr. Bowdich respecting these Notes 
 — The King's Arguments and Declarations— Qualities and Prices of Goods supplied 
 from Cape Coast— Human Sacrifices — Attempt of the Caboceers to Sound the British 
 Agent— Conference on the Sketch of a Treaty-^Message to the King from Cape 
 Coast Castle — Disputes respecting a Penalty alleged to have been Represented as 
 Inserted in the Former Convention — Return of Mr. Hutton to Cape Coast — Erection 
 of a Fort by the King — Misunderstanding respecting the King of Juabin (Dwabin) — 
 Continuation of the Palaver— Little Adai Custom — Human Sacrifices — Audience of 
 Ceremony — Presents from the King — Instructions from Cape Coast— Indignation of 
 the King — Exhibition of the Magic Lanthorn — Appointment of a Day for the 
 Authors Return, on his solemn Requisition - - ISl
 
 CONTENTS. V 
 
 Page 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 RETURN OF THE MISSION. 
 
 Presents from the Moslems — Diplomatic Advice — Farewell Visits — Fort George— Pro- 
 posed Embassy from the King of Ashantee — Examinatiori of Plate of various 
 European Manufactures— Merchandize suitable for African Markets — Visit from the 
 King to the Quarters of the Mission — Jealousy of the Ashantee Chiefs— Discussions 
 on the Cape Coast Prices-v-On the Slave Trade — The King's Wars — Bardic Recita^ 
 tions — Exposure and Harsh Treatment of a Captive Prince — Signature of a Treaty 
 — The King's Commercial and Financial Plans— Peculiarities of African Commerce — 
 Audience of Leave — Troops of Slaves intended for the King of England — Instruc- 
 , tions to the Ashantee Ambassadors — Presents to the King of England — To the 
 Envoy — Ceremonies of naming the Ashantee Fort — Extraordinary Condescension of 
 his Majesty on taking Leave — Mortification of the Moslems at the Author's rejection 
 of the Koran — Departure — Heavy Rains — Liberation of a Slave — Journey to Cape 
 Coast — Disavowal of the Treaty by the Governor and Council — Preparations for War 
 — Fantee Conspiracy — Protest — Sir George Collier refuses to convey the Ambassadors 
 to England — Correspondence — Observations — Return of the Author to Europe - 151 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 OCCURRENCES SUBSEQUENT TO THE AUTHORS RETURN. 
 
 Correspondence of Messrs. Gordon, Robertson, Dawson and Collins — Inactivity of the 
 Ashantees — Stoppage of Trade — Conduct of Mr. Smith — Government take Posses- 
 sion of the Forts — Effective Force there — Commencement of Hostilities — Attack of 
 Mouree by the British — Observations — Vindication of the Dutch from the Charge of 
 exciting Hostilities — Appointment of Sir Charles M'Carthy as Governor of the 
 British Settlements on the Western Coast of Africa — His Ideas of the Power of 
 Ashantee — State of tiie Gold Coast on his Arrival — Blockade by the Ashantees — 
 Their Military Tactics— Murder of a Serjeant — The British Force takes the Field- 
 Defeat and Death of Sir Charles M'Carthy— Correspondence— Observations - 194 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF ASHANTEE. 
 
 Antiquity and Power of the Monarchy of Ashantee — National Character— War of 
 Dinkira — Reign of Sai Tooto — Massacre at Acromantee— Sai Apoko — Civil War —
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Sai Akwasy — Sai Kodjoh — War of Gaman — Sai Quamina — Embassy from Dahomy 
 Sai Apoko II. — Sai Tooto Quamina — War of Ghofan — First Bontoko War — War of 
 Assin — Murder of the King's Messengers by the Fantees — Fantee War — Attack of 
 
 Annamaboe — Death of Cheboo — Ratification of the Truce — Exchange of Presents 
 
 Prisoners of War awarded to the Governor, and their Disposal - . 224 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF W^ESTERN AFRICA. 
 WANGARA. 
 
 Credibility of Information obtained from the Moslems of Guinea — Character of the 
 Religion of Islam— Anecdote of the Khalifa Omar— Anecdote of Mulai Soliman, 
 Emperor of Morocco — Vindication of the Character of the Moslems of Ashantee — 
 Their Correspondence witii the Author — Remarks on the Mission from Cape Coast 
 Castle, in 1817 — Travels of the Moslems — Authorities, and Explanation of the Map 
 of Wangara — Remarks on the Geographical Statements published by Mr. Bowdich, 
 relating to the Courses of the Niger — On the Various Distances denominated a Day's 
 Journey — Enumeration of Errors in Mr. Bowdich's System of the Geography of 
 Africa— Geographical Description of Ashantee ; its Roads, Paths, Towns, Rivers, 
 Lakes, &c — Wangara— Course of the Niger— The Aswada— The Logos— Great 
 Lake of Ayoh— River of Benin— Empire of Zogho — Yarraba— Rapid Changes in 
 the Pohtical Divisions of Africa— Haoussa— Relative Situation of the Moslems and 
 Heathens — Protection necessary for Travelling in the Interior — Great Divisions of 
 Wangara— Enkasy— Ghofan— Yandy— A bomey— Eastern Districts of Wangara— 
 Horses, Weapons, &c.— Benin— Gaman— Rock Gold and Gold Dust— Manufactures 
 in Gold— Moslem Population in Ashantee— Character of the Fantees
 
 CONTENTS. VU 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SOUDAN. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ancient Africa— Derivation of the Name — The Gharb — Soudan— Traditions— Inroads 
 of the Ocean— Names given by the Arabs — Ancient Population— Ignorance and 
 Indifference of the Pagans— Great Divisions of Africa, South of the Desert— Ghunja 
 — Sarem — Dagomba— Ganowa — Bambara — Fillany — INIarroa— Killinga — Haoussa — 
 Yarraba — The Niger — Shary — Ghulby — Captain Laing's Observations — Description 
 of Routes Marked on the Map— Jews of Soudan— Travels of the Ashantees— Privi- 
 leges of Moslem Travellers— Current Coin — Weights and Measures - lxxvi 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. Appointment of the Author as Consul at Coomassy '- cxvii 
 
 No. II. Treaty made with the King of Ashantee, by Mr. Bowdich, in the Name 
 of the Governor and Council . . - cxix 
 
 No. III. Treaty made with the King of Ashantee, by the Author on behalf 
 of his Majesty - - ... - - cxx 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTS. 
 
 No. IV. An Arabic Manuscript and Translation, shewing the route from Salgha in 
 
 Ghunja, to Youry in Haoussa, &c. - - - - cxxiv 
 
 No. V. An Arabic Manuscript and Translation, shewing the route from Coomassy 
 
 to Salgha ... . . cxxvii 
 
 No. VI. An Arabic INIanuscript and Translation, shewing the route between Salgha 
 
 and Kassina by the river Ghulby - - - cxxvni 
 
 No. VII. An Arabic Manuscript and Translation, descriptive of distance, &c. - cxxx 
 No. VIII. An Arabic Manuscript descriptive of the journey between Coomassy and 
 
 the Jolliba, at Sego and Jenny, distance, &c. - - - cxxxl 
 
 No. IX. An Arabic Manuscript and Translation, descriptive of the route between 
 
 Jenny and Bornou - - - - cxxxiii 
 
 No. X. An Arabic Manuscript and Translation, descriptive of the journey from 
 
 Coomassy to Kassina, by the route of Magho and the Ghulby, written by a native of 
 
 Haoussa - - - - ib. . 
 
 No. XI. An Arabic Manuscript, describing distance, &c. from a travelling chart of the 
 
 Sherlffe Brahim or Ibrahim . - - • cxxxiv.
 
 LIST OF PLATES. 
 
 Page 
 
 1 . Representation of the Court of Select Audience Costume, and the Ceremony of 
 
 Swearing Fidelity to the British Government - to face the Title. 
 
 2. South Prospect of the River Praa and the Forest of Assin - S3 
 
 3. A Woman and Youth of Banna, and & Marroa Slave - - 40 
 
 4. Moslems of Dagomba and Salagah, in the Costumes of their Countries - 72 
 
 5. Priests or Magicians of Ashantee invoking the National Deities - 75 
 
 6. The Palace of Ouso Adoom, the King's Nephew ; the Author's temporary Residence 
 
 at Coomassy - - - 88 
 
 7. Specimen of Ashantee Sculpture - - - 85 
 
 8. A Street in Coomassy leading to the Palace - - 112 
 
 9. The Close of the Adai Customs - - -142 
 
 10. An Ashantee Soldier - - - - 193 
 
 11. A Caboceer of Ashantee equipped for War - - 223 
 
 12. Military Weapons of the Ashantees - - - 264 
 
 13. Map of Wangara and Soudan - - to face Part II. Page i 
 ] 4. A Moslem of Kong, in Military Costume - - xxxvii 
 
 15. A Man and Woman of Gaman - - - i-vi 
 
 16. A Man and Woman of Banna - - - lxxv
 
 JOURNAL 
 
 RESIDENCE IN ASHANTEE. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The British trade with the Gold Coast of Africa was placed by 
 charter, in the reisfn of Charles II. under the controul of the Roval 
 African Company, whose governor-general (the Govenor of Cape Coast 
 Castle) and council (consisting principally of the commandants of the 
 subordinate forts) had the direction of matters on the African shore, 
 acting, of late years, under instructions sent from England by a body 
 of men chosen for that employ, called the African Committee. This 
 committee was latterly allowed by parliament XSO.OOO per annum, 
 for the maintenance of their forts in Africa, the protection of the 
 trade, &c. The system was highly injurious to the public, for the trade 
 was onlv nominally free — in fact it was monopolized by the governor 
 and council themselves, and so much of the public grant as was 
 actually laid out in the maintenance of the forts and establishments, 
 served only to keep the public out of the African market ; the appli- 
 cation of the remainder it is not difficult to conjecture. 
 
 The forts were held at certain rents secured to the native chiefs 
 by notes, which will be more particularly mentioned in the following 
 pages. On the conquest of Fantee by the King of Ashantee, the 
 notes came into his possession, and the rent was paid to him for a 
 
 a
 
 ii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 time. He several times ravaged the Fantee and other maritime 
 countries, and the English having interfered to protect the natives, 
 he blockaded Cape Coast itself in 1816, but was induced by presents 
 to withdraw his forces. 
 
 In 1817, Mr. John Hope Smith being Governor of Cape Coast 
 Castle, and president, and the council consisting of the Governors of 
 Accra, Tantum, Annamaboe, and Dixcove, th€ African committee on 
 the suggestion of the council, sent instructions to forward what they 
 termed both an embassy and an exploratory jnission to Coomassy the 
 capital of Ashantee. Mr. Smith furnished a sketch of a treaty to 
 be concluded between the governor and council, and the King of 
 Ashantee. Mr. James was appointed to head the mission, from his 
 rank as senior member of council, and governor of Accra fort, and 
 Messrs. Bowdich, Hutchison, and Ted lie were selected as his asso- 
 ciates ; the two former gentlemen writers, the last named an assistant- 
 surgeon in the company's employ. At Coomassy Mr. Bowdich, of 
 his own authority, assumed the chief command, superseded his 
 superior officer Mr. James, and concluded with the king the conven- 
 tion which will be found in the appendix, No. 2, where it is inserted 
 ' from the original in my possession, which differs materially from that 
 published by Mr. Bowdich as the treaty in question. 
 
 Such was the state of our relations with Ashantee, when, by the 
 advice of a friend, I forwarded a memorial to the Right Honourable 
 the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, tendering my services as 
 resident consul in that country. 
 
 In due time I received letters * from the Treasury and Downing- 
 
 Doivning-street, 3d January, 1818. 
 
 • I have laid before Lord Bathurst your letter of the 26th ult. with its enclosure from Mr. Joseph 
 
 Dupuis, tendering his services as resident at Coomassy in Africa ; and I am directed to acquaint you, for 
 
 the information of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, that Lord Bathurst entirely concurs in their 
 
 recommendation of appointing a consul at Ashantee, and will have much pleasure in submitting to the 
 
 Prince Regent the name of Mr, Dupuis, as qualified to fill the appointment. 
 
 Signed HENRY GOULBURN. 
 To G.Harrison, Esq.
 
 INTRODUCTION, HI 
 
 street, intimating that my offer had been accepted, and ordering me 
 to make tlie necessary preparations for proceeding to my destina- 
 tion. 
 
 It was explained to me, in England, that my appointment origi- 
 nated in an earnest desire on the part of His Majesty's government, 
 to cultivate the existing harmony with the king of Ashantee, and, upon 
 the basis of a mutual confidence, to nurture the seeds of an accidental 
 friendship as an essential preliminary step to the advancement of 
 certain hopeful expectations connected with the manufacturing and 
 commercial interests of Great Britain ; whereby government, it would 
 seem, had built upon the probability, through the auspices of the king, 
 not only of enticing all, or the greater part of Ashantee commerce, to 
 the several British settlements on the Gold Coast ; but also of inducing 
 that monarch to suffer the traders from the more inland districts 
 to visit the British markets in common with the Ashantees them- 
 selves. In elucidation of these sentiments, I beg to refer the reader 
 to the following extracts taken from my instructions. 
 
 " It must be almost superfluous to point out to you, that the most 
 important object to attain, is, to establish mutual confidence; since 
 upon this basis alone can mutual interest be raised. And with this 
 view, it may be good policy to defer the prosecution of any plans for 
 immediate profit that may have a tendency to excite the suspicion or 
 jealousy of the natives. For though the promotion of our commercial 
 
 The other letter addressed to me was as follows : — 
 
 The Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury, having been pleased to communicate to Earl 
 Bathurst your letter of the 28th ult. offering your services as resident at Ashantee, I have it in command 
 from their lordships, to transmit for your information a copy of his lordship's answer thereto, in order that 
 you may make the necessary preparations for proceeding to your destination. 
 
 Signed GEO. HARRISON. 
 
 Treasury Chambers, \ith January, 1818. 
 
 See also Commission, Appendix No. I. 
 
 a2
 
 iv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 relations with the interior is, undoubtedly, a consideration of the Jirst 
 importance, yet in a country with which we have had so little inter- 
 course, that should bebut a secondary object. Your particular care should 
 be to satisfy the minds of the king and his ministers, that our professions 
 oi friendship and good-will are sincere, before you allow it to be under- 
 stood that the intention is to pursue our enquiries, and to extend 
 the trade beyond the boundaries of his dominions. 
 
 " The duties of a British consul at Coomassy must necessarily be 
 of a peculiar nature: He must therefore, for a time, be almost wholly 
 guided by circumstances as they arise, bearing however always in mind 
 as the general rule of his conduct, his duty and allegiance to his 
 sovereign and country, the promotion of the Christian religion, and the 
 interest of British commerce. 
 
 " Your acquaintance with the characters of the Moors or Arabs 
 (obtained during your long residence in Barbary,) renders any sug- 
 gestions for your government, with respect to them, wholly unneces- 
 sary ; further than it will be deserving of much consideration, how far 
 it may be politic to place confidence in any of those who are resident at 
 Coomassy, by making use of them as interpreters or otherwise, as they 
 m,ust, both from their religious principles and self-interest, be rather 
 disposed to prejudice, than to promote our interests. You may, how- 
 ever, find them to be less bigoted than self-interested, and by prudent 
 measures may be able to turn their influence with the government very 
 much to the advantage of this country. 
 
 " One object most desirable to obtain, as it would essentially assist 
 in the realization of the views of government, might perhaps be a grant 
 from the king of Ashantee, of a district, about twenty-Jive miles from the 
 coast, subject to a perpetual annual rent, with full liberty to clear and 
 cultivate the same, and to erect houses, &c. Such a spot, if judiciously 
 chosen, might open an extensive field for the employment of the youth 
 educated at the Company's schools, and be the beginning of a system
 
 INTRODUCTION. Y 
 
 which might eventually extend to the cultivation and civilization of the 
 whole coast. You will, therefore, keep this object constantly in view, 
 and seize every favourable opportunity of impressing upon the mind of 
 th e king, the signal advantages that would result to the Ashantees as a 
 people, and the immense accession of riches and strength which would 
 be acquired by the sovereign, from the country being brought into such 
 an improved state. It hardly need be observed to you, that this is a 
 matter which will require to be treated with the greatest delicacy, and 
 that no opinion upon it should ever be hazarded by any other person 
 attached to the mission. 
 
 " The enclosed are copies of the treaties entered into with the kings 
 of Ashantee and Dzcabin : upon reference to which, you will see that 
 thei/ pledge themselves to continue on terms of friendship with the 
 British. To permit a British officer constantly to reside at Coomassy; 
 to encourage trade with Cape Coast Castle, and its dependeticies, and 
 to commit fhcir children to the care of the govei'nor in chief (of the 
 Company's establishments) for education at Cape Coast Castle, &c. &c. 
 
 " You will be sensible how necessary it is to get geographical infor- 
 mation, and therefore you will carefully treasure up every thing you 
 can learn, without showing that you attach any importance to the 
 obtaining of it." &c. 
 
 I was detained in England about nine months, reckoning from 
 the date of my appointment ; for I did not sail for the coast of Africa 
 until the month of November following. The voyage itself was as 
 favourable as could have been desired : we left the Downs with the 
 wind at north-east, which increasing to a gale, conveyed us to Madeira 
 in six days. After a detention at Funchal short of a week, we finally 
 weighed anchor for Cape Coast Castle. More than this outline, it is 
 presumed, would not afford the reader any real interest. 
 
 From January, the month I landed on the Gold Coast, to the fol- 
 lowing June, my health was imimpaired by the eftect of climate, while 
 many sunk under the mortal influence of tropical diseases ; yet I courted
 
 vi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 rather than shunned exposure to the air by night as well as day.* It 
 was the opinion of my friends that the seven or eight years of " sea- 
 sonino- " I had undergone in Mauritania rendered me less susceptible 
 of danger ; but in this sentiment I never could agree with t^em ; and 
 I was the more prejudiced in favour of my own way of reasoning when 
 the periodical rains set in, for I was instantly assailed by a fever, which 
 for severity and duration, was of the most dangerous character. When 
 from this attack I emerged to a state of convalescence, which I did only 
 under symptons of extreme debility after the lapse of nearly two months, 
 I retired from the castle to a little cottage in the " bush," where for six 
 ensuing weeks I gradually improved in health. But the season of fog-s, 
 mists, and exhalations succeeding the first fall, as it does upon this 
 parallel of latitude, I ag-ain relapsed under the malignant influence of 
 the period. The fever at this time attached itself locally f to the liver, 
 spleen, &c., and although the danger was more remote than heretofore, 
 yet as I laboured long under it, and grew gradually worse, I had no 
 hopes of gaining strength sufficient for ray contemplated jouraey to the 
 interior, unless by a change of air. Thus prepossessed, during the height 
 of the ulterior rains which usually, set in in the month of September, 
 I embarked on a cruise in his Majesty's ship Pheasant, commanded by 
 Captain Kelly, an officer every way conspicuous for his gentleman- 
 like conduct. 
 
 The rains chased us from the coast to the bight of Benin, whither 
 we were bound, and for five ensuing weeks the strides of death among 
 the crew were considerable. My health continued to be seriously 
 bad, and the cruise becoming irksome, 1 availed myself of an 
 
 * I am satisfied, from the result of my own experience in Africa, that many fall victims to the 
 climate from the adoption of a course of training improperly termed prudential ; viz. a sudden change of 
 diet, from ship's fare to a scanty sustenance of vegetable matter, (rejecting even a moderate proportion of 
 wine) and seclusion in their apartments from the sun and atmosphere. Habits of this kind have, at 
 least, a natural tendency to stagnate the flow of healthy juices, and render the body unfit for exertion. 
 Many there are, howevef, who fall victims to intemperate habits. 
 
 ■f This is a very common symptom of the progress of disease upon the constitution of Europeans 
 between the tropics.
 
 INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 opportunity that offered to transship myself to the Snapper gun-brig, 
 (commanded by a late lamented friend) then on her passage back to 
 Cape Coast. A tornado which we experienced,, and the set of the cur- 
 rent together, carried us to our destination in two or three days, and 
 when I set foot again on shore at the close of November, I was little 
 improved in health. The rains, however, had ceased, and in less than 
 a week my disorder wholly subsided. I recovered, seemingly, to the 
 most perfect state of health, and my anxiety to take upon myself the 
 duties for which I was sent out to Africa, was proportionate to the now 
 alarming state of public affairs in relation to our connexions with 
 Ashantee ; for this was the period when the king, exasperated to the 
 highest pitch of indignation against the servants of the Company as 
 well as the native population of Cape Coast, demanded satisfaction of 
 both in sums of money equivalent to ^12,800., the half of which was, 
 as he termed it, the assessed penalty for a violation of the treaty made 
 by Mr. Bowdich. 
 
 During my absence on the cruise, a Mr. Wm. Hutton, a writer in 
 the service of the company, landed at Cape Coast. I had once 
 before accidentally seen him at Gravesend, when, it seems, he 
 contemplated returning to Africa, this I knew at the time I sailed 
 myself, and this was the limit of my knowledge of this gentleman. 
 When I returned from the cruize, he shewed me the respect of a 
 common place visit of congratulation or condolence, (for I had un- 
 happily lost an infant member of my family during my absence) and 
 this was succeeded by a letter, which I received the next day, from my- 
 friend Mr. Joseph Dawson, (ex-governor of Cape Coast) a merchant in 
 town of the first class of respectability, both in property and character. 
 It ran as follows :— 
 
 " The gentleman I sent to the Castle is Mr. Hutton, whose name 
 you have frequently heard me mention. I now introduce him to you 
 as a particular friend whom I wish well to. He accompanied the expe- 
 dition of Major Peddy, and is well-seasoned to the climate. I think he 
 would be useful to you, if you go to Aquamassy, (Coomassy), in case
 
 viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of sickness, for he knows the nature of busmess here, and can act under 
 your direction. He has begged of me to see you and offer his services 
 v^ohmtarily to go up with you ; so I may recommend him to you as 
 a young man who has talent, and for his integrity I will answer," &c. 
 
 Pleased with a voluntary tender of service for such duty, as it 
 was a solitary instance of the kind, and gratified with the idea of 
 obliging a friend, I accepted of the offer, although I was already pro- 
 vided with a vice-consul,* a youth inexperienced indeed, but whose 
 qualifications of the heart were of the first distinction. 
 
 Mr. Hutton being more competent to take an active part, I 
 employed him on many occasions, and indeed I may not omit my 
 public acknowledgments of his industry and zeal on many early 
 occasions, and which I stamped with my approbation in a memorial 
 submitted to me to obtain my sanction ere I forwarded it to the 
 lords commissioners of the treasury, the result of which procured both 
 him and Mr. Collins the rewards they petitioned for. 
 
 During my third illness, a few days antecedent to the journey to 
 Coomassy, I gave Mr. Hutton a temporary power to act for me, mainly 
 because I was apprehensive that measures would be taken to supersede 
 me in my command upon the score of ill health — a step which might 
 be imputed to motives of humanity. I therefore authorised Mr. 
 Hutton to proceed to Doonqua, with the presents under his charge. 
 Finding subsequently, however, that the influence of the governor and 
 council still endangered my possession of the charge, and as my 
 indisposition for several days continued obstinate, rather than allow 
 any authority in that country to interfere with the powers which 
 had been granted to me, I increased that which I had granted to 
 Mr. Hutton, authorising him now to jog forward at a gentle pace, if 
 my illness should still increase in severity, to relieve me from the 
 uneasy thoughts arising from the daily and hourly interference of 
 the castle with duties which belonged to me alone. 
 
 * Mr. Collins, son of the reverend gentleman of that name, who was sent out by the late Bishop 
 of Chichester.
 
 INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 My recovery, two or three days afterwards, rendered this pre- 
 caution unnecessary, and I had the satisfaction to assume the com- 
 mand at Doonqua. 
 
 Looking back to the period of my arrival in Africa — the month 
 of January, 1819, — I found Mr. Hutchison, who had been left at 
 Coomassy by his coadjutors, Messrs. Bowdich and Tedlie, in quality 
 of resident, upon the coast, having been recalled by Mr. Smith, the 
 governor of Cape Coast Castle, to fill the office of salesman in his 
 warehouse, at that interesting period when the king of Ashantee was 
 occupied with his military preparations for the approaching war with 
 Dinkera, king of Gaman. 
 
 During Mr. Hutchison's stay at the court, the king, on various 
 occasions, acknowledged the satisfaction he enjoyed from his connexions 
 with the whites, and particularly the British. The fervor of the king's 
 attachment indeed, had developed itself in many little conciliatory 
 acts, and in tokens genuine or politic of his personal esteem for 
 Messrs. Mollan, Smith, and Hutchison*; nor was the primary con- 
 sideration forgotten, for that monarch employed every means in his 
 power to promote trade with the British, which for a time flourished, 
 although chiefly, it must be admitted, in the governor's warehouses ; 
 for when the tributary sovereigns and caboceers assembled their 
 retainers, preparatory to the meditated invasion of Gaman, they were 
 all directed to procure supplies from Cape Coast, so that, according to 
 the most authentic accounts, Mr. Smith's stock of rum, powder, and 
 cloth, was metamorphosed into gold dust in the lapse of a few days only. 
 
 These were benefits conferred by the court alone. In regard 
 to the inferior classes of traders, they, not being bound by 
 the royal restrictions, speculated freely and sought their own 
 markets, either with the officers of the castle, or among the free mer- 
 
 * These gentlemen were presented by the king with slaves and gold. .Mr. Mollan was gover- 
 nor of Annamaboe, and Vice President of the Council. 
 
 b
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 chants in town. Thus all participated, more or less, in the temporar}'^ 
 influx of commerce ; although it was stated by some to have been of 
 no solid advantage, except in bulk, as the business was chiefly trans- 
 acted by Mr. Smith, and a favoured few\ This correspondence is 
 supposed to have received a slight check, from an omission, on the part 
 of Mr. Smith, to acknowledge the king's benefits according to negro 
 courtesy, by reciprocal donations, courtly messages, &c. This neglect, 
 however, made no impression on the political attachment of the king, 
 whose conception of the treaty of 1817 favoured an implicit confi- 
 dence in the good faith of those who had courted the union ; and this 
 belief was encouraged by a persuasion that the smiles of the British 
 government, or rather the British sovereign, irradiated his throne 
 with a refulgence that dazzled the multitude, excited the envy of 
 cotemporary powers, and rendered his political existence more secure 
 from foreign enemies, or the ambitious schemes of the tributaries and 
 nobles of his empire. 
 
 Mr. Hutchison's occupation, as warehouseman, was found pro- 
 fitable to his employer, as it attracted a private connexion from 
 Coomassy, who chose that gentleman for their broker in preference to 
 one they did not know. This preference excited much dissatisfaction 
 among the merchants and inferior traders. Without the castle walls 
 the treaty itself was bewailed in serious lamentations, reproachful to 
 its authors, although, in truth, a few of the complainants had no cause 
 to be dissatisfied, unless by comparison with the channel that absorbed 
 so much gold in mass. Be this as it may, the evil, real or imaginary, 
 vibrated in my hearing, shortly after I landed on the coast, and the 
 treaty was unreservedly condemned as the cause of the public grievance. 
 The mission which gave existence to that treaty was represented to 
 have been conceived in mercantile enterprize and intrigue ; the expence 
 of which was cast upon the government, while the profit was almost 
 exclusively pocketed by the few leading servants of the African 
 Committee. It was boldly affirmed that the document dignified with
 
 INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 the name of treaty, was in reality a shadow, although not an innoxious 
 one; and although it could deceive no one versed in the tortuous 
 politics of the country, yet it was reasonably calculated to stand the 
 test of criticism in the meridian of London ; where the organs of its 
 supporters (who were liable to the same imposition) afforded the only 
 channel from which information could be elicited : that to effect the 
 sinister purposes of a plot deeply laid, a meritorious officer, such as 
 the late Sir James Yeo described Mr. James to be, was recalled with 
 censure, at the instance of his young aspiring associates, the companions 
 of his dangers and fatigues. 
 
 The king was at the head of his army on the Gaman frontier at 
 the time I landed, and a battle was shortly expected to take place 
 between the " rival powers," as they were improperly called by the 
 governor. The natives of the town of Cape Coast, elated by reports 
 which some affirmed came from the windward towns, whilst others 
 maintained that they were fabricated in the castle, entertained hopes 
 that the Ashantee monarchy might be annihilated in the approaching 
 conflict. These wishes they were imprudent enough to promulgate, 
 thereby aftbrding the king's friends and his captain resident, who lived 
 in the town, an opportunity to represent the disaffection that prevailed. 
 In due time the court noticed it, and politically restricted the inter- 
 course between the inland and maritime traders, until the termination 
 of the campaign. This restriction, however, is to be understood in a 
 limited sense, for still the sovereign's confidential servants and traders 
 visited the castle, and purchased, as usual, what was wantedfor the court 
 or camp. 
 
 The Ashantee captain resident had been stationed by the king at 
 Cape Coast, and was considered there as the organ of his government. 
 While the king remained in his capital, the maritime states were 
 cautious of giving offence ; but when the southern pro\qnces were no 
 longer overawed by the presence of the monarch on his throne, the 
 natives of Cape Coast, encouraged, it must be admitted, by the 
 
 b 2
 
 xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 gossips of the castle, thought proper to take a sudden umbrage at the 
 resident, whom they looked upon as a spy or inspector over their 
 actions. Reports were circulated from some unknown source, that the 
 king's army had suffered a defeat of magnitude, and that Dinkera was 
 pushing over the Tando river with intent to repay the hostile visit of 
 the king. The resident protested against the falsity of the account, as 
 did the chiefs of Elmina town, but the interest they took in the business 
 was supposed to proceed from other motives than those sincerity might 
 inspire. 
 
 Traders now but rarely visited the settlements ; and when they did 
 come, it was found impracticable to elicit from them what alone would 
 have passed current for authentic information, namely, an admission 
 that the king had been defeated ! 
 
 At this crisis two royal messengers came to Cape Coast to vent a 
 complaint against the conduct of the people of Commenda, whither 
 they had been sent by their sovereign to convey a jaw-bone or two, as 
 trophies of the success of the Ashantee arms. They claimed the pi'o- 
 tection of the British, by virtue of the treaty. It was confirmed 
 beyond disputation that these messengers had been used with some 
 violence, and turned out of the town in contemptuous defiance and 
 ridicule. At Cape Coast they were secure from molestation, but could 
 get no redress ; for Mr. Smith, without the aid of the council, and 
 without regard to my particular interest and responsibility in the 
 concerns of Ashantee, refused to administer justice between the parties 
 until, after the lapse of many months, the threat of hostility became 
 ^o alarming to the interests of the settlements, that the council assumed 
 the power of acting independently of the views entertained by its 
 president, and determined to forward the mission. 
 
 As far as policy may be allowed to palliate those errors of admi- 
 nistration, which are connected with a violation of public and private 
 faith, so far only it was justifiable to abjure this treaty of INlr. Bowdich. 
 Let it be assumed that the early reports of the king's defeat were
 
 INTRODUCTION. Xlli 
 
 actually credited in the castle to the extent that the military power of 
 Ashantee had been vitally shaken in the conflict with its western ene- 
 mies, still it was the honour of England, and, as it was imagined by 
 the king, the faith of her monarch, which had been pledged to him in 
 the treaty of 1817. upon what authority 1.. leave to the judgment of 
 the reader. 
 
 I believe, upon no slight grounds, that my consular appointment 
 to the court mainly contributed to inspire Mr. Bowdich's uncle with 
 the temerity to induce a rupture with the king ; for in opposition to my 
 solicitations that my arrival in the country should be communicated 
 at the capital by a public messenger, it was explained to me that tbe 
 time was not suitable, and I must wait until after the rains, as it would 
 be dangerous to travel before I was seasoned to the climate. Many 
 whisperings were circulated in augmentation of the difficulties, and 
 my hopes, although buoyed up in favourable expectancy, did not 
 wholly subdue my fears of disappointment ; for the impracticability of 
 visiting the metropolis became a common topic of conversation, and 
 every discouraging prognostication was echoed about without reserve, 
 but certainly not without a motive. The sentiments of the parties in 
 town united in a rooted belief that every measure short of actual 
 hostility would be resorted to, to prevent the execution of those plans 
 which were contemplated in my appointment ; and that Mr. Smith 
 was, moreover, personally interested in suppressing my visit to court, 
 from the feelings he had for his nephew, whose exaggerated represen- 
 tations of the opulence and grandeur of the Ashantee monarchy, he 
 was no stranger to. Doubtful as the sequel might prove, my hopes 
 and fears alternately fluctuated as I anxiously looked forward for the 
 king's return to his capital, upon which I was now inclined to concen- 
 trate all my expectations. 
 
 The Captain resident, who was a young athletic man, was taken |, 
 suddenly ill in the month of March, while this misunderstanding 
 existed, and his death speedily ensued, not without a strong suspicion
 
 xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of poison, which, it was whispered, had been administered by a slave of 
 tlie caboceer Aggry, a man who received pay from the company, and 
 who was upheld as a superior chief, and dignified with the title of 
 King of the town. Whether this was true or not I cannot affirm, 
 but no successor was ever appointed to the vacant situation, and yet 
 it was more than ever incumbent on the government to watch the 
 idle rumours that gave so much uneasiness to the king. 
 
 In the same month a silly tale was circulated at Cape Coast that a 
 most decisive battle had been fought between the belligerents ; that 
 the king of Ashantee had fallen in the conflict, that his army was 
 scattered over the face of the country, and that his enemies, headed 
 by the victorious Dinkera, were within a few days' march of Coo- 
 massy, where the advanced guard had already arrived. Yet no 
 clue could be discovered for tracing this rumour to a source that 
 might imprint upon it a semblance of authenticity : notwithstanding 
 which it was seemingly credited implicitly by Mr. Smith, who assured 
 j me he had no doiibt of its truth : hence the same opinion predominated 
 1 throughout the town, as well as in the castle. I know no reason why 
 it should have taken so deep a root, except that it was what chimed 
 with the anxious wishes of the natives, and, as it would seem, co-operated 
 with the views of some of the superior authorities in the castle. 
 
 As my hopes and fears now centred in the truth or falsehood of 
 the statement, I hired a canoe and went to El Mina with a letter of in- 
 troduction to His Excellency the late Governor Oldenburgh, by whom 
 I was assured that there was not a word in the report deserving of 
 credit, although he doubted not there had been a general engagement. 
 .The Ashantee traders who were in the town, amounting to near one 
 . hundred, including their slaves, laughed outright at the tale, which 
 they treated as a malicious libel that would be attended with evil con- 
 sequences in the sequel. It was added, moreover, that these artful 
 reports were coined at Cape Coast exclusively, for every other town 
 knew them to be false ; and even the people of Commenda were then
 
 INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 sensible that they had been betrayed into their late excesses by the 
 influence of Cape Coast. 
 
 Towards the end of March, a messenger, bearing the gold-hilted 
 sword, came to the castle from the camp, stating that he had been 
 deputed by his sovereign to acquaint the governor that an outrage had 
 been committed at Commenda upon two men of office, who had repre- 
 sented to him their inability to procure redress ; but that the king ex- 
 pected, upon the faith of the treaty, and the friendship that existed 
 between them, that justice would be done. However, if the governor 
 declined taking that trouble, he should send some troops for that 
 purpose. 
 
 The king, it was added, had also heard with anger and regret, that 
 the natives of Cape Coast wei-e not disposed to be friends ; that they 
 talked foolish things, as if they wanted him to come down again to the 
 water side ; but he trusted the governor would look to it for him, 
 because he was then enoao-ed in war. 
 
 This was substantially the message which was laid hold of as a palli- 
 ative argument for having bidden defiance to the king in language which 
 that monarch deemed insulting, and a farewell adieu to the treaty '"of 
 Mr. Bowdich : for Mr, Smith, Avithout listening to the main argument, 
 or attending to the justice of the king's complaint, interrupted the man, 
 by desiring him to return to his master and acquaint him that he might 
 come down " in forty days, or in twenty, or as soon as he thought 
 proper. " 
 
 This messenger, whose name was Accra Dehe, lingered about the 
 town for some time, and vainly intimated that he durst not carry such a 
 message back : that it would be an insult to the king, and perhaps cost 
 him his head. But at length he was compelled to depart. 
 
 In order to elucidate these rash councils, so abruptly resorted to, 
 without the concurrence of any other individual associated in the 
 commission for the administration of public affairs ; it is requisite to 
 say something of a finesse that was employed to give sanction to
 
 XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 hostility at such a crisis, when so many interests and expectations were 
 thrown away. Will it be credited that the message itself was per- 
 verted, through the medium of the interpreter, who was instructed so 
 to do, that a plausible opportunity might be afforded for breaking off 
 the friendly connexion that existed with Ashantee ? This was roundly 
 asserted by many who were not known as friends to the king, and 
 who freely declared that De Graaf, the castle linguist, interpreted the 
 king's message to the governor with exaggerations, and even falsehood, 
 in the course of which he said (or as it was suspected was urged to 
 say), " The king would certainly come down to Cape Coast in forty 
 days and punish those who had abused him." In order to obtain, as it 
 were, a tacit sanction, Mr. Smith invited me to meet the messenger 
 in the hall, in company with captain Kelly of H. M. S. Pheasant. 
 We caught the words as they fell from the lips of De Graaf, and I 
 confess, for my own part, the colouring was so artfully contrived, 
 that I saw no other alternative than waiting patiently where I was. 
 Indeed, for some time after, I was a dupe to the prejudice that 
 the king actually designed war ; notwithstanding that Accra Dehe, 
 before he quitted the Cape, declared that De Graaf had perverted the 
 king's message.* 
 
 The elders and chiefs of the town were then privately instructed 
 to arm their people, and defend themselves in case of necessity. 
 A wall of circumvallation, extending across the hills, and entrenching 
 the town and castle, was hastily erected with mud and swish, loop- 
 holed for defensive warfare, as if it were actually believed that the 
 Ashantees would come down ; and if so, that the people would find 
 security behind these frail bulwarks, against an enemy so terrible 
 to their remembrances. 
 
 Accra Dehe returned to the camp, and, as I learned at Coomassy, 
 
 * The king denied the message to me, in terms the most positive and convincing, and alleged 
 that he had punished Accra Dehe in the first of his anger, wrongfully ; for De Graaf was the man 
 who, he believed, had perverted bis words. Mr. Smith, however, understood the native language ! ! !
 
 INTRODUCTION. XVU 
 
 truly reported what had occurred, together with his owu suspicions 
 regarding the imposition. The king, however, was enraged to a 
 great degree of anger against his officer, whom he accused of false- 
 hood, put him to the torture of the bastonade to extort confession, 
 and finally threw him into prison with the intention of putting him 
 to a cruel death, in case he discovered equivocation or deceit. 
 
 In the meantime the farce was conducted at 'Cape Coast, with 
 every ostensible show of promptitude, although in reality it all ended 
 in the erection of the wall ; for Aggry, who had boasted of his ability 
 to procure five thousand auxiliaries from the bush (country), found it 
 impossible to obtain a single man : every town and every village, being 
 either overawed by a dread of the vengeance of Ashantee, or in strict 
 alliance with that powerful nation. 
 
 These reports, reaching the capital, annihilated what little re- 
 mained of the trade, at a single blow ; the traders either not caring 
 to trust themselves and their property at Cape Coast, or being laid 
 under prohibitions, which restricted the intercourse to El Mina, and 
 the windward settlements, where, for twelve months after, they 
 deposited their gold and merchandize. The Dutch, consequently, en- 
 joyed all those benefits which the treat}* was supposed to have con- 
 ferred upon the British, who in truth Avere indebted to the agency of 
 their European brethren in the few commercial transactions they had 
 with the Ashantees ; and these contracts were sometimes attended 
 with loss upon the property, varying from twenty to thirty per cent, 
 (without including interest of money and risk of payment) which 
 fell to the share of the Dutch as the intermediate parties. 
 
 The prospect of surmounting those obstacles which impeded my 
 visit to the court, was now but a faint one at best, and only to be 
 discerned through a cloud of trouble and vexation. By this time I 
 was sufficiently initiated in the sinister mysteries of African politics 
 to know that, although I might ultimately succeed in my endeavours 
 to reach the metropolis, yet it would not be until every hostile feeling
 
 Xviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 had been roused into action, thereby to give full employment to my 
 time, and excite general distrust and suspicion. These sentiments 
 imperceptibly stole in upon my secret thoughts, harassing my mind 
 with tantalizing reflections ; nor were any of my friends able to 
 console me at this time with a solitary hope of what I so ardently 
 desired. But one opinion existed, and anxious as the majority were 
 for my success, they did not hesitate to suggest to me the propriety of 
 returning to England, there to submit a just statement of the obstacles 
 I had to encounter. 
 
 This advice, it is almost needless to say, did not accord with my 
 own sentiments. Limited as my hopes were, I still enjoyed the mental 
 satisfaction of knowing that things were at least in a train to be 
 brought to issue, however unfavourable that issue might prove ; and I 
 had previously resolved to abide the test, before I sought new instruc- 
 tions or resigned my commission. 
 
 The rains set in with more than usual violence before the 
 close of April, and although I had hitherto enjoyed as good health as in 
 England or Barbary, I was early attacked with fever, which for six 
 weeks held me in suspense between life and death, nor did I recover 
 without symptoms of extreme debility, increased by the nature of the 
 climate and the anxiety which preyed continually upon my mind. 
 
 Another messenger came down in June, desiring, in the name of 
 the king, simply to know whether Accra Dehe had deceived him, or 
 whether Mr. Smith had actually sent him up a defiance. 
 
 I was too ill at this period to attend the hall, but I learned after- 
 wards that the reply retorted the charge of defiance upon the king or 
 his messenger, for having first used the language of threat. 
 
 Whilst all this was transacting, news reached the Ashantee army 
 that Cape Coast had been entrenched with a wall, and that the town's- 
 people were in arms against the king's authority (for this, indeed, was 
 a truth too palpable for concealment). When it was reported to the 
 king, at Houraboh in Gaman, as that monarch told me himself, his
 
 INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 captains simultaneously unsheathed their sabres and solicited him 
 to allow a detachment of troops to march down to the coast. 
 " We will kill them," said the captains, " or hring them before 
 you, for this insult is insufferable." However, enraged as the king was, 
 he suppressed his feelings, telling his captains that he held a " book "" \' 
 with the white men, and could not acquiesce in the general wish, but 
 that he would nevertheless swear to seek satisfaction, for he believed the 
 governor was imposed upon. 
 
 Notwithstanding the royal messengers continued coming to and 
 fro, between the camp and the castle, the report of the king's death did 
 lose ground. In the castle the most favourable supposition supported 
 an opinion that the Ashantees had sustained a defeat of such magni- 
 tude as to have produced the election of another king, who, from 
 state policy, negotiated in the name of his predecessor. Some were ' 
 bold enough to affirm that Ashantee no longer existed, but as a depart- 
 ment of the Gaman empire, and was then governed by a son of Dinkera. 
 
 In conformity with the king's promise to his army, another 
 messenger, of high rank, and with a large retinue, made his entry in\ 
 September. I was at this time sufficiently recovered from a second 
 attack of illness to attend the interview. The man, in an able speech, 
 recapitulated all those grievances of which his master complained, 
 beginning at the Comraenda "palaver," and ending with the fortification 
 or line of defence. The mutinous conduct of the people was touched 
 upon with deUcacy, yet the odium Avas cast upon Mr. Smith, who was 
 indirectly accused of having invited them to insubordination, on a belief 
 that the king had been defeated by his enemies. In conclusion, the 
 vmessenger declared, in the name of his master, that the treaty was of 
 no use if insincerity was attached to British councils ; — that the king 
 looked upon that treaty as " Fetische," (sacred) and therefore had sent 
 it down to the castle, in order that Mr. Smith should read its contents, j . 
 and determine whether or no he was bound to give satisfaction for 
 the injuries that had been clone : and moreover, if it should be 
 
 6-2
 
 XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 answered negatively, that gentleman was desired to retain possession 
 of the treaty, in order that the king might apply to his own resources 
 without scruple, as it was contrary to his principles, or his notions 
 of honour and good faith, to keep that deed in his hands and make 
 ' ' war ; or, as it was more figuratively described to me at Coomassy by 
 Apoko, to march against the town with the musquet in hand and the 
 ' " book" in the box. 
 
 As this was uttered, the messeiiger drew from under his garment 
 a little morocco trunk, out of which he took the treaty, and presented 
 it to Mr. Smith, who evinced something like perturbation or confusion, 
 as he declared " he had nothing to do with it." The linguist, De Graaf, 
 interposed a whisper, and it was then read over as far as the fourth 
 article,* when the messenger again rose and demanded satisfaction in the 
 name of his sovereign, upon the faith of that article, which, if not 
 complied with, he affirmed, would call down the vengeance of Ashantee 
 upon the natives of the town. In respect to the Castle, he added, the 
 king did not wish for war with white men, but his own people must 
 be obedient ; he would not, however, hold the book or treaty if he made 
 war. 
 
 The hall now resounded with vociferous arguments from the 
 partisans of Ashantee and others connected with the messenger's suite. 
 Some of the town chiefs, awakened at last from the stupefaction of idle 
 dreams, joined earnestly in the debate, hoping, as it appeared, to 
 mitio-ate the wrath of the monarch, or exonerate themselves from 
 censure, by declaring that as they were under the government of the 
 whites, they could not help what had been done. In fact the audience 
 for a time resembled the upper gallery of a playhouse between the acts, 
 so general was the confusion ; when order was restored, the messenger 
 
 * The fourth article was as follows : — " In order to avert the horrors of war, it is agreed, that in 
 any case of aggression on the part of the natives under British protection, the king shall complain thereof 
 to the Governor-in-chief, to obtain redress, and that he will in no case resort to hostilityj without 
 endeavouring as much as possible to effect an amicable arrangement."
 
 INTRODUCTION. XX 
 
 desired he might hear more of the treaty, which Mr. Smith read, as far 
 as the seventh article, where he was interrupted, a second time, by a 
 demand of satisfaction upon the faith of it.* Nor would he listen to the 
 palliative argnments which were obtruded by Aggry and a chief of the 
 name of Binie. He declared that his orders were peremptory and 
 his duty imperative ; and, therefore, he should leave the treaty in the 
 castle, unless Mr. Smith would promise to do the king justice. 
 
 At this juncture I requested the governor would make known to 
 the messenger the object of my mission, and the desire I had to see 
 the king ; for, incredible as it may appear, that monarch was in total 
 ignorance of any thing concerning me, unless from report. My 
 request was complied wuth. The messenger again rose, bowed to me. 
 and took me by the hand in token of respect and good will. This 
 circumstance appeared to stagger the resolution he had formed ; and 
 he was, for some time pensive and doubtful, as if he knew not 
 what course to pursue ; his inflexibility, however, was overcome, as he 
 testified by enquiring whether he was to leave the treaty, or whether I 
 would talk the palaver with the king. The reply was, that he must 
 be guided by his own discretion, and accordingly he retired with the 
 treaty to his quarters in town. 
 
 The town chiefs and their retainers were now, for the first time, 
 warned of the danger tliey had incurred in giving an unbridled 
 licence to their tongues.~f Indeed the advice was scarcely needful at 
 
 * This article was worded as follows : — " The governors of the respective forts shall at all times 
 afford every protection in their power to the persons and property of tlie people of Ashantee, who may 
 resort to the water-side." 
 
 t Yes, it is a notorious fact, that the people were first encouraged to resort to arms, then censured 
 for having done so. Wy confidence, during the erection of the wall of circumvalJation, was rooted impli- 
 citly in the honor and integrity of Mr. Smith ; and so I described my sentiments in my public letters to 
 England. So much did I deludedly conceive myself a partisan in the policy he had adopted, that I daily 
 visited the progressive advancement of the works of defence, and often in his society, although I knew, at 
 the same time, they were calculated to ruin my best hopes. But these, while I felt their force, I set in 
 no sort of competition with what I imagined to be a national cause, — the insult offered to the flag of my 
 sovereign, and the indignity offered to a man whom I looked upon as a friend.
 
 XXii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 this time, for their minds were riveted upon the impending peril ; and 
 the scenes of former years were revived in imagination, as they 
 contemplated the daring spirit of their enemies, and the power of the 
 king. In the town, tranquillity predominated for a time, among all 
 orders of men ; not a whisper, or the rumour of one, was to be heard 
 prejudicial to the character or interests of the offended monarch, and the 
 reports of a Gaman invasion were now woefully discredited or silenced. 
 Yet, in the castle, the same idle speculations were indulged in, but 
 ^vhether their propagators actually believed in such trash, although 
 they affirmed it, is very doubtful. 
 
 Mr. Smith was, it seems, still of opinion that the Ashantees had 
 been totally defeated, and accounts were again written to England to 
 this effect, but in order somewhat to qualify the tone of his former 
 sentiments, he affected to imagine that the government had recovered 
 the blow, still however doubting that the same monarch ruled the 
 empire. 
 
 Trade was entirely at a stand, for the Ashantees had long since 
 deserted the Cape. The Dutch settlements, particularly El Mina town 
 and castle, were stored with the inland merchants ; and British com- 
 modities gained vent through that channel alone, whilst the Dutch, as 
 heretofore, continued to reap all the advantage. 
 
 The messenger, whose hesitation proceeded from doubts con- 
 nected with the importance of my mission, and my rank as coming from 
 England direct to the king, came to the resolution of remaining on the 
 spot vnitil he should be furnished with other insti*uctions from the 
 king. 
 
 During the suspense, I was again so severely attacked with fever, 
 that by the advice of my medical attendant I was prevailed upon 
 to take a cruize in the Gulf, and accordingly I embarked on board His 
 IMajesty's ship Pheasant. The rains were still excessive, sickness 
 tracked our flight, and mortality made some havock among the 
 .officers and crew. At the expiration of five weeks (it being then
 
 INTRODUCTION. Xxiii 
 
 November) my health having- improved, I returned to the coast in the 
 Snapper gun-brig. For some time after I enjoyed indifferent good 
 health, under a tardy convalescence. 
 
 The season of health and re-animation was, however, now in rapid 
 advance, and I believe the revived prospect of visiting the capital con- 
 tributed more than any <hing else to my recovery. 
 
 Public affairs were precisely on the same footing as when I letl 
 the Cape. The same messenger was still in town, but it was reported 
 that a man of high rank was coming down to the coast in quality of 
 ambassador ; with a train of armed followers. 
 
 The town's-people were more than ever sensible of their folly, and 
 a few vented their murmurs against the whites, under the impression 
 that they had encouraged them to resist a power which they could not 
 unitedly contend against. The wall of defence was, therefore, suffered 
 to moulder away in neglect, notwithstanding INIr. Smith continued 
 still to give it as a sort of private opinion, that both policy and 
 necessity required our entering upon defensive warfare at least, and 
 offensive as regarded the protection of the town, if needful, from the 
 ravages threatened by the Ashantees. The impossibility of affording 
 thereby, protection to the lives and property of the people, formed no 
 part of the argument. 
 
 Many were the anxious hopes and fears in circulation, and no 
 one could form even a conjecture as regarded the future. On the one 
 band it was feared that the accumulated provocations would weigh 
 heavily in the scale of Ashantee politics^ and perhaps influence the 
 king to carry fire and sword through the town ; for it was no secret 
 that an enemy so powerful as the sovereign of Ashantee might per- 
 form this with comparative ease, and without incurring any particular 
 hazard even from the fire of the castle guns, should that course of pro- 
 ceeding be resorted to. On the other hand it was admitted, that although 
 the king was exceedingly exasperated, yet he would be influenced to 
 listen to any reasonable terms, provided they were associated with the
 
 XXIV INTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 ong agitated mission. In one point of view there was an unity of 
 sentiment outside of the castle, namely, that any attempt at negotiation 
 short of my visit to court, would be fruitless. 
 
 This was the time when ad\ices were expected from the committee, 
 and many sanguine hopes of relief were centred in that quarter. But 
 when the dispatches arrived, they were found to contain nothing 
 important as reg-arded the political aspect of affairs in Africa. The 
 information, in substance, was a reiteration of former strictures upon 
 the conduct of Messrs. Mollan, Smith, and Adamson *, on the score of 
 exorbitant charges in their accounts ; but more particulai'ly as they 
 concerned the pecuniary affairs of the two former gentlemen ; and 
 the threat of recall or dismissal was again fulminated at them with 
 revived censure, in consequence of their having defended their 
 accounts with scornful acrimony. Under these circumstances I was 
 confirmed in the opinion that the committee themselves had been 
 misled by the interested reports of their servants in regard to the 
 affairs of Ashantee. 
 
 Mr. Smith now unequivocally gave it as his opinion, without how- 
 ever specifjdng reasons, that to forward the mission would be the 
 " height of imprudence and madness." f 
 
 Again, therefore, my hopes were blighted, and no other consola- 
 tion presented itself than the anticipation of the interview with the 
 ambassador, whose arrival was looked for within the month, and to 
 whom report g-ave the credit of extensive, if not ample powers. 
 Indeed it was affirmed that this great captain had been dignified by 
 
 * Mr. Adamson was governor of Tantum. 
 
 f These are his own words, extracted from letters which he wrote to me on the subject, and 
 which I have still in my possession. It was clear to me, that either pride, and the anxiety of preserving 
 a reputation for consistency, predominated over every other feeling, whether as regarded his own interests 
 or tliose of the public ; or that he was inflexibly bent upon the original maxim of risking every thing 
 rather than promote a mission whose tendency he seemed to think inimical to his own and his nephew's 
 interests and reputations.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 his sovereign, with a commission that quahfied him to decide for peace 
 or war upon the spot, and to act accordingly. 
 
 From this period, then, I no longer looked upon the councils of 
 the Cape (that term will imply the individual acts of Mr. Smith) but 
 as a barrier, or a chain of mountains on the march: and I availed 
 myself of an opportunity that offered, to make known to Lord 
 Bathurst, in the fullest extent, my situation and the predicament in 
 which I w as so accidentally placed. 
 
 Another month elapsed, and still every measure of policy was con- 
 templated in secret hostility, whilst a semblance of inflexibility, devoid 
 however of the dignity of resolution, or the generosity of fellowship 
 and good faith in politics, tended to support the natives in a belief that 
 their " palaver" with the king was of consideration sufficient to war- 
 rant unqualified hostility on the part of the castle. Certainly the town 
 had been made the dupe of this conceit at an earlier stage of the 
 quarrel, and doubtless it inspired them with that symptom of courage, 
 or folly, from whence emanated many offences which, unhappily for 
 themselves, called down upon their heads the vengeance of the 
 sovereign, and that not a slight one ; for already I was sufficiently inform-, 
 ed to know that the united power of the British and all Fantee besides: 
 in the field, was inadequate to contend against that of the king, who, \ 
 if he chose it, might destroy the town of Cape Coast without risking the 
 loss of a man from our fire ; and if he knew how to attack the castle 
 itself, it was not defensible. But the original infatuation was nearly at 
 an end, and perhaps had wholly subsided ; for the people, as if sensible 
 last that they had overstepped the boundary of prudence, were armed 
 with caution : they were now seriously alarmed, and their efforts 
 of courage were paralyzed in embryo ; they therefore endeavoured to 
 screen themselves under a semblance of neutrality, as if they were 
 either unconcerned in the difterences now existing between the king 
 and Mr. Smith, or as if the British government would rescue them from 
 
 d
 
 Xxvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 their perils by negotiation or force of arms : and that too without 
 employing any efforts on their own parts. Indeed they had buoyed 
 themselves up with the hopes of a xvhite army coming to their relief. 
 
 The year was fast approaching to a close : I had already been held 
 in this state of anxiety and suspense upwards of eleven months, and 
 for ten of those weary months, or thereabouts, I had supported my lot 
 with as much fortitude and resolution as I could. 
 
 The messenger, whose approach had been so long the theme of 
 conversation, was now announced to be on his journey to the Coast, and 
 at no great distance. Various reports gained credit, also, that a large 
 body of troops would be quartered upon the town, until the negotia- 
 tion should determine between peace or war. 
 
 In this interval of suspense, Mr. Swanzy arrived upon the coast, 
 bringing under his charge despatches from the Committee, which war- 
 ranted his hopes of assuming to himself the direction of public affairs 
 in place of Mr. Smith, upon whom, together with his coadjutoi*s, Mollan 
 and Adamson, a final act of censure was registered, on the score of unjus- 
 tifiable charges in the public accounts, and insolence in their vindication. 
 
 Mr, Swanzy had the candour to admit that obstinacy and pri- 
 vate resentment alone had reduced the settlements to a situation so 
 truly alarming. 
 
 Hitherto, novel as it may seem in the system of government, no 
 council had ever been assembled for taking the sense of that body 
 upon the subject of Ashantee, as it has already been related. But 
 now Mr. Swanzy, in virtue of his own powers, took an active part in 
 public, compelling Messrs. Smith and Mollan to curtail their charges 
 by a reduction of some hundreds of pounds, and to recant certain 
 injurious expressions which they had applied to the committee. 
 
 Mr. Smith still adhered to his sentiments of defying the power of 
 the king ; Mr, Mollan, with that obmutescence for which he is remark- 
 able, gave no opinion at all, and Mr, Swanzy, who it will be remem-
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXVll 
 
 bered, had a political game to play more intimately associated with 
 his private interests, avoided saying more at this time than what 
 might be qualified affirmatively or negatively. 
 
 This semblance of re-animation, however, once more removed the 
 cloud of despondency that covered the minds of many of the chiefs 
 in town, and it was now imagined that Mr. Swanzy had ability and 
 inclination sufficient to avert the threatened calamities. That his 
 inclinations would suggest pacific measures, no one could reasonably 
 doubt, as his mercantile hopes naturally beat in unison with the 
 feelings of those who had been such long sufferers. 
 
 Ag-ain at the close of the month of December, I paid another 
 visit to his excellency governor Oldenburg, Trade was still brisk at 
 El Mina, and the Dutch were still profitting by our own evil policy. 
 The Ashantees, I had the mortification to learn, spoke in very loose 
 terms of British faith, nor did they seem to think that we were over- 
 burthened with common sense. The information I derived from the 
 governor gave me to understand, most unequivocally, that, instead of 
 having suffered reverses, the king had been completely successful 
 in the Gaman campaign, and that there no longer existed a doubt 
 of the death of Dinkera, and the final submission of his subjects to 
 the conqueror's yoke. 
 
 During my stay under the hospitable roof of this worthy 
 governor, I received information from Cape Coast that the long looked- 
 for ambassador had arrived at Doonqua, and would shortly reach the 
 place of his destination. Thus informed, I returned to the Cape 
 without loss of time, where I found the popular rumours to be again 
 very unfavourable. The anxiety of all classes was extreme, from a pre- 
 sentiment of hostility ; for the ambassador's train, according to report, 
 was an army, and his demands upon the castle and the town were 
 stated to be exorbitant. 
 
 d2
 
 XXViii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 From this period it was a sort of breathless suspense for a day 
 or two, until the advanced guard, as it was termed, was seen travers- 
 ing the beach. 
 
 The ambassador entered the place with a degree of military 
 splendour unknown there since the conquest of Fantee by the king, 
 and according to prevailing courtesy, the town chiefs, headed by Aggry, 
 were drawn up to receive their unwelcome visitors. 
 
 Let the imagination trace the routine of etiquette, and let it be 
 believed, as there is no doubt of the fact, that the number of people in the 
 ambassador's train, at the lowest estimate, was about twelve hundred, of 
 whom about half were either Ashantees or Assins (some of them women 
 and boys) and the remaining half Fantees of Doonqua and Mouree, 
 joined by some El Mina people, who all professed allegiance in common 
 to the king. 
 
 The ambassador, "\vho was a man apparently between the ages of 
 thirty and thirty-five, stood in the relationship of nephew to the king : 
 it will be unnecessary, therefore, to say more of his rank and influence 
 at court. 
 
 On the day of audience, he delivered a speech in the Hall, which 
 De Graaf interpreted briefly as folio w^s : — 
 
 " The king says, you (the governor) sent white men to Coomassy, 
 and they told him it was because the whites wished for peace and a 
 good trade ; on hearing which he rejoiced to think that he should gratify 
 the great king and his captains. These white men saw the king's face, 
 and they knew he was a good king and wished well to the governor 
 and white men who lived in the country ; therefore they made a treaty 
 of strict friendship. Then the king sent down all the trade to the 
 governor, thinking he loved him as a true friend. 
 
 " The king was afterwards obliged to make war against Dinkera, 
 who had defied him, and refused to pay him gold as before. He 
 ordered his captains to bring all the people together, and clean the
 
 INTKODUCTIOX. XXXI 
 
 g-uns. And when the white man,* who lived with him heard that, he 
 said, now I must go back to the water side ; and the king, considering 
 that to be right, let him go. 
 
 " The trade went down as before, and the king was happy, 
 because he thought, as the white men were friends, they would not 
 allow Fantees to do foolish things and shame him before his captains. 
 
 " When the messengers went to Commenda, it was because he 
 loved the people ; he, therefore, sent a jaw-bonef of Dinkera's captain, 
 that they might know the king's enemies were dead, and rejoice at it. 
 Now the governor knows that these messengers were robbed and 
 beaten, and the people laughed at the king ; therefore, the messengers 
 went to complain to the governor of Cape Coast, but he would not 
 hear them. 
 
 " When the king heard that he was much grieved, and he sent 
 Accra Dehe to make his compliments and tell the governor to examine 
 that affair, and do what was right. When Accra Dehe returned to the 
 camp, and told the king that the governor did not care for him, and 
 said that he might come down in twenty days, it broke his heart, 
 because it shamed him before his captains, and all the kings and great 
 caboceers who fought for him. He could not think the governor 
 would use him in that manner, because he never sent an offensive 
 
 * Mr. Hutchison. 
 
 t I think I have observed, elsewhere, that this description of present is deemed courteous and 
 highly complimentary by the negroes, particularly when conferred by a chief or crowned head. This 
 character, however, was attempted to be disputed when the palaver had gained its greatest ascendancy, 
 and not before, for no other reason that I know of than that government and the committee would 
 readily credit the belief that it might be interpreted into threatened hostility and insult. Let us put 
 the question fairly to the issue, by referring to what Bosman relates of the war between " the Com- 
 manians" (Commenda itself) and the natfves of Saboe, Acany, and Cabes Terra, page 33: — 
 
 " Notwithstanding we (the garrison of Elmina castle) had been hitherto perfectly neuter, the 
 negro-general sent a civil message to our governor, with several sculls of his vanquished enemies, in 
 token that he had resolved to live and die in the service of the Hollanders ; his message was ciiillii 
 received, and after thanks and presents to the general, dismissed."
 
 XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 message to the castle. The king then punished the messenger, but the 
 captains said it was wrong, and that the people of Cape Coast were 
 insolent; and they took their swords to march against the Fantees. 
 But the king forbade them, saying he must do what was right according 
 to the book, and he should have satisfaction. Then the king sent more 
 messengers to the governor ; but they tell him the governor will not 
 give satisfaction according to the book, and the captains believe that 
 it was true he sent a defiance, saying if the king chose to come and 
 fight he was ready. Then the king called all the chiefs and the old 
 men together, and told them the tmth ; and they said, ' This dis- 
 honours you, king ; we cannot hear this and sit upon our stools, for the 
 people will laugh at you and us ; it is a very bad thing : you must 
 have satisfaction.' Then the king sent down another messenger and 
 gave him the book, that the governor might see what was true with his 
 own eyes ; and say whether he wanted peace or war. But still the 
 governor refuses satisfaction ; and yet he says the book is right. 
 
 " The king is sorry for the sake of the old men, and women, 
 and children, but then he cannot help it, if the govenor will have 
 war ; the king has nothing to do with white men ; but if they choose 
 to make palavers with him, it is not his fault. He knows that they 
 come to trade in his country, and they have a great king of their 
 !Own in the land of the white men. This is all true ; but then the king 
 (of Ashantee) is a great king too, for all the black countries, and the 
 people must serve him ; and if they will not serve him, but are foolish, 
 and do evil, they must die. Now the governor knows that Cape Coast 
 is very insolent, and when the king complained to the castle, the 
 people were told to build a wall and fight him. Is that like good 
 friends, as the book says ? The other towns of Fantee do what is right, 
 and the king has no palaver with them, and he is unwilling to make 
 war for one town only. And now he sends to the governor to ask, if 
 he will settle that palaver or not ? because, otherwise, the army will 
 certainly go down and destroy the place ; for it is a great palaver, and
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXI 
 
 the king and all his captains are very angry, because they believe 
 that Aggry and De Graaf cheat them, and tell the governor lies ; 
 therefore, the king says they had better look to it, and take care what 
 they do, for he is not a king to play the fool with." ' 
 
 Here the ambassador paused, or was interi-upted by Aggry, De 
 Graaf, and others, who felt interested in the censure. Some confusion 
 ensued, and when order was again restored, the linguist declared that 
 there was something more important " in the budget." This was 
 signified to the ambassador, and he proceeded to say, that in con- 
 sequence of the provocation that had been given to the king by the 
 town of Cape Coast, he, as ambassador, was authorized to demand from 
 the inhabitants a fine of * I6OO ounces of gold. And as regarded the 
 conduct of the governor, he was desired to make the same demand of 
 1600 ounces from him — making collectively 3200 ounces, and unless 
 these payments were complied mth, he was instructed to say the king 
 would grant no peace ; nor would he desist until he had taken ample 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Confusion and discord again predominated, every tongue was put 
 in m.otion, coupled with such gesticulation and contortion of the muscles 
 as a subject of that interest may be supposed to have created. The 
 anxiety of the town chiefs was extreme in proportion to their fears. 
 
 It was some time before the tumult subsided, and in the interval 
 Mr. Smith collected the sentiments of Mr. Swanzy and my self f It is 
 perhaps needless to say they were in unison upon the item relating to 
 the king's demand made upon a British castle or a British governor, and 
 it was resolved unanimously to reject the terms with indignation, unless 
 that clause was rescinded which concerned the governor publicly, for in 
 no other character could I know him in a transaction which involved 
 
 * Equivalent to £6,400 currency, the two demands making £1 2,800 together. 
 
 t This was the only compliment of the kind that gentleman ever voluntarily offered to my political 
 opinion^ my rank, or interests, in the affairs of Ashantee.
 
 XXXn INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the national dignity. This resolution being announced to the ambas- 
 sador, it was then somewhat qualified by an offer to negotiate, upon 
 terms of equity, the differences that existed betioeen the king and the natives 
 of the town. To this amendment Mr. Smith did not object at the time ; 
 but subsequently he endeavoured still to give the colouring of consistency 
 to what he termed his former policy, by declaring his conviction that 
 no good could be done by temporizing measures, even at so critical a 
 juncture. 
 
 Here then I will say, (and in truth it deserves recording as a 
 solitary instance of the kind) the councils of the Cape exhibited a 
 moderate share of dignity and temper, however late and unseasonable. 
 Had this moderation been adopted earlier, all differences would have 
 been adjusted many months sooner : in fact, they never would have 
 had existence to any serious extent. 
 
 The ambassador, in reply to our proposition that he should re- 
 nounce the demand made upon the governor, declared it was impossible 
 for him to abrogate what the king had decreed ; upon which Mr. Smith 
 retired from a debate which was at first partially, and then exclusively 
 engrossed by the town chiefs. These men admitted, in a qualified 
 sense, that they were bound to the sovereign of Ashantee in bonds of 
 fealty and allegiance ; and when taxed by the ambassador with insub- 
 ordination and insolence, in having built up the wall, &c., they claimed 
 certain privileges from local situation within the precinct of a British 
 fort, which they affirmed had been stipulated for by the treaty of Mr. 
 Bowdich. Some exonerated themselves at the expence of their pro- 
 tectors, by attributing every thing that had been done to the orders of 
 the governor, whose authority, they said, they were bound to respect. 
 
 In conclusion, it was stated they could not attempt to negotiate 
 even on their own accounts, while the king demanded money of the 
 castle, but if that edict were repealed they would pay what they were 
 able. Here the audience broke up in dissatisfaction. This was the 
 7th of January.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXxiii 
 
 Having- on a former occasion had reason to doubt the veracity* of 
 the linguist's interpretation, I took the pi-ecaution, this time, to station 
 a linguist of my own choosing in the hall, and this man assured me 
 that the king's speech did not exactly tally with what he had just heard 
 from the lips of the public interpreter, who had omitted certain com- 
 plimentary parts, and in particular one which regarded me, personally 
 .or publicly. Upon making further enquiry I was fvdly satisfied 
 of the truth. My indignation may be imagined ; I instantly 
 resolved either to proceed to Coomassy at all hazards, or to quit 
 the coast and lay my complaints before government. My letter to the 
 Governor and Council of the 8th of January, of which the following is 
 an extract, will bear testimony to what I affirm. 
 
 " Having learned, after leaving the hall yesterday, that the linguist 
 had not made a just interpretation of the message sent down by the 
 King of Ashantee, particularly as regarded that part of the message 
 wherein he sends ' his best compliments to me,' I was induced this 
 morning to send the messenger a present, coupled with a request that 
 he would pay me a visit, &c. What he declared was as follows : — 
 The king desired his best compliments, and would be very glad to see 
 me in the capital, and accordingly a person appointed by the king 
 accompanied him for the purpose of conducting me to court imme- 
 diately, and without regard to existing disputes, which he, on the part 
 of the king, would remain here to settle. The king says, moreover, 
 he is very much hurt to hear I have been so long detained at Cape 
 Coast. 
 
 "From the impression made upon my mind by this conversation 
 as now stated to you, and particularly as my belief is that the demand 
 on the Fort will be abandoned, it is my earnest desire to lose no further 
 
 • Whether the linguist on this occasion was instructed to deceive me, whether he acted from 
 design or inadvertency, I cannot say ; — but I may say, I believe his intention was to support Jlr. 
 Smith in his endeavours to oppose the mission. 
 
 e-
 
 XXxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 time in proceeding to the discharge of my duties at Coomassy, and as 
 the king's messenger with his retinue are to remain here, you can, if 
 you think proper, (although it is by no means my wish) detain them 
 as hostages," &c. 
 
 " Under all circumstances, and as I am firmly persuaded the king 
 has no hostile intention, &c, I must entreat you, in the name of his 
 majesty, to fix upon an early day for my departure to the Ashantee 
 capital, being determined to proceed thither alone, if the other gentle- 
 men are not disposed to accompany me." 
 
 My letters to the Colonial Office set forth the obstacles I had so 
 long contended against, and the ultimate resolution I had taken, con- 
 formably to what 1 have stated. In council I protested, that unless 
 the presents designed for the king were restored to my charge, and due 
 preparations made for the mission, I w^ould leave the coast by the first 
 opportunity,* and should hold them responsible for what consequences 
 might ensue in the sequel. No direct reply was given. Mr. Smith 
 and Mr. Mollan still pertinaciously adhered to their former resolutions, 
 and Mr. Swanzy neither countenanced nor opposed them, for he w^as 
 at this time interested in affairs of pecuniary moment, in which the 
 council were called upon to enforce the resolutions of the committee 
 against the governor and vice-president. 
 
 Some private discussions took place the following morning in town, 
 upon a question between Akassy, a caboceer of Assin belonging to 
 the ambassador's suite, and some of the town chiefs, who were accused 
 of being accessaries to the robbery of certain Assin traders and others, 
 who had ventured to the coast upon the faith of the treaty. 
 
 The ambassador again demanded an audience in the Hall, in the 
 course of which he reiterated the demand he was authorized to make 
 
 * I have been thus explicit only from the circumstance that the governing faction, in lack of a 
 more equitable charge against me, had the effrontery to write in a clandestine manner to the committee 
 of African merchants, setting forth a disinclination or a dread on my part to perform the duties for 
 which I was sent out.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXV 
 
 upon the castle and the town, adding- it was the king's fixed deter- 
 mination not to allow the aggression of the natives to pass unpunished, 
 and unless the most ample satisfaction were made, nothing less than war 
 was to be expected, although the king wished to live in frienship with 
 the whites. 
 
 At a meeting of the council, it was at last resolved to adopt con- 
 ciliatory measures, and accordingly this resolution was notified to me 
 by way of reply to my letter of the eighth, as before quoted. As a 
 peace offering, I presume, on the part of Mr. Smith, it was notified 
 also to me, that the governor and council, in consideration of the 
 critical situation of public affairs, had deemed it essential to increase 
 the present originally designed for the king, by the addition of one 
 hundred kegs of gunpowder, one hundred musquets, and one hundred 
 ankers of rum, over and above what I brought out from England, and 
 that these articles were to be selected from the best in quality. Some 
 cloths were moreover appropriated for distributing among the ministers 
 and courtiers. 
 
 Here then, after seven or eight months loss of time in England, 
 and upwards of a year's forcible detention at Cape Coast Castle, the 
 prospect of reaching my journey's end dawned on the horizon. Yet 
 there existed many preliminary points to adjust : the presents to pack ; 
 relays of hammock men to procure ; meetings of council upon the 
 affairs of Messrs. Smith and Mollan, upon private affairs, &c. KW. 
 these matters required time, it must be admitted, but they needed not 
 to have taken up so much as three weeks, viz. from the ] 1th or 12th of 
 January, to the 2d of February. But it is well known that many 
 hopeful humane expectations were raised upon driving the mission into 
 the depth of the rains ; the policy adopted was evident, but disap- 
 pointment crowned the sequel, as every man lived to return, although 
 death made some havoc in after days. 
 
 The comparatively few days remaining on my hands were 
 devoted to the society of friends, who, as usual, on such occasions 
 
 e 2
 
 XXXvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 consult nothing but hospitality and good fellowship. The convivial 
 character of our tropical colonies is proverbially known ; I need only 
 observe that Cape Coast does not lag in the rear. Good cheer greeted 
 me in various quarters, and a parting glass at the social board never 
 could do harm in the salubrious climate of the Gold Coast; so, 
 unfortunately my friends thought, in defiance of my own philosophy. 
 
 On the 26th of January, as I was coming from a friend's house 
 at a late hour in the evening, a sudden paroxysm of fever arrested 
 me ; and for several subsequent days it raged with violence, and 
 as it is frequently the case in this zone, attached itself to the 
 liver. The best medical advice tendered by Mr. Banks, formerly a 
 surgeon in the service, and then a trader in town, availed but little, 
 although the fever occasionally remitted. February set in, and con- 
 valescence was yet remote. 
 
 The presents were ready at the beginning of the month, and soon 
 after I received documents of possession ; but how shall I describe my 
 astonishment, when I found that these simple projectors had intruded 
 upon me a volume of instructions, which they chose to consider proper 
 for my government ; adding, at the same time, by message, that unless I 
 would accept of the same upon the prescribed terms, they would 
 take upon themselves to withhold the presents, and appoint one of 
 their own body to attend the court. Thus decorously were my actual 
 instructions authorised by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury 
 treated, and thus respectfully was it presumed to treat a commission 
 bearing the signatures of His Majesty and the Colonial Minister. 
 
 My feelings may be well conceived. As the insincerity of my 
 opponents* became more evident, and as sad experience had taught 
 me that if I should now resign myself to their controul, they would 
 not hesitate attempting to pursue measures to an extreme which might 
 
 • Mr. Swanzy had publicly declared, both in council and out, that the Board had no power to assume 
 dictation to me, or to interfere in the remotest degree, with those functions which His Majesty's Govern- 
 ment had confided to me.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXXvii 
 
 arm them with the power of effecting my political ruin, I was resolved 
 to anticipate the project without even consulting the honourable 
 grounds of resistance my commission afforded. I chose, therefore, 
 to enter the lists armed with precautionary language. I pro- 
 tested against the right claimed by the company's servants to intrude 
 instructions on me. I delivered them over to the possession of a friend, 
 authorizing him to send them to the castle after my departure, and I 
 gave my reasons for so doing in letters from which I shall select the 
 following extracts, the former of which I wrote instantly upon receipt 
 of the instructions. 
 
 Cape Coast Castle, 2d February, 1820. 
 " As regards your instructions to me, it was my intention at first 
 to return them to you without a comment, conceiving, as I do, that I 
 am not bound in any shape to receive instructions from you. But 
 when I reflect, that by taking this step it might lead to an open 
 rupture between us, and prevent those objects for the public good pro- 
 ceeding in a fair train, &c. I sacrifice my own feelings to the ser\ace 
 in which I am engaged, and shall only, for the present, enter my pro- 
 test against such instructions ybr reasons xchich xcill appear in due time." 
 
 Doonqua, lltli February, 1820. 
 
 " For reasons which will recur to you, and which appear more 
 fully in my protest, I have thought proper to return you those 
 instructions which you took upon yourselves to frame for my govern- 
 ment, not conceiving myself justified as a government officer in recog- 
 nizing any instructions from you as the servants of a mercantile board. 
 At the same time, and as I before stated, I shall not object to receive 
 any suggestions from you, &c." 
 
 To the Governor and Council. 
 
 But resuming the clue of the narrative, my distemper, which 
 changed to a fever of the intermittent order, continued obstinate, and
 
 xxxyiii introduction. 
 
 the state of my feelings by no means contributed to assist nature. In 
 short, I was unable to rise effectually from my couch for a week after 
 the presents had been consigned to my charge, namely, from the 1st 
 to the 7th of February, and even then I could but stagger. 
 
 During this suspense it was consulted in private how it would be 
 feasible to supersede me in my command, on the score of ill health. 
 This scheme I counteracted by ordering the party to hold themselves 
 in readiness for the march at the instant, and authorizing Mr. Hutton 
 and Mr. Collins to proceed as far as the village of Doonqua, there to 
 attend my coming, should my recovery speedily ensue. The presents, 
 securely packed, and covered with skins to preserve them from the wet, 
 were thus conveyed to the village before-named. 
 
 As I did not quit my apartment on the following morning, my 
 opponents sought another mode of annoyance ; but now it degenerated 
 to what was really contemptible, for reports were circulated that my 
 illness was feigned. My physician, who was in some shape in the 
 interest of the company, had honour enough, however, to refute the 
 calumny by letter. 
 
 On the seventh, I made an attempt to follow my charge, but failed 
 under it; for I could not walk ten paces without support. That 
 night, however, I gained repose ; on the eighth, I ^vas better, and on the 
 ninth I left the Cape.
 
 JOURNEY TO COOMASSY.
 
 JOURNAL 
 
 OP A 
 
 RESIDENCE IN ASHANTEE, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 JOURNEY TO COOMASSY. 
 
 DEPARTURE FROM CAPE COAST CASTLE— MOUREE— DUTCH CASTLE OF NASSAU— BEETLES— 
 ASHANTEE TRAVELLERS— RUINS OF FANTEE CROOMS—EMPEROU— DEFEAT OF THE FANTEES AT 
 THAT PLACE— FOR.MIDABLE SERPENT— SECOND PARTY OF ASHANTEE TRADERS; TERROR OP THE 
 FEMALES— MOSLEM FROM COOMASSY-RED AND BLACK ANTS— DESCRIPTION OF DOONQUA- THE 
 FORESTS— REMAINS OF MANSUE— PROVISIONS PLUNDERED BY THE FANTEES— COURSES OF 
 RIVERS— ABANDOU—CROOMS OR TOWNS OF FOOSO, YANCOMADY, AND AKOMFODY— ANNOY- 
 ANCE FROM RATS— THE YOUNE, A KIND OF SLOTH— DANSANSOO—MEKAREN— PASSAGE OF THE 
 PRAA— PRASSO— KIKIWHARY-ENMITYOFTHE INHABITANTS TOWARDS THE FANTEES; SEDUCTIVE 
 ARTS OF THE FEMALES— SITE OF MIASSA— DEFEAT OF THE ASSINS UNDER CHEBOO— REMAINS 
 OF SAPORGAH, TIBIASSAH, BEQUAMi, AND ENSAMAH— ARRIVAL AT ANSAH. 
 
 On the 9tli of February, at an early hour in the morning, I mounted 
 my palanquin and bade adieu to the castle. As the customary salute 
 was fired, a party of the town's-people assembled, and tracked my steps 
 along the eastern beach as far as the outskirting houses. Here the 
 crowd of spectators was augmented by another group of men, women, 
 and children, who fiocked from the different avexmes. The spectacle 
 was indeed calculated to impose an idea of splendour upon the imagina- 
 tion of a negro ; and the novelty of a palanquin with lour bearers was a 
 refinement in the luxury of African travelling, that excited additional
 
 2 DEPARTURE FROM CAPE COAST. 
 
 attraction. The women, in particular, who surrounded me, and for a 
 time impeded my progress, were profuse in courtesy. 
 
 At the distance of a short quarter of a mile, my friendly retinue bade 
 a final farewell, and returned to their homes. About this time I was 
 compelled to alight, on approaching some rugged cliffs which intersect 
 the beach, jutting out into the sea. The crags which here and there 
 overhung the water, under the semblance of little capes, formed of 
 shelving pointed rock, created serious impediments. 
 
 The surface was now totally changed from a bed of sand to one 
 of granite rock, which at intervals stood erect in small spiral points, as 
 if chiseled by the hand of art into the fanciful forms it exhibited. The 
 jutting cliffs appeared to increase in number as we advanced ; their 
 acclivities were also of some elevation, and sloped off in angles. In 
 some instances the surface exhibited solid ramparts of stone shooting 
 upwards into ridges little short of perpendicular elevation, and these 
 barriers it became necessary to scale by the combined assistance of hands 
 and feet. 
 
 The sun had by this time attained an elevation that rendered the 
 effect of his beams oppressive ; the absence of the sea breeze, which 
 seldom sets in before ten o'clock, contributed to increase the languor I 
 felt. The exhaustion occasioned by premature exertion wanted but little 
 of producing a fit of fainting ; and at last it totally prevented my de- 
 scending from the vehicle, notwithstanding the embarrassment and 
 detention it occasioned. In this helpless state, my attendants were com- 
 pelled to lift me over the obstructions as they occurred. At last we 
 emerged from our difficulties, and as we quitted the sea coast, in 
 approaching the Dutch fort of Mouree, the path presented a fine surface 
 of sand skirted by a few stunted bushes. 
 
 The road between Cape Coast Castle and INIouree, and from Mouree 
 to Annamaboe, is at all times disagreeable, and perhaps the most precipi- 
 tous on the line of coast, but the state of the tide during this journey 
 rendered it particularly so.
 
 DUTCH FORT AT MOUREE. 3 
 
 On entering the town the Dutch colours were hoisted in com- 
 pliment to my arrival, by the corporal who had charg-e of the fort ; 
 for it is at present ung-arrisoned, although not considered as abandoned 
 by his Majesty of the Netherlands. 
 
 When I alighted, I felt a degree of exhaustion and indisposition, 
 occasioned by a slight attack of fever, that rendered it extremely dubious 
 if I could proceed further that day. The crowd which had assembled 
 obstructed the current of air, small as it was, and increased the 
 languid symptoms until, for a few seconds, the heat was insupportable ; 
 but a draught of the cold infusion of bark, added to the refreshing 
 application of vinegar, quickly restored me. The Caboceer of the town 
 and the Dutch corporal shortly after waited upon me to exchange 
 compliments. 
 
 Some trivial disputes ensued among the Fantees on the distribution 
 of equal loads, and before the misunderstanding could be enquired into, 
 it appeared that the good sense of those, to whom the least cumbersome 
 and weighty burthens were assigned, had suggested the propriety of 
 decamping during the confusion. To appease these discontents it was 
 requisite to supply the deficiency, by taking on a few more carriers ; and 
 as nothing more remained to do, but prosecute the journey, I embraced 
 this opportunity to disencumber myself from the burthen of military 
 accoutrements. The travelling dress which I now substituted for my 
 former apparel, consisted of a jacket and trousers of linen ; it was 
 commodious and light, and contributed, in no small degree, to alle^'iate 
 the oppression from intense heat. The hour of ten flattered us with 
 expectation of a sea-breeze, and a zephyr, announcing its approach, 
 soon afterwards agitated the torpid atmosphere. 
 
 The Dutch castle at Mouree is called Nassau ; and, when the slave 
 trade was in its vigour, was deemed a station of great importance. The 
 edifice, although small, is compact, and regularly flanked with bastions 
 at each angle; this, added to its elevated situation, would entitle the 
 place to some respect as a fortification, provided it still maintained a gar- 
 
 b2
 
 BEETLES. 
 
 rison. The landing-place is tolerably commodious for canoes, and differs 
 little from that of Cape Coast. The town of Mouree, like all the 
 towns in the vicinity of European forts, is built immediately under the 
 walls, and is a compact mass of stone and clay-constructed houses, with- 
 out any other order than a division of the whole into irregular open- 
 ings or avenues, forming narrow lanes, of intricate, and in some places, 
 from the obstructions of dirt and rubbish, of difficult access. The whole 
 population is supposed not to exceed eight thousand souls. Its distance 
 from Cape Coast is nearly four miles. 
 
 Our route from Mouree was rather to the eastward of north. The 
 path in the vicinity of the town was open for the distance of more than 
 half a mile, except at intervals, where a few projecting boughs of the 
 loftier kinds of shrubs intersected each other ; but as we proceeded the 
 road gradually contracted, and the bushes which were stunted before, 
 now exhibited a more mature and luxurious growth ; added to which, a 
 number of lofty trees grew spontaneously over the surface of the 
 country. 
 
 The soil on the line of march was a reddish clay, covered with a 
 scanty surface of wiiite sand, interspersed with broken pieces of quartz : 
 the sand, however, appeared attached exclusively to the path, and was 
 probably the effect of constant friction upon the quartz pebble, which, 
 from its brittle quality, pulverized to a glittering dust. 
 
 The discordant voices of the larger species of birds now vibrated 
 through the woods; but the luxuriancy of the foliage obstructed the 
 view. The notes of parrots, crown birds, and toucans, were, however, 
 easily recognized amidst a vociferous medley of warblers, who, as we 
 advanced, retreated, sportively singing and hopping from spray to 
 spray. 
 
 Various large beetles, but more particularly one of the cricket kind, 
 swelled out a lengthened note of an indescribable sound, exceedingly 
 shrill and inharmonious. These little inhabitants of the forest climb 
 the loftiest boughs, where they sustain life by perforating the bark, and
 
 ASHAXTEE TRAVELLERS. 5 
 
 sucking- out the glutinous sap of the ganian and other mucilaginous 
 trees ; they are extremely numerous, and as their notes commence with 
 the rising sun, and last throughout the day, they keep up an uninterrupted 
 uniform dizzy chirping. 
 
 At three miles and a half from IMouree, we passed the site where 
 a small Fantee croom was said to have existed, but of which not a vestio-e 
 remained. The plantations of cassada, banana, guava, &c. neverthe- 
 less still flourished in unnurtured growth, blended with the wild produc- 
 tions of the forest. The path suddenly contracted as we ascended an 
 acclivaty, and the foot-way, which appeared to have been formed by the 
 passage of a current of water, was scarcely wider than the breadth of a foot. 
 The impediment occasioned by this gully was increased by the fall of 
 several large trees, which intersected the path at right angles, forming, 
 as it were, a breast work which it was necessary to scale or to scramble 
 under. 
 
 The distant tinkling of an iron castanet now attracted our notice, 
 as it announced the approach of strangers ; another instant presented 
 to our view a party of five Ashantees, who informed us that they were 
 journeying to Elmina for gunpowder. They had left Coomassy, they 
 said, twenty-one days before. One of these travellers was decorated 
 with a very large necklace of human teeth, interwoven with charms. 
 The teeth had the appearance of recent extraction, an opinion that was 
 afterwards strengthened by the sight of a little ivory blowing horn, to 
 which he was then in the operation of fastening a human jawbone. To 
 my inquiries how he became possessed of these trophies I could not 
 obtain a satisfactory answer ; a smile of brutal insensibility, however, 
 con\Tinced me the question was of a gi-atifying- nature, inasmuch as it 
 was interpreted into a compliment to his military prowess. This feeling 
 was displayed by various contortions of mockery and exultation, as he 
 directed a sort of con versation to the relic, in a chaunting tone. 
 
 A little beyond this, we entered another plantation in a kind of 
 valley, containing the site where also a Fantee croom had stood in
 
 6 RUINS OF VILLAGES. 
 
 former times. We passed two other spots of this description, before we 
 entered an opening covered with palms, plantains, and papas. Here I 
 sought the shelter of a tree, under which I alighted to obtain a little rest, 
 and allow my attendants leisure for refreshment. On descending from 
 my hammock (for the palanquin I had already been compelled to lay 
 aside) the sensation of languor was so oppressive, that I could not pre- 
 serve my footing without grasping the boughs for support. 
 
 The surface beyond this was every where covered with the same 
 dwarf shrubs and forest trees, blended together. The stems of some 
 were concealed by a species of parasitical plants, covering in some places 
 the loftiest boughs. This produced a lively and novel contrast to the 
 barren stems of others by which they were surrounded. Detached patches 
 of bamboo and dwarf palm became also more frequent, and added to the 
 variety of the landscape. 
 
 The next opening exhibited some relics that denoted a field of battle ; 
 it is now rem arkable for a few straggling hovels built among the ruins 
 of an extensive village, and inhabited by a remnant of Fantees, who 
 had the good fortune to escape during the invasion of their country by 
 the Ashantees. 
 
 This croom is called Yanbrassa : the number of its inhabitants did 
 not appear to exceed two hundred ; notwithstanding the numerous plan- 
 tations by which it was surrounded afforded invitation to settlers. No 
 corn was seen, but yams, bananas, plantains and papas flourished 
 without culture. At a little distance to the North and East, on the slope 
 of a hill, stands another village, called by the natives Tom Coffee, after 
 the name of a particular kind of cloth, of which the Fantees are very 
 fond. Here also the plantations were in a state of high natural perfection. 
 
 At the distance of half a mile, we passed the ruins of a small croom, 
 called Berim : another spot of desolation bore the name of Eydro. We 
 then entered a plantation that covered a greater extent of ground 
 than any we had before passed. The diameter of this space probably 
 exceeded a furlong, and in the midst of a jungle stood a few hovels
 
 EMPEROU. 7 
 
 squeezed within a mass of crumbling- walls. The name of this croom 
 was Emperou. Its inhabitants during the first invasion of Fantee by the 
 King of Ashantee, had observed an unfortunate neutrality, until the great 
 battle which preceded the destruction of Abrah, and the extermination 
 of the Braffo chieftains. To this unhappy policy they had been inclined 
 from jealousy of the Braffo influence. Convinced of their error when it was 
 too late, and smarting under the recent blow their country had sustained 
 by the loss of its capital, they rashly formed the resolution of defending 
 themselves against a sovereign already flushed with conquest. A Caboceer 
 named Quassy Beni, who had escaped from the general slaughter at Abrah, 
 presented himself before Emperou with the shattered remnant of his divi- 
 sion, and invited the inhabitants to form a junction with his forces for the 
 defence of their town. The proposal was embraced by the Emperous who 
 had already collected another body of auxiliaries. This little army was, 
 besides, augmented by the junction of some straggling parties who were 
 necessarily falling back as the enemy advanced. The king, however, 
 was acquainted with what was transacting ; his object, after the destruction 
 of the Fantee government, was, perhaps, confined to the temporary occupa- 
 tion of Fantee, and the imposition of contributions ; but the obstinacy of 
 the people, it is said, forced that monarch to secure his conquests by the 
 exterminating use of fire and sword, until he drove his enemies into 
 the sea. Be this as it may, it was admitted by Fantees as well as 
 Ashantees, that before another blow was struck, after the affair at Abrah, 
 the king sent messengers to several of the Fantee towns, calling the 
 people to submission, upon the promise of protection in life and pro- 
 perty : thus pacifically inclined, he sent two of his sword-bearers to 
 Emperou, to proclaim his sentiments to the chiefs; but, whether from 
 distrust, or a too implicit reliance upon their own strength, these 
 proposals were not only treated with contempt, but the royal messengers 
 were used with indignity, and then put to death. When this impolitic 
 step became known to the king, it naturally rekindled his wrath, and 
 he then vowed the overthrow of Cheboo's government.
 
 8 DEFEAT OF THE FANTEES 
 
 The order was now given to exterminate the population of every 
 . .town, and raze the houses to their foundations ; and in conformity with 
 >)this resolution a body of troops was detached against Emperou, with 
 orders not to spare an inhabitant of either sex. In the meantime the 
 Fantee troops, assisted by the inhabitants and their auxiliaries, assem- 
 bled to the number of many thousands, and by vigilance succeeded in 
 cutting off some reconnoitring parties of the enemy. Too much elated 
 by this success, they at length determined upon the plan of endeavour- 
 ing to intercept the communication between the detachment and the 
 king's head quarters. They separated their men into two bodies, one of 
 which being left to guard the town, the other made a circuitous march 
 to the westward, and fell unexpectedly upon the flank and rear of their 
 adversaries. No happy consequences attended the action ; it would ap- 
 pear, from accounts of the survivors, that neither party was prepared 
 for the rencontre. The Ashantees, however, lost no time in sounding 
 the alarm, rallying their forces, and recalling the advanced guard to 
 their assistance, while the Fantees, even before the onset, were appalled. 
 In this state of eventful inactivity, it is said, the main body of the 
 Fantees remained passive spectators during a distant skirmish between 
 their own vanguard and a detachment of the enemy. At last the Ash- 
 antees advanced with a shout, which struck a decided panic in their 
 favour ; the Fantees soon fled outright, and, with some loss, rejoined 
 their comrades at Emperou. Notwithstanding this check, the inhabi- 
 tants, as the Ashantees approached, sufl^ered themselves to be led out to 
 battle. The united force of the Fantees is stated to have greatly out- 
 numbered their enemies, and a battle of the most sanguinary com- 
 plexion ensued, at the distance of a mile from the town. The first charge 
 of the Ashantees was severely checked, and they were driven back 
 upon the main body with slaughter. The enemy, however, was too 
 well disciplined to allow the Fantees to improve upon their advantage, 
 and a murderous firing succeeded the onset, in which the Ashantees, 
 from superior celerity, had the advantage. Still, however, the Fantees
 
 AT EMPEROU. 9 
 
 maintained their ground, with a degree of intrepidity not undeserving of 
 record, as it is perhaps a soHtary instance during this war of their valour 
 and resohition. On a sudden, volHes of musquetry announced an at- 
 tack on their flank and rear, supported by the king in person. This 
 unexpected charge decided the fortune of the day, for the Fantees now 
 retreated with pi-ecipitation, while their enemies rushed on, and 
 strewed the forest with indiscriminate carnage. Before the retreating 
 army could regain the town, it was doomed to cut a passage through 
 an opposing body of the enemy, who were at that critical period in 
 possession of many of the houses ; despair assisted their efforts, and 
 their enemies were either cut to pieces or trampled under foot. The 
 town itself, which was already in flames, afforded no protection against 
 the murderous assaults of their pursuers. In this hopeless state, several 
 of the Caboceers, after destroying their property, their wives, and chil- 
 dren, put an end to their own existence ; whilst the people, endeavouring 
 to fly from the scene of carnage, were intercepted and butchered, or cast 
 headlong amidst the burning houses. To sum up the horrors of this 
 barbarous scene, every house was entered with fire and sword, and 
 the inhabitants of both sexes destroyed. It is said that, with the excep- 
 tion only of about one hundred people, who fled before the town was 
 assaulted, not a soul escaped from the calamity. These particulars 
 were narrated by my two guides who were in that conflict. 
 
 The walls stood in many places erect, exhibiting the action of fire 
 which, by viti'ifying the clayey composition, had preserved the ruins 
 from dissolution. The surface of the earth was whitened, in particular 
 spots, with ashes, and bleached human bones and sculls, forming a 
 distressing portrait of African warfare. In crossing the opening, some 
 of the Fantees, by way of diversion, pointed to the relics, saying jocosely, 
 they were Ashantee trophies : the Ashantees retorted the jest upon 
 their fellow travellers with equal good-humour, and all parties were 
 indifferent at a retrospection so paralyzing to humanity, 
 
 A small brook crossed the path at a little distance from Emperou, 
 
 c
 
 ]0 SERPENT. 
 
 tracking- a course south-east to the Amissa River, which flows into the 
 sea at the back of Tantum. During- the operation of fiUing some water 
 bottles, a discovery was accidentally made of a large snake coiled upon 
 a pile of stones. The reptile appeared to be in a state of torpor, or sleep ; 
 and judging from the mass of folds, could scarcely be less than four- 
 teen feet in length, by nine inches diameter, in the thickest part of the 
 body. The scales on its back were large, and beautifully variegated 
 with red and bright yellow. I was anxious to obtain the skin, but it 
 was not deemed prudent by my guides to make the attack, as they 
 affirmed that its bite was mortally venomous. In this particular it may 
 therefore be supposed to differ from the boa-constrictor. 
 
 We met, shortly afterwards, with a large party of Assins and Ashan- 
 tees, who stationed themselves on each side of the road, and saluted me 
 with many courteous bows. They were armed in the fashion of their 
 country with musquets and knives, and were conveying some bulky 
 loads of ivory, and a valuable kind of grease used by the natives for 
 anointing their bodies. A number of women and girls, whose employ- 
 ment consisted in attending upon their husbands, or masters, closed the 
 order of the march, which from the nature of the path was necessarily 
 in Indian file. The elderly females were under some consternation as 
 I approached, yet they were not behind the men in good manners ; 
 but the young women, who perhaps had never seen a Avhite man before, 
 were wholly unable to controiil their fears. The panic was excited by a 
 very interesting girl who, at first sight, plunged screaming amidst the 
 bushes, after resigning her hold of a bundle which she was carry- 
 ing on her head. This movement was instantaneously adopted by 
 the rest of her companions, to the great diversion of the men, who 
 added to the general amusement by raising a shout, which increased 
 the apprehensions of the fair fugitives. 
 
 We had not proceeded twenty paces from the spot, before we again 
 fell in company with a party consisting of three men, two of whom were 
 slaves, carrying a few elephant's teeth to the coast. The dress of the
 
 MOSLEM FROM COOMASSY. 11 
 
 proprietor, which consisted of a long shirt, a pair of ragged trousers, 
 and a loose cap resembling a turban, convinced me that he was a Mos- 
 lem. He saluted me with the customary inclination of the body, which 
 I acknowledged with the Salam. For some moments he appeared in 
 doubt, but recovering from his surprise he pursued my steps, and taking 
 me by the hand, repeated with great emphasis, " Alika Salam ya khai," 
 " Peace be upon you brother." I endeavoured to converse with the 
 man ; but we were wholy unintelligible to each other, except in the 
 few scripture phrases which comprised his stock of Arabic know- 
 ledge. By means of an interpreter, I found he was from Coomassy, 
 where he had left the King in anxious expectation of my arrival. He 
 had just quitted Doonqua, he said, where all the white men were well. 
 Pursuing the journey, we came to an opening where a few huts 
 stood detached from the ruins of another large croom, whose fragments 
 were half concealed in high Guinea grass, and jungle, interspersed with 
 plantain, guava and papa trees. I was by this time so extremely ex- 
 hausted with fatigue and' indisposition, that it v/as doubtful if I could 
 even reach my destination that night. Somewhat refreshed, however, 
 by a short repose I indulged in at this place, and by another applica- 
 tion to my restorative draught, I again resumed the march, and before 
 four o'clock was gratified with the prospect of Doonqua. The day had 
 been excessively warm, and the thermometer in town stood at 90 de- 
 grees in the shade. 
 
 The horizontal distance from Mouree to Doonqua, I estimate at 
 fourteen miles and a half, although from the sinuosities of the path 
 there can be no doubt that the whole journey exceeds twenty. The 
 average course from Cape Coast is N. NE. The surface of this space 
 is covered with a mixture of tall tress, stunted shrubs and bushes. The 
 species which I recognised, amidst a vast amphitheatre of unknown pro- 
 ductions, were bombax or silk cotton, tamarind, low palm, ganyan, 
 wild orange, wild cedar, monkey apple, doom trees, a sort of wild fig, 
 erasma, mahogany, and a lofty tree that yielded a light apple like the 
 
 c 2
 
 12 VEGETATION. 
 
 coloquintida. Among the dwarf trees were several kinds of dying woods, 
 of which I saw samples varying in tint from a deep to a bright yellow 
 and orange, and others of a crimson red. Besides these, were numerous 
 trees of lignum vitse, iron wood, g-uava bush and laurel. I discovered 
 also, several species of fine cane, of which the rattan and small Bamboo 
 were the most conspicuous, growing in clumps or patches. The anana, or 
 pine apple plant, flourished along the sides of the path, and even under 
 the more sheltered parts of the forest, exhibiting, equal luxuriance in 
 spots where it was not possible for the rays of the sun to penetrate. 
 Several sorts of aloes were seen embedded with creeping shrubs : that 
 called aloe succotrina was distinguished by its thorny leaves and spiral 
 growth ; but others of this class towered into trees of a beautiful ap- 
 pearance, the aloe arborescens Africana. Chains of fibrous stems shoot- 
 ing forward in longitudinal projections, completed the wild beauties 
 of the surrounding scenery. Many of the fibrous species varied in 
 dimensions, from the size of ordinary packthread, to the thickness of a 
 large cable rope, which in some instances they represented by a natural 
 twist. These vegetable chains, wholly destitute of leaves, appeared to 
 bind the entire forest in solid concatenation. In some spots they rose 
 to an elevation of fifty feet perpendicular height, sustaining their weight 
 by an endless variety of folds and embraces, amidst the thickest boughs, 
 and descending again in an opposite direction only to seek another com- 
 modious supporter. 
 
 The soil between Mouree and Doonqua, is a rich brown mould, occa- 
 sionally encrusted by white sand and quartz pebble. The mould, 
 however, did not appear to be of sufficient depth to afford much nourish- 
 ment to the larger growth of the vegetable kingdom. On examining 
 several fallen trees, I particularly noticed that the roots grew almost 
 exclusively in horizontal shoots. This may be attributed as much to 
 the sterility of the strata below the mould, as to nature itself, because this 
 remarkable character was not confined to a particular class of vegetation. 
 In the ravines and gullies were large pieces of quartz scattered over deep
 
 RED AND BLACK ANTS. 13 
 
 sandy beds. One remarkable patch of solid granite rose in pyramidal 
 masses to the altitude of twenty or more feet ; these blocks of stone 
 were at a short distance from the ruins of Emperou. No smooth 
 pebbles were seen. 
 
 The habitations of the red ants form a striking feature, as 
 they convey the idea of little towns established in the wilderness by 
 another order of the creation These erections are spiral, and of the 
 elevation of ten or more feet. Another class of these insects, the 
 small black ant, build nests on the boughs of trees, which in appear- 
 ance resemble a globular or cylindrical mass of black clay, unlike 
 that of the red ant, which is of a gravelly yellow tint. The weight 
 of these masses of earth, and the glutinous matter which cements the 
 parts, causes the boughs to droop and bend, in some cases, till they sweep 
 the ground ; and in others these nests are cemented to the ramifications 
 of several trees, which encrust the whole in a solid mass of drip- 
 ping mucilaginous matter. The most voracious and formidable insect 
 of this genus is the large black ant, which burrows under the roots of 
 trees, and erects a sort of nest upon the surface, resembling in form 
 the mushroom. 
 
 The village of Doonqua is indebted for the importance it now enjoys, | 
 to the invasion of Fantee, and the desolation of its towns and cities, I 
 particularly that of Abrah. Formerly the spot on which it stands 
 exhibited only a few humble sheds, the residence of foresters, and people 
 whose occupations, as wood-cutters, and canoe builders, induced them 
 to settle there. The ground on which it stands has been evidently 
 gained from the forest. The inhabitants are said to exceed two thousand, 
 and out of that number, in cases of emergency, they can equip 300 men 
 for war. 
 
 The plantations that surround the croom are extensive, and yield 
 more than sufficient for internal consumption. The houses of the inhabi- 
 tants are built in the style of those of the Ashantees. A piece of ground is 
 first cleared, and a frame-work, according to the plan and dimensions
 
 14 DESCRIPTION OF DOONQUA. 
 
 of the intended edifice, is erected, with some regard to regularity. This 
 frame consists of long poles, sunk below the surface at each angle. 
 To these poles they attach hurdles by means of a strong lashing of 
 fibrous twigs collected from the forest, the interstices being afterwards 
 closely filled up with clay, which is smoothed over with rubbing stones ; 
 this gives it solidity and uniformity. Bamboo and palm boughs are 
 employed for the thatch, which from its regular structure has a much 
 more pleasing effect than the rude boughs and grass used by the natives 
 on the coast. 
 
 The house of the Caboceer consisted of an assemblage of apart- 
 ments quadrangularly enclosed in the form of three squares ; linked 
 together by avenues, barely sufficient in width to admit free ingress. 
 Upon enquiring the reason of this singular style I was satisfied with 
 the reply, that it was advantageous for defence or escape, in case of 
 an attack. I could not avoid remarking that the plan upon which 
 the more wealthy part of the community built their houses, resem- 
 bled, although rudely, that of the Moors of Barbary ; the only strik- 
 ing difference was between the thatched roofs of the former, and the 
 terraced covering of the latter. 
 
 A small stream of nmning water, in the vicinity of the croom, 
 supplies the inhabitants with that element in a state of purity, and 
 thereby exempts them from that excruciating malady the Guinea-worm, 
 a disorder with which the natives of the sea coast, who use the stag- 
 nant water of pools, are cruelly afflicted. 
 
 The Caboceer who governs Doonqua under the king is called Paintiy, 
 and the village is also known as Paintry's croom. The course of policy 
 
 1 pursued by this chieftain during the invasion, entitled him to the 
 clemency of the conquerors. After the destruction of the Fantee armies, 
 he was permitted to retire from Abrah with all his property, and this 
 was the spot he selected for his residence, to which he invited other 
 settlers to establish themselves under his protection. The king after- 
 
 ! wards conferred upon him the dignity of Caboceer ; although the only
 
 DOON'QUA. 15 
 
 benefit he reaps from that title is an honourable seclusion from the 
 court, whose policy interdicts all confidence in the Fantees. 
 
 Towards the close of the day, the Ashantees, headed by their two 
 captains. Ado and Quako, assembled to wish me joy on my arrival, 
 and to learn my intentions regarding the morrow. As the fatigue I had 
 undergone suggested the propriety of rest, I retired at an early hour, 
 but passed a sleepless night, for I was attacked with a smart paroxysm 
 of fever, attended with acute pains in the side. 
 
 The tenth of February was spent in quarters. Mr. Collins, during 
 the day, had an attack of ague, and was confined to his bed ; the 
 other officers, however, enjoyed good health. The thermometer at 
 twelve o'clock stood again at ninety degrees in my apartment ; but 
 as the evening approached it fell, and during a tornado, which ushered 
 in a heavy fall of rain, the quicksilver was for a few seconds con- 
 siderably agitated : it afterwards sunk gradually during the storm to 
 eighty-one degrees. Towards evening it fell as low as seventy-six 
 degrees, and the transition from heat to cold was acutely felt. My 
 health still continued below mediocrity until the evening of this 
 day, when I was overpowered for the first time with a soothing- 
 sleep ; from this period my bodily ailments subsided with a rapidity 
 that has ever since made the retrospection wonderful. At the dawn 
 of day I ai'ose much refreshed, and already I enjoyed the certain cri- 
 terion of returning health, a wholesome craving for food. From this 
 period, the eleventh day of the month, symptoms of convalescence 
 advanced rapidly. Mr. Collins was also improving; and as circum- 
 stances were thus propitious, I gave orders for the march on the 
 following day. Unfortunately at this crisis the chief linguist was 
 severely afflicted with Guinea-worms ; and without giving notice of his 
 intention, he returned to the Cape. 
 
 At eight o'clock in the morning of the 12th, we left Doonqua. After 
 penetrating through a thicket of five or six hundred paces, we sud- 
 denly found ourselves in a forest as magnificent as it was dense and
 
 1 6 THE FORESTS. 
 
 intricate. Numerous plants and creepers of all dimensions chained tree 
 to tree, and branch to branch, clustering- the whole in entanglement, 
 so that it sometimes became necessary to cut an opening as we pro- 
 ceeded. In this operation we were considerably retarded, and our 
 clothing suffered much from the rude assaults we sustained from 
 the trunks of trees, and impending boughs. Nor was this the only in- 
 convenience ; for notwithstanding we were continually on the alert in 
 watching these formidable obstructions, we could not avoid receiving 
 some slight contusions, and scratches. The opacity of this forest com- 
 municated to the atmosphere and the surrounding scenery a semblance 
 of twilight ; no ray of sunshine penetrated the cheerless gloom, and we 
 were in idea entombed in foliage of a character novel and fanciful. The 
 death-like stillness that prevailed was soon interrupted by the occasional 
 shouting of the negroes, to put to flight, as they termed it, the evil spirits 
 of the forest. Now and then a flight of parrots and other gregarious 
 birds interrupted the intervals of silence ; but the richness of this 
 vegetable canopy prevented the possibility of gaining even the most 
 imperfect view of these feathered screechers, or indeed of anything but 
 those objects by which we were immediately surrounded. Even on the 
 line of path, so frequent were the turnings, and so greatly did the angles 
 incline to the eastward and westward of north, that I have no hesi- 
 tation in aftirming that the precision with which Mr. Bowdich has 
 described his route by compass, from what he has termed a calculation 
 of its mmierous angles, is, at best, but a conjectural estimate. 
 
 In some spots the land was elevated in slopes and ridges, yet it was 
 notupon the whole deserving the name of hilly . On descending one of these 
 slopes, a partial opening in the forest aflTorded a limited prospect, and 
 the blaze of light that burst through this gap animated the scene with 
 some tints of lively green. Clumps of plantain trees were seen sprouting 
 out of a rich bed of grass and cane, and the whole plat was studded with 
 low palm and patches of jungle. We were now in the enjoyment of what 
 was comparatively a distant prospect ; it was the summit of a little hill.
 
 REMAINS OF MANSUE. 17 
 
 at a short musket-shot distance from the path, covered with vegetation. 
 A few wretched hovels stood in the midst of silence and desolation. In 
 former days, however, this gap contained a very populous town. 
 
 Again we plunged into the recesses of a forest whose obstructions 
 were as formidable as the preceding, and we shortly after came to a piece 
 of swampy land, on the margin of which we alighted for refreshment. 
 Having expeditiously satisfied the cravings of hunger, we resumed 
 the journey over two small water courses flowing to the south-east, but 
 they were nameless. After crossing another little stream, we were con- 
 soled with intelligence that our resting-place for the night was close at 
 hand. An opening that admitted the fading rays of daylight, now pre- 
 sented a capacious surface, fledged with exuberant patches of grass and 
 jungle, in the midst of which stood some tattered sheds. This was 
 Mansue, where formerly stood a large opulent town called by the same I 
 name, and considered the frontier of the kingdom of Fantee. Mansue 
 originally owed all its importance to the traffic in slaves. When 
 Fantee and Assin were two distinct sovereignties, it was customary to 
 permit the latter to bring slaves and merchandize to this mart, where 
 they were regularly met by the Coast traders. In those days I was i 
 assured the whole space was occasionally surcharged by assembled crowds, 1 
 whose interests were connected with the traffic in slaves. 
 
 The Ashantees had arrived before us, and already were their fires 
 blazing in all directions ; it therefore became necessary to use precautions 
 against any accident that might endanger a communication with the 
 gunpowder, which the careless insensibility of these people would have 
 consigned to one of the sheds. A small chasm resembling a cave, which 
 stood at the distance of about a hundred paces to the westward, was 
 pointed out as a secure receptacle, and thither it was conveyed. 
 
 The path over which we this day travelled differed materially from 
 the preceding journey. The forest between Doonqua and Mouree, 
 however imposing, is not to be classed wdth the one that now falls 
 under description ; for, indeed, every advancing pace seems to confirm 
 
 D
 
 18 PATAGONIAN TAMARIND. 
 
 the knowledge that the traveller is no longer on the confines, but in the 
 heart of a great continental wilderness, where nature governs on a scale 
 of proportionate magnitude. The bamboo and dwarf palm occupied 
 intervals where they covered the space of many acres, presenting thorny 
 impenetrable barriers ; and where they bordered the path were amongst 
 our most formidable enemies. A tree of the mimosa species also, of 
 large dimensions, was occasionally discovered by an aromatic fragrance 
 emitted from its pods. These pods, which exhibited a firm woody 
 texture, were eagerly sought after by the Fantees, for the purpose of 
 extracting their odour. The Ashantees named the tree cotamriia. Wild 
 fig trees were numerous, and the fruit lay thickly spread upon the 
 ground. The leaf of this tree bore, however, no resemblance to the 
 true fig leaf; but rather resembled the maple, in its formation and glossy 
 surface. The fruit itself, notwitlistanding it could not visibly be dis- 
 tinguished fi'om the fig, resembled it neither in smell nor taste, for it waS 
 exceedingly oftensive, whilst its external construction promised all the 
 delicacy of that luscious fruit in a state of culture. The Mimosa Scan- 
 driensis, or Patagonian tamarind, every whore abounded. This is a 
 majestic tree, yet it by no means deserves to be ranked with the first class 
 of African growth. The pod, as its name indicates, is a tamarind exter- 
 nally and internally, but its dimensions are from one to two feet in 
 length, and in breadth about four inches, yielding a number of stones 
 proportionate to the size of the outer rind.* Besides these, the forest 
 was strewed with several kinds of fruit resembling the pomegranate, and 
 a very large growth of guava ; but the odour they diffused was most 
 repugnant to the smell, notwithstanding their inviting looks. Bombax 
 and wild tamarind were the most conspiciious objects, as well from 
 numbers, as their remarkable forms and bulk. In certain spots some 
 monstrous trees had fallen to the earth from decay, exhibiting in that 
 
 * Some of the seed I brought to England and consigned to Mr. Lee, of Kensington, in whose Nurserj' it 
 was sown.
 
 PLUNDER OF PROVISIONS. 19 
 
 state, every stage between maturity and decomposition. Here and there 
 were scattered solid mahogany logs, as if torn from their roots by tempests. 
 Others under rapid stages of decay, showed a gangrenous disease at the 
 root. Many also, which had the semblance of having fallen long since, 
 yielded to external pressure, and occasionally the foot would sink through 
 moistened dust to the depth of several inches. A few were cankered 
 through the centre, leaving an open passage between the separated stem 
 over huge heaps of rotten wood-dust. Some of the fibrous kinds were 
 covered with knots and sharp-pointed thorns of a fearful growth, the 
 punctures of which were considered by the Ashantees as painful and 
 poisonous ; they were on this account avoided with caution. 
 
 Some hollows and slopes, where the rain had collected, exhibited sheets 
 of clay-coloured water through which we waded at uncertain depths ; but 
 generally between the knee and ancle. The sides and bottoms of these 
 cavities were of a spongy slime, which absorbed the feet with the slightest 
 pressure, and rendered the passage exceedingly laborious. 
 
 We were seldom disturbed by the howling or appearance of wild 
 beasts, yet the spots which were supposed to have been visited by 
 hyenas, were, on approaching them, easily recognised by the emission 
 of a fetid effluvia which, it would seem, the earth had imbibed from the 
 exhalations of the hide of that animal. Indeed these rancid smells 
 were frequent on the route, although we never could discover their 
 authors. 
 
 As the night closed in, we endeavoured, by means of the luggage, 
 to form a fence round our tattered habitation ; and having erected a sort 
 of breast work, we retired to rest as composedly as our limited comforts 
 would permit: for at Mansue we could procure nothing, save two or 
 three unripe plantains. These privations had been anticipated at Doon- 
 qua by a stock of provision, more than reasonably enough to last two 
 or three days ; but our good friends the Fantees, imagining they could 
 carry the burthen in a more commodious manner than on their heads, 
 had thought it advisable to distribute the weight internally. Besides 
 
 d2
 
 20 THE SANARY, OKEE, 
 
 committing so great a deprfedation on our suppers, they had made a 
 serious attack upon the rum kegs and wine l)ottles. The excessive 
 fatigue of the march, had indeed overpowered the acute sensation of 
 hunger; but I awoke at an early hour in the morning, indiiferently 
 refreshed, and exceedingly stiff from the bruises and excoriations of the 
 preceding day. The route to Mansue is about N. half E. distance 
 seventeen miles horizontal, twenty-two by the path, which is one of the 
 most tortuous on the journey. 
 
 At seven o'clock in the morning of the thirteenth we left Mansue, 
 and with it the prospect of the heavens, as we entered a forest exactly 
 similar to the former. The limits of the foot-way could scarcely be 
 said to exceed the width of twelve inches, over which the shrubbery 
 projected on all sides. Another fall of rain during the night, had sod- 
 dened the earth, and all the vegetable world was dripping with a 
 moisture which showered upon our bodies in plentiful discharges, 
 while the foliage nearer to the surface, with equal liberality, shed its 
 moisture on our clothes, to a degree that very speedily drenched us 
 through to the skin. The etiquette of Africa, which imposed on me the 
 head of the file, was little to be envied in this place, as it naturally ex- 
 posed me to more than a single share of soaking. 
 
 A little running stream, such as might be termed a brook, flowed 
 with a sluooish motion rather to the eastward of south. The Ashantees 
 called it Sanary. The gap it occasioned was equal to twelve or four- 
 teen feet, yet the junction of the boughs above the stream, entirely 
 excluded the sun's rays. The water was limpid, although sensibly 
 impregnated with decomposed vegetable matter, and when disturbed 
 by pressure, the soil raised a turbid cloud from its bed, like the grounds 
 of coftee 
 
 About eleven A. M. we arrived at the Okee; a little river that 
 holds its course here to the S.SE. over a bed of granite rock and white 
 sand, with a gentle rippling current. This stream was the most impor- 
 tant of any we had yet seen, although its surface at the ford did not
 
 IBANI, AND AGOYA RIVERS. 21 
 
 exceed four fathoms. The depth was indeed too inconsiderable to de- 
 serve notice, except in certain spots, where the water had collected in 
 pools, formed by the embankment and some stony obstructions. Here 
 alone, the sun had a partial action upon the shrubbery. The Okee 
 empties itself into the sea near Tantuni, and is there known as the 
 Amissa river. On leaving its embankments, we again left behind us 
 the cheerful light of day. 
 
 A party of Ashantees who were journeying south, suddenly ap- 
 proached, and saluted by a respectful inclination of the body. They 
 were from Coomassy, they said, and had been deputed by Agampong 
 to sell their loads of ivory at El Mina, whither they were going. 
 The information obtained from these people corroborated former 
 accounts of the anxiety of the king to see me in his capital. 
 
 We arrived next at an extensive cluster of ground palms, where 
 a little stream called Ibani flowed to the west of south, and was said to 
 unite with a larger branch, in its track to the Okee. The river 
 named Agoya or Gaya, next arrested the attention, its course was 
 south. The width of this stream in the broadest part might have 
 e(|[ualled eighteen feet, its bed, however, was compact, and the em- 
 bankment steep ; but at the ford the water scarcely covered the ancle. 
 This is a stream tributary to the Okee. About half a mile beyond the 
 Agoya we fell in with a small clear watercourse that terminated in an 
 extensive swamp, spreading around as far as . our limited prospect 
 afforded observation ; in the midst stood many of the largest forest 
 trees. 
 
 On leaving the swamp, we caught the distant tinkling of the 
 Castanet, and at the turning of an angle fell in with six Ashantees who 
 had left Abandou, as they asserted, within the compass of an easy run. 
 We had not long separated from these people, before we met two others 
 in company with many women and slaves, among whom was a girl 
 about fourteen years old, of the most jetty blackness, and in features 
 more than ordinarily interesting. Whether these travellers belonged to
 
 22 ABANDOU. 
 
 the preceding party or not I had no opportunity of inquiring, for 
 they fled abruptly into the recesses of the forest. 
 
 Exactly at night-fall a little opening which discovered a mass of 
 jungle and cane, denoted our arrival at Abandon ; the croom at which 
 it was proposed to rest that night. A few bamboo huts thatched with 
 palm, and lined with cane matting, marked the spot where formerly a 
 more extensive town existed. In the vicinity of the houses was a small 
 plantation which barely sufficed for the refreshment of travellers ; for 
 we were again constrained to resort to our fragments. 
 
 The occupiers of two or three of these huts, were by the orders of 
 the Ashantees turned out of their habitations, for our accommodation ; 
 much against their will indeed, for the weather indicated rain. The 
 fissures were therefore carefully closed, by which the apartments were 
 rendered tolerably comfortable. 
 
 The horizontal distance from Mansue to this place is eighteen and 
 a half miles, and by the path about twenty-three. The average of the 
 courses gave N. half E. 
 
 During the reign of King Cheboo, who governed in Assin prior 
 to the Ashantee invasion, Abandon was a populous village ; but it now 
 gives shelter to a few foresters only. 
 
 The features of the country between Mansue and Abandon are 
 almost the same as on the preceding march. Many of the climbing 
 plants, and some of a migratory character, were observed to strike across 
 the rivulets, from bank to bank, by twisting their stems for support 
 amidst the lower limbs of lofty trees, and adhering in their progress 
 to whatever object stood in the way, until the opposite shore again 
 afforded a permanent resting place. The large parasitical plants were 
 more frequently seen as we advanced to the north. The mimosa classes 
 were numerous, as also clusters of the ground palm, and wild aloe ; 
 ebony, various species of mahogany, iron-wood, wild tamarind, &c. 
 were among the most conspicuous, and may be added to those already 
 described as inhabitants of this forest.
 
 ABANDOU. 23 
 
 The banks of several streams exhibited strata of red and dark grey 
 coloured clays, surmounted with light and sandy mould. Decaying 
 wood and vegetable matter presented solid masses of corruption in all 
 its various stages. The thermometer in the woods at eight o'clock 
 A, M. stood at eighty degrees, and at noon at eighty-two. 
 
 Notwithstanding the combination of evils such as have been de- 
 scribed, and which are unavoidable in travelling through the forests of 
 this kingdom, the fatigue they occasion is perhaps more than counter- 
 balanced by the friendly shade they afford the European traveller. The 
 contrast in temperature, when we emerged to one of those insulated spots 
 where the sun has a partial action, was equal to an increase of eight or 
 nine degrees on Fahrenheit's scale. 
 
 A light rustling breeze from the east, shortly after ovir arrival at 
 Abandon, indicated an approaching tornado. The thunder was heard 
 in the distance, but no rain fell near our quarters. As the heavens 
 were now partially open to observation, we were for some time amused 
 with the flight of parrots, crown birds, toucans, cranes, vultures, 
 hawks, and a variety of smaller birds, retreating before the expected 
 blast, and seeking security from the torrents of rain which accompany 
 this species of storm. Some of the latter were clothed in plumage 
 beyond conception beautiful ; about the same time, a troop of monkeys 
 of the marmozet and large black species, were sportingly skipping from 
 tree to tree, with astonishing dexterity. 
 
 The fatigue we had endured, and the limited rest we enjoyed in 
 our quarters at Mansue, induced an early retirement to repose. For 
 my own part, I revelled until morning, in what then seemed to me the 
 most luxurious repose I had ever enjoyed. 
 
 On the 14th, at eight o'clock in the morning, we left Abandon : the 
 path for the first two miles was particularly intricate, and the ground 
 more than usually covered by entangled thickets of bamboo, palm, 
 briars, and other thorny ligaments. 
 
 At three miles distance from Abandou, we fell in with a pretty little
 
 24 CARNIVOROUS ANIMALS. 
 
 rivulet called Katoa, its course was to the south-east, over a bed of rock 
 and sand. This also is tributary to the Amissa. At half a mile beyond 
 this, we crossed another stream of less magnitude, running' to the 
 southward of west, into the Katoa : it was called by the Ashantees 
 Abonou. In half an hour more, we fell in with the Okee, its com- 
 puted distance from Abandou being short of five miles and a half. 
 The course of the river this time, was westward, inclining a little to 
 the south, which was the reverse of its course on the south side of 
 Abandou. The ford at this place was intersected by a chain of rocks 
 forming a sort of bridge. We shortly after crossed the Adanso numing 
 south-west into the Okee, at no great distance from the ford. Here 
 we perceived a number of Assin women and children, who were washing 
 in the stream. 
 
 Lions and panthers were said to be found here occasionally only, 
 for they usually occupy the thickets in the vicinity of villages, where they 
 enjoy more opportunities of satisfying the cravings of hunger on the 
 cattle of the inhabitants than in the solitary regions of the wilderness : 
 an observation which appeared to me of a reasonable texture, as it 
 coincided with the opinion I had previously formed on the nature 
 of those voracious quadrupeds. The lion, the tyger, the panther, 
 the leopard, say the Ashantees as well as the Arabs, are delicate in the 
 selection of their victims. They must destroy the carcase themselves, 
 or they loathe the food ; and the blood alone suffices their wants, unless 
 indeed the rage of hunger be very great, in which case they will devour 
 a small portion of the flesh, leaving the remains of their prey to the 
 hyenas and other carnivorous animals. The reason they alledge why 
 hyenas, jackalls, &c. make more extensive excursions, is that these 
 animals will take up with any kind of food, whether in a state of 
 putrefaction or not. The superior beasts of prey seldom remove to any 
 great distance from the place which g-ave them birth, provided there 
 be opportunities of sustaining life, even at any risk from the wiles of 
 mankind. Throughout the whole extent of land from Doonqua to the
 
 Fooso. 25 
 
 banks of the Praa river there are neitlier towns nor hamlets, con- 
 sequently there is no cattle for the sustenance of these animals, except 
 the chance range of a few deer. 
 
 We next arrived at a small stream that flowed to the south- 
 west, but its insignificance was such that it had no name. A mile 
 beyond this stream is the Atonsou, a little rivulet flowing S.SW. 
 into the Praa. Here an opening presented itself to our view, in 
 which the scene was animated by the reflection of the sun upon a 
 rich foliage that surrounded a sort of dam, where a body of water 
 had stagnated. Having left the Atonsou a mile in the rear, we came 
 to a few bamboo huts like those at Abandon. The area, which was free 
 from forest trees, was about three hundred paces in diameter. The 
 sugar-cane, and a few banana and plantain trees, grew hereabouts in 
 hixuriant clusters, besides which there were both high and low palm, 
 bamboo, cocoa trees, and erasma. The name of this place is Fooso. 
 Prior to the invasion it was a town of some little consequence, chiefly 
 from its central position : it was then well iiihabited, whereas at present 
 it exhibits no better aspect than Abandon, and neither place admits 
 of more than a temporary sojournment. During the retreat of 
 Cheebo, when he fell back upon Fantee, a skirmish took place between 
 the Ashantees and Assins in the neighbourhood of these huts ; the 
 former gained the advantage, and the destruction of the town was the 
 natural consequence of that action. The Ashantee army then 
 pursued the fugitive monarch soiithward. The distance from Abandou 
 to Fooso is eleven miles. 
 
 Our route still lay through forest, but to the north of Fooso the 
 ground was clear of thicket, and the eye was permitted to wander 
 amidst its recesses to the distance occasionally of forty or fifty yards. 
 An horizontal glance exhibited pillars of wood of mighty dimensions, 
 rivetted as it were to pedestals, such as Mr. Bowdich has not inappro- 
 priately termed flying buttresses ; trees proportionately smaller filled 
 up the interstices of this woody landscape. The prospect above dis- 
 
 E
 
 26 YANCOMADY. 
 
 played all the verdure cemented in a rich entangled web, impervious 
 to a single ray of the noonday sun. This grand awning was still 
 enwreathed in folds by various plants of a migratory kind, and parti- 
 cularly by that sort of fibrous stem which resembles cable ropes. 
 Ground palm, bamboo, and rattan, were now become very common. 
 
 A morass intersected the path at no great distance from Fooso, in 
 which mud predominated more than water, and beyond this, at an 
 hour's march, we crossed a little current of water flowing westward, 
 and entered Yancomady. All that now remains of this village is a 
 few Bamboo huts, the abodes of foresters ; some palm and plantain 
 trees choked up with the rank growth of cane and jungle were the only 
 relics left of its plantations, or rather, in despite of the exterminating 
 hand of war, they had again reared their heads above a surface of utter 
 devastation. Some spots appeared in the neighbourhood where clusters 
 of the largest trees had been subverted by the violence of tempests, 
 thereby dragging in their descent a whole army of surrounding objects, 
 or crushing into splinters those limbs which were incapable of 
 sustaining the accumulated pressure until a sufficient bearing was 
 gained on the barren wrecks of many trunks. Not unfrequently 
 these threatening avalanches were suspended in various angular posi- 
 tions, supported only by numerous bands and links of forest cordage, 
 entwined in friendly embraces amidst the branches, and round the 
 trunks. The thermometer here stood at eighty-eight degrees in 
 the shade. 
 
 Our path lay amidst clusters of ground palm, which grew on the 
 brink of a romantic slope terminating on our right in a deep chasm. 
 A few hundred paces from this we alighted at the Potessin, a rivulet 
 whose current flowed to the W. NW. in a stream of ten or twelve 
 feet broad, and united with the Soubin, tracking their course jointly 
 to the Praa In half an hour more we arrived on the margin of a 
 little rivulet called Ambama, and from this stream we came to the 
 Soubin, flowing to the northward of west. As the evening approached
 
 AKOMFODY, ' 27 
 
 we crossed a little brook called Aniya, and from thence travelled by 
 an agreeable path to Akomfody, where I had resolved to pass the 
 night. 
 
 This also was a long journey, for the march was of nine hours 
 duration in the whole ; and in the course of that time, we traversed 
 twenty-three miles of ground, although the true distance is no more 
 than seventeen. The average course about N. NE. 
 
 The surface between Abandon and Akomfody is level, with the 
 exception of a few slopes, and the chasm between Yancomady and the 
 Potessin. A rich black loam frequently bordered the streams, and was 
 occasionally found in a few marshy spots. Sometimes a fat unctuous 
 marl was met with in extensive sheets : sand however predominated ; 
 and in place of the quartz, which abounds so greatly in the southern 
 districts, nothing in the shape of a stone was discovered except a few 
 small angular pieces of mica and granite. Certain spots emitted a 
 corrupt effluvia blended more or less with the odour of decomposed 
 vegetation and aromatic shrubs. 
 
 The hillocks formed by red ants were now rarely discovered ; 
 but the black ants were numerous and troublesome, the bite they 
 inflicted occasioned a sharp burning heat. Nor are they less dreaded 
 in the cultivated parts and even in the towns. The voracity with 
 which they surprise their prey and assail him at all vulnerable points 
 exceeds that of locusts, when they alight in a field of corn ; for when 
 once the attack is commenced, no bodily effort of the victim will avail 
 him. Flight is generally impotent, unless it should lead him to a pool, 
 when a natural instinct occasioned by the burning pain, induces him 
 to plunge into the water. This kind of ant, say the Ashantees, is not 
 only the plague of all other animals, but also of every class of their 
 own species, and of the red ant in particular. If I may be indulged 
 in a whimsical comparison, I will suggest a resemblance between these 
 diminutive freebooters and the Arabs, who alike migratory, rove over 
 the surface of the country, and establish a temporary residence where 
 
 E 2
 
 28 ANT-HILLS. 
 
 it meets their views, often to the terror and in defiance of neioh- 
 bouring towns. Thus the black ants in myriads will trace a particular 
 course, and pursue that track in exact and thick embodied file, over 
 an extent, perhaps of miles, until they fix upon a spot to their liking, 
 where they erect little conical habitations, which may be said 
 fig-uratively to bear a similitude to the Arabian tent, both in colour 
 and form. The red ants, on the contrary, raise solid mounds of clay, 
 which are cemented with a mucilaginous substance that binds the 
 parts together in an indissoluble encrustation, and bids defiance to 
 any violence short of the pick axe. The intrusion of the black aats 
 is thus effectually prevented ; but whenever their entrenched prey 
 venture abroad, or are observed in repairing and augmenting their 
 habitations, which they frequently do, a chase ensues, and thousands 
 become the victims of their opponents, who sometimes force an 
 entrance even into the nest itself. I was present once when a hillock 
 was perforated in order to obtain what is commonly termed the queen, 
 or mother ant, which is an unwieldv insect, two inches in leno'th and 
 one in circumference, formed in head and shoulders like the common 
 ant, with a white body like that of a maggot. This insect resides 
 in a separate cell, at the very foundation of the hillock, and is said to 
 be gifted with such inexhaustible fecundity as to bring forth its 
 myriads in daily and unceasing repetition. The act of cutting through 
 the surface was laborious ; but that effected, the earth crumbled as it 
 usually does. The cells resembled those of the hornet, and were 
 generally in diagonal rows, but without order or regularity. The 
 labour was ultimately attended with success, in the discovery of the 
 " queen mother." During the process the red ants fled in all directions, 
 and vainly endeavoured to recover their cells, while they were assaulted 
 by a troop of black ants, who in despite of a vigorous resistance 
 devoured their prey on the spot, or carried it off between their nippers. 
 The black ant, it is said, will fearlessly attack any animal, not 
 exempting mankind ; but particularly infants, whom they frequently
 
 ATTACKS OF RATS. 29 
 
 destroy and devour. The panther is not too strong for them to 
 cope with, the rat is not too subtile, nor is the squirrel too active ; 
 vigilance and force are equally unavailing. They w^ill even, as the 
 Ashantees report, seek the abodes of serpents, and entering their 
 holes, allow the reptile no chance of escaping. The hanging nests 
 of small black ants were also very numerous in the trees, where, it 
 would appear, they choose their abode as a security against attacks of 
 the universal enemy. 
 
 Acomfody, formerly a village of moderate dimensions, now lies ' 
 desolate like the rest, and is only remarkable for the few huts it con- 
 tains. Its plantations are equally insignificant, so that all the refresh- 
 ments we were able to procure amounted to a few unripe plantains. 
 The huts were already occupied by a party of travellers ; but this, as 
 usual, produced no inconvenience to us, for they were speedily 
 dislodged. 
 
 The fatigue of these marches had jaded even the negroes, several 
 of whom were lame ; and notwithstanding the general anxiety to keep 
 pace with the mission, there were fifteen absentees as late in the even- 
 ing as ten o'clock, That we suffered in an equal proportion may safely 
 be concluded. We therefore sought our apartments, anticipating the 
 benefit of repose ; but in vain ; for after I had retired to rest, and had 
 just fallen into a profound slumber, I was roused by a confused noise, 
 and a sensation resembling that of the pressure of a man's hand upon 
 my face, and on the bed-clothes, as though some persons were about 
 to attack me in that defenceless posture. Thus prepossessed I started 
 out of bed, and immediately recognised screechings resembling those of 
 the rat. This indeed confused, but did not satisfy me, so strongly did 
 I imagine that an iiitruder had gained access in the dark. By the aid 
 of lights which my attendants procured, I searched, but to no purpose, 
 and while I was prevailed upon to discredit the suspicion I had 
 formed, I took the round of the quarters, where all was confusion and 
 uproar, from the same cause. Mr. Collins was employed in defending
 
 30 DANSANSOO. 
 
 himself with a stick against these vermin ; and at Mr. Salmon's hut it 
 was the same. Satisfied, now, of the reality of the nuisance, I again 
 retired to seek repose, but in so doing was compelled to resort to the 
 same weapon in defence of my person against hundreds of rats, who, if 
 I attempted to lie down, ran indiscriminately over my face and body, 
 in their nocturnal gambols. Thus finding it impossible to sleep, I at 
 last relinquished the attempt. Even the Fantees were distressed in 
 this rat croom. 
 
 Towards the dawn of morning I heard the cries of some wild ani- 
 mals, which the Ashantees described under the name of younc. They 
 said it climbed the trees, and continued those cries throughout the 
 night. From this description, I could not clearly discover to what 
 genus it belonged ; but subsequently I was shewn one at Coomassy, 
 which was of the sloth family. 
 
 We left Akomfody at the hour of nine, and at the distance of a 
 short mile, crossed a little rivulet running west of the Praa, whose 
 name was Shambany ; and, in two miles more, alighted near a little 
 brook called Baraco, a branch, it is said, of the former. For three 
 miles more, we travelled over an entangled thicket, that led to half-a- 
 dozen deserted huts, surrounded by a moderate sized plantation : the 
 name of this place is Dansansoo. Not a soul inhabited the spot, and 
 except when occasionally tenanted by travellers and foresters, it is as 
 desolate as the wilderness itself. The summits of some old vitrified 
 walls were here and there perceptible, amidst a plat of withered jungle 
 and cane. This village was also demolished by the Ashantees during 
 the retreat of Cheebo and Apoutay. 
 
 From Dansansoo our route lay over the same mazy thicket. Many 
 limbs and branches of trees lay scattered about, exhibiting another 
 sce\ie of recent violence, as if a current of wind had passed over this 
 tract; an opinion that was strengthened by the numerous little 
 swamps, and the quantity of moisture hereabouts. 
 
 Short of one mile and a half from Dansansoo we arrived at Me-
 
 PASSAGE OF THE PRAA. 31 
 
 karen. This, likewise, was a wretched spot, consisting only of two or 
 three hovels, encompassed by a little plantation; yet this, too, had 
 been a populous place. A little distance beyond this, was a ravine 
 that had the appearance of a water course ; but its sandy bed was now 
 dry. The surface was swampy, and overgrown with ground-palm, 
 thicket, and small trees. 
 
 We were now in the neighbourhood of the Praa river. Here- 
 abouts we fell in with a party of traders, and one of the king's sword- 
 bearers. The slaves, to the number of twelve or fourteen, were loaded 
 with many valuable teeth of ivory, also for the Dutch market. After 
 a march of two miles and a half more we gained a glimpse of the water 
 between the trees. A serpentine path, formed by a chasm, where the 
 ridge was about forty feet perpendicular height, led down to the mar- 
 gin of the river, and here, after our guides had tried the depth of the 
 stream, we crossed in a slanting course, under the lee-side of a bed of 
 shelving rock, which stood near the centre. The water, at the ford, 
 came up as high as the arm-pits ; and on gaining the opposite shore, 
 we climbed up a steep embankment, retracing the steps we had 
 deviated from our true course. A little fetische house, which overlooks 
 the river, invited our steps to the grateful shade of a eachou tree. 
 Indeed, it is usual for the northern travellers to visit this spot, and make 
 oblations to the river God, to whom the house is consecrated, before 
 they presvmie to plunge into his stream. The house was built with 
 upright poles, and wattled hurdles, lashed with twigs, and cemented 
 together with clay ; the roof was of palm. 
 
 The prospect of the landscape from this commanding point was 
 really magnificent, but it was nevertheless a wilderness, and the know- 
 ledge of this limited the pleasures of imagination, in despite of its 
 superb scenery, the fecundity of nature, and the fair bosom of a sheet 
 of water that gave animation to the prospect. The gloomy forest to 
 which we had been so long confined, presented itself to our view in a 
 section, on the side from whence we came, whose northern limits were
 
 32 PASSAGE OF THE PRAA. 
 
 laved by this beautiful stream meandering in a serpentine course from 
 NE. to SW., until both extremes were lost in forest. The margin of 
 the water was overgrown with a line of rank grass and flags, while the 
 slope of the embankment was thickly covered by shrubbery, such as 
 ground-palm, bamboo, rattan, sugar, and ground-cane, various species 
 of the dwarf mimosas, besides a variety of unknown plants. The rays 
 of a sun, now in his zenith, acting upon this mass of verdure, produced 
 an animated tint in the different shades of green upon every shrub, and 
 almost upon every leaf. The forest itself, frowning in awful majesty 
 to the very verge of the embankment, formed a romantic back-ground, 
 while the surface beneath was buried in darkness. To enumerate half 
 the different species of vegetation is not in my power, for the greater 
 part by far were unknown to me. Those which I recognised of the 
 larger growth, were such as have been already mentioned. Ganyan, 
 however, was a very conspicuous object on the opposite embankment. 
 It is characteristic for this tree to shoot out fibrous tendrils from its 
 branches, and these are prolongated in the growth, until they strike 
 into the earth in various postures, although generally perpendicular. 
 
 The smaller trees and shrubs, besides bamboo, rattan, and com- 
 mon cane, were Guava bush, in limited quantity, indigo, umbrella 
 trees, dying woods, erasma, cocoa, male and female, migratory and sta- 
 tionary vines, wild fig, aloe, tamarind, &c. 
 
 The surface here was a rich clay, free from pebble, and covered 
 in the line of the ford with a bed of light sand. This river enters the 
 sea at Chamah. It was at this time about the breadth of the Thames at 
 Richmond, and the current, which varies, on account of the freshes that 
 occasionally augment the stream, ran about four knots. The annexed 
 plate is engraved from a sketch I took on the spot. Mr. Bowdich, in 
 acknowledging his failure in an attempt at copying the natural beauties 
 of the scene, perhaps with reason declares, that it would baffle the skill 
 of any artist to depict " the life of its beauty,'' except a Claude, or a 
 Wilson. Without questioning the truth of this, I hope my presump-
 
 PRASSOO. 33 
 
 tion may meet witli indulgence, as I trust it will, when I declare that 
 with a limited knowledge of the ai't, I attempted the sketch from 
 private and not public motives. It may be considered, therefore, as 
 the outlines of a landscape where the objects are represented as nature 
 has stationed them, rather than as an attempt at pourtraying the 
 animation of vegetable life. 
 
 Having indulged a sufficient time in the contemplation of these rural 
 beauties, we resumed the journey over what now appeared to us a 
 delightful path, and which, indeed, was open, and wide enough in some 
 places to allow six or seven men to walk abreast. Tiie barbarism of the 
 southern forest appeared every where to be softened into features of a 
 milder aspect, and it seemed as though our toils were comparatively at 
 an end. 
 
 At a short half mile from the river, we entered the town of Prassoo 
 through a clean broad avenue, which separated the houses into two 
 nearly equal sections. Decency now required me to conceal my tat- 
 tered apparel (for deplorably torn it was) from public gaze. I there- 
 fore wrapped myself in a cloak, and walked to the house of the Cabo- 
 ceer. This chief, a little emaciated old man, whose name was Awado. 
 received me with much ceremony ; but, as I then thought, little civility. 
 In retiring I was, however, better satisfied with the good-natured coun- 
 tenances of a few scores of spectators, who were Avaiting to obtain a 
 glimpse of white men. 
 
 From the Praa southward, the progress of the sword down to the 
 very margin of the sea may be traced by mouldering ruins, desolated 
 plantations, and osseous relics : such are the traits of negro ferocity. 
 The inhabitants, whether Assins or Fantees, whose youtli and beauty 
 exempted them from slaughter on the spot, were oiily reserved ,to grace 
 a triumph in the metropolis of their conquerors, where they were again 
 subject to a scrutiny which finally awarded the destiny of sacrifice or 
 bondage ; few or none were left behind to mourn over their slaughtered 
 friends, or the catastrophe of their unhappy country. 
 
 F
 
 34 PRASSOO. 
 
 Prassoo, or Praa Assou, is a name derived from the proximity of this 
 town to the river Praa. In magnitude it cannot be compared with the 
 superior class of towns, yet it covers a great extent of ground ; its main 
 street being about two furlongs in length, broad, clean, and regularly 
 formed. This street cuts through the village at right angles, and inter- 
 sects a number of little lanes and passages formed by rows of houses, 
 which are closely erected, although generally detached from each other 
 by a space of several feet. Many of these vacancies were enclosed by 
 hurdles and fences of bamboo, of an unsightly construction. The gene- 
 rality of houses were rather superior to those we had seen at Doonqua. 
 The habitations of some were washed on the outsides with a bluish clay, 
 which, from exposure to the sun and atmosphere, had faded to a dirty 
 white, recalling by an effort of the imagination what had been reported 
 by Mr. Bowdich, of Ashantee, " architecture." But the far greater 
 proportion of the houses were formed simply with hurdles, plastered 
 over with clay, the common soil of the country, and some of hurdles 
 and thatch only. 
 
 The population of Prassoo is stated to be about nine thousand souls. 
 The town does not lay claim to any very great antiquity, and may be 
 said still to enjoy the infancy of its growth. It is surrounded by 
 luxurious plantations of plantain trees, and some detached spots 
 for the cultivation of maize. 
 
 Leaving Prassoo, we entered an open path which we pursued for 
 another short half mile, and entered Kikiwhary long before the 
 sun had run his course. Our reception by the spectators was courteous 
 and gratifying, for every countenance testified joy. I dispatched a 
 complimentary message to the deputy Caboceer, and, as it was my 
 intention to pass the night in the town, I alighted under a spreading 
 tree, while the captain of the escort selected appropriate quarters. 
 After a short absence, he returned and conducted us to a neat little 
 house, containing four apartments of convenient size. Our first calls, 
 it may be well supposed, were for food, particularly flesh, which we
 
 KIKIWHARY. 35 
 
 had been so long deprived of. In the interim, I received a very 
 acceptable present of a sheep, some bread, and plantains, from 
 the Caboceer of Prassoo. The deputy Caboceer and some of the 
 town's-people waited upon me with congratulations. 
 
 In the cool of the evening I walked over the town, and was every 
 where greeted with the most cordial and respectful welcome. A number 
 of children of both sexes, and some adults followed me at a reserved 
 distance, gratifying their curiosity without intrusion, and flying, as I 
 approached, when occasion required to retrace my steps. To me the 
 scene conveyed infinite pleasure from a retrospective contrast with the 
 more northern regions of this vast continent, where I have travelled 
 among strangers, from whom I have, on similar occasions, experienced 
 insult and hostility. The natives, however, were observed to scowl at 
 the Fantees, with a malignancy, which, at first, I could not satisfactorily 
 account for. 
 
 The town of Kikiwhary is considerably larger than that of Prassoo, 
 and its inhabitants proportionately numerous. The population of the 
 place is said to exceed fourteen thousand. The etymology of the word 
 Kikiwhary is, take heart, or resolution, a name which is not uncommon 
 to other towns of the kingdom. It is said, that the present town stands 
 on the scite of a very extensive city, which was destroyed some ages 
 back by an irruption of the tribes of Dagomba. Like Prassoo, it is cha- 
 racterised by one main street, separating the houses into two sections, 
 and intersecting at right angles a number of avenues. The houses, 
 which resemble in construction those of Prassoo, consist of various classes, 
 from the quadrangular building down to the common bamboo hut. 
 The white clay washed walls generally distinguish the habitations of the 
 wealthy ; but they are not numerous. As the apartments are all either 
 upon the ground floor, or elevated only two or three feet above the na- 
 tural surface, the roofs are necessarily the most conspicuous features in 
 the coup d'oeil of an African town. The interior compartments of the 
 best houses are furnished in a style corresponding with the simplicity of 
 
 F 2
 
 36 WOMEN OF KIKIWHARV. 
 
 African wants ; two or three wooden stools, some earthen pots for culi- 
 naiy purposes, cane mats, a water jar, and a lamp, constructed of brass 
 or clay, comprize all the utensils of the far greater portion of the inha- 
 bitants ; while many of the houses of officers high in rank, are adorned 
 with large wooden drums, and horns decorated with sculls and jaw bones. 
 
 The government of Kikiwhary, like that of other towns, is vested 
 in a Caboceer and Council of Elders. This cliief, whose name is 
 Akassy, was at this time absent. He was formerly a captain of that 
 part of Assin, governed by Amoo, and had, at the early part of the 
 contest with Ashantee, espoused the politics of the king, Akassy was 
 deputed to accompany the embassy to Cape Coast, as representative 
 of Assin, to discuss individual claims and private losses. 
 
 The complaints of the inhabitants of this town were, indeed, serious ; 
 for it appeared that some of their people, to the number of about sixty, 
 had been panyard ; or, in other words, seized, together v.ith their trading 
 property, and sold by the Fantees at diiferent stations on the coast to 
 slaving ships, while the king was absent in Gaman. Report conveyed 
 to me the murmurings of several families, who alleged their participa- 
 tion in the injury ; and the execrations which were lavished upon the 
 Fantees taught them, betimes, to limit their rambles. 
 
 This day's journey was nine miles and a half, horizontal distance, 
 and the average of a long list of courses gave NW. and by N. On the 
 banks of the Praa, the thermometer, at one o'clock, P. M. gave eighty- 
 seven degrees in the shade, and again at three o'clock, it was as high as 
 ninety degrees in my apartment, at Kikiwhary. 
 
 The quarters were continually surrounded by spectators, chiefly 
 women and children, whose anxiety to gain a glimpse of our persons was 
 occasionally checked by an impulse of terror when we approached them. 
 The smiling countenances which graced these beauties, convinced me that 
 their destiny was a happier one than the genei-ality of their sex enjoy in 
 Fantee. Their lascivious glances, accompanied by signs, which could not 
 be misconstrued, convinced me also that these ladies, however superior
 
 MIASSA. 37 
 
 to the Fantees, participated with them in a certain faihng. I was, besides, 
 assured that many of the wives and daughters of men in power, were 
 employed in the w'ay of traffic, to practise the seductive charms of 
 beauty, to inveigle the impassioned and unwary of the other sex, in 
 order to create a palaver, which commonly terminated in fines or 
 slavery. When the slave trade was legalized on the coast, it was a 
 usual mode of entrapping youth, and those who w^ere incapable of 
 redeeming their persons from bondage, suffered the severity of this 
 pernicious la\v, and were in most cases sold in the public markets for 
 exportation to the West Indies. 
 
 About ten o'clock on the seventeenth, I bade farewell to 
 Kikiwhary, pursuing a path, which for the first two or three miles, 
 inclined very much to the westward of north ; now and tlien it was 
 inigged, and overgrown with briers and underwood. The Ading 
 rivulet, an inconsiderable stream, whose current ran to the S. SE. at 
 this distance, held on a course to the Praa, where it united near the 
 ford. The water did not exceed a foot in depth, and twelve feet would 
 have measured the breadth of the stream ; yet during the rains its 
 tributary waters were said to inundate large forest ti-acts hereabouts. 
 Another stream called Ano, of less importance, flowed easterly, and 
 is said to connect itself with the Ading, from which it is separated by 
 a small tract only. Hereabouts is also a clear open space of several 
 acres in extent, surrounded by jungle and plantain trees. The name 
 of this spot is Miassa, (not Animiaso, as Mr. Bowdich has spelt it, and 
 which is an amalgamation of both river and town) it was distinguished 
 formerly for its great population, and when Assin was a tributary 
 sovereignty it belonged to the first rank of towns. A few miserable 
 inhabitants now occupy the land, where they have erected some 
 habitations of bamboo and thatch. Their existence chiefly depends 
 upon the traffic with Kikiwhary. Miassa was at one time deemed the 
 capital city of Assin, but it owed its importance more to the seat of 
 government, which was established here by Cheboo, than to any local i
 
 38 DEFEAT OF CHEBOO. 
 
 influence of its own. During- the wars between Amoo and Cheboo, when 
 the latter had suffered two defeats from his adversary ; a third sangninarj- 
 conflict took place near this spot, which terminated in favour of the latter, 
 and the utter destruction of Amoo's army followed the action. Amoo, 
 however, escaped, and again fled to Coomassy to lay his complaint 
 before the sovereign king. That monarch had employed many months 
 in a fruitless negociation prior to the engagement, and having about 
 this time received a cruel indignity in the person of an ambassador, 
 he first formed the design of compelling the Assins to a state of 
 unlimited submission.* Cheboo and Apoutay, however, assembled 
 their forces in the vicinity of Miassa, with the resolution of giving 
 battle to the Ashantees ; but some disaffection among the Assin chiefs 
 dispirited the troops, and treachery was supposed to have stirred up a 
 powerftil interest in favour of the enemy. The crisis approached 
 which admitted the choice of only two alternatives, either to risk a 
 battle on the spot, or resign that extensive tract of country north of 
 the Praa, and retire to the left bank of the river. In this dilemma 
 Cheboo chose the former, but in the hour of trial his courage was not 
 competent to the task of meeting an enemy so proverbially terrific 
 as the king of Ashantee. A few shots were exchanged at the onset, 
 while Cheboo and a party of followers fled to the river. This decisive 
 panic in the chief is said to have been occasioned by the desertion 
 of several Caboceers, on the field of battle. Be this as it may, it is 
 admitted on all hands, that here the Assins fled before an army which 
 numerically did not amount to half its own force ; although it was 
 confessedly superior in organization, equipment, and resources. 
 Slaughter followed in the rear, down to the margin of the river, where 
 Cheboo and his friends learning the extent of their misfortunes, fled 
 across the stream, and whither the Ashantees had no inclination to 
 pursue them, at that time. Miassa was razed to the foundation, 
 
 * Vide also Meredith's History of the Gold Coast.
 
 SAPORGAH — TIBIASSA. 39 
 
 thousands were put to the sword, and thousands sent into slavery in 
 the more northern provinces of the empire. This event is celebrated 
 by the Ashantee bards in an appropriate song, wherein it is recorded 
 tliat a river of perjured blood Jioi£ed from Miassa to the Praa, and 
 propitiated the wrath of the river god. Thousands of human victims 
 were afterwards sacrificed in daily and nightly troops, at the little 
 fetische house were we alighted ; and the carcasses were cast into 
 the river, in order, as the Ashantees affirm, that the glory and militaiy 
 prowess of their sovereign might be known tliroughout the land, as 
 the current swept the bodies to the sea. Akassy, the Caboceer 
 who now governs Kikiwhary, and a man named Quamina Abindou, 
 both incurred the stigma of treachery ; the latter was subsequently 
 put to death for some embezzlement of the spoil. 
 
 The forest beyond Miassa relapses into its usual solitude, exhibiting 
 also most of those stern beauties which are characteristic of the land 
 south of the Praa. At a little distance beyond Miassa to the eastward, 
 are several ruined villages, in particular one named Soubel between 
 the Ano and Ading ; other desolate spots of the same kind are scat- 
 tered over the surrounding country, between the points of north and 
 east, of which Oncro, Intoba, and Injany are the principal. 
 
 The patlis leading to the plantations were still open, and occa- 
 sionally frequented. Two miles more brought us to another open space, 
 the relic of a large Assin croom called Saporgah ; which is little better 
 than a heap of ruins. Some solitary sheds occupied by foresters and 
 palm wine collectors were the only objects that could interest the eye. 
 The path was exceedingly obstiaicted by thicket and decayed logs, 
 from this place until we arrived at the ruins of Tibiassa, another 
 haliitation, as the Ashantees affirmed, of the spirits who roam at night. 
 Nothing but a few straggling ruins, embedded in jungle, remained ; 
 yet it was said to have been a place of importance. The little stream 
 called Prensa crossed the path, at a very inconsiderable distance 
 from Tibiassa, as it traced an easterly course to the Ano. The next
 
 40 ARRIVAL AT ANSAH. 
 
 opening at the distance of a mile and a half more, was a moderate 
 sized space occupied by some detached ruins, the relics of a town called 
 Bequama, and near this spot the little rivulet called Prapong (or arm 
 of the Praa) about seven yards in width and two or three feet in depth, 
 pursued its southerly course to the Praa. We shaped a course along 
 the bed of this stream to the distance of a hundred yards or more, and 
 then quitted it at an angle formed by its westerly inclination. The 
 path as we advanced rather improved, although the natural obstruc- 
 tions were still so great as to create delay. Four miles beyond the 
 Prapong are the ruins of a town called Eshamah. A little village 
 of modern construction, bearing the same name, stands on a slope which 
 commands the ruins. The inhabitants, probably about fifty in 
 number, obtain a precarious subsistence from their labours in the 
 forest. These poor people were at this time absent, at their respective 
 occupations, in hewing timber, and tapping palm trees for wine, with 
 which they trade to Ansah. A few traders from Ashantee were 
 reposing under the shade of some trees, in what might be called 
 the niarket place. 
 
 Eshamah formerly enjoyed a moderate rank in Assin, and its 
 ' population is said to have rivalled in numbers the inhabitants of 
 Prassoo. It is remarkable for a sanguinary battle fought in its vicinity 
 between Cheeboo and Amoo. Leaving the ruins of this place, we 
 again penetrated the forest, and in the lapse of an hour entered 
 Ansah about four P. M.
 
 PUBLIC RECEPTION. 41 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 PUBLIC RECEPTION AT ASSAH— DESCRIPTION OF AN ASSIN HOUSE— EFFECTS OF NEGRO 
 WARFARE— STATE OF HEALTH OF THE PARTY— AKROFROOM— SUPERSTITION OF THE INHABI- 
 TANTS WITH REGARD TO WHITE TRAVELLERS— BEASTS OF PREY— ELEPHANTS — JIOISY— 
 FRONTIER OF ASHANTEE— THE RIVER BOH.MEN— SABLE NAIADS— CHISAH—FOMANAH— DOOM- 
 PASSY— OFFERING TO A HOUSEHOLD GOD— DATCHASOO— MESSAGE FROM THE KING OF ASHAN- 
 TEE— ADADWASY—AMOAFO— VISITS FROM THE KIxVG'S SON AND DAUGHTER — BEQUA—ASSI- 
 MINIA—BOPOSSO — AGEMUM—SARASOO— PROCESS OF CLEARING LAND FOR CULTIVATION IN 
 FANTEE AND BARBARY— FIRST SIGHT OF COOMASSY— PUBLIC RECEPTION BY THE KING— SPEECH 
 OF THE KING OF BANNA— CEREMONIES— OBSERVATIONS ON THE JOURNEY AND CLIMATE. 
 
 Desolate as the land is on both sides of the Praa, with the ex- 
 ception only of Prassoo, Kikiwhary, and Ansah, I had, nevertheless, 
 deemed it expedient, in support of my public character, to announce 
 the approach of the mission with all becoming- solemnity. A descrip- 
 tion of the ceremonies practised at Ansah, as they bear a relation to the 
 usag-es elsewhere observed, may not be displeasing to the reader. The 
 road-flag with which I travelled through the woods, and which was 
 simply a small union-jack, was, on our approach to the town, dis- 
 missed to the rear, its place being supplied by a more brilliant suit of 
 colours. Such of the escort as were in attendance joined in embodied 
 ranks equal to the limits of the path, while one of my soldiers who had 
 practised the bugle, blew a blast or two on that instrument, which, 
 coupled with the shouts and songs of my attendants, never failed to 
 
 G
 
 42 PUBLIC RECEPTION 
 
 collect from the houses a numerous concourse of spectators, who, it 
 may be said, strove in emulation to pay that respect to the British flag, 
 and to white men, and Englishmen, which it was my pride to witness. 
 At Ansah, every countenance was stamped with those genuine feelings 
 of respectful admiration which it was my object to excite. Crowds 
 followed us to our quarters, bestowing occasionally some flattering 
 commendations upon the objects that interested their attention. 
 
 As the day declined, drums were beat and horns sounded through- 
 out the town, to give notice to the chief and elders to assemble with 
 their retainers, in the market-place, to receive the public visit they 
 anticipated. On our side, I gave instructions to the officers to equip 
 themselves in uniform, and the people to dress in clean apparel, &c. 
 Thus arrayed, we sallied forth, at a sort of funeral pace, preceded by 
 the colours. On turning an angle leading to the market-place, we were 
 suddenly saluted by the beating of drums, but after awhile the discord 
 ceased. The Caboceer, whose name was Coinin Akim, (deputy 
 Viceroy of Assin under Anion Koitea) was encompassed by all the 
 principal male inhabitants of the town, headed by their respective 
 chieftains. An avenue between this mass of human beings was left 
 sufficiently wide to permit us to approach in the order of single 
 file ; and through this space I advanced, touching hands with the 
 Caboceer and the other chiefs, while a number of boys waved short 
 scimeters, chopping bills, and swords, over my head, as they yelled out 
 the " stroJig fiames" of their patron, descriptive of his rank, heroic 
 achievements, &c. 
 
 At the conclusion of this ceremony our party retired to the shade 
 of a tree, where, when we had taken our seats, the Assin chief and his 
 party advanced in turn, preceded by the band of performers, whose 
 overture was of a character still more inharmonious. Indeed the flutes 
 and some of the smaller horns only, when they could be distinguished 
 in the medley of sounds, softened to a degree of tolerance the harsh 
 barbaric clamour. One instrument, resembling the horn of an
 
 AT ANSAH. 43 
 
 enormous buffalo, which was decorated with a profusion of human 
 jaw-bones, uttered abrupt and incessant blasts of the most dismal 
 howling that can be imagined. Others of similar dimensions orna- 
 mented with the like brutal trophies, produced a lengthened distressing 
 tone, something resembling the moderate cry of hyenas. Some small 
 elephants' teeth, hollowed into form, were rather more melodious, 
 excepting when they chimed with the concert. The large drums were 
 carried on the heads of men, and beaten in that posture ; but the small 
 ones were slung as kettle drums. These added to calabashes and 
 gourds filled with shot or small stones, concave bits of iron, and strik- 
 ing sticks, will give an idea of the national taste in harmonic matters. 
 As the chieftain advanced to take my hand, a number of parasites 
 rushed before him holding their noses, as the custom is, and recapitu- 
 lating his " strong names" with vociferous, and, as it would appear to 
 a stranger, offensive intinasion ; for these flatterers, notwithstanding 
 they were gently pushed aside, returned to the charge as boisterously as 
 before. On a sudden he burst from the crowd, and as he took me by 
 the hand, perfect order and silence ensued. 
 
 The Caboceer was followed successively by the captains, elders, 
 and ordinary class of inhabitants ; but the latter did not presume to 
 offer their hands for acceptance, a compliment which was expected by 
 the Caboceer and chief officers only ; all others were happy in being 
 permitted to pass in the pompous line, to wave their hands, and pay 
 the compliment of a welcome. 
 
 I had scarcely returned to the quarters when a file of men entered 
 profusely laden with provisions. The present consisted of a sheep, a 
 goat, a quantity of yams, eggs, fowls, plantains, and palm wine, besides 
 fire-wood, cankey bread, sugar cane, and some honey in the comb. In- 
 deed I never before witnessed hospitality, even among Mussulmen, 
 who are religiously scrupulous of that virtue, equal to this, which in 
 fact was a private present. My acknowledgments were accompanied 
 by a trifling return of nmi, and a piece of British manufactured cotton. 
 
 g2
 
 44 ASSIN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 The plantations of plantains, yams, and cassada, are very extensive 
 in the vicinity of Ansah, and large tracts of land were then in a state 
 of preparation for the reception of grain. This, which is now the 
 metropolis of Assin, is a large compact town full of houses and hovels 
 of all classes, from the quadrangular inclosure of four, six, or eight 
 apartments, to the small bamboo hut. The quarters assigned for the 
 reception of the Mission belonged to a wealthy inhabitant, who, to ac- 
 commodate us, was unceremoniously compelled to turn out, with his 
 wives and children. As the house I occupied at Ansah is at least equal 
 to some of the best in Coomassy and elsewhere, I shall digress a little 
 in particularizing its " architecture" and conveniences. It was a square 
 enclosure with a recess behind, forming two apartments, besides the 
 four contained in the quadrangle itself. Opposite the door was a 
 narrow passage, leading to the retired part of the building, and which 
 the natives appropriate to the use of the women and juvenile branches 
 of the family. The rooms were elevated two or three feet from the 
 ground, and the ascent was marked by two steps, which, as well as the 
 lower walls, were simply plastered with red clay, rudely sculptured 
 indeed, but still with some regard to order. Little buttresses here and 
 there surmounted with ornamental carving in ''alto relievo" decorated 
 the sides of the rooms, the dimensions of which were about nine feet 
 by six or seven, and roofed with a sloping thatch of palm. 
 
 Ansah has also one broad street only, leading north and south 
 through its centre. The avenues, or lanes, right and left, besides being 
 of extreme narrow limits, exhibit a variety of unsightly obstructions. 
 This place, having formerly been the seat of government of Amoo and 
 the party attached to Ashantee interest, was respected during the war 
 by the forces of the empire. Its population is estimated at twenty-four 
 thousand souls. 
 
 Coinin Akim, it may be observed, besides his deputy viceroyalty 
 of Assin, is also Caboceer over the desolate forests of Fantee ; his juris- 
 diction extends from Moisy in the north, down to the sea-coast, and east-
 
 EFFECTS OF NEGRO WARFARE. 45 
 
 ward from the province of Akim to the limits of Denkera. Akassy, the 
 Caboceer of Kikiwhary, who supports a secondary dignity in Assin, 
 governs all the adjacent towns and villages, as the representative of 
 Coiniu Akim, to whom he is immediately answerable. 
 
 It will not be deemed extraordinary, by those who are acquainted 
 with African maxims and prejudices, that all Fantee, excepting the few 
 towns on the coast, and the far greater portion of Assin should be found 
 in the state I have described ; the population extinct, the plantations 
 more or less destroyed, and the forest relapsing to its original growth. 
 In the wars of the negroes, a few of the subjugated are reserved to 
 grace the victor's triumph ; but slavery, or death, is most frequently 
 their final doom. Little kingdoms have been thus annihilated, as in 
 the case of Denkera, Akim, Warsaw, and many others, whose names 
 have almost become obsolete. The importance of these dreary regions 
 is, therefore, trifling, when compared with a surface of such extent ; 
 and particularly so, when it is considered that where a population 
 amounting, it is supposed, to something between three and four millions 
 occupied the districts of Fantee and Assin, the inhabitants now scarcely 
 amount to as many hundred thousands, after the most liberal calculation, 
 including even the Fantee towns on the sea side. 
 
 The march from Kikiwhaiy to Ansah was comparatively the most 
 moderate and least fatiguing of any of our journeys. The Anana still 
 flourished luxuriantly in the woods, and the bamboo and ground palm 
 covered many acres, with a most impenetrable thicket. The high 
 palm which towered here to an elevation rivalling the more 
 gigantic productions of the earth, increased the wild beauty of the sur- 
 rounding scenery, for this class had been rarely met with on the road. 
 
 The thermometer in the forest varied between the hours of ten and 
 two, from eighty-one degrees to eighty-three. In our quarters at Ansah, 
 at one o'clock, the quicksilver stood at eighty -seven, and two hours after 
 sunset, sunk as low as seventy-seven.
 
 46 JOURNEY RESUMED. 
 
 From Kikiwhary to Ansah it is ten miles, horizontal distance, and 
 the average of a long list of courses gave N. half W. 
 
 The health of the officers at this time was good, excepting that of 
 Mr. Collins. In justice to the gentlemen who accompanied me, I ought 
 to acknowledge the fortitude which marked their characters, and stifled 
 every complaint, during a laborious course of service, and under cir- 
 cumstances not far removed from severe hardship. 
 
 The Ashantee guides or captains, belonging to my retinue, wished 
 me to remain at Ansah, until the king should be apprised of my arrival ; 
 but, as I preferred a station nearer to the capital, I again issued orders 
 to resume the journey in the morning. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 18th, I quitted this town, attended by a group 
 of spectators, who, on the verge of the forest, exchanged a parting 
 farewell, and returned to their homes. The umbrageous covering of the 
 trees was again a grateful relief from the sensation of extreme heat. 
 Within the compass of an hour's walk from Ansah, we crossed the bed 
 of the Foum, a fine little rivulet running easterly, and uniting, it is said, 
 with the Prapongand the Praa. The margin of this stream is profusely 
 covered with a shrubbery of a beautiful character. The water, at this 
 time, was knee deep, altliough the width of the channel could scarcely 
 be more than three fathoms. At the distance of a luile and a quarter 
 more, we came to the Parakom, another little rivulet, proportionate in 
 dimensions to the Foum, of which it is a branch, and flowing at this 
 part of its course in the same direction as the former. Another little 
 stream intersected the path about half a mile beyond the Parakom, but 
 was too unimportant to have a name, 
 
 The rustling of the branches above our heads, and a deeper gloom, 
 combined with the distant sound of thunder, announced, about this 
 time,an approaching tornado ; but no rain fell. The thermometer sunk 
 from eighty to seventy-six. At an early hour in the day, we arrived in 
 the neighbourhood of Akrofroom, where a concourse of spectators had.
 
 .\KROFROOM. 47 
 
 as usual, assembled, in the main avenue, to greet our entrance. At my 
 request, the Caboceer, who had already set the gong-gongs at work, de- 
 ferred the ceremonies of an interview, until the sun had sunk below the 
 visible horizon (the tops of the adjacent trees.) The rights of hospita- 
 lity were, in the meantime, lavished upoil us with liberality, equal to 
 what we had before experienced ; and our quarters were stored with yams, 
 cankey bread, cassada, eggs, oil, fuel, and a sheep. The distress I felt 
 for the females, who resigned their apartments for our use, (some of 
 whom had infants at their backs) was quickly removed liy the cordial 
 welcome that animated their looks. A superstitious belief was enter- 
 tained by those to whom the lot of sheltering white men had fallen, that 
 their lives in future would be prosperous. The house itself was pass- 
 ably well built in the form of one we occupied at Ansah, but superior 
 in size and sculptural ornaments, both of red clay and grey. 
 
 The Caboceer, of this town, whose name was Tako Dooney, hap- 
 pened to be at Ansah, when we made a public entry there ; after the 
 ceremony there, he was dispatched, by Coinin Akim, to repeat the 
 honours at his own government. As the sun declined, the jarring discord 
 of drums, gong-gongs, &c. announced the assemblage in the market- 
 place. It will be unnecessary, however, to relate a ceremony, which did 
 not materially diifer from what has been described at Ansah. The 
 parasites of this chief, it may, however, be told, desisted sooner, and 
 were not quite so outrageously indecorous as those of Coinin Akim. 
 
 My people now fared sumptuously, yet there were ten men on the 
 sick list, besides as many more lame or bruised ; several of whom were 
 in a state requiring rest, as well as wholesome food ; but as our journies 
 henceforward were likely to be short ones, I did not think proper to 
 detain the mission ; although my own servants were both incapable of 
 exertion, one from the Guinea worm and fever, and the other from 
 severe lameness. 
 
 Akrofroom covers a large tract of land, and is built in a straggling 
 manner. It is not so large as Ansah, and its population is numerically
 
 48 AKROFROOM. 
 
 inferior. The avenues intersecting the main street east and west, 
 like all others of the class, are either exceedingly confined, or, where 
 the space is more than sufficient to accommodate one or two passengers 
 abreast, the waste ground is generally appropriated to the reception 
 of offal, dirt, and rubbish ; which, as in that part of the city of Morocco 
 inhabited by the Israelites, accumulates from time to time into little 
 mounds, or hillocks, sufficiently elevated to afford a prospect over the 
 walls and even the roofs of low built houses. The main street, how- 
 ever, is exempt from these nuisances, and the market places, both here 
 and elsewhere, are never polluted by dirt or litter of any description. 
 The favourable impression of Ashantee cleanliness, was checked 
 by the exposure of imisances in bye streets, in the environs of the 
 town, and the backs of the houses, where it became difficult to select a 
 foot way free from excrement and filth. Yet decency in compliance 
 with natural calls was not by any means unobserved by the inhabitants, 
 who erect sylvan temples in retired spots, at the outer boundary of 
 the plantations, by excavating the earth, and erecting a platform on 
 the upper surface, or by placing a number of fallen trees in parallel 
 positions. 
 
 The number of small ill-constructed hovels at Akrofroom probably 
 exceeded the more commodious buildings as fifty to one ; and the grey 
 clay plaster, or wash, here, indicated no distinction between rich or 
 poor, master or slave. The plantations, however, are extensive, 
 and yield more than sufficient for the consumption of the inhabitants ; 
 yet those of corn are very limited even here, although the popu- 
 lation is estimated at eighteen thousand souls. 
 
 At the distance of one day's journey and a half westward, are the 
 ruins of a large town called Boyabo, formerly the seat of Apoutey's 
 government. The average course from Ansah to Akrofroom was 
 N. NW. the distance amounted to eight miles and a quarter, 
 horizontally computed. 
 
 We quitted this place on the following day, the nineteenth. The
 
 ELEPHANTS. 49 
 
 path in its vicinity is broad and open, but this is characteristic only of 
 the first half furlong, beyond which the forest relapses to its usual 
 form and aspect. 
 
 This tract is said to be occasionally infested by the superior beasts 
 of prey, such as lions, panthers and leopards ; but none of these 
 animals met our sight, nor had we ever distinguished their cries, 
 although we were frequently disturbed by the plaintive screechings 
 of the sloth, and the howling of hyenas, jackalls, &c. Amidst the 
 boughs of a kind of cedar, I noticed several grey squirrels, who 
 regarded my approach with great indifference. Here also, some of the 
 party picked up a good number of quills that seemed to have belonged 
 to a porcupine of the largest size. 
 
 At no great distance from Akrofroom we again fell in with the 
 Prakoom rivulet, as at this time it swept to the west of south. On the 
 opposite bank the path was open, leading over a thick bed of loose 
 sand that covered the surrounding surface. Many lofty trees, and 
 some of the smaller sorts of shrubs, were sapless and barren, with 
 naked limbs and blighted foliage. 
 
 In the midst of a thicket, at the distance of four miles from Ansah, 
 an elephant's tooth of moderate size was discovered ; but the enamel 
 being cracked into g"ashes, it was deemed of little or no value. It is 
 affirmed by the Ashantees that elephants never herd in these forests, 
 although very frequently stragglers are shot on this parallel as also 
 on the confines, two journies north of Coomassy. Yet these wanderers 
 are young, and as my informer described it, " foolish." The old 
 elephants herd in Banna, Coransah, and some in Bouromy ; they are 
 numerous only in Sarem. 
 
 We shortly arrived at a little stream shaping a course to the S.SW. ; 
 another of the same size, and nmning in the same direction, intersected 
 the path a quarter of a mile beyond this ; but they were both unimpor- 
 tant and nameless. At the end of ten miles (by the path) Ave 
 discovered a gap that admitted the cheerful light of day, the surface of 
 
 H
 
 50 MOISY. 
 
 which was, as usual, covered with jungle and rank weeds. We 
 were now in the vicinity of Moisy, a small croom on the frontier of 
 Assin, and which we entered about noon, but made no stay there. 
 
 This village, like other places of greater importance, can claim but 
 one avenue deserving the name of a street, although it has several 
 leading to the huts in the back ground. It is inhabited principally 
 by mechanics, as weavers, potters, smiths, &c. and may be called a 
 place of wretchedness ; yet it is notorious for excellent palm wine, and 
 a superior growth of cotton. The habitations, even in the main street, 
 are mean, notwithstanding the grey clay wash and plaster are 
 more commonly in use here than elsewhere. The main avenue 
 terminated in a pretty shrubbery, whose limits stretched away 
 to the neio-hbouring plantations. Through this we journied some 
 hundred paces until the little rivulet Bohmen, which sparkled 
 in the front, gave notice of our approach to the hilly barrier that 
 separates Ashantee, properly so called, from the province of Assin. 
 The stragglers being numerous at this time, I thought fit to alight 
 on the margin of the stream. My guides, (the Ashantee captains 
 Ado and Quako,) were the first who approached, and Avith anger in 
 their countenances, reprobated the conduct of the Caboceer, at Moisy, 
 in not having prepared the honours due to a public reception. " He 
 will lose his head for this neglect," added they, uniting their voices, 
 " for we must tell the king the truth." I vindicated the unfortunate 
 chief, by alledging my disinclination to alight. It mattered not, was 
 the reply, the Caboceer alone was to blame, because the most positive 
 orders had been given by Coinin Akim, that he should assemble the 
 townsmen to greet me in passing. 
 
 We stood in need of rest, and as the hills lay exactly on the 
 opposite bank of the stream, I delayed prosecuting the journey to give 
 time for the people to recruit their strength. Our weariness was, 
 indeed, universal, and we reposed in sullen lassitude on the margin of 
 the romantic Bohmen ; the river, according to Mr. Bowdich's informa-
 
 WATER OF ELOQUENCE, 51 
 
 tion, so gifted by Providence, as to deserve the name of the " IVafer of 
 Eloquence." The fairy virtue of this stream recurring to my memory, 
 I demanded a calabash of water. In short, its efficacy was put to the 
 trial, by many who required to slake their thii-st, and be it recorded, 
 failed in working its usual miracle. These symptoms of lassitude and 
 silence were, however, quickly interrupted, by the arrival of a large 
 pot of palm wine, and a message of exculpation from the Caboceer, 
 who extenuated his neglect by alledging that he had expected me to 
 have slept in town, rather thaia crossed the mountains that afternoon. 
 The wine was of a growth recommended by the Ashantees as particu- 
 larly nourishing and grateful to the palate, and was, they said, the best 
 in the kingdom. But it did not need many encomiums, so acceptable 
 was this description of beverage. Indeed, the far-famed excellence of 
 the " Water of Eloquence" itself, would bear no competition with the 
 wine. Its invigorating powers won it the palm of supremacy, 
 without a single dissenting voice, for the faculty of speech which before 
 was chained up within us, resumed its function with an effort powerful 
 enough to banish the memory of past fatigue. 
 
 Upon making enquiries of the Ashantees, respecting the alledo-ed 
 virtue of the water, I had some difficulty in persuading tiiem that it 
 was a serious question. When assured of that fact, they declared they 
 knew the water to be sweet, and, perhaps, it was good for sick people ; 
 but they did not know that it was capable of prompting speech, nor did 
 they ever hear that it was visited on that account by parties of their 
 countrymen. 
 
 The Bohmen is a very inconsiderable upland stream, gliding in its 
 descent, between the vallies of Moisy, and slanting in its course to the 
 southward of west, until it connects its waters with those of the Prakoom. 
 It is almost embowered in shrubbery, overtopped by high trees, whose 
 branches locking together in each others embraces, give it, in imagina- 
 tion, the semblance of a fairy grot ; for its bed is studded with brilliant 
 little rocks, and shelving slabs of granite, iron stone, and mica, mixed 
 
 H 2
 
 52 SABLE NAIADS. 
 
 with clear white sand, and yellow gravel, glittering, as it may be said, 
 poetically, with a golden refulgence, where the meridian sun-beam 
 here and there penetrated the vegetable arch. 
 
 Romantic as this may be pronounced, it was something heightened 
 in effect as we crossed the rivulet, by the appearance of a party of 
 women and young girls, skipping over the rocks, and laving their 
 limbs inthe current ; but, for whose jetty complexions, the fancy might 
 in reality have conceited them a group of Naiads. Nor were the nymphs 
 of the African wilderness wanting to themselves in the decorum of the 
 sex, for they modestly screened their persons amidst the foliage. 
 
 Immediately after this, we commenced ascending a lofty hill, at 
 tirst by a gradual slope ; but on a sudden it became abrupt, rugged, and 
 washed into gullies. Huge pieces of rock, in overhanging precipices, 
 opposed our steps, and as we were early compelled to clamber with hands 
 and feet, our progress was attended with difficulty, and great physical 
 exertion. The path, near the summit of the hill, was bare of its leafy 
 canopy, and here the rays of the sun darted fiercely down upon a sur- 
 face already scorched beyond a moderate glowing heat. This, added to 
 the increased action of the vital organs, rendered our distress complete, 
 and it was with incredible difficulty we journied up the acclivity, nearly 
 a mile to the summit. * A contracted gap, or aperture on the left hand, 
 afforded an indistinct prospect to tlie westward, of the top of another 
 hill connected with this chain. It was, in truth, the greatest scope our 
 eyes had been permitted to range over throughout the whole journey ; 
 and although the horizontal distance would barely have exceeded a mile 
 and a half, its novelty was equally delightful and transitory. 
 
 Mr. Bowdich says, he observed several eminent points from this 
 station, in the hope of being able to check his computed distance by 
 paces. No such land marks were visible to me, or any eminence, ex- 
 
 * Our sufferings on this march were necessarily greater than what the former party endured, 
 because we crossed this barrier at the time of the greatest daily heat, and after a moderate journey, 
 whereas the others traversed it in the cool of the morning.
 
 CHUSAH. 53 
 
 cepting the peak of the hill already described, the utility of which, for 
 mathematical calculations, it was surely absurd to suggest ; for the 
 visionary glance was so imperfect, and the uniformity of its clothing so 
 characteristic of the land throughout, that had it been perceptible a 
 second time, (which it was not) I am convinced it would not have been 
 recognized with any certainty. 
 
 For some hundreds of yards beyond the summit, it was a sort of 
 table hill, gently incurvated with slopes and ridges. The sound of a 
 waterfall on our left hand indicated, however, that the path lay over a 
 precipitous ridge, terminating below in a deep valley. Yet the forest 
 was so opaque, that nothing was visible (except the stems of trees) 
 beyond the circumference of a few yards. 
 
 This chain of hills, according to native authority, commences on 
 the north-west side of Bequa, from thence inclining easterly to Datiasso 
 and Doompassy, where it forks off in two branches, the one leading NE. 
 to the Echouy Lake, the other inclining south of east, through Assin and 
 Akim, to Aquamboe, and the neighbourhood of Accra, where it unites 
 to the chain that may be seen at the distance of twenty miles from the 
 British fort at that place. The height of Moisy Hill may be about 
 sixteen hundred feet perpendicular elevation. The north side of the 
 hill is less steep and rugged, so that the descent is not attended with 
 much inconvenience. A small ravine gave a passage to a little stream, 
 flowing westerly with a rippling noise ; but it was said to bear no name. 
 The land beyond the hills is evidently much higher than that of Assin. 
 
 The sight of a patch of jungle indicated our approach to the first 
 Ashantee village : this was a miserable place containing about thirty 
 hovels, called Chusah, whose inhabitants lived by the trade in palm 
 wine and nuts. The track over the hills is capricious, but the course, 
 after having passed Chusah, inclines again north. We traversed the 
 brink of a cliasm or pit of great depth, said to have been excavated for 
 gold ; but latterly neglected, notwithstanding the mine was believed to 
 be rich.
 
 54 DOOMPASSY. 
 
 Three quarters of a mile beyond Chusah is Fomanah, another 
 little village, containing about a hundred and fifty inhabitants. Mr. 
 Bowdich's assertion, that Fomanah was once a very considerable town, 
 is contradicted by the natives, who, while they admit that it was 
 foi-merly more populous than at present, declare it always to have been 
 a foresters' village, and a place of insignificance upon the frontiers. 
 The Caboceer, who was seated in the main opening, very courteously 
 tendered an offering of palm wine and eggs. 
 
 Beyond Fomanah for about half a mile, the path was good, 
 exhibiting a clean swept surface, with burning stubble on each hand. 
 Doompassy was now distant only an hour's march, and as we approached 
 in sio-ht of the town, the greetings of the spectators, who were 
 numerous, indicated the vitmost cordiality. The Caboceer, a middle 
 ao-ed man, named Soabin, received me very courteously in the market 
 place, and in due formality conducted me to the house designed for my 
 reception. It was a sort of double house, neatly constructed, and 
 ornamented with the rude sculpture of the country. The family (one 
 of the first rank in the place) were all employed in removing their 
 utensils. The landlord politely told me it gave him pleasure to shelter 
 white men, as it would bring upon him a blessing from the gods. The 
 distance from Akofroom to Doompassy is eleven miles and a half 
 horizontal distance ; by the path it is nearly fifteen. The average course 
 was north, inclining half a point to the west. Mr. Collins here suffered 
 a relapse of fever. 
 
 Our journies, it may be seen, were comparatively rapid, and really 
 so in such a country, for we generally travelled as long as the day -light 
 lasted, excepting the two or three last stages. Our halt, however, at 
 Doompassy was imperative, for many more were afflicted with lameness 
 and inflammatory disorders, of which the Guinea-worm and boils were 
 the most prevalent. 
 
 The tall and stunted palms form the most interesting, and the 
 doom, mahogany, and silk cotton trees, the most majestic objects in the
 
 CAMELEOPARD. 55 
 
 neighbourhood of the plantations hereabouts. These, blended with 
 fibrous and thorny plants capriciously threading the branches in 
 festoons, or entwining in snaky wreaths round the trunks of trees, give 
 that singularly wild aspect to vegetation in the torrid zone which, 
 perhaps, is only to be witnessed within the limits of the first and second 
 parallels of climate in continental Africa. The Anana still skirted the 
 path, and a few cocoas both male and female, increased the variety. 
 Among the plantations I discovered a grovelling sort of palmeta or 
 small ground palm, called by the Arabs asha, whose fibres they 
 interweave with goats' hair in the manufacture of their tents. Among 
 the trees and shrubs of small growth were cotton in abundance, some 
 indigo, coftee, arrow-root, and the gooro or war nut, a species of betel, 
 which the natives masticate as they do in India. 
 
 Hyenas, civet cats, baboons, monkeys, porcupines, ant-eaters, wild 
 hogs, sloths, and squirrels, are said to abound greatly, besides deer, in 
 this part of the forest. An animal Avhich, from description, answers to 
 the cameleopard, it is affirmed, sometimes visits these regions, and 
 there are many to be found both in Sarem and Ghunja ; but they are 
 sacred quadrupeds, and although they herd with the elephants, they are 
 never destroyed by the hunters. 
 
 At this elevation from the sea coast, much is left behind of the 
 gloom and solitude of one of the greatest wildernesses south of the 
 Niger; but this impression originated perhaps in the knowledge, that 
 although it was still a waste, it now contained the cheerful habitations 
 of men. 
 
 A serpent, agreeing with the constrictor of the class I met with on 
 the road to Doonqua, but larger, was said to be occasionally seen here ; 
 it was dreaded by the traveller more than either the lion or panther, 
 and would attack men as well as the most powerful animals in the 
 creation, the elephant only excepted. 
 
 Red ants were very rarely seen here or on the road ; but others
 
 55 HOUSEHOLD GOD. 
 
 were as numerous and troublesome as ever, a fact of which they gave 
 us many painful proofs. 
 
 My guides suggested to me the propriety of halting a few days at 
 these quarters, adding that they durst not approach nigher the capital, 
 for fear of giving offence to the king, by permitting me to travel like a 
 common messenger, and by approaching the court before the necessary 
 arrangements were completed for my reception. I was prepared to stop 
 a day, to allow time for the return of an express messenger I had sent to 
 the king from Kikiwhary. 
 
 I was roused from sleep at a very early hour on the following 
 morning, (the 20th,) by the entrance of a man, whom I discovered to be 
 tlie proprietor of the house, with an offering for his tutelary god, and 
 which he was about fixing to the sacred tree, at the door of my apart- 
 ment. The tribute, which consisted of the legs and head of a white 
 speckled fowl and a small calabash containing a little corn and plantain, 
 steeped in a fluid looking like blood, was placed on the ground at the 
 root of the tree ; but afterward, the members were severed, and 
 suspended by a piece of cotton-yarn upon one of the lower branches. 
 Another calabash containing a blackish fluid, served to water the roots, 
 by being poured upon the ground, as a libation, during the recital of 
 certain mystical words in prayer. The ceremony concluded by washing 
 the stem of the tree Avith a colouring, made from the white or grey clay. 
 On the route, particularly in the vicinity of towns, these offerings 
 were very common, and in some spots, on which superstition had stamped 
 a particular veneration, a numerous collection of pots and pans, although 
 commonly broken ones, were deposited with their tributes to the gods 
 of the forests and highways. Like the Greeks and heathen tribes of 
 Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, the Ashantees, (who may rival or even excel 
 the ancients in the practice of their orgies and rituals) provide their 
 iiima,, or highway suppers. Among the tribes of negroes hereabouts, 
 they are, however, family offerings, and not public or national.
 
 DETENTION AT DOOMPASSY. 5? 
 
 Doompassy, it is said, contains a population of fifteen thousand 
 inhabitants. It has but one avenue deservins: the name of a street, for 
 those which intersect it, right and left, are only a confused number 
 of openings of width barely sufficient to allow free ingress. Near the 
 market-place are many decent-looking houses, of which the Caboceer's 
 is by far the best. The plantations, which are flourishing and extensive, 
 it would seem, are adequate to the supply of a population infinitely 
 greater. Several large corn plats were enclosed, with tolerable fences of 
 bamboo, to preserve the grain from the incursions of wild animals, and 
 of pigs, which are here permitted to rove at liberty about the suburbs. 
 
 In the forenoon, I sent out a hunter, who, in less tlian two hours, 
 returned successful from the chase, bringing with him a deer, of the 
 antelope kind, a civet cat. and several birds. 
 
 The detention at Doompassy was particularly salutary to Mr. 
 Collins. Mr. Salmon complained of the return of former symptoms, 
 augmented, perhaps, by the passage over the hills. For my own part, 
 I rapidly gained strength every journey, so that even at Doompassy, 
 after a night's repose, I found myself in a state of health equal, perhaps, 
 to the best I ever enjoyed in tropical Africa. 
 
 As the expected messenger had not yet returned, I gave instructions 
 to renew the march on the 21st, to the great disappointment of my 
 escort ; but, as I hoped to meet the messenger on the road, I deemed it 
 advisable to halt at a station more convenient to the capital. 
 
 At Doompassy, the thermometer, at eight A, m. stood at 81, at 
 twelve, 86, and at seven p. M. 82, in the shade. In the evening, distant 
 peals of thunder and a rustling breeze from the east denoted a tornado 
 at no great distance, but no rain fell in the town. 
 
 The sick and lame were now twenty-three in number, of whom 
 five were cases of so much severity, that I left them in charge of the 
 Caboceer, with a supply of gold for their support, or to defray the 
 expences of their burial. Many others, indeed, required rest, but they
 
 58 MESSAGE FROM THE KING. 
 
 were obstinately bent on going forward, rather than remaining unpro- 
 tected in what they might conceive an enemy's country. 
 
 The inhabitants, as the bugle gave notice of our departure (on the 
 21st) flocked together in crowds, and with good-natured smiles bestowed 
 their parting farewell. 
 
 A mile and a half beyond the town is a little current of water called 
 Bahrein, running west, and a quarter of a mile beyond it is Carbouso, a 
 croom equal in wretchedness to whatever the imagination may conceive 
 of it. This we passed through, and beyond it the path was tolerably 
 inviting, leading on to the village of Sanquanta, another little dirty 
 croom, inhabited by forty or fifty families, who depend for their support 
 upon the range of the forest. 
 
 Adjoining to Sanquanta, is a little brook, whose course S.SW. unites 
 it to other little streaius, that meander in the vallies of the hilly barrier 
 and fall into the Prakoom. The name of this stream is Injounia. At 
 the distance of a furlong, east from Sanquanta, is a large populous croom 
 called Meduma. The discharge of musquets was distinctly heard in 
 that direction. A little cross path to the westward led to a small village 
 called Baramken. At an early hour, we entered Datchasoo, a town of 
 some little importance, and took iip quarters for the night in one of the 
 best houses the place contained. This was a small enclosure, with four 
 thatched rooms in a dirty and ruinous condition ; but after a diligent 
 search, it appeared that this habitation was superior to any other in the 
 town. 
 
 Just at this crisis, two royal messengers arrived from Court, bearing 
 congratulations on the part of the king, and a present of two and a half 
 ounces of gold dust, enveloped in silk, a fat sheep, and an enormous 
 sow. My own messenger returned with the royal messengers, who thus 
 explained themselves : — " Sai (the king) hears you are come to see him, 
 and it gives him pleasure ; he therefore sends his compliments to let 
 you know he will see your face on Monday (28th February) for that is 
 a good (auspicious) day."
 
 DATCHASOO. 59 
 
 One of these messengers was a reverend looking negro, and a 
 man high in rank ; the other was a sword bearer, also high in office, 
 and a vassal of Prince Adoom (the ambassador on the coast.) Having 
 dismissed these people with suitable presents, they returned to say, that 
 the king had ordered them to bear me company, and see that due 
 respect was every where paid to the white men. 
 
 The sow, which, as I before said, was of an enormous size, was 
 lashed by the legs to a bamboo pole, and had been transported, with 
 great labour, on the shoulders of men. 
 
 From Doompassy to Datchasoo, it is short of six miles horizontal 
 distance, or eight by the path. The average course by compass was 
 N. NW. It is a straggling town containing about four or five hundred 
 houses and hovels, most of which are in a very ruinous condition. The 
 population is given at two thousand souls, who subsist by spinning, , 
 dying, and weaving of cotton, manufacturing pots, working in the 1 ' 
 forest, &c. The flourishing state of the plantations here, bespeaks a 
 rank which must have belonged to former years. There were corn, 
 yam, and cassada enclosures, some of them tolerably extensive ; and, 
 in short, the people did not appear to want the necessaries of life,i 
 although their domestic comforts seemed so very limited in other 
 respects. 
 
 We had been visited during the night by troops of rats, whose 
 gambols over the thatch threatened to renew the adventure at 
 Akomfody. 
 
 On the 22d we left Datchasoo, launching into forest as before, 
 but an order from Court having been issued to remove obstructions and 
 sweep the paths, the inhabitants of Datchasoo were already occupied in 
 that work, and a number of fires were kindled on the sides of the 
 pathway. We travelled therefore at a brisk pace, occasionally passing 
 over prostrate logs of the most gig-antic classes of timber, where the fire 
 had severed them into open breach, and others that were still in flames. 
 
 i2
 
 60 ADADWASY. — AMOAFO. 
 
 The slave population of each town and of both sexes, was employed in 
 this work. 
 
 At half a mile distance from Datchasoo is a little croom called 
 Ankoasy, containing about seventy hovels, a mile beyond which we 
 entered a better looking place called Adadwasy. At half a furlong 
 distance to the east is a town of considerable magnitude called 
 Madjoury, whose population is rated at ten thousand. 
 
 The population of Adadwasy is said to exceed three thousand. 
 The town is constructed with tolerable regularity, and a growth of very 
 fine trees, of the class mimosa, flourished in the market place, aftbrding 
 an agreeable shade for refreshment. The plantations were extensive 
 and in the highest perfection. Having passed a leisure hour on the spot, 
 we renewed the march, followed by a body of spectators to the opposite 
 confines of the forest. The land in the neighbourhood is rather more 
 hilly, but the risings are in long slopes easy of ascent. Aquamasy was 
 the next croom we entered, distant from Adadwasy about three quarters 
 of a mile. This is likewise a decent village of foresters, potters, and 
 weavers. Its plantation is not inferior to that at Adadwasy, although the 
 population is scarcely half as numerous. 
 
 Passing a ravine, at the bottom of which flowed a little rivulet to 
 the S.SW. of very inconsiderable dimensions, called Jonkaran, we came 
 to a place where a few wretched habitations were buried in a mass of 
 jungle. This village, if it may be dignified by that name, was called 
 Safoo, and a little beyond it was another brook called Yanasee, running 
 NW. At a mile and a half from this is a small croom named Coraman, 
 here also is a larger rivulet called Dansaboo, with steep banks on both 
 sides terminating in abrupt ridges. The water flowed in a gentle 
 current to the west. In three quarters of an hour more we entered 
 Amoafo, where I resolved to pass the night, and as it had been 
 announced to me as a place of importance, I thought tit to renew the 
 ceremonies usual on such occasions. We accordingly passed down the
 
 VISIT FROM THE KING's SON. 6l 
 
 main opening, and were conducted, after some formalities, to a very 
 tolerable house, which had been evacuated for our accommodation by 
 the family of a captain named Agado. 
 
 This journey was eight miles horizontal distance, the course N. 
 
 The curvature, or diagonal inclination of the path, if the reports 
 of the Fantees may be credited, does not arise from natural causes, 
 but is a political luse of the sovereign to bewilder the faculties of the 
 stranger, and create an exaggerated belief of the extent of the 
 Ashantee dominions. This opinion is, however, ridiculed by the 
 Ashantees, and I apprehend with justice, for the same rule could not 
 possibly apply to the forests of Assin and Fantee, particularly in 
 that dreary track between Mansue and the Praa ; where the path, 
 such as it is, appears to have been entirely neglected since the 
 subjugation of the southern tribes. 
 
 Araoafo is a croom of the first class: it is a sort of military 
 depot, and has a governor of rank. Some of the houses are tolerably 
 well constructed ; but still the clay and bamboo hovels predominate, 
 perhaps, here, in the proportion of twelve to one, in the leading street. 
 The population is said to be upwards of seven thousand, many, 
 however, were Gaman prisoners of war, the property of officers and 
 soldiers in the army. 
 
 On the twenty-third, my second messenger returned from the 
 capital, for ceremonious courtesy being the sine qua non of African 
 diplomacy, I endeavoured to neglect none of those outward forms 
 which are so well understood in private life. I was assured by the 
 Caboceer that the streets in Coomassy were by a royal edict ordered 
 to be cleansed in anticipation of my approach. 
 
 While the presents were housing, I received a visit from the king's 
 son, a child about six years of age, who was brought to me by his 
 nurse, and several guardians, besides a courtly little troop of slaves 
 and playmates. The custom of Africa was not omitted even on this 
 occasion, for the visit was attended wdth a present of fowls, vegetables
 
 62 VISIT FROM THE KING'S DAUGHTER. 
 
 and wine. A suitable return in sugar highly gratified the infant 
 prince, who, however, generously distributed a portion of the sweets 
 among his juvenile companions. I was next honoured with a visit 
 by a female member of the royal family, a daughter of the king, whose 
 age was probably about ten years. The retinue of this young lady 
 Avas as numerous as the former. A sugar offering to the princess, with 
 the addition of a little rum to the attendants, introduced us to a 
 familiar acquaintance at sight. The matrons endeavoured to win my 
 notice to their ward, by intimating that she was very fond of white 
 men's caresses ; but her timidity gave a flat contradiction to the 
 assertion. I endeavoured to soothe therefore, in language somewhat 
 adapted to a female ear, but the compliments I paid were unac- 
 countably appropriated by my auditresses to their own youth and 
 beauty, or to other inclinations ; for they assured me by way of reply, 
 that although the princess was young, yet in a very few moons she 
 would be ready to take to wife ; and if I admired her, they had no 
 doubt the king would give her to me. At the same time the old 
 women, taking several of their youthful companions by the shoulders, 
 introduced them in a circle, desiring me to select a favorite without 
 scruple, and keep her as long as I thought fit. 
 
 On the 26th, I again resumed the jovirney, and at the distance of 
 half a mile, crossed the Bequa path. This is a very large town about 
 three miles westward of the spot. The first little croom on the northern 
 track is Grabin, adjoining to which is a small stream running west, to 
 the Souberry. The laud hereabouts was swampy, and covered with 
 thicket and jungle. Beyond the swamps, is another superior little 
 croom, named Benichas, which has a population of eight or nine 
 hundred inhabitants. The village led on to the Souberry, a rivulet 
 superior to the generality of little currents. Its course is to the south- 
 ward of west, in a channel of the dimensions of twenty or thirty feet, 
 and it is said to unite with the Foom. 
 A Assiminia was now distant about a mile only, and this being a
 
 SARASOO. 63 
 
 town of some distinction, the usual formalities occurred in the market- 
 place. The houses here, particularly those in the main avenue, are 
 built with regularity, and may possibly rival the best in Kikiwhary, 
 Ansah, or Doompassy. This appearance of comfort was also heightened 
 by a number of beautiful trees in the market-place. 
 
 Assiminia is stated to contain from seven to eiffht thousand 
 inhabitants. Its plantations encroach very extensively on the forest, 
 and several large fields were, at this time, well fenced round in a state 
 fit for the reception of corn and yams. 
 
 I delayed the march only to exchange compliments with the 
 Caboceer, and supply our party with wine. The next croom we came 
 to was Boposso, a mean dirty little place, seated on the top of a rising- 
 ground. The population could scarcely exceed a thousand souls, if so 
 many. 
 
 A small stream intersected the path near Boposso, tracking a 
 course westward, and a little beyond it we entered Agemum, a village 
 of little more importance than the former. Yoko is the name of a 
 third croom of this class, within the space of four miles ; and short of 
 a mile beyond Yoko, is a pretty considerable croom, named Abointem, 
 containing it is said, three thousand inhabitants. Still, however, its 
 construction was mean, nor did any of the houses here bespeak a 
 rank superior to the ordinaiy class of crooms. A few hundred paces 
 north of Abointem, a little rivulet called Bequa, which gives its name 
 to the large town before-mentioned, flows to the S.SW. and falls into 
 the Souberry. Two miles beyond the Bequa is Potaiga, a croom rather 
 superior in construction to the others, and containing twelve hundred 
 people. A mile and a half beyond this is Fuiasso, a croom rather 
 smaller than Potaig-a. Sarasoo was now distant but an easy walk, and 
 we accordingly entered that village at an early hour. The horizontal 
 distance from Amoafo to Sarasoo, is ten miles and a half, and the average 
 course north half east.
 
 64 GUM TREES. 
 
 The surface is of indurated high coloured clay, with now and 
 then a scattering- of iron ore, and white sand. In the vicinity of Yoko, 
 were several very massive blocks of red and white granite. The high 
 palm became more conspicuous as we approached the metropolis, and 
 where a village, or open space, admitted a prospect of its upper limbs, 
 added that beauty to the landscape which gives so much grandeur to 
 the scenery of tropical Africa. The wild fig trees were still numerous, 
 and some cassia, entwined with various aromatic shrubs, and the 
 trees producing the kind of pepper called mallaguetta, or grains of 
 paradise, were occasionally seen in the openings. 
 
 On the margin of the Souberin, and also near Potaiga, I noticed 
 some large trees that yielded abundance of resinous gum in excretions 
 of several pounds weight. In quality it was inflammable, like camphor, 
 extremely light iti weight, brittle, and emitting a strong odoriferous 
 scent, not very unlike gum benjamin. I recognized also, that particular 
 species of juniper, which produces the sandarach gum, and abundance 
 of fine white soluble gum upon a kind of shrub, very nearly similar to 
 the gum arable tree. The genuine trees of these several classes named 
 grassa, and tolh, by the Arabs, the former, a particular juniper, and the 
 latter, what we term the gum arable tree, were well known to me during 
 frequent excursive tours in those districts of northern Africa, where 
 they are indigenous. The soluble gum, which, for the sake of distinc- 
 tion, I shall term Arabic, is of the finest quality I ever saw, and is 
 produced in crystalline globules, from the size of a pea to that of a small 
 walnut. 
 
 This part of the forest abounds greatly in civet or musk cats, 
 besides antelopes, ant-eaters, porcupines, wild hogs, sloths, squirrels, 
 apes and monkeys. Some of the latter are exceedingly diminutive, 
 and beautifully variegated with black and white stripes. Of the ape 
 genus, the natives describe a species which inhabits the more eastern 
 district, and walks erect, in which posture it will even attack armed
 
 PROCESS OF CLEARING LAND. 65 
 
 men. It is said also to ensnare women and young girls, whom it 
 carries off to its recesses, and is so nimble as to render abortive every 
 attempt at pursuit. 
 
 Sarasoo is a large compact village with one main opening, N. and 
 S. dividing the houses into two masses. The plantations are 
 extensive, and in an adjoining space were some small corn, yam, and 
 cassada fields. 
 
 The difficulty of clearing spots, for the reception of grain, may 
 well be imagined, where vegetation, both above and below the surface, 
 is knit in such indissoluble bonds. In the Fantee country, where the 
 produce of the earth is naturally dwarfish, and, generally speaking, 
 does not exceed the elevation of common thickets, the process of clearing 
 land is infinitely more arduous than in the northern parts of the 
 j^shantee empire. The method which I have frequently seen employed 
 in Fantee is as follows : — When a suitable spot has been selected, the 
 slaves are directed to cut down the thicket, ^hich is effected with the 
 assistance of a small bill-hook, and without any immoderate labour. In 
 the course of the operation, the few trees of a large growth are suffered 
 to stand, after the amputation of their upper limbs. Besides those 
 which are from necessity exempted, are also others which are suffered 
 to I'emain from a religious veneration, and these are of various classes. 
 The loppings of the boughs and thicket are then scattered over the 
 surface in the most exposed situations, in order to dry up their sap and 
 moisture. The reflected heat generally accomplishes this in two or 
 three days, and the dried bush is then piled up in heaps, at regular 
 distances, where it is fired and soon reduced to a burning pile, the 
 ashes from which are scattered over the field as manure. At this stage 
 of the process the preparatory labour is completed, for the plough is 
 wholly unknown, nor would it be of any avail in such a matted soil. 
 The spot thus prepared for the reception of grain, after the fall of the first 
 rains, is planted with the assistance only of a small hoe, at orderly dis- 
 tances ; but the land is never turned over, nor indeed do the natives 
 
 K
 
 66 PROCESS OF CLEARING LAND. 
 
 give themselves the trouble to grub up any of the roots, or the tendrils 
 branching from them, or even to lop away the woody stubble that may 
 obtrude aboA^e the surface. 
 
 In the more central parts of the kingdom, the features of the land 
 render the process of clearing it infinitely more complicated and 
 laborious, notwithstanding: the method resorted to is the same. Here 
 trees of more than ordinary dimensions must necessarily be rooted out, 
 or felled v^dth the thicket. The exempted trees are those which possess 
 useful qualifications, such as the high and low palm, bamboo, tamarind, 
 papa, cocoa, and some other kinds that yield valuable nuts. The 
 sacred kinds of vegetation of every growth, are religiously respected, and 
 suffered to exist ; nor are they even mutilated like the trunks of those 
 giant-like classes whose tops soar to the elevation of one hundred and 
 thirty, and more feet, and whose ramifications are necessarily subjected 
 to the operation, in order to admit a free circulation of air. The cum- 
 bersome growth of fibrous stems and vines, mixed with other plants of 
 a watery nature, requires much labour in hacking to pieces and in 
 removing. The time they take in drying augments the expence of the 
 operation; but this accomplished, the process is simply as in Fantee. 
 
 In Mauritania and other parts of Barbary, as well in the Berreber 
 lands as in those of the Arabs, I have seen tracts of many miles 
 extent cleared externally from a covering of thicket in the course of a 
 single day, simply by firing a quantity of stubble to windward in the 
 dry season, when there is sufficient air to give action to the fire. The 
 rapidity with which the crackling flames spread, is sometimes, although 
 rarely, disastrous to those who may have wandered too far in attempting 
 to cross to leeward of the body of fire. The thickets in these countries, 
 however, abound in vegetation of an inflammable character, being 
 chiefly composed of resinous trees, and dry combustible wood, whose 
 kindling properties are increased by six or seven months' parching 
 drought during the absence even of a single shower. 
 
 So far nature contributes to the labour of the Arab, and aids in the
 
 CULTIVATION. 67 
 
 transformation of a wilderness into a fair open field, or space richly 
 manured with the still ignited embers. But what remains to be done 
 before the ground is capable of cultivation must yet depend upon 
 extreme bodily exertion. " The sweat of his brow," as it is sacredly 
 written, must flow copiously ere that land can be rendered arable and 
 fit for tillage. His labour indeed only commences at the stage where 
 the toil of the negro has ceased, for every root and fibre must necessarily 
 be dug from the bowels of the earth, before the plough can be made 
 use of. Thus it would seem that Providence has duly portioned out the 
 labours of the field ; and the distribution of toil, whether it be caused 
 by obstruction or sterility, will probably be found equal in all 
 countries where w'aste land may be taken into cultivation. 
 
 Ceremonies were not wholly neglected during my stay at Sarasoo, 
 but the nigher I approached to the metropolis the more deserted were 
 the crooms by their Caboceers and the agents of government, who, by 
 a mandate of the Sovereign, had been called in within the circumference 
 of twenty or thirty miles, to add splendour to the Court, on the day 
 appointed for my public entry. The deputies who governed in the 
 absence of these chiefs being men of inferior rank, it was only necessary 
 to exchange compliments with them by proxy, except when they met 
 me in the market-place, or visited me in my quarters, which was usually 
 the case. 
 
 The 27th was spent in tedious preparations, and in visiting the 
 neighbourhood of the place. One of these excursions I directed to 
 the Dah, a river that runs W. SW. at two or three hundred paces north 
 of the town, from whence it tracks a course to the Souberin, with which 
 it unites, and not with the Foom as Mr. Bowdich was informed. The 
 width of the river was about fourteen yards, and the depth two or 
 three feet at the crossing place. The Dah rises in Akeyah. 
 
 Sarasoo is said to contain eight thousand inhabitants, who for the 
 most part are soldiers, slaves, and vassals, to Anion Koitea. Artificers, 
 
 K 2
 
 68 MESSAGE FROM COURT. 
 
 however, are very numerous here, and the manufactures of cotton-cloths 
 are of the superior order. 
 
 Our detention at Sarasoo afforded leisure to the invalids to rejoin 
 the mission by slow stages ; but, notwithstanding the general anxiety 
 to do so, twelve were still absent, when the muster was made on the 
 night of the 27th. 
 
 Early on the 28th, we crossed the Dah to a fine open path, that 
 inclined over a bed of coarse and very white sand, extending from the 
 river many hundred paces, and penetrating the forest as far as the eye 
 could compass, right and left. Parties of travellers were no longer a 
 novelty ; we met many in the course of this morning journeying to and 
 fro between the capital and the maritime towns, Cape Coast excepted. 
 We passed a small croom two miles beyond the Dah, named Ayokoh, 
 inhabited only by foresters. Numerous parties of natives, women, as 
 well as men and boys, were briskly engaged, near the path, in lopping 
 the boughs and enclosing some large tracks for the reception of maize 
 and yams. Agogo is another croom of this class, and at a very 
 inconsiderable distance from Ayokoh. 
 
 We were now, it may be said, in the immediate neighbourhood of 
 Coomassy. A Court messenger met me on this path, with a compli- 
 mentary enquiry after my health ; and this man, being furnished with 
 instructions from the king, conducted me to a little village, about a mile 
 and a quarter SE. of the capital ; the name of it was Ciry, a paltry little 
 place, containing about seventy inhabitants ; here the party alighted, 
 and having exchanged road dresses for others suitable to the occasion, 
 we prepared to move forward ; but my palanquin, for which 1 once 
 more exchanged the hammock, was so thoroughly dislocated, that it 
 became necessary to secure the parts with lashings extracted from the 
 forest : this accomplished, and the canopy being decorated with some 
 gaudy yellow and red silk, produced a courtly African effect. Indeed, 
 every man habited himself in his holiday apparel, and thus equipped, the
 
 FIRST SIGHT OF COOMASSY. 69 
 
 march was renewed in as close order as the path would admit of, sere- 
 naded by a vociferous chorus of the Fantees. Upon turning an angle, 
 whereby two paths were connected, I was not a little surprised at coming 
 directly in contact with a party of soldiers habited and armed in 
 British costume, and headed by a white African (or, as it may be better 
 understood, a white negro) dressed en bourgeois, with the exception 
 only of a ponderous hat en militaire. These apish warriors, who 
 formed a part of the king's body guard, fell into open ranks, 
 and made some awkward movements with their musquets, accom- 
 panying each caricature evolution with a low submissive obeisance. 
 They told me, that Sai had conferred the honour of sending their troop 
 to escort me to his presence ; a compliment which, perhaps, could not 
 have been selected more judiciously. My own soldiers, however, were 
 jealously inclined to preserve their station about my person ; but this I 
 opposed, from political courtesy, and therefore placed myself under the 
 protection of the king's guard, stationing the Fantees in the van as an 
 equivalent. In a quarter of an hour, we approached the swamp that 
 environs the city on the south and east sides. Even here, under the 
 veiy walls of the metropolis, the forest retained much of its charac- 
 teristic gloom, and, excepting on the line of path, its thickets and 
 entanglements ; no change indicated an approach to a neighbourhood 
 so highly populous as the metropolis of Ashantee. The swamp itself 
 would have passed for any other of the same class in the wilderness. 
 On the opposite margin of the water, a good number of the town's- 
 people were stationed, waving to us, and inclining their bodies in 
 salutation as they perceived they were observed. Several boys, who 
 were here introduced to me by the Ashantees, as sons of their monarch, 
 pushed in amidst the guard, and kept pace by the side of the palanquin. 
 A prospect of the capital (if such it may be called) at last opened 
 in front of us ; it was a partial glimpse, at the distance of twenty or 
 thirty paces, of a few mud built hovels, surrounded in part by planta- 
 tions, and some straggling walls of the same material, covering a con- 
 tracted space gained from the adjacent Avaste. As soon as we arrived
 
 70 PUBLIC RECEPTION. 
 
 at the outskirting houses, a portion of the city became visible ; but its 
 external aspect by no means promised any thing superior to the towns 
 of Assin in general ; and was, it must be told, foreign to those highly 
 coloured plates and the description given to the world in Mr, Bowdich's 
 work. 
 
 The street we entered was a broad convenient space enough, leading 
 nearly in a direct line, north, to the Palace-gate ; up this avenue we 
 advanced through a crowd of spectators, of all ages and classes, and of 
 both, sexes. The clamorous songs of my people, as the procession 
 moved on, joined to the novel sound of the bugle, appeared to animate 
 every countenance with tumultuous joy, which was momentarily 
 subdued only as a royal blunderbuss salutation burst full, as it may be 
 expressed, in my face. The assemblage was too great to maintain 
 an orderly deportment, and the soldiers were compelled to exert their 
 authority to keep the people back. This, notwithstanding the 
 commotion, was effected without difficulty, by flapping upon the 
 ground small twigs of Bamboo, and sometimes striking the people 
 lightly upon the legs. 
 
 My palanquin was on a sudden arrested in the main avenue by a 
 deputation of Caboceers, who paid a formal congratulation on behalf 
 of the king. It was Sai's desire, they added, that I should repair to 
 the market place until the court assembled. Here, therefore, I alighted 
 under the shade of some high trees, reposing for awhile from the 
 scorching blaze of the sun, now about commencing his descent from 
 the meridian. The atmosphere too, was in a manner stifled by the 
 pressure of the multitude. A pause of twenty minutes sufficed for 
 the approaching ceremony, and we again bent forward in orderly 
 ranks to an angle that opened into the place of audience, from whence 
 another salute was fired. A silence, however, like that of the forest, 
 succeeded as the echoes died away ; and as the smoke dispersed, the 
 view was suddenly animated by assembled thousands in full costume, 
 seated upon the ground in the form of an extensive semicircle^ where 
 the chiefs were distinguished from the commonalty by large floating
 
 CHIEFS. — MUSIC. — GUARDS. 71 
 
 umbrellas or canopies, fabricated from cloth of various hues. These 
 officers, only, were seated upon stools that elevated their heads just 
 above those of their attendants. An avenue not wider than the 
 footway in the forest, was the space allotted for walking in the line of 
 chiefs, leading to the station where the king was seated. The 
 etiquette was of a character corresponding with other ceremonies. 
 
 All the ostentatious trophies of negro splendour were emblazoned 
 to view. Drums of every size, from five or six inches in length to 
 the dimensions of as many feet, occasionally decorated with human 
 relics, abounded in all directions ; and in some (although few instances) 
 the sculls of vanquished foemen, and strings of human teeh were 
 glaringly exposed on the persons of the youthful captains. Ivory 
 horns similarly ornamented, reed flutes, calabash rattles, and clanking 
 bits of flat iron, composed the various bands in front of the Caboceers. 
 The salutation, as heretofore, was accompanied by an impulsive grasp 
 of the hand with each Caboceer of rank, and a waving motion after- 
 wards in compliment to his friends, retainers, and slaves. In the act 
 of approaching these peers of the Ashantee realm, the solemn stillness 
 was invaded at intervals by the full chorus of each band, beating in 
 rotation the peculiar adopted air, whereby each noble is known 
 from his compeer. A munber of select young slaves, boys of fifteen 
 or sixteen years old, stood before the war captains, and other chief 
 officers, in the aspect of a guard of honour, waving short scimiters 
 and knives, which they flourished in a threatening attitude. The 
 deportment of the Caboceers was marked with gravity ; not a smile 
 nor a courtly glance illumined the asperity of their features, and the 
 salutations were uttered in a low aflected tone of voice. The crowd, 
 however, did not consider themselves bound to imitate the dignified 
 deportment of their lords : they breathed a welcome in the silent 
 language of the features. 
 
 In turn the quarters of the Moslems opened to view, where about
 
 72 MOSLEMS. 
 
 three hundred people of that faith (induding- slaves) were seated 
 round their Bashaw. No drums or warlike instruments of any kind 
 were in the retinue of this chieftain, nor was the avenue leading to 
 his person guarded by steel. A dignity and decorum of the soberest 
 cast distinguished the followers of the prophet from the tumultuous 
 din of Ashantee custom. Policy at this time forbade my giving 
 the salutation in a language known to them ; still the reception I met 
 with was courteous but dignified. 
 
 The dress of these people corresponded better with the costume of 
 Egypt or Tripoli, than it did with that of western Barbary ; yet it was 
 a medley of several nations ; but the privileged classes were hand- 
 somely habited in robes of Turkish or Indian cut silk, called cofatten, 
 trousei's of native cotton, with turbans of the same, and a small body 
 vest richly braided with silk twist. This was perhaps the prevailing 
 mode of dress, but other fashions, not less graceful, denoted the foreign 
 traders ; and in some instances, it was a mixture of Indian and Turkish 
 habits, in which the loose flowing shirts with long and broad sleeves, 
 formed the whole attire. I recognized also the common dress of the 
 Arabs and mountaineers of Atlas : this was simply a sort of tunic 
 without sleeves, falling down to the knee, and called in Arabic kussabi. 
 The chief, however, was a solitary instance of deviation from every 
 national mode. This man, who was far advanced in years, was decorated 
 in yellow damask robes, something of a theatrical cut, although rich in 
 faded embroidery and braiding. A muslin turban, preposterously 
 studded with pieces of looking glass, charms, bits of unwrought coral, 
 and glass beads, enveloped his head, which was covered, besides, with a 
 damask scarf that fell over his shoulders in many ample folds, and united 
 with a cumbrous load of apparel of various colours. 
 
 A full share of reserve, not untinctured vni\\ fanaticism, appeared 
 at first sight to distinguish the conduct of this follower of Mohammed's 
 law. When I approached to receive his hand he hesitated, and in a
 
 MINISTERS. 73 
 
 tone of low rapid utterance, recited those beautiful lines of the Koran, 
 called al Fathiat.* The ceremony was novel, and courtly in the extreme; 
 for in Morocco and other Mohammedan states, this form of introduction 
 is only adopted on particular occasions, where the parties are both 
 brethren of the same faith. 
 
 From the Mohammedan quarters I advanced towards those of the 
 ministers, lingaiists, and other confidential officers in whom the king 
 reposes trust. Their superior rank was conspicuous in the number of 
 their attendants, in the superior construction of the enormous floating- 
 canopy, in the reiterated discordance of the bands of musical per- 
 formers, and in personal decorations, consisting in general of a 
 profusion of gold ornaments suspended from the wrist and ancle, to 
 distinguish the favourites of Royalty. 
 
 At last I approached the avenue where the king was seated. The 
 martial instruments surrounding the throne suddenly burst upon the 
 hearing in heavy peals, and the household slaves advanced, flourishing 
 their scimiters over my head with menacing violence. This threatening 
 ceremony was directed v^ith renovated vigour as I advanced to take the 
 king's hand, but having as it were won the contested honour in the late 
 struggle, my opponents quietly suffered me to enjoy the prize, for the 
 fjuisic ceased, the guards retired from the presence, and I was quietly 
 permitted to pay my respects. The king extended his hand with great 
 
 &C. ^j^JO^J *^V.'^ "^ 
 " In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate. Glory be to God the Lord of the creation and the 
 universe — the most merciful King of the day of Judgment. Thee do we worship and Thee do we 
 supplicate. Direct us in the right way ; in the way of those to whom thou hast been gracious : not of 
 those against whom thou art incensed, nor of those who are ill directed." 
 
 The Lord's Prayer is certainly not more venerated by Christians than is the Fathiat of the Arabs by ' 
 the worshippers of Islam, and hence it is selected as the standard for attesting public and private faith, or 
 for any particular emergency in joy, tribulation, or doubt, between the interests and feelings of opposite 
 parties. 
 
 L
 
 74 THE KING OF ASHANTEE. 
 
 complacency, yet with a dignity that created admiration and respect, 
 for it was even more than national. The features of the monarch were 
 placid, yet serious, with the exception of his eyes, which seemed rivetted 
 in good-natured admiration, although they were not permitted to 
 convey this feeling to the muscles of his face. The salutation 
 murmured by the sovereign was re-echoed by an officer in attendance, 
 and reported to me as follows : " Sai thanks the gods he sees you, and 
 the other white men, and all your people." 
 
 The royal chair was a specimen of some ingenuity, yet the work- 
 manship was rude. Its arms and legs were carved from the solid into 
 grotesque forms, and embossed with little ornamental casts of gold. 
 Several Caboceers in waiting were decorated with massive gold breast 
 plates, chains of the same metal, and solid lumps of rock-gold, of the 
 weight, perhaps, of a pound or more each. The royal messengei-s stood 
 behind the sovereign, shouldering by the blades large crooked sabres, 
 the emblems of their offices, and displaying the revei-sed hilts, cased in 
 thin gold sheathing. In another position, at the back of the king's 
 chair, a select few stood erect as guards, and were armed with common 
 English muskets in gold casing, and habited in grotesque apparel, which 
 consisted of a large helmet or plume of feathers of the Argus bird, 
 sloping backward over the head, in form not very unlike those which, 
 according to history, were worn by the inhabitants of America, and 
 particularly in the empire of Mexico, by the warriors of that nation. 
 In front of the plume was an arching pair of ram's horns, cased in gold, 
 and attached by the centre to several charms and amulets, neatly 
 sheathed in morocco leather. A scull-cap united the whole, and a 
 long tiger's tail flowed down over a close-bodied jacket, that concealed 
 every part but the arms, in a perfect mail of magical charms, also 
 richly ornamented in gold, silver, or stained leather. A simple 
 covering of cloth girded about the loins, fell half way down the 
 thigh, and left the rest of the body bare. In addition to guns, the 
 weapons and accoutrements of these officers were bows, and a quiver
 
 COSTUMES. 75 
 
 of poisoned arrows, suspended from the back by a belt, which at the 
 same time supported the weig-ht of a string of case-knives and a 
 lai^e powder pouch. The most hidicrous part of the equipment 
 consisted in a large gold, silver, or iron bell, suspended by a rope that 
 girded the loins, and overhung the posteriors, causing at every move- 
 ment a dull tinkling sound, like the pasturing bells used in Spain. 
 Over these bells were suspended gold or silver epaulettes of European 
 fabrication, more or less tarnished. Some of the officers wore small 
 turbans of silk tafl'ety, or figxired cotton and muslin ; and beside were 
 decently dressed in robes of various striped cotton, folded round the 
 loins, and gracefully turned over the left shoulder, exactly as the Hayk 
 or Alhayk, is worn by the Arabs of the western and southern deserts. 
 The king was modestly habited in a large cloth or Hayk of figured 
 cotton, cast off from both shoulders, and resting negligently in loose 
 folds, upon the loins and thighs. From his naked shoulder was 
 suspended a thick silk plait or cord, to which were attached a string 
 of amulets cased in gold, silver, and silk. A massive gold chain 
 encircled his waist, in the form of a zone, below the navel ; and a 
 variety of clumsy gold rings covered his fingers, thumbs, and toes. 
 On the left knee he wore a bandage, or fillet of silk, and plaited 
 weed, interwoven with gold beads and amulets, terminating in a 
 tasteful tassel, that hung as low as the calf of the leg. 
 
 Monday being a day of religious importance, the king, I was 
 privately informed, had been engaged in the forenoon in the rituals of 
 his faith, and three human victims, in addition to cattle, had been 
 offered to the favoured deities ; but their lives, as I afterwards found, 
 were already forfeited to the law. The chief priest, or, according to 
 the phraseology of Cape Coast, the head fetische-man, occupied a 
 position on one side of the throne, and was surrounded by a group of 
 aged disciples, and youthful attendants, disfigured with stripes of white 
 clay upon their faces, breasts and legs. In the midst rested an earthen 
 
 l2
 
 i^Q THE KING OF BANNA. 
 
 pot and a small box, containing', as it was imagined, relics, or ofl'erings 
 for the tutelary deities of majesty. 
 
 As I was about retiring-, the king motioned with his hand to impede 
 me, and by a significant nod indicated his wish that I should still remain. 
 In the meantime, the other gentlemen who were following my steps and 
 actions, came to the spot, and were in turn saluted by his Majesty with 
 equal serenity, his eyes all the while rivetting themselves upon the 
 persons and features of every stranger ; while tranquillity beamed from 
 a countenance that never even for a moment underwent the slightest 
 alteration. At last I retired amidst renovated peals of drums, horns, 
 rattles, and other mellifluous insti-uments of the kind. 
 
 As the position occupied by the king stood nearly in the centre of 
 
 a large semi-circle, above a moiety of the ceremony was still in reserve. 
 
 The king, or tributary chief of Banna, a monarch subordinate to the 
 
 sovereign of Ashantee, happened to be at this time at Coomassy, and 
 
 was stationed at no great distance from his liege lord. His retinue was 
 
 splendid and numerous, comprising, besides his own people, several 
 
 moslems of inferior rank, and their slaves. The vassal prince was 
 
 simply attired in an African cloth, decorated with amulets, &c. sheathed 
 
 in gold and the skins of beasts. Gold rings ornamented his fingers and 
 
 toes, and little fillets of gold and aggry beads encircled the thick parts 
 
 of each arm. The incessant din that occasionally reigned in all parts, 
 
 naturally gave rise to a feeling of sincere contempt — disgiist I may say, 
 
 for the music of Ashantee, however grateful it would seem to have been 
 
 to the auricular organs of Mr. Bowdich, whose harmonic taste is upon 
 
 record in his work. The illustrious negro prince was seated upon a 
 
 chair studded with silver coins, such as dollar and half dollar pieces, 
 
 which were riveted against the frame work, none being permitted to sit 
 
 enthroned in gold but the " King of Kings." 
 
 A warlike band, who guarded the person of this tributary, were 
 martially habited in the skins of beasts, chiefly the hides of leopards,
 
 PROCESSION. 77 
 
 and panthers ; their weapons were bows and poisoned arrows, javelins 
 guns, sabres, clubs, and case-knives. Many were in a state of nudity, 
 excepting the shim or girdle, three or four inches wide, that passed 
 between the thighs, bracing round the lions and under the posteriors. 
 Chieftains of rank, governors of provinces, and allies of the Ashantee 
 empire, were next in order to the King of Banna, and the intervening 
 space was occupied by caboceers, captains, and other officers of less note. 
 At the expiration of two hours, I had the happiness to arrive at the 
 extreme end of the crescent, where several of the king's ministers 
 stood in waiting to receive and conduct me to a resting place : this 
 was a spot of clear ground shaded on the margin by some tall trees. 
 
 After a suspense of some minutes duration, the renewed discord of 
 diiims, gong-gongs, &c. in full concert, announced a movement on the 
 part of the court. The clamour became more and more general, and 
 its effect, for an interval, deafening. The chiefs advanced at a tardy 
 pace, followed in successive ranks by their vassal captains, personal 
 attendants, and slaves, armed and equipped in their full military habits ; 
 some with iron chains suspended round the neck, others round the 
 body in the form of a zone, while the men at arms, belonging to the 
 household establishments of each Caboceer, brought up the rear in close 
 embodied masses. 
 
 To prevent interruption, the leading ranks were compelled to use 
 a moderate share of dispatch, and to induce this promptly, my guards 
 armed themselves with palm boughs, which they flapped upon the 
 ground, sometimes threatening, and at other times striking the twig on 
 the naked legs of those who were too tardy in their movements. The 
 principal performers in this discipline were the two captains. Ado and 
 Quako, aided by the whole troop in British uniform. Yet some of the 
 people were a little indignant at the harsh reception they met with, 
 although the far greater part capered along in merry mood. 
 
 Chiefs of the first class now arrived on the spot, and saluted with 
 courtesy ; the reserve of a first introduction was banished from every
 
 78 SONG OF PRAISE, 
 
 countenance. The band of each of these officers preceded the march, and 
 was followed by a group of parasites, whose business it was to proclaim 
 in boisterous songs the strong names of their masters. The bellowing 
 of these heralds, the discordant din of war instruments, and the clamour 
 of my guards produced a chaos of harsh sounds that would baffle the 
 efforts of the pen to describe. The feelings of many of the caboceers, 
 and especially those of a youthful deportment, were conspicuous, in 
 defiance now and then of an affected serenity : their countenances from 
 composure relaxed into smiles, and even a stifled laugh was more than 
 once exacted by the persevering advdation of their attendants ; but not 
 wholly forgetful of what was due to their own dignity, they frequently 
 affected displeasure at the unblushing flattery with which they were 
 assailed. As it may not be uninteresting to the reader, I shall give the 
 translation of one of these songs as my linguist interpreted it. 
 
 " Where shall we find such a warrior as the strong and beautiful 
 Apacoo Kudjo, whose eyes are like the panther in fight? O great 
 slave of the king, how you are beloved ! your victories delight his ears. 
 Who fought the Gamans and killed their Caboceer Adouai ? Apacoo 
 Kudjo ! AVhere are the women and the gold ? Apacoo Kudjo has 
 them. He is a rich man ; a mighty man ! His enemies die when he is 
 angry. He is invulnerable, his fetische (amulet) no man can look upon 
 and live." 
 
 The evening began to close in apace, yet still the pageant displayed 
 unbroken ranks, and no movement had yet taken place in the king's 
 retinue The Moslems, accompanied by their captains, and headed by 
 the Bashaw under his canopy, advanced in order and gave the salutation 
 with a decorum peculiarly korannic. No barbarous music, no osseous 
 relics ; no gambols of the war dance ; no sycophants to sound poetic 
 titles and achievements ; even the courtly strut was softened down to 
 a character modest and reserved. The contrast was thus favourable to 
 education, and the superior rank of these people in the classes of African 
 society could not be more pre-eminently contrasted.
 
 SPEECH OF THE KING OF BANNA. 79^ 
 
 As the king of Banna approached, he silenced his band and syco- 
 phants together, by an authoritative wave of the hand. Then advancing 
 until he had gained a position exactly opposite to me, he snatched a 
 scimiter from a youth in attendance, while his people formed a silent 
 and distant circle. He then commenced an harangue, which, by pro- 
 gressive degrees, degenerated into the most furious utterance, associated 
 with rapid and vehement gestures, and flourishings of his weapon, 
 within two or three paces of my feet. The bystanders, during the 
 pause, gave a respectful attention to the discourse, frequently sympa- 
 thised in the feelings of the orator, and oftentimes used soothing epithets, 
 while the very eye balls of the royal chief glanced with real, or affected 
 malignity ; and the foam spurted from his mouth as from that of an 
 enraged maniac. At last he ceased speaking, and his countenance 
 subsided into tranquillity, as he cast the scimiter upon the earth. His 
 relaxed features even wore the semblance of a smile, while he held me 
 by the hand, saluted and retired. The interruption gave no satisfaction 
 to my guards, who, after this shadow of royalty was again fairly obscured 
 in the crowd, applied their twigs very smartly to his peoples' shoulders 
 and leg-s, in revenge for the detention, for we were by this time almost 
 enveloped in darkness. The anxiety I felt to know the substance of 
 the speech could not be gratified at the moment ; but subsequently I 
 minuted down the following particulars from the memory of the linguist, 
 which I introduce in this place from its obvious connexion. 
 
 " Ashantees, who is there so great, so good as Sai ? No where 
 can you see such a king. He says, destroy this country, — and it is 
 a desert ; the people are killed with his shot and his powder. When 
 he makes war, he is like the tiger. Can any one fight the tiger? 
 How foolish, then, are those who say they hate this great king, and 
 speak with arrog-ance ; for if they cannot fight, what will become of 
 them. They cannot go in the bush, (northwards) for there is my 
 country, Coransa, Takimah, and Bouromy : all this belongs to Sai,
 
 80 SPEECH OF THE KING OF BANNA. 
 
 he is king over all the kings, and all the people, and his foot stands 
 upon every one's neck. If they run to Adirai river, it is the king's 
 fetische, and will kill them. They cannot pass Tando river, \yhat 
 then ? there is only the sea. Will not that kill them too ? You 
 know I fight for the king ; he is my master, and I love him. I fought 
 with Dinkera (late king of Gaman) and he died, and the people died. 
 If the king bid me make war on any country, I must obey ; he is 
 the master and I am the slave. If he desire me to go to Fantee, I swear 
 the great oath, I will kill them all ; I will cut up their bodies in pieces, 
 and take out their hearts, and I will not let one live, because they 
 are an insolent people. Now they hear Dinkera is dead, and they are 
 frightened, and want to make a palaver between white men and the 
 king, because they think he cannot then catch them. Is that reasonable ? 
 This white Caboceer comes up to talk the palaver. If he comes with 
 truth in his heart, and with friendly intentions, it is well ; but if he 
 tries to deceive and dishonour the king, it cannot be suffered ; and I 
 shall kill all these people* and drink their blood, because they forget 
 that they are the king's slaves,"' &c. 
 
 These particulars were repeated to me with evident reluctance, 
 and under a promise of secrecy, as it was feared I might be offended, or 
 the king himself be displeased ; I learned, moreover, that this tributary 
 had recently arrived at court, to claim his proportion of spoil from the 
 sacking of Bontoko and Houraboh, the two capital cities of Gaman, 
 which fell under the power of Ashantee, after the decisive battle that 
 cost the life of the sovereign. The king of Banna had been extremely 
 active during the campaign, particularly on one important occasion, 
 when Dinkera, the king of Gaman, was on the point of gaining a 
 decided advantage over his enemies. It was vi^hispered that this 
 ebullition arose out of circumstances connected with interest and 
 
 * The Fantees.
 
 RECEPTION AT COOMASSY. 81 
 
 policy, in what regarded his situation at court and his expectations. 
 A division of the unfortunate captives taken in the Gaman war had 
 already occurred, when it appeared that four thousand seven hundred 
 people of that nation, (men, women and children), were awarded to the 
 king of Banna, as his share of living plunder. The gold palaver, or in 
 other terms, the spoil of the enemy's government and towns, remained 
 still in statu quo, subject to the award of the king of Ashantee ; and 
 although several conferences had taken place on the subject, yet each 
 time the assembly had broken up w itliout coming to a decision. 
 
 Several ministers and officers of high rank followed the petty 
 sovereign, and darkness rapidly increased before there was a visible 
 diminution in numbers. At last the ranks thinned ; a few straffplers 
 only came forward to warn me of the approach of the sovereign. On 
 a sudden a number of blazing torches were seen in the distance, and a 
 burst from the king's band announced his approach. Hitherto the 
 preservation of our ranks had been attended with little difficulty, not- 
 withstanding the tumultuous movements ; but now I was to be initiated 
 into a novel scene of regal splendour. By the time the foremost torches 
 had advanced within fifty paces of the spot where I was seated, a most 
 harsh discordance of yells, shouts, and howls, assailed the ears in a sudden 
 peal, heightened by a re-animated burst of instruments. It naturally 
 occurred to me that the impression was intended to paralyze the senses, 
 by contributing to magnify the man of royalty. Thus ended a moment's 
 reflection ; for on a sudden my guards w^ere forced by a rush of the 
 king's guards, notwithstanding the most vigorous efforts they made to 
 oppose the intruders. A rally was then made round my chair, to screen 
 my person from the rude buffets of the warlike mob, but all efforts 
 proved ineffectual, and another rush knocked over my seat, and almost 
 threw me upon the earth. With some difficulty, aided by the bodily 
 exertions of my friendly guard, who it appeared had suffered in an 
 equal proportion, I recovered my feet, but with the temporary loss of 
 sword and hat. The king's giiards were now in the midst of our 
 
 M
 
 82 RECEPTION AT COOMASSY. 
 
 party, some with large ivory horns and wooden drums, chiming 
 together the most excruciating harmony I ever heard in my hfe ; 
 others with burning vegetable torches and crooked sabres, which 
 they flourished in attitudes of defiance and threat ; yet it was 
 evident they wielded their weapons with caution. The other gentle- 
 men were at this time separated from me, I knew not how far, and 
 the noise and confusion were unabated. My soldiers at last rallied 
 again, and by dint of main strength forced a passage through the 
 crowd, and gained for me a more secure station behind a tree, 
 where I met Messrs. Collins and Salmon, who had been swept away 
 in the boisterous eddy, and had suffered as much jostling as myself. 
 The torches threw a brilliant stream of li^^ht on all around, and 
 increased the savage splendour of the scene. The king's canopy 
 was already Avithin a few paces of the spot, and still the buftetting 
 continued ; but at this time we were effectually relieved by the 
 exertions of the guard, for the Fan tees were appalled, and made no 
 effort for themselves. A number of warriors bedecked with argus 
 plumes, gold ornaments and bells, preceded the canopy ; performing 
 certain evolutions representing the invocations and inspirations 
 blended in the war dance ; twirling also their gold-mounted guns, 
 and screaming in terrific transports. A gigantic negro followed in 
 the train, bearing the execution stool, encrusted with gore, and 
 howling the song of death. The heralds, (for I have too much respect 
 for kingly rank to class them with the parasites of the captains), 
 followed next, announcing the monarch's high titles and deeds in 
 arms. The conquest of Fantee and Gaman were enumerated in the 
 list; but it was remarkable that these royal trumpeters observed a 
 greater decorum in their approaches to the person of the king. They 
 did not press upon him inidely, and never presumed to venture 
 under the canopy. Upon a given signal, while I was still compelled 
 to use some exertion in maintaining my ground, the confusion sub- 
 sided into a respectful silence. The king's canopy at the same time
 
 QUARTERS OF THE MISSION. 83 
 
 Stood before me, and this redoubtable monarch ag-ain appeared with 
 the same unruffled aspect, and with features rather more relaxed 
 than before. He gazed a few moments with a penetratino- glance, 
 as if contemplating the effect created by the first impressions. He 
 then took me by the hand in the most aftable manner, and pronounced 
 a laconic welcome : after which he saluted the other gentlemen, and 
 the Fantees, and immediately moved off the ground. 
 
 Some of the king's torch bearers were ordered to shew the way to 
 the quarters. The king, it seemed, had allotted the house of prince 
 Adoom for my separate use : thither I was conducted, and an adjacent 
 house was appropriated to the joint use of the officers. I had scarcely 
 crossed the threshold of the enclosure, before a party of slaves, headed 
 by a captain, entered the place, loaded with a present from the kino-, 
 of wine and honey, coupled with a complimentary enquiry whether I 
 felt fatigued. 
 
 The building- assigned for my use stood nearly opposite the palace, 
 and consisted of two apartments thirteen feet long- bv seven in breadth, 
 with a wall and fence, besides a long gallery or corridor, that served 
 me as a sleeping place for guards and servants. Without the enclosure, 
 opposite the entrance, was aiaother recess belonging to the buildino-, 
 designed for the dispatch of public business. Rude as the fabric was, 
 it was tolerably commodious, for the roof was well thatched, and the 
 whole was perfectly secure against wind and rain, except when they 
 happened to beat in the direction of the door-ways, or from the NE. 
 Its architectural beauties may be classed with those of our own well 
 thatched barns. It should be remembered, however, that under the 
 torrid zone a barn is better suited to the climate, and certainly more 
 adapted to the habits of the people than a more confined habitation 
 would be. The annexed engraving is copied from a correct external 
 view of the palace, representing that sort of hieroglyphical sculpture, in 
 relief, which is characteristic of the style of decorating the houses of 
 chieftains, and which, it would seem, Mr. Bowdich has so highly improved 
 
 M 2
 
 84 REMARKS ON THE JOURNEY. 
 
 upon. The foreground represents the etiquette of forwarding messages 
 to the king. As the flag departs, some Ashantees are saluting it with 
 discharges of musketry. 
 
 Thus terminated the journey from the sea coast to the capital of 
 Ashantee, a tract which is formidable to the traveller, not as it regards 
 distance, but from its natural obstinictions. From Sarasoo to Coomassy 
 the distance is six and a quarter horizontal miles, and the course north. 
 The distance from Cape Coast to Coomassy, it will be seen, is rather 
 short of one hundred and thirty-three miles horizontal ; or one 
 hundred and eighty-seven by the path. 
 
 As regards climate or atmosphere, the Gold Coast and places adja- 
 cent to the settlements, are more or less known to be unhealthy. But I 
 will hazard an opinion that the countries inland are infinitely more salu- 
 brious, the air more pure, and the soil less humid and vaporous than at 
 any station upon the Coast, between Cape Palmas and the Gaboon 
 River. At Doonqua, at Mansue, and on the banks of the Praa, the tem- 
 perature seldom varied much (except when tornados checked the heat), 
 and the air was pure and exhilarating ; for notwithstanding sickness 
 tracked our steps from stage to stage through the wilderness, it must 
 be allowed that the diseases of our party (vmless, indeed, we include 
 lassitude and lameness) were engendered at Cape Coast Castle. Mr. 
 Collins and myself were more severely afflicted than the other Euro- 
 peans ; many of the natives laboured under attacks of fever, Guinea- 
 worm, and inflammations; but it was clear to me that these distempers, 
 and our own complaints also, were either the associates of our outset, or 
 arose from the malignant germs which, lying torpid in the constitution, 
 were stimulated, by exertion, into life. It would seem, however, that a 
 country so intersected by vt^atercourses, so humid and swampy, and withal 
 so surcharged by forest trees and thickets, where noxious exhalations, 
 oozing from the decay of vegetable substances, are likely to condense, 
 could scarcely deserve the character I have given it for salubrity. Be 
 this as it may, I leave it to others who are better able than myself to
 
 THE CLIMATE. 85 
 
 account for apparent contradictions : I speak only of the reality of the 
 fact, from personal experience, and the effect I witnessed on the con- 
 stitutions of the party under my command. The deadly effluvia of 
 African vapours are in general well known, for the rivers upon the 
 western coasts of this continent have recorded but too many fatal proofs 
 to leave the matter in any doubt. The Callebar, the Cameroon, 
 the Logos, that of Sierra Leone, and the Gambia rivers, become the 
 sepulchres of hecatombs of the human species. Whole ships^' 
 crews have even been ingulfed in these waters, and the assigned 
 cause is the pestilential exhalations of the air. These facts it 
 would be superfluous to question, as indeed it would be a difficult 
 matter to refute them by force of argument. May it not, however, 
 be enquired, whether local circumstances are not connected with 
 these cruel calamities ; whether these noisome vapours do not 
 imbibe a mortal venom from the putrefaction of vegetables indigenous 
 to the sea coast, or to a mixture between salt and fresh water ^ Where 
 the mangrove (for instance) is found — and it is presumed that this is the 
 case not only in the rivers above-named, but at the mouths of every 
 petty stream in tropical Africa — the infection is considered more con- 
 taminating, more pernicious in quality, and its action more deadly in 
 effect to the constitutions of Europeans. 
 
 In reference to this hypothesis, I shall only observe, that the 
 mangrove was rarely or never seen inland, and that the waters of 
 the rivers, with few exceptions, are limpid, and sweet flavoured. 
 I conceive, therefore, that the dry season of Ashantee is, beyond 
 a doubt, equal in salubrity to what is experienced in any tropical 
 country ; and that the climate itself is superior to that of the Guinea 
 Coast; and particularly so during those seasons of rain, mist, and 
 earthy exhalations which prevail for eight months out of the twelve.
 
 as AUDIENCE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF NEGOTIATIONS. 
 
 AUDIENCE OF THE KING-OBJECTS OF THE MISSION— DELIVERY OF PRESENTS— THE 
 OATH OF FRIENDSHIP AND ALLIANCE TAKEN BY THE KING AND PRINCIPAL CHIEFS AND 
 OFFICERS — INSPECTION OF THE PRESENTS, AND EFFECT PRODUCED— VISITS FROM THE 
 ASHANTEE MOSLEMS— VIOLATION OF MOHAMMEDAN LAW— STATE OF RELIGION IN ASH4NTEE 
 — CHARACTERS OF THE CABOCEERS — SECOND AUDIENCE OF THE KING — HTS IDEAS OF 
 EUROPE— HIS PRESENTS— VISIT FROM MANDINGO MOSLEMS— INTERRUPTION BY ADO QUAMIXA— 
 DISPUTE AND RECONCILIATION WITH HIM- MISCONDUCT OF THE FANTEES— THIRD AUDIENCE- 
 PROSPECT OF AN AMICABLE CONCLUSION OF THE NEGOTIATIONS-PRESENTS TO THE GREAT 
 MEN. 
 
 On the morning of the 29th of February, I received a message 
 from the king to the following purport: — " The king sends his com- 
 plin;ients to you, and says, good morning. He wishes to see you when 
 all his great captains are assembled." Upon this notice, I gave 
 instructions for the officers to be in readiness, and to assemble the 
 people. At ten o'clock, an extra gaiard of honour was in attendance 
 at the outer gate, to escort the mission to the presence of the sovereign. 
 
 Upon arriving at the spot where the king was seated, a discordant 
 peal of drums and horns burst out with a deafening clamour ; but these 
 sounds soon died away, and were succeeded by a silence uninterrupted 
 even by a w^hisper. The monarch of Ashantee was enthroned in his 
 state chair, under a large cotton canopy, ornamented with pieces of 
 red cloth; and his ministers and captains surrounded his person.
 
 OBJECTS OF THE MISSION. 87 
 
 Three or four guards only stood behind the chair, with nmsquets, and 
 a number of priests were seated upon the ground to the left of the 
 monarch. In the front, to a considerable distance right and left, the 
 eye wandered over the heads of a crowded assemblage of chiefs of all 
 ranks, mingled with their respective vassals. An avenue was left in 
 this mass of human beings, just sufficiently capacious to admit ingress 
 to the king ; and thi'ough this passage I advanced. Our salutation was 
 courteous : the king particularly enquired about the health of the 
 officers, &c. I opened the business of the mission in terms of the 
 following import.* 
 
 " The king of England, whose servant I am, salutes the king of 
 Ashantee in peace ; and salutes all the great captains, his friends, and 
 his people. The king of England, one of the greatest monarchs of the 
 whites, having heard, by the return of some of his officers, who visited 
 Coomassy three years back, that the king of Ashantee had received 
 them with respect, and loaded them with kindness, rejoiced to tliink 
 that the king was a friend. This induced him to make an acknow- 
 ledgment, such as it was hoped would be agreeable to his majesty. 
 He has, therefore, been pleased to appoint me the bearer of his 
 sentiments ; in token of which, I am entrusted with a present to 
 deliver to the king of Ashantee. The king of England knew the 
 king of Ashantee from his wars on the sea coast, long before his people 
 visited Coomassy ; but he did not know until that event, that his 
 majesty was no less respected for his hospitable treatment of strangers, 
 than renowned as a warrior. Influenced by these feelings, the king, 
 my master, as a friend, earnestly invites the king of Ashantee to 
 cultivate peace between the nations, and to assist him in encouraging a 
 trade that would be productive of good to the country, and benefit the 
 
 * It is requisite to observe, that throughout the negotiations, I was compelled to adopt a style of 
 language adapted to the understanding of the Linguist, who, although possessing a tolerable knowledge of 
 the English language, comprehended only familiar terras.
 
 88 OPENING OF NEGOTIATIONS. 
 
 people, I have been a long time on the coast, more than twelve moons, 
 waiting in anxiety to see his majesty ; but was prevented travelling at 
 an earlier period, in consequence of the interruption of intercourse by 
 the Gaman war, and also of the rainy season. 
 
 " The dispute between the king and the governor has been a 
 subject of disappointment and regret to me, because it could not fail to 
 give dissatisfaction to the king of England, and his great captains, 
 that the whites and blacks should have any cause of dispute, and 
 particularly at a time when so much had been done for the good 
 of all. 
 
 " If, therefore, the king of Ashantee has any thing to say 
 against the white men, let i\\% palaver be spoken, for I dare affirm that 
 the king of England would not permit any of his people to give 
 offence to the king of Ashantee, wilfully and without cause. At the 
 same time it is my duty to declare to the king that if he injure the 
 governor and white men, he may certainly expect it will deprive him 
 of my master's friendship, and be attended with disastrous 
 consequences." 
 
 During this recital, which, in conformity to court etiquette, was 
 first translated by my own linguist, and afterwards re-translated into 
 a superior dialect, the king was musing ; but no sooner had the 
 linguist ceased speaking, than his features relaxed into a smile of 
 satisfaction and self-importance. Turning round to his captains, he 
 said aloud, " You see how much honour the white king does me. 
 The gods have done me all this good instead of my ancestors ! Who 
 shall disobey me, now the white king is my friend ? " Turning his 
 face towards me, he smilingly said, "This is well, I am now very 
 happy, because you are come, and can see with your own eyes, 
 and hear with your own ears, what is true; and now you shall 
 settle all disputes." With this assurance I was dismissed. 
 
 In the evening I received a message requiring my attendance 
 at the palace, on the day following, with all the presents except
 
 DELIVERY OF PRESENTS. 89 
 
 the rum, guns, and powder. * Some pots of palm wine were afterwards 
 brought, a part of which was, by the king's desire, distributed among 
 the Fantees. 
 
 On the first of March I went to the palace, where I found a number 
 of workmen in readiness. The king, who was seated under a shed, 
 surrounded by a few favourites, received me this time with the most 
 open afiability ; and having directed my chair to be placed in front of his 
 own, he introduced some significant questions about England and her 
 king ; demanding to know his name, (which he endeavoured to repeat 
 after me, and at perfection articulated Shorshi,) the kind of house he 
 inhabited, the number of his women (wives J, slaves, &c., the manner in 
 which he made war, and a variety of other questions. He declared that 
 he knew the English king to be king over all other white kings, and 
 that his subjects were the most powerful and warlike of the white 
 nations : just as he was the black " king of kings, and his people the 
 greatest black warriors." This eulogy he concluded by saying, " the 
 great God of his fathers, whom he serves, preserve him long upon the 
 stool (throne), and make his enemies die before him. The king of 
 England had chained his heart to him." 
 
 He repeated the enquiry whether I was actually from England or 
 not, for the other white man f told him, he said, that he was sent by 
 the king of England. This I conceived to be a fit opportunity for 
 dispelling all doubts, by introducing my credentials. One of the 
 officers, to whom I delivered my commission, read it aloud, while the 
 linguist interpreted at each period deliberately. The king listened 
 with attention, and when the recital was over, he bounded upon his 
 feet, and grasping a scimiter that was handed to him, he gravely folded 
 his clothes about his loins, eyeing me at the time with a scrutinizing 
 glance ; and as he stood in that posture, commenced an energetic speech, 
 
 * These articles, however, were conveyed privately to the palace at the same time. 
 
 t Mr. Bowdich. 
 
 N
 
 90 OATH OF FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 while his captains flocked tumultuously together, half surrounding their 
 sovereign. At intervals the king flourished his weapon in the air, 
 elevating or depressing the point of the blade as low as my forehead. 
 When he had concluded he retired backwards to his seat, and cast the 
 weapon from his hand, making a signal at the same time to his chief 
 officers with one finger. The sign was understood. Adusai (a confi- 
 dential minister) advanced next, and spoke with his characteristic 
 volubility, imitating at the time, the transport before described. This 
 officer was succeeded by Kankam (another minister), Apoko, the chief 
 general of the army. Ado Matta (an aged officer of high military rank), 
 and Agampong, all favourites of the king, with whom their 
 influence was great. 
 
 This striking novelty in court etiquette naturally excited surprise. 
 The king perceived it, and desired Adusai to explain to my linguist 
 that the ceremony I had witnessed was an oath of inviolable friendship 
 and fidelity, whereby the king pledged himself to the king of England, 
 to serve him and to fight for him, as I should direct, &c. 
 
 At my leisure T obtained copies of the oaths, from the memory of 
 my linguist, * and the Fantees who were present. That of the king 
 was thus construed — 
 
 " I swear a great oath, by the great God and theFetische, and that 
 great oath of my ancestors (the battle of Accromanti) that that book 
 (commission) is what I approve of; and I will remember what is just. 
 The great king has secured my attachment ; he is my master, and I 
 will serve him truly, and do all I can to give him satisfaction. I will 
 send my soldiers to the right and to the left whenever you say he wishes 
 to make war on the wicked ; then all these countries will know that I 
 am a true friend, and that the white king is my king. I will do much 
 
 * I had but one linguist when I arrived at Coomassy, a man every way qualified for his office as 
 interpreter ; another, named Abroah, came up somedaysafter, and without my knowledge, whose presence 
 was inauspicious : at least the king was jealous of him.
 
 OATH OF FRIENDSHIP. 91 
 
 to benefit the English in this country, and the people shall know that I 
 love them better than the Dutch and Danes ; but I like all white men. 
 Hear this, captains ; my master has sent me a great officer to take care 
 of, and he must have whatever he wants, for he is now the same as my 
 son, and the people must know I love him very much." 
 
 The oath of Adusai was as follows : — 
 
 " This is a great day for Sai (the king) because we see his name 
 is known in the white country. My gold, my life, my wives, 
 children, and slaves all belong to Sai, for he is the great king here ; 
 and I swear by all the king's great oaths (those by which he swore) to 
 do all that is right as the king says ; I will fight and I will die for the 
 white king, if he tell me." 
 
 That of Kankam ran thus : — 
 
 " It is many moons since the white men came up before. When 
 they went to the white country, they spoke the truth to the great king, 
 and said, Sai is your good friend ; and when he hears that Sai is a 
 great king also over the black countries, then he knows that Sai has 
 a good heart. Now, I am the king's slave, and I shall serve him 
 faithfully. I swear the king's great oaths, that I will do what he 
 commands, and I will fight and die for the great white king. Thus, 
 because he is a s^ood friend, all the black men are his slaves." 
 
 Apoko took up the scimiter in turn. It was not unknown to 
 me that the political sentiments of this chief, whose influence was 
 powerful, were hostile to the Fantees. His rank in the army ren- 
 dered his voice in the cabinet the most important, perhaps, in the list of 
 caboceers. It should be recorded, however, that although he and his 
 party were adverse to a reconciliation with the natives of Cape Coast, 
 they did not openly implicate the governor and council in the quarrel, 
 unless as accessaries to the conduct of the Fantees. The king of 
 England, Apoko one day said, could not know the truth ; for, as the 
 governor had at least taken a secondary part in the qtiarrel, and had 
 broken the law (treaty), he would not surely write a true book to the 
 
 N 2
 
 92 OATH OF FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 great king. The sentiments of this man, to be gathered from his 
 speech, were naturally interesting at this crisis. 
 
 " Chief of the white men," said he, " that book is good, the 
 king likes it, and we all like it. Sincerity appears in your face. The 
 great god you serve knows what is in the heart ; but 1 think you 
 cannot tell a lie. I see the great king sends good things to Sai, 
 because he thinks he is a true friend, and will take care of his forts, 
 and the white men, and make a good trade. But the white captain, 
 who came up before, told the king lies ; because he made a book of 
 friendship, and then cheated the king. Sai is a true king, I am only 
 a captain. If he say — Make war, and kill the people, I must do so. 
 If he say — Be friends, then I certainly cannot fight. Now I hear the 
 words of that book (the commission), I like it, because the great king 
 wishes to make Ashantee and England all one. Sai knows I tell him 
 what I think is good for him ; because I cannot sit here when I see 
 people insolent, and hear them say he is not the king. I fought in 
 Fantee and Assin, with Apoutay and Cheboo. If Sai be not king, as 
 the Fantees pretend, why does the white king now send him a true 
 captain, and presents ? But they lie ! and it is their deceitfulness ; 
 because they do not wish him to see the king. The white men know 
 very well that Ashantee is mighty in war ; and it is not right for the 
 governor to say to the people, ' Make a wall, and fight the king.' That 
 is not like a true friend, according to the book. This palaver, Captain, 
 (addressing me) is what is in my heart : I think it very shameful in the 
 governor ; but let that pass. I swear the king's oath, tha twhat he says, 
 I will do ; and if he say, fight for the great king, I will kill all his 
 enemies, so that all the people shall serve him here as in the white 
 country. Sai is our master, and the great king is our master too. 
 
 " Then for you. Captain, you are all the same here as our wives 
 and children : nobody shall hurt you." 
 
 Agampong and Ado Matta swore the oath ; the former without 
 passing any particular comment ; the latter, however, a respectable old
 
 INSPECTION OF PRESENTS. 93 
 
 chief of the first rank, said, at the close of the ceremony, " I am an 
 old man now, but I have foiig-ht many times against the king's enemies, 
 and now I see all the towns conquered, and the people know that Sai is 
 king ; it is only foolish men who speak evil ; but they know not what 
 they do. Suppose, then, Cape Coast refuses to pay what is just, this 
 white captain will look to it, and restore a good understanding ; and 
 then the trade can go down to the water side as the great king wishes." 
 
 The presents were then opened for inspection ; and it unfor- 
 tunately happened that the most unsightly articles presented 
 themselves first to view. A turning lathe, in particular, attracted 
 the king's notice, not unmingled with a look of disappointment ; 
 yet he examined the parts with minute attention, as he inquired 
 its use. Some British silks of Indian patterns, and some little carpets 
 which were spread before him, again brightened up his countenance, 
 although he endeavoured to affect indifference. " All was good," 
 he said, as he bestowed commendations on the usefulness or beauties 
 of the presents. A convex mirror attracted universal attention, 
 and gave the monarch so much delight, that he marched off with 
 it to the harem, to shew it to his wives. 
 
 The next articles were an admiral's full uniform, richly em- 
 broidered, a service of china, a bronze lamp, a repeating watch, a 
 musical box, and some pieces of rich gold flowered silks. A few 
 of these articles, it was evident, gave him great deli.^ht ; but he 
 would not approve of one in particular, lest it might be considered 
 a disparagement to the others. He repeated his approbation of the 
 whole, and then passed them over for the inspection of some of his 
 chief officers. " I love the great king," said he, " even without 
 a present. I like the good things he sends me too ; but if he sends 
 me a corn stalk it is enough, I shall always love him." His majesty 
 required an explanation of the properties of the organ, lathe, musical 
 box, watch, &c. Unfortunately the organ had sustained more 
 injury than any other article. The mechanism and harmony of
 
 94 INSPECTION OF PRESENTS, 
 
 the other articles excited a degree of superstitious regard, until the 
 king was perfectly assured of their harmless powers : the box in 
 particular was supposed to possess talismanic virtues. The two 
 drums, probably gave as much real satisfaction as any of the 
 articles. The case containing them and the cymbals stood apart 
 from the others, and the Fantees, thinking no doubt, that their 
 virtues would be better explained by a specimen of the effect, struck 
 up a peal without any ceremony. The king, at first, did not seem 
 to notice the sound, but as soon as he was made acquainted with 
 the cause, he desired the noise to cease ; his countenance at the 
 same time indicating a sense of suppressed mortification at the liberty 
 taken. Last of all, one case of musquets was opened, and their 
 quality minutely inspected ; as if these deadly weapons were, after 
 all, deemed of more intrinsic value than any thing else. 
 
 It was already dusk, and the king appeared anxious to escape 
 from the bustle. He desired to know, precisely, whether or not the 
 present was sent to him by the king of England. My answer 
 satisfied him that it was. " Then," said he " I am happy. I have 
 conquered all the countries down to the sea with my own powder 
 and shot, and the gods have made me known to the great king of 
 white men, whose officer brings me good things. This is a great 
 honour, which I cannot forget. If my country contains any thing 
 good for the great king," said he, addressing the conversation to 
 me, " it is his, for he is my master too. His present I like very 
 much; and I like him, for he is my good friend, and his people 
 are all my good friends." As he concluded the sentence, he arose 
 from his seat and retired. . 
 
 On the follomng morning, IMarch 2d, a deputation of the 
 
 Moslems waited upon me to deliver a message of congratxdation on 
 
 the prospect of peace. The deputation consisted of Mohammed al 
 
 I Ghamba, or Baba as he was commonly called, Bashaw, or Caboceer 
 
 of the Moslems, attended by Abdallah ben Gatta Shoumou, Ali ben
 
 MOSLEM INTEMPERANCE. 95 
 
 Mohammed, Shellom ben Cantoma, Ibrahim al Yandy, Abou Beer 
 Atolo, Jelelly ben Kadsy al Bouroimiy, and Al Hadge Ambaric al 
 Slaghy ; nine of the principal traders, besides a proportionate number 
 of the inferior classes, and slaves. Many of these people enjoyed 
 rank at court, or were invested \\ith administrative powers, entitling ', 
 them even to a voice in the senate. The party having seated them- 
 selves, the chief explained the purport of the visit, commenting 
 at intervals upon the pacific disposition of the king towards white 
 men, his prowess in war, the extent of his dominions, &c. Although 
 Moslems, many of these people, in common with the heathen Africans, 
 were addicted to the use of spirituous liquors, and it was frankly 
 insinuated by some of the bystanders that a little rum would be 
 acceptable. The chief, however, took the precaution to dismiss the 
 whole of his retinue, with the exception of a few friends. These 
 failed not to indulge in swallowing a few goblets of that delectable 
 spirit, although, with a moderate degree of affectation, they rejected 
 the first offer. 
 
 A^ hen they had sufficiently regaled, and as the liquor exhilarated 
 the company, I took the opportunity to introduce a sort of satire used 
 by the Arabs against drunkards. The astonishment, not to term it 
 superstitious terror, with which these religious 7nen were struck at the 
 sound of the language exceeded any conjecture I could have formed. 
 The sentence was well comprehended by the Bashaw, whose countenance 
 betrayed a confusion that gave me pain to witness. At length one 
 of the party, with pure simplicity, replied, " Chief, whatever you may 
 really be, for God alone knows, you have spoken wisdom to shame us 
 before the infidels, because we who are true believers are sinners, and 
 break his holy law. This is certainly a direction from the Most High. 
 In the name of God who are you, and from what country do you come ?" 
 Although I satisfied their enquiries, by a confession that their religious 
 language was known to me, from a long residence among the Arabs, still
 
 96 ASHANTEE MOSLEMS. 
 
 I found it impossible to renew the hilarity of the scene. The liquor 
 was neglected, and an affected austerity was employed to cover the 
 former excess. From this day forward, neither the Moslems nor any of 
 their proselytes would indulge in the use of spirituous liquors in my 
 presence. 
 
 In the evening the Bashaw returned, in company with his friend 
 Abou Beer only. In the most serious and unaffected manner they 
 enquired if I were not a " true believer," and a Talb, or priest. To both 
 these questions I thought proper to return evasive answers. 
 
 I found that the knowledge these people possessed of the Arabic 
 was limited, generally speaking ; although a few of the most intelligent 
 were sufficiently skilled in the language to hold a conversation with 
 fluency. This qualification the chief and his friend, particularly the 
 latter (Abou Beer), were gifted with to a degree exceeding most of their 
 brethren. Although their idiom was sometimes obscure, yet all serious 
 obstacles to a direct communication of thoughts were removed. Thus 
 early I could not fail noticing that their pronunciation resembled that 
 of Egypt and the Deserts : notwithstanding an intermixture in the 
 dialect of a few uncouth expressions, which savoured of the original 
 African. In this language our correspondence was renewed, and when 
 they could not gain a satisfactory reply on the subject of religion, they 
 produced a Koran, and turning over the pages, pointed out two or three 
 passages relating to the unity of the Supreme Being, the resurrection 
 of souls, the future state, &c. These they requested me to read, and 
 putting a favourable construction upon ray compliance, the controversy 
 ended. It appeared in the sequel, they indulged the belief that our 
 faith was the same, in theory at least ; or that I was actually a true 
 believer, according to their own acceptation of the word ; and for 
 political reasons I never was desirous of undeceiving them. 
 
 In reminding me of the sarcasm I had used in the morning, the 
 Bashaw told me that his feelings had beeen wounded, because he stood
 
 RELIGION OF ASHANTEE. 97 
 
 in the character of Patriarch, and therefore had suffered degradation 
 in the eyes of his friends. 
 
 The faraiharity of our intercourse entitled me now to a greater 
 degree of confidence, and accordingly I was given to understand, that 
 the " Prophet's cause" was not neglected in these regions of ignorance. 
 " When I was a young man," said the Bashaw, " I worked for the 
 good of my body. I traded on the face of God's earth, and travelled 
 much ; as my beard grew strong I settled at Salgha, and lastly removed 
 to this city. I was still but an indifferent Talb, when, God be praised, 
 a certain Moraboth from the north was sent to me by a special direction, 
 and that learned saint taught me the truth ; so that now my beard is 
 white, and I cannot travel as before ; I am content to seek the ffood of 
 my soul in a state of future reward. My avocations at Coomassy are 
 several ; but my chief employment is a school which I have endowed, 
 and which I preside over myself. God has compassionated my labours, 
 and I have about seventy pupils and converts at this time. Besides 
 tbis, the king's heart is turned towards me, and I am a favoured 
 servant. Over the Moslems I rule as Cady, conformably to our law ; I 
 am also a member of the king's council in affairs relating to the 
 believers of Sarem and Dagomba ; and I trade with foreign countries 
 through the agency of my friend Abou Beer." 
 
 This confession was in some points open to a prejudicial con- 
 struction, inasmuch as it looked ostentatious ; but from the general 
 conduct of the man, his modesty and urbanity, I could not bring 
 myself to think so uncharitably . 
 
 In adverting to the religious opinions of the Ashantees, the reply 
 was, that they were poor wandering heathens ; but that many of 
 the chiefs were bigotted infidels, not excepting the king himself; 
 although that monarch would sometimes give ear to the law, (of 
 Mohammed) and never opposed the believers of Ghunja ; but on the 
 contrary was a friend on whom they could always rely for protection. 
 Although the king, added my informer, was a misguided infidel, he 
 
 o
 
 98 RELIGION OF ASHANTEE. 
 
 was yet superior by far, to many other sovereigns, and particularly to 
 the king- of Dahomy, his eastern neighbour, who was an infidel of 
 infidels (Kaifar ben al Koufar). 
 
 This sovereign a short time back was an avowed enemy to the 
 religion of Islam, and actually put a number of the " Prophet's 
 children" to death in his country. God, however, they said, had 
 changed his heart, and now the brethren of the true faith travel even 
 to the sea side in safety, and gain numbers of proselytes in his 
 dominions. Reverting again to the king of Ashantee, they asserted 
 that with the exception of many barbarous practices, such as the liba- 
 ' tions of human blood at sacrifices, and the horrid cruelty of his wars, 
 he was a good man, and wholly undeserving the name of tyrant. The 
 character of true believers, they added, stood very high with the king, 
 for he consulted them upon many important occasions, where the 
 interests of their nation were concerned ; and moreover, he never 
 engaged in any warlike enterprize without their society. 
 
 In the case of the recent war of Gaman, they informed me that 
 they both accompanied the king. * It was the bloodiest campaign they 
 had ever witnessed, for many thousands of Moslems perished in the 
 war, as Ghobagho and Kong (both Mohammedan countries,) had united 
 their forces with Dinkera, king of Gaman, who had cast off his allegiance 
 to the king of Ashantee, and transferred a tribute which he formerly 
 paid him to the Sultan of Kong. In describing some of the charac- 
 teristics of the war, they declared they had actually witnessed the 
 
 * Subsequently I learned that the Bashaw deserted from the army, the evening after the great battle 
 of the Tando river, and returned to Coomassy. This conduct enraged the king, who swore that 
 had he not been a holy man, he would have put him to death. After I became acquainted with 
 this little history, I took a favourable opportunity to insinuate its contents to the chief, who, in 
 reply, admitted the truth ; but alledged in his defence, that his character as well as his life were at 
 stake ; for in regard to the former, he could not without deserving to be stigmatized as infamous, 
 witness the horrid butcheries in the camp, so contrary to the tenets of his religion, and what would 
 it have booted him in the world to come, had it pleased God to have destroyed him in the ranks 
 of the infidels, when he was not fighting for the faith, but against it.
 
 CHARACTERS OF THE CABOCEERS. 99 
 
 massacre of ten thousand old men, women, and young children, besides 
 numbers of chieftains, who were put to death by tortures the most 
 revolting to humanity. The Ashantees, they affirmed, were, as 
 enemies, the most terrible of mankind, and in war, were justly dreaded 
 even by the true believers. * 
 
 Religion was a favourite topic of discussion. With this preference 
 I purposely complied, that I might gain the confidence of my new 
 friends. To my enquiries relating to the geography, &c. of the 
 interior of Africa, they gave replies which proved their capacity and 
 inclination to oblige. Their account of these matters will be found in 
 another division of this work. 
 
 During the remainder of the evening these valuable friends 
 continued to furnish me with many useful lessons, calculated, as they 
 affirmed, for my guidance at court ; nor did they exempt from the 
 catalogue the private characters of several of the king's friends and 
 courtiers. Apoko in particular, they declared to be the most ferocious 
 chief in the kingdom, and one whose delight was to wallow in human 
 blood. Amon Koitea, a man whose rank was second only to that of 
 the king, and who governed the country as lieutenant or viceroy, was a 
 tyrant equally blood-thirsty, and in his sacrifices the most inhuman 
 of monsters. Little more reputable were the characters of Ouso 
 Cudjo, Ado Quamina, Amo Nahim, and other captains of the king's 
 troops. 
 
 * This political conduct on the part of the king appearing to me a little enigmatical, and as it did 
 not tally with what I had been previously told of the respect entertained for Moslems, I suggested the 
 question as an apparent inconsistency. But I was readily informed that his majesty's affection for true 
 believers was limited to the more eastern districts, and to Talbs or priests of all nations, but more 
 especially those who came from Egypt, or any part of the Holy Land. His western wars were strictly 
 political. Yet the prisoners he took in battle, if Moslems, were never put to death like infidels ; on the 
 contrar)', they were well used, and generally transferred to the eastern division of the empire, particularly 
 to Bouromy on the Volta. If they fell in battle against the king, it was considered their " blood was 
 upon their own heads." 
 
 o 2
 
 100 THE king's ideas OF EUROPE. 
 
 My entry into Coomassy they affirmed Avas signalized by the 
 sacrifice of a number of human victims ; slaves and malefactors, who 
 had been reserved by the king and his chiefs for many days previous. 
 The number of victims offered up at the palace, they added, were 
 nine, and every chief was compelled to ftirnish an additional quota to 
 the sanguinary offerings ; but the king knowing the abhorrence with 
 which the white men viewed these butcheries, had conducted the 
 sacrifices in secret, and had prohibited all his chiefs from exercising 
 the like barbarity in public during my stay in Coomassy. 
 
 On the 3d of March, Agampong, the captain of the palace, or 
 \ of audiences, waited upon me mth a message requesting me to attend 
 the king. 
 
 I lost no time in obeying the summons, and found his majesty 
 seated in his palace, under the same shed as before. Several of the 
 presents lay scattered before him, as if he had been eug-aged in the 
 inspection. The reception he gave me was as friendly as could be 
 desired, and he caused me to be seated by his side. 
 
 A conversation upon various desultory topics opened the audience, 
 and the king, throughout, manifested by his enquiries an intense 
 curiosity regarding the affairs of Europe ; but more especially of 
 England. His knowledge on these points appeared, as in fact it really 
 was, extremely limited. Europe, or the " land of white men," he 
 supposed to contain several tribes or families, of which the English 
 was the most warlike, and powerful, of the day ; and the Portuguese 
 the most ancient, and formerly the mistress of all the other tribes. 
 These several tribes, he imagined, inhabited a number of large islands 
 which were subordinate to the king of England (or the English island) 
 who received annual tributes from the whole. Besides the Portuguese, 
 the Danes, Swedes, Americans, Dutch, and Spaniards were names 
 familiar to his understanding, although his information respecting 
 them was equally contemptible ; so much so, indeed, that it would 
 have warranted a mean opinion of his majesty, had I not known from
 
 MECHANISM. 101 
 
 experience, that it was possible for nations less remote from Europe, 
 and infinitely superior in acquired knowledge* to think as vasuely. 
 
 The king pointing to the lathe, required to be informed of its 
 properties ; but when this was done, he could not be prevailed upon 
 to value it at a high estimation. It seemed to him too mechanical for 
 a royal present ; at least his countenance conveyed this impression, 
 although courtesy prevented his evincing any disappointment. The 
 properties of the organ were better understood, yet it was discovered 
 to have sustained material damage in the humid vaults of Cape Coast 
 Castle. The task of winding up the watch and musical box required a 
 degree of care foreign to the comprehension of the king; it was 
 requisite, therefore, to put the mechanism in motion each time. At 
 last the king consigned the lathe and org-an to the care of Mr. Salmon ; 
 as this gentleman expressed his confidence of being able to put them 
 in order ; and here the audience broke up. 
 
 Early on the 4th of March, the king sent me some bottles of palm 
 wine, coupled with an injunction to hold myself in readiness to meet 
 him in the great area, where he designed to distribute some bulky 
 presents before the people. I felt something like repugnance at 
 meeting his majesty's wishes in so public a manner, and this objection 
 I insinuated to the Bashaw ; but my scruples were totally beyond the 
 comprehension of this worthy iMoslem ; nor could he conceive that I 
 was sincere, until I hinted a thought of sending to the palace, to 
 request that the intended presents might be postponed until the 
 
 • In Morocco I have conversed with Arabs or Moors of superior education, whose notions concerning 
 the tfeoo^raphy of Europe, differed not very materially from the opinions of the Ashantees. England, 
 Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Hamburg, Lubec, and some other trading countries and cities were 
 conceived to be islands in the Ocean, contiguous to each other, and of no extraordinary magnitude, 
 although En2;land was admitted to be the largest and most populous. Their notions concerning France, 
 Italy, but more particularly Spain and Portugal were more accurately defined, doubtless from ancestorial 
 tradition preserved from the records of their forefathers, the conquerors or inheritors of that extensive 
 Peninsula.
 
 102 THE KING S PRESENTS. 
 
 evenino-. " How can you," said the chief, " think of such a thing ? 
 the king already loves you like his son, and why do you wish to shame 
 him in his own country, when he is going to treat you the same as he 
 would a king, and do you a great honour before his captains and all 
 Coomassy ? The people," added the Bashaw, " are already assembled, 
 the great officers are in attendance, as well as our own people, and I 
 shall be with the king ; therefore come in God's name, and it will be 
 well for you : but if you do not, the king will surely think you are 
 angry." 
 
 The approaching ceremony, it is true, created a certain feeling not 
 far removed from disgust, as it seemed to interfere with the character I 
 was bound to support. It was pleasing, however, to witness the anxious 
 solicitude of the Bashaw and Abou Beer, who could only have been 
 guided by the purest motives of friendship, and I submit these remarks, 
 in contradiction of what has been insinuated to the prejudice of the 
 Moslems, respecting their political sentiments. 
 
 About one o'clock, the king sent me a guard of honour, and a 
 message intimating his readiness to meet me at the appointed spot. 
 I accordingly sallied forth with the other officers. The whole body of 
 Fantee carriers brought up the rear, with countenances beaming with 
 satisfaction ; for, as they were heard to say, it looked auspiciously, and 
 foreboded a reconciliation. On turning the angle at which jny quarters 
 joined a row of huts, a full assemblage of the people opened to the 
 view ; and in the midst of the nniltitude the king was seated under 
 his canopy. Our seats, by his majesty's direction, were placed under 
 the shade of some trees, and after a formal salutation he retired a few 
 paces in front of our ranks. His majesty's countenance beamed with 
 more than usual satisfaction, which it reflected upon all around him. 
 The chiefs enjoyed in secret the ostentatious gaiety of their sovereign, 
 while the multitude, less attached to decorvun, and elated with the 
 bare glimpse of royal smiles, were animated to bursts of enthusiasm and
 
 THE king's presents. 103 
 
 uproar. These feelings of good will were not lost upon the Fantees, 
 whose happiness seemed little short of what was manifested by the 
 Ashantees themselves. 
 
 Adusai was directed to distribute some little silk packages which the 
 king placed in his hands. In obedience to this instx-uction, the minister 
 came pompously forward, and advancing towards me, as he held up the 
 packages to public view, he delivered one into my hand, saying, 
 "The king gives you seven ounces two ackeys of gold, as a token of 
 friendship." The other little parcels of gold, in the proportion of two 
 ounces and upwards, were afterwards distributed to Messrs. Collins, 
 Hutton, Salmon, and Graves, each in proportion to the estimation his 
 majesty was pleased to put upon their respective ranks. The king was 
 attentive to what was transacting ; yet he occasionally turned round to 
 his courtiers, inquiring as it were, by his countenance, whether their 
 feelings sympathized with his own. 
 
 A pause of some duration ensued, and his majesty directed his 
 eyes full, and steadily upon us, while every muscle indicated a joyous 
 satisfaction, augmented as it seemed by the hilarity of the people. A 
 messenger now" advanced to acquaint me that the present of provisions 
 was approaching, and soon aftenvards a file of about two hundred men 
 and boys, laden ^vitll provisions, passed in the order of review, and 
 were then conducted to my quarters, where they deposited their 
 burthens. The supply consisted of two cows, several sheep and 
 goats, poultry, eggs, yams, plantains, bananas, honey, oil, palm, nuts, 
 and wine, cankay bread, and a large pig. The court then broke up, 
 and we were permitted to retire. Upon approaching the avenue 
 leading to my apartments, the scattered heaps of provisions which had 
 been cast promiscuously on the ground, nearly choked up the way. 
 The abundance that now reigned in the quarters, gave licence to 
 excesses among the people, and as the diet was in itself somewhat novel 
 to the Fantees, many of those people suffered from intemperate 
 indulgence. This princely donation lasted, however, but a few days.
 
 104 MANDINGO MOSLEMS. 
 
 for added to our own daily consumption, the town's-people occasionally 
 invaded the quarters by stealth, and pilfered the bread, wine and nuts. 
 
 In the course of the day, the king sent me a horse, which he 
 desired I should make use of during- my stay in the country. This 
 animal, although of a diminutive breed, and of unsightly appearance, 
 was moderately fleet and active, possessing a share of Arabian vivacity. 
 The saddle and trappings were in the fashion of West Barbary, 
 although the workmanship was uncouth, and some of the ornamental 
 appendages were wanting. 
 
 Abou Beer and Cantoma, the two Moslems, whose names have been 
 already mentioned, paid me a visit in the afternoon, bringing with them 
 a few manuscripts, which they said belonged to a friend of theirs, who 
 was then absent on a trading journey at Killinga. Cantoma was 
 moderately well skilled in the Arabic language, which he said he had 
 studied in Haoussa. From these Moslems I learned that several 
 Mandings and Mountaineers were in the city, who only waited an 
 invitation to pay their respects to me. I had no sooner expressed an 
 inclination to meet the strangers, than these two friends departed, and 
 in a few minutes returned again with three Moslems, who said 
 they were natives of Kong, that they belonged to a Mandingo tribe 
 called Argoul, who having opposed the Ashantees in the Gaman war. 
 it had been their lot to fall under the power of the king. These men 
 were incapable of holding any conversation in Arabic, and one of the 
 three only was able to read in that language. Ado Quamina happening 
 to enter the apartment at the time, put a total stop to the harmony 
 of the meeting ; as they did not care to converse in the presence of 
 an Ashantee chief. My endeavours to get rid of my new guest were 
 unavailing, as he politely assured me that the king had appointed him 
 to prevent the people from being intrusive. Finding that my new 
 acquaintance were not disposed to retire, he spoke in an angry tone to 
 them ; the effect of which was evident, as they suddenly took leave. 
 The interpreter said that Ado Quamina threatened to report them to
 
 MISLTNDERSTANDING WITH ADO QUAMINA. 10.5 
 
 the king, upon a suspicion that they had been giving- me information 
 about the western countries.* This recital kindled some indignation 
 on my part, and in turn I peremptorily insisted upon his quitting the 
 quarters, threatening to relate the whole matter to the king, and 
 complain that the first insult I had received was from the man who 
 called himself my protector. 
 
 The resentment conveyed in this threat eftectually softened down 
 the austerity of the chief, who was now anxious to conciliate ; offering 
 to restore me my friends ; but I did not deem it politic to renew the 
 intimacy at this time, and Ado Quamina departed. Cantoma and 
 Abou Beer whispered me before they left, that I should be on my 
 guard against Ado Quamina, who acted as a court spy. The king, 
 they added, would not object to my intercourse with them, although he 
 might not approve of an intimate connexion with his recent enemies ; 
 
 ■* In pages 48 and 49 of Dalzel's History of Dahomy, it appears that a prejudice coinciding with the 
 one abovementioned existed in that kingdom. The passage is as follows : " In the evening going to take 
 leave of the great captain, they found in his tent two of the Muley or Malaye people, of which there 
 were about forty at that time in the camp. They were black, dressed in long gowns, with a kind of 
 turban on their heads, and sandals on their feet. The interpreter told Captain Snelgrave that they 
 belonged to a nation far inland, bordering on the Moors, had been taken in different wars as they were 
 trading from one country to another, and were, like the white men, possessed of the art of writine. The 
 king treated them kindly, in return for which they dyed goat and sheep skins of divers colours, out of which, 
 amongst other uses, cartouch boxes and powder bags were made for the soldiers. The author was 
 desirous of conversing with them, but was infoimed it would give offence to the great captain ; knowing 
 the jealousy of all the negroes in like cases, he desisted, and having paid his visit, returned to his tent." 
 
 This is a more accurate account than any given by the preceding writers, some of whom supposed 
 them from the name to be natives of Malacca. It seems probable that Guinea is indebted to these 
 wandering Mahometans for many of its customs, and Europe for the knowledge of the inland countries. 
 
 It is this jealousy that has stopped the progress of all the European inquiries into the geography 
 and history of this part of Africa, and which will probably remain an insuperable obstruction to it for 
 many ages, unless we could employ these Moors or Rlalayes, if found adequate to the task, and willing to 
 undertake it. They seem to be the only people who have a passe par-lout, and who travel much farther 
 than the Caravans. The Malayes here are detained as being prisoners of war ; but traders would not be 
 under such restrictions, as we may see by comparing the treatment of Lambe with that of the other 
 people, 
 
 P
 
 106 RECONCILIATION. 
 
 but when it should be known that our religious language was familiar, 
 he would not certainly be very scrupulous, and therefore it would be 
 necessary to tell his majesty the truth. Ado Quamina returned again 
 at this juncture, bringing with him a small pot of palm wine, which 
 he presented to me as a reconciliatory offering, and grasping Cantoma 
 by the arm, he entreated his mediation. It would have been impos- 
 sible to harbour resentment, had I not persuaded myself that it was 
 necessary to consult other feelings than those which were personal. 
 Again he departed in a pensive mood, and as the sun went down, 
 returned once more, bringing with him his baud of musical per- 
 formers OD horns and flutes, and commencing a serenade opposite the 
 outer gate. Whilst this was transacting, he seated hiiuself very 
 demurely in the street, beating time with his hands, and chaunting 
 occasional stanzas. During the entertainment, the Bashaw and two 
 or three of his friends entered the quarters, and Ado Quamina again 
 followed with his pot of wine, and some honeycomb, which he had 
 added to the present. Wheii he had placed the articles at my feet, 
 he renewed his petition to these Moslems, one by one, requesting 
 their mediation with me, and called to my own servants, by name, 
 intreating a good word from them. It was more than enough ; I felt 
 as if I had really injured the man, and could hold out no longer. I 
 accepted of his offering, and buried all animosity by permitting the 
 musicians to enter the enclosure.* 
 
 The Bashaw informed me he had recently come from the palace, 
 
 * Of all the musical instruments of Ashantee, the flutes and small horns are the most tolerable to an 
 European ear. Enough has already been said upon the discordant notes of a full concert of martial 
 music. The flutes and horns form, however, an exception, and in truth, the harmony produced by an 
 unison of these instruments is far from despicable; the former being melodious and plaintive, and the 
 latter approaching the sound of the human voice, perhaps beyond any other artificial contrivance. 
 Indeed so clear and distinct are the tones which they utter, that conversations are usually carried on by 
 distant parties of performers, and war songs, and deeds of heroism are recited, by which they work an 
 audience up to a pitch of phrenzy.
 
 SLAVES OF THE MOSLEMS. 107 
 
 and that the king knew I could converse with the behevers, but he 
 could not acquaint me by what means his majesty obtained that infor- 
 mation. The king-, he said, was not angry but astonished, and he 
 believed my Fefische'^ to be a very powerful one. The conduct of Ado 
 Quamina I found had been already promulgated abroad by himself, 
 and my visitors candidly av^owed that they came to reconcile me to 
 Ado Aquamina, who dreaded the power of my " Fetische" as much 
 as he did the risk of incurring the displeasure of his sovereign. 
 
 The Bashaw introduced a number of young male slaves whom 
 he had adopted in his family, and who vvere under his religious tuition. 
 These lads, he assured me, were the children of infidels in various 
 countries, and some were Ashantees, given to him by the king, or 
 purchased with his own property. Every true believer, he added, 
 adopted the same plan in proportioii to the extent of his income ; 
 and as it was an act highly meritorious in itself, so all the faithful 
 who visited these lands made a merit of redeeming at least one soul 
 
 * The application of the word Fetische, so commonly in use with Europeans and Negroes in this part 
 of Africa, requires elucidation ; }'et it would, perhaps, be impossible to select from any known language 
 a term of corresponding signification. Sufficient may be said, however, to explain its general import. 
 Fetische is evidently a corrupt relic of the Portuguese, introduced to the country, probably, by the original 
 explorers of that nation, and adopted by the Africans to accommodate to the understanding of their visitors, 
 such things connected with religion, laws, or superstition, as could not be explained by the ordinary use 
 of a few common-place expressions, and that could not be interpreted by ocular demonstrations. Religion, 
 we know, was a leading feature in the Portuguese and Spanish armaments of those days. Any exclusive 
 power, or faculty in human nature, is deemed an inspiration of the Fetische, such as slight of hand, 
 necromancy, invocations of departed spirits, and witchcraft. The religious laws of particular sects or casts, 
 (for they are probably as various in Africa as elsewhere) are described to Europeans, at the present day, 
 under the denomination Fetische. The talismanic churms and sentences from the Koran, worn about the 
 body, have the same appellation in common ; and generally whatever is held as sacred, including trees, 
 stones, rivers, or houses, whether ancient or of recent dedication to any invisible spirit or matter, are 
 comprehended within that signification. Thus if a man should swear by the religious observances of his 
 ancestors, an interpreter would say he called upon his Fetische to witness the truth : and the same 
 invocation may be applied to other cases, where the oath is upon trivial atfairs. An invocation of the 
 wandering spirits or Genii, which also bear the name Fetische, is considered inviolable. 
 
 p 2
 
 108 BISMILLAH. 
 
 from the jaws of perdition, according to the injunctions contained in 
 the Koran. One of these youths was pre-eminently conspicuous from 
 his fellows, by personal beauty, and a countenance of prepossessing 
 benignity, and the Bashaw noticing the attention with which I eyed 
 his convert, instantly otfered to dispose of him, provided I would be 
 a purchaser. But when I assured him that my curiosity was confined 
 to a knowledge of his native country, he told me that he was from a 
 town in Bouromy, on the banks of the Bahar Aswada, or, the Volta 
 River. The young nian's features were exactly of the Arab cast. 
 He, as well as his compeers, was incapable of comprehending a 
 single sentence, or even a word of Arabic, beyond the little gleaning 
 of his religious study. The Bashaw, however, was unwilling to leave 
 upon my mind an impression so unfavourable to his scholastic capacity; 
 selecting, therefore, one of the pupils as a specimen, he desired him to 
 rehearse a part of his acquirements. This, the young man complied 
 with, and recited the * Fatha and Bismillah verbatim, but his pro- 
 nunciation denoted that redundancy of vowel terminations so peculiar 
 to the languages of all negroes. This circumstance I could not fail 
 to notice, because his delivery was an exception to the pronunciation 
 of his patrons, who, although African negroes also, generally spoke 
 the language with a tolerable share of fluency, and with a pronun- 
 ciation which would not have disgraced even the Caba. As the con- 
 versation turned upon the features of internal Africa, the Bashaw 
 informed me that, as in his youth he had travelled a great deal, the 
 thing he regretted most was that he never took up the resolution to 
 visit Mecca and the Holy Land. Now, added he, I am an old, man; 
 
 * The Fatha has been already described. The Bismillah (In the name of God) is another prayer ; or 
 uiore properly that part of the Islam creed which teaches its votaries the unity and indivisibility of the 
 Godhead, and held in high repute. The words are — 
 
 " In the name of God the merciful and compassionate. Say God is one (and indivisible) . The Eternal 
 God : he begetteth not, neither is he begotten, and there is no one like unto him."
 
 THIRD AUDIENCE. 109 
 
 the mountain rain has fallen upon my head, and I am incapable of 
 long journies ; or, at all events, I would close my days in the land of 
 the faithful. In reply to my enquiry how far he had been to the north- 
 ward, " I have never, said he, crossed the Quarra River, yet I have been 
 in Sarem, in Dagombah, in Killing-a, in Yarraba, and all the countries 
 upon the great waters." 
 
 Agampong arrived at a late hour in the evening, bringing with 
 him a large pot of palm wine, which he delivered to me in the name 
 of the king as of a superior growth and quality, adding, " The king 
 drinks your health in his house, and wishes you to do the same by 
 him." 
 
 On the 5th of March, I attended the palace to return the king 
 thanks for his present. His majesty put on a scrutinizing, although 
 a good-natured look as I advanced, and when the acknowledgements 
 were interpreted to him, instead of noticing the purport of the 
 visit, he significantly motioned his head, repeating in a voice 
 moderately audible, as if to himself, " Salamo, Alikom, Alikom Salam 
 Alikom Salam, Salamo Alikom*," his eyes being still riveted upon 
 me. My two friends Cantoma and Abou Beer were seated upon 
 the ground, near the state chair, in the attitude of counting their 
 beads, when the king abruptly inquired of them where I gained a 
 knowledge of their language ; but made no remark upon it. 
 
 This audience was the least pompous of any. The king was 
 habited in a simple garb that covered his loins, leaving the remainder 
 of his body exposed ; nor had he any ornaments of gold, silver, 
 coral, or aggry beads, as is customary on state occasions. A few 
 only of the principal officers and captains were in attendance, besides 
 the two before named Moslems. Two guards stood behind the 
 monarch armed with musquets, and this etiquette alone distinguished 
 him from the subject. After the lapse of a few seconds, (during 
 
 * The Korannic salutation.
 
 110 FAVOURABLE PROSPECTS. 
 
 which I felt some anxiety to know in what light the king might 
 view my intimacy with the Moslem laws and language) the reserve 
 passed off, and his majesty spoke upon several topics. At last, 
 resuming the business of the mission, he spontaneously said, " The 
 great king (of England) is my master ; he is my friend too, he sends 
 me good things and makes my heart glad ; thus he does me great 
 honour before all my people, and puts shame on my enemies faces. 
 I see your face, that is enough ; I have no more palavers with 
 white men, and I have no longer a bad palaver in my head. All 
 the evil the Fantees have done shall be settled, I am a true friend 
 to the great king, and will do what I can to please him." The 
 audience soon after broke up, and I returned to my quarters under 
 a buoyancy of expectatioii that led me to entertain with confidence 
 the hope of a speedy termination of all differences. 
 
 The news soon spread from the covu-t through the city, and 
 in less than an hour, the Moslems assembled to congratulate me upon 
 this happy turn of politics. The Fantees, who had hitherto confined 
 their perambulations to the vicinity of the quarters, from an appre- 
 hension of insult, or personal hostility, now roved at pleasure through 
 every section of the city ; and from questioning these individuals I 
 found that the greatest harmony existed. Indeed the difficulty 
 that remained was to keep the people, and particularly the servants, 
 to their respective duties. This unanimity, moreover, introduced 
 licentiousness into our party ; who, no longer awed by apprehensions, 
 indulged themselves in excess. 
 
 One night after I had retired to rest, I was disturbed from sleep 
 by a clamour among the people, and throwing a cloak about me, I 
 proceeded to the apartment from whence the noise issued, and 
 there discovered a number of Fantees regaling over a keg of rum, and 
 some pots of palm wine, which they had purloined. Several women 
 and young girls were seated amidst the group, or rolling over the laps 
 of themen in the most wanton and indecent postures. My intrusion
 
 MISCONDUCT OF THE FANTEES. Ill 
 
 put a stop to the conviviality of the meeting. The lamp was suddenly 
 extinguished, to aid their escape from observation, and every one who 
 was able fled from the scene of riot into the town, although I posted 
 myself at the outer gate to intercept the fugitives. This tended to 
 increase my surprise, but at dawn I was no longer astonished, when I 
 found there was a private avenue cut between the wall and the reed 
 fence that surrounded the apartment. This had been made as a private 
 sally-port, to gain access to the city when the quarters were closed at 
 night. 
 
 I received visits from several Ashantees of rank, and amongst others 
 Ouso Bannahen, the king's vmcle, came in some state, attended by 
 forty or fifty retainers, amongst whom were a group of boys. This 
 man was of a disposition happily mild, and indeed, with the Moslems, 
 I found he was considered comparatively of an humane temper, 
 although they w^ould not admit the term in an unlimited sense, for 
 they repeatedly affirmed that every chief was more or less prone to 
 cruelty or oppression, and that they were educated to deeds of 
 ferocious barbarity from childhood. 
 
 In the evening the king sent me a present of palm wine, and some 
 live fish in a large silver tiu'een ; these the messenger assured me were 
 caught daily for his majesty's table, in the Bussem Echouy, a large lake 
 of water on the Akim path. His majesty's good wishes were added 
 to the present, with the usual " good night " and an injunction " to 
 make myself happy, for he was my good friend ; aiid if I wanted any 
 thing to let him know." 
 
 The following day was chiefly employed in distributing presents 
 to the king's officers and relatives. But before this very essential part 
 of the negociation could be carried into eftect, or before any chief 
 would presume to accept the intended present, it was necessary to 
 obtain permission from the king. The message returned from the 
 palace was gratifying. " The great king," said his majesty, "has sent 
 me good things, and he sends good things for my captains; this is
 
 112 PRESENTS TO THE CHIEFS. 
 
 a true friend. White men know what is right, so do every thing 
 you please." With this licence I drew up a Ust of those in power, 
 whose influence at court was most important to my views, and to 
 these men I distributed presents in proportion to their rank. 
 
 Here I shall observe, that the system of negotiation at Morocco, 
 does not materially vary from that of Coomassy ; and as I have 
 frequently conducted missions of this character to the sultan, I was 
 at no loss in a negro court. 
 
 In Ashantee, however, the wives and concubines of the sovereign, 
 are not permitted, neither do they expect, to participate in the gifts 
 of foreign ambassadors. Their mediation is considered unavailing ; 
 and their occupations too servile and domesticated to entitle them 
 to notice in state affairs. Whereas female mediation, as it is well 
 known, is absolutely of the first importance as well in Barbaiy as 
 in the East, where the fiat of the sultan frequently originates in the 
 harem or the seraglio.
 
 ARRIVAL OF ABROAH. 113 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUED. 
 
 ARRIVAL OF THE INTERPRETER ABROAH— PREJUDICES OF THE KING AGAINST HIM— THE 
 KING'S SISTER— ACCOUNT OF HER PROMOTION TO THE RANK OF GOVERNESS OF THE EMPIRE 
 —MAGICAL RITES AND SUPERSTITIONS— BARBARITY OF THE KING TOWARDS HIS WIVES- 
 COMMENCEMENT OF A HISTORY OF THE KING'S WARS FOR THE INFORMATION OF THE KING 
 OF ENGLAND— SUSPICIONS ENTERTAINED AGAINST THE INTERPRETERS— THE KING'S NOTES 
 FOR CAPE COAST CASTLE— REMARKS ON THE CONDUCT AND STATEMENTS OF MR. BOWDICH RE- 
 SPECTING THESE NOTES — THE KING'S ARGUMENTS AND DECLARATIONS — QUALITIES AND PRICES 
 OF GOODS SUPPLIED FROM CAPE COAST— HUMAN SACRIFICES— ATTEMPT OF THE CABOCEERS TO 
 SOUND THE BRITISH AGENT— CONFERENCE ON THE SKETCH OF A TREATY— MESSAGE TO THE 
 KING FROM CAPE COAST CASTLE— DISPUTES RESPECTING A PENALTY ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN 
 REPRESENTED AS INSERTED IN THE FARMER CONVENTION- RETURN OF MR. HUTTON TO CAPE 
 COAST— ERECTION OF A FORT BY THE KING— -MISUNDERSTANDING RESPECTING THE KING OF 
 JUABIN (DW.\BIN)— CONTINUATION OF THE PALAVER— LITTLE ADAI CUSTO.M— HC.MAN SACRI- 
 FICES—AUDIENCE OF CERE.MONY— PRESENTS FRO.M THE KING— INSTRUCTIONS FROM CAPE 
 COAST— INDIGNATION OF THE KING— EXHIBITION OF THE MAGIC LANTHORN— APPOINTMENT OF 
 A DAY FOR THE AUTHOR'S RETURN, ON HIS SOLEMN REQUISITION. 
 
 On the 7th, a Mulatto, named George Abroah, arrived at Coomassy 
 from Cape Coast, with a letter recommending him to me as interpreter 
 to the mission. His knowledge of the English language was rather 
 superior to that of his coadjutor and predecessor ; but as I afterwards 
 discovered, he was very deficient in diplomatic courtesy, frequently 
 giving unintentional oiFence by the omission of certain acts of ceremony 
 and decorum. His presumptuous address excited some displeasure in 
 
 Q
 
 114 VISIT FROM THE KING'S SISTER. 
 
 the king, even on the day of his arrival in the capital, when he was 
 ushered into the presence of that sovereign, and imprudently started the 
 topic of the " Fantee Palaver." The king also obtained information 
 (but by what means I could never discover) that Abroah was a relation 
 of De Graaf, the linguist of Cape Coast Castle, whom he was pleased 
 to consider his political and personal enemy. This circumstance also 
 weighed heavily on Abroah's reputation at court, and indeed operated 
 to the disadvantage of the mission, by checking that open confidence 
 which had hitherto been so strongly manifested by the king and his 
 council. These disqualifications compelled me to remonstrate warmly 
 with Abroah. 
 
 The king's sister entered my quarters in the forenoon, bringing in 
 her train a troop of about one hundred and fifty women and young 
 girls, many of whom were described as the daughters and wives of men 
 of hio-h rank. After taking- a seat she motioned to several females who 
 ^vere her intimate attendants, to enter the place, whilst the remainder 
 stood or seated themselves upon the ground without. Her speech was 
 laconic. " She was happy," she said, " because I was her brother's 
 good friend, and the friend of the captains, and she thanked me for 
 the present I had sent to her," This woman's relationship naturally 
 established her in an elevated rank, but she was doubly dignified by an 
 employment which, perhaps, may not improperly be termed Governess 
 of the empire, or Queen over the females ; all of that sex being imme- 
 diately responsible to her government, and subject to an arbitrary 
 controul under her vice-governesses. 
 
 With this employment she had been invested only a few months, 
 and since the king's return from Buntoko. Her elevation proceeded 
 from a cause somewhat remarkable. 
 
 When the king was about to open the campaign against Gaman, 
 he collected together his priests, to invoke the royal Fetische, and 
 perform the necessary orgies to insure success. These ministers of 
 superstition sacrificed thirty-two male and eighteen female victims,
 
 INCANTATIONS. 115 
 
 as an expiatory offering- to the gods, but the answers from the 
 priests being deemed by the council as still devoid of inspiration, 
 the king was induced to make a custom at the sepulchres of his 
 ancestors, where many hundreds bled. This, it is affirmed, propi- 
 tiated the wrath of the adverse gods. The priests then prepared a 
 certain Fetische compound, which they delivered to the king, with an 
 injunction to burn the composition daily in a consecrated fire pot 
 within the palace ; and upon no account to neglect the fire, so as to 
 suffer it to go out ; for as long as the sacred flame devoured the powder, 
 he would triumph over his foes. 
 
 When the king joined his army he commissioned his eldest sister 
 (then governess of the kingdom), to attend strictly to the sacred 
 mystery, telling her that his crown and life both depended upon her 
 vigilance, and the fulfilment of his order. He selected also three 
 wives to whom he was more attached than the rest, to watch by turns 
 over the mysterious rites, in conjunction with his last-mentioned 
 sister. 
 
 During the king's absence, this arbitress of his fate formed a 
 connexion with a chief of Bouromy, whose ambition suggested a plan 
 to seat himself upon the throne. 
 
 In this conspiracy, seventeen of the king's wives and their families 
 are said to have joined ; the fire-pot was broken to pieces, and the 
 chief commenced arming his party. But the king, added my informer, 
 who had sustained heavy losses in the early part of the war, and was 
 unable to account for the audacity of the enemy, performed an incan- 
 tation over a certain talisman, which gave an insight into what was 
 transacting in the capital. He therefore dispatched a body of men 
 under Ouso Cudjo, who, after an impotent struggle on the part of the 
 enemy, effectually crushed the rebellion. When the king returned 
 home, he called a council to deliberate upon the punishment due to the 
 offenders, and it was finally decreed that his wives should suffer death 
 by decapitation. His sister, to prevent the profanation of spilling royal 
 
 Q 2
 
 116 FATE OF THE KING'S WIVES. 
 
 blood, was ordered to be strangled. The chief, her paramour, and all 
 those of his party, were doomed to the most cruel deaths at the grave 
 of the king's mother. These sentences were carried into prompt 
 execution, and it is affirmed that above seven hundred people were 
 sacrificed, or fell in resisting the royal forces. After this the younger 
 sister, my present visitor, was made governess. 
 
 While these butcheries were transacting, the king prepared to enter 
 the palace, and in the act of crossing the threshold of the outer gate, was 
 met by several of his wives, whose anxiety to embrace their sovereign 
 lord impelled them thus to overstep the boundary of female decorum 
 in Ashantee ; for it happened that the king was accompanied by a 
 number of his captains, who accordingly were compelled to cover 
 their faces with both hands, and fly from the spot. This is said to 
 have angered the monarch, although his resentment proceeded no 
 farther than words, and he returned the embraces of his wives. 
 But being afterwards told by some of the superintendents that these 
 women were more or less indisposed from a natural female cause, 
 he was inflamed to the highest pitch of indignation, and in a 
 paroxysm of anger caused these unhappy beings to be cut in pieces 
 before his face ; giving orders at the time to cast the fragments into 
 the forest, to be devoured by birds and beasts of prey.* Nor did 
 the atonement rest here, for six more unhappy females were impeached 
 of inconstancy, (a failing, I believe, very common among them), and 
 they also expiated their faults with their lives. Like another Ulysses, 
 his majesty then devoted himself to the purification of his palace, when 
 
 * The law of Ashantee, although preserved only by tradition, is equally influential over the morals 
 of all ranks. That regarding the treatment of women is of some interest, from its approximation to the 
 Levitical, or, perhaps, more intimately to the Mohammedan law, as related in the second chapter of the 
 Koran, where it is enjoined that the men shall separate themselves from the women when naturally 
 indisposed, this being deemed a pollution. In Ashantee, a woman is unclean from the same cause, and 
 cannot approach her husband, or any male branch of her family, until the disorder has left her, and she 
 has undergone certain purifying ablutions.
 
 ACCOTINT OF HIS WARS. 117 
 
 to sura up the full horrors of these bloody deeds, two thousand wretched 
 victims, selected from the Gaman prisoners of war, were slaughtered 
 over the royal death stool, in honour of the shades of departed kings 
 and heroes. 
 
 In the course of this day I repeated my visit to the palace. The 
 king was at this time listening to a palaver between a Moslem and an 
 Ashanteee; but my entrance put a stop to the discussion.* His 
 majesty instantly invited me to a conference, and having assembled 
 around him a few of his captains, he commenced with great volubility, 
 a narration of his original intimacy with Assin and Fantee ; retracing 
 from its commencement, the political connexions that existed between 
 Ashantee and the states before-mentioned, together with the causes that 
 induced his country to make war upon them and other neighbouring- 
 states. These particulars the king expressly desired me to write upon 
 paper, in order to justify his conduct to the king of England, who, he 
 said, could not possibly know what evils had been inflicted upon his 
 people, through the bad faith and hostile policy of his neighbours. 
 
 I instructed one of the officers to minute down the particulars as 
 they were described by the king, through the usual medium of inter- 
 pretation ; but in an early stage of the narrative, the king, who had 
 been eyeing the linguist Abroah with a look of suspicion and distrust, 
 objected to his services, protesting that he was a man, who, of all others, 
 was most prone to deceit, and who was purposely sent to pervert the 
 truth, and " put bad palavers in my head." This was uttered with 
 vehemence, and a corresponding gesture, which failed not to have due 
 weight with the party to whom the accusation was addressed. The 
 thread of the narrative was thus interrupted, and the king wandered 
 from the argument to the dispute at issue, between himself and the 
 authorities at Cape Coast ; thus reviving feelings which could only tend 
 
 Vide Note, page 124.
 
 118 THE king's dislike OF DE GRAAF. 
 
 to procrastinate the evils under which the British Estabhshments had 
 so long suffered. 
 
 In the first transport of ang-er, the king exclaimed, with much 
 bitterness of expression, against De Graaf (the mulatto linguist at Cape 
 Coast) upon whom he lavished every abusive epithet. " He is the man," 
 said the king, " who encourages the people to rebel ; and his intrigues 
 in the castle made the white men enemies to their best friend. His 
 heart is bad, and he suggests falsehoods to the governor, telling him 
 that another king sits upon the stool of his ancestors in the place of 
 Sai, who was killed by the Bontokos." 
 
 The king occasionally evinced symptoms of extreme anger, which 
 now and then degenerated into scurrility and malicious satire, as he 
 dwelt upon the character of the Fantees and his former wars with that 
 nation. At length this transport subsided, and by degrees his eyes 
 recovered their usual good-natured expression. He declined, how- 
 ever, continuing the history, neither was I permitted to retain pos- 
 session of the manuscript in which the narrative had been commenced. 
 When I returned it to him, he said he would consider of it, and as 
 he wished the great king to know the truth, he would send some of his 
 friends as ambassadors to England, for he could not tell what the 
 paper spoke. 
 
 The next topic of discussion related to what is termed the " king's 
 notes," being, in points of fact, a sort of feudal bonds for the ground 
 rent of the Castles of Cape Coast and Annamaboe, which, by reversion, 
 after the subjugation of Fantee and its reduction to vassalage under the 
 yoke of Ashantee, became the property of the king. 
 
 The following are copies of these notes which are still in my pos- 
 session. The reader will, by inspection, be qualified to form an opinion 
 whether or not the king, in complaining of the Fantees, was justified 
 in conceiving his title to the sovereignty a good one.
 
 NOTES FOR CAPE COAST CASTLE, 
 
 119 
 
 " Cape Coast Castle, April 1, 1817. 
 
 " Zey Tooto Quamino, King of Ashantee, at 160s. per month. 
 (Signed) " JOHN HOPE SMITH, 
 
 " Governor in Chief." L. S. 
 
 " This note was held by Araoney, Caboceer of Annamaboe, but in consequence of the conquest 
 of the Fantee country was claimed and transferred to Zey, king of Ashantee, by the consent of the former 
 owner." 
 
 Goods 
 
 " Paid to ultimo, July, 1817. 
 (Signed) W. SMITH. 
 
 Soz. 
 
 " Paid to ultimo, December, 1817, in 
 " 10 Ankers Rum, loz. W. S. 10 
 
 " 24 Kegs powder 
 
 " Paid to Decembers], 1818, in 
 
 W. S. 
 
 24 
 
 " Paid to December 31, 1819, in 
 
 66 Lead bars 
 4 Ankers Rum 
 
 4 Kegs Powder 
 13 Cottons 
 
 1 Ditto Bandanoe 
 
 2 Taffeties 
 
 5 Glasgow Danes 
 1 Fathom Scarlet 
 
 8 s Pieces Long Cloth 
 
 3 Romals 
 
 54 Manchester Toms 
 
 oz. 2 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 oz.. 24 
 
 ow. s. 
 
 The other note is as follows : — r
 
 120 NOTES FOR CAPE COAST CASTLE. 
 
 « Cape Coast Castle, April 1, 1817. 
 " Zey Tooto Quamina, king of Ashantee, at 160s. per month. 
 (Signed) " JOHN HOPE SMITH, 
 
 " Governor in Chief." L. S. 
 
 " This note was held by Adooco, Caboceer of Abrah, but in consequence of the conquest of the 
 Faiitee country was claimed and transferred to Zey, king of Ashantee, by the consent of the former owner. 
 The note of Adooco was only 60s. per month, now increased to 160s as above." 
 
 " Paid to ultimo, July 1817. 
 " In Goods (Signed) W. SMITH. 8oz. 
 
 " Paid to ultimo, December, 1817, in 
 " 10 Ankers Rum, at loz. each W. S. 10 
 
 " Paid to December, 1818, in 
 " 24 Kegs Powder W. S. 24 
 
 " Paid to December, 1819, in 
 " Goods as per note of Amoney, at this date W. S. 24 
 
 " This is the note of Cape Coast Castle." 
 
 These wretched bonds were objects of contention in an early 
 stage of the negotiation between Mr. F. James (the conductor of Mr. 
 Bowdich's Mission) and the Cabinet of Ashantee, in the year 1817- 
 The king's arguments, although they were vehement ones, were 
 supposed even then to be convincing ; or at least, to show some- 
 thing like justice on his part ; nor can it be said that the forts ever 
 attempted to exact a recognition of sovereignity, beyond the precincts 
 of those forts, castles, or factories. So far, indeed, to the contrary, 
 that not only Cape Coast and Annamaboe, but every other establish- 
 ment on the Gold Coast, were fettered to Ashantee, by bonds not 
 very dissimilar ; and their pa>TTients, since the conquest, reverted to 
 the king by the right the sword had given him ; or were relinquished 
 by that monarch in favour of his maritime allies, as in the instances 
 of the tributai-y king of Apollonia, and the chief of Accra. 
 
 The following extract from Mr. Bowdich's Mission (pages 46 and 
 47) wherein that gentleman, for himself and coadjutors, Hutchinson
 
 CONDUCT OF MR. BOWDICH. 121 
 
 and Tedlie, endeavours to justify a conspiracy ag-ainst their superior 
 officer Mr. James, may be useful to refer to here: 
 
 " We were sent for to the king's house ; he was only attended 
 by his privy counsellers, &c. The king- said he wished to talk ; he 
 desired Mr. James to explain to him two notes which he produced, 
 written by the governor in chief at the request of Amoney, king of 
 Annamaboe, and Adokoo, chief of the BrafFoes, making over to Sai, 
 king of Ashantee, four ackies per month of their company's pay as 
 a pledge of their allegiance and the termination of hostilities. The 
 impression seemed to have rooted itself in the king's mind, that 
 this was the governor's individual act,* or that he had instanced it ; 
 his countenance changed ; his counsellors became enraged ; they were 
 all impatience, we all alJxiet3^ Tell the white men, said the king, 
 what they did yesterday made me much pleasure, I was glad we 
 were to be friends ; but to day I see they come to put shame upon 
 my face ; this breaks my heart too much. The English know that 
 with my own powder and shot I drove the Fantees under their forts, 
 I spread my sword over them, they were all killed, and their books 
 (notes) from the forts are mine. These white men cheat me, they 
 think to make Shantee fool; they pretend to make friends with me, 
 and join the Fantees to cheat me, to put shame upon my face ; this 
 makes the blood come from my heart, &c. The irritation spread 
 throughout the circle, and swelled even to uproar." 
 
 Page 48. Mr. James said in reply, " The governor of Cape Coast 
 had done it, that he knew nothing about it, &c. The king asked 
 him to tell him how much had been paid on these notes since his 
 demand, that he knew white men had large books which told this. 
 Mr. James said he could not recollect. Nothing could exceed the 
 king's indignation. White men, he exclaimed, know how manj- 
 
 * Whether Mr. Bowdich doubted the fact I stop not to enquire ; but the reality of the act, agreeably 
 to the king's suspicions, was notorious. 
 
 R
 
 122 CONDUCT OF MR. BOWDICH, 
 
 months pass, how many years they live, and they know this, but they 
 wont tell me : could not the other white men tell me ? " 
 
 For the sake of brevity I must pass over some long panegyrics, 
 which it would seem the author with no parsimonious hand has 
 stamped upon his own zeal, promptitude, and talent, such as these 
 qualifications stand recorded at the expence of the unfortunate James, 
 whom in the same breath he stigmatizes with many disqualifications. 
 
 In page 49, the subject is renewed. " The Moors of authority 
 seized the moment, and zealously fanned the flame which encircled us ; 
 for the kinff lookino- in vain for those testimonies of British feeling 
 which presence of mind would have imposed, exclaimed, I know the 
 English come to spy the country, they come to cheat me, they want 
 war, they want war. Mr. James said, no, we want trade, &c." — The 
 king continued, " I will send a captain to-morrow to take these books, 
 and bring me the heads of all the Fantees under the forts ; the white 
 men know I can do this, I have only to speak to my captains. The 
 Dutch governor does not cheat me ; he does not shame me before the 
 Fantees, he sends me the whole four ounces a month. The Danes do 
 not shame me, and the English four ackies a month is nothing to me ; 
 I can send a captain for all: they wish for war. He drew his beard into 
 his mouth, bit it, and rushing abruptly from his seat, exclaimed 
 Shantee foo ! ah ! ah ! then shaking his finger,* &c. would have burst 
 from us with the exclamation. If a black man had brought me this 
 message I would have had his head cut off. Mr. James was silent." 
 
 * Ingenious as this specimen of the Ashantee language may seem, it is only remarkable, as I am 
 credibly informed, for being a specimen of the author's limited erudition : he forgot however to insert 
 its meaning, if he knew it. Shantee foo implies, simply, Ashantee people, as we may say Englishmen. 
 How the king could have applied such angry words to threaten poor Mr. James and his band, would seem 
 to require some little philosophy to explain. The ah ! ah ! is O ! ! This is the expose of all the 
 hidden mystery of this terrific exclamation. Mr. James knew more of the Ashantee language than any 
 white man in the country, judge then how dreadfully alarmed he must have been at such a menace from 
 Such a monarch.
 
 THE king's complaints. 123 
 
 Page 54. " Whilst we impress the surprising power and influence 
 of the king, we must do him the justice to acknowledge the convincing 
 manner in which he urged the injuries and forbearance which 
 preceded the Fantee war ; his willingness to do every thing for the 
 forts, and the conduct of the Dutch governor in giving him the whole 
 of the four ounces, were impressively and ingeniously associated." 
 
 But dismissing this digression, the goods that were sent to the 
 king under my charge in payment of the notes were subjected to a 
 rigid scrutiny, after wliich his majesty demanded to know their 
 respective prices, as they stood valued upon the list. When these 
 charges were read over, he affected the greatest astonishment, mingled 
 with anger. '• What," said he, " is it thus the governor shews his 
 friendship for me, charging me an ounce of gold fol- an anker of rum, 
 or a keg of powder ; six ackies for a romal, an ounce for a piece of 
 taffety silk, and all the other goods at the same high prices ? Is this 
 treating- me like a friend and a kins: ? Truly, I see he makes this 
 extravagant profit, because I rcou/d not receive the 7iotes at Jour ackies 
 a month. This is not proper conduct in white men towards the blacks. 
 The great God gave them much sense, and they make books that 
 ought to speak truth ; but this book is not true, for the governor puts 
 down whatever he chuses, because he knows I cai^not read. This is 
 shameful, for when I made the book (treaty) w'ith the other white 
 men, I was too happy, and I sent all the trade to the governor's 
 warehouse as he told me, '"' and I sent him a present of gold and 
 slaves, and a present of slaves to the governor of Annamaboe. When 
 I do good in this manner, how can the white men say, I wish to 
 quarrel and make war ? I like all white people, for God has made 
 them better than the blacks, and they hold my heart. Mr. White 
 was a good man ; he always told me the truth, and never quarrelled 
 with me or cheated me ; but this governor proposes to be my friend, 
 
 • Mr. Mollan. 
 R 2
 
 124 • THE KINGS COMPLAINTS. 
 
 and when I accept his offer he deceives me, and shames me before 
 my captains and the Fantees. When I went out to fight against 
 Dinkra, I sent to Cape Coast for fifty kegs of powder and some lead 
 to make shot, because I hked Englishmen best ; but the governor sent 
 my messengers away, because they had not gold enough ; they then 
 went to El Mina, and the Dutch governor gave them the powder and 
 shot, and sent my gold back. Which was the best friend ? Suppose 
 I make an alliance with a king and he wants gold ; I give it him : if he 
 wants me to help him, I must go and fight for him too ; and then he 
 knows I have a true heart, and love him like a brother."* God made 
 white and black men : he loves all men ; he does not say they must 
 not be friends because they differ in colour. White men read books, and 
 know the great God, therefore the blacks say, these are strong people ; 
 their fetische is good. This is true, but then they must not do evil. 
 Now when I send gold to Cape Coast to buy goods, and the governor 
 does not know it, so I buy powder at two and three kegs to the 
 ounce, and three ankers of rum to the ounce, and seven ackies for the 
 best guns, and I get one hundred bars of lead for two ounces. The 
 Dutch governor always pays me fairly, he same as if I buy in the 
 
 * During the speech of the king, the parties mentioned in page 117, were again called forward to 
 await judgment. The palaver itself was subsequently explained to me by Kantoma. It seemed a 
 relation of this man, having married a very young girl belonging to a good family in Coomassy, carried 
 his bride away, with intention to solemnize the nuptials at Coransah, among his own tribe, a race de- 
 scended from a branch of Moslem Mandings called Salkoh. On the route, at a short distance from the 
 capital, she had been clandestinely seized upon by a party of men, dragged into the forest, violated, and 
 beaten in a cruel manner. The assailants then effected their escape, leaving the unfortunate girl to her 
 fate in a trackless thicket, where, after long search, she was discovered, in a hruised and lacerated state, 
 but could give no account of those who had injured her. 
 
 The accused, a heathen, pleaded, in the course of his examination, a prior claim to the girl, who, 
 he alledged, had been betrothed to him from infancy ; but he denied all knowledge of the criminal 
 transaction, or indeed that his intended bride had ever been disposed of in favour of another. The 
 Moslem, who, it seems, had selected this man upon suspicion only, was unable to establish proof, and 
 iu this stage of the trial, the king commanded the accused to pass the ordeal termed the " fetische of 
 truth," a poisonotis beverage usually administered to suspected criminals.
 
 THE KINGS COMPLAINTS. 125 
 
 town, and I get good thing-s ; but when the governor of Cape Coast 
 sends me articles, they are bad ; — the rum is watered, and the powder 
 is all dust, like charcoal. I think a white man cannot do this ; there- 
 fore I say to my captains, See what the Fantees do ; they cheat me, 
 and dishonour the English governor. Then my captains take up the 
 sword, and swear they must march to the water side, and live in the 
 towns. But I do not want to kill old men and women and children 
 for their gold, as my soldiers do, I prefer friendship. 
 
 " The Cape Coast people, I know, are insolent ; but as the governor 
 made a book, he should not listen to them. The poor people cannot 
 help it, if the Caboceers tell lies ; but then the governor knows better. 
 That man," added the king, pointing to Abroah, " is bad, for he belongs 
 to the family of De Graaf ; I think he was sent to put a bad palaver 
 in your head. Then there is Aggry ; he wishes, no doubt, to be 
 thought king of Cape Coast ; but he does not wish me to know that. 
 I am the king, and there is no other king in my country. If I chuse, 
 I can send my captains and bring his head to Coomassy. He thinks I 
 shall not do so, because I am afraid of the castle ; but this is not true. 
 Did I not fight the Fantees under Annamaboe fort ? and when the 
 great guns killed my people, did I not fight the white men too, and 
 did they not put out a white flag to make peace ? I cannot do this 
 now, for I know the great king, but I think he does not know the 
 truth. Now I thank the gods you have come to see me, for you will 
 know every thing." Here the king paused. 
 
 In reply, I defended, as far as in reason it could be done, the gover- 
 nor's charges. To deny that the goods might have been purchased at a 
 much lower rate, would have required a considerable share of effrontery. 
 I therefore maintained an argument founded upon precedent from the 
 year 1817. admitting the possibility of purchasing goods at a lower rate, 
 but insisting that the opportunity of doing so was accidental. I refuted 
 his imputations to the best of my ability, although, to adopt the senti- 
 ments of Mr. Bowdich, the kings arguments were plausible even to conviction.
 
 126 HUMAN SACRIFICES. 
 
 In the eveiiinsr I was again summoned to the palace. I found the 
 kinff seated in the society of a few captains, who were again examining 
 the quality of these goods. " Do you tell me," said he as I entered, 
 " that the prices I am charged are fair ?" I replied evasively ; but 
 this not proving satisfactory, I affirmed that if the communication with 
 the interior existed as formerly, they possibly would realize the prices 
 charged upon the list. This was tender ground, I knew. In truth the 
 prices were exorbitant. The king, not knowing how to direct his 
 anffer, abused Abroah. " Mulatto men," said he " look white and sickly, 
 so they want to be all Caboceers, like white men." Breaking the 
 thread of this conversation, and turning abruptly to me, he said, casting 
 the old treaty * down, " What is the use of that book ? I sent it back to 
 the governor, and now he returns it to me. I am afraid it is a bad book. 
 If I fight I cannot keep the book, for friends don't fight." I sufi'ered 
 these royal transports to subside, and at the close of the audience 
 had the satisfaction to hear the king reiterate his pacific intentions. 
 
 The 8th of March was a day dedicated to superstitious rites. My 
 friendly Moslems waited upon me in the forenoon, bringing in their train 
 several natives of Zoo-ho and Killino^a, who had recently arrived at court. 
 The sacrificing blade, they emphatically said, was in action at the 
 chieftains' houses, and many human victims had been dragged into the 
 palace yard for slaughter. " The king, they continued," is wrathful to- 
 day. The angel of death hovers over the city ; but Allah, the all-powerful, 
 will protect the faithful." As no access could be gained either to the 
 palace or the houses of the great officers, all public business was at a 
 stand, and I indulged in rambling over the capital : it was desolate ; 
 no human beings were seen in the streets, and very few in the enclosures 
 belonging to their houses ; those few rejoiced at the sight of white men, 
 and bowed their heads at a distance with timorous humility. The 
 death drum and the horn were distinctly recognized under the outer 
 
 * The convention made by Mr. Bowdich in 1817.
 
 VISIT FROM THE CABOCEERS. 127 
 
 walls of the palace. After the lapse of an hour the gates were again 
 thrown open, and the people again filled the streets, resuming their 
 customary occupations. 
 
 Upon returning to my quarters, I found several of the king's 
 officers in waiting. They were guardedly reserved with respect to the 
 transactions of the morning ; but assured me the court was then open. 
 Upon this information I dispatched a messenger to solicit an interview 
 with the sovereign : but he returned unsuccessful, in company with a 
 captain of the palace, who had been deputed to apologize on behalf of 
 his master, for declining the meeting. This message was followed up by 
 Adusai x^do Matta, Kankam, Agampong, and Ado Quamina, all men 
 of superior, and some of the first rank in the cabinet and army. My 
 former visitors retired, as the second party seated themselves and 
 opened a desultory conversation. I was prepared for matters of more 
 importance, to which I imagined this was a prelude. 
 
 Adusai, taking the advantage of a pause, suggested that it would 
 afford the king great satisfaction to bring all differences to an amicable 
 issue. ''You, white captain," continued the chief, "are beloved by the 
 king, even as his son. The Caboceers like you, and the people say, that 
 is a fit man to talk the palaver, for the king knows he cannot tell a lie. 
 You know the people of Cape Coast are bad ; they have incurred 
 the king's strong displeasure, because they bviilt up a wall and said they 
 would fight him. Now what do you think is fit to be done?" My 
 reply was an evasive one ; but as they renewed the question, I desired 
 to know whether they had been deputed by the king to learn my 
 sentiments privately, or whether they had been invested with authority 
 to negotiate with me at the quarters ? The answer was in the negative ; 
 they protested that their visit was one purely of courtesy, and 
 consequently they had no diplomatic authority. On this assurance, I 
 declined, as a matter of course, entering upon a conversation of that 
 public importance. This resolution, which I thought would have
 
 128 SKETCH OF A TREATY. 
 
 excited displeasure in my giiests, had quite a contrary effect ; a shout 
 of approbation, coupled with a train of compliments, too fulsome to 
 repeat, convinced me that although I was mistaken in my conceptions, 
 these great men were not altogether so innocently engaged as they 
 pretended. 
 
 The Bashaw and Abou Beer called in the evening ; they cursed 
 the sanguinary disposition of the government, alledging that six men 
 and nine women had been sacrificed in the morning: to the kino's 
 household gods ; that these butcheries were kept from my knowledge, 
 for two reasons : the one, that they concerned the Mission, as the king 
 had been imploring the aid of his idols, to incline the heart of the great 
 King of England towards him — the other that I should not have to 
 report that the sovereign of Ashantee delighted in spilling human blood, 
 Avhich it was well known g-ave as much offence to white men as it did 
 to Moslems. 
 
 March 9th. The audience of the 7th had excited a train of 
 conjectures regarding the complexion of court politics, as they 
 related to Fantee.^'' The interview yesterday with the chiefs had 
 not tended to raise my hopes, and the ambiguous conduct of the 
 court prompted me to bring matters to a speedy issue. Accordingly 
 I framed certain preliminary articles upon the fundamental parts 
 of the old treaty, strengthened by one or two clauses contained in my 
 instructions, viz. for the establishment of a factory between our 
 chief settlement and the capital ; a guarantee of safety and protection 
 to the persons and property of individuals, who might be induced 
 to visit the interior on trading speculations, or to inculcate christian 
 knowledge, &c. 
 
 * Strictly speaking, the town of Cape Coast is nominally distinct from Fantee, although the 
 Ashantees class the people together as one nation, or family. The king invariably spoke of Cape 
 Coast Town as a Fantee town.
 
 CONFERENCE ON THE TREATY. 12.9 
 
 A particular clause also specified that Cape Coast, and every 
 other town under the guns of a British fort were to be considered 
 entitled to the protection of the British government, and subject to 
 the controul of the garrisons; also, that in consideration of the 
 friendship manifested by the king of England, and the appointment 
 conferred upon me, all grievances and disputes of a past date, and 
 particularly the " palaver of Cape Coast, " should be buried in oblivion. 
 That the peace should be re-established by an act of renunciation on 
 the part of the king of all and every claim or pretension, particularly 
 those claims whereby his ambassador had been authorised to demand 
 1600 ounces of gold from the governor, and I6OO more from the town 
 of Cape Coast. Thus prepared, I made my arrangements for the next 
 audience. 
 
 At an early hour in the forenoon, a messenger came from the 
 king, bringing in his arms a child, and under his escort several other 
 male children, sons of the monarch. The purport of the visit was to 
 return thanks in his majesty's name for some little presents of sugar 
 which I had distributed among the members of his family. " Sai," 
 continued the messenger, " says white men have good hearts, for they 
 love little children." 
 
 I repaired shortly after to the palace, in company with the officers 
 and Fantees. The reception I met with from the king was promising. 
 Accordingly I explained my sentiments upon the propriety of arrang- 
 ing the palaver. To this the king assented, and I then solicited his 
 attention to the preliminary articles as already explained. One of 
 the officers read them over to him, allowing sufficient time to the 
 linguists for interpretation. The article explanatory of the royal oath, 
 according to the etiquette of the 1st of March, afforded the king 
 much satisfaction. " That is proper," said the monarch. "The great 
 God take care of your king. You must put in the book that whatever 
 he bids me do, that I will do ; for I am a true friend to my master, 
 and I must fight when he commands."
 
 130 CONFERENCE ON THE TREATY. 
 
 The article gxiaranteeing' security of life and property to mer- 
 chants and missionaries visiting the interior, passed this time without 
 a comment ; as likewise that for establishing- a factory on the road 
 to Cooraassy. The one relating- to the encouragement of trade afforded 
 delight. " This," said the king, " is what I want. I don't want war, 
 that is only the talk of bad men." 
 
 The article relating to Fantee and the legislative influence of 
 the castles on the line of coast, was listened to with great attention, 
 but did not aiford satisfaction. An interruption ensued, and the 
 king warmly declared that he should insist peremptorily upon 
 receiving from the Cape Coast people, as a matter of right, that 
 obedience which was due to him in quality of their sovereign, and 
 which they had hitherto been in the habit of paying him. They 
 had used, he said, the most insulting language towards his person and 
 government. Dare they fight him ? If they thought so, — why pray 
 to white men to make peace ? When he was absent in the Gaman 
 war, did they not abuse him, and say he was no longer king ; that 
 the Buntokos had killed him, and conquered his country? His 
 captains knew this to be true, and when they were angry they said. 
 " O king, the Fantees are a bad people, they insult you and us, 
 you must let us go and kill them." " But," added the king, " I told 
 them no, that would be wrong because of the treaty. When my 
 messengers went to Commenda, with the jaw bones, the people 
 laughed at them, called them liars, beat them, and turned them into 
 the bush. Then they went to Cape Coast and complained to the 
 governor, but he would not listen to them. I then sent more 
 messengers ; but they all say the Governor refuses to attend to me. 
 He made the people build up a wall, and told them that if they 
 would fight the king- he would help them. Then he tells me that 
 if I can come in twenty days that will be better than forty. Is that 
 a fit message ? Does he want war, to kill poor women and children 
 and old people ? W^ere any king to send me such a defiance, I must
 
 CONFERENCE ON THE TREATY. 131 
 
 undoubtedly go and fight him. But I say, captains, never mind ; 
 this is a white man's palaver, you can't talk it. The great God makes 
 them strong people ; and I don't mind the governor's talking foolishly. 
 This I tell my captains,'' continued the king ; " but it breaks my 
 heart, because I love the whites. But why did the governor send to 
 me before, to make a book of friendship, and then build a wall to 
 fight me, and keep the people's gold himself?" By M'ay of 
 illustration, he added, " Suppose your king were to send a great 
 captain to this country, with orders to enforce the obedience of the 
 white people ; and that captain were to think that because the king 
 lives at a great distance, he would take all the gold and not pay 
 any thing ; and were to send to me and say, be you my friend and 
 help me to fight the great king, and I will reward you ; would that 
 be right ? No, certainly ; I cannot do so." 
 
 The courtiers warmly approved of what the king had said. Had 
 not the great king, they contiiaued, sent me to reconcile all parties, and 
 speak what was true, of whites as well as blacks ? If that were the case, 
 I could not say the king of Ashantee was in the wrong. 
 
 The king resumed the argument, and in an animated tone declared 
 he never could or would relinquish his right of sovereignty from the con- 
 quest of Fantee, over the whole country. Elmina Town, which for 
 wealth and population, greatly exceeded Cape Coast, acknowledged his 
 supremacy ; and the Dutch governor compelled the people to obey him, 
 for that reason he was the friend of the Dutch. The natives themselves 
 were his friends, and he never had any palavers there. Danish Accra, 
 English Accra, Tantuni and Apollonia never disputed his title; the 
 people never gave him any trouble, and tlierefore if his power was 
 acknowledged so far to the east as Accra, and so far to the west as 
 Apollonia, he must surely be the master of Cape Coast which lay in the 
 ceatre. The king of England, he added, was his great master, he would 
 do all in his power to give him pleasure; but he could not think 
 that a poor black town was an object worthy his notice. " I don't want 
 
 s 2
 
 132 MESSAGE FROM CAPE COAST CASTLE. 
 
 war," said the king emphatically, '' I want the people to serve me, and 
 serve white men. It is true I told the governor he must pay me gold, 
 but now I see your face I am willing to relinquish that. Cape Coast, 
 however, must give me gold, for they are my people, and if they will 
 V- 1 be insolent I must punish them : for unless I do so, all these countries 
 will laugh, and say, What kind of king is this ? The governor knows 
 I am right, for he now sends word the people are unable to pay I6OO 
 ounces, and that if I will abate something it will be paid. What I tell 
 you," added the king, noticing my surprise, " is very true : here is the 
 messenger," pointing to the man who brought the message up. This 
 man confirmed what the king said, and concluded with an observation 
 which he affirmed the governor had made, that the object of my visit was 
 merely to convey some presents to him from the king of England. The 
 linguist Abroah was pointed out as a vs^itness, who interpreted the very 
 message in the castle hall. " Do I speak the truth," said the messenger 
 emphatically, " or do I tell a lie before the king and the white captain ? " 
 The linguist confirmed his statement. " Then," said the king, address- 
 ing his conversation to me, " I must be paid. I shall look to you, to 
 the governor, and to my nephew : but it is the governor who must see 
 to it, for he now says he will settle that palaver with me." 
 
 The arguments with which I opposed those of the king palliated 
 the alleged offences of the Cape Coast people as far as it Avas practi- 
 cable, although it would have been impossible to deny what in substance 
 the king had related. I retorted, however, that the sixth article of the 
 old treaty had been violated, in which the king pledged himself to 
 encourage the trade of his subjects with the Cape. This article I 
 maintained had been infringed upon, by the act of cutting oiT the 
 communication between his capital and the settlements. In reply, the 
 king said "Yes, I made that book, it speaks true now; but that is 
 not my fault; Cape Coast did the first wrong: they sold some Ashantees 
 off the Coast, and seized their property. Fourteen traders went to 
 Tantum, and the Fantees stole all their gold and ivory, and sold them
 
 CONFERENCE ON THE TREATY, 133 
 
 for slaves to a ship. Another time they seized two Ashantees, and 
 killed them for the Fetische. When the traders heard these things it 
 made them stay at home, for they were frightened ; and so those who|. 
 wanted trade went to Elmina, because the Dutch governor takes care' ' 
 of my people. If the traders will not go to Cape Coast, I cannot help 
 it. I did not break the law, the governor broke it." 
 
 I desired to know upon what grounds the king had thouoht 
 proper to demand gold of the governor. The reply was laconic, " For 
 breaking the law." This, I maintained, was illegal and unjustifiable, 
 either upon the face of the treaty, or by the laws of nations. The 
 answer was, "I made that book (clause) with the white men ; they told 
 me if I broke the law, I was to pay gold; and if the governor broke 
 it. he must pay it. Now all the people know it was the governor who 
 broke it ; for when Cape Coast was insolent, he would not hear my 
 palaver ; but told them to give the gold to him, and fight the king. 
 Here is tlie book," added his majesty, handing me the treaty to 
 peruse. " You will find the gold mentioned in it." Upon inspection, I 
 assured him that no such clause was to be found. " No ! " said the 
 king, musing as he spoke, "then true it is the other white men cheated 
 me. Here are my captains, they will speak true ; and here," pointing 
 to one of my own servants, " is a Fantee who came up to Coomassy 
 with the white men the other year, he must tell true." This man, 
 whose name was Coffee, declared he was present when the treaty 
 was read over, and that it was explained to the king precisely as he 
 had stated. I then told the king that I would neither dispute his 
 word, nor the evidence ; but certainly I knew that neither Mr. Bowdich 
 nor his uncle were authorized to agree to pay money on account of the 
 king of England, in a case of that kind ; for when my master was 
 forced into palavers, nothing but war could settle the dispute. 
 
 The discussions had been protracted to an unconscionable length, 
 and fatigue only terminated the business of the day. 
 
 The importance of evidence, at this crisis, prompted me to obtain
 
 134 DECLARATION OF THE OFFICERS. 
 
 it of those who were present. The following is a sketch in abstract 
 from an original document. 
 
 We, the undersigned officers and gentlemen, who accompanied 
 the Mission under charge of Consul Dupuis, were present at the 
 audience of the 9th of March, &c. 
 
 The king declared it to be his fixed resolution not to give up his 
 lawful claim to the sovereignty of the maritime towns and provinces 
 of which Cape Coast formed a part. He declared that the governor, 
 so far from disputing that point with him, was actually negociating 
 for the people, and had appealed for a reduction of the demand of I6OO 
 ounces of gold, which it was represented was more than they could 
 afford to pay. The messenger and the linguist Abroah both corrobo- 
 rated what had been stated, the former with many vehement 
 protestations of sincerity. The king moreover declared, that as he had 
 " seen the consul's face," he gave up his pretensions of I6OO ounces of 
 gold demanded by him of the governor. 
 
 He (the king) protested that he had been deceived by 
 Mr. Bowdich, who had distinctly told him before his captains, and 
 in the presence of the consul's servant Coffee, that the penalty for 
 breaking the law was a fine of gold, &c. 
 
 The consul told the king that he did not dispute his word ; but 
 a treaty so framed was not valid, nor was it a treaty, as the governor 
 had no authority to pay him money on account of the king of England. 
 
 Witness our hands, &c. 
 
 Signed Benjamin Salmon. 
 Francis Collins. 
 D. Mill Graves. 
 William Hutton. 
 The second declaration was as follows :
 
 DECLARATION OF THE INTERPRETER. 135 
 
 I, George Abroah, recently appointed linguist to the Mission, &c. 
 do certify that the message sent by the governor to the king, and 
 interpreted by me, &c. was in substance as follows : 
 
 " The king must not demand any gold from the castle, and for the 
 claim upon the town of Cape Coast, the governor promises to settle 
 that palaver, provided the king will take something off, &c. The 
 gentleman who was carrying up presents from England, had nothing 
 to do with the palaver, and merely came out from the king of 
 England to see him." 
 
 In witness, &c. 
 The mark of X George Abroah. 
 Witnesses, 
 Francis Collins. 
 Da\id M. Graves. 
 
 The clauses in the former convention which the king pointed out at 
 as militating ag-ainst the governor, were as follows : — 
 
 Article 4. In order to avert the horrors of war it is agreed, that 
 in any case of aggression on the part of the natives under British 
 protection, the king shall complain thereof to the governor, and that 
 he will in no instance resort to hostilities without endeavouring as much 
 as possible to eifect an amicable arrangement. 
 
 Article J. The governors of the respective forts shall at all times 
 aflford every protection in their power to the persons and property of 
 the people of Ashantee, who may resort to the water side.* 
 
 • The Treaty, as published in Mr. Bowdich's work, compared with what was actually written, and 
 deposited with the king, is a garbled statement. I cannot say less. In the original document, which is 
 now in my keeping, the pompous name of Boitene Quama, king of Dwabin, is nowhere to be found. It 
 would seem that this association of two sovereigns was calculated to awaken a more lively interest, and thus 
 only can I account for an attempt to deceive government and the public, by means, I believe, unprecedented 
 in the annals of British diplomacy. The article. No. 'J, shewing the king's disposition to send his own 
 children to Cape Coast for education is falsely inserted, and every other article is disfigured or 
 misrepresented more or less.
 
 136 DEPAETURE OF MR. IIUTTON. 
 
 I cannot dismiss this subject without adverting to the 3d Article of 
 the same convention, which, by comparison with its fellows, and 
 particularly with the two above quoted, carries upon its face an air of 
 absurdity. It runs thus. " The king of Ashantee guarantees the 
 people of Cape Coast from the hostilities threatened by the people of 
 Elmina." How such an article will harmonize with the assumption of 
 a legal jurisdiction over the towns in Fantee, &c. I know not ; neither 
 does it seem to become the dignitv of the British Government in Africa 
 to stipulate for the independency of its towns with a native prince, and 
 in the same contract to expose its incapacity to afford protection to the 
 inhabitants, even against a single town of the Ashantee confederacy. 
 
 Mr. Hutton having expressed anxiety, for some days past, to return 
 to the coast, I gave consent to it ; but the king affected some scruples 
 which it required a little management to remove. " What," said the king, 
 " is he already tired of stopping with me. He must not leave, or he will 
 carry down a bad palaver to the castle." The fear of denial increased the 
 anxiety of the applicant ; so at least his countenance indicated. " Tell him 
 to stay," said the king, " and not to be afraid. Never mind the palaver, 
 I am a true friend to the English for all that, and I cannot hurt him." 
 Finding that this exhortation had not the desired effect, he added 
 " Stop with your captain, and I will make a great feast and call all my 
 caboceers together, that they may give plenty of presents to my 
 friends." Mr. Hutton's perturbation was more and more visible. " I 
 see," continued the king " he is fearful that I shall not do what is 
 right." '" Is it your wish," addressing himself to me, " that he should 
 go ?" " He has my permission," I replied. " Then let him go," said the 
 king ; " but tell him he is my friend too, the same as other white men, 
 and, therefore, when he goes back he must not talk foolishness, and tell 
 lies, or he will do you wrong as well as me." With this conge and a 
 cordial shake of the royal hand, Mr. Hutton departed for Cape Coast, 
 much gratified, by his own confession, at his release from what he 
 conceived hazardous duty.
 
 FORT AT COOMASSY. 137 
 
 On the 10th of March the king seduded himself within the 
 palace, and declined transacting- public business; the day was con- 
 sidered of an ominous cast. It being Friday, and consequently the 
 Sabbath of the Moslems, I received the visits of my old acquaintance the 
 Bashaw, Kantoma and Abou Beer, attended by a numerous party of 
 their friends from the interior ; among whom was an aged Sheikh or 
 chief, a native of Kassina, who had been many years established in 
 Yandi. The intelligence he communicated of the interior was founded 
 upon a long residence at other courts, particularly those of Bargho 
 Zogho, Youry, and Dahomy. He had never, he said, been so far to 
 the eastward as Bornou. This man affected all the austerity of a 
 Morabth (maraboo), among the Arabs, with whom he claimed 
 consanguinity, by descent, from the conquerors of the Niger. 
 
 March 11th. I received some presents of wine, fish, and fruit, 
 from the king, with a message couched in the usual form of salutation, and 
 an injunction to meet his majesty in the palace. On repairing thither, 
 I found him actively engaged in a crowd of artificers, soldiers, captains, 
 and labourers. " I am building," said the king to me as I entered, 
 " a fort like Cape Coast Castle ; but I shall make it very high that I 
 may look out and see all the town." A number of large and small trees 
 had been cut in the forest and dragged to the spot with infinite labour. 
 These were sunk two or three feet in the ground, and reared at certain 
 distances apart, forming in mass a small quadrangular enclosure, 
 supported by other trees of less dimensions, attached crossways by 
 horizontal and diagonal supporters, lashed together by fibrous vegetable 
 cordage. " Do you know, captain," said his majesty, " why I sent for 
 you } That building you see is to be made very grand. The inside 
 shall be gold, ivory, and brass-pan ; * so you must tell my great master 
 I do it for his sake to honour him, that the people may know it was a 
 great day when I saw your face ; and that all the black countries may 
 
 * The Fantee term for brass, which is always imported in the form of pans. 
 
 T
 
 138 KING OF JUABIN. 
 
 know I am a great king here. Now white men know me, I must live 
 in a great house as white kings do ; then I shall not be ashamed when 
 more white people come. You must say a strong prayer to the great 
 God, and make proper Fetische for me, the same as my master's 
 Fetische. Those workmen," continued the king, pointing with his 
 finger to some who were engaged, " were sent me by the Dutch 
 governor, for Ashantees are fools at work ; they can only fight." 
 
 The king was in a vein of good humour, laughing immoderately 
 at the awkward manner in which his own people, courtiers and 
 labourers together, elevated the stems and secured the lashings. The 
 building in every part was so thickly covered with human beings, of 
 the sable hue, in all postures and attitudes, that it required but a 
 small effort of the imagination to compare the coup-d'ccil to a legion 
 of demons, attempting in mockery a Babel of modern invention. So 
 eager were these men in their occupation, and so delighted were they 
 to catch the smiles of Royalty, to which they responded with shouts, 
 songs, and even capers, that it is astonishing some fatal accident did 
 not occur. 
 
 Deeming this an auspicious moment to attract the king's attention, 
 I endeavoured to prevail on him to talk upon business. But he replied, 
 " I sent for you to-day to laugh and play with me, because my heart 
 is glad. To-morrow I shall hear the palaver. It is true the Fantees 
 make me very angry ; but never mind, you must not take too much 
 trouble." 
 
 In the course of a promiscuous dialogue, I suggested that it would 
 afford me pleasure to meet the king of Juabin (spelt Dwabin.) " The 
 king," replied the monarch, with some appearance of jealous indigna- 
 tion, " who is he ? Am not I the king ? Is there another king then 
 besides me ? Does the book say that too ? If so, it spreads a shameful 
 lie in the white country. Ah !" said he, with increased irritation. 
 " I see — I see white men can tell lies, and put them in books too. Ask 
 my captains," added the monarch, throwing himself ostentatiously back
 
 CONFERENCES. 139 
 
 in the chair ; " ask all the Fantees, if they know any other king besides 
 me. Shame ! great shame !"* 
 
 March 12th. An audience was granted this morning. The king de. 
 sired that the articles of the new treaty might be explained to him again. 
 He listened patiently throughout ; after which, with great emphasis, 
 he reverted to many of his former arguments, insisting as before that 
 Fantee, with all its towns, was inseparably united to the empire, from 
 the date of its conquest ; and that he had always received tribute, more 
 or less, from the days of governor Torrane, and that his just title should 
 never be wrested from him, unless by force of arms. " Did the king 
 of England," continued he, " say that the people should be exempted 
 from paying gold to their king? If not, how could I attempt to 
 vindicate the conduct of his rebellious subjects. I think," said the 
 monarch, in thundering indignation, " that the governor told the other 
 white men to cheat me, for the book does not speak the truth : yet 
 even so I have never broken the law ; but the governor has broken it, 
 for he promised to take care of my people." It was no pleasure to him, 
 he said, to make palavers; but he could not submit to, insults before his 
 captains. The king of England he knew was a powerful monarch, 
 and white men were superior to blacks ; but the great god made justice 
 for all, and oaths of friendship written in a book were sacred ; they 
 were sacred, he added, in Africa, where men did not write them down 
 on paper : they were the same as Fetische. For his part, it was well 
 known his people could fight, and if he thought proper he could easily 
 destroy every fort in the country ; but it neither suited his inclination, 
 nor his policy ; because himself and his ancestors owed all they pos- 
 sessed to the trade they enjoyed with white men. He loved all white 
 
 * The reader by a reference to page 125 of IMr. Bowdich's work, will be able himself to 
 detect what does appear a deliberate imposition ; for the author therein admits that Boitinnee Quama 
 only attested the treaty of 1817, as a witness, certainly the day after its ratification. Ahen which 
 is the title of king, in the Ashantee language, does not even belong to him ; although he of 
 Banna, and the ruler of Gaman, are both entitled to it. 
 
 T 2
 
 140 LITTLE ADAI CUSTOM. 
 
 people ; but particularly the English, from the knowledge he had of 
 governors Torrane and White : they gave him up his great enemy king 
 Cheboo. When the white flag, said the king, somewhat exultingly, 
 was lowered over the battlements of Annamaboe Castle, was it not done 
 to make friends, for fear the place should be taken the next day with 
 all the goods and money contained in it ; and when he made peace 
 did he not give a convincing proof that he was a king and a friend ? 
 The whites sold him guns and powder ; he liked that trade, for his was 
 a. war country; he could not therefore carry them back to the sea coast 
 to turn against his best friends : yet Mr. Smith* made him very angry, 
 and if he had not seen my face, and if he did not know that his great 
 master wanted peace, and a good trade, he would surely visit Cape 
 Coast with destniction, and people it with better men. Then he 
 would make a palaver with " Smifty" in his own house. 
 
 It would swell this volume to an enormous bulk were I to recapi- 
 tulate each argument the king employed, and its numerous repeti- 
 tions. They were, however, extremely convincing. My duty, never- 
 theless, was clear ; and policy suggested the necessity of resisting the 
 force of such language ; but my efforts were not successful, and I was 
 about to depart on this occasion without being able to soothe the angry 
 monarch, who, however, observed my chagrin, and before I could 
 escape sent a captain to call me back. " Don't be angry," said he ; "I 
 love you much ; I must do what old men say ; I cannot help it." This 
 was the eve of a religious festival called Little Adai. 
 
 On the 13th this custom was ushered in by the discharge of 
 fire arms, and the sound of many barbarous instruments. Numbers 
 of victims were offered up to the gods, although secretly, in the palace 
 and the houses of the chieftains. The poorer classes sacrificed cattle 
 or poultry. The city itself exhibited the most deplorable solitude. 
 
 * The king having about this time learned to pronounce the governor's name, he frequently 
 spoke of him personally by the name of Smitly.
 
 HUMAN SACRIFICES. 141 
 
 and the few human beings who were courageous enough to shew 
 themselves in the streets fled at the approach of a captain, and 
 barricadoed the doors of their huts, to escape the danger of 
 being shot or sacrificed. The doleful cries of the women vibrated 
 from several quarters of the city, and the death horns and drums 
 within the palace seemed to stupify the obnoxious prisoners and 
 foreign slaves with horror, as they contemplated the risk they were 
 exposed to. I wandered about during this awful day, until fatigue 
 and disgust led me to seek my quarters. The Fantees now did not 
 care to stir abroad, and my Moslem acquaintance kept within their 
 houses, as they afterwards assured me, to avoid the sight of the 
 butcheries. Oppressed with bodily and mental fatigue, I mounted 
 my hoi-se and rode into the forest. The business of the day was not 
 over at my return, and my efforts to gain access to the palace were 
 ineffectual. 
 
 The following day, one of a similar train of horrors succeeded, and 
 still I was left in suspense, for my own linguists and messengers 
 were not hardy enough to knock at the royal gate. They dreaded, 
 they said, the Fetische men, who guarded the avenue, and who alone 
 were suffered to enjoy free ingress. The society of the Moslems, 
 however, in some degree reconciled me. By these people I was given 
 to understand that seventy men and women had been put to death 
 the day previous in the palace only ; besides those who were sacrificed 
 in private houses, and in the forest. Most of these unhappy beings 
 were Gaman prisoners of war, who had been purposely reserved as 
 an offering to the gods ; the others were criminals, or disobedient 
 slaves. Such was the explanation I received. 
 
 This evening a courier arrived from Accra, bringing me letters 
 from a correspondent. The journey he had accomplished with some 
 labour and difficulty in fifteen days. 
 
 The 15th was the last day of the custom, and I received a 
 summons to attend the king. Anxious as I was, I lost no time in
 
 142 AUDIENCE. 
 
 complying with the requisition, attended by Messrs. Collins, Salmon, 
 and Greaves, the three gentlemen who staid with me ; but my 
 disappointment was renewed upon perceiving the order of the day 
 to be that of ceremony. 
 
 The courtiers were habited in full costume, as on the day of 
 entry. The king himself was clothed in an under garment of blood- 
 stained cotton ; his wrists and ancles were adorned with fetische gold 
 weighing many pounds. A small fillet of plaited grass, interwoven 
 with gold wire and little consecrated amulets, encircled his temples. 
 A large white cotton cloth which partly covered his left shoulder, was 
 studded all over with Arabic writing in various coloured inks, and 
 of a most brilliant well formed character. His body in other parts 
 was bare, and his breast, legs, the crown of his head, and the instep 
 of each foot, were streaked with white clay. It was remarkable that 
 this distinction was not general throughout the assembly. 
 
 Upon receiving the king's hand, which he presented with the 
 utmost affability, I noticed a streak of dried blood upon his forehead, 
 and this token appeared to be universal, as well among officers of 
 distinction as their slaves and retainers. It denoted their partici- 
 pation in the late sacrifices. The royal death stool, clotted with the 
 still reeking gore of its victims, stood on one side of the king, under 
 care of the captain executioner, who attended with his band of 
 assistants. At the feet of the sovereign, stood a small firepot, and a 
 trunk fitted up with a compound medley of relics and charms soaking 
 in blood 
 
 Before I could gain access to the King, I was surrounded on 
 all sides by a juvenile band of warriors, who flourished their knives, 
 axes, and scimiters over my head, as on other state occasions. 
 
 The Moslems also were assembled in a separate band, to the 
 number of about three hundred, who had also met together by 
 invitation, to congratulate the king and partake of his good cheer 
 at the custom.
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF PRESENTS. 143 
 
 His majesty sent me a canopy and a royal troop, desiring I would 
 seat myself among his great captains, as he was going to distribute 
 presents. This he did with a liberal hand to every chief, and my 
 share of the bounty was a fat sheep, and a bottle of rum. Even the 
 Fan tees received for their portion four sheep and two kegs of rum. 
 
 When the distribution was over, the captains rose, and one by 
 one saluted the king in martial procession. Having no better occupa- 
 tion on hand, I devoted ray leisure to sketching a representation of 
 the close of the custom.* 
 
 I received a megsage from the king, on the l6th of March, running 
 thus " The king thinks you talk reasonably ; but then, when you say 
 the Fantees must not pay him, he thinks you are a better friend to 
 the Fantees than to him." 
 
 As I foresaw that no good could be done by a distant correspon- 
 dence, I once more demanded an audience. The request was granted, 
 and the king opened the discussions, by various conciliatory arguments, 
 styling the king of England his great master, the king of kings, the 
 king of white men, &c." He refused, however, to talk the palaver 
 that day, alleging it was a bad day. I acquiesced, but demanded 
 to be informed what were the expectations regarding the people 
 of Cape Coast, that I might know whether my duty warranted a 
 longer stay in the capital, or not; but the question being artfully 
 evaded, I was compelled, however reluctantly, to return to my quarters 
 unsatisfied. 
 
 The Caboceer Boitenee Quama, sent me, on the IJth of March, 
 a fat kid and some vegetables. The bearer delivered a message, 
 saying " Boitenee salutes you, and makes his best compliments. He 
 is glad to hear you are the king's friend, for that makes you his 
 friend too." 
 
 I waited in suspense the whole of this forenoon for the promised 
 
 * See the Plate.
 
 144 AUDIENCE. 
 
 audience, and at last sent the canes to the palace. The king, however, 
 did not return me an answer so promptly as was due ; and as I was 
 then in possession of a public letter * from Cape Coast Castle, specifying 
 the amount of tribute awarded there as a peace offering- to the king, 
 I determined to urge the business. Thus resolved, I sallied forth, 
 attended by my party, at a late hour in the afternoon. My messengers 
 and the linguists were waiting at the outer fence. But as I approached, 
 the palace gates were thrown open, and the king soon appeared and 
 took his seat. I pleaded the long suspense he had kept me in ; the 
 many fruitless conferences, &c. and the great expence attending the 
 mission : added to which, the inflexibility of his disposition tended to 
 render abortive all those benevolent views which my sovereign 
 entertained for his benefit and that of his people. All these advan- 
 tages and more, I continued, he was likely to be bereft of, by his 
 personal inflexibility, and his attachment to councils which teemed 
 with hostility against an object comparatively below his dignity to 
 notice ; and actually so as competing with those great objects for which 
 I had been sent to his court. 
 
 The king listened with lively attention, then instinctively rising 
 from his seat, he said, "White man, what you say is good. I like 
 you because you speak the truth, and I am sure you are my friend ; 
 but what can I do ? I must listen to what the old men say." Turning 
 his head round to the captains, he said, " Hear this talk, it is rational ; 
 and it is a strong palaver, for it belongs to the king of kings. We must 
 look to it." Here his majesty paused ; but the answer not satisfying 
 me, I proceeded to state that it was my intention to return to the Coast, 
 requesting that a day might be appointed for my departure, unless he 
 would pass his word to settle the palaver at an appointed time. The 
 reply was, " I am sorry to hear you say so, for all my great captains are 
 
 * This letter from the governor and council stated that 100 ounces of gold was the utmost the people 
 were inclined to pay, and that 1 should not (at the risk, it is presumed, of every object of the mission), 
 negotiate upon any other terms.
 
 ULTIMATUM OF CAPE COAST. 145 
 
 coming to town to see you. Never mind the palaver, we will talk it 
 over at anotiier time." I demanded to know, as he declined talking 
 upon business, why he detained me, contrary to my duty ; and whether 
 or not I was to consider myself a prisoner. At the bare mention of 
 the word the countenance of the king- changed, and he evidently 
 laboured under anxiety, as he said I had broken his heart. " Do you 
 think," said he, " I can act thus to my great master's, captain ^ No : 
 were he to send me a slave, and say he did not want me for a friend, 
 I could not do that." At this pause I made a sort of ambiguous apology ; 
 but being resolved to gain a decided answer, I assured him that I did 
 not dovibt his word, but was instigated by a sense of duty to my 
 sovereign's great officers, to whom I must account for the time that had 
 been expended. 
 
 I next introduced the dispatch I, had received from Cape Coast,* 
 and read its contents to the king. A pause, of the duration of a 
 minute or more, added to a fiery glance of the eye, convinced me 
 of the operation of his mind ; nor was the brooding tempest longer 
 confined within its boundary, for raising his voice to its utmost 
 elevation, and assuming a countenance of demoniacal phrenzy, he 
 threw himself convulsively back in his chair, clenched his fists, and 
 stretched forth his arms and legs, assuming, as it were, the rage of 
 madness, while he bellowed out the most direful imprecations against 
 the natives of Cape Coast, not excepting those present, or even my 
 soldiers ; nay Mr. Graves also participated in these anathemas. The 
 loam all the while flowed down his beard in copious discharges, and 
 the saliva spurted from his mouth upon all around him. His ministers 
 even betrayed emotion ; some stood aghast, and others applied their 
 forefingers to their heads and breasts, muttering all the while their 
 
 • This letter, I should have observed, had been detained by the king for several days before he trans- 
 mitted it to me. He was jealously suspicious of the arrival of any letters or messengers from the Coast, 
 during our conferences. 
 
 U
 
 146 THE king's indignation. 
 
 respective charms, to avert impending evil. Occasionally the king 
 spoke with less acrimony ; his paroxysms w^ere less violent ; then again 
 he would relapse into all his former fury, calling to his aid all the 
 powers of his household gods, the Fetische of his country, &c. At 
 one interval he vociferated, " White men come to my country to trade — 
 what have they to do with my slaves ? They build castles and houses 
 to live in ; they stay as long as they like, then take the gold and go 
 home again ; but they never take mulattos and blacks, for they are 
 their servants : the great God made them so ; they are bad men. 
 Smitty cheats me, and joins the Fantees to raise a laugh. The forts are 
 mine, because I hold the books (notes), but I don't say they belong to 
 me to keep. I say they stand in my country to trade with the people. 
 By that great oath (the battle of Cormantine or Accromanti), the Cape 
 Coast people ought to die. Let me go there," said the king to me, 
 rising from his chair — " let me have the jaw-bones of Aggry and 
 De Graaf. I don't want their gold : I want the blood of bad men to 
 wash my stool. I cannot fight the whites, they are my friends." 
 
 The Fantees stood petrified with fear. Exhaustion alone seemed 
 to overpower the king, and I thought it advisable to leave him time for 
 cool reflection. My forbearance had the desired effect, for after the 
 lapse of some minutes, he said, in his usual tone, " Forgive me, 
 captain ; this is what the bad people do to me, therefore be not angry. 
 Do not tell my master I am angry, because I have a good heart towards 
 him and all white men. I have no palaver with them. But for the 
 blacks, / am king, and I will be paid, or I will kill them. Why does 
 the governor send a message, saying he will settle the palaver with me, 
 and then send you a book to pay a hundred ounces of gold r'^ 
 Muttering this, the royal indignation seemed to have entirely 
 evaporated. Another pause ensued: and at length the king said, 
 " This palaver, I see, cannot be talked here ; but you shall settle it for 
 me with my nephew at Cape Coast, and what you say is right I will
 
 MAGIC LANTHORN. 147 
 
 take." Anxious again to gloss over the breach in his manners, he 
 alleged that he was overcome by anger ; but if I thought him a friend, 
 such as he really was, I should forgive it. 
 
 Torches were introduced, (for it was already dark,) before the 
 discussions ceased. The king having expressed a wish to see the 
 properties of the magic lanthorn displayed, the powers of that 
 instrument were exhibited by Mr. Salmon. As the figures were made 
 to perform, the king involuntarily seized me by the coat, then by the 
 hand, as if apprehensive that I should quit him in the dark. He 
 thought it was Fetische ; but being assured to the contrary, he said, " Ah ! 
 I see then it is made for laughter and sport." Indeed it afforded no 
 real interest. It was enquired if the great king (of England) amused 
 himself so. At last the monarch turned his back upon it, leaving the 
 entertainment to his courtiers. The friendly obscurity concealed the 
 colour that suffused my own cheek, when I replied that it was an 
 instrument adapted to the Harem, and the amusement of his children. 
 This seemed to agree with his own conceptions, for he instantly added 
 " I see it is good for that; good night." At parting he said he would 
 sleep over the palaver, and see me again in the morning. 
 
 March 18. The forenoon passed away in anxiety, for no mes- 
 senger came from the palace. My Moslem friends paid me a visit in 
 the interval, and from them I learned that the king was engaged in 
 close conference with his ministers; that Apoko, AdoQuamina, Agam- 
 pong, and the whole of the army interest were implacable in their 
 resentment at what they termed the presumption of their vassals, who 
 had dared to stipulate for the price of their own insolence; and that 
 a very great majority in the assembly of chiefs loudly cried out for 
 war. Yet the king was averse to it. He, Adusai, Anion Koitea, Kan- 
 kam, and Ado Matta, opposed the torrent. " We have just given our 
 opinions," said the friendly Bashaw, " to the king in private, that a war 
 will ruin him in the land of the whites, and perhaps your Sultan will 
 
 u 2
 
 148 THE CONSUL INSISTS ON RETURNING. 
 
 send a qreat army to conquer the country. We should not be sorry," 
 said he, in a laughing whisper, " to see white men here ; but we have 
 told the king- what we believe to be the truth, for that is our duty, and 
 he has been good to me. The Bashaw sent Abou Beer again to the 
 palace to get information." At his return I learned that the king 
 threatened every opposer in the council, and insisted upon an uncon- 
 ditional submission to his plan of negotiation. 
 
 The hour of four succeeded, and still no invitation came from 
 the palace, I therefore dispatched another messenger, demanding an 
 interview in the most positive terms. But this messenger was also 
 unattended to. Again I renewed the application, forbidding the 
 linguists to return without obtaining an answer. The lapse of another 
 hour convinced me that they had met with no better success. A little 
 irritated at this neglect; I assembled the officers and Fantees, with 
 whom I proceeded to the outer gate, which was instantly thrown 
 open at my approach. It was then dusk, and his majesty was seated 
 by torchlight among his chief captains. Some of his children of both 
 sexes were playing about his knees. My reception was courteous, 
 and I was forced to place my chair by the side of the king, who 
 assumed a look of inquiry, indicating a desire to know the purport of 
 my late visit. This opened the business, and I requested to be informed 
 what resolution had been adopted regarding the palaver. To which 
 he replied, he could not tell me more than I knew : the palaver, he 
 thought, must be talked at Cape Coast. I complained that insincerity 
 lurked under his answer. " By the great God you serve," said the 
 king, " and by my gods, what I tell you is true, you shall settle all for 
 me." Still I persisted ; the necessity of returning was now greater than 
 before, and I hoped he would appoint the day. "you must not go," 
 said the king, " you have done me good, and I must do you good." 
 Being determined to bring the business to an issue, at all reasonable 
 risks, I insisted that my detention looked like political craft, and as
 
 SOLEMN INVOCATION, 149 
 
 such, it was impossible I should think otherwise than that I was kept 
 as a hostag-e for the liquidation of the demand made upon Cape Coast, 
 however exorbitant it might be. 
 
 Sable as the royal countenance is, I distinctly saw the blood 
 mount to his cheeks. His concern was mingled with real anxiety. 
 " What," said he, " do you still think me a bad man ? Do not leave 
 me ; you cannot go now, for you must make me a book to be good 
 friends with the king of England, as the other book tells lies." I 
 assured the king, I was convinced of his friendly disposition ; but as 
 he chose to oppose a settlement of the palaver with the natives, it 
 was not clear to me that my duty warranted a longer stay in the capital ; 
 and therefore I was necessitated to insist upon having a day appointed 
 for my return. These words were strengthened by a formal 
 invocation in the name (upon the head, as it is called in Africa,) of 
 the king of England.* The linguists hesitated at the interpretation. 
 The king perceived it, and desired they would interpret truly. This 
 injunction was reluctantly obeyed. They attempted to soften the 
 
 * The words were — " I swear upon the head of ray master, you shall settle the palaver in three days 
 or appoint next week for my return to the Cape. If you do not I am surely a prisoner, and you may 
 put me to death." This style of invocation is considered too serious to he trifled with, and perfectly in 
 consonance with African customs, although its application by natives, particularly to crowned heads, or 
 men in power, is often attended with dangerous consequences. This by way of illustration — 
 
 An Ashantee of good family visited the Cape at the time Mr. Bowdich was at Coomassy. As he was 
 passing the castle gate, a Fantee sentinel upon duty desired him to cast off his cloth, to leave the shoulders 
 bare, in conformity to a custom exacted from the towns-people. The fiery spirit of the Ashantee refused 
 compliance with a law which he could not comprehend. A scuffle ensued, and the oftender was securely 
 conveyed into the fort, where, by Mr. Smith's order, he was thrown into a dungeon, known by the name of 
 the " slave hole." Probably no greater injury would have been done the man than a night's imprison- 
 ment. Be this as it may, the Ashantee resisted, and suffered some injury in so doing, wlien he invoked 
 Sai (the name of his sovereign), swearing upon his head that Mr. Smith should hear his palaver or kill 
 him outright. The appeal had no efl"ect, and in the morning he was dragged from his stibterraneous 
 lodging a corpse, having strangled himself, as it is understood, on the governor's head. Mr. Smith, indeed, 
 wrote a letter, as may be seen in Mr. Bowdich's work, to palliate or justify his conduct, for what had 
 occurred, and the affair was buried in oblivion, through the king's declared affection for white 
 people.
 
 150 DEPARTURE FIXED. 
 
 force of the language by a partial translation. It was enough, how- 
 ever ; the countenance of the king fell ; grief and vexation were strongly 
 pourtrayed on his features, and he started from his chair with a sudden 
 bound, saying, " you break my heart ! you break my heart ! Indeed 
 I cannot do wrong. But the great king is my master, and I must go 
 to council." He then retired to the council chamber, followed by the 
 captains who were in attendance. 
 
 My duty prompted this step, but let me confess I was struck 
 with remorse at the pain I had given him ; for I had abundant reasons 
 for feeling respect and even attachment to this prince, x^fter the 
 lapse of some minutes he returned, and appointed Monday the 27th 
 of March for my departure. " Then, said the king, you shall settle all 
 with my nephew there, for he must be paid, and the soldiers must be 
 paid ; but I want only what you shall say is proper to settle a great 
 palaver. You were angry and used high words, but I think you are a 
 friend, and I overlook that."
 
 PRESENTS FROM THE MOSLEMS. 151 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 RETURN OF THE MISSION. 
 
 PRESENTS FROM THE MOSLEMS— DIPLOMATIC ADVICE— FAREWELL VISITS— FORT GEORGE- 
 PROPOSED EMBASSY FROM THE KING OF ASHANTEE— EXAxMINATlON OF PLATE OF VARIOUS 
 EUROPEAN MANUFACTURES— MERCHANDIZE SUITABLE FOR AFRICAN MARKETS— VISIT FROM 
 THE KING TO THE QUARTERS OF THE MISSION— JEALOUSY OF THE ASHANTEE CHIEFS- 
 DISCUSSIONS ON THE CAPE COAST PRICES— ON THE SLAVE TRADE— THE KING'S WARS— BARDIC 
 RECITATIONS— EXPOSURE AND HARSH TREATMENT OF A CAPTIVE PRIN^CE— SIGNATURE OF A 
 TREATY— THE KING'S COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL PLANS— PECULIARITIES OF AFRICAN 
 COMMERCE— AUDIENCE OF LEAVE- TROOPS OF SLAVES INTENDED FOR THE KING OF ENGLAND 
 —INSTRUCTIONS TO THE ASHANTEE AMBASSADORS— PRESENTS TO THE KING OF ENGLAND— TO 
 THE ENVOY— CEREMONIES OF NAMING THE ASHANTEE FORT EXTRAORDINARY CONDESCEN- 
 SION OF HIS MAJESTY ON TAKING LEAVE— MORTIFICATION OF THE MOSLEMS AT THE 
 AUTHOR'S REJECTION OF THE KORAN— DEPARTURE— HEAVY RAINS— LIBERATION OF A SLAVE 
 —JOURNEY TO CAPE COAST— DISAVOWAL OF THE TREATY BY THE GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL 
 —PREPARATIONS FOR WAR— FANTEE CONSPIRACY— PROTEST— SIR GEORGE COLLIER REFUSES TO 
 CONVEY THE AMBASSADORS TO ENGLAND— CORRESPONDENCE— OBSERVATIONS— RETURN OF THE 
 AUTHOR TO EUROPE. 
 
 March 19 th. The king, as usual, sent me the morning 
 salutation. 
 
 The Moslems again visited me in their robes of ceremony ; each, 
 according to his rank, bringing with him a present of vegetables, 
 bread, fowls, honey, &c. The hospitable gifts of the chiefs were 
 more considerable. From the Bashaw I received a sheep, a large cotton 
 cloth, &c. Kantoma gave a sheep and a small collection of national 
 weapons. Abou Beer, Soumah, and many more, made presents in 
 proportion. They felicitated me on the settled disposition of the court
 
 152 DIPLOMATIC ADVICE. 
 
 for peace. The king, they observed, had expressed his sentiments that 
 morning-, declaring in the most decided terms, that he would leave his 
 interest in the negotiation to his nephew and myself. The governor of 
 Cape Coast was to have a voice also. " Allah is my witness," said the 
 Bashaw, " I have served you as I would my own son ; and I thank him 
 the king's heart was open to my advice. We shall all be sorry to lose 
 you ; but come up again as soon as the palaver is settled, for the king 
 loves you much, and you may do great good for whites, blacks, and 
 Moslems. But if you could settle it here, that is what I should like. 
 Can you not give the king 400 ounces ?'' " No/' I replied, " I am not 
 authorized to do so," Abou Beer joined in the conversation: " Give,'' 
 said he, " 300 to the king, ten to Amon Koitea, the same to Adusai, and 
 six to Apoko, and I am sure you will settle it at once." " It was 
 impossible," I said. 
 
 March 20th. This day I received several deputations from chief- 
 tains who govern the surrounding country, and others ; Ado Matta and 
 Apoko were of the number, and each was attended by a select band of 
 armed men, preceded by musical instruments. In the course of the 
 day the arrival of some of the king's sword-bearers announced the 
 approach of some members of the royal family. These were the king's 
 sons, named Ouso Kro Ahen, Ouso Akoteah, Ouso Gamadouah, Ouso 
 Yaou, and Ouso Quantabisa. These young men were between the 
 ages of twelve and twenty-five. They had received instmctions from 
 their father, they said, to pay their compliments to me ; and each came 
 attended by a number of slaves, bearing loads of provisions. 
 
 The Bashaw and a party of Moslems called upon me again this 
 forenoon. They had seen Adusai, they said, in private, and that 
 minister was disposed to negotiate with me, provided I would pass 
 my word to the king for three hundred ounces, and about thirty more 
 to be divided among the disaffected chiefs at the capital, and the 
 httle army at Cape Coast. " Do this," said the good Bashaw, " and 
 you will immediately have a party that shall carry all before them
 
 SOLICITUDE OF THE MOSLEMS. 153 
 
 ill the cabinet ; for the king is disposed to do all he can for you, 
 but he must not oppose his great captains, because they say it is 
 for his good. TJie king does not want gold, and if you were to 
 give him a thousand ounces, he would distribute it all among- his 
 
 b 
 
 captains, to make them friends to the whites. Do so, do so, my 
 son," added the chief, "give him three hundred, it will gladden 
 all our hearts, and we will then go boldly to the king, with Adusai, 
 and those of his party, and I promise you, by the assistance of our 
 holy prophet, we will not leave the court until every thing be adjusted 
 to your satisfaction, and the king's. If you have \iot gold enough, 
 never mind that, for we will lend it you to any amount, if you will 
 only stay with us. The king himself will lend you gold, if you 
 prefer it." Abou Beer and Kantoma united their entreaties, but all 
 was in vain ; the decided tone of the letter from Cape Coast was 
 imperative. I had long esteemed these friends, but now they were 
 possessed of my whole heart. Indeed the Moslems, in many un- 
 recorded instances, evinced a genuine solicitude for the welfare of the 
 Mission, and anxiety for my personal good. 
 
 The king sent for me towards the close of this conversation. I 
 found him on foot, taking a circuit round the palace walls. " Ah ! " 
 he ejaculated, as I approached him, " thank the gods I see you again 
 Avith a good face ; you are not angry with me." I assured him that so 
 far from having been moved by real anger, I had done violence to my 
 feelino-s, in urginir a demand, which was exacted from me bv a sense of 
 duty only. But, I added, I never should forget his hospitality. A 
 smile of great good-nature was the only reply. The king shewed me 
 the progress he had made in building the fort. Then turning abruptly, 
 he said. " You must write me a book to my master, and tell him, if he 
 wants to make war upon the blacks, to let me know, for they shall serve 
 him as myself. But tell him the Ashantees love him very much, because 
 he has done me honour." 
 
 X
 
 154 EMBASSY FROM ASHANTEQ 
 
 Again I demanded to know, if he had any thing to say about the 
 native palaver. "Ti-ue," replied the king, "I shall tell you more 
 before you go. I see Smiffi/ does not wish to serve the people, so he 
 takes their gold, and says he will talk the palaver with the king. Then 
 he tells them too, you must build a wall and fight Ashantee. By and 
 by he sees that is a strong palaver, and he tells the people that the 
 king is very angry, and says he must kill them ; but never mind that, 
 says he, bring me more gold, and then I will send a proper book to the 
 king of white men, and tell him that it is his palaver, and he must 
 send plenty of ships and soldiers. But this is all cheating ; the Fantees 
 cannot fight, and being much frightened, they ask the white men what 
 they are to do. Then Smitty says, have you any more gold ? but they 
 say no, because they think he does not care for them. Well, says he, 
 I shall see wliat to do ; the white king will send soldiers by and by. 
 But they say that will not do. Then he tells Aggry, and De Graaf and 
 Biney, now I shall make a good palaver for the town, and the people 
 must pay an hundred ounces to the king. This is all the talk among 
 black men. My great master does not hear this ; he does not know 
 the governor keeps all the gold himself. So you must put down in 
 the book what is true, then white men will not say I have a bad heart, 
 and want to kill people to take their gold. I only kill my enemies and 
 bad men. This is strong talk, captain, but never mind now, for I have 
 no more disputes with white men, they are my friends, and I do not 
 ask them for any thing ; but black men must pay me." 
 
 On a former occasion, the king had proclaimed his intention of 
 sending some of his people ambassadors to England with presents ; 
 I requested now to be informed if he still persisted in that resolution. 
 " Yes," he replied, " I shall do so, and you must get a good linguist to 
 tell the great king what I say." I neither opposed nor made any 
 objections to these arrangements, which, according to my thinking, 
 afl:brded a rational hope that great advantages might ultimately
 
 FAREWELL VISITS. 155 
 
 accrue from it, to the renown of the British g-overnment over the wide 
 spreading plains of Africa, and the benefit of the mercantile interests. 
 According to the reception given to the ambassadors of this 
 monarch, I conceived that other kings might feel inclined to tread 
 in the steps of the sovereign of Ashantee, whereby a preponderating 
 influence would be given to British councils either at home or on the 
 Gold Coast, (in African affairs), and the negro potentate, with more 
 probable hopes of success, might then be persuaded, on the return of 
 his caboceers, to listen with attention to those humane overtures 
 which the compassion of the age so earnestly desires to convey to the 
 hearts of the kings and princes, who rule our sable brethren.* 
 
 On the 21st, several caboceers of rank visited me, and each 
 deposited a small package of gold, varying from four to twelve 
 ackeys. It was impossible to refuse acceptance without giving offence. 
 Ouso Bannahen and Yaho KorakoOji" entered into a long detail of the 
 Gaman war: then shifting the conversation, they said, "The king 
 knows you are a friend to all the people ; but if he thought you came 
 up to look at the country, and then go back and send for white 
 soldiers to join the Fantees and fight him, he must certainly kill you. 
 Bogiabi Adoom, the king's canopy-bearer, and Ouin Bendah, a captain 
 of the palace, paid their compliments, about noon, by the sovereign's 
 express order. The day, as usual, was spent in the society of the 
 Moslems, and in visits to the houses of the chieftains. 
 
 March 22d. Numerous caboceers, many of whom were from 
 the country, called at my quarters. These were followed, in succes- 
 sion, by a long list of inferior captains, who were all authorized to 
 swear attachment to the king of England. They were desired to 
 
 * The deputation of Ambassadors, however uncouth these semi-barbarians might have appeared 
 here, is strictly in unison with African customs, and would not, it is presumed, have been more outre 
 than that of the Cherokees during the American war. 
 
 t The king's stool or throne bearer, an officer of rank in the army only. 
 
 x2
 
 156 EXAMINATION OF PLATE. 
 
 do SO, they said, by the king ; but they were friends independently 
 of that, for they liked my palaver, and they liked me. " Now," 
 added they, " the great king is a friend to Sai, it is all the same ; 
 he is our master too, and we will serve him." 
 
 March 23d. The preceding day, and part of this morning, had 
 been devoted to private councils in the palace, at which the king was 
 again compelled to exert his authority against a few ambitious chiefs 
 of the opposing faction, who were hardy enough to persist in 
 demanding war. Towards the afternoon, Adusai called to conduct 
 me to the king's presence. I found his majesty seated amidst a 
 confused heap of old battered silver utensils. *' I want you, captain,'' 
 said he, shewing me a tureen of that metal, " to tell me in what 
 country this was made." I concluded it (from the stamp) to be the 
 workmanship of Holland. " You are right," said the king. He 
 then shewed me a bowl, a coffee-pot, some cups, &c. Some of 
 them, I replied, were the manufacture of Spain and Portugal, others 
 of Holland ; this was also satisfactory. Lastly, he pointed to a 
 richly chased urn, a kettle, ewer and basin. I had the good fortune 
 again to satisfy his enquiries. 
 
 It appeared to me that the king was practising an innocent 
 device, to put my veracity to the test. He desired next to know 
 if they were all silver, requiring me to select the base, if any, from 
 the pure metal. Having done as I was requested, the king said, with 
 a smile, " I know, captain, you speak true, and cannot tell me a lie. 
 I get these things from the whites, and I like them much, because 
 there is no silver in this country. Some of them came from Chris- 
 tiansborg, some from Fantee, when I conquered the Braffoes ; but 
 most from Elmina, for the Dutch are good to me. Governor Torrane 
 gave me a few, and many more I took in Gaman when I killed 
 Dinkera. I spoke this to the other white men,* and they said the 
 
 • The mission of 1817.
 
 GOODS FOR AFRICAN MARKETS. loj 
 
 good silver was English, and the bad Dutch ; but I knew that was a 
 lie. Now I shall give much gold to my ambassadors, and you must 
 tell them how to buy plenty of good things, and plenty of silver like 
 this, for I must provide every thing suitable and live like a white 
 king." 
 
 Some very rich brocades, of various coloured patterns, were shewn 
 me, together with pieces of crimson damask, and fine cotton cloths, 
 which the king had just received in part of a present from the governor 
 of Elmina. " I shall make a fine canopy of these, said the king, to 
 carry over my head. Tell the merchants to bring plenty of those 
 goods, I will buy them all ; for what I dont want I send away to ray 
 caboceers, and I give many to the kings who live in Dagomba and 
 other countries, near the great water (Niger.) 
 
 In obedience to a signal from the king, some eunuchs entered 
 the Harem, and brought from thence an enormous bundle of silk 
 and cotton goods. The latter were prints, in furniture patterns, and 
 British chintz : the larger the pattern the more it was esteemed. The 
 king, however, shewed some predilection for roses upon a pale blue 
 ground ; green taftety silk and Scotch plaids, in particular, were the 
 greatest favourites of their kind. 1 was desired to bear in mind his 
 choice, that I might procure him a quantity of the same patterns, 
 for which he would pay gold, he said, to any amount. 
 
 " All my captains like these things," continued the king, " so if 
 the great king will make a proper trade, tell him to send goods like 
 this, and plenty of rum, and powder, and guns ; and I will take 
 care he shall have plenty of gold : not brass pan gold like what the 
 Fantees make, but true gold. And if he likes ivory he shall have 
 more than he wants ; because, now I have no war, the people must go 
 into the bush and shoot elephants." 
 
 I promised his majesty to bear this strictly in mind, and at a late 
 hour returned to my quarters. 
 
 March 24th. Two of the king's sword bearers called to announce
 
 158 VISIT FROM THE KING. 
 
 his majesty's pleasure to honour me with a visit at home. To pay due 
 respect to kingly rank, I marshalled my forces, and accompanied by 
 the officers, soldiers, and Fantees, sallied forth to meet him. The 
 sovereio-n of Ashantee was borne upon the heads of some captains, 
 in a sort of litter, made of wicker, and covered with brocade. His 
 chief officers, with the king of Banna, and a multitude of soldiers, and 
 armed men, were on foot. As soon as the king was advised of our 
 approach, he desired Apoko to lead me to a gateway, attached to an 
 adjoining ruin. Here the king descended from his vehicle, and as he 
 entered from the opposite side took me by one hand, and gave me a 
 sort of half embrace. We then retired to one side as he motioned 
 with his hand, that the procession should move forward under the 
 same gateway. They inclined their bodies in passing, and the Moslems 
 gave their salam. I recognized my friends, the Bashaw, Abou Beer, 
 Kantoma, and Soumoh, the smile of self-approbation was stamped 
 upon their countenances. 
 
 When the king entered my apartment, he instructed his linguist 
 to inform me that the palavers had been a source of vexation to him, 
 inasmuch as they had hitherto deprived him of sufficient leisure to 
 visit me in a familiar way. His majesty, in compliment, accepted of 
 a small glass of brandy. He then reclined upon my couch, telling 
 me he had been indisposed. His nephew, Ado Braddie, seated 
 himself at the feet of his uncle, with a large palm fan, which he 
 waved to keep off the flies. On a sudden (as was usual with him) he 
 started up, and addressed me in the following terms : — " White 
 captain, I know you now, and I love you much, for what you tell me 
 I think is good, therefore, if I should be angry, regard it not. I believe 
 all you say is true, and I do not think you can tell lies and cheat me. 
 To-day, you see, I come to your house for pleasure and amusement, 
 by which the people will know you are my friend, and that I am the 
 friend of white men. Now I have one palaver in my head which I 
 must tell you. You say the great king sent you to my country to
 
 SUSPICIONS OF THE CAPTAINS. 159 
 
 make us good friends ; he wants a good trade, and he does not like 
 people to make war and fight. Then, you know, you talk much about 
 Cape Coast and Fantee. But this palaver the great king does not 
 hear, so he cannot tell what is right, and what is wrong. All this my 
 captains talk among themselves, and then they say to me, take care, 
 king, we are too much frightened : perhaps this white man comes 
 to Coomassy to look at the country, and see if Ashantee has strong 
 towns and people. We think he is a friend to Smitty, and the Fantees, 
 because the people were never so insolent before he caine to Cape Coast. 
 He will go back to the water side, and say — Now bring your strong 
 men, and fight the king ; and do not pay any gold, for the great king 
 will send plenty of men, and powder, and guns. This is what my 
 captains say, added the monarch, for they are alarmed about me. I do 
 not think so — I cannot see lies in your face ; but then I wish to please 
 my captains ; so I told them, come with me to the white man's house, 
 and see him with your own eyes, and hear with your own ears what 
 he will say. 
 
 I replied with as much composure as I could assume, although 
 with secret indignation, that if the king doubted my sincerity, and 
 the sacred character of my mission, it would be in vain to negotiate ; 
 for unless the confidence were mutual, all the arguments I might urge 
 in justification would be fruitlessly expended. In other countries, I 
 added, where diplomacy was conducted upon a different system, 
 such injurious insinuations would have been consti-ued into a pre- 
 meditated insult to the sovereign, who was represented in the person 
 of his officer. At Ashantee, however, I knew the customs were 
 different ; yet as I did not doubt the sincerity of the king, I did 
 consider that his majesty had been ill-advised, by calumniators, and 
 a faction that had secret interests in keeping alive the embers of 
 discord. After entertaining me so long, as the ambassador of a great 
 king, who sent him presents, after hearing the king of England's 
 book (the commission) read over ; and swearing his great oath before
 
 160 EXPLANATIONS M'lTH THE CHIEFS. 
 
 the people, how could the king now say I was a deceitful character, 
 and only wanted to fight him ? It was a scandal, I said, which I 
 never expected to have heard from his lips : hut now all discussions 
 ought to be suspended, and the king might suffer me to return or not 
 as he thought proper. I compelled the linguists to do as much justice 
 to the interpretation as they were capable of; for the subject carhe 
 home to my feelings. 
 
 " White man," replied the king, " the great God has given you 
 good sense. I was sorry to talk so ; but it is not my palaver, it is my 
 captains ; they forced me to do it against my wish. Now they hear 
 what you say, that is enough, they cannot talk evil again : so you 
 must not be angry, and you shall do what you please, for black men 
 are fools, and you know best what is for my good." 
 
 The king having concluded, Apoko rose from his seat, and in the 
 name of his compeers, said, " That is good, O king, and we are all 
 the white men's friends, when they are yours, and do not join the 
 Fantees to dishonour you. This white captain, therefore, must not 
 think we want to do wrong, because we tell you to beware of the 
 Fantees. He is a great man for his king, and says what he thinks 
 true, and we do the same. But we are good friends for all that, and 
 now we believe all he says is true." 
 
 The Bashaw rose, and said, " White men serve the great god, the 
 same as oui-selves, and they cannot do wrong to the king, for their law 
 is the word of God and the great prophets." 
 
 His majesty remained above an hour longer, discoursing upon 
 various topics ; but he previously dismissed the greater part of his 
 retinue. " Wliat is your custom," said the king, " addressing 
 himself to Kantoma and Abou Beer, when great men mnke friends ?" 
 " They swear upon the sacred book," (the Koran) was the reply. 
 " That is good," said the king, " because then, if they keep evil in their 
 hearts, the book must kill them." " True," added the Moslems, " the 
 book contains holy words from the great God himself." Our law is a
 
 CAPE COAST PRICES. l6l 
 
 is a great law ; we say there is no God, but one God, the merciful, &c. 
 Ah ! " said the king-, " I like that, it is strong sense ; it is the fetische 
 of your country. Ashantee has no fetische like this ; but the Ashantee 
 custom is good also. I know that book (the Koran) is strong, and I 
 like it because it is the book of the great God ; it does good for me, 
 and therefore I love all the people that read it." The Moslems 
 instantly prostrated themselves, and prayed aloud : the king too 
 extended his arms, looking upwards as if to receive a blessing. 
 
 In the afternoon I attended at the palace by appointment. The 
 first topic of conversation related to the notes. " Look again at these 
 books," said the king, addressing himself to me ; " do you think 
 Smitty treats me like a friend, when he charges so much for the goods 
 I buy of him?" " I cannot say more," I replied, " on that subject.'' 
 "Are they not gold books?" he asked. " Yes," I said. " You tell 
 true," continued the king. " Now I will not have any more goods 
 at those prices ; and if I cannot get what is right, I will have gold. 
 I dont say I will not take goods, for I like goods best ; but then I 
 must have them at a fair rate, the same as I can buy them." I urged 
 that those commodities were liable to fluctuate in value, whence it 
 would be impossible to establish prices of currency. But this reply 
 did not satisfy the monarch ; it had the semblance of a subterfuge ; 
 for he could not comprehend, he said, why Mr. Smith, for instance, 
 should sell him one gun for an ounce of gold, when he could purchase 
 two anywhere else for the same money, of equal or superior work- 
 manship. And again, that an anker of rum, or a keg of powder, 
 should be put down on the notes at an ounce, when he could buy three, 
 or even four of the former, and certainly two of the latter, separately, 
 for that amount. Taffeties and other manufactured goods underwent 
 the like scrutiny, and their prices were equally condemned. 
 
 Dismissing these arguments, without attaching to them that 
 degree of importance, by which they were distinguished at Ashantee, 
 
 Y
 
 162 SLAVE TRADE. 
 
 I shall briefly state, that many hours were consumed in discussing 
 this topic alone ; and that at last an amicable understanding was 
 eftected, by my guaranteeing such conditional reductions in price as 
 the state of the market might afford, after the effectual re-establish- 
 ment of tranquillity and commerce. " That is what I shall look to 
 then," said the king, " but I will not trust Smitty again. You shall 
 take my notes, because my master sent you to be my captain, and to 
 look after my affairs : then I can lie down and go to sleep." I passed 
 my word to transact his business in the character of an agent only, 
 alleging that my situation did not authorise me to trade like the 
 governor, and other white men in the castle. 
 
 " " Now," said the king, after a pause, " I have another palaver, and 
 you must help me to talk it. A long time ago the great king liked 
 plenty of trade, more than now ; then many ships came, and they bought 
 ivory, gold, and slaves ; but now he will not let the ships come as 
 before, and the people buy gold and ivory only. " This is what I have 
 in my head, so now tell me truly, like a friend, v/hy does the king 
 do so ?" " His majesty's question," 1 replied, " was connected with a 
 great palaver, which my instructions did not authorise me to discuss. 
 I had nothing to say regarding the slave trade." " I know that too," 
 retorted the king; " because, if my master liked that trade, you 
 would have told me so before. I only want to hear what you think as 
 a friend : this is not like the other palavers." I was confessedly at a 
 loss for an argument that might pass as a satisfactory reason, and the 
 sequel proved that my doubts were not groundless. The king did not 
 deem it plausible, that this obnoxious traffic should have been abolished 
 from motives of humanity alone ; neither would he admit that it 
 lessened the number either of domestic or foreign wars. 
 
 Taking up one of my observations, he remarked, " the white men 
 who go to council with your master, and pray to the great God for him, 
 do not understand my country, or they would not say the slave trade
 
 SLAVE TRADE. 163 
 
 was bad. But if they think it bad now, why did they think it good 
 before. Is not your law an old law, the same as the Crammo* law ? 
 Do you not both serve the same God, only you have different fashions 
 and customs ? Crammos are strong- people in fetische, and they say 
 the law is good, because the great God made the book ; so they buy 
 slaves, and teach them good things, which they knew not before. 
 This makes every body love the Crammos, and they go every where 
 up and down, and the people give them food when they want it. 
 Then these men come all the way from the great water f, and from 
 Manding, and Dagomba, and Killinga ; they stop and trade for slaves, 
 and then go home. If the great king would like to restore this trade, 
 it would be good for the white men and for me too, because Ashantee 
 is a country for war, and the people are strong ; so if you talk that 
 palaver for me properly, in the white countrj^, if you go there, I will 
 give you plenty of gold, and I will make you richer than all the white 
 men." 
 
 I urged the impossibility of the king's request, promising, how- 
 ever, to record his sentiments faithfully. " Well then," said the 
 king, " you must put down in my master's book all I shall say, and 
 then he will look to it, now he is my friend. And when he sees what 
 is tnie, he will surely restore that trade. I cannot make war to catch 
 slaves in the bush, like a thief. My ancestors never did so. But if I 
 fight a king, and kill him when he is insolent, then certainly I must 
 have his gold, and his slaves, and the people are mine too. Do not the 
 white kings act like this ? Because I hear the old men say, that before 
 I conquered Fantee and killed the Braffoes and the kings, that white 
 men came in great ships, and fought and killed many people ; and 
 then they took the gold and slaves to the white country: and some- 
 times they fought together. That is all the same as these black 
 
 * MosleiD law. f Niger. 
 
 Y 2
 
 164 THE mng's wars. 
 
 countries. The great God and the fetische made war for strong men 
 every where, because then they can pay plenty of gold and proper 
 sacrifice. When I fought Gaman, I did not make war for slaves, but 
 because Dinkera (the king) sent me an arrogant message and killed 
 my people, and refused to pay me gold as his father did. Then my 
 fetische made me strong like my ancestors, and I killed Dinkera, and 
 took his gold, and brought more than 20,000 slaves to Coomassy. 
 Some of these people being bad men, I washed my stool in their 
 blood for the fetische. But then some were good people, and these 
 I sold or gave to my captains: many, moreover, died, because this 
 country does not grow too much corn like Sarem, and what can I do? 
 Unless I kill or sell them, they will grow strong and kill my people. 
 Now you must tell my master that these slaves can work for him, and 
 if he wants 10,000 he can have them. And if he wants fine handsome 
 \ girls and women to give his captains, I can send him great numbers." 
 
 The wars of the king were shortly after introduced as a topic of 
 general discussion. That of Gaman was the favourite subject, and 
 the king occasionally took up the thread of the narrative, or eluci- 
 dated such events as were perhaps not generally known. As he caused 
 the linguists to interpret to me the particular feats of himself, the king- 
 of Banna and Apoko, his eyes sparkled with fiery animation, and at 
 one period he threw himself into a sort of theatrical attitude, which 
 appeared to be unpremeditated, and unaffected. He then seemed to 
 be wrapped up within himself in delightful cogitations, and at this 
 crisis, some of the auditors like the bards of " olden time," rose to 
 the hum of the war song, and recited their parts in a pleasing melli- 
 fluous strain. The king enjoyed the scene in extacy, and frequently 
 motioned with his body and feet in cadence with the metre of the 
 verse. This reverie and the recitation occupied many minutes, and 
 were ultimately succeeded by irony and satire cast upon the memory 
 of his fallen enemy. " His scull was broken," said the king, " but 
 I would not lose the trophy, and now I have made a similar scull of
 
 TREATMENT OF A C.-IPTIVE PRINCE. 165 
 
 gold. This is for my great customs, that all the people may know I 
 am the king." 
 
 A slave was deputed to one of the apartments of the palace, and 
 as he returned he deposited a chair,* which his majesty said was the 
 regal seat of Dinkera. This piece of workmanship was studded all 
 over with gold and silver ornaments, and silver coin of diiferent 
 European states. The slave again disappeared, and returned, bringing 
 under his escort a son of that unfortunate monarch, one of the few male 
 survivors of the race of Dinkera. A pallid hue, if so it may be termed, 
 overspread the jetty features of the youth, as he bowed trembling 
 before the king. The angry glance which marked his reception, 
 excited the most painful apprehensions, and the countenance of the 
 young man spoke woeful agony, as he endeavoured to scan the purport 
 of the summons. 
 
 " Your father," said the king, addressing himself to the prince, 
 " was a rebel ; he was full of pride, and wanted to be a great king ; 
 he forgot when he was my slave. Is not this true ? Then he wanted 
 Sarem to help him, and sent gold to make friends. Is not that true, 
 too ? He forgot I was his master ; he killed my sword bearers, and 
 sent me an insulting message. Now I have his scull, and the jaw 
 bones of his captains. His wives, and you, and all the people are my 
 slaves ; and when I tell you to die, you shall die as your brother did ; 
 but now you shall serve me." 
 
 The king then desired him to strip off his robe and shew me the 
 wounds he had received in battle. The unhappy youth did as he vvas 
 instructed, pointing to five or six honourable scars upon his breast, arms, 
 and thighs, which had the appearance of gun-shot wounds. " Now," 
 said the king to him, with a stern, sarcastic apathy, " you know your 
 
 * The stool or chair is esteemed the throne. It denotes supremacy and sovereignty in rank, 
 not only in Ashantee, but in most eastern nations, as well as the states of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, &c.
 
 1(J6 SIGNATURE OF A TREATY. 
 
 father was a fool, and that I am the king ; you did not know that 
 before ; and so now go home until I send for you again."* 
 
 It should have been recorded earlier, that the king, at intervals, 
 before the 23d, during public and private conferences, renewed his 
 application for the " Book," (Treaty) which he desired I should leave 
 with him in token of " good friends," &c. with the great king. The 
 old book, he repeatedly said, was a book of " lies and cheating," and 
 he would by no means retain it in his possession. " Your book," said 
 he, " will tell true, because my master sent you to me to do me good ; 
 besides, he will read your book himself; and it vnW be the words of 
 friends, and of two kings. Then you must put down all he wants, and 
 what you think will give him pleasure ; and I shall look to it ; for I 
 love him much, and cannot do wrong to any of his white men ; but I 
 will fight for them and for him, if you say so." 
 
 Many more such conversations passed between us ; and I fmmed 
 a preliminary sketch of a treaty, which having been read over, he sug- 
 gested certain amendments relative to Fantee, the town of Cape Coast, 
 &c. Finally, on the 23d, the definitive treaty itself, coupled with cer- 
 tain supplementary articles, (at a later hour) received the king's signa- 
 ture, after a most laborious discussion, wherein every article separately 
 was criticised and scrutinized by a full court, at which Apoko, Adusai 
 Ado Matta, Kankam, Anion Koitea, Ado Braddie, Coffee Adukon, 
 (the Caboceer of Amoafo) Soabin, of Doompassie, Quaky Coffee, (a cap- 
 tain to Anion Koitea) Eshamo Cudjo, (the head captain over Assin and 
 Fantee) Agampong, and a few others, were present. The king seemed 
 perfectly conscious that the treaty covenanted many articles which were 
 calculated for the benefit of his people. He was sensible, moreover, 
 that the commercial clauses were at least mutually advantageous. But 
 
 * This illustrious prisoner was placed under the safeguard of an inferior captain, who employed 
 him in work at his plantations. The negro has no tender sentiment for his humbled antagonist ! He was 
 compelled, in the presence of the king, to join a chorus in the cruel Epicedium, or death-song, which 
 preceded his brother's sacrifice : — an execution which was performed in his presence, with torture, and 
 amidst the mockery and derision of the whole court.
 
 COMMERCIAL VIEWS. I67 
 
 he wished to know, he said, how much he was Hkely to benefit indivi- 
 duall}-, by encoui-ag-ing a free export and import trade with inland 
 states, such as I had on several occasions impressed upon his mind, by 
 making- his capital the depot of British manufactured goods and African 
 produce. I explained the usage of Europe in regard to commerce 
 foreign and domestic, shewing that every article in bulk, and in pro- 
 portion to its value, paid a relative custom to the great officers of trade, in 
 support of government. " That is very good," said he, " for the great 
 king ; but I cannot do so, because the Ashantee fashion is different. | 
 None but kings and great men trade here, the same as myself. Some- 
 times I lend them gold, if the}' are good people ; and then I cannot say, 
 give me the gold back. If they come from another country to trade in 
 Coomassy, they make friends, and give me a present ; then, to be sure, 
 I cannot tell them to give me gold, when they buy and sell the goods. 
 Besides, some traders are kings' sons and brothers, and great captains : 
 I must not say to them, give me gold, but I must give them gold and 
 pro\isions, and send them home happy and rich, that it may be known 
 in other countries that I am a great king, and know what is right. Thus 
 I please my Gods, and they make me strong." 
 
 I adopted various arguments to convince the king that the esta- 
 blishment of a well-regulated intercourse with Salgha, Daboya, Hou- 
 I'aboh, Yandi, &c. could not fail to increase the wealth of his subjects, 
 even though he might not think proper to levy commercial dues, and 
 by consequence he must be a gainer in the sequel. That v.as true, he 
 admitted, but Ashantee was a nation of warriors, and the people did 
 not understand these things like the inhabitants who lived nigher the 
 great water (Niger.) If I would take the task upon myself, and regu- 
 late the trade of his country, he said, according to what I thought right, 
 he should be happy and contented, and would make all the merchants 
 obey me, and give presents, the same as to himself. " I will hear," 
 added the monarch, " every thing you have to say, and my captains 
 shall be told to obey you."
 
 158 ASHANTEE AMBASSADORS. 
 
 The king then introduced the officers he had selected as ambassa- 
 dors to the British government {" the great king.") " This man," said 
 he, taking the foremost by the arm, " is my treasurer ; he takes care of 
 my gold and good things. When he gets to the white country, he will 
 talk all the palaver properly, and then my master will know that I 
 have a good heart for him and his people, and that only bad men tell 
 lies about me. I am preparing a present," he continued, " fit for 
 him, and this captain will give it to him; but I shall give you a 
 part to take care of, and when you go down to the water-side, you 
 must see every thing put in the ship. I shall let him have five 
 thousand ounces of gold besides, to buy me good things in silver- 
 plate, cloth, silks, &c. and money for his subsistence." 
 
 The associates of this officer were six in number, comprising a 
 suite whose powers were subordinate to the treasurer, although they 
 owed little or no responsibility to him. This the king explained to 
 me in their presence, as he introduced them according to their 
 offices ; namely, two royal bearers of the gold-hilted swords ; two 
 counsellors or advisers ; one priest ; one crier of the court. * They 
 should all bear witness, said the cautious monarch, that " his trea- 
 surer spoke the truth, when he came back." I was also desired to 
 procure a faithful linguist, who should likewise assist in buying the 
 fine things he required for the use of his palace. It scarcely de- 
 serves to be recorded, that I acceded to all these requisitions. I do 
 not scruple to admit, that I was gratified to the full extent of that 
 feeling, at the brilliant harvest it promised to England, — the influ- 
 ence it gave her over a monarch so tractable, and a country so rich 
 and barbarous, where, notwithstanding, a king of England reigned 
 already in the hearts of hundreds — of thousands — perhaps millions 
 
 * With the exception of the crier, who was a youth of sixteen or seventeen, and whose profession 
 was to keep order and silence during my negotiations at the palace, the rest were all men of rank and 
 influence in the government ; the priest was of the king's own family, and the others were in offices 
 requiring their daily attendance about the person of the sovereign.
 
 AUDIENCE OF LEAVE. l69 
 
 lions of untutored heathens or Moslems of all ranks, but chiefly of 
 that which claims the first consideration. 
 
 " If you go to the white country," said the king, " I place these 
 captains under your protection ; they have served you, and you must 
 serve them, for my sake ; instruct them in the ceremonies to be 
 observed before my great master, and tell them how to give him 
 pleasure. Then you must tell him that I like the present he sent me 
 very much. But I like it because the great God of his fathers made his 
 heart to be a good friend to me ; therefore if he should send me only a 
 slave to say so, it is enough. Tell him my great oath. I will fight for 
 him and his white men ; and every thing he wants he shall have : 
 for he has brought tears of pleasure into my eyes ; but, tell him he 
 must not believe the Fantees : black men's hearts are not the same 
 as white men's ; and he does not know these people like me, for there is 
 no truth in them ; they cheat him, they cheat me, and make fools of his 
 white people." 
 
 As the day of departure drew nigh, the king invited me to a 
 full audience, which was attended by many thousands, including all the 
 principal officers and their retinues. The din of martial discord rained 
 heavily upon my ears by way of salutation, from a countless number of 
 bands, as I turned the angle of the court of audience. The king, who 
 was encompassed by a mixed assemblage of courtiers, of high and low 
 degree, motioned to Agampong to place my seat by his side, " that the 
 city might know," he said, " that I was dear to him as a son." " I am 
 going to lose you," continued the king, " it is the season of rain, which 
 I hear is bad for white men ; and I do not know if you must go to the 
 white country : but I shall make a strong fetische and pray all the 
 gods to keep you well and bring you back to me soon again ; for I love 
 you much. This is not talk of the tongue, it is my heart says so, and 
 that must tell truth." His fine countenance, indeed, corroborated his 
 assertion ; — is it weakness to say I too was affected ? I assured him I felt 
 gratitude for the treatment I had experienced, and that my attachment 
 
 z
 
 J JQ AUDIENCE OF LEAVE. 
 
 personally proceeded equally from the heart. " My captains," added 
 the king, after a momentary suspense, " love you, because they know 
 the king of the whites is my good friend, and they believe you have 
 a good heart for all the people, Fantees and Ashantees, Moslems, and 
 those who serve my Gods ; so now you shall hear what they say." 
 
 The appeal created a simultaneous movement in advance of the 
 throne, and where I was seated. Apoko stood up, and for himself and 
 coadjutors said, " Have we not sworn to be true to the great king? we 
 will serve him the same as Sai, for we have made fetische, and cannot 
 break our words." 
 
 The king of Banna had already returned to his dominions, little 
 satisfied with the fruits of his negotiation respecting the spoil of 
 Gaman. The sovereign of Coomassy was engaged in selecting presents 
 from his stores, for the tributary princes and allies. These articles, in 
 conformity to court policy, were displayed to the people with great 
 parade and ostentation. To the king of Banna he sent five kegs of rum, 
 two pieces of brocade, some damask and fine cotton goods, ten kegs of 
 powder, and, as I was informed, one hundred ounces of gold dust. A 
 present of much less magnitude was sent to the Caboceer of Coransah. 
 To the Caboceer of Ghofan (below the desert), he sent the same quan- 
 tity of rum, some gold and damask. To the king of Salgha, (Entaa,) 
 he sent ten kegs of powder, four pieces of brocade, some fine cotton 
 goods, guns, and eight kegs of rum. The Moslems of Dagomba and 
 Ghunja, headed by the Bashaw, Abou Beer, Cantoma, and Shoumo, came 
 in a body to return thaiiks, in the name of their sovereign, the King of 
 Yandi, (the capital of Dagomba) for a present he had already despatched 
 to that monarch. They made an appropriate speech, in the dialect of 
 Dagomba, thanking the king for his liberality, in language which 
 seemed courtly and grateful. These Moslems, in common with other 
 favourites, participated in the royal bounty. Besides merchandize, the 
 king distributed, it was said, upwards of 2,000 ounces of gold. A 
 deputation of the Moslems of Bouromy and the Volta, headed by their
 
 PRESENTS OF SLAVES. I7I 
 
 Caboceer (an Arab by extraction), arrived at court, exactly as the king 
 was dismissing the Bashaw. Stop, said the king to this officer, you 
 must not leave until you make good friends between the white man and 
 the Caboceer: he does not know those Crammos.^'^ " I have sent," 
 said he, addressing me, " to the king of Dagomba, for fifty beautiful 
 girls, and fifty boys ; these I shall dress up in rich clothes and gold for 
 the great king to serve him. Some of them are now here, and more 
 will soon come. The other presents are all ready, and the ambassadors 
 will go as soon as they have made good provision for their wives." I 
 told the king I regretted he had not communicated to me, at an earlier 
 day, his intention regarding the boys and girls, for that quality of 
 present, I feared, would not be agreeable to my master, neither could I 
 promise to engage for their transportation to England. " Do not fear," 
 said the king, taking up the after clause only ; " for I will send more 
 provisions than the ship can carry, and plenty of gold to pay for their 
 subsistence : you shall have nothing to pay." I durst not undertake 
 such a charge, was my reply, yet I was satisfied of the purity of his 
 intentions. The king was dejected — he paused, and several of the 
 courtiers renewed the pleading. It was impossible, I said ; but what- 
 ever inanimate objects the king might have to send, I would take every 
 care of. "If that is not a proper present," said the king, " how can I 
 please my master? and that I must do." 
 
 The slave trade became a topic of conversation soon after, for the 
 king abruptly cut the clue of the former conversation. " I think," 
 said he, " that the great king will do me much good, if he likes to make 
 a proper trade for slaves as before. You must not forget that palaver. 
 But I do not say he must do so, for he knows best what is good for him 
 and me too : and if he says it will not do, that is enough." 
 
 The ambassador and his suite again came forward, richly habited, 
 and adorned with rock gold. They had been engaged, they said, in 
 making a strong Fetische, to give them a good face before the great 
 
 * Moslems. 
 
 z 2
 
 IJ2 INSTRUCTIONS TO THE AMBASSADORS. 
 
 kino-. Their bodies were painted with white clay, fancifully arranged 
 in flowers, stars, and streaks. 
 
 " Now," said the king, turning half round to these men, " you are 
 to tell my master this. He is my good friend, and I shall serve him 
 faithfully. My people love him, because he is good to black men ; and 
 he is the great king here, as in the white land. Tell him I send my 
 ambassador, that he may hear what is true from my own mouth, and 
 not believe what the Fantees say, for they lie, and cheat his people. I 
 am pleased with the captain he sent me, with his book,* and his present. 
 My ancestors loved white people when they only knew the name, be- 
 cause they knew they were strong, and prayed to the great God. But 
 I loved them from the day I fought at Annaraaboe, and met Governor 
 Torrane. Tell my master that was a proper governor, and so was 
 Governor White. I never had any palavers with them, for they knew 
 I was the king ; they did me good, and I did them good. I never had a 
 palaver -svith any governor before Smitty, except the palaver of Fantee, 
 before Torrane knew me. I cannot fight white men : I cannot take 
 their gold and their goods, as the Fantees did. If I make war upon the 
 blacks, when they are stubborn, tell the king not to mind that; for all 
 this country is mine, and I shall do so to make the people know me and 
 him, and to make them serve us both. He has only to tell me what 
 will please him, and whatever he wants I shall send. If he likes peace, 
 that is good for the people, because then they can trade ; and if he says, 
 make war upon this country or that, I shall rise in the night to serve 
 him. Tell him the Cape Coast people made me very angry ; and all 
 my captains wanted war, because they said the governor would bring 
 white men to help the Fantees. But never mind that now, we are good 
 friends again, and I hold a true book. I shall therefore make plenty of 
 trade, and do every thing to give pleasure to his people. His captain 
 shall look to all that ; and whatever he says is proper, that I shall do. 
 Tell him I am a great king here, and this is not talk like the Fantee 
 caboceers ; for I can do him great good, and send him gold and ivory 
 
 • Commission.
 
 PRESENTS TO THE KING OF ENGLAND. 173 
 
 as much as he likes. He is my master, and I have sworn the great oath 
 that I will be faithful to him like a king and a true friend, and I shall 
 take care of his captain, and of all the white men ; and when he comes 
 back to Coomassy, I can lie down and go to sleep. Then," added the 
 king, as he directed the conversation more particularly to the treasurer, 
 holding him at the lime by the skirt of his vestment, " you are to give 
 to the great king the present I am going to shew you, and tell him Sai 
 sends you this, because your country is a long way off, and he cannot 
 come and see you himself; but for all that, he knows you, and he loves 
 you the same as a brother." 
 
 The discourse was interrupted by the entrance of a troop of 
 eunuchs, bearing upon their heads various articles of the present, 
 which were passed in review before the gazing multitude. These were 
 a number of ornaments, in molten gold, such as small plates, circlets, 
 twists, &c. besides some large specimens of rock gold; two fine 
 camel's hair carpets, such as those of Mecca, Smyrna, Aleppo, &c. 
 said to have been brought from Cassina ; four more, of Yandy * 
 fabric, coarse; nine large pieces of silk, curiously but preposterously 
 fretted with thick gold wire and fetische ornaments ; a sort of quilted 
 cotton robe, partly covered with cabalistical scraps and sentences 
 of Arabic : it was in fact a war garment, gifted, as the king said, with 
 the virtue of resisting the power of a musquet bullet, or the thrust of 
 a steel weapon ; a long gold pipe.i" neatly and tastefully decorated 
 
 * A carpet of this description was given to me by the king for a couch rug, intended, as he 
 expressed it, to hinder me from getting sick on the road in the rains : I have it still in my possession. 
 The texture is a coarse tropical wool, or rather hair, interwoven in stripes, with alternate blue, red, 
 and white cotton, flowered and figured characteristically. 
 
 f The king desired me to report that, having himself smoked the pipe, the great white king 
 might do the same, and then it should be considered a symbol of peace and friendship between them. 
 It was a proper custom, he said, and grateful to his gods, who, when two people made friends that 
 way, watched over the lives and prosperity of both. 
 
 The Ashantees are by no means singular in this practice, the same being observed by many semi- 
 barbarous nations ; but it may be sufficient to instance the Indians of North America.
 
 174 PRESENTS TO THE KING. 
 
 with gold wire, the bowl being cast in the solid, and rudely sculptured ; 
 a massive breast plate cast pure, of the same metal, divided upon the 
 outer surface into compartments, and coarsely moulded into a sort of 
 filligrane work'; a gold elephant's tail, composed of a thick bunch 
 of wire : — a sort of fan or fly flap, used by the king, or rather to him 
 alone; besides a variety of the finest cotton cloths, striped and orna- 
 mented with silk in the fashions of the country. 
 
 Wlien these treasures had been sufficiently paraded before the 
 assembled throng, the king ordered me to take charge of the pipe, the 
 breast plate and the other trinkets ; his people, he said, would carefully 
 pack up the rest. The small trinkets, however, he once more gave 
 back to the charge of his ambassador, telling him to pack them also 
 in the same box with the silks, and leave wath me the pipe and breast 
 plate only. 
 
 At a given signal, a man brought forward a beautiful pair of young 
 leopards, secured in a bamboo cage. " You are to take care of these 
 yourself," said the king to me ; " they are for my master, and if he 
 likes he can have plenty of all sorts of beasts." 
 
 " What you see," said the king, " is not half what I intended to 
 send. By and by the kings of Banna, and Salgha, and Yandy, and 
 Gaman, and all the great caboceers will send in their presents, but 
 then you will be gone." His majesty again entreated me to take 
 charge, if not of the whole, of a part, at least, of the girls and boys, 
 of whom, he represented, he then had forty in readiness, of the most 
 beautiful he could select. " It could not be so," I replied, " and it was 
 not essential, for he had already shewn a kingly liberality, worthy the 
 estimation in which the great officers of my master held him." " Then 
 pick out as many as you like only," said the monarch, " it is always 
 the fashion to send some young and handsome people, because then 
 my master will look at them and love me." Finding my reluctance was 
 not to be overcome, he dropped the subject.
 
 PRESENTS TO THE CONSUL. 175 
 
 " For youi'self," said the king, " I make you this present, handing 
 me at the same time a massive chain, formed of curiously plaited gold 
 wire in twelve circular links, bound together at the extremities by a 
 twisted fastening of the same metal, having a large clasp shaped into 
 a tortoise.* " This is what I wear round my body," said the king. 
 "Here, too, are some cotton cloths to keep you warm on the road."t 
 To sum up the royal bounty, " he dashed" me, as the elegarit phrase- 
 ology of the Cape expresses it, a boy and girl, of Gaman, two boys 
 of Salgha, and a man, who, he said, would be serviceable in the 
 care and treatment of the leopards. " The children," he added, 
 " would learn the language of the whites, and then make good 
 servants." 
 
 Various desultory conversations followed, in which the king and his 
 ministers alternately broke silence. England and her king were the 
 favourite themes of discussion. I related, in abstract, a narrative of the 
 most prominent among the political events which have agitated the con- 
 tinent of Europe during the last twelve years, and the glorious triumph 
 of the British arms, under the sway of the hero of the Spanish Penin- 
 sula and the Netherlands. The subject excited an universal interest ; 
 many smiled, and some laughed outright, with pleasure ; but no one was 
 more strongly affected than the king himself. He comprehended every 
 thing, he said, but the maimer in which white men managed great 
 
 * This chain, the finest specimen of gold work that ever fell under my obsarvaiion in 
 Africa, weighed about a pound in pure metal. Of all the presents enumerated above, the pipe and 
 the breast plate, which were in my charge, together with the leopards, alone reached England. 
 The rest were necessarily left behind on the coast, together with the ambassadors, as Sir 
 George Collier declined granting them a passage in the Tartar, at the instance, it was reported, of 
 the governor. The whole I delivered to Lord Bathurst some time after my arrival in England, for his 
 majesty. 
 
 f The rain was at this time well set in at Coomassy ; it followed our steps considerably to the 
 southward of the Praa River. The forest resembled a shower bath, and when set in motion by an 
 increased action of wind, it fell from the foliage in heavy discharges.
 
 IJQ DEDICATION OF THE FORT. 
 
 ships, travelled every where in them on the wide sea, and fought 
 great battles on the water. He believed, he said, that the art of navi- 
 gation was connected with the fetische of the great God, which, from 
 the creation of the world conferred supremacy upon the whites,* and 
 the people of the East. 
 
 My fort, said the king, changing the conversation, is not yet com- 
 pleted, but you must make me the white fetische, the same that the 
 great king makes for his house. What was proper to be done, he 
 enquired. I replied, to slay cattle, and (wishing to give in to the 
 religious feelings of the Moslems, who were present) sprinkle the blood 
 of the sacrifice, together with flour and salt, upon the threshold of 
 the door. The Bashaw rose to embrace, and would have kissed me. 
 That is not all, I added, the king must solemnize the custom by giving 
 food to the people, and cultivating the friendship of those holy men, 
 (pointing to the Moslems) who believe in the same God as myself. " I 
 am ignorant," replied the king, spreading out both his hands to heaven, 
 in the form of supplication. The chief of the Moslems, together with 
 Cantoma and Abou Beer, imitated the adoration of the king, and 
 chaunted aloud the Fatha. 
 
 " I must give a name to the fort," said the king, " what shall 
 it be ?" I reminded him of the name of George (as familiar to his 
 hearing on a former day.) " Yes," he replied, turning round to Apoko, 
 " it shall be Shorshi, and you must write me a book for it." 
 
 When I returned home, I complied with the king's wishes, by 
 writing certain religious sentences in Arabic, that they might be 
 perused by the Moslems, if the king desired it. It turned out accord- 
 ingly, and I was again summoned to the palace, where the believers 
 had already assembled. The king was gratified, he said, at the 
 
 * The Ashantees, in common with he maritime natives of the Gold Coast, believe that the Father 
 or Ruler of the Gods and the universe, originally created man of two colours ; namely, black and white. 
 The tradition may be found in Bosman nearly as it is current at this day.
 
 NAMING OF THE FORT. 177 
 
 translation he had heard, for that was strong sense ; but I had not 
 written down the name of the fort, that the Moslems might know it 
 when they looked in the book. I took the reed that was offered me 
 and wrote j^ which they pronounced with tolerable accuracy ; the 
 king expressed his gratitude by a donation of provisions, wine, &c. 
 But his feelings were most sensibly affected by an order which I gave 
 clandestinely to mount the British flag upon the top of the building. 
 It was an elegant silk flag, which I had previously designed to give 
 his majesty as a private token of friendship. " White man," said he, 
 " the great God has given you sense for my good. Do what you will, 
 you are the same as my son : — go to Cape Coast, satisfy my nephew, 
 and what you say is right let me have. But come back again, if you 
 can, and send one of your friends to the great king to take care of my 
 ambassadors. I will make you richer than all the other white men 
 for I do not tell a lie, when I say I love you." He took me by 
 the hand, in the most friendly manner ; calling again to the ambassador 
 (treasurer,) and desiring him to report faithfully what his sentiments 
 were. " I am now going to council," said the king, " for the last time, 
 but wait for me, I shall not be long." Upon this he retired, followed 
 by Apoko, Kankam, Adusai, the Treasurer, and a few others. 
 
 As I retired, the king followed me to the gate. " With to-morrow's 
 sun," said he, at parting, " I shall lose you ; but if you love me I shall 
 soon see you again, then I shall make a very great custom, and if it 
 will give you pleasure to look at all these countries, I can send you safe 
 all the way to the great water, to Haoussa, Marrowa, every where; 
 for next time, you must go and see all my good friends, the kings of 
 this country" (Africa). At parting I promised a full compliance with 
 his wishes ; which, (in order to disguise the pleasure I felt) I affirmed 
 tallied with the customs of Europe ; for hitherto I had cautiously 
 avoided trespassing upon the scruples or jealousy of those whose 
 counsels swayed the royal mind. 
 
 " Stop," said the king, as I held him with a parting grasp of the 
 
 A A
 
 l-^S ROVAL CONDESCENSION. 
 
 hand, " you are going, and I must do you good ; open your hand.' I 
 did so, and to my astonishment he spat in it, while 1 made an 
 involuntary start to rescue it from his bold. My aversion to the royal 
 bounty excited the most lively astonishment in all present, except 
 Mr. Collins and Mr. Salmon ; the rest could not comprehend how I 
 should feel disgust.* " It is good ! it is good !" they all exclaimed, 
 " do not do so to the king: he is your friend, and does you a great 
 honor." But I did not wish to engross to myself exclusively so much 
 of this kingly liberality ; and accordingly I introduced Messrs. Collins 
 and Salmon to their share. The king was equally condescending 
 to each of them, and his countenance reflected nothing but good 
 nature. 
 
 When I returned to my quarters, I found the Bashaw, Abou Beer, 
 and Kantoma. They came to felicitate me, they said, upon the great 
 interest I held with the king: it g-ave them pleasure, because they 
 knew I was a friend to the Moslems, more than any other people, and 
 now I might benefit them, and all the traders. I promised I should 
 never forget the friendship they had conferred upon me, publicly and 
 privately. The esteem I had for them, I added, would last my life, 
 nor should I forget to report their characters in their true colouring 
 You are, I concluded, worthy the king's confidence, and my friendship 
 for you is from the heart. " Allah, and his holy apostle protect you, 
 my son ! " exclaimed the Bashaw, embracing me fervently ; the others 
 did the same, and they all joined in the most cordial wishes for my 
 welfare. " May you live secure from sickness and misfortune ; may 
 
 • To the Oriental reader 1 need only say, he will find it recorded of Mohammed, that his disciples 
 and adherents were wont to wipe up his saliva with their hands, or rub it into their bodies from 
 veneration. Refer to the interview between B'lohamnied and the ambassadors of Khosrout Parvits, 
 sovereign of Persia ; and what they reported of the dignity of the Arabian Prophet on their return 
 to Persia. At Ashantee, the sovereign commonly spurts his saliva over the courtiers and kings, even of 
 the first rank; or if it should fall by accident on the ground, they carefully wipe it up, and rub it on their 
 skins. The practice is common in various parts of Africa, and even in some Moslem countries.
 
 REJECTION OF THE KORAN. 179 
 
 you return to us in health and safety," vibrated from every tongue : 
 " we love you, and we love the great sultan who sent you, for he 
 is a good friend to the blacks of all nations;* we know this from our 
 brethren who go to the Koara (Niger) and Egypt." Here we were 
 interrupted by the entrance of Apoko, Agampong, and Adusai. They 
 came to swear me upon the Koran, they said, that I had no malice in 
 my heart; that all I had done at Coomassy was done without any 
 sinister design to bring white men to the coast, and arm the Fantees 
 against their sovereign's government. The king, they added, knew 
 better, nobody thought so except a few bad men ; but it would please 
 his people to hear me swear it. I did not hesitate to comply with the 
 king's wishes, I objected only to the form he required. It was in fact 
 a trial for which I was not prepared. Reasons, which I may be excused 
 for not giving, urged me to do so, painful as it was to me, in the 
 presence of Moslems, to whom I was much indebted, and for whom I 
 had a sincere regard. The Bashaw placed the Koran upon the table. 
 " By laying your right hand upon it," said he, " you will give pleasure 
 to your friend the king: he is ashamed to ask you himself, but he 
 wants you to oblige him, for all that." I sent a cane to the palace, to 
 request the king would dispense with that form of oath, and accept in 
 its lieu, of a custom familiar to Europe. It was agreed to, and I swore 
 to the covenant of good faith upon the Bible : Messrs. Salmon, Collins, 
 and Graves, followed my example ; but a bitterness of feeling over- 
 powered me, as I noticed the desponding countenances of the Bashaw 
 and his friends : the former retired pensively to a corner of the apart- 
 ment, hugged the Koran to his breast with both arms, and preserved a 
 melancholy silence, in which he was imitated by the others, whose 
 features exhibited an index of mortification. I had some difficulty, 
 
 * Our correspondence, at intervals, was carried on by note ; but verbal or written, I never found 
 that the Moslems entertained other than the most enlightened sentiments of the views of the British 
 government. 
 
 A A 2
 
 1 80 DEPARTURE. 
 
 after the Ashantees had retired, to banish their perturbation. For some 
 minutes, I soothed in vain ; at length, however, I was consoled by 
 hearing Abou Beer exclaim, ' God willed it so, it was so decreed." As 
 the temporary reserve v^^ore off, they protested they lamented I had 
 not complied with the ceremony, for many reasons. " The Koran / 
 knew was a good book, for it was written upon the everlasting table, 
 under the throne of God : — The king, and all his idolatrous subjects 
 believed in it too. It would have satisfied every scruple of the court, of 
 my integrity, sincerity, &c. ; and it would have conferred a great 
 honour upon them and all the Moslems, and permanently have united 
 their interests exclusively to those of white men, which was what they 
 wished above all things." 
 
 These friendly people, and some others of their associates, delivered 
 me a collection of manuscripts, containing geographical information of 
 the central parts of the continent. 
 
 In the evening, the king sent me a horse and a cow.* Each of 
 the principal Moslems called again with a farewell present. That of 
 the Bashaw was a cotton cloth, made purposely by his wife : others 
 brought sheep, kids, fowls, honey, &c. The rain fell heavily, and the 
 Moslems staid till a late hour, explaining themselves upon the subject 
 of former geographical conversations which could not, with propriety, 
 be inserted here. 
 
 The following day I mounted my palanquin, to bid farewell to 
 Coomassy. Drums, horns, flutes, castanets, &c. resounded from all 
 quarters of the city ; assembled thousands occupied the space between 
 the quarters and the palace, and numei-ous bodies of troops were sta- 
 tioned in groups at various points. The captains of all ranks were 
 drawn up adjoining the palace, to greet me as I passed, with a parting 
 shake of the hand ; and here I was suddenly enveloped in the smoke 
 
 * Different from the cattle of tropical Africa in general, those of Ashantee are of the largest breed ; but 
 so fierce that it is dangerous to approach them. The cow was lashed by the feet to a strong bamboo pole, 
 which prevented it from rising up ; but in defiance of obstacles it broke out into the forest.
 
 HEAVY RAINS. 181 
 
 from a thousand blunderbusses, fired, I might ahnost say, against my 
 face, amidst flourishing, capering, and a variety of grotesque antics, 
 Agampong, who commanded a detachment of men sent by the king to 
 escort me to the forest, came running up to shew one of the pieces 
 which had burst,_^and lacerated the hand of a soldier slightly. " The 
 king is very fond of these guns," said he,^ " and he has not got too 
 many." I promised I would endeavour to procure him one for that 
 which had been spoiled. The Moslems had taken a stand at the 
 extreme end of the palace wall. " I am an old man," said the Bashaw, 
 as he gravely took hold of my hand ; " Allah knows, if you go to the 
 land of white men, whether or not I shall see you again : but if you 
 love me, and if you love the king, you cannot forget us. I pray God 
 and his Apostle to restore you to us." Abou Beer, Kantoma, L'Hadge 
 Said, and Shouma, and many more with whom I was on terms of 
 intimacy, prayed aloud for my prosperity. The converts and pupils 
 shouted at a distance, perhaps all they knew of Arabic, — " God bless 
 you, white man." 
 
 A messenger sent by the king overtook me during the stoppage : 
 — ■" Sai," said the man, " wishes you a good journey. His heart is full, 
 and he cannot see you ; but he is making a strong fetische for his Gods, 
 to send you back safe." The Moslems kept pace with my palanquin 
 for some distance ; and at parting, which they did with a renewal of 
 their protestations of attachment, they continued to follow me with 
 their eyes until the forest buried me from their sight. 
 
 We were deluged with torrents of rain ^'^ for five ensuing days ; 
 the forest was a continued sheet of water in many districts, through 
 which we waded with the greatest difficulty and bodily exertion ; for 
 our feet sunk at every pace into an adhesive soil, while the dripping 
 from the boughs, and the perspiration together, drenched our bodies so 
 thorouo-hlv, that the water flowed rather than oozed from the lower 
 
 * The rains set in at Coomassy about one month sooner than upon the coast, notwithstanding the 
 difference of latitude is so trifling.
 
 182 LIBERATION OF A SLAVE. 
 
 extremities of our persons and apparel. The march was indeed most 
 harassing, and many of the people fell sick ; nor did either Messrs. Sal- 
 mon and Collins, or myself, escape indisposition and lameness. 
 
 At Amoafo we were greeted by the Caboceer Coffee Ado Koum 
 with a most hospitable welcome ; and in general, our reception as we 
 advanced southward was of the most friendly complexion, associated 
 too with every ostentatious shew of respect. 
 
 At Ansah, my corporal by accident encountered his sister in the 
 street, who had been dragged into slavery, together with many other 
 women, during the wars of Ashantee upon the sea-coast. The man, 
 overpowered with joy, seized his sister by the arm, and she with great 
 willingness followed him to my quarters. The people assembled in 
 crowds, and those from whose protection she had been forced away, vo- 
 ciferously demanded the liberation of the slave, alledging they had paid 
 gold for her to the amount of twenty-five ackeys, (about J^6.) and she 
 was besides indebted to the towns-people half as much more. To 
 satisfy^ all parties, I suffered the woman to be carried before the Cabo- 
 ceer Coinin Akim, by her brother and former pi'otectoi-s, and desired 
 that chief would restore the woman to her relation, upon terms of 
 equity suitable to the circumstances of the disputants. The palaver, as 
 all African palavers do, took up many hours discussing ; but at last I 
 received a message, stating that the Caboceer had placed the woman 
 under my protection, until the brother, who had liberty to convey her 
 back to the coast, should pay eleven ackeys. This was agreed to, and I 
 had the satisfaction to witness her safe arrival among her friends. 
 
 The rivers Dab, Prakomy, Praa, and Okee, had swollen to a great 
 degree, and their torrents were rapid — seldom less than five knots. 
 
 Finally, on the 5th of April, I returned to the coast, in a state of 
 health by no means equal to what I enjoyed either at Coomassy or dur- 
 ing the journey through Assin and Fan tee. 
 
 As yet, the rains had not commenced in that part of the forest of 
 Fantee which is to the southward of Mansue ; but during a journey of
 
 ARRIVAL AT CAPE COAST. 183 
 
 one hundred and fifty-eight British miles from the capital, there had 
 comparatively been no intermission between the showers. The swamps, 
 such as have been noticed on the journey up, were swollen into little 
 lakes, through which we waded with difficulty, and at uncertain depths ; 
 and the southern rivers and rivulets, more or less, were converted to 
 foaming- torrents. 
 
 The prospect of the ocean, as we entered an avenue leading to the 
 town of Mouree, at 5 P.M. was inexpressibly delightful, as it presented 
 a view of Cape Coast. 
 
 The sequel may be related in few words : — The servants of the 
 Committee not only refused to accede to the terms of the treaty, which 
 they chose to represent as a deed whereby the sovereignty of Fatifee 
 had been transferred to the king of Ashantee ; but they also took upon 
 themselves to forbid the payment of any proportion of the accustomed 
 tribute to the king, or even of the 100 ounces* they had already ten- 
 dered as a peace-offering in behalf of the natives of the town. Know- 
 ing, however, that their resistance alone would avail but little, they had 
 in the interval of my absence obtained a public promise from the late 
 Sir George Collier, to give support to their opposition. Thus encou- 
 raged, the governor and council made no secret of their intentions to 
 bid defiance to the king, even before Sir George, who was then on a 
 cruize, had returned to the Cape. The news which was thus publicly 
 proclaimed became the general topic of conversation, and the Fantees, 
 who now earnestly built their hopes on the assistance promised them 
 from the squadron under the orders of the Commodore, again breathed 
 defiance in their houses against the king, although still they were cau- 
 tious in their intercourse with the Ashantees, to whom they ai-tfully 
 represented that they were willing to obey the king ; but from the 
 situation of their town, under the guns of a British fort, they were 
 
 * It should have been noticed earlier, that when I quitted Cape Coast, tlie governor and council 
 authorised me by letter to pay to the king, on behalf of the natives 150oz. It was their subsequent advice, 
 during the negotiations at Coomassv, as it has been stated, which reduced tiie offer to lO'Joz.
 
 J84 DISAVOWAL OF THE TREATY. 
 
 necessitated to that course of politics which the governor might pre- 
 scribe, who, whenever he pleased, could destroy their habitations, and 
 drive them into the bush. 
 
 On the seventh Mr. Smith, attended by Aggry, Binie, De Graaf, 
 and some other town chiefs went to inspect an adjacent hill, which 
 overlooks the back of the town, and on their return it was given 
 out that a martello tower should be built there, without delay, to cover 
 the approach of an enemy. This was enough, and the natives, no 
 longer doubting the sincerity of the Company's servants, and reposing 
 an equal confidence in the promise of " a white army being sent, 
 if necessary, for their protection," disdained any longer to conceal what 
 were termed their patriotic effusions ; but which the Ashantees 
 described as their insolence. 
 
 About eight o'clock the same evening, the horns and drums of the 
 Ashantees announced a movement among these people. As I opened 
 the door of my apartment to enquire into the cause of it, two captains 
 headed by Akassy, the Caboceer of Kikewhary, rushed hastily 
 forward ; and when the attendants, who I perceived were armed, 
 had closed the entrance, they told me that Adoom (the ambassador) 
 desired an interview, as he had something particular to communicate. 
 When it was explained to him that I waited his coming, he mustered 
 and marshalled the whole of his force, amounting, at this time, to 
 about five hundred men, whom he stationed in the adjoining avenues 
 (for I was now residing in town). 
 
 During our conference, which related to the settlement of the 
 native palaver, the prince told me, that although he was anxious to 
 adjust that aflair agreeably to the instructions he had received from the 
 king, yet he had now called with another intent. He had learned, 
 he said, from good authority, not only what had been transacting 
 in town to the prejudice of the king, but also, that a plot was then in 
 agitation between Binie, Aggry, and some other chiefs of inferior 
 note, to assassinate both him and me, and then destroy his little
 
 FANTEE CONSPIRACY. 185 
 
 army.* " I do not understand the palave/s of white men," added 
 the prince ; " bvit I am not afraid of what the town can do ; it is you 
 I am afraid for : and as your king placed you under the protection 
 of my king, I have received strict orders to look to your safety, as 
 Sai himself did while you were at Coomassy." I " replied, It was 
 impossible such atrocity could be contemplated :" and he retorted, 
 " Do you think so ? Then you do not know the Fantees ; but 
 you will see by and by." " I know them well," I said. " and they dare 
 not attempt it; however," I continued, " I shall report what you say 
 to the Castle, for the honour of white men is implicated in the 
 charge." " And I," said the ambassador, " who am certain of the 
 truth of what I tell you, shall take care of ray people, and station 
 them at the quarters. In the meantime, I leave ten men for your 
 protection 'till I see you again in the morning ; farewell :" so saying 
 he departed. 
 
 I wrote to the governor and council on the subject, and they, 
 it seemed, had heard nothing to corroborate the fears of Adoom, 
 although subsequently I had good reasons to know that such conver- 
 sations had taken place, at the houses both of Aggry and Binie ; 
 whether the parties accessory to the plot were deserving the name of 
 patriots or conspirators. I therefore, seriously preserved a defensive 
 posture, and never retired to rest without the precaution of loaded 
 pistols under my pillow. The house itself was guarded by the 
 Ashantees, who, faithful to their trust, never for a moment deserted 
 their charge. 
 
 The prince called upon me on the eighth, at an early hour, and 
 expressed some anxiety to know what was intended to be done in relation 
 to the native palaver. The king, he said, would accept of any sum we 
 might agree upon, provided he was not exasperated by new reports of 
 
 * Upon the faith of the treaty, Adoom had already dismissed all his auxiliaries and the greater part 
 of his own people. 
 
 B B
 
 186 CONDUCT OF THE GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL. 
 
 the insolence of his vassals, who would surely repent it if they carried 
 matters too far. 
 
 My anxiety, I replied, was as great as his, for I stood in some 
 degree j^ledged to the king to settle it ; but, as nothing could be done 
 without the concurrence of the v/hites, I should visit the castle. 
 
 My inability to walk that distance* was provided against by the 
 Ashantees ; who having placed me in the ambassador's palanquin, (a 
 sort of basket lined and stuffed,) they trotted off with me upon their 
 heads, as far as the outer gate, where the officer of the guard met 
 my retinue, to whom he communicated that it was the governor's 
 orders they should not enter the fort. I demanded permission only 
 for the prince who, I said, besides his quality of ambassador, was 
 privileged to meet the governor and council with me, as a party 
 to whom authority had been delegated, by the king, to assist in the 
 settlement of the Cape Coast claim ; and I would be bound, if necessary, 
 for all consequences. In reply, his orders he said were peremptory, 
 and he could not suffer a man to enter, whatever his rank might be.f I 
 enquired if the prohibition extended to me, and being assured of the 
 negative, I desired the Ashantees to wait my coming while I went 
 forward. 
 
 The hall was empty, the governor and council, (i. e. Mr. Smith and 
 Mr. Swanzy,) were closeted in the sleeping room of the former, and 
 refused to come forward. The secretary, Mr. Williams brought me 
 that message ; and I, in reply, told him the object of my business was 
 
 * The castle was distant from my residence only a pistol shot ; but the lameness I had contracted on 
 the journey produced inflammation after my return. 
 
 •f It was subsequently insinuated that the garrison was alarmed at some act of treachery, and this 
 double insult was rumoured as z. palliative for the indignity offered to the king as well as the prince. 
 
 It cannot, indeed, have escaped the reader's memoiy, that when Adooni first came down, in the heat 
 of the quarrel, he was attended by above one thousand men, and yet the discussions took place in the hall 
 of the castle.
 
 PROTEST. 187 
 
 not to exchange compliments, but to adjust the Cape Coast palaver with 
 Mr. Smith and the prince, upon terms of equity, agreeably to the 
 king's wishes ; as I had already stated to them. In reply to this, after a 
 lapse of some minutes, I was given to understand, that they should not 
 abide by the treaty, neither would they allow the natives to pay one 
 farthino-. And with this answer I retreated from the castle, never more 
 to set foot within its walls ; a resolution which I inflexibly adhered to. 
 
 Thus, between the Ashantees and Fantees, it may be conjectured 
 my life was in no very secure asylum. However that may be, I 
 had no distrust of the former, and my confidence was repaid with a 
 devotion and sincerity more than Christian like in these parts, and 
 every way honourable to the commission I bore. 
 
 Policy suggested that I should yet conceal from Adoom the 
 sentiments of the company's servants. Accordingly I stated that 
 nothing could be done until the commodore returned to the coast : 
 although I knew, in fact, his predisposition to support the interests of 
 my opponents. 
 
 On the 9th, I served a protest upon the authorities of the castle, 
 containing in substance the following sentiments : — " As soon as 
 Sir George Collier arrives, I shall lay a statement of the council's 
 conduct before him, and as I find it impossible to proceed in the 
 discharge of my public duties as his majesty's consul and agent in this 
 country, I shall request a passage to England in the Tartar, &c. 
 
 " As regards my negotiations with the king of Ashantee, I shall 
 not say more than that I now throw the whole responsibility upon 
 the council, as to any measures that have been or that may hereafter 
 be adopted by them since my return to Cape Coast. At the same 
 time, I have to remind the council, that, in consequence of their 
 former impolitic conduct, the armed force of Ashantees and Assins, 
 under the command of Prince Adoom, were to have been joined by 
 a large body of people from El Mina in case of need, who had orders 
 to destroy the town and population, which hitherto I have been the 
 
 B B 2
 
 188 ARRIVAL OF THE TARTAR. 
 
 means of preventing. It now remains for the council to do so in 
 future." 
 
 In a supplementary part I stated, " I lament to tell you, that the 
 consequences which will probably result from the perverse conduct 
 of the council, will, I fear, be most serious to the merchants and 
 people of this town, &c."* 
 
 The ambassadors destined for England, were all this time living 
 in town, busied with preparations for the voyage they anticipated. 
 Although I might fail in my personal exertions to bring men to 
 rational reflection, who were pre-determined, from interests of their 
 own, to thwart every plan which did not originate with themselves, 
 I derived infinite consolation in the reflection that these ambassadors, 
 on their arrival in London, would be capable of relating their o^vn 
 tale. Accordingly I rendered them every assistance in packing up 
 their gold and presents. I indulged, moreover, in the hope that, 
 however disposed Sir George might be to act, I could prevail in 
 some way to leave matters in statu quo, until a fair and impartial 
 statement of facts could be submitted to ministers, by Avhose instruc- 
 tions I might be guided on my return to the Coast, if I should be 
 compelled to the step of seeking them in London. 
 
 In this state of suspense, the 9th, 10th, and 11th elapsed. At 
 last the Tartar hove in sight. On her coming to anchor, I wrote to 
 Sir George, covering copies of the treaties, &c. On the 11th, my 
 letter was answered in terms of ambiguity, and I then demanded a 
 passage for myself, and the ambassadors and presents. As regarded 
 myself. Sir George acquiesced, but stated, that in the West Indies, he 
 should take up Lord Combermere and suite. As related to the 
 ambassadors and presents in their charge, he said he was unable to give 
 them conveyance, and that he was expressly interdicted from carrying 
 
 * In the same letter, I protest, moreover, that from the little respect they thought proper to pay 
 to my public character, I should never hold any future intercourse with them.
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR G, COLLIER. 189 
 
 away any of the natives by a standing order of the Lords of the Admiralty. 
 AVliatever I could urg-e in support of this petition had no better effect. 
 The following extracts from my correspondence with Sir George will 
 be sufficient to shew the extreme anxiety I felt to seal the confidence I 
 had so happily awakened in the king, and worm out the only little 
 canker that existed, by settling the despicable native palaver. 
 
 " The king of Ashantee is so perfectly disposed to co-operate in 
 all things for the promotion of the mercantile interests of Great 
 Britain, that if the present opportunity is suffered to escape us, it 
 may be the means of crushing, at a single blow, all future advancement 
 towards commerce, or the cultivation and civilization of this part 
 of Africa. 
 
 " Let it be remembered, that in proceeding to Coomassy, the 
 whole party were endangered, if not in their lives, at least in their 
 liberties, and it is notorious that the cause itself was almost universally 
 pronounced hopeless and desperate. Indeed, I have good reasons 
 for thinking that the general opinion would have proved correct, had 
 I not politically stood forward as mediator between the authorities of 
 the castle and the king." 
 
 In reflecting upon the impolicy and injustice of the governor 
 and council, I predicted the consequences which would probably ensue 
 a.s disastrous to the mercantile interests and the natives. " The kingr's 
 power," I wrote, " has been moreover considerably augmented since 
 the conquest of Gaman, and when it is considered how long the 
 commerce has been interrupted, I should be almost warranted to say 
 annihilated ; that the town of Cape Coast itself has been in the power 
 of the Ashantees and Assins upwards of three months (although they 
 have hitherto conducted themselves with moderation) ; that these men 
 were empowered to proceed to hostility if necessary, and were to have 
 been supported by a body of Wassavv and El Mina people ; that the 
 inhabitants are totally unable to protect themselves, and that the town is 
 not defended by a redoubt tower or other outwork, that could effectually 
 check the progress of an enemy, such as the Ashantees are known to
 
 190 REFUSAL TO CONVEY THE AMBASSADORS. 
 
 be, I am convinced, that you and every reasonable man must do me 
 that justice which party spirit refuses in this country." 
 
 My communications ehcited nothing satisfactory. Sir George 
 said, "he regretted to see so much misunderstanding; and he had 
 been told, that the Cape Coast people would not recognize the sove- 
 reignty of the king of Ashantee, even if the governor and council were 
 to withdraw their support." He could not, he said, prejudge the case. 
 I enquired, " if upon his honour he believed any such thing." " I 
 will give no opinion," he added, " one way or the other." " But," I 
 continued, " you will at least support my protest against the adoption 
 of any rash and hostile proceedings, until I am able to learn the sen- 
 timents of his Majesty's ministers in relation to the treaty and nego- 
 tiations at Coomassy." " I cannot interfere," replied Sir George, " in 
 these matters ; my commission is afloat, and I have no authority to 
 act on shore." " Then," I added, " I have nothing more to urge in 
 that particular, but in regard to the ambassadors, whose mission you 
 can know nothing of, as indeed I do not know the precise object my- 
 self, and whose presence in England, (without considering the offer- 
 ing of friendship they are the bearers of) I imagine will be gratifying 
 to government, and instrumental to the hopeful plan of turning the 
 king's disposition from war to commerce, — a commerce which may 
 almost exclusively be engrossed by British merchants and British ship- 
 ping ; if, as you say, you cannot furnish a passage for them in the 
 Tartar, will you suffer them to accompany me to Sierra Leone, from 
 whence I will convey them to England myself?" " I must," replied 
 Sir George, " for the reasons I stated to you in my letter, decline taking 
 them on board the ship." 
 
 * Unhappily no other conveyance offered, and they were left behind. During my stay at Cape 
 Coast, they would never stir from my elbow, for the king, they said, had placed them under my 
 protection. 
 
 This conversation with Sir G. Collier was conducted upon the most courteous terms, for he was 
 a man I greatly respected in private life.
 
 MESSAGE TO THE KING OF ASHANTEE. 191 
 
 Two messengers from the king' came down to me during my 
 stay on the coast, the one to enquire after my health, the other to 
 desire me to take care of" his ambassadors, particularly the trea- 
 surer, who was a faithful servant. 
 
 The last messenger I despatched to the king conveyed my sen- 
 timents to the following effect: — " Remember your oath — remem- 
 ber me, for I am sincere, and will go to England to let the great 
 king know that your heart is inclined towards him and his people. 
 If I live, I will return; but do not expect to hear from me till 
 eight moons are passed. Then you may look for a settlement of 
 this palaver, which is too great to talk at the water-side, and there- 
 fore must be laid before the king, whose pleasure I will inform you 
 of by a letter to my correspondent at Cape Coast. Never mind what 
 the Fantees say, and take no umbrage at what the whites may do, 
 till my master's pleasure is known ; for you may depend he will act 
 
 Sir George, perhaps to palliate his refusal, invited the ambassadors to see the Tartar. They went 
 on board, and for their amusement, two or three of the quarter-deck guns were discharged. One of the 
 shots taking effect upon a small sloop which was at anchor in the roads, stove in the side and sheathing 
 together. The copper being separated from the shot, it formed a sort of skull-cap, which the Commo- 
 dore jocosely clapped on the head of the chief, and told him to shew it to the king, that he might know what 
 the whites would do to him if he came to the coast. 
 
 When the party landed, they came to me in the society of the prince, who desired to know what 
 was the meaning of the commodore's sentiments, and why he had desired to have the indented copper sent 
 to the king, as he could not do so without explaining the object to his Majesty. Did it indicate a desire for 
 peace or war ^ 1 replied I believed it to be merely designed for the ambassador's entertainment ; and that 
 as neither of those constructions should be put upon it, it would be advisable not to send it to the king. 
 
 As there existed no longer any hopes of temporizing with the governor and council, even under the 
 auspices of the commodore, I judged this a fit opportunity to tell the prince the precise situation of affairs. 
 Having done so, I assured him, that as I was going to England to state these particulars to my superiors, 
 he had better inform the king of it, and wait my return, or until despatches could be sent out, which I had 
 great reason to hope would set every thing to rights. He required to know how long the voyage there 
 and back again would take, and I told him to count at least eight moons till I returned, or six moons for a 
 letter; but in the mean time, I desired him to remind the king of his oath, and to assure him in my 
 name, that under any provocation, he must not think of going to war against an object so unworthy of 
 his greatness.
 
 192 DEPARTURE FOR EUROPE. 
 
 with justice. Above all things, bear in mind the necessity of ab- 
 staining from any thing like hostility against the people of Cape Coast, 
 as that would be construed into a declaration of war against the 
 whites," 
 
 I now earnestly busied myself with making such hasty prepara- 
 tions for the voyage as the time would admit of, — packing up such 
 of the presents as were in my charge, &c. 
 
 On the 12th I received a notification from the governor and coun- 
 cil, stating that all the interests of whites and blacks were to be 
 called together in the hall of the castle, to discuss the merits of the 
 treaty, and to signify their acceptance of it or not, inviting me to be 
 there also, to meet Sir George Collier and themselves, for that purpose. 
 Of course I refused attending, renewed my protest, and threw all 
 responsibility upon themselves. * 
 
 Sir George called upon me in the evening ; I then enquired if he 
 had been at the tribunal. He said " he went to the hall by invitation 
 of the merchants of Cape Coast, but he had not thought proper to 
 give any opinion one way or the other." 
 
 While we were in conversation, one of my attendants brought in 
 the young leopards, and Sir George taking a fancy to them, asked me 
 to exchange them with him for two he had on board, (given him by 
 Mr. Smith.) I said they were for his Majesty, and being part of the 
 present under my care, I designed taking them with me in the Tartar. 
 Sir George protested he had not room for them, and they were conse- 
 quently left behind, but shipped for London by another conveyance, 
 subsequently. 
 
 On the 15th I embarked at a late hour in the evening ; and in bid- 
 ding farewell to the prince, the ambassadors, and the whole party of 
 Ashantees on the beach, I desired my last words to be conveyed to the 
 
 * Could it be imagined for one moment that I would submit to such a course of proceeding ? If 
 not, what interpretation could be put upon a mock tribunal of merchants, to examine into the merits of a 
 treaty between monarchs ?
 
 ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. 193 
 
 king-, " that he would never forget his oath, and never proceed to hos- 
 tilities against the town ; but wait until he heard from me." 
 
 Our voyage included Ascension and Sierra Leone ; at the latter 
 place I remained three weeks, and during that time I proposed hearing 
 the sentiments both of Sir George Collier and Sir Charles M'Carthy, in 
 regard to the merits of the treaty ; but the former declining to interfere. 
 Sir Charles said he could do nothing alone that would be useful in 
 reconciling animosities. 
 
 At Sierra Leone, about the latter end of May, I took passage to 
 England by an early conveyance, and landed at the Isle of Wight 
 about the close of the month of August. 
 
 c c
 
 JQ4 SUBSEQUENT CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OCCURRENCES SUBSEQUENT TO THE AUTflOR'S RETURN. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE OF MESSRS. GORDON, ROBERTSON, DAWSON, AND COLLINS— INACTI- 
 VITY OF THE ASHANTEES— STOPPAGE OF TRADE— CONDUCT OF MR. SMITH— GOVERNMENT 
 TAKE POSSESSION OF THE FORTS— EFFECTIVE FORCE THERE— COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES 
 —ATTACK OF MODREE BY THEBRITISH— OBSERVATIONS— VINDICATION OF THE DUTCH FROM 
 THE CHARGE OF EXCITI.VG HOSTILITIES— APPOINTMENT OF SIR CHARLES M'CARTHY AS GOVER- 
 NOR OF THE BRITISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE WESTERN COAST OF AFRICA— HIS IDEAS OF THE 
 POWER OF ASHANTEE— STATE OF THE GOLD COAST ON HIS ARRIVAL— BLOCKADE BY THE 
 ASHANTEES— THEIR MILITARY TACTICS— .MURDER OF A SERJEANT— THE BRITISH FORCE TAKES 
 THE FIELD— DEFEAT AND DEATH OF SIR CHARLES M'CARTHY— CORRESPONDENCE— OBSER- 
 VATIONS. 
 
 In order to put my readers in possession of the present state of 
 English affairs on the coast of Guinea, I subjoin an account of such 
 events, subsequent to my return, as have come to my knowledge. 
 
 In the months of November and December, 1820, during my 
 residence in London, I received letters from my correspondents on 
 the Gold Coast, dated at periods between one and two months 
 subsequent to my quitting the African stage. These letters, which 
 were vn-itten by the late Mr. Gordon, governor of Accra Fort, and 
 member of the council, Mr. George Robertson,* a merchant and 
 
 • This gentleman, a man of the first talent and respectability in the country, happened unfortu- 
 nately to be at Sierra Leone, when I returned from the interior. Independently of reasons which may not 
 be interesting to the public, or grateful to the hearing of some, and which therefore, may be sup- 
 pressed, I shall simply observe, that at Sierra Leone, I conferred upon him the appointment of acting 
 consul during my absence, subject to the approval of his majesty's government. With this power, 
 after the recovery of his property which had been sequestered by the intrigues of the company's 
 servants, he sailed back to the Cape.
 
 SUBSEQUENT CORRESPONDENCE. 195 
 
 representative of that highly respectable firm of Henry Hunt and Co., 
 Jeffery's Square, London, Mr. Dawson, late governor of Cape Coast 
 Castle, and Mr. Collins. The inferences to be gleaned from all this 
 correspondence were satisfactory, inasmuch as they conveyed the 
 most unqualified assurances that the public tranquility remained 
 undisturbed. More than this could not be expected, neither could 
 it be hoped that the lowering calm, like BIr. Bowdich's treaty, 
 "would last for ever."' Prince Adoom sent his compliments tome; 
 and it was moreover stated that no apprehensions of any unfavourable 
 tendency were entertained ; but on the contrary, the most hopeful 
 feeling-s were indulged in, from the circumstance of my being on the 
 spot where justice and good faith ruled the destiny, not of men alone, 
 but of nations. The little Ashantee army, it was believed, would not 
 in the interval take the field against the natives of Cape Coast, sup- 
 ported as they were by the whites, however hostilely and insultingly they 
 miffht conduct themselves towards the kins;. It was believed, more- 
 over, that Adoom having communicated my parting messages to the 
 monarch, the latter would confidingly v/ait the issue of the time I had 
 prescribed for my return; and that in the interval, the Ashantee 
 troops would be equally scrupulous in conducting themselves with 
 order and moderation upon the coast. 
 
 It seemed, however, as if this state of inactivity, on the part of 
 the court, had been constnied by the British authorities there into a 
 political ruse, calculated to gaii\ all that was possible by negociation, 
 without risking its honour and its interests in the sequel. It was, in 
 fact, believed by them that Ashantee would not dare to take up arms, 
 even against the natives, while the whites supported them in their 
 resistance with unqualified vigour, such as they had already evinced in 
 cabinet theory, and were inclined, as they represented, to carry into 
 active effect in the field. 
 
 In short they argued as men whose concealed prejudices, interests, 
 and resentments, had blinded their eyes to every prudential thought, 
 
 c c 2
 
 196 INTERRUPTION OF TRADE. 
 
 every maxim of temperate and judicious policy, as they might have 
 connexion with the true honour of the crown, the interests of com- 
 merce, and British faith. The denial of this can only lead to a belief 
 in the other alternative, viz., that the authorities who presided over 
 our African establishments were wholly ignorant of the temper and 
 resources of the monarchy, whose confidence they had already betrayed, 
 and whose friendship they were insulting by puerile, and, it cannot be 
 refuted, unnecessary and undeniable acts of provocation, purposely to 
 thwart the measures which had been contemplated by government for 
 opening the communication with interior Africa, by a cultivation of the 
 friendship of the very monarch whom they by insults were urging to 
 the necessity of taking up arms, if not ia self defence, at least in 
 defence of his maritime provinces — provinces which had been subdued 
 by his arms — provinces wherein the conqueror's title, from the days of 
 governor Torrane, had been recognized by treaties and by " notes," as 
 they are called, which, by reversion, fell into the hands of the king, 
 and upon which he constantly received his monthly, quarterly, or 
 annual pay for the ground rent of the castles themselves, as the 
 Fantees themselves originally used to do. 
 
 Peaceably as the Ashantees were inclined, it became apparent that 
 the king reposed his faith upon that of the British government, as the 
 fountain of supremacy ; and the traders, oppositely circumstanced, and 
 having none but mercantile interests to influence their movements, 
 naturally placed no confidence whatever in the local authorities, either 
 of Cape Coast Castle, or the town under its walls ; consequently, 
 although the Dutch markets were, as usual, constantly resorted to by 
 Ashantee merchants and traders, scarce any of those people ever 
 visited the Cape or its neighbourhood, and, as heretofore, the only vent 
 for British merchandize, gunx, powder, and rum included, was at El 
 Mina, through the agency of our commercial rivals, who, in truth, 
 reaped the harvest of a double profit, upon all the commodities they 
 purchased of us.
 
 CONDUCT OF MR. SMITH. 197 
 
 In April and May, 1821, further accounts were received from the 
 Gold Coast. I also received private letters from IVIr. Dawson, 
 Mr. Robertson, and Mr. Collins. Those of the two gentlemen last 
 named dwelt forcibly and interestingly upon the state of p\iblic affairs 
 there, as they interfered with mercantile interests, and the danger 
 impending over councils which were termed rash and inconsiderate. 
 
 The Ashantees under Prince Adooni, it seemed, were still in the 
 town. They had waited the issue of the eight months with admirable 
 patience and forbearance, even without a murmur. Already, how- 
 ever, up to the date of these letters, had nearly ten months elapsed, 
 and ultimately they manifested some uneasiness at not learning 
 any thing favourable to the cause of their sovereign, who, on his part, 
 it was believed, was still averse from the adoption of any hasty resolu- 
 tions of a tendency to resent the rupture which the company's 
 authorities had created by recourse to arms. 
 
 jNIr. Smith, it seemed, the original instigator of all the mischief 
 that had ensued, or that might ultimately ensue, did not repose quite 
 so calmly under the political frowns of the Ashantee monarch, as the 
 reader might suspect, from the ostensible character of the public 
 reports. This gentleman, whatever exterior surface he might shew, 
 could not avoid betraying his fears, in the secret course of politics he 
 thought it convenient to adopt ; for notwithstanding recent proceedings, 
 and without regard to the tenor of his sentiments, as they were to be 
 gleaned from the public dispatches and letters designed for the 
 inspection of his Majesty's ministers, or others in authority and of 
 interest in the state, he renewed, it is said, the negotiations on behalf 
 of the Fantees, when he found ultimately that it was his interest to 
 meet the impatience of the Court of Ashantee, offering, it is stated, 
 the 100 ounces, or from that to 150 ounces of gold, as a settlement of 
 the claim. 
 
 Whether this renewal of overtures, if the account be true, 
 associated as they were, too, with professions of friendship, was calcu-
 
 198 . PROCEEDINGS OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 lated to amuse only and procrastinate the time, is what I cannot take 
 upon myself to say, although I believe most cordially that Mr. Smith, 
 in despite of that insensibility and contracted knowledge of men 
 for which he is so justly characterized, was alarmed ultimately at the 
 attitude of public affairs. I can entertain little doubt of this ; else, 
 setting other reasons connected with my correspondence aside, why 
 should he have continued to send messengers to court from time to 
 time, directly or otherwise ; or have held any communication with the 
 prince upon the subject of a claim which he had resisted at the hazard 
 of our dearest affections and interests, the honour of the British flag, 
 and the prosperity of its commerce. 
 
 To give the reader a clearer insight into the secret machinations 
 of the Cape politicians, it must be told that ministers, at least, were 
 sensible of the imbecility of those to whom the public trust had been 
 so long confided,* to legislate on the Coast of Africa. Mr. Goulburn, 
 perhaps to relieve the natural anxiety I felt, had already done me the 
 honour to say, that Government were sensible of the many evils 
 attending the administration of public affairs upon the Gold Coast, 
 and it was consequently designed to take the forts under their own 
 management. This intelligence was moreover confirmed to me by a 
 gentleman high in office in the Admiralty, and by several others in 
 public trust, both in Downing Street and at the Treasury. This event, 
 in truth, had been long looked for, and I think I am justified in saying, 
 ardently wished by every reflecting man, whose property or whose 
 interests entitled them to a vote in regard to their protection. These 
 changes were not unexpected, but had been long in contemplation. 
 In reference to the secret spring of action among the leading servants 
 of the Company, but more especially Mr. Smith himself, they were of 
 inducement sufficient to warrant every exertion on his part to persevere 
 ostensibly in resisting the demand made by the king, without suffering 
 
 * See Quarterly Review, '• Bowdich's Mission to Ashantee."
 
 MEASURES OF THE ASHANTEES. 199 
 
 his recent temporizing maxims to escape to the knowledge of supre- 
 macy, even in a whisper. And this he was mainly anxious about, 
 because the public correspondence for some time past, from the 
 Committee of African merchants, guaranteed to their servants, perhaps 
 in a limited sense, retirements proportionate to their respective ranks, 
 to be paid to them from the date that the forts might be transferred to 
 the possession of his Majesty's government. Mr. Smith, therefore, in 
 common with his adherents, looked interestedly to his rank in that 
 service, and he was accordingly doubly anxious to support the cha- 
 racter of consistency, although at every hazard (short perhaps of an 
 actual appeal to arras against the Ashantees). It was moreover hoped 
 that Government, with their customary liberality would look with a 
 favourable eye upon what had been described to them by his friends, 
 and those who supported his pretensions, as the energetic and dignified 
 resistance of a man of talent and discretion ; and in reviewing the 
 transactions on the day when their intrinsic worth might be estimated 
 in sterling money, that they might be influenced to apportion the 
 award upon a scale adequate to such services, as they stood arranged 
 in order with the fulsome, and, as it would seem, designed misrepre- 
 sentations of his nephew, in the description he gave of the former 
 mission. Hence the panegyrists who edited the public testimonials 
 submitted to the Colonial office and other departments of government, 
 gave implicit credit to his public spirit, zeal, discretion, &c. 
 
 The king of Ashantee, it appeared, down to the month of 
 Januarys resisted every overture (however indirectly they may have 
 been made through the agency of the prince) of a tendency short of 
 recognizing his supremacy at Cape Coast in quality of sovereign overl 
 the natives, of whom he demanded satisfaction, equivalent to the 
 ofl^ence they had given ; it would appear also that this monarch, having 
 lost the original confidence he possessed, was not to be amused with 
 vain negociations, whose tendency he might have probed, through his 
 ambassadors and emissaries upon the coast, where, for some months
 
 200 FORCE ON THE GOLD COAST. 
 
 past, they had been in constant habits of gleaning- intelligence from 
 the company's servants of inferior rank, relating to the change 
 immediately contemplated, and which the Ashantees doubtless ima- 
 gined would bring their sovereign's " palaver " to the cognizance of the 
 fountain of truth, purity, and good faith. Upon these grounds, simply, 
 we may account for a subsequent pause of the duration of many weeks. 
 About the latter end of the summer of 1821, fresh accounts 
 arrived from the Gold Coast. My own letters from Mr. Robertson 
 stated that the king was inflexible as regarded his claims, but that 
 tranquillity generally prevailed, and every apprehension was removed 
 from the minds of the British and the Fantees, from the circumstance 
 of his Majesty's government having, it was thought, finally taken upon 
 themselves the management of the forts. It was no longer doubted 
 that the first object of ministers would be to send an efficient force to 
 garrison the castles, for, will it be credited, that notwithstanding the 
 assumed dignity of the governor, or governor and council,* the total 
 amount of the garrisons, themselves included, was only forty-jive 
 white men, and these to give protection to no less than eight castles 
 and factories, viz. Cape Coast Castle, Annamaboe, Tantum, Accra, 
 Succondee, Commenda, Dixcove, and Apollonia, all situated within the 
 territory of Ashantee.t These reports of proceedings in London in 
 particular, animated the drooping spirits of the natives of Cape 
 Coast, as it moreover revived the courage of the British, instigating 
 both to throw aside the mask, and leave to chance alone, I presume, the 
 issue. Mr. Smith, it was clear, would be content to resign his trust 
 with what he termed honour, i. e. under the semblance of having 
 supported the dignity of the British flag in trials of severity, and under 
 
 * Mr. Swanzy and Mr. Smith, the two leaders. 
 
 f An equal division of the white forces would leave five and five-eighths of a man to each establish- 
 ment. The black troops, including artificers, amounted to about one hundred, twelve of whom might be 
 spared for each of the five officers.
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES. 201 
 
 circumstances which might appear of critical terror to those he wished 
 to imbibe the impression, and who would naturally weigh in the 
 balance the total numbers of the disposable British force, without learn- 
 ing- the nature of the intrigries. 
 
 The Fantees eagerly and anxiously looked out for the arrival of an 
 English fleet and a xchite army to their succour, such as the thoughtful 
 or the thoughtless had led them to build their hopes upon. Such was 
 the substance of private letters, my ow^i among the number. Public 
 as well as private ones of a few days' subsequent date, contained 
 matters of a greater political importance, for as the great crisis 
 approached, so it appeared that the spirit of resistance was suddenly 
 metamorphosed into one of enterprize, in which blacks and whites 
 together participated in common with the hero of the Cape. But this, 
 besides its relative importance, which may warrant the insertion, being 
 written by one of the servants of the company (Mr. Colliver), who had 
 charge of the expedition, I submit the report verbatim as it was 
 penned. 
 
 " Cape Coast Castle, 21st April, 1821. 
 
 " By the time you receive this, it is probable the African company 
 will have ceased to exist. We have received orders to hold ourselves 
 in readiness to deliver up the forts and settlements here to government. 
 It is understood they are to be put on the same footing as Sierm Leone. 
 A list has been furnished to government by the company's committee, 
 of their officers, their age, length of service, the situations they fill, 
 their emoluments, &c. We have been blockaded here since the 10th 
 of FebiTiary,* by the Ashantees (an African tribe), who have com- 
 menced hostilities against us. On the day before-mentioned our 
 governor received intelligence that a black man belonging to Cape 
 
 * Thus (and by my own accounts also) it appears that the king waited patiently two months over and 
 above the eight he had been advised of, for it was exactly ten months after my departure when the 
 prince and the troops under his command deserted the town, and took up a station in the rear of Cape 
 Coast, Still, however, they avoided every act of hostility. 
 
 D D
 
 202 ATTACK OF MOUREE. 
 
 Coast, where the people are under our protection, had been cruelly 
 murdered by a chief of the Fantees, at a place about six miles from 
 Cape Coast, called Mouree. I was immediately ordered to assemble 
 all the soldiers I could in five minutes, and proceed to Mouree to 
 seize the murderer. I quickly set off with four officers and eighty- 
 five soldiers. A little before we entered the town of Mouree where 
 the savages, fthe Fantees J between two and three thousand in number, 
 were assembled, we saw the mangled remains of their unfortunate 
 victim. The town stands near the top of a hill, on the summit of 
 which is an old Dutch fort. As soon as we entered the town a fire 
 was opened upon us, but as my orders were to seize the murderer, 
 if possible, without bloodshed, I did not for some time allow the men to 
 return the fire. However, perceiving they were resolved to oppose 
 us, I gave directions to my little party to give them a volley, and 
 then to charge. The negroes retired as we advanced, and in less 
 than an hour we gained the hill, from which our opponents fled in 
 every direction. We demanded the keys of the fort from the 
 principal man belonging to Mouree, who, not being engaged in the 
 affair, had remained, and who immediately gave them up. In the 
 fort, which has a drawbridge, we were perfectly secure from the 
 attack of the negroes. The body we defeated were Fantees, who were 
 assenibled to assist the Ashantees in enforcing some very unjust demands 
 made by them on the people of Cape Coast. As soon as the 
 Ashantees who reside near Cape Coast heard that the Governor 
 had ^ent an armed force against their friends, their drum beat to 
 arms, and they hastened after us. Fortunately, we had defeated 
 our opponents before they arrived ; however, they rallied the Fantees, 
 and took a position about half-a-mile from the town with a deter- 
 mination to oppose our little party. The governor, apprised of our 
 situation, assembled all the force he could muster, and speedily about 
 five thousand of the Cape Coast people, headed by our officers and 
 carrying the British flag, were seen approaching. The enemy
 
 ATTACK OF MOUREE. 203 
 
 immediately retired, and we were released from our disagreeable 
 situation, after having- been, from nine in the morning- till four in 
 the afternoon, exposed to a burning sun v/ithout refreshment. The 
 negroes had forty-seven killed, and upwards of one hundred wounded, 
 in this affair. We had one soldier killed, and four wounded. Since 
 the aifair, we have not seen one of the Ashantees or the Fantees here 
 (at Cape Coast) : and now a total stoppage of trade has taken 
 place. We have not learned how the king of Ashantee intends to 
 act, nor is it safe to venture out of our limits except in large parties." 
 Thus it appears upon the clearest evidence, that we were the first 
 who appealed to arms, and under circumstances which, according 
 to my reasoning, were rash and unjustifiable in the extreme, either upon 
 the face of the old treaty, which it would seem Mr. Smith had some 
 time back insinuated a desire to recognise, or, as regarded the laws 
 of nations ; for in the first instance, the murderer, (a Fantee) should 
 have been demanded either of the prince, the authorities of the town 
 of Mouree, or the Dutch governor-general at El Mina, ere any appeal 
 was made to force, and this never was done. Without looking to the 
 great waste of human life, as the sequel proved, and as might naturally 
 have been foreseen in a meeting between organized blacks and a mob 
 of fishermen, such as the Mourees in particular are, above all the little 
 Fantee tribes, was it reputable to make an inroad and an abrupt attack 
 upon a town where the flag of his majesty of the Netherlands waved 
 upon the battlements of a castle which might almost vie as a fortifica- 
 tion with Cape Coast itself, and which, before the Dutch took 
 Elmina from the Portuguese* was the head establishment of that 
 
 * El Mina Castle, the town under whose walls is called Addena by the natives, was taken by the Dutch 
 in 1638, chiefly by the aid of cannon which they planted upon the top of the hill of St. Jago, When 
 become possessed of this, the strongest and best situated fort of Guinea, they naturally shifted their head- 
 quarters from IMouree to El Mina. The outwork or little fort of Condaadsburg they subsequently built 
 upon the top cf St. Jago hiU, and thereby rendered it wholly impregnable on the land side, and, if 
 
 DD 2
 
 204 ATTACK OF MOUREE. 
 
 nation upon the Guinea coast? Was it just and honourable, admitting 
 all the circumstances of the misunderstanding with the king of 
 Ashantee down to this period, — was it just, I would ask, or creditable, 
 without paying the compliment first of demanding the offender to be 
 delivered up, to adopt such precipitate and summary proceedings ? 
 Was it agreeable even to that particular clause in the treaty made by 
 Mr. Bowdich, which ran to the following effect. — " The governor 
 reserves to himself the right of punishing any of the subjects of Ashantee, 
 guilty of secojidary offences ; but in cases of magnitude the offenders shall 
 be sent to the king to be dealt ivith according to the lazes of their 
 country." Although we were not upon friendly terms with the king, 
 we certainly were not in hostility, for hitherto the Ashantees had con- 
 ducted themselves with the greatest propriety and moderation, as it has 
 been already described, paying for every thing they required in gold. 
 But now they no longer deemed it requisite to observe the bounds of 
 neutrality, as in all probability they may* have conceived that British 
 councils, as they were regnlated and administered in Africa, certainly 
 teemed with nothing but perfidy. This, it is true, is conjectural, but 
 it seems very likely to have been the case, for the Ashantees having 
 taken up their position at a short station inland of Cape Coast, never 
 afterwards opened any conference with the authorities of the Cape, or 
 
 properly garrisoned, it would bid defiance every way to a powerful armament, whether by sea or land. 
 St. Jago is scarcely two furlongs from El Mina, yet it is situated in what sixty years ago constituted a 
 distinct kingdom, viz. Fetu, in which our chief establishment (Cape Coast) stands. El Mina, from which 
 it is separated by a little river, called the Salt River, is the metropolis of another Httle kingdom westward, 
 called in those days Commany, from which Commenda is derived. Fetu and Commany, although 
 formerly very populous, were about equal in strength and extent of dominions ; for the kings of each 
 governed but the extent of eleven or twelve miles of coast, and inland in about the same proportion. 
 The town of Ell Mina is built of stone, and it is the only one so constructed on the Gold Coast. Mouree 
 is also another of these kingdoms or principalities, formerly called Saboe. Old Fantee, properly so 
 called, lies next to the eastward, of which Annamaboe was the capital, but each of the others is 
 considered of the same family.
 
 VINDICATION OF THE DUTCH, 205 
 
 held any direct communication whatever with them or the town, the 
 natives of which scarcely ever durst trust themselves out of sight of 
 their habitations, when necessitated by their respective employments 
 to go in the " bush,"* although for a time they would probably have 
 been secure from molestation, as the prince himself durst not 
 certainly have acted in a military capacity (unless defensively, for so 
 he told me himself,) without express orders from the court to that 
 effect. 
 
 Let it be remembered, that besides the internal resources of the 
 monarchy, every town upon the line of coast. El Mina itself included, 
 acknowledged fealty and was tributary to Ashantee, and from El Mina 
 alone the enemy might, if he had thought proper, put in motion from 
 eight hundred to one thousand men, as the Dutch government, not- 
 withstanding their great castle and the title by which they inherited it, 
 claimed no sort of supremacy over that or any other town of Guinea, 
 but on the contrary distinctly admitted the title by which the king 
 claimed sovereignty over the whole extent of country, including all 
 the towns upon the sea shore which are overlooked by their forts and 
 factories, from Axim to the Volta. 
 
 That these, our rivals in commercial enterprise, did secretly 
 rejoice at a misunderstanding between the king and the British 
 authorities on the coast, whereby the latter were necessarily excluded 
 from participating in the benefits of a lucrative trade in the precious 
 metal, pure as the Ashantees carry it to market ; and that these 
 disputes should have been procrastinated to the unconscionable length 
 of years, to their exclusive advantage and satisfaction, is what I can 
 
 * Notwithstanding the outcry about Fantee having been ceded to the king, the governor and council 
 never actually presumed to have any right or title of protection over it, neither would the peopls have 
 recognized their supremacy, or cast off their fealty to the king, to enjoy the very precarious protection of 
 the whites at that time.
 
 206 VINDICATION OF THE DUTCH. 
 
 readily conceive, because I know it to be a fact, from the sentiments I 
 p-athered from the Dutch officers, when I was last at Elmina.* But is 
 not this feeling strictly in unison with commercial rivality and private 
 interests ? Was it, taken in any sense, unnatural or unlocked for, that 
 the Dutch should rejoice in the good fortune which accident alone, 
 whether founded upon bad faith or bad politics among the contending 
 parties, had cast in their way ? If we thought proper, from private views 
 and resentments, to enter into the quarrels of the natives, and make 
 their " palavers" our own, at the risk of our dearest interests and the 
 only motives which could induce a residence in such a climate, it 
 surely did not follow that the Dutch, because they were of the same 
 colour as ourselves, and were only distinguished by their blue coats 
 instead of red, should tread in our steps, and follow the tortuous maze 
 of a course of politics which they, and every sensible man, knew to 
 be ruinous to their prosperity > Nor can it be imputed to a nation 
 of such renown in these parts, (as successors to the Portuguese), 
 that the government of the parent country, friendly as it is, in all 
 its relations, with our own, should have contributed by any means, 
 even of the most indirect tendency, to foment discord and 
 kindle the embers of war, purposely to destroy the interests of their 
 dearest ally, and those friends who love and serve them best. No, 
 the government of the Netherlands is, as I conceive, too honorable and 
 too grateful to entertain such sentiments, and her citizens and burghers 
 
 * His excellency, the late governor-generaj OWenbuigh, during one of my visits to Elmina, where 
 I was his guest for some days, received a message from the king, purporting to learn what the sentiments 
 of that nation were in reference to his misunderstanding with the British. To the honour of that gen- 
 tleman's memory, be it recorded, that he took the messenger to the top of the castle, from whence, 
 pointing eastward to Cape Coast, he said, " Do you see that flag ? " Yes. «' Then tell the king that 
 the Dutch have ever esteemed him as a friend : they will have nothing to do, however, with quarrels ; 
 but so long as that flag shall be seen flying on its battlements, just so long will ours, for our monarchs 
 are the greatest friends, and white men are all of one family.
 
 VINDICATION OF THE DUTCH. 207 
 
 too respectable to entertain any sentiment inimical to our happiness 
 and prosperity in Africa, beyond the natural scope of local and com- 
 mercial speculation, for which they are no way responsible, any more 
 than ourselves. 
 
 Dearly as I love my country, and much as I respect its constitu- 
 tion, I can subscribe only to sentiments such as these ; and if it has 
 fallen to my humble pen to resist calumny and misrepresentation 
 in other matters, it may as well include the task of vindicating 
 the honour of Holland, and the good faith of its rulers, as far as 
 their jurisdiction in Africa has come under my observation.* The 
 Dutch then, I affirm, during- my residence in that part of Africa, 
 were in no way instrumental to the misfortunes that have since 
 befallen our arms under Sir Charles M'Carthy ; but they were the 
 natural and foreseen results of early indiscretions, wherein Mr. Smith 
 (I will take it religiously upon my conscience to say so) consulting, ', 
 as it would seem, nothing but his own secret interests, prejudices, 
 and animosities, drove the Ashantees to their only resource — arms, 
 and prompted the government to adopt, what has been represent- 
 ed to them as the only alternative left to their choice, the 
 necessity of vindicating the honour of the flag, and defending the 
 settlement from foreign and barbarous devastation. The war, it is 
 true, had not yet been proclaimed by the enemy down to the period 
 when the forts were transferred to his majesty's government; but 
 
 * Some days previous to my leaving Coomassy, the Dutch sent a present to the king, of brocade, 
 damask, and other rarities, which gave him great pleasure. To this present was annexed a message, 
 whose purport may be gathered from the following sentences only : " The Dutch king is your friend as 
 well as the English king, and now you are known in the land of the whites, every body will love you 
 while you are the friend of their countrymen. The Dutch governor sends his compliments to congratu- 
 late you that the English king has sent an ambassador to Coomassy," &c. It must be admitted I did 
 not learn this of the king. I was extremely anxious to know the purport of the message, fearing the 
 possibility of a jealous interference, and I employed the Bashaw to obtain this intelligence.
 
 208 APPOINTMENT OF SIR CHARLES MCCARTHY. 
 
 when that event did happen, it must have been clearly perceptible 
 that nothing- short of a recourse to negociation, could prevent the pro- 
 bable consequences of that rash and precipitate attack on the natives 
 of Mouree, coupled, as it was, with a train of auxiliary aggravations 
 such as no sovereign upon earth, meriting a throne, could compatibly 
 with his dignity endure. 
 
 In dismissing the subject of the little Mouree war, I shall simply 
 point out to the reader, as an instance of the governor's military talent, 
 the precarious situation in which he must have left Cape Coast, when 
 himself, the residue of the officers, and all the townsmen capable of 
 bearing arms, were pushed forward to rescue the eighty-nine men from 
 their supposed perilous situation on the eastern beach, as it was not 
 known at the time that they had sought the favour of ihe. friendly castle, 
 whose flag they had insulted. Surely if I know any thing about Cape 
 Coast, there could scarcely have been more than two sentinels left to 
 guard the gates, and an invalid, perhaps, in charge of the fort. And as 
 regards the town, it must have been proportionably defenceless. Still, 
 however, it is consistent with other proceedings, and where is there 
 room for astonishment ? 
 
 To return to the sequel of this narrative, Sir Charles McCarthy,* 
 whom I was in the practice of visiting during his residences in London, 
 obtained, about the time of the Mouree affair, through the interest of 
 certain individuals, an appointment as governor in chief of the whole 
 of our settlements on the western coast of Africa, from the Gambia to 
 the Volta rivers, the former inclusive. The death of my corre- 
 spondents, Messrs. Gordon and Collins, happened at no great distance 
 of time after these regulations were carried into effect ; but before Sir 
 
 * This gentleman, it may be recollected, I was upon friendly terms with at Sierra Leone, he also 
 sailed for England a short time after 1 left that colony, and the honour of knighthood was conferred upon 
 him soon after his arrival.
 
 HIS ESTIMATION OF THE ASHANTEE FORCES. 209 
 
 Charles left England, I had many interviews with him, wherein I took 
 some pains to impress upon that gentleman a just conception of the 
 impolicy and injustice of late proceedings. Sir Charles, I believe, was 
 at this period of my own way of thinking, for his reasonings inclined 
 to the same object as that for which I was commissioned, viz. that of 
 promoting commerce with the interior of Africa, (and consequently 
 through the dominions of Ashantee) by eveiy possible means consist- 
 ent with the dignity of the flag and the interests of the colonists. 
 Sir Charles, however, was pleased to consider somewhat lightly, 
 descriptions which tended to convey an adequate idea of the dispos- 
 able force of Ashantee. He doubted that the king could send into the 
 field more than twenty or twenty-five thousand men ; yet had he con- 
 fided in the reports of his friend Sir George Collier, he would at least 
 have coincided in opinion with the commodore, that the dispositions 
 of the sovereign, his tributaries, and people, were extremely prone to 
 war, and the population considerable, and proportionate to the great 
 extent of territory held by that government ; for Sir George (from the 
 information furnished him by Mr. Smith, whose object in this parti- 
 cular, and at this time, was by no means to deviate from the truth * 
 (unless in derogation of the king), has represented in his reports that 
 " the Ashantee army is mimerous bcyoyid belief, and though quite an 
 irregidar mass f, yet more than sixty tliousand men can be collected, 
 acquainted with the use oi fire arms, and ready to sacrifice their lives \ 
 to the nod or caprice of their chief or king, who is known to be savage 
 and cruel in the extreme X-" 
 
 * I know, notwithstanding, that accounts were transnnitted to government on another occasion, 
 stating that "the power and means of the king of Ashantee were extremely limited." 
 
 f Sir George, however, was not well informed of the military discipline of the Ashantees. 
 
 J Ndther was he better acquainted with the nature of the king's disposition, who, in regard to his 
 own people, or those of friendly powers, certainly does not deserve the name of savage and cruel — with 
 reference to enemies, I have elsewhere pourtrayed the negro character, a character which I fear has too 
 close an affinity to the human heart in general, white or black, — i. e. the negro never forgets, or 
 forgives, unless atonement is made in time. 
 
 E E
 
 210 STATE OF THE GOLD COAST. 
 
 Sir Charles finally sailed for the Gold Coast, by the circuitous 
 route and stoppages at the Gambia, Sierra Leone, &c. He landed at 
 Cape Coast Castle in the early part of the year 1822, and found that 
 settlement as might have been expected, and, as had been described, 
 like a gangrened member of the empire, from which all communication 
 was cut off, to prevent the contagion from spreading and infecting the 
 vitals. It was in fact a dreary solitude, as regarded its former con- 
 nexions with the interior ; and with respect to information of any thing 
 but the objects which immediately surrounded the castle, the colonists 
 might as well have been stationed upon the little barren rock of 
 Ascension in the midst of the Atlantic waves, for they were strictly 
 blockaded, although no enemy could be seen. Trade, of course, was at 
 a total stand, except as regarded the supply of the Dutch merchants, 
 and one or two of the settlements both to windward and leeward, where 
 the inland traders occasionally resorted with their gold and ivory. This 
 was the reputable state to which Mr. Smith, to say the least of it, from 
 mistaken notions of honour and dignity, had reduced the national 
 reputation in Africa, and the character of its sovereign at the court of 
 Ashantee : and this was the state in which he resio-ned into the hands 
 of Sir Charles M'Carthy the guardianship of that flag, whose reputa- 
 tion, tarnished as I conceive it was by such a train of proceedings, he 
 could not, it is probable, at the utmost stretch of ingenuity, have 
 protected from the last violence and insult many months longer. 
 
 A change of chief governors, it would seem, led the king to hope 
 for a change in the hostile sentiments of the whites ; hence for several 
 subsequent months he was quiet, and Cape Coast, although as rigidly 
 blockaded as ever, enjoyed its solitude and that delusion of tran- 
 quillity which it had imposed upon itself. As it became apparent to 
 the enemy (for such he was now considered and characterised), that the 
 new governor was treading in the path of his predecessor, as regarded 
 the " palaver," and that little or no hope remained that the British 
 could or would descend to expostulation after so great an infraction of
 
 BLOCKADE OF CAPE COAST. 211 
 
 the peace, he laid an embargo, it is imagined, even upon the tongues* 
 of his trading subjects, who -visited either the Dutch or windward 
 
 * By administering the oath draught, as it is termed. Before our conferences opened at Coomassy, 
 the king compelled my linguists, and his own together, to take this species of " Fetische," not, however, ^ 
 for the purpose of stopping their mouths, but as a compulsory obligation, which enjoined, under the, 9 
 penalty of death, and the vengeance of the gods, a strict adherence to truth in the faithful inter- '■■ 
 pretation of words and sentiments. The same draught is administered in all cases where the monarch's 
 interests are concerned, and it was usual to compel the traders to take it during the Gaman war, that, 
 they might divulge nothing prejudicial to their sovereign, during their sojournment at the settlements, i • 
 On their return to Coomassy, the oath was repeated under another obligation, viz. that they should report 
 faithfully every politica! circumstance which came within the compass of their knowledge, binding them- 
 selves by the usual covenant of invocations and imprecations. The force and impression of this fetische 
 may be well imagined, when I relate that my linguists, terrified at the bare thought of taking the oath 
 draught, (simply a sort of consecrated water impregnated with sacred vegetable infusions,) ui^ed me by 
 various moving intreaties to prevail on the king to exempt them from compliance. Of course I would do 
 nothing that way, as it was my interest as well as that of the sovereign to be able to distinguish falsehood 
 from truth. The crowd of courtiers and priests, on that occasion, impeded the vision, so that 1 could not 
 observe the particular ceremonies without committing a breach of decorum, and forgetting my rank, &c. 
 I confess my incompetence therefore to explain the mystery, but for the reader's amusement shall quote 
 what Bosman, on his own authority, relates. " The oath draught is usually accompanied with an im- 
 precation that the fetische may kill them if they do not perform the contents of their obligation, and all 
 parties are obliged to drink this swearing liquor. But of late years, (in covenants between party interests) 
 some negroes are so refined that they oblige the priest to swear first, and drink the oath draught with an 
 imprecation that the priests should punish him with death, if he ever absolved any person from their oath, 
 without the unanimous consent of all. If you ask what opinion the negroes have of those who falsify 
 the obligations of the oath draught, they believe the perjured person shall be swelled by that liquor till 
 he bursts ; or if that doth not happen, that he shall shortly die of a languishing sickness : the first 
 punishment they imagine more peculiar to women, who take this draught to acquit themselves of any 
 accusation of adultery, and if I may be allowed to make a comparison, this drink seems very like the 
 bitter water administered to the women in the Old Testament, by way of purgation from the charge of 
 adultery." The following is the form he describes of the most obligatory oath known : — 
 
 " Each priest or feticheer hath his peculiar idol prepared and adjusted in a particular and different 
 manner, but most of them like the following description. They have a great wooden pipe filled with 
 earth, oil, blood, and bones of dead men and beasts, feathers, hair, and to be short, of all sorts of excre- 
 mentitious and filthy trash, which they do not endeavour to mould into any shape, but lay it in a confused 
 heap in the pipe. The negro who is to take an oath before this idol is placed directly opposite to it an 
 asks the priest the name of his idol (each having a particular one), of whicli being informed, he calls 
 the fetische by its name, and recites at large the contents of what he designs to bind by an oath, and 
 makes it his petitionary request that the idol may punish him with death if he swears falsely ; then he 
 goes round the pipe and stands still and swears a second time as before, and so a third time likewise, 
 
 E E 2
 
 212 INTENTIONS OF THE BRITISH. 
 
 settlements, and it was impossible to gain any intelligence whatever 
 relatino- to the interior. Indeed it was not so much as known at 
 what particular spot the Ashantees had stationed themselves. 
 
 Whatever opinions Sir Charles M'Carthy may have imbibed in 
 England or at Sierra Leone, in respect to Ashantee (where indeed all 
 his information concerning the Gold Coast must have been gained,) 
 it seems he was extremely anxious to learn more of that country than 
 what he could glean either from the reports of Sir George Collier or 
 Mr. Smith, or from the works of Mr. Bowdich and Mr. Hutton. This 
 anxiety was expressed in letters which he addressed to me in the year 
 1822, urging me, (agreeably to my representations to him in London 
 that I had much important information to communicate) to lose no 
 time in pushing matters forward, and desiring to have two or three 
 copies of the present work by the very first opportunity, if I did not 
 bring them out myself. Sir Charles, moreover, evinced a desire to 
 obtain prompt information as regarded some, perhaps the political 
 knowledge I had gained at Ashantee, but time and occupation rendering 
 it impossible I could oblige him, I was reluctantly compelled to resign 
 the honour of a correspondence, which private feelings of friendship 
 and respect would have influenced me to continue, although my senti- 
 ments could never have swerved from that tone and feeling which have 
 hitherto guided my pen, and therefore might not have been productive 
 of good, if, as it was reported some months afterwards. Sir Charles se- 
 riously meditated, as soon as he should have organized an army, 
 marching with it to Coomassy to dethrone the king in his capital. 
 
 after which the priest takes some of the mentioned ingredients out of the pipe, with which he touches 
 the swearer's head, arms, belly, and legs, and holding it above his head, turns it three times round, then 
 he cuts off a bit of the nail of one finger in each hand, of one toe of each foot, and some of the hair of 
 his head, which he throws into the pipe where the idol is lodged : all which done the oath is firmly obli- 
 gatory." (pages 124, 125, 126.) This is descriptive of the coast " fetische," but I believe it to be very 
 similar to that which the Ashantees themselves practise, and which I have witnessed in various forms, 
 excepting only the oath draught. The Moslems themselves are terrified at the ohy of the Ashantees — 
 the king's fetische.
 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE NATIVES. 213 
 
 To pursue this narrative, — Sir Charles speedily set about organiz- 
 ing the natives whose towns are situated under the castles ; for hitherto 
 this precaution had never been taken by his predecessor ; and while 
 this was transacting, every thing was as quiet as if no such country as 
 Ashantee existed. It was not conjectured that the enemy might have 
 been engaged in an inland war, neither that he was busying himself 
 with preparations * for a campaign on the sea coast ; but on the con- 
 
 * The Ashantees never undertake any national concerns without invocations to tlie deities, conjura- 
 tions, incantations, and a variety of customs which occupy incredible time, as tliese mysteries can only 
 be practised on particular days of the week or month, the others being deemed ominous and portending 
 evil, are days of grief and tribulation. Out of the 365, the proportion of good or lucky days, the Bashaw 
 says, is no more than 150 or IGO. During the evil days, councils cannot be holden, nor can troops 
 either march or engage the enemy, unless in self-defence. An Ashantee army, in proportion to the rank 
 of its commEinder, and certainly if the king was at its head, could not march to Cape Coast or to the sea- 
 side in less than three or four months, for there are various other causes (independent also of circumspec- 
 tion, rank, and dignity) to impede the march, such as divinations from the flight of birds, track of par- 
 ticular beetles and insects, screechings of the turkey buzzard, dreams, predictions, celebration of customs, 
 &c. &c. In short, the Ashantees are slow, and I believe, cautious in the cabinet ; they are slower, how- 
 ever, in warlike movements, and, for those very reasons, more to be dreaded by those who do not know 
 them ; and certainly no man had a just conception of this nation during my residence on the Gold Coast. 
 The Ashantees are energetic in the field on days when they can act ; and, as the Bashaw and the Moslems 
 in general relate, are more justly dreaded than any other tribe of Negroes. When the array takes the 
 field, it usually pushes forward a body of two or three thousand men to the distance of a day or two in 
 advance of the main army, covering the enemy's towns and frontiers by little detached corps of obser- 
 vation, who prosecute their march during the silence of night, in the most intricate parts of the forest, 
 only seeking refuge as occasion may require, in the loftiest boughs of the trees, where they sustain life for> 
 many days, if necessary, upon a sort of soluble gum, pounded grain, and " war nuts," called by them 
 Boesie, which they never travel without. As the main body advances, so do these detachments, and when 
 the king and priesthood deem the opportunity a fit one for battle, these corps of observation, strengthened 
 by others, concentrate themselves within a compass adequate to support the war with a most deadly efiect 
 from ambush and intrenched positions, or from the canopy which conceals their comrades; for during the 
 attack, these elevated warriors pour incessantly upon the foe a tempest of musquet-shot, and poisoned 
 missiles, javelins, and arrows. 
 
 The precautions taken by the Ashantees, during a march through the enemy's country, are equal to 
 what is related of the tribes of North American Indians ; and it is almost impossible to collect intelligence 
 adapted to the service of an opposing force. Incredible as it may seem, it often occurs, as it happened in 
 the Gaman war, that the king in person, at the head of an army, is able to conceal himself in the heart of 
 an enemy's country (provided there are forests of sufficient capacity) until the crisis for action is deemed 
 auspicious.
 
 214 MILITARY PREPARATIONS, 
 
 trary, it was believed that the king would be contented to preserve a 
 defensive posture. It was hoped, that besides the organization of the 
 militia, as they were called, (the bands of Fantees, or Cape Coast 
 people, whose cause we had adopted) government would plentifully 
 supply the place with arms, ammunition, &c., and men, if needful ; 
 but the latter were scarcely deemed needful at this time, as the colony 
 of Sierra Leone and the shipping would furnish as many as might be 
 wanting, if the enemy should evince more activity, or become bolder 
 than hei-etofore. 
 
 Sir Charles, conformably to the system pursued by the great Cor- 
 tez, the conqueror of the empire of Mexico, judiciously enough for 
 defensive war, formed certain little alliances with a few of the inferior 
 southern tribes of Fantees, Fetuans, Dinkrans, Inkrans, &c.. But be- 
 sides that the bulk of the population of these parts, whose numbers 
 since the wars of conquest were never great, still adhered faithfully in 
 allegiance to the king, those mercenaries who embarked in the cause 
 were never steady, and I believe never attached to our interests beyond 
 the natural feeling that they did not wish to pay gold to the king or to 
 any one else, whether their protectors or their oppressors. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1823, Sir Charles, who doubtless 
 was extremely impatient at the rigorous blockade enforced by the 
 Ashantees, seemed to have come to a final resolution of marching at 
 the head of his militia bands and West India troops into the interior, 
 for the purpose of dethroning the king. He accordingly, I believe, 
 wrote home (to England) for cannon of the description of light 
 artillery*. In the mean while he arranged his plans for the meditated 
 campaign ; intending to avail himself of the ensuing dry season, which 
 usually commences about the middle of November. Sir Charles, to 
 
 * The artillery certainly could have been of no use in such a forest as I have described, nor 
 jndeed would it have been practicable to transport the pieces, unless by dismounting them from the trucks, 
 and loading the heads of the people with both. In open spots, however, there can be no doubt that they 
 would prove very destructive engines.
 
 REPORTED DEATH OF SAI QUAMINA. 215 
 
 whom credit is due for more than a moderate share of activity, 
 zeal and talent, as a governor, did not neglect opportunities of 
 improving the condition of the settlements, for indeed a very great 
 proportion of his time, as was usual with him at Sierra Leone, was 
 devoted exclusively to that important object. 
 
 Thus situated, the most sanguine hopes were entertained by the 
 particular friends of Sir Charles, of the success which they imagined 
 must, or would attend a plan of military operations conducted by him 
 upon a scale of such imposing magnitude. About the month of 
 March last (1824) fiirther accounts were received from the Gold Coast, 
 but they were in no way important, except as it was stated in a 
 private letter, the king — the inflexible, the hospitable, the celebrated, 
 the friendly, the distressed Sai Quamina, was no more ; having, 
 as it would appear, departed this life in grief and vexation, bequeath- 
 ing to his successor the kingdom and the palaver together, as Mr. Smith 
 had already resigned his share of it to the interest which succeeded 
 him. The successor to Sai, the same accounts stated, had commenced 
 his reign by an edict against the British, wherein they were accused 
 (whether justly or not it is the reader's province to decide) of perfidy, 
 infractions of treaties, violations of public faith, treachery, cruelty, &c. 
 To revenge which, and to appease the shade of the departed conqueror, 
 in the region of spirits, the new monarch vowed eternal war against 
 the British until he had obtained satisfaction ; declaring (in the form 
 of the great oath of his predecessors) that he would not cease from 
 hostihty until he had watered the grave of the departed Sai Quamina 
 with the blood of white men, &c.^^- 
 
 » It is essential to observe, that the account of the iiing's death may not be true, although it is 
 highly probable. If correct, it induces me to suppose that that monarch was tenacious of the oath he 
 had sworn to me, of fidelity ; and under the fear of incurring the displeasure of his gods, by violating it 
 he might possibly never have had recouree to other measures than those which he had already pursued in 
 maintaining a defensive posture ^inst the settlements. Certain it is, as the king confessed to me,
 
 216 FLATTERING ACCOUNTS. 
 
 The first victim to the first aggressive act on the part of the 
 Ashantees fell at a short period after this event, when they 
 surprised a black man, who filled the situation of corporal in our 
 service, and whom they put to death, as is their usual practice in 
 common with all negroes. To revenge this insult, and to co-operate at 
 the same time with Captain Laiug, who had the command of another 
 division of troops in the neighbourhood of Annamaboe, now the 
 capital of Fantee, Sir Charles resolved immediately to take the field. 
 
 Thus, as it was believed, upon the eve of the most important 
 transaction that has ever been witnessed in that part of Africa, and 
 while the public, from the nature of the last accounts, were in 
 hopeful and sang-uine expectations of receiving advices from Africa of 
 the most satisfactory and flattering character, the appalling news 
 reached England of defeat and distress. But let the reader form his 
 own judgment upon the materials, as some of them have been already 
 laid before the public. " The new energy displayed by the English 
 on the Gold Coast imposed a salutary check on the savage chief of 
 Ashantee, and at the same time held out to the neighbouring states a 
 hope of protection against his oppressions. He was, therefore, for 
 some time, quiet ; but having in a Jit of passion seized on a negro ser- 
 geant in our service. Sir C. M' Carthy felt himself bound to avenge 
 the insult. A new corns had been formed on the Gold Coast under the 
 title of the Royal African Light Infantry, and had attained a high 
 degree of discipline ; a detachment of this corps took the field under 
 Captain Laing, an officer peculiarly well qualified for this service, 
 inasmuch as he had a year or two before penetrated very far into the in- 
 terior on an exploratory mission from Sierra Leone. The tribes which 
 
 that neither inclination, policy, nor the desire of getting the good things, possessed by the whites in their 
 castles, could ever induce him to do them an injury. They were his best friends he said, for he derived 
 all his power and influence through their means. In truth, it is not probable that the Ashantees, unless 
 their safety depended upon it, would ever attempt our expulsion from the sea coast.
 
 SUCCESS OF CAPTAIN LAING. 21? 
 
 had previously suffered from the tyranny of Sai Tooto Quamina now 
 seized the opportunity of shaking off his yoke, and many swore alle- 
 giance to the English government. In May last (1823) all the districts 
 on the sea coast, west of the Volta, were in arms, to the amount of 30,000 
 warriors, while in the interior the inhabitants tmanimouslij refused to pay 
 the tributary exactions. Captain Laing took the Fantee country under 
 his especial care. This officer in August last * (with a detachment of the 
 West India regiment, and a detachment of the Annamaboe militia, sup- 
 ported by several native chiefs, totally defeated the Ashantees at Assecuma. 
 On the 19th of last November, Sir Charles McCarthy arrived from Sierra 
 Leone, at Cape Coast, to take upon himself, in person, the direction of 
 public affairs there. At that time it is stated the Ashantees had not 
 ventured to approach the coast. A camp had been formed of the 
 British troops (including the West India regiments, and others from 
 Sierra Leone,) and great numbers of the native chiefs had joined them 
 and sworn alleo-iance to the British o-overnment. 
 
 This is the substance of the reports of public transactions. Now 
 it will be essential to turn to the less consolatory matters of private 
 correspondence ; the truth of which is too prominent to need any 
 observation of its authenticity. 
 
 Accra, January 31, 1824. 
 
 " It is unnecessary for me to communicate to you the seizure of 
 one of our sergeants by order of the Ashantee Despot, and other 
 causes that have led to a war between the British and that nation, as 
 you have already been put in possession of these circumstances by my 
 
 friend . Suffice it to say your prediction (that unless speedy and 
 
 effectual aid were sent from England, things would go hard with us,) 
 has been too soon verified. The Ashantees have long threatened us with 
 an attack ; and on the 25th of last month intelligence was brought to Sir 
 C. M'Carthy, that they were approaching the coast ; but contrary to 
 
 * About the time the sergeant was killed by the Ashantees. 
 F F
 
 218 DEFEAT OF SIR CHARLES MCCARTHY. 
 
 what is usual, their forces were by report diminished as to their real 
 numbers ; the consequence was that Sir Charles divided his forces in 
 four divisions, and marched into the interior ! The enemy instead of 
 dividing- theirs, collected a force of 10,000 men, and attacked the 
 division commanded by Sir Charles himself, (who did not muster 
 1000 muskets) and I regret to say, totally defeated and dispersed it ! 
 The whole of the whites are either killed or missing, except Major 
 Ricketts and Ensig-n Erskine, who after many hardships, have suc- 
 ceeded in getting to Cape Coast. Among the killed and missing are 
 Sir Charles himself, Messrs Buckle and Wetherill from Sierra Leone ; 
 also Robertson, * Dr. Tedlie, Jones, Brandon, Williams and Keddle of 
 Cape Coast, all of whom you have seen, and several others with 
 
 whom you are not acquainted. H and I were with the Accra 
 
 division, commanded by Captain Blenkarne, and at least 150 miles 
 to the eastward of Sir Charles, when this afflicting intelligence was 
 brought to us ; and by the same messenger we were ordered to fall 
 back on Accra, and put the town and port in the best state of defence* 
 It will now be seen that the Ashantees are a people not to be utterly 
 I despised .'-f In short it has come to this, if government do not instantly 
 send out two or three thousand troops to put down this power, they 
 must withdraw the British flag from the coast, and leave the field to 
 the cunning Dutchmen to reap the harvest of their intrigue. The mo- 
 ment the issue of the battle was kno7v"n, the people of El Mina com- 
 menced seizing our people, and those of Shamah, (another Dutch settle- 
 ment) had the temerity to fire on the boats of the Owen Glendoxoer ! 
 But here they suffered for their rashness by the total destruction of 
 
 * This was my friend and correspondent before spoken of. 
 
 f This sentiment indeed betrays the fatal secret that Sir Charles was over confident, perhaps deluded 
 by the puerile or false insinuations of his predecessor in respect to Ashantee and its monarch. If so, 
 to what an extent has not Mr. Smith to atone to his country, whether this loss of blood, treasure, 
 commerce, and honour, may have proceeded from ignorance or misrepresentation, calumny or resent- 
 ments, or secret intrigues and interests.
 
 DEFEAT OF SIR CHARLES MCCARTHY. 219' 
 
 the town. It is a most /o7-f«?j«/'(' circumstance that the frigate was in 
 the vicinity of Cape Coast at this moment, as I know not how much 
 more dreadful the result would have been. The divisions commanded 
 by Majors Chisholm and Laing- have returned to Cape Coast and 
 Annamaboe ; they can get no tidings of either Sir Charles or the 
 Ashantees, and it is supposed the latter have fallen back a short distance 
 to communicate their great success to their king, before they renew the 
 contest. Sir Charles's orderly, who escaped from the field, affirms 
 that Sir Charles was wounded in two places early in the action. 
 
 " It is but justice to say, the Danish governor Richlieu, has acted 
 the part of a man of honour towards us. He has spared neither ex- 
 pence nor persona] exertion to assist us in putting down the Ashantees, 
 and if the Dutch had acted the same part, matters would ere this have 
 been settled in our favour. To secure the favour and trade of the 
 Ashantees, the Dutch have been so mean as to instil into the minds of 
 these people that our object is to bring their nation under our yoke,^ and 
 if we are driven from the coast, they (the Ashantees,) will again have 
 opportunities of disposing of their slaves to the Portuguese and Spanish 
 vessels ! 
 
 P. S. — " A report has just reached us, that Sir Charles is safe among 
 the Dinqueras, a country situate about sixty-five miles north west of 
 Cape coast, and in our alliance. I sincerely hope this report may be 
 confirmed, but for my part, I much doubt ii." 
 
 Accra, January 31, 1824. 
 " The late disastrous events have brought us into a very critical 
 situation ! On the 29th ultimo Sir Charles directed Captain Blenkarne, 
 
 * Setting all prejudices aside, it would hardly have been possible for the Ashantees to draw any 
 other conclusions from the magrxjtude of our military preparations on the coast. I greatly fear the king 
 must have reflected as I have done myself, with bitterness of feeling upon the days when he favoured me 
 with a visit at my quarters, to explain the fears of his captains respecting the Fantees — as on the day 
 when he made me swear 1 had no intention to deceive him, and arm the Southern tribes to war upon 
 him. It would be thought romantic to say, my heart still throbs with anguish at the retrospect. 
 
 ff2
 
 220 DEFEAT OF SIR CHARLES M'CARTHY. 
 
 the commandant of James Fort, Accra, to proceed to Aikin, and there 
 to fonn an encampment. The object of this was (I have some reason 
 to think) to menace and divide the forces of the Ashantees. We left 
 this on the 4th instant for that purpose, but in consequence of some 
 dissatisfaction among those on whom we rehed for aid, our forces were 
 but slender, and after having remained in the Ag-uassim territory three 
 weeks, our forces having refused to proceed, we were obliged to fall back 
 on this place. In the mean time, our good governor, hoping by his 
 own presence to infuse confidence into the dastardly Fantees, among 
 whom he had trusted himself, was attacked on the 21st instant by 
 10,000 Shantees who had been near him for sowe days. It was unfor- 
 tunate that at this time, a force under JMajor Chisholm, another under 
 Captain Lestrange, and a third under Captain Laing, were all at distinct 
 camps, and knew nothing of whal was going on until all was over. We 
 have nothing authentic, but report is busy in making bad worse. We 
 have every reason to believe almost all the whites have been killed. 
 Mr. Erskine, the only officer who returned, is wounded ; Sir Charles 
 is said to have been wounded in two places ; nothing to this day has 
 been heard of him. The action took place behind Secondee almost ten 
 miles inland. The wounded (one hundred) made their way to that 
 settlement and afterwards to the Cape, in canoes. On the 28th, Major 
 Chisholm returned to Cape Coast, but had not heard of Sir Charles. 
 He mustered all the forces he could, and Captain Laing was sent with 
 him to search for Sir Charles. The amount of their forces I cannot 
 state, not having heard, but the blacks are, I fear, pa7iic struck. 
 
 Government will see the necessity of now doing what ought to 
 have been done long ago. Unless three or four thousand men are sent 
 out to beat these savages out of hand, they will keep the country 
 agitated until they effect the total subjugation of the coasts. You can 
 scarcely imagine the panic which prevails everj/ xchere. The defeat 
 appears by the imperfect accounts we now have, to have been complete. 
 The forces under Sir Charles, are supposed to have been only five
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 221 
 
 hundred.* What was that to ten thousand, in a wood, surrounded and 
 out of ammunition ? Poor poor Sir Charles ! Tlie treacherous and 
 thnorous boasting Fantees have effected a mischance which time cannot 
 repair. If alive what must be your feelings ! If no more, how horrid 
 a death must we suppose to have been invented for you ! Major 
 Chisholm is doing- all he can to put this castle in a state to repel every 
 aggression. The sincerity of the Dutch is doubtful. The enemy have 
 not been heard of since the action; they are, it is supposed, returned 
 to their encampment ; we are the most exposed to their attacks, this 
 situation being so open." 
 
 Thus far had the printing of this work proceeded, when the follow- 
 ing correspondence appeared in the daily journals, containing but too 
 simple a solution of the silence of my own friends. They had all 
 perished in this unequal contest. My predictions have been but too 
 completely fulfilled, f 
 
 * This is not probable when it seems the British confederated force, allies included, could assemble 
 together 30,000 men. If true, however, it is an unaccountable sample of that prejudice or contempt 
 entertained for the enemy. Sir Charles's judgment must have been clouded indeed, to have dreamt of 
 marching ten miles inland with five hundred men only ! ! ! 
 
 " Cape Coast, Feb. 23. 
 f " The news I have to tell you are of the most distressing nature. His ExceDency Sir C. M'Carthy, 
 with a few regulars and militia, and some of the natives, made a rapid advance into the Wassaw country 
 to repel the Ashantees, who advanced in great numbers, and in the most gallant style. The attack com- 
 menced about two o'clock p m., on the 21st of January, across a river about twenty or thirty feet wide. 
 The firing was tremendous on both sides till six p. m., when it was found the ammunition on our side 
 was all expended ; on which the Ashantees began to cross the river in great numbers, and the havoc 
 began. The natives of our party (the Fantees) would never carry bayonets; but the regulars and militia 
 used them with the most deadly eftect. Each one bayonetted three or four Ashantees ; then, snatching 
 the bayonet from the musket, they dashed into the middle of the enemy's force, falling nobly and killing 
 till the last. As his Excellency and staff commenced retreating, they were attacked in the rear by about 
 two thousand of the enemy, who had been sent round to intercept them, after which nothing certain 
 has been learned of any of the whites. Only two officers escaped out of the battle, who were Brigade 
 Major Ricketts and Lieutenant Erskine. Those that are missing are his Excellency Sir Charles M'Carthy, 
 the Honourable Mr. Buckle, Messrs. Wetherell, Williams, Heddle, Jones, Rayden, Robertson, Tedlie, 
 Brandon. There is not a doubt of his Excellency and most of them being killed. It is said their
 
 222 DEFEAT OF SIR CHARLES M'CARTHY. 
 
 corpses were used in the most shocking manner. It is pretty well ascertained that Williams is a prisoner. 
 Thus in one day has the sword cut oft" what disease left. 
 
 " The most lamentable part of the catastrophe is, that it was caused in a great measure by the 
 officer who had charge of the ammunition, and did not bring it forward as he ought : the Ashantees 
 never would have broken our line had there been powder. When Major Ricketts went to open the three 
 last kegs, he found — what think you ? Why Macaroni .'.' / — while the Ashantees, who plundered the 
 camp next day, took ten barrels of ball-cartridges, with a great quantity of other booty. When we got 
 the news of Sir Charles's disastrous fight, we retreated directly ; captain Laing going to Cape Coast, 
 by the way of Annamaboe, while I, with Mr. Fraser, and all the Fantee force, marched across the 
 country to reinforce Major Chisholm ; but when Captain Laing arrived at Annamaboo, the reports from 
 Cape Coast were, that the major and his party were also cut to pieces, and he sent expresses after me to 
 fell back and garrison Cape Coast, as the panic was so great, and an attack dreaded. I shall always 
 recollect with pleasure, the reception I met with when the standard was seen advancing over the rocks, 
 and the bugles played ' Over the hills and far away.' The whole town appeared mad with joy : such 
 a day in a man's life richly repays for years of pain. Fortunately, next day. Major Chisholm and party 
 aiTived, having never been engaged. I was ordered to occupy the camp of Djguah with my little band 
 of eighty ; none of the auxiliaries having come up. 
 
 " All trade is at a complete stop ; every merchant's goods are deposited in the forts, which I have 
 no doubt we shall l-ave to defend till we hear from England, as the Ashantees will no doubt make a push 
 to destroy us before supplies can come out. The short of the matter is this — England must either now 
 withdraw her protection from this coast , or send down a force to put down as cruel an enemy as the world 
 produces. The loss of the merchants is not to be calcyjated, such a quantity of goods being on hand." 
 
 Another letter of the same date says, 
 
 " When Sir Charles M'Carthy and Major Chisholm were in the interior, they divided their army, 
 and each took a different route. Sir Charles, I hear, had only 1,000 men and ten officers, of which only 
 fifty have returned. They had gone but a short way, when they were attacked by the Ashantees, by all 
 accounts 10,000 in number. Our party behaved very well, and had much the advantage, until they 
 found all their ammunition was expended. There were only two officers that were not killed, and they 
 had to make their escape after being wounded. The battle took place on the 21st, and we did not hear 
 of it until the 23d ultimo. Poor Mr. Heddle was the first that fell a sacrifice to these dreadful bar- 
 barians. He was shot through both his knees, and in that state he killed with his sword two of the 
 enemy. In a short time after a party of the Ashantees came to cut off his head, when he shot himself 
 in the heart. 
 
 " The officers who returned wounded are Major Ricketts and Ensign Erskine. It is said that the 
 heads of those who were killed are carried to Coomassy. We expect the enemy to come down 
 to attack this place, but if they do, they will meet with a warm reception, as we have the frigate Owen 
 Glendower and the Raven sloop of war to assist us. I have put all our property into the castle for 
 safety ; but I do not think there is the least fear, but it is better to be on the safe side, as the people 
 of the Dutch fort of Elmina are supposed to be rather favourable to the Ashantees. We have blockaded
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 223 
 
 it to prevent any supplies being brouglit there. In fact, we shall never be at peace until Elmina is 
 under the British flag ; and instead of Government sending out a few white troops, they should send 
 out three or four regiments. Major Chisholni is sending home despatches, and I have no doubt he 
 has stated to Government the actual necessity of sending immediate relief." 
 
 Cape Coast Castle, March 23, 1824. 
 
 The following are the heads of what has lately occurred on this coast : — 
 
 The late warfare that the Gold Coast has been engaged in with the Ashantees, for the last 
 twelve months, has created little or no importance until the present period. 
 
 His Excellency, Sir Charles M'Carthy arrived here from Sierra Leone, in December last, and in the 
 early part of January marched to the interior, towards the river Pra, with the force of from 6,000 to 7,000 
 men, consisting of natives and companies of a West India regiment. On the 21st of January, near the 
 Pra, a most desperate battle was fought, and from the superior force of the enemy, they had surrounded 
 our troops in every direction ; and after our ammunition was totally expended, the troops under Sir 
 Charles retreated, with a loss of nearly all the officers, and sorry I am to state the inhuman manner 
 in which they have been treated, amongst whom the gallant chief. Sir Charles M'Carthy, who was 
 wounded and taken prisoner. The loss of the Ashantees was upwards of 1,000, who were brought 
 down by our fire. Every possible means has been taken to ascertain the loss of our officers and men, 
 and intelligence has been received from a messenger, who saw at the enemy's camp the heads of 
 nine white men (officers) with their jaw-bones taken out, and amongst them was the head of sir 
 Charles. This is invariably a practice among these savages, when an enemy falls into their hands. 
 It is said, that our loss of men was not to any great amount : out of 140, said to have arrive'd in the 
 Joseph Green transport in November last, one half have paid the debt of nature. 
 
 Extract of a letter from Mr. Williams, the Colonial Secretary, addressed, to the commandant of 
 Cape Coast Castle, from the Dutch settlement of Elmina, dated March, 1824, and read to the writer 
 of the above by Brigade Major Ricketts. the day before I sailed from Cape Coast Castle, March 22, 1814 : — 
 
 " It was my fortune to be near our lamented chief when he received a wound in the breast by a 
 musket ball, I believe mortal. Buckle, Wetherell, and myself conveyed him under shelter of the nearest 
 tree, and there sat to await that fate which appeared inevitable. We had not remained long before we 
 were discovered by the enemy, who immediately rushed on us with their knives. In the struggle, I 
 received a desperate cut on the left side of my neck, and before the stroke could be repeated, a man 
 who appeared to be of authority among them fortunately passed, and ordered my executioner to desist, 
 which was immediately complied with. On my being released from their gnsp, and turning round, I 
 was horror-struck at seeing my three companions lying headless corpses at my feet. I was now bound 
 as a prisoner and conveyed towards their camp." 
 
 A strong force have now crossed the Pra, under the command of Captain Blenkairn, West India 
 regiment ; and it is to be hoped that the Ashantees will meet their reward. An action is hourly expected 
 to take place, and the natives appear fully resolved to revenge the fate of our poor countrymen. The 
 Owen Gkndower has been usefully and actively engaged with the army in destroying the towns along the 
 coast, where the enemy had taken shelter ; she sails to-morrow morning to destroy a town in the Gaboorn, 
 which has lately insulted the British, flag, and murdered the crew of an English merchant vessel.
 
 224 POWER OF ASHANTEE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF ASHANTEE. 
 
 ANTIQUITY AND POWER OF THE MONARCHY OF ASHANTEE— NATIONAL CHARACTER- WAR 
 OF DINKIRA— REIGN OF SAI TOOTO— MASSACRE AT ACROMANTEE— SAI APOKO— CIVIL WAR— SAX 
 AKWASY— SAI KODJOH— WAR OF GAMAN— SAI QUAMINA— EMBASSY FROM DAHOMY~SAI APOKO II. 
 —SAI TOOTO QUAMINA— WAR OF GHOFAN- FIRST BONTOKO WAR— WAR OF ASSIN— MURDER 
 OF THE KING'S MESSENGERS BY THE FANTEES— FANTEE WAR— ATTACK OF ANNAMABO— DEATH 
 OF CHEBOO- RATIFICATION OF THE TRUCE— EXCHANGE OF PRESENTS— PRISONERS OF WAR 
 AWARDED TO THE GOVERNOR, AND THEIR DISPOSAL. 
 
 The growth and consolidation of this comparatively great empire, 
 is much talked of by the Heathens as well as Moslems ; and both are 
 agreed, that the tribes of Ashantee, Gaman, Dinkira, and Akim, were 
 driven by the believers, in the early age of Islam, from their original 
 inheritances in Ghobagho, Ghofan, and Tonouma, to the forests of 
 Wangara (i. e. the states of Ashantee inclusively, and the south eastern 
 parts of Gaman) where they maintained their independence at the 
 expence of much blood, and defended the country gifted with the 
 precious metal, against the most vigorous efforts that were made to 
 bereave them of it. W hether the sea coast was already peopled, 
 tradition does not say ; but it is affirmed, the tribes spread over the 
 land, down to the margin of the ocean, peopling, it may be conjec- 
 tured, some countries which heretofore lay desolate, like the forests of
 
 NATIONAL CHARACTER. 225 
 
 Fantee and Assin, and others, whose primitive inhabitants were not 
 adequate to the defence of their towns. Thus, Ashantee, contrary to 
 what may have been represented, is the parent country, and the stock 
 from which the early generations of Fantees and Dinkirans sprung. 
 
 As early as the hejyran year 1000, and from that to 1050 (a. d. 
 1640,) Ashantee occasionally ruled, by its influence, over part of Akim, 
 Assin, Quahou, and Akeyah : it was then esteemed a powerful little 
 monarchy, and could probably send, in conjunction with its allies, 
 sixty thousand men to the field, indifterently armed with bows 
 and arrows, and a very few musquets ; but even at that time they 
 were men whose resolution, combined with a natural ferocity, ren- 
 dered their name terribly illustrious among the adjacent tribes. 
 
 Nations, who term themselves the most civilized in the Avorld, 
 and others which are the most savage of the human species, seem 
 equally anxious to justify every aggressive act, and vindicate the 
 national honour, by repelling what in their own countries passes for 
 calumny and falsehood. The Ashantees, not being competent to 
 defend the honour of the throne, and the national character by 
 written memorials, in the systematical style of Europe, endeavour to 
 exonerate their sovereign and themselves from the odious imputation 
 of violence and ambition, by harangues calculated to demonstrate that 
 black is white, and white black ; for the truth of which men are too 
 apt to appeal to whatever may be considered sacred, whether it be 
 the awful majesty of heaven, the day of final retribution, or the deities 
 of heathen adoration and superstition : the rest is left to chance and 
 the sword. 
 
 The Ashantees, of all ranks, are thus loyal and zealous, in common 
 with other nations, and the king himself takes pleasure in recounting his 
 forbearance, and describing the aggravation that roused the vengeance 
 of his ancestors and himself, against those federal powers, which, in an 
 earlier age, were independent little kingdoms, and now submit to the 
 yoke of government as provinces of the empire. The king, during 
 
 G G
 
 226 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 various desultory conversations, took particular pains to ingraft an 
 impression upon my mind, that it was a maxim associated with the 
 relio-ion he professed, never to appeal to the sword while a path lay 
 open for negociation. He maintained that he would defy even his ene- 
 mies to prove that his assertion deviated from the truth, either as 
 regarded himself or his ancestors.* Be this as it may, the Moslems 
 themselves corroborate the assertion, although they accuse the govern- 
 ment of unbounded ambition. 
 
 The tribes under the early sovereigns (for they always enjoyed 
 the rank and title of kings) were unsettled in their habitations, while 
 the Arab influence yet existed on the Jolliba, Koara and Ghulby 
 rivers ; but they were firm and compact as a nation, and not (as my 
 informers reported) wandering to the distance of the Arab. 
 
 It may not be amiss to observe, that in Africa, as in other 
 countries where slavery is tolerated, the wretched captive frequently 
 turns his thought towards home, his tribe and family. If his country 
 is remote, he is certainly less tortured by hopes and fears re- 
 specting his emancipation ; others, whose nation is a neighbouring 
 one, and who are less valued on that very account, are more or less 
 in the practice of emigrating in proportion to the treatment they 
 receive ; and if they can successfully conceal themselves in the forest 
 from the pursuit of their masters, and the observation of travellers, 
 they endeavour to shape a course towards their homes ; but should 
 they fail in the undertaking, at a distance, they simply exchange one 
 master for another — a bargain which is rarely the most profitable to 
 them, as the new proprietor becomes intimate with the secret pro- 
 pensity of his slave, and as an antidote for the evil generally sells 
 him in a distant land. The slaves of Fantee, Ashantee, Assin, or 
 
 * It is worthy of remark, that many of the whites upon the gold coast so far acquiesced in 
 these sentiments, as to admit that Ashantee has never been engaged in war with the maritime 
 states from sheer caprice and rapacity. I may also be permitted to quote Wr. Mollan's words to 
 me, " th?t he never knew the king to make a palaver without cause, or violate his word."
 
 WAR OF DINKIRA. 227 
 
 any other country thereabouts, absohitely find no security anywhere 
 among- the provinces, unless they are fortunate enough to incorporate 
 themselves with the tribe they belong to, for, if they are picked up 
 elsewhere, they become legal prizes, and I believe this custom prevails 
 all over Africa. 
 
 The wars of Dinkira are still fresh in memory ; the scull and thigh 
 bones of its last monarch are still trophies of the court of Ashantee, •' 
 and still those people, on solemn days, repeat their insults to the relics 
 of its king and caboceers,* The origin of this war and its sequel, 
 luay be read in Bosnian's Description of the Gold Coast, which is so far 
 supported by current traditions, that I cannot do better than quote the 
 author's words. " Dinkira, elevated by its great riches and power, became 
 so arrogant, that it looked on all other negroes with a contemptible 
 eye, esteeming them no more than its slaves, which rendered it the 
 object of their common hatred, each impatiently wishing its downfall, 
 though no nation was hardy enough to attack it, till the king of 
 Asiante, injured and affronted by its governor, adventured to revenge 
 himself on this nation in a signal manner." 
 
 " The occasion of which was this — Bosiante, the king of Dinkira, 
 a young prince whose valour was become the admiration of all the 
 negroes of the coast, sent some of his wives to compliment Zay, the 
 king of Asiante ; who not only received, and entertained them very 
 civilly, but sent them back charged with several very considerable 
 presents, to express his obliging resentment of the grateful embassy : 
 and being resolved to return his obligation, he some time after sent 
 some of his wives to compliment the king of Dinkira, and assure him 
 of the great esteem he had for his person. These ambassadresses 
 were not less splendidly treated at Dinkira, being also loaded with 
 presents ; but the king cast a wanton eye upon one of them, and 
 
 * After the decisive battle which preceded the conquest of Dinkira, the body of the deceased 
 Boshanty (Bosiante) wa^ disinterred. The flesh being separated from the bones, the former with bar- 
 barous indignity, was given to be devoured by serpents, and the latter (the scull and thigh bones) pre- 
 served as trophies. 
 
 G G 2
 
 228 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 beino- hurried on by exorbitant lust, gratified his brutal desire : after 
 satisfying of which, he suffered her, together with the rest, to return 
 to their country and their injured husband, who was informed of this 
 affront : But he took care to make the king of Dinkira sensible that 
 he would not rest till he had washed away the scandal in his injurious 
 blood. After he was made sensible of the king of Asiante's resolution, 
 knowing very well who he had to deal with, he heartily wished he 
 had not been guilty of the crime ; but since it was done, he offered 
 him several hundred marks of gold to put up with the injury. The 
 enraged prince, deaf to all such offers, prepared himself for a vigorous 
 war, by raising a strong army, in order to make a descent on Dinkirat 
 and not being sufficiently stored with gunpowder, he bought up great 
 quantities on the coast, the Dinkirans being foolish enougii to assist 
 him themselves, suffering his subjects to pass with it uninterrupted 
 through their country, notwithstanding they knew very well it was 
 only designed for their destruction. Whilst he was making these pre- 
 parations, the king of Dinkira died, which might encourage a belief 
 that the impending cloud of war would blow over. Whether the 
 governors of Dinkira were too haughty to implore a peace of the 
 injured Zay, or he instigated by the enemies of that country, is 
 uncertain ; but he still immoveably persisted in his purpose of utterly 
 extirpating the Dinkirans. And about the beginning of this year, 
 being completely ready, he came with a terrible army into the field, 
 and engaging the Dinkirans, who expected him, he beat them ; but 
 fighting them a second time, he entirely defeated them. The negroes 
 report that in these two battles, above a hundred thousand men were 
 killed. Of the negroes of Akim only, who came to the assistance 
 of the Dinkirans, there were about thirty thousand killed, besides 
 that a great Caboceer of Akim, with all his men, were cut off, 
 " Thus," says this able author, " you see the towering pride of Din- 
 kira in ashes, they being forced to fly before those whom they not 
 long before thought no better than their slaves, and themselves being 
 sold for slaves.
 
 REIGN OF SAI TOOTO. 229 
 
 This Dinkira war, according to the jMoslern records, commenced 
 m their year, 1132 (A. D. 1719-) Bosman wrote in 1721, and he says, 
 these transactions took place but a few months previous. This, they 
 say, was the first great war in which the believers were compelled to 
 unite their arms with the heathens of Ashantee, Banna, Juabin, and 
 other tributary states in the North, led on to battle by Sai Tooto, dig- 
 nified by his subjects with the epithet of Great. This monarch it was, 
 who first raised Coomassy from an inconsiderable town to the rank it 
 now enjoys as the metropolis of the empire. He did not, as Mr. Bow- 
 dich has represented, found Coomassy, but he increased its size to a 
 capacity for the reception of the court and army, when he was 
 influenced to translate the seat of government, which, heretofore, was 
 occasionally established at Kikiwhary (N. of Coomassy) and Bequa, 
 in the neighbourhood of Doompassy. Sai Tooto was already king 
 before the seat of government was a permanent one, nor did he enjoy 
 any increase of dignity, as tiie same author writes, although a great 
 increase of power and influence, after the subjugation of Dinkira; 
 for this kingdom introduced the Ashantees and Moslems to a know- 
 ledge of white men, by the consolidation of an empire now become 
 maritime by its aspect over the Wossa country, whose sovereigns 
 were compelled to suffer the Ashantees to pass as they might have 
 occasion in the pursuit of commerce at the Dutch settlements, where 
 their early supplies of powder and guns were obtained with commer- 
 cial regularity. 
 
 The legends descriptive of the history of Ashantee, earlier than the 
 reign of Sai Tooto, are somewhat obscure ; but were they the reverse, 
 it is not presumed the reader would find an interest in their perusal ; 
 for this reason I shall suppress a series of unconnected accounts relating 
 to one or two of the earlier sovereigns. 
 
 The wisdom as well as valour of Sai Tooto are themes on which the 
 natives dwell with a national satisfaction ; in short, he was, as they 
 say, the great, and the good ; for, in his reign, justice was ever on the
 
 230 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 alert, and the claims of his subjects were listened to without distinction 
 of rank or title. 
 
 The conquests effected by this prince were more comprehensive 
 than has been stated. He ravaged Assiu with fire and sword, for some 
 indignity offered by its monarch towards his person ; he entirely sub- 
 dued Quahou, and induced the government of Akim to a limited obe- 
 dience. He subdued, besides Dinkira and Tofal, a great extent of country 
 beyond the Tando river. He invaded Gaman with a powerful army, 
 with which he vanquished those tribes, and reduced their monarch to 
 the condition of a tributary. The Desert (of Ghofan) only was an im- 
 pediment to the progress of his arms north ; and, in short, he created an 
 empire, including tributaries and allies, which was strictly of a feudal 
 complexion, by the union of all those kingdoms and principalities 
 between the 6th and 9th degrees of latitude, and between the 4th degree 
 of lono'itude west from the meridian of London and the river Volta. 
 The auxiliary kingdom of Banna was the right arm of Ashantee in 
 those days, and still is. 
 
 Ashantee, however, excluding what it governed upon the western 
 coast by influence alone, was yet to be considered an inland power ; for 
 during this reign its arms never penetrated within forty or fifty miles of 
 the European settlements upon the sea side ; and all those countries, viz. 
 Aov.'in, Amanaha, Ahanta, Wossa, Fantee, Inkran, Aquapim, Aquam- 
 bo, besides others their tributaries, on the line of coast, enjoyed the 
 greatest political freedom among themselves ; and many of them, if 
 Bosman may be credited, wished for the downfal of Dinkira. Akim, it 
 would seem, then a powerful little kingdom, was alone sensible that its 
 proper interest warranted every exertion of vigour both in the cabinet 
 and field, to keep back so powerful an invader, and preserve the equi- 
 librium of the respective nations ; hence, they joined their forces to 
 the Dinkirans, and by the unfortunate result of the campaign, entailed 
 upon their country the conqueror's vengeance; for the sovereign of 
 Ashantee, who probably rejoiced in having so good a pretext for invad-
 
 DEATH OF SAI TOOTO. 231 
 
 ing Akim, entered that territory with the victorious army, and after 
 defeating the king in a pitched hattle upon the confines, reduced him 
 to the necessity of supplicating a peace, which was granted upon the 
 condition of his becoming a tributary, and defraying the expence of 
 the war, by a present of two thousand bendas * of gold ; for the fulfil- 
 ment of which, two Akim caboceers of high rank, named Kakramsee 
 and Adjumako, were compelled to take fetische, and deliver themselves 
 up hostages on behalf of their sovereign. 
 
 But these conditions the king of Akim endeavoured to evade, or, 
 as some say, the captains of his army, and the great chieftains, who 
 were called upon for their quota of the contribution, refused to sub- 
 scribe to the terms of the truce, threatening, if their king would not 
 lead them to battle, they would elect another in his place. Be the truth 
 which way it may, Sai Tooto, impatient at the delay, and urged by the 
 reiterated complaints of his rapacious captains, levied another army, 
 which he sent against Akim, and, followed by the flower of his nobility, 
 quitted the capital on the day following, to invoke the necessary aid of 
 his tutelary deities, at the sepulchre of Bantama. After the celebra- 
 tion of certain orgies, the monarch tracked the steps of the army, at a 
 leisure pace, and before he could join the main body, was suddenly 
 assailed by a superior detachment of the enemy, as he was crossing the 
 Praa at a ford where that river separates the province of Yomoha from 
 Akim. The first volley, it is related, wounded the sovereign in the 
 side ; but still vigorous, he threw himself out of the hammock, and 
 rallied his men as best he could ; a second discharge from the forest 
 killed him outright, and he fell with his face into the river. The con- 
 sternation was now general ; and in the panic that ensued, the Ashan- 
 tees cast away their weapons, each man endeavouring to save himself; 
 but in vain, for the ambuscade issuing from their concealment, fell 
 sword in hand upon the fugitives, and put every one to death, to the 
 
 * The Benda is two ounces weight.
 
 232 MASSACRE OF ACROMANTEE. 
 
 amount of two or three hundred persons, of whom sixty were women 
 and children, either belonging to the monarch or his generals. 
 
 This calamity did not put an end to the war, which now broke out 
 with greater fury than ever. A town called Acromantee, that har- 
 boured the enemy the night previous to the attack, (many or most of 
 whom were inhabitants of the place) was consigned over to the army, 
 as a proper object to wreak their fury upon ; accordingly, it was razed 
 by fire to the ground, and every living creature, men, women, cattle, 
 and even fowls, except such as were of the sacred order, were doomed 
 to bleed in expiation. Miminda Acromantee, (implying Saturday and 
 Acromantee,) by which the national affliction is recorded, has been 
 considered ever since an oath of the most solemn and unequivocal 
 import ; and the day itself has been cast into the calendar among the 
 list of ominous days stigmatized by the Ashantees as days which fore- 
 bode evil ; for which reason they are dedicated to expiatory and propi- 
 tiatory sacrifices ; nor will any man, be the emergency what it may, 
 commence the most trivial enterprize, either on Saturday or the other 
 days so characterized. The words, as recorded, are deemed too profane 
 to utter, unless in a whisper between friends ; and this redoubtable 
 oath is most commonly taken by inference only, as, the dreadful day, 
 the day of the Gods' chastisement, &c. The effect of these expres- 
 sions only, as I have witnessed at the court, clouds every brow with 
 woe, from the king to the slave who stands behind his chair ; many 
 fly from the presence, — such, for instance, who are not men of influence 
 at court, or who may be involved in litigious palavers, the issue of 
 which is uncertain, and m.ay be dangerously prejudiced when anger 
 clouds the brow of Majesty. Others cover their faces with both 
 hands, uttering at the time a charm or invocation to the patron 
 Gods to shield them from the ominous import of those words, and 
 the effects of the king's wrath or sorrow. If it is appealed to as an 
 imprecation, while justice is pending between parties, it signifies 
 that the life of one or both individuals is staked on the verdict.
 
 SAI APOKO. 233 
 
 i. e. upon the supposed justice of their cause ; the oath itself entails 
 the penalty of death, frequently by torture ; and hence it arises, that 
 many men bring those punishments upon themselves, from indiscre- 
 tion in the heat of argument, where the sum contended for may not 
 exceed the value of five shillings. 
 
 After the death of Sai Tooto, the Ashantee army returned home, 
 bringing in their train a considerable number of prisoners, who were 
 doomed to be immolated to his shade ; for as to the body of the 
 king, it was never recovered. A gloom pervaded the capital, and 
 that gloom at last degenerated into bitter reproaches and invectives 
 against certain chiefs of the Issounah tribe, who, it was suspected, 
 had temporized with Assin while the king was on the march, and had, 
 as it was imagined, betrayed the interest of the state, through an act 
 of imprudence, in not bringing the Assins to battle at once. The 
 kingdom stood in need both of a sovereign and a new order of no- 
 bility, as most of the ministers and officers holding the first rank were 
 cut off at Cormantee ; and these great changes were not effected 
 without bloodshed. The conquered nations, thinking it a fit time to 
 disencumber themselves from the chain of vassalage, while the capital 
 was in commotion for the election of a new sovereign and new minis- 
 ters, one by one proclaimed their independence, and refused payment 
 of the customary tribute. Thus, when Sai Apoko, (^Jf '') the bro- 
 ther of the preceding monarch, was called to the throne," A. H. 1144, 
 A.D. 1731, the wars of his predecessors were to be fought over again. 
 
 The most remarkable events during the reign of this prince, 
 were the entire reduction of Assin and Akim, the re-occupation of 
 Dinkra, the perfect conquest of Gaman, and its annexation to the 
 empire as an unconditional tributary. In fact, this monarch once 
 more gave stability and vigour to the government ; and in effecting 
 the subjugation of Bouromy and Yobati, which he shortly after did, 
 it may be said he performed as much for his own glory as his great 
 predecessor, and too much by far for the nations of the sea-coast to 
 
 H H
 
 234 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 expect any repose, while they were encircled by the territory of a 
 prince whose subjects derived their very existence from foreign 
 wars, as they themselves did from intestine ones, and the quarrels 
 between the English and Dutch, in matters connected with local 
 interest, when the parent countries were at war in Europe. 
 
 When Akim bowed to the yoke of the conqueror, a new elec- 
 tion of chiefs eiisued, and the lands were distributed among the 
 favourites of the court. Then it was the Ashantees became possessed 
 for the first time of certain deeds,* which in the language of the 
 English settlers are termed notes, — the conqueror's right serving them 
 as a title of course, (although it does not appear that this title pro- 
 cured them payment.) The path to the sea side was now in\4tingly 
 exposed to this enterprizing nation. In the west they were masters 
 of the defiles in Tofal, and upon the confines of Wossa, which 
 opened to them a prospect of the kingdoms of Aowin and Amanaha, 
 commonly called Apollonia; the former on the Ivory coast, near 
 Bassam and Cape Lahon ; Ahanta also lay before them on the south, 
 and Fantee on the south-east. In the east, or east-south-east, they over- 
 looked the now provinces of Inkran, or Accra, Aquapim, and Adampe, 
 while Aquambo, the only existing kingdom in that quarter worthy 
 that title, courted the conqueror's alliance, and was received into 
 protection as a confederate of the empire. 
 
 * These notes, or title-deeds, convey an obligation on the part of the late African Company, to 
 pay to the chiefs to whom they were delivered a certain annual sum, by way of rent for the ground upon 
 which the settlements stand. At least, it cannot be denied that this was the original import of the deeds 
 in question, for the object was to purchase security of person and property, by attaching the leading 
 characters of the country to the British interest, while yet in its infancy. Mr. Bowdich, vpon his own 
 testimony, " laments the mortifying destruction of European records, by which he is confined to follow 
 the reports of natives," on the subject of the notes in question. Whether this author felt that his 
 own dignity was implicated, is not material. But had he candidly said, these feudal bonds, (for such 
 they unquestionably are,) disgrace my country, and, (in the language of the king of Ashantee) put 
 shame upon my face at the court of Coomassy, that the honour of my sovereign and the flag of the 
 nation should be so degraded in the estimation of the lower classes of society, as to pay an indirect tribute, 
 he would have spoken the language of zeal and honour.
 
 SAI APOKO. 235 
 
 In this stage of politics Sai Apoko, in the latter part of his reign, 
 enacted new codes of laws, adapted for the government of the various 
 departments of the state ; but some of these regulations being con- 
 sidered inimical to the interests of the chiefs, and as they represented 
 it again, to the public welfare, a dangerous conspiracy was raised 
 against the throne, in the very heart of the kingdom. The capital, 
 moreover, took a share in these transactions, and the king was obliged 
 to fly his palace, by night, and seek refuge at Juabin, where he 
 convened a sort of diet ; but some of his enemies were already in 
 arms, and he was compelled to the same alternative. The province 
 of Akiah is celebrated for a battle, which Apoko fought with the 
 rebels, near the town of Dinkenny, and which terminated in their 
 utter discomfiture, although many of the ringleaders availed themselves 
 of the vicinity of the mountains, and saved the remnant of their 
 scattered followers by a precipitate flight. Here they endeavoured to 
 make a defensive stand, while their friends in the city implored pardon 
 on their behalf; this, under certain limitations, was granted, and 
 the country, from a state of anarchy, again subsided into tranquillity. 
 But the king did not sur\'ive long after, having been suddenly arrested 
 by the stroke of death, as he was sitting in council ; and he expired as the 
 attendants were removing him to the harem, after a reign of twelve 
 lunar years, short of some months, for he died A.H. 1156 ; a.d. 1742. 
 
 At the demise of this prince, a revocation of the obnoxious edicts 
 took place, whereby an ample scope for ambition was again enjoyed by 
 the chiefs of the army, whose object it was to preserve the old 
 constitution, upon that basis which guaranteed to all the principal 
 officers of state, and generals, or captains in the army, a proportionate 
 share of influence in the city, a political preponderance in the councils 
 of the nation, and a princely rank in the provinces. This was a fit 
 time to regulate the terms of succession to the hereditaiy prince,* and ; 
 it was not suffered to elapse unheeded. Had it been practicable 
 
 * Or the prince elective, for the Ashantees are not over scrupulous provided he is of the blood royal. 
 
 H h2
 
 236 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 to have given stability to the wise reg-ulations of Sai Apoko, it is 
 g-enerally believed by the Moslems, that the empire of Ashantee, at 
 this day, would have held a rank proportionate to several of the 
 most powerful monarchies inland ; and instead of exhibiting that 
 unstable force of tribes and nations (forty-seven, as they say, 
 in number), whose interests are, in some instances, necessarily 
 the reverse of that of the court, from the oppression they daily 
 groan under, (owing mainly to the arbitrary influence of the 
 chiefs), it would have exhibited an irresistible union between every 
 tribe, and every principality of the empire ; and it would have placed 
 the nation upon such a respectable footing, that it might have 
 given laws to Dahomy, Dagomba, and all the land westward. 
 " But this wisdom," said my informer, (the Bashaw), " they are 
 not gifted with ; the eternal decree is sealed upon the hearts of infidels ; 
 therefore are they suffered to wander in ignorance, and perpetrate 
 those horrid systems of slaughter that desolate the land, and steel the 
 breasts of the few, who are spared, with hatred and revenge *." The 
 truth of these sentiments is scarcely to be questioned. Powerful as the 
 monarchy of Ashantee certainly is, collectively estimated, it may 
 be considered as a fabric whose foundation is subject to periodical 
 
 * The prevalence of this opinion among the Moslems in general, coupled with my own observations 
 upon the Negro character, almost warrant the assertion positively, that the latter from innate causes are 
 incompetent to spread into a large consolidated monarchy, such as we see in Asia, the northern parts of 
 Africa and Europe. Notwithstanding the ambition of Negro princes, stimulated by that of their captains, 
 is certainly more conspicuous, and perhaps more volatile in the path of life, than sovereigns of the 
 northern zone are accustomed to feel; the latter contenting themselves, for the most part, with preserving 
 their estates inviolable from foreign encroachment, and their kingly prerogatives from innovations 
 attempted by the subject ; while the former, we see, impelled by an inordinate thirst after power and 
 wealth, wherever they may be acquired, and at whatever expence ; consult nothing upon the casualties of 
 war ; but eagerly stake their crowns, their lives, and what is religiously of greater importance to them, the 
 insult their relics are subject to, upon the issue of a single battle. This contrary action of the passions 
 incidental to man, and the propensities of our nature is, doubtless, affected, Iiowever remotely, by the 
 operation of a moral law, which in countries where it prevails, serves the subject as a standard, by which 
 he may lawfully weigh the actions of a prince, although he may not under all governments be permitted 
 to pass judgment upon them viva voce.
 
 SAI AKWASY. 237 
 
 decay, and therefore requires unremitting attention ; or figuratively 
 speaking, it may be assimilated to the coarser metals, which are 
 brilliant only from continual friction ; and to pursue the similitude, 
 governments that are founded upon laws which the people, from record 
 and tradition, are persuaded to be of divine institution, may be 
 Tjompared with those metals, precious in the estimation of the world, 
 which preserve their own lustre unassisted by art: and although at 
 intervals they may not flash so vividly upon the senses, yet exhibit an 
 uniform refulgence derived from their incorrosive nature. 
 
 Ashantee, and perhaps Dahomy, deserve to be called poxoers of 
 our own creation. But to reconcile the assertion with lact, it must 
 be admitted, we are intitled to no other rank than that of indirect 
 assistants. In using the name of his majesty, as I was compelled 
 to do in the course of the negociations, the king (of Ashantee) would 
 frequently exclaim ; " The God of his fathers preserve him, and 
 increase his glory upon earth ;" and, during familiar conversations, he 
 would say, " the good things I possess, I am indebted for to my Gods, 
 and the benevolence of your king. My ancestors never knew white 
 men personally ; but they were equally sensible of the obligations 
 they owed to the whites, who enriched them when they were poor, and 
 fed the people by trade, while Ashantee was yet but an inconsiderable 
 nation compared with its modern extent." " My great ancestor Sai 
 Tooto," said the king to me, " a short time before I parted from him, 
 would have served your king's great ancestors as faithfully as I will, 
 (the illustrious son), if that intimate knowledge which your presence 
 conveys to us had been decreed during his reign ; for we all know 
 the whites to be a people who serve the God of all gods and men." 
 
 The sovereign who succeeded to the throne of Sai Apoko, was 
 named ^f\ ^ Sai Akwasy. Several intestine commotions took 
 place during liis reign, in the provinces of Bouromy, Quahou, and 
 Akim, whose Caboceers were instigated to take up arms by the 
 intrigues of the court of Dahomy, whose monarch received them into 
 pay, and promised to support them with an army for the restoration of
 
 238 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 their orig-inal forms of government. Thus animated they took the field, 
 pitching- upon Quahou as the most ehgible theatre of action, from its 
 vicinity to the Volta at a point whence the promised succours were to 
 arrive. Sai Akwasy, having- come upon them rather suddenly, defeated 
 the rebels with great slaughter, and took prisoners the caboceers, or 
 vice kings of Bouromy and Quahou ; the other escaped for the time ; but 
 being shortly after beset by the king's troops, he blew himself up with 
 gunpowder, together with many of his principal wives, children, and 
 slaves, to avoid falling- into the hands of his enemies *. 
 
 When the king discovered how matters stood -vvith regard to 
 Dahomy, he determined to revenge the injury he had sustained, by 
 passing the Volta with his army contrary to the advice of his most 
 able counsellors. This resolution having been adopted, he ravaged a 
 great track of land of the king of Gouaso, who was a tributary of the 
 Dahoman empire. On the second day, news was brought of the 
 approach of the Dahoman army, and shortly after, one of the most 
 sanguinaiy battles in the records and traditions of the country was 
 fought by the two monarchs : night only put an end to the conflict. 
 In the morning. Sai Akwasy was for renewing the engagement, but 
 
 * Suicide is very prevalent in the Negro states ; but its complexion is materially different from the 
 horrors so called in Europe. It is put into practice chiefly by men of rank, who are solicitous to preserve 
 their remains from the brutal insults of their enemies; for which reason a retired thicket is usually 
 selected, or they blow themselves to atoms, by confined powder ; or procure a faithful slave, or their 
 children, to destroy them, and inter their bodies in secret. Another description of suicide is when a man 
 deprives himself of life in revenge against an opponent, while any matter where justice is concerned may 
 be pending : in this case, the party is said to have killed himself upo^ the head of his oppressor, who 
 seldom escapes the retaliation of the law without a pecuniary fine to the state, and other disbursements 
 among the courtiers. The third class of suicide is totally different from either of the foregoing, from 
 its connexion with the religious or superstitious belief of the people ; as when the priests ordain that a 
 Sacrifice, voluntary or involimtary, is incumbent upon an individual, who may have incurred 
 their displeasure, (the displeasure of the gods or fetische, as they term it,) or whose wealth may have 
 fired their avarice. These victims of blind bigotry go singing and dancing into the grave, for when 
 their doom is sealed, they habit themselves in their best attire, and adorn their persons with pieces 
 of sacred gold, chaunting their own dirges, and dancing about for several days, previous to the appointed 
 one of self sacrifice ; or as it is usually called, making their own custom.
 
 SAI AKWASY. 239 
 
 was arrested in his plan by the screeching of some ominous birds,* as 
 it is said, and upon consulting the gods (Fetische) it was discovered 
 they were not propitious to the undertaking. While a retreat was 
 in agitation, the Dahomans, mistaking the inactivity of their enemies 
 for want of resolution, came on to the charge with their accustomed 
 impetuosity. The king, who did not think proper to abide a second 
 contest, drew oif his army as best he could, and fled rather than 
 retreated to the Volta, re-crossing that river with precipitancy. But 
 he had the mortification to witness the destruction of a great part of 
 his army, who, for want of a sufficient number of canoes, were com- 
 pelled to remain stationary until the next morning. Thus the 
 Moslems describe the result of the campaign, although they are 
 persuaded that the resources of Ashantee, in the present day, are 
 adequate to crush the whole power of Dahomy to atoms, as the 
 sovereign of that country might have known some time back, to his 
 cost, were it not that the government of the former is apprehensive 
 of giving umbrage to the Sultan of Dogho, who is the protector of 
 Dahomy, which is a remote appendage of his crown, and which he 
 considers, if not as a sea-port of his own dominions, at least, as a 
 maritime state, depending upon his empire for its political rank 
 among nations. 
 
 After the defeat of Sai Akwasy, as before related, the kingdom 
 was filled with grief and mourning; the provinces were severally 
 beaten up for victims to sacrifice in the capital, in expiation of 
 offences done to the guardian gods, and to appease the shades of the 
 great captains who fell in the war. t The streets of Coomassy, 
 
 * It is worthy of remark, that the Ashantees are as superstitiously affected by birds, as the Greeks 
 and Romans were in former ages. 
 
 •f The Ashantees are firmly persuaded, that the ghosts of the departed are suffered to revisit the 
 earth, and brood over the actions of their families and kindred. If due oblations are made to these 
 shades, it is imagined they will intercede with the deities to render the lives of their progeny happy
 
 240 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 according' to ray informers, were drenched in human and animal gore 
 during the whole of the great Adai custom, which is chiefly remarkable 
 as it coiTespouds to part of the lunar month called by the Moslems 
 Dhu'l'hajet IsAjJ the 12th of their calendar, and the twelfth day 
 of which is particularly set apart by their law for the great pilgrimage, 
 when the victims (sheep, &c.) are sacrificed in the valley Mina, near 
 to the city of Mecca, as expiatory offerings to the supreme Deity. 
 
 In proportion to the losses sustained by the court, so the policy 
 of the government occasionally decrees the afHiction of the provinces ; 
 for such a maxim is held efficacious, in order to check the imaginary 
 rejoicing of foreign tribes, held in vassalage ; or any real plot the 
 opportunity might induce the tributaries to engender, with a view of 
 emancipating themselves from the conqueror's yoke. Gold, and 
 victims for the altars, are the onlij penalties enforced ; the latter, it is 
 true, however, are not, as might be supposed, indiscriminately chosen ; 
 they pass, indeed, under the name of delinquents, and are so far 
 deserving that anathema, as having been convicted of speaking 
 disrespectfully of the king, or of his government ; of having harboured 
 secret intentions inimical to the prosperity of the state ; of having 
 violated the civil laws ; or of having invoked the wrath of their gods 
 upon the heads of their oppressors ; — a crime which, of course, passes 
 for witchcraft and sorcery among the Ashantees ; but which, in reality, 
 is the same ceremony, and is performed with the same invocations or 
 incantations, as they themselves practise, the conquerors' prerogative 
 making the only distinction in the texture of the offence. 
 
 A war with Banna terminated the career of Sai Akwasy, for he 
 there received a wound, of which, although he lingered some months. 
 
 and prosperous. Some imagine these spectres to be employed, as witnesses, over the actions of the 
 living, and that every new moon they report their knowledge to the gods. Others believe as the Koran 
 teaches, that the witnesses who are to bear evidence against the conduct of the wicked are the 
 shadows of their own bodies while living.
 
 SAI KODJOH. 241 
 
 he never after recovered. Sai Kodjoh, ^^ ^j^ the nephew of the 
 former monarch, succeeded to the vacant throne, in the year 1166, 
 A. H. 1752, A. D. On his elevation to that dignity, he dispatched 
 messeng-ers to the tributaries who had withheld payment of certain 
 arrears while the war with Banna lasted. Some of these powers would 
 not submit to the demand, alleging, as an excuse, that they had 
 served in the wars under the former monarch, and his death had 
 deprived them of their proportion of plunder. The king of Gaman 
 first took up arms, and was imitated by the tribes of Dinkra, Wassa, 
 and Tofal. This war, the Ashantees admit, was the most desperate they 
 were ever involved in, and the empire stood at a crisis where occa- 
 sionally the hazards fluctuated to the advantage of the enemy. Twice 
 did the king carry his arms into Gaman, and was each time defeated 
 with great slaughter, owing mainly to the weapons wherewith his 
 enemies came armed to the field being- of the same description as 
 those of his own troops, namely, musquets, — besides an auxiliary force 
 from Kong and Ghofan, consisting solely of cavalry. Each time the 
 monarch returned penitential to the capital, and made new invocations 
 and new sacrifices to the gods and his ancestors ; being determined, as 
 the Ashantees relate, since he found them to be still auspicious, to 
 abide every risk rather than relinquish the enterprize.* The third 
 invasion proved successful, and the king returned to his capital, 
 bringing with the army a multitude of captives, of both sexes and all 
 ages ; the children were preserved to recruit the losses his armies had 
 sustained ; and the adults were either sacrificed or sold in the market 
 of Mansue, upon the confines of Fantee, from whence they found 
 their way to the West Indies. The province of Wassa fell shortly 
 after under the avenging sword of the king, who let loose the fury of 
 
 * This is one of the wars religiously deplored by the Moslems, for they were in this instance 
 compelled to fight in the ranks of the heathens, against their brethren in faith who espoused the interest 
 of Ciaman. 
 
 I I
 
 242 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 his troops upon its northern confines, and bereaved several large 
 districts of their whole population. The most culpable among the 
 insurgents were dragged to the altars of the capital, and two powerful 
 tribes of that nation were subsequently removed to Bouroray and 
 V Quahou, either to supply a deficiency of the population of those parts, 
 or to secure their future allegiance. 
 
 It is a prevailing maxim, I believe, with most negro princes, as it 
 may be with other barbarous nations, to exterminate their enemies 
 whenever the chance of war throws them in their power, rather than con- 
 ciliate them as subjects, and reconcile them to the change they undergo. 
 But I do not find that this maxim, which, under limitations, afi:ected by 
 , circumstances, is the policy of the court of Ashantee at the present time, 
 "" in proportion to the rancour and aversion of its enemies, was ever so 
 rigidly enforced, (excepting in the primitive wars against the believers,) 
 as in the reign of Kodjoh. A negro can hardly be persuaded that an 
 enemy might be converted to a friend, and as he naturally thirsts after 
 his gold, if he is so far successful, nothing can satiate him short of his 
 opponent's blood, which is esteemed the portion of the spoil due to 
 the tutelar gods (and acceptable to the shades of his ancestors) whose 
 service it is incumbent on him not to neglect, lest their wrath should 
 overwhelm him on a future day. The fault, according to the friendly 
 Baba, " is in their nature :" whether the curse of God rests upon them 
 or not, it becomes not me to enquire ; but I think it highly probable 
 that the absence of a system of moral feeling, inculcated by doctrines 
 like those of the purest of religions, is mainly the cause why in Africa 
 the passions of men are permitted to wander in the labyrinth of vile 
 excesses we daily see committed with impunity. 
 
 The subjugation of Gaman at this time laid the Sarem country 
 prostrate at the feet of the conqueror, who penetrated Shouy, Ghombati, 
 and Ponin, in a sort oi friendly way to receive the submission of the 
 southern and western tribes, and invite the Caboceers to court. This is 
 one of the chances, which, as the Moslems say, the fortune of Ashantee
 
 EMBASSY FROM DAHOMY. 243 
 
 presented for the utter conquest of Sarem, as far as Mr. BoiodicKs 
 Kingdom of " Bahooree," i. e. the sea, in the neighbourhood of Cape 
 Pahnas. But this scope of ambition exceeded the aim or the judg- 
 ment of the monarch, who was content to receive presents from the 
 Kings and Caboceers of those nations who heretofore courted the 
 alliance of Kong, the original mistress of Sarem and that part of 
 Ghunja, whereon the metropolis of Ashantee is built. 
 
 After the return of Sai Kodjoh from Gaman, he was engaged in 
 several wars of a domestic character in Banna, Akim, and Aquapim, 
 but they were too trifling to be of any interest to the reader. 
 
 The Dahomy war seems to have been forgotten during the reign 
 of Kodjoh ; for, what is remarkable in the politics of the two courts, 
 a friendly embassy arrived at the capital, with presents from Abomey, 
 announcing the succession of a new sovereign. ^ This flattering depu- 
 tation excited public rejoicings throughout the empire. Costly enter- 
 tainments were given to the ambassadors ; and, according to the etiquette 
 of African courts, a splendid embassy was got up by Kodjoh, to express, 
 as Bosnian's translator says, " his obliging resentment" at the Dahoman 
 capital. Sai Kodjoh did not long survive these civilities ; he died, 
 however, at a crisis rather unfortunate for the state ; for as the infir- 
 mity of age crept upon him, he confined himself to the palace, and his 
 enemies availed themselves of this opportunity, to circulate in the pro- 
 vinces a report of his death : there was no king in Coomassy, they 
 
 * Several messages of this formal complexion have been exchanged between the tveo courts ; but 1 
 this in particular, as the Moslems relate, was the second embassy, — the first being in the reign of Sai 
 Tooto. They suppose, and perhaps justly, that the sultan of Dogho, disappointed of the Dahoman coun- 
 cils that conduced to the war on the Volta, in the late reign, and hearing continual reports of the grow- 
 ing power of Ashantee, was anxious to reconcile the wounded feelings of that court, from an apprehen- 
 sion that the government would not neglect the opportunity, at a period of tranquillity, for carrying the 
 war into the Dahoman territory, where the result of victory or defeat might equally operate in checking 
 his own influence upon the sea-coast, and at all events deprive him of a share of the revenue he annually 
 derives from that maritime kingdom. 
 
 I I 2
 
 244 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 said."f This notice at any time is a charm sufficiently powerful to 
 kindle the flames of war; accordingly, Assin, Akim, and Aquapira 
 once more raised the standard of rebellion or defiance ; and when Kod- 
 joh, by invitation, enjoined them to keep the peace, and lay down their 
 arms, they killed his messengers, threatening, out of derision, they 
 would march to the capital, and seat one of their women slaves upon 
 the throne, who should settle the turbulence of the chiefs, by proper 
 chastisements. Preparations for war were then vigorously resorted to ; 
 but Kodjoh died while the army waited for the approaching dry 
 season. 
 
 Sai Koamina, or Quamina, (^^1/ ^ mounted the throne, 
 A.H. 1196, A.D. 1781. This prince made a vow never to enter the 
 walls of his palace, or associate with his wives, until he obtained the 
 heads of Akombrah and Afosoo, the two active leaders of the revolt. 
 He joined the army without loss of time, and by diligent marches took 
 the Akims by surprise. The head of the latter was the consequence 
 of a partial engagement ; and it is still a trophy in the royal cabinet of 
 human relics, together with that of Akombrah, a Bouromy chief, who 
 had joined the confederacy. There was no war with Banna during this 
 reign, as Mr. Bowdich represents, (page 258 ;) and his story of the 
 king's head being sewed up in the abdomen of a woman, but which 
 was afterwards discovered, and placed on the king of Ashantee's great 
 drum, has no foundation whatever, according to the testimony of Mos- 
 lems and idolaters. 
 
 A congratulatoiy embassy arrived from Dahomy, another from 
 Salgha, and a third from Yandy, shortly after the accession of this 
 prince to the throne. These flattering testimonies of friendship, it 
 
 f During the recent war of Gaman, Kong, &c. against Ashantee, the Cape Coast people, because 
 they wished it, gave out a similar report, aggravated by a circumstantial account of the manner in which 
 they had been informed that the sovereign of Ashantee had fallen in a great battle, wherein the Ashantees 
 were cut up to a man.
 
 SAI QUAMINA. 245 
 
 would seem, instead of stimulating his ambition, bereft that prince of 
 the necessary energy to govern such a nation, and greatly conduced to 
 his deposition, the origin of which was his attachment to the Moslems, 
 and, as it is said, his inclination to establish the Korannic law for the 
 civil code of the empire. Sai Koamina, according to the Bashaw, was 
 a believer at heart ; but the safety of his throne would not allow him 
 to avow his sentiments. His name is handed to posterity as the most 
 merciful of the race of kings. Towards the close of his reign, he pro- 
 hibited many festivals at which it was usual to spill the blood of vic- 
 tims devoted to the customs ; yet he could not be prevailed upon to 
 relinquish the barbarous practice of watering the graves of his ancestors 
 with human gore. These and other innovations were of a tendency to 
 alarm the great captains; they feared, it is said, that the Moslem 
 religion, which they well know levels all ranks and orders of men, and 
 places them at the arbitrary discretion of the sovereign, might be|!< 
 introduced, whereby they would lose that ascendancy they now enjoy. 
 To anticipate the calamity they dreaded, a conspiracy was entered into, 
 and he was deposed. 
 
 Sai Apoko, the second of that name, was elevated to the throne of 
 the deposed monarch a.h. 1212, a.d. 1797- This was one of the most 
 promising princes the nation ever had. He was the brother of the deposed 
 Koamina, who (in revenge it is supposed) occasioned his death, it is said, 
 by sorcery, after a reign of two years* ; during which the Bontokos 
 (Gamans), once more broke out into rebellion at the instigation of 
 Kong, threatening to march to the capital and restore the lawful prince 
 to his ravished dignity. This war lasted upwards of fifteen months, 
 during which the entire force of Kong and its allies joined with 
 that of Gaman, crossed the Tando and gave battle to the Ashantees, 
 
 * Mr. Bowdich says a few weeksj but upon what authority is unknown to me, for the Ashantees 
 contradict his statement.
 
 246 SAI APOKO II. 
 
 near a large town called Barbanou, which is distant one watch 
 
 from that river. 
 
 The force of the enemy, as the tradition goes, was above four 
 times that commanded by the king. The princes and Caboceers of 
 Banna, Juabin, Takima, and Coransah, took an active part against 
 the invaders ; and the Moslems, in despite of their prejudices, on one 
 memorable, as on some inferior occasions, were compelled to join the 
 ranks of the heathens against their brethren in faith. The Ashantees 
 suffered some reverse of fortune during the first campaign ; for the 
 enemy's cavalry spread over the open plains of Massy, but could not 
 penetrate that intricate mass of forest in which the capital stands. The 
 Gamans fought hard and bravely upon the Tando, for notwithstanding 
 the national antipathy that prevails against strangers, the Ashantees 
 liberally bestow the titles of warlike and courageous upon this 
 
 nation. 
 
 The king, it would seem, acted purely on the defensive, until the 
 tributaries came up, he then gave battle to his enemies in the open 
 plains, whom, after several days fighting, he defeated with prodigious 
 slauo-hter, and returned to his capital laden with spoil and captives. 
 Among the latter were upwards of five thousand Moslems, who were 
 distributed among the provinces and in the capital. In no instance 
 were these people subject to the penalty of death, as many of the 
 
 * The king, in conversing upon the topic of the Fantee tribes, invariably said, they were the most 
 despicable people ia his dominions, or that any of his ancestors ever triumphed over in their days. " I 
 could forgive them for being insolent," said the monarch, on one occasion ; " if they were capable of 
 facino- me in battle, like the Bontoko tribes ; for then, however angry I might be, I should respect them 
 as men, and when the war was over I should love them as I do other people : but the Fantees are like 
 women, who quarrel with their tongues only ; and if they are corrected, they shed tears to excite 
 compassion." The Caboceers, the commonalty, and in short all sects and classes of people, entertained 
 no other sentiments than those of the last degree of contempt for the Fantee nation ; while no one 
 withheld his tribute of admiration fiom the Bontokos. The tribes of Banna, Bouromy, Akim, and 
 Quahou enjoy proportionate reputations for valour.
 
 SAI TOOTO QUAMINA. 247 
 
 heathens were, neither were they sold into slavery. Some, according 
 to their inclinations or capacity, were suffered to redeem themselves 
 from captivity by paying a ransom ; some were ransomed hy the 
 pious Moslems of their own country, or of Dagomba, and others were 
 liberated at a subsequent period, when their sultan sent an embassy to 
 Coomassy ; many, however, to whom the king had been bountiful, chose 
 to remain in Ghunjah, and they are now incorporated with the tribes of 
 believers who inhabit Baboso, Western Sarem, and Banna*. The king 
 did not survive his triumph many months ; but died from a lingering 
 illness. 
 
 The reigning sovereign, Sai Tooto Quamina, ^^(^ '^i'^ brother 
 of the deceased monarch, was elevated to the throne a. h. 1215, 
 A. D. 1800. Sai Quamina, for this is the name by which his subjects 
 call him, gave a sample, in early life, of that spirit of enterprize which 
 is so prominent a feature in his political career. " Thank the great 
 God and the gods of my country," said the king, one day, " that I 
 have been made acquainted with white people, for Ghunja will now 
 become a place of knowledge, and my subjects will gain knowledge 
 from the whites, who read in books what old people say. Hear this, 
 captains ! " said his majesty, addressing the conversation to Adusai, 
 Apoko, Kankam, and some others in waiting, "what say you?" 
 
 * It is worthy of reflection, that the doctrine taught by Mohammed is, in leading matters of faith, 
 congenial to the. feeling, the prejudices, and passions, of most African tribes. The Ashantees without 
 knowing the contents of the Koran, are equally persuaded that it is a volume of divine creation, and 
 consequently that it contains ordinances and prohibitions, which are most congenial to the happiness of 
 mankind in general. It may be that the Moslems sedulously inculcate a prejudice which operates so 
 greatly to their own prosperity in heathen countries ; for their lives and property are secure to them only 
 in relation to the faith they profess The African, however, laments his ignorance of the art of writing, 
 with more ostentation than sincerity ; for he boasts at the same time that his gods like to be served with 
 vigor and activity in the field, rather than by prayer and actions such as we term moral ; and which 
 belong as a form of worship to the great God only, whom they regard as a Being more intimately attached 
 to the whites than themselves, although not exclusively so, for they allow that the gods of Africa are his 
 subordinate agents.
 
 248 WAR OF GHOFAN. 
 
 " 'Tis tnie O king,'' replied Adusai, rising, " now what have you to 
 fear? The great God of the Moslems, who is the same as the 
 white men worship, is your guardian. He defends your dominions 
 on the land side, where the believers live ; and he protects you 
 on the sea coast, for he gives you a great name in the land of white 
 men, and turns their king's heart to do you good." " Yes," answered 
 the sovereign, spreading out his hands and looking up towards heaven, 
 as the Moslems do in prayer, " I am a thankful slave of the God of 
 all gods and men — I am not ungrateful, I am not proud and ignorant, 
 and therefore I know the great God has made me kill all my enemies, 
 that the white king should tell me true things for my good, so my 
 heart is open to him, and I will serve him as he shall desire." 
 
 This prince took the field (a few months after his elevation to the 
 throne) against Ghofan, when, as the Moslems say, he was yet a 
 beardless boy. Ghobagho shortly after united with his enemies, who 
 drove the king of Banna, his ally, from his capital, which they 
 razed to the ground, carrying off in their retreat a multitude of 
 captives, But here their success terminated. The king advanced in 
 time to prevent the same devastation in Coransah. The belligerent 
 armies met at a short distance from the town of Kaka, where a fierce 
 engagement ensued. The enemy retreated, and perhaps on that 
 account the victory was claimed by the Ashantees. The king 
 diligently pursued his adversaries as far as the desert, where they 
 joined a body of reserve and again offered battle to the Ashantees. 
 This action was decisive, for the enemy, defeated at all points, fled 
 precipitately to the Volta, leaving, as it is said, 100,000 men upon 
 the field, between killed and prisoners. Two tributary kings fell alive 
 into the hands of the Ashantees, and one, the king of Ghofan, 
 (a Moslem) breathed his last in the Ashantee camp, after witnessing 
 the slaughter of all his defenders. Amon Koitea, who commanded 
 an army, consisting of 50,000, men gained infinite honour by 
 a charge which proved decisive in the fortune of the day. This
 
 FIRST BONTOKO WAR. 249 
 
 defeat lead to the occupation of a considerable territory, bordering the 
 desert, which, heretofore, belonged by a sort of feudal, yet a limited 
 title, to the Ashantee monarchy ; although, in reality, its inhabitants 
 enjoyed a state of comparative independence. 
 
 A war with Gaman, called for distinction, the first Bontoko war of 
 his reign, again challenged the military genius of Sai Tooto Quamina. 
 This, however, was no more than a partial revolt of the people, who 
 availing themselves of an opportunity which they deemed favourable, 
 transferred their allegiance from the reigning prince, a tool of the court 
 of Coomassy, to the nephew of their late monarch, who had sought 
 protection of the sultan of Ghofan, the prince who lost his life on the 
 desert confines in the prosecution of his plan for subverting the 
 government of Ashantee. These commotions were, however, quickly 
 suppressed, and the vigour of the Ashantee councils (which, as the 
 king says, never slumber) gained the nation a more exalted character 
 than it, perhaps, ever enjoyed before. A profound peace of five 
 years duration subsequently fixed that character abroad, and created 
 a flattering belief in other powers, that at length the empire was 
 controuled by more moderate principles. What greatly contributed 
 to the national satisfaction, was the arrival of ambassadors at Coomassy 
 from Abomey, Salgha, and Yandy, bearing honourable presents, and 
 congratulatory messages to the young Sai, whose alliance was courted by 
 all the powers of Ghunja and Dagonlba. This calm, hitherto unprece- 
 dented in duration, might have lasted if the king's word may be 
 taken for it, to the end of his reign ; but for the secret passions of 
 unjust men, who fanned the flame of war, and nurtured discord into 
 open rebellion against his authority, by arming the people and 
 exciting them to hostility against his person. Remonstrance served 
 only to confirm their assurance and augment their audacity, for when 
 he sent honourable tokens of his esteem to the chiefs, recommend- 
 
 K K
 
 250 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 ing them to keep the peace, they killed his messengers, and bade 
 open defiance to his authority.* 
 
 The memory of Meredith, the author of an " Account of the 
 Gold Coast of Africa," justly claims a tribute from my pen, for the 
 candour with which he describes the progress of the Ashantee war 
 in Fantee. As long as fidelity shall, in the public estimation, be 
 superior to method and studied language, this little book with all 
 its blemishes,! (for some indulgence may surely be extended to an 
 author who, at his peril, speculated a little conscientiously upon 
 tender points of the service he was engaged in,) will claim a pro- 
 portionate rank with Bosnian, the only other author I know of 
 who has written honestly of that part of the world, as became a 
 modest and an honorable historian. 
 
 The great movement of the Ashantees southward, as related to 
 me by the king himself, and which was confirmed by the Moslems, 
 who participated in the victories over the Fantees, and at Anna- 
 maboe, I shall briefly describe, without robbing Mr. Meredith of 
 his own words. 
 
 Assin, at the accession of the reigning monarch, enjoyed profound 
 tranquillity, under the government of three chiefs of that nation. 
 
 * This sketch of history relating to a period when Ashantee was scarcely known to us, even as an 
 inland nation, was related by the Bashaw, Aboubecr, Kantoma, and some others. Its interest may be 
 trifling with the public, for it is confessedly a plain narrative, designed to shew the progressive a^ran- 
 dizement of the empire, and its influence over the Moslem powers. 
 
 t I shall consider an apology for excluding the last section of Meredith's book from sharing in the 
 panegyric as unnecessary, for I am greatly of opinion that what passes under the title of " A short 
 History of the African Company," was never written by that author. The political influence designed 
 in that narrative sufficiently betrays the source from whence it emanated. Setting aside its ostensible 
 object for appeasing the public mind, and reconciling the government to a continuance of ministerial 
 or parliamentary favour, I believe it may rank in fidelity with other parts of that work.
 
 WAR OF ASSIN. 251 
 
 Cheboo, Apoutai, and Amoo ; the two former ruling over the western, 
 the other over the eastern half of what once unitedly constituted a 
 kingdom, which, after the conquest effected by Sai Apoko about the 
 year of the Hejyra, 1146 or 1147, was torn thus asunder by the 
 policy of that prince, to induce a tractable submission to the court of 
 Coomassy. The great Sai Tooto, it is affirmed, forfeited his life in 
 endeavouring to bring to pass what his successor could only accom- 
 plish by the massacre of thousands, and the expatriation of those tribes 
 who were attached to the ancient monarchy. 
 
 The grave of a distinguished caboceer, a subject of Amoo, was 
 pillaged of a quantity of gold by a near relation of Apoutai, who hap- 
 pened to be present at the obsequies. This marauder fled during the 
 night, and was pursued by messengers, who, failing in their object, 
 demanded satisfaction at the house of Cheboo. The policy of that 
 chief inclining hostilely towards Amoo, the complainants were dismiss- 
 ed somewhat rudely, with a message purporting that it was a tale of 
 Amoo's invention. The messengers next proceeded to Coomassy, where 
 they opened the business to the king, who suspended judgment for 
 several months, with the hope of effecting an amicable negotiation, 
 and reconciling the chiefs : but being disappointed in his expectations 
 he at last issued a decree, that the relations of the deceased should be 
 reimbursed by Apoutai, to the amount of the property alledged to 
 have been stolen. This chief happened to be at Coomassy when the 
 palaver was discussed, and availing himself of a favourable opportunity, 
 fled back to Assin, collecting his followers on the route. Amoo, insti- 
 gated perhaps by the court of Ashantee, resorted to arms to enforce his 
 claims ; but after gaining one battle, was defeated in a second, and 
 compelled to fall back upon the frontiers of his protector. Here, 
 however, he took up a strong position, and defended himself vigorously 
 until succoured by a reinforcement : thus strengthened, he once more 
 took the field, transferring the war into the heart of his enemy's coun- 
 
 kk2
 
 252 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 try, where he burned several large towns, and defeated his adversaries 
 in a pitched battle. Moderation, as the king- said, it was no longer 
 incumbent upon him to observe, for he could not remain a passive 
 spectator of violence that tended to the destruction of his people by 
 their own hands ; but as he was still averse from using coercion, he 
 once more endeavoured to tranquillize the passions of the belligerents, 
 and bring them to a sense of their duty to him, by sending to each 
 party a present of gold. 
 
 This expedient was but temporarily efficacious ; other battles were 
 fought with alternate success ; but Amoo had the prudence to subscribe 
 to the king's authority, by again resuming his defensive position in 
 the hills of Moisy, and between that town and Doompassy, where some 
 partial skirmishing however took place, and in the interval messengers 
 once more arrived at both camps with presents of a golden hilted sword, 
 an axe, and a pike, plated with that metal, for each chieftain. The pur- 
 port of the message to Amoo was an injunction to break up his camp, 
 and leave the palaver as it stood, until the next Adai custom. That 
 to Apoutai was a requisition to keep the peace, and not molest Amoo 
 during his homeward march. But this chief, elated by his last victory, 
 thought of nothing but how to destroy an enemy whose situation 
 appeared to him hopeless, and who, in imagination, was already a 
 captive; accordingly he dissembled his policy, and signified acqui- 
 escence to the authority of the king, by drawing off his troops. His 
 opponent, confiding implicitly in the truce, descended unhesitatingly 
 into the plains, where he was attacked so vigorously and so suddenly, 
 that he could purchase his safety only by a speedy flight, at the 
 expence of the greater part of his followers, who retreated as best they 
 could, to the first Ashantee town. This aggravation was a prelude 
 to the massacre of the king's messengers, and a number of Ashantees 
 and Moslems who were in the camp. Some of these people were bar- 
 barously mutilated, and others suspended by the feet or arms to trees, 
 upon the frontiers of the province.
 
 WAR OF ASSIN. 253 
 
 The king, justly irritated, now determined to wreak his vengeance 
 upon the authors and abettors of the injury ; and accordingly he raised 
 a powerful army, with which he entered the Assin territory. But 
 Cheboo and Apoutai, terrified at last by the threatening calamity, 
 fled together towards the Praa, after making an ineffectual attempt to 
 cover the towns Ansah, Kikiwhary, &c. The first, called by way of 
 distinction, the great chastisement, happened between Ansah and 
 Kikiwhary, where, after a partial conflict, the chiefs and allies, (for 
 some Fantees, as the king affirms, were among the prisoners) were 
 compelled to fall back upon the Praa, and in the confusion attending a 
 i-etrograde march, they were put entirely to the rout, by an impetuous 
 charge of their pursuers, who chased their enemies to the opposite 
 bank of the river. These events are recorded in many popular songs 
 and traditions, according to which it would seem the Ashantees de- 
 stroyed thirty thousand of their adversaries. The fugitive chiefs, 
 however, escaped this time, and the Fantees received them with open 
 arms, promising, that as their interests were linked in one chain, they 
 would exert their whole power to protect them. 
 
 The king, anxious to gain possession of his enemies by a friendly 
 overture to the Fantee chiefs, deputed messengers to Akoom, the 
 caboceer of Assekomah, a Fantee province that preserved connexions 
 and some shadow of allegiance to the sovereign of Ashantee, requiring 
 that Cheboo and Apoutai might be given up to him. The present of 
 tlie king on this occasion was twenty ounces of gold, an umbrella, and 
 fifteen slaves. These articles were accepted, but the council of Abrah 
 rejected the monarch's solicitation, neither would the Fantees, although- 
 repeatedly invited, send deputies to the royal camp, to assist in discuss- 
 ing the palaver, when the king proposed to settle the differences by a 
 legal investigation, permitting the Fantees to have a voice in his own 
 councils. Hereupon the Ashantee ultimatum contained a demand to 
 march through Fantee in pursuit of the relic of the Assin army ; and, 
 as it was perhaps foreseen, the messengers were rewarded for their
 
 254 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 temerity by a course of barbarous torture, and finally, their bodies 
 were cut open, and stufted with a preparation of salt and malaqueta 
 pepper. 
 
 The king, gaining no intelligence of his messengers, ordered the 
 army to advance under Ado Matta and Aby Dougah. These chieftains, 
 with very little loss to themselves, defeated an united force of Assins 
 and Fantees upon the frontiers, and the two distinguished fugitives 
 were once more compelled to seek their safety in a precipitate retreat 
 through the forest, where they sheltered themselves for some days, and 
 to avoid being cut off fell back upon the main army which was then 
 on its march from Abrah. Another rencounter happened not long- 
 after between the Ashantee advanced guard and the main body of 
 Fantees, headed by Cheeboo. Apoutai, and many Braffoe chiefs, whose 
 prowess in war was the characteristic of the dignity they enjoyed : but 
 this engagement, like the other, terminated in the disgrace and ruin of 
 the Fantees, who seem to have had no conduct Avhatever in the field, 
 at least against a resolute enemy. The king arrived upon the ground 
 in time to support the van of his army, and, by a judicious manoeuvre, 
 decided what little chance the Fantees might have enjoyed by a charge 
 in flank, that cast his enemies into a panic, and left him undisputed 
 master of the field. The rout was again general, some fled tumultu- 
 ously towards Abrah, and others to the sea side, Cheboo himself setting 
 the example. 
 
 In this stage of the war Apoutai made overtures of peace which 
 savoured more of art than sincerity, promising to deliver up hostages 
 for his future allegiance, upon condition that the king would take upon 
 himself the payment of certain debts which had been contracted 
 during the war, and swear by his great oath not to disinherit him here- 
 after of his stool. All this the king agreed to, and in token of a 
 perfect reconciliation, again sent presents to Cheboo and Apoutai. The 
 latter received thirty ounces of gold, some slaves, and a large quantity 
 of provision for the subsistence of his followers. To the former was
 
 INVASION OF FANTEE. 25a 
 
 delivered an equal quantity of gold, and a number of Fantee prisoners 
 of war. But, unaccountable as it may seem to those who are 
 unacquainted with the force of the passions in Africa, the king's 
 messengers again experienced the fate of their predecessors, and the 
 Braffoes, it is said, boasted of devouring their hearts in a state 
 of palpitation. 
 
 The heads of these hapless men were struck oif, and, in frolic- 
 some aggravation, the carcases were suspended from the boughs of 
 trees, and the mouths of the victims being stuffed full of excrement, 
 the heads were placed in regular succession along the path where it 
 was known the Ashantees would advance. After this act of brutality 
 the Assins and Fantees thought proper to decamp to the southward, 
 for still the chiefs were emboldened, by an opinion that the king would 
 not choose to risk a campaign among the large towns, and particu- 
 larly those seated under the gims of the British and Dutch forts. 
 But in this speculation they were woefully deceived, for whatever 
 might have been the early policy of the Ashantee councils, the late 
 indignity practised upon the king, wound that monarch up to a pitch 
 of phrenzy, and he vowed by his redoubted oath he would never 
 sheath the sword nor return to his capital, without the heads of 
 Cheboo and Apoutai. The war henceforth assumed the sternest 
 features, even of x\frican hostility. The utter extermination of the 
 Fantees was contemplated, and orders were issued to spare neither 
 the aged nor young children ; but both sexes, and all ages were for 
 a time doomed to expire by the sword and the musquet, or in the 
 flames of their houses. The avidity with which the Ashantees 
 thirsted, as they called it, after perjured blood, the mouldering 
 ruins, the solitude, and desolate plantations of Fantee, but too plainly 
 indicate at the present hour. Many of the inhabitants fled at an 
 early stage of the conflict. Some chose to remain, in the presump- 
 tuous confidence of destroying, or witnessing the destruction of the 
 king's army, and participating in the spoil : and others, including
 
 256 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 the slaves, and those who may be termed fortune hunters, associated 
 in marauding- bands, plundering and murdering- both friend and 
 foe, indiscriminately. This feint of resolution was, however, but of 
 short duration, for the king advanced rapidly, taking town after 
 town, without encountering any serious obstacle,-''' until he approached 
 Abrah and Emperou, although several skirmishing engagements and 
 one or two severe but partial conflicts, happened on the route. The 
 aggregate of the enemy's loss was incalculable, for literally none 
 were left alive in the rear. Atia, the chief Caboceer of Abrah (the 
 capital of Fantee), was a prisoner at head quarters, and every overture 
 made for his ransom was rejected. The Braflbe tribe (like the Shorfa 
 among the Moslems) was a particular object of the king's vengeance, 
 and accordingly they suffered the severest eflects of his power. 
 
 The few who escaped the destruction of the capital (for that 
 fell to the conqueror after a battle, or rather slaughter, of the most 
 sanguinary character) fled to Annamaboe, then the largest city upon 
 this part of the coast. Thither also Cheboo and Apoutai fled, and 
 the king, nothing relaxing from the rigour of his oath, pursued 
 the retreating forces with one-half of his army, while the other 
 was employed in razing the towns, and exterminating every living 
 soul they met with ; for none, by the monarch's own confession, 
 
 * From the observations I have made upon the genius of the two nations, there is nearly as much 
 disproportion in force between the Ashantees and Fantees as between an orsjanized European force and an 
 undisciplined body of rioters. The Ashantees are trained to firing with celerity, as we ourselves use 
 / the musquet ; their manoeuvres are rapid, orderly, and uniform, and their other military tactics, which 
 it would seem have been borrowed from those of Europe, are ably seconded by a propensity to war, and 
 a natural bravery that is not excelled by any nation upon earth. The Fantees, on the contrary, display 
 no skill in military evolutions, unless we should take into account the uncouth and disorderly antics 
 they practise in the field ; and for the use they make of the musquet, I am fully convinced their old 
 weapons, bows and arrows, would be equally and perhaps more efficacious in defending their persons 
 against the assaults of their enemies ; for as if the recoil of the piece were capable of inflicting a wound, 
 they sedulously hold the weapon at a distance, and discharge its contents at the elevation of a few feet 
 from the ground, without taking aim.
 
 SYSTEM OF AFRICAN WARFARE. 25? 
 
 were at that time received as prisoners, except a few Caboceers of the 
 first rank, who were doomed to expiate their offences in the capita], 
 that the people might also participate in the exultation of the army. 
 
 The military policy of an African government, is conspicuous in 
 the cabinet maxim of Ashantee, during the war with Fantee. It 
 may in some degree be assimilated to the modern tactics of recent 
 introduction to Europe, by which the armies of France, under their 
 late leader, pursued a direct object, however remote, with that celerity 
 which frequently guaranteed its own success, and leaving half the war 
 behind, terminated the campaign by a single blow at head quarters. 
 The only material difference existed in those horrid butcheries 
 practised by the Africans, who, (unprovided with that efficient force 
 calculated to overawe the frontiers of an enemy, and check the 
 population of towns, where every man by habit and education is 
 trained to war) are instinctively taught to exterminate their enemies 
 as a precaution necessary to their own safety, m victory or defeat. 
 The African will rarely be persuaded to leave an enemy in the rear 
 of his army. If he be a merciful invader, it is usual for him to put 
 to death those, only, who may be captured in arms. The population 
 of towns must, nevertheless, be translated to a spot of security, and 
 sometimes their houses razed to the foundation, while the invader's aim 
 is unremittingly rivetted upon the seat of government. By this 
 policy, the subversion of a powerful state is frequently accomplished, 
 by what is figuratively termed a handful of men ; and the prisoners 
 become hostages, and in some degree responsible for the aggravations 
 that may follow. 
 
 In the Fantee war, the exasperated feelings of the king would 
 not allow him to tread the path of mercy ; hence the other alternative 
 of sacrificing the population to his own security, was resorted to. 
 
 Acoom, the Caboceer before mentioned, who preserved some 
 shadow of respect, or allegiance to the king, was taken into protection ; 
 
 L L
 
 258 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 
 but by an act of treachery, in which he sold a thousand or twelve 
 hundred Ashantees to the slave dealers upon the coast, he forfeited 
 that favour, and was shortly after defeated by the royal forces, who 
 compelled him to abandon to their fate the wreck of his little 
 army. 
 
 The Ashantees, after destroying Abrah and Emperou, moved to 
 the coast, from which they were now distant a march only. Cheboo 
 and Apoutai, not caring to trust their persons to the defence of the 
 Aianamaboes, again fled, in time to secure their retreat, with six or 
 seven hundred followers, upon Cape Coast, where they had been in- 
 vited to sojourn by the natives themselves, who introduced these 
 unfortunate men to the acquaintance of governor Torrane ; from 
 whom they received assurances of protection either by mediation or force 
 of arms. In the meantime the viceroy, or king of Dinkra, leading 
 on the advanced guard, first gained sight of the sea in the neighbour- 
 hood of Cormantine, where he not only destroyed the town, but 
 took possession of the Dutch fort. There the Annamaboes had 
 hitherto vainly boasted that their enemies would never gain sight of 
 the sea, and this success, as it seems, gave the governor the first 
 uneasy impression,* for he instructed Mr. White, then governor of 
 Annamaboe Fort, to send a message to the commander of that division, 
 requiring to know what could have induced the king to march his armies 
 to the coast. The king of Dinkra, as I was told at court, mistook 
 
 * The conduct of governor Torrane in not endeavouring to negotiate or mediate with the king 
 on behalf of the people, before the destruction of Abrah, and the total extinction of the Braffoes, was 
 certainly blameable ; but after that event had occurred, to leave matters to the issue of another battle, 
 where the people wanted both courage and conduct to defend themselves, was deserving of a high degree 
 of censure ; for indeed the promise of his support, inadequate as it was to effect the smallest impression 
 beyond the reach of the cannon of the forts, ^done encouraged that puerile and fatal obstinacy which led 
 to the massacre of so many thousands of misguided victims, even under the walls of Annamaboe, a fort 
 which, from the extraordinary disbursement its erection cost the British government, has been represented 
 as the bulwark and the " sine qua non" of African fortifications.
 
 ATTACK OF ANNAMABOE. 259 
 
 the purport of the governor's message for a specious pretext to gain 
 time, or obtain by policy what arms could never accomplish, — 
 " chaffing," as it is called in the enlightened age in which we live, 
 — and the chief's reply, that when the governor would send him 
 twenty barrels of powder and one hundred musquets, he should be told 
 what the king's designs were, savoured as strongly of the same 
 tortuous system of perversion ; for the Ashantees are not a shade 
 behind ourselves in consulting that primary feeling in every man 
 of honour, the preservation of the dignity conferred upon him by 
 nature and rank. 
 
 It was in vain to shew the return messengers the destructive 
 power of artillery, as that brave gentleman, Mr. White, humanely did, 
 in hopes of averting the approaching tempest from the town. The 
 whites were ignorant of the king's force, and as Mr. Meredith justly 
 observes, " had but an imperfect idea of the bravery and intrepidity 
 of the x\shantees ; for it was supposed they were like the natives 
 of the coast, who cannot stand against a regular fire : and often conceal 
 themselves in holes during an engagement. It was little imagined 
 that the courage of these people would carry them to the very muzzles 
 of the cannon," &c. 
 
 The governor's message met with no attention at head quarters, 
 and the king on a sudden made his appearance at the back of Anna- 
 maboe, whither the infatuated natives had drawn out their force to 
 meet the invader. The usual skirmishing battle took place; the 
 Fantees were driven in with great slaughter, and the enemy entered 
 the town pell-mell in pursuit. The fort was already crowded with as 
 many women as it would contain, and whole troops of the sex, beside 
 children and aged men, took their station under the ramparts, where 
 the guns afforded them a feeble protection, and that but momentary. 
 I am justified in using the term feeble, for these unfortunate people, 
 in defiance of the fire of the garrison, were every one carried off" or 
 
 L L 2
 
 260 .ATTACK OF ANNAMABOE. 
 
 inhumanly butchered upon the spot,* and the fire became so hot 
 as the Ashantees advanced towards the beach, that not a man, white or 
 black, could stand at the embrasure, or shew his head above the ram- 
 parts : — neither was it practicable to work the g-reat guns any more, 
 without the certainty of being picked off by the enemy, who sur- 
 rounded the fortification on every side, within the distance of half 
 pistol shot. As to the Fantees, who fired without taking aim, they 
 were already dead, or dispersed, and the enemy prowled in mixed 
 groups among the ruins, some seeking- for plunder, and others glutting 
 their revenge by cutting and mutilating their victims, or severing the 
 heads and legs from the bodies of the slain, and slicing the flesh and 
 sinews from off the bones, in order to convert them to drum pegs and 
 whistles ; and the lower jaws and teeth, to ornamental trophies, and 
 necklaces. In this state of consternation and distress, the utmost the 
 little garrison could do, was to defend their gate, which the Ashantees 
 endeavoured to force or fire. The governor, and two or three others, 
 were disabled by wounds ; two men were killed, and the remainder 
 of the garrison sought refuge in the two little bastions on the 
 west, that flank the approach to the gate ; here they laid themselves 
 prostrate, to avoid the enemy's shot and arrows, and from time to 
 time repelled, with musquets only, the most intrepid of the assailants 
 who attempted to force an entrance below. 
 
 The king assured me that it was no part of his plan to attack the 
 castle, and even after the guns had been turned against him, he would 
 willingly have negotiated, if any serious overtures had been made ; and 
 in this expectation he refrained, during the remainder of the day, from 
 
 * These are the words of Meredith: — "The Annamaboes conceived that vn\\i the aid of their 
 canoes and their knowledge of swimming, they would be able to escape; but they were pursued too 
 closely by the Ashantees, whose fury appeared insatiable ; men, women and children were followed by 
 indiscriminate destruction in defiance of the efforts of the garrison," &c. — p. 141.
 
 TRUCE WITH THE BRITISH. 26l 
 
 camming matters to extremity against the whites ; whereas the castle 
 he knew, was at his mercy, and had not the white flag been lowered 
 the next morning, he would, by the help of his gods, have seated himself 
 in the governor's chair. To pursue the confession, it would seem that 
 dispositions had been made during the night, and the army had 
 received orders to hold themselves in readiness for an assault on the 
 following day, when orders came down from Cape Coast Castle to dis- 
 play a flag of truce. This emblem of peace, which was just in time to 
 prevent an assault that foreboded the last calamity, was hailed with 
 repeated acclamations, and the king gave every assurance that he was 
 pacifically disposed. " My enemies," replied his majesty to the deputa- 
 tion who waited upon him, " are the Assins and Fantees ; and I have 
 now pretty well assuaged my anger against them." 
 
 Governor Torrane, in his public letter of the 18th June, 1807, 
 designed for the king's hearing, palliated his conduct by saying, that 
 notwithstanding the steps he had taken to give protection to the Fantees, 
 he had ever held him (the king) in the highest respect, and that had he 
 seen any messenger from him, antecedent to the attack on Annamaboe, 
 it was his opinion the blow would have been avoided in that 
 quarter.^ 
 
 The king listened to every thing that was reported, with that 
 cautious reserve belonging to the councils of his nation when roused to 
 
 * This affected recrimination (for surely no milder epithet could be bestowed upon it) was doubtless 
 calculated to meet its object in England. Colonel, or Mr. Torrane, was confessedly a man of greater 
 talents and education than any of his successors, or, for aught I know to the contrary, his predecessors ; and 
 it is evident he saw his political errors when it was too late to negotiate upon terms strictly suitable to the 
 honour of his country and the dignity of the British flag. Admitting that this oflBcer did not know that 
 the united Fantee forces were incompetent to check the incursion of the enemy, will any man doubt that 
 he did not know his own incapacity to do so; and since his policy, ostensibly or virtually, might incUne 
 (O support the Fantees and protect them, did not the active part of tlie business, war, or negotiation, 
 belong entirely to himself? Would it not,— since his judgment had failed or been outwitted, would it 
 not have been more humane, more honourable to himself and his country, to have turned his guests 
 (Cheboo and Apoutai) into the forest, to provide for their own security ? Surely even the king in his 
 heart would have applauded the act
 
 262 SURRENDER OF CHEBOO. 
 
 hostility ; but as his majesty required ocular demonstration of the 
 sincerity of white men's professions, and as it was not convenient to 
 that monarch to meet the governor at Cape Coast, it was politely 
 insinuated that the latter should visit the camp at Annamaboe. 
 
 The ill-fated Princes of Assin had lived some time at Cape Coast, 
 under the protection, as they had been given to understand, of the 
 g-overnor's negotiating talents, and the faith of the African company, 
 pledged by their head servant. Their personal security was, however, 
 but a transient delusion ; for although the natives of Cape Coast at first 
 resisted the overtures of the governor to give up their guests, they 
 were finally prevailed upon, by the impending danger, to relinquish their 
 defence, and the governor, unsolicited by the king, insinuated an armed 
 force into their houses, and seized, not without resistance, the person 
 of Cheboo, whom he consigned to the little mercy his enemies were in 
 the habit of displaying. Apoutai, by the vigour of his defenders, 
 made good a retreat, and once more shone in arms in distant warfare. 
 But his coadjutor was sent as a present to the king, to serve for the 
 basis of a treaty and an introduction, to give the colouring of sin- 
 cerity at the meditated interview : and this man, after suffering 
 tortures and indignities the most exquisite, was compelled to resign his 
 head as a trophy for the king's death horn, which is its decoration at 
 this day. 
 
 This policy, cruel as it was, procured governor Torrane an honour- 
 able reception, when he subsequently waited upon the king in his 
 camp at Annamaboe. The latter confessed to me that if he had been 
 inclined to visit Cape Coast, his army would not have been restrained 
 from following his steps, and as mercy had been solicited for those 
 people, he did not wish to bring upon them any calamity their im- 
 prudence might give rise to. 
 
 The treaty of peace was a formal and a solemn acknowledgment 
 on the part of the governor, that by right of conquest Fantee, includ- 
 ing Cape Coast and every other town in the neighbourhood, belonged exclu-
 
 TREATY OF PEACE. 263 
 
 sively to the empire of Ashantee, with the reservation of a judicial 
 authority to the company over such towns as stood in the vicinity of 
 any of the castles ; and in confirmation or ratification of these terms, 
 the governor expressly admitted the king's title to those deeds, called 
 notes, upon which he paid him the arrears then due, and a tribute, 
 called perhaps a present, which was demanded of the Cape Coast 
 people. 
 
 The feelings of the monarch, by his own reiterated confessions, 
 were overpowered by the handsome behaviour of this officer, when he 
 sallied out to meet him.* 
 
 When the preliminary discussions took place, the king urged his 
 right to dispose of the prisoners as he might think proper. All dis- 
 putations proving ineffectual to move a conqueror's title, the terms of 
 agreement were acceded to, by which, if the most credible witnesses 
 are to be believed, some of the refugees who had availed themselves 
 of the protection afforded by the fort, were consigned, together with 
 a proportion of the relic of butchery, to slavery. A certain portion 
 of the prey are said to have been accepted by the governor, for the 
 purpose, it is to be hoped, of restoring them to their families, and not 
 that he might pocket the emoluments arising from their sale into 
 bondage ; nevertheless, many or most of these wretched creatures, 
 found their way eventually to the AVest India plantations, where they 
 or their posterity may still drag on the chains of slavery. 
 
 The last military act of the government of Ashantee, previous 
 to my mission, was the invasion of Gaman in the year 1819. the 
 
 * From the hour governor Torrane dehvered up Cheboo, said the king one day to me, I took the 
 English for my friends, because I saw their object was trade only, and they did not care for the people. 
 Torrane was a man of sense, and he pleased me much. He gave me these presents (shewing a trunk 
 containing various articles of value). Mr. White was also a man of sense, and a brave man ; but Mr. 
 Smith, said the monarch, rising from his seat, is contem or contempo, (a weak vain boaster), I think he 
 learned all he knows of the Fantees, as white men read books and learn better things.
 
 264 DISPOSAL OF THE PRISONERS. 
 
 defeat and death of its sovereign, and the annexation of that kingdom 
 to Ashantee as a province, in lieu of the tributary rank it enjoyed 
 
 before. 
 
 Torrane, whose name it dehghted the king to hear, was a man like 
 Daendals, who, if properly supported, would have created empire in 
 Africa: of his moral qualifications, I may say in the words of 
 Horace : — 
 
 Omnisenim res. 
 
 Virtus, fama, decus, divina humanaque, pulcris 
 Divitiis parent ; quas qui contruxerit, i.le 
 Clarus erit, fortis, Justus — Sapiens ne ? Etiam et rex, 
 Et quidquid volet. —
 
 win. T. II Mlt«II-ATA 
 
 D K S K 
 
 M 
 
 T r A N o 
 
 W O L K 11 II .\ M D A X 
 
 y O I- L .A H A 
 
 J E K U V >„Tvt" 
 
 •«««**«« I* J-' /■: I. -I 7 .1 n 
 "^ .JK«™«. ' r H I h A .V 
 
 M A S S I N A 
 
 (i H O I' 
 
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 o r jl s 
 
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 „ 1 -^ airuu* * 
 
 G jl R A N T YAtwoiA.. 
 
 K A N O 
 
 B o r s A 
 
 S A K A X -Y 
 
 
 K A'^'S O G H O 
 
 K A X 6 A S II 
 
 K A M B A H 
 
 r E NKAb\ ^*^ «.7is-r N rONO.t-MA 7fc^.\»»Jfc*^ y 4 (V A H K H r\-\l B K E , 
 
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 E N K A S Y 
 
 .t.'tr.ttU K O K O O 
 
 _ T A K I M A «-"*—■ „., ,,j_^ YO 
 
 ■ y,~i^ **V«- fORANSAU •-»«./-*.■ 
 
 1" O K.l/N j4^,A„. /■,^... , ■^«— • Bot- R O M V 
 
 ■ " y^- .xr •■^:;.:;'ir--?''"[ 
 
 C A R G A R I 
 
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 ABiIa:!' 
 
 "WArr s All A 
 
 /hvi, . LA.i/i//r Hi t/ir JtJliba. GfiuHiy ,uut Koara Hinnr.iva^lrt/ /hm Jfon
 
 PART 11. 
 
 ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 WANGARA. 
 
 CREDIBILITY OF INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM THE MOSLEMS OF GUINEA-CHARACTER 
 OF THE RELIGION OF ISLAM-ANECDOTE OF THE KHALIFA OMAR-ANECDOTE OF MULAI 
 SOLIMAN, EMPEROR OF MOROCCO— VINDICATION OF THE CHARACTER OF THE MOSLEMS 
 OF ASHANTEE— THEIR CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE AUTHOR— REMARKS ON THE MISSION 
 FROM CAPE COAST CASTLE, IN 1817-TRAVELS OF THE MOSLEMS— AUTHORITIES, AND 
 EXPLANATION OF THE MAP OF WANGARA-REMARKS ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS 
 PUBLISHED BY MR. BOWDICH, RELATING TO THE COURSES OF THE NIGER-ON THE VARIOUS 
 DISTANCES DENOMINATED A DAY'S JOURNEY— ENUMERATION OF ERRORS IN MR. BOWDICH'S 
 SYSTEM OF THE GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICA-GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF ASHANTEE; ITS 
 ROADS, PATHS, TOWNS, RIVERS, LAKES, &c.—W ANGARA-COURSE OF THE NIGER— THE ASWADA- 
 THE LOGOS— GREAT LAKE OF AYOH— RIVER OF BENIN-EMPIRE OF ZOGHO— YARRABA— 
 RAPID CHANGES IN THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS OF AFRICA-HAOUSSA-RELATIVE SITUATION OF, 
 THE MOSLEMS AND HEATHENS— PROTECTION NECESSARY FOR TRAVELLING IN THE INTERIOR- 
 GREAT DIVISIONS OF WANGARA-ENKASY-GHOFAN-YANDY-ABOMEY-EASTERN DISTRICTS OF 
 WANGARA-HORSES, WEAPONS, &C.-BENIN-GAMAN-ROCK GOLD AND GOLD DUST-MANUFAC- 
 TURES IN GOLD-MOSLEM POPULATION IN ASHANTEE-CHARACTER OF THE FANTEES. 
 
 An enquiry into the credibility of information derived through the 
 agency of Moslems, may perhaps be no uninteresting or unprofitable intro- 
 duction to this chapter ; for in weighing this subject with due attention, I 
 conceive I have anticipated all that can be urged in opposition to the 
 testimony of native African travellers ; by which expression I mean Moslems; 
 
 a
 
 IX MOSLEM TESTIMONY. 
 
 for as to the heathen Negroes, I have reason to know that their fidelity as 
 narrators or interpreters may be justly suspected. In fact, their intellectual 
 faculties, like those of savages in general, although powerful in the 
 emergencies of life, never stray from the usual routine of human pursuits to 
 explore unprofitable mysteries ; neither is it to be forgotten that a cautious 
 scepticism is necessary, where the secret interests or aff"ections of men are to 
 be poised against the words to which their tongues may give utterance. 
 
 Although I do not submit my name to the reader, as guaranteeing the 
 veracity of the Moslems to whom I am indebted for the substance of these 
 remarks, yet I will take upon me to say, that I depend with as much reliance 
 upoii the information I obtained through their means, as I should on the 
 testimony of any class of honourable men in Europe. And why not? Are 
 there not many standing authorities of literary renown, whose writers 
 were of that faith, and whose works are the rallying points in Oriental 
 literature, quoted moreover by the most respectable in the classes of 
 Christian authors of every nation ? But as regards the 31oslems of Ashantee 
 and interior Africa, it may be urged, they are some degrees below the Arabs 
 and northern Africans in the scale of civilization and intellectual acquire- 
 ments. Admitting, upon the general average, that this is an undeniable truth, 
 its effect is more than counterbalanced by the advantage these Guinea tribes 
 evidently possess, in being more intimately acquainted with the land of their 
 nativity, and the countries through which they are in constant habits of 
 travelling, than the Arabs can possibly be. And these lands, be it 
 remembered, are situated precisely in that part of the African continent 
 which is most interesting to the geographical inquirer: for there the African 
 maps of the most modern construction exhibit naught to the eye, save a 
 dreary blank, here and there indeed broken upon by courses of rivers, 
 positions of mountains, and names of kingdoms, like the paucity of islands 
 scattered over the surface of its western ocean : but with this difference, that 
 many of the characteristics inland are either vaguely marked down, or, what 
 is even more to be lamented, their fidelity is in no very remote degree
 
 RELIGION" OK ISLAM. Ill 
 
 associated with hypothetical criticism and unsubstantiated axioms, gleaned 
 from the testimony of authors of a very early age, and who, in fact, never 
 knew the central parts of this mysterious continent, excepting through the 
 reports of its natives. Public curiosity, in short, finds nothing to feed upon 
 that is satisfactory, beside the bare outlines of this vast surface, with the tracks 
 of a few successful European explorers of our own times, among whom the 
 name of Park is deservedly pre-eminent ; and that pre-eminence is infinitely 
 enhanced by a modesty of style almost unrivalled in modern literature of 
 that description, forming a strong contrast to the unblushing pages of some 
 authors, who vainly attempt to rival his fame by egotism and a redundancy 
 of words. 
 
 Moslems, of whatever nation, provided they have been initiated in the 
 doctrine they profess, are virtually men of knowledge, as they ought to be 
 men of honour and probity ; and the educated negro is with justice esteemed 
 upon a par with other professors of the faith, whether from Cairo, Medina, 
 or the sacred city itself. The Koran, wherein the prerogatives of all men 
 concentrate as within a focus, was, morally speaking, conceived in the true 
 spirit of benevolence, whereby every professor of that religion, however 
 abject his condition in life may be, is strictly upon terms of equality with 
 his neighbour, as the law instructs in civil and religious matters. This 
 fascinating maxim, from which the balm of consolation oozed into the 
 breasts of the afflicted idolaters of subordinate ranks, enticed a willing 
 audience among the lowly and oppressed, such as most of the inferior tribes 
 of Arabs were before the chapters were revealed, or the new law formally 
 promulgated. Indeed, the Moslems themselves do not hesitate to admit 
 a truth, which, in point of fact, may be traced through every page of the 
 Koran, although lurking under the mask of religion ; namely, that Mohammed 
 raised the oppressed against their oppressors ; or, in a political retrospect, 
 planned a revolution in the morals of men, upon the prevailing principle of 
 action whereby ordinary innovators are actuated — by winning to his mterest 
 those who laboured under real or imaginary grievances, and by their 
 
 a 2
 
 IV ANECDOTE OF THE KHALIFA OMAR. 
 
 agency sapping the edifice which prescribed limits to the several classes of 
 society, and obedience where it was due. * 
 
 What I have already advanced on the subject of " Islamism," (for I 
 consider it to be by no means irrelevant to explain its impression) may be 
 still more essentially elucidated, so that the reader may be furnished with 
 materials wherewith to establish an opinion of his own. 
 
 In the reign of Omar, the second Khalifa, about the Hejyran year twenty, 
 (according to the historian ben Shohnah) an Arab prince named Jiabalah, 
 chief of the Pagan tribe of Ghassanida, who wandered over the plains of 
 Syria, professed a desire to renounce idolatry. With that intention he visited 
 the court of Omar, to whom he did homage as his liege, and was initiated in 
 the law. The Khalifa, feeling an interest in the voluntary sacrifice his guest 
 had made, conceived a partiality for the prince, and took him with him on the 
 pilgrimage to Mecca, with intention to instruct him in the rites and mysteries 
 incumbent upon devotees. In running the tour of the temple conformably to 
 custom, it happened that a pilgrim of ordinary rank took the prince by his 
 sleeve and pulled him on one side, in order to pass himself, at which incivility 
 Jiabalah was so enraged that he struck the intruder a violent blow ; and, not 
 satisfied with the vengeance he had taken, continued a strain of vehement 
 abuse, in which he reproached the man with insolent conduct towards a person 
 of his quality. Omar, noticing the immoderate anger of the prince, and that 
 he reiterated menaces and ill usage against a man whom he had already 
 punished and turned out of the ranks, said to him, " Calm your transports, 
 otherwise I shall cause that man to return the blow, you gave him, for you 
 ought to know that Islam has rendered you both equal ; and the prince and 
 the slave, when in the exercise of their worship, or acts of piety, such as the 
 functions of the pilgrimage, are but as men equal in all their prerogatives." 
 
 • As prejudices may have been excited against the negro professors of the Moslem faith, by a former 
 publication on Ashantee, and as their testimony is appealed to in the following pages, the author claims 
 indulgence for a few preliminary observations intended to rescue their characters from calumny and 
 misrepresentation.
 
 ANtCDOTE OF MULAI SOLIMAN. V 
 
 Jiabalah, stung to the quick by the words of the Khalifa, conceived so great a 
 disgust, that he promptly gave up his newly adopted faith, and retired to 
 Constantinople, where he became a Christian. 
 
 A circumstance which occurred during my residence at the court 
 of Morocco, in the year 1811, is also illustrative of this point. The 
 Sultan Mulai Soliman, conformably to his usual practice, visited the public 
 mosque of Sidi Yousif on a certain Friday ; but being a little after time, 
 the area was crowded with worshippers to the very portico. It hap- 
 pened also, that the congregation were in the act of adoration, (in a prostrate 
 posture,) and the Sultan could barely find room for the ceremony, by 
 squeezing his body amidst a motley group who occupied the threshold ; and 
 that with great inconvenience ; for his head, in lieu of touching the ground, 
 repeatedly came in contact with the heels of a slave, who occupied the space 
 before him.' This man, finding himself molested, left off his devotion to 
 enquire into the occasion of it, but instantly recognizing the features of the 
 sovereign, he started upon his feet, and would have retired on one side, had 
 he not been restrained by the forcible grasp with which the Sultan held his 
 hayk, and again dragged him involuntarily into the posture he had quitted. 
 When prayers were over, Mulai Soliman desired the attendance of the 
 slave's master, whom he reprimanded for not inculcating into the mind of 
 his vassal a true knowledge of the " law of God." To the slave he said, 
 " Mark these words, which have a relation in common to the class you belong 
 to : — on the throne, in the palace, in the city, or in the field, you shall know me 
 for the sovereign commander of the faithful by day or night ; but in the 
 Mosque, or at devotions, you shall not know me as what I am, neither shall 
 you know your own master, for before God the prince and the slave are 
 equal, and must meet judgment according to their several actions, without 
 distinction of rank." 
 
 Thus the religion of Islam, as it is properly styled, wherever it prevails, 
 whether at the splendid courts of Constantinople, Delhi and Morocco, or in
 
 VI DEFENCE OF THE MOSLEMS OF ASHANTEE. 
 
 the less ostentatious governments of interior Ethiopia, is uniform, as well in 
 practice as in its influence upon the minds of men. 
 
 The Moslems of Ashantee, with whom I held communion, were for the 
 most part men of strong natural parts ; all were more or less acquainted with 
 the doctrine of their prophet, and some, particularly the natives of Salgha, 
 Yandi, Kook, Nikky, and other parts of the north and east, were men of 
 education and talent, the majority equalling, perhaps, the average population 
 of the states of Morocco : for even there the proportion may exceed ten to one 
 against those who are capable of expressing their thoughts by written 
 characters. The fidelity and pointed attention of these Guinea Moors, 
 during my stay among them, biassed me with a conviction of their sincerity, 
 and thereby established a mutual understanding and attachment ; for when 
 it was discovered that I was acquainted with the language of their religion, 
 my apartments became the receptacle for all ranks of that faith, and 
 figuratively speaking, I was an idol to whom the daily congratulations were 
 paid with an exactitude and benignity not very unlike devotion. 
 
 This will seem strange to some of my readers who have perused the 
 work of Mr. Bowdich, wherein it appears they treated him with a scowling 
 inhospitable malignancy, arising from prejudices of a commercial nature. 
 The truth is, no such feeling ever existed, as far as my information carried 
 me at Coomassy; but I regret to say it is one of the many instances 
 abounding in that work, of egotism and hyperbole, assuming the character 
 of all the zeal and talent of the greatest hero that ever trod the African plains. 
 But dismissing the evidence of my own conviction of facts coupled with 
 the confessions of Moslems and idolators, it may be only requisite to 
 pass judgment agreeably to the author's acknowledgments. These men 
 who treated him so unworthily, were, as it appears in other pages, in 
 habits of strict intimacy with the mission, whereby reciprocal acts of 
 courtesy were exchanged, and mutual visits were paid. These men who 
 wantonly insulted the dignity of his public character, from rival jealousy
 
 THEIR CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE AUTHOR. VII 
 
 of European influence in the commerce of the country, were his daily 
 companions, and they were the identical parties who furnished him with such 
 materials for his book as are really deserving of credit. Yet this cordiality, 
 the author would have it appear, was the result of time and prudence. It 
 were loss of time to pursue the inquiry further ; but as the characters of 
 men may in some degree gleam through their writings, I will yet trespass 
 upon my reader's patience by inserting a few notes of correspondence 
 that were occasionally written to me by these Moslems, and which are 
 still in my keeping. 
 
 jL J\ jL L.;;^ Jy^j Ul o^lW^J Jx^j ^ ^K U jJUJl J*=^ o^! aU j^I 
 
 " Praise be unto God who created the use of the pen for conversation, 
 and who created paper that we may substitute letters for ambassadors, &c. 
 This (an enclosed MSS.) shews you the route from country to country, 
 and from place to place, written by your servant for his beloved friend, 
 master, &c. 
 
 (Signed) " Shouma." 
 
 diJV I— J'j H-^'; >^lj c:^s-* CXxl' U ^■] j_-v«j_ ^^1 jJiJl !>iJ^ i^.^, <r.^^ J^-\ 
 
 " Glory is due to God alone. I comprehend what you have written. 
 I hear your words and return my love, blessing, and gratitude ; and may 
 the love of God and his apostle in peace attend you. May peace dwell 
 with you. (properly my lord), &c. From me, &c. 
 
 (Signed) " Abou Beer ben Touri."
 
 VJII CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 i^Jl ^'^Jju ^^ ^j^ ^J^'^ C3i«.!l iUo-Uj <d^ icUa- iJily-ijyUjl J^ ^\ iijUJi 
 f* <^v^ -"iil JjW tt/^l-^l l--«^l ^^jAa-l-a ^U^^ .Xt-y |.;^'j j:*s:^! J*>- ^1 ,_^I 
 
 " Glory be unto God in unity. Be his holy name glorified for the 
 powers of speech, by which our tongues are made to converse with one 
 loving friend and another, and between a brother and his brethren. 
 So I bear witness to you, O ambassador of the great king, truly a bene- 
 volent friend of the blacks of every nation, and a friend to the felicity (of man) 
 as happiness consists in fidelity, and therefore in sincerity I bear witness 
 that there is no other God than one God, and that Mohammed is the 
 Apostle of God. May this guide you in safety to your country, and may 
 you enjoy ample felicity to the full extent of my friendship ; as there 
 is truth in this invocation, and that you are the friend of the king of 
 Ashantee, Sai Quamina, &c. &c. God Almighty shower down upon them 
 both (the king of England and the king of Ashantee) blessings and 
 abundance, and may he unite their hearts, and cement the friendship 
 between them permanently. 
 
 '• My friend — friend of the Moslems, God prolong your life in the 
 enjoyment of his bounty and benevolence, and may you return again 
 to us with the love of God and the love of men in sincerity. Written by 
 Mohammed, commonly called Baba, the Moslem Bashaw of Coomassy." 
 
 cJljs- cJ'i Ul J-'jJij u*^' *J^^^>■J <Oo-U9 ilkcl j_jLui^ cJlJ »0>3-. 4iJ Jas^I
 
 CHARACTER OF THE MOSLEMS, IX 
 
 5j»^j ^Ujl c:^«-'j ^AjJ! AJiUJl ^\j^^ i«iuc 4JI A^kcj »^ jJJI Jdi^j 1^ rfUl 
 
 " Glory be to God in unity. Kind friend thou didst give some paper to 
 thy loving friends, and the esteemed donation came to us in safety. May 
 God multiply his revv^ards, (may he) prolong thy life and raise thy greatness 
 to a high renown, with health and strength of body. Praise him therefore 
 in gratitude, and God will carry you back to your country in vigour, for 
 omnipotence belongs to him in truth. — From Abdallah ben Ghatta." 
 
 This might suffice to prove the truth of the attachment of these people 
 personally, and to the interests of the mission, without going to further quota- 
 tions, as it is also evidence of a refinement in courtesy. But it is due to 
 candour and to the welfare of future travellers that I should circumstantially 
 exonerate this friendly sect from ungrateful misrepresentation, by an open 
 avowal that I found them disinterested in their proffers of friendship, liberal 
 to an excess in courtesy, and staunch to their engagements, when their 
 services, even from the hour I became acquainted with them, were called for. 
 Devoid of Arabian or Turkish bigotry, they felt but a very remote interest in 
 those anathemas of the Koran levelled against Christians and Jews as enemies 
 of the faith : buried in the wilds of Ethiopia, they could listen passively to the 
 recitations of early times, when the roar of battles raged in the north, and 
 religious phrenzy desolated the Asiatic and African plains, without feeling 
 moved otherwise than by a transient effusion of gratitude to the Almighty, for 
 promulgating a law which taught them the heinous offence of idolatry; whilst 
 the religious inveteracy of the Arabs against the name of Nazarene, or Roumi, 
 
 * These notes, and the Arabic manuscripts, I have submitted together, exactly as they are written, 
 and without regard to the orthographical errors they contain. In the translations, however, which are 
 according to our own reading and interpretation, I have judged proper, for the reader's convenience, to 
 adhere to the idiom of our language, by substituting the implied sentiments of the authors, for a rigid 
 and literal translation of words. 
 
 b
 
 X CHARACTER OF THE MOSLEMS. 
 
 they considered something in the light of a national antipathy, with which 
 locally they had nothing to do, and which it was not incumbent on them to 
 imbibe themselves, or to instil into the minds of their children. In the 
 practice of devotion they were constant and apparently sincere, although some 
 of them violated the law of temperance, indulging by stealth in spirituous liquors 
 and palm wine. When taxed with the crime, they would reply, " God 
 pardon our oifences, they are manifold ; drinking strong drinks we know is 
 a relic of the days of ignorance, but it is a custom of this country which 
 we learn from our mothers." 
 
 The Moslems of Coomassy and Salgha are nearly as jetty-complexioned 
 as the idolators themselves ; but many from the inland countries are, more 
 or less, as fair as the northernmost desert Arabs. As another instance of 
 deviation from the institutions of the Koran, and of which they also give 
 their mothers the credit, their faces and bodies are cut by prolongated 
 incisions, the object of which is to distinguish their respective tribes or 
 nations. The superstitious ceremonies of the Pagans they deplore with 
 sympathy, and the diabolical custom of offering human victims for sacrifice 
 they hold in just abhorrence ; but still pity is mingled with their indignation. 
 
 The Moslems are the only class of subjects belonging to the kingdom, 
 who are morally scrupulous in virtues such as we prize ourselves. This the 
 king is sensible of, and hence the. attachment he evinces for the professors of 
 that faith, is at least politically sincere ; but it must be confessed also, that that 
 monarch is somewhat religiously inclined towards the followers of Mohammed 
 from a reverential awe of the universal God, the Father, according to his 
 imagination, of the creation, of every terrestrial deity, and of those invisible 
 powers, whose benign or malign actions agitate the world, and inspire the 
 hearts of men with good or evil propensities. Notwithstanding this sovereign 
 chuses to adhere faithfully to his Pagan rites in all their manifold horrors and 
 enormities, he does not neglect to supplicate the Moslems for their prayers, 
 particularly when oppressed with anxiety, when the state council is convened 
 on business of emergency, or when the national priests or necromancers
 
 THEIR INFLUENCE. XI 
 
 are unable to solve any problem to the satisfaction of majesty. The talis- 
 manic charms fabricated by the Moslems, it is well known, are esteemed 
 efficacious, according to the various powers they are supposed to possess ; 
 and here is a source of great emolument, as the article is in public demand 
 from the palace to the slaveVhut ; for every man (not by any means exempting 
 the Moslems) wears them strung round the neck, either in cases of 
 gold, silver, or the hairy hide of wild beasts, such as lions, tygers, monkeys, 
 elephants, sloths, &c. Some are accounted efficacious for the cure of gun- 
 shot wounds, others for the thrust or laceration of steel weapons, and the 
 poisoned barbs of javelins, or arrows. Some, on the other hand, are 
 esteemed to possess the virtue of rendering the wearer invulnerable in the 
 field of battle, and hence are worn as a preservative against the casualties 
 of war. Besides this class of charms, they have other cabalistical scraps 
 for averting the evils of natural life : these may also be subdivided into 
 separate classes ; some, for instance, are specific nostrums in certain diseases 
 of the human frame, some for their prevention, and some are calculated 
 either to ward off any impending stroke of fortune, or to raise the proprietor 
 to wealth, happiness and distinction. 
 
 We are told, in Mr. Bowdich's work, that he received ill-treatment at 
 Coomassy ; a truth which cannot be denied : yet the Moslems had no share 
 in it, directly or indirectly. On the contrary, it appears by the general 
 testimony, they advocated the cause of the white men, notwithstanding public 
 opinion pronounced censure for the indecorous precipitancy of the party in 
 their conduct to the king, whose orders, the author, according to his own con- 
 fession, indignantly spurned at; and thereby entailed upon himself and 
 his associates a chastisement humiliating to his personal feelings, and highly 
 offensive to his dignity, as a public functionary. In reference to this insult, 
 according to Mr. Bowdich's statement, the king would not allow him to 
 depart from his capital on a certain Wednesday, but insisted that it should be 
 the Monday following, in opposition to every remonstrance : Mr. Bowdich, 
 who was equally inflexible, insisted upon the king s compliance, or on leaving 
 Coomassy " without his approbation."' The king said, he might break the law 
 
 b2
 
 XII REMARKS OX THE FORMER MISSION. 
 
 if he thought proper, and the other retorted, with a slight qualification, " he 
 would send for the treaty and tear it in pieces before him." The king, in 
 disgust, no doubt, rose abruptly and retired. In effect, the project was carried 
 into execution that very day ; but the party had scarcely traversed fifty yards 
 through the city, ere the " gong gongs were beat, and a crowd of swords and 
 musquets attacked them (as the author expresses himself,) headed by the 
 landlord Aboidwee, who, in the first rush, seized both luggage and flag." The 
 author then narrates a circumstantial account of a battle, during which " his 
 party were attacked with hea^y swords and large stones," and this battle lasted 
 near a quarter of an hour, although in the sequel it is admitted that the party 
 did not even draw their swords in self-defence, or, what was even of primary 
 consideration, in defence of the proud flag which had been consigned to their 
 vigilance and discretion, when it was first ravished from their grasp. On the 
 contrary, the king was applied to for rescue from the murderous weapons that 
 flourished over their heads, and which besides wounding " several of the party, 
 had well nigh cut short the thread of the narrative by an unmerciful blow with 
 a scimiter, which, being promptly fended off, only grazed the author's face." 
 This disaster, in the language of Mr. Bowdich, he considers to have " perfected 
 the impression of his spirit." Waving this momentous consideration, may it 
 not be enquired if such a train of rash proceedings, taking the author's own 
 words for it, were calculated to perfect an impression of any thing more 
 weighty? This, in substance, is what is described in pages 136, 137, &c., of 
 that Mission to Ashantee ; but which, as the affair was revealed to me by the 
 king, by the caboceers, by the Moslems, and lastly, by several Fantees who 
 were in the engagement, is materially inaccurate — I must say falsely embel- 
 lished with incidents that never occurred. During my residence at court, the 
 king particularly enquired if the king of England was angry at what had 
 happened to Mr. Bowdich, when he attempted to go away without permission. 
 He confessed that he gave orders to stop him, but not to ill use the white 
 men ; whereas " some of his people had beaten them" (flogged was the term) 
 " with sticks, because they would not obey his last message to return until they 
 discovered that he was serious. When they were brought back to their house
 
 REMARKS ON THE FORMER MISSION. XIII 
 
 it made him very sorry for what had occurred ; but he was sorry also the 
 white captain should tell him before the caboceers, that he would go when , 
 he chose, for that was not the custom of the country, nor was it proper." 
 The kino-'s declaration accorded well with that of all ranks who witnessed the 
 transaction, and of my own servant Coffee, who was in Mr. Bowdich's employ 
 at the time. No crowds of musquets, or other fire arms, no swords, or other 
 offensive weapons, save sticks, were resorted to during this efigagement of a 
 quarter of an hours du7-ance, and consequently none were either killed or 
 wounded in the action ; but all, all is a fabrication, if the testimony of above a 
 hundred witnesses is to be credited before the bare assertion of an individual. 
 What did really happen to the party was, however, sufficient to leave behind 
 an indelible stain upon the capacity of Mr. Bowdich as a ■plenipotentiary, and 
 privately, perhaps I am justified in saying, as a man of mature understanding. 
 On the other hand, it would be silly to suppose that the author's intemperate 
 language, or the misfortune that befel him, were at all adapted to raise the 
 national reputation of Englishmen ; for what he arrogantly refused the king in 
 full court, he was ultimately induced to comply with in the midst of public and 
 private insult.* 
 
 * Mr. Bowdich, it seems, must have been unaccountably deficient in a knowledge of the usages of 
 courts, and the decorum to be observed towards a crowned head, although that head might be a black 
 one, else how could he presume, in the face of the world, to avow having threatened the king with tear- 
 ing to pieces a treaty of peace and commerce which had just been ratified and exchanged with a " respec- 
 table " native power, in the names of two sovereigns (of whom one claimed the tribute of his allegiance) ; 
 not to enumerate the trading company he contrived to represent, and whose property in the country 
 might have warranted the conciliatory steps that were taken for its security at that time. 
 
 Many instances, indeed, occurred, wherein the author's conduct involved him in disgraces ; and well 
 might the Cape Coast messengers declare before the king's ministers, " that his uncle (Mr. Smith) had 
 sent them as a check upon him, and that he was not doing right in talking so to the king, but should 
 wait his pleasure in quitting the capital," &c. (page 138). In truth, these unlettered children were better 
 informed than their educated master, of what was due to royalty in any court in the universe ; and Mr. 
 Bowdich ought to have known, that even under republican forms of government, an envoy does not take 
 what is vulgarly termed French leave, but waits for passports and a conge..
 
 j^jy TRAVELS OF THE MOSLEMS. 
 
 The Moslems who are to be found in Coomassy, are either natives born 
 
 in the north-eastern districts, bordering the Volta river, or they are subjects 
 
 of various inland kingdoms, whose residence in the capital is temporary only. 
 
 The former class is the most numerous, if we include their slaves or proselytes, 
 
 whose education is limited to an imperfect knowledge of the essential prayers 
 
 and ceremonies of worship which they practice under the auspices of their 
 
 masters, who devote a certain portion of each day to their education. The 
 
 foreign Moslems, beside those of Salgha, Yandy, and other parts of Dagomba, 
 
 and Ghunja, are from the inland districts bordering the Ghulby and Koara 
 
 rivers, to instance the kingdoms and districts of Houssa, Killinga, Magho, 
 
 Bargho, Marroa, &c. ; and these men, who upon the average are better 
 
 educated, are proportionably gifted with knowledge more extensive than their 
 
 Guinea brethren possess. Hence it is that the arrival of a well educated man 
 
 is announced by public rejoicing, and he is entitled to a degree of veneration 
 
 in proportion to his talents. Natives of Cairo, of the great Desert, of Medina, 
 
 and Mecca, sometimes (although rarely) visit the empire, as well as adjacent 
 
 kingdoms ; and the Tunisian and Tripolitan merchants occasionally penetrate 
 
 as far. When any of these events happen, the epoch is commemorated by 
 
 rejoicings at court also, and a suitable number of human victims are doomed 
 
 to bleed in honour of the visitors. Even the imperial Sherfa tribe extend 
 
 their travels as far as this remote district of heathen Africa ; and, as the sea 
 
 presents an obstacle to their progress southward, they pursue their rambles 
 
 east and west to the neighbouring courts, as politics or commerce may invite 
 
 their steps. These descendants of the prophet's family are received at 
 
 Ashantee with hospitality unlimited in its scope ; they become the honoured 
 
 guests of king and ministers, while the population in bulk venerate them as 
 
 demi-gods, and look for an increase of wealth in proportion as they compete 
 
 in tendering respect and offers of service to their visitors : for no man is 
 
 ignorant of the pretensions they set up on account of their sanctified genealogy, 
 
 and their consanguinity to kings and emperors of the past and present day. 
 
 Expiatory and propitiatory offerings of all descriptions are tendered to the
 
 TRAVELS OF THE MOSLEMS. XV 
 
 Stranger's god, as well as to the national and tutelary deities; the poor 
 commonly make oblations of the blood of fowls, eggs, pigeons, &c. ; the 
 superior classes of citizens, that of goats or sheep ; and the court, that of 
 slaves and prisoners of war ; as was practised under the old Mexican 
 emperors, who reserved these unhappy men for public sacrifice, on days 
 dedicated to state ceremony, to religious festivals, rejoicings, or lamentations. 
 
 The degree of respect entertained for the Sherfa by the Guinea Moslems, 
 is at least equivalent to the homage that is their due in the Barbary states. 
 These princes, to whatever nation they may belong, enjoy a precedence over 
 their brethren in faith on all ceremonious occasions ; and this distinction is 
 unreluctantly accorded even by the Bashaw of Coomassy. In the distribution of 
 presents made by the king, and the great officers and captains, their share of gold 
 and provisions is at least equivalent, and it most commonly exceeds the rest 
 in quantity. There have been three of these princely visitors at Coomassy during 
 the reign of Sai Quamina, and none ever came so far to the south and west 
 before ; a circumstance that induces the present sovereign of Ashantee to 
 arrogate to himself a greater degree of glory than his ancestors ever enjoyed. 
 The last of these princes was the Sheriffe Brahima who was at court during 
 Mr. Bowdich's mission in 1817, but who, after a residence partly at Coomassy 
 and partly at Abomey, the capital of Dahomy, during the space of nearly 
 three years, quitted the former for Nikky, with an ample fortune, and in 
 charge of a large caravan of pilgrims, who had entered into engagements with 
 the Sheriffe for protection to Cairo. 
 
 The inhabitants of Morocco, Fez, Taffilet, Suse, or the deserts in their 
 vicinity, rarely frequent this part of Guinea; nor have the Ashantees any 
 direct open communication with the Niger between Ghou and Yamina, a 
 space of nearly six hundred miles horizontal, although they sometimes visit 
 those regions by circuitous routes, under the guidance of a friendly Moslem : 
 the reason is that certain hostile kingdoms intervene both north and west of 
 Ashantee. 
 
 The geography of Western Africa, as it is submitted in the Map, is carefully
 
 XVI GEOGRAPHY OF AVESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 compiled from a series of manuscripts,* and from information purely native, 
 whose authors were in frequent habits of traversing the African Continent from 
 south to north, (or vice versa) from the forests of Ashantee to the several ports 
 of the Ghulby and Niger eastward, as far as Bornou, and even Bagharmi, 
 where, it is stated, the Shary forms a junction with the waters of the Shady in 
 its course to the Egyptian Nile. Whatever may be the various sentiments of 
 the learned in African literature, as regards the natural and political features 
 of the internal parts of this continent, I take no part in the controversy, neither 
 am I wedded to any theory, however presumptive or otherwise the evidence 
 may appear. In this avowal, which embraces every hypothesis, it will be only 
 requisite to repeat that the reader is naturally at liberty to establish his own 
 reflections upon the materials before him, while the author of the treatise, 
 whatever may be his sentiments individually, will simply claim the privilege 
 of asserting, that it could not concern him either intimately or remotely, if it 
 even should be shewn by possibility or demonstration, that the Niger, the 
 Koara, the Ghulby, &c. pour their waters into the eastern or western ocean, 
 into the northern African sea, (the Mediterranean) or into the swamps and 
 lakes which have been supposed to exist between the equator and the tropic 
 of Cancer, and to which the erroneous name of Wangara seems to have been 
 given. Far be the thought, however, that might obtrude a shade of disrespect 
 towards the conceptions and prejudices of the world of science ; for many illus- 
 trious writers, and others whose talents are known only in private life, are 
 perhaps in the full enjoyment of opinions founded upon hypothetical conclu- 
 sions, and the assertions of travellers, which as far as philosophical reasoning 
 should have influence, may possibly claim as much, or more public attention, 
 than any isolated system whatever, relating to the great rivers of Africa. 
 
 Among the manuscripts furnished by the Moslems for illustrating the geo- 
 graphy of interior Africa, is one whose features are descriptive of the kingdoms 
 
 * The manuscripts to which I refer are submitted in the Appendix, together with their translations, 
 agreeably to my own reading and the knowledge I derived from the natives.
 
 COURSE OF THE NIGER. XVII 
 
 and districts bordering the courses of the JoUiba, Koara, Ghulby, Shary, Shady, 
 and Nile, to the outlet of the last-mentioned river at Alexandria, on the Egyptian 
 coast. It was written agreeably to a desire I expressed, that my inform- 
 ers should substantiate what they had verbally reported of the courses and 
 names of the great inland waters. Some trifling passages are not quite intel- 
 ligible ; but as a point of greater consideration, it is not clear to me whether 
 the authors intended to trace the Niger from Youry westerly to its source (in 
 which case Bambouk is to be deemed the reservoir), or that it was principally 
 designed to give information of the countries upon the parallel of the Koara, 
 the Jolliba, &c. and between their fountains and those of the Gambia and Se- 
 negal. The manuscript, indeed, supports the former supposition, yet the 
 latter, after all, would seem to be the most probable conclusion ; for, according 
 to Park, the countries of Foota, Toura, Foota Joulaba, or Jalo, and Bambook, 
 are watered by the streams which compose these great western rivers, and 
 consequently the Niger, in its course eastward, cannot in all human probability 
 intersect so many rivers, whose inclinations are to the north. It is worthy of 
 remark, however, that the Moslems should say its Bambara name, Jolliba, (pro- 
 nounced Joulaba) is derived from the country Foota Joulaba at the extremity 
 of a great range of mountains, which form a sort of chain stretching eastwards, 
 nearly as far as Kong. 
 
 In reference to the Appendix to Mr. Bowdich's work, Nos. 1, 3, and 4, 
 called "Courses of the Niger or QuoUa, by Moors of Haoussa, Bornou, and 
 Jennie " there is a great coincidence with the manuscript in question in leading 
 features. If, however, the objection already started, that Bambouk cannot con- 
 tain the source of the Niger, be substantially true, the evidence throws nothing 
 in the scale ; that of the Jennie Moor (No. 4) excepted, which it would seem is 
 thus far corroborative of what the Kong and Manding Moslems report: viz., 
 that the Jolliba rises behind their country westward, and between that and 
 Melly, in a mountainous ridge that extends as far as the sea, called Bahar 
 Ahmar, a name which may be interpreted either the Red River or the River of
 
 XVIII COURSE OF THE NIGER. 
 
 Savages (and which I take to be the Gambia) : without enumerating places of 
 minor note, it passes on to Yamina*, from thence to Sago, Sansanding, Jennie, 
 Timbuctoo, and Ghou, where the Jolliba ceases to bear that name. Ghou is 
 the first kingdom westward upon the Koara ; it flows then to the south-east, 
 passing Kaby, and some other states, to Youry : according to the manuscript, 
 it then runs through Boussa (for the author, besides its eastern channel, gives 
 it a southern course through Wawa, Kaima, Khodobari, Khamba, Yarraba, and 
 Ageasse) into the sea at Benin. The eastern channel, i. e. the Koara, continues 
 to flow away in that direction, passing Noofee and Atagara to the Sharee, and 
 theChadee, from whence it enters Foor and Waddai, untilit unites with the Nile. 
 This manuscript, as it is published, I read over to many Moslems, and they all 
 agreed that it was correct in substance, although not sufficiently explicit, be- 
 cause it did not name the southern branch, called by them the Ghulby Kanbaja, 
 or Shadarba ; neither did it state that it flowed into the salt sea of Benin, by 
 the way of Wawa and Yarraba, the channel which Mr. Bowdich acknowledges 
 to have expunged, because he imagined it to be a road instead of what it 
 really was designed for, a river ; hence he merely refers to it as such at 
 manuscript No. 1, of the Houssa Moor. 
 
 In compiling the sketch of a chart at Coomassy, representing the geo- 
 graphical information I gained of the Moors, it was with some difficulty they 
 were made to comprehend it ; but this was eventually accomplished, with 
 tolerable satisfaction to myself. Latitude and longitude it could not be sup- 
 posed they knew any thing about, for had they been so qualified, that alone 
 would have argued a pre-eminence over the Arabs and northern Africans, who 
 
 * It is said that Yamina received its name from a prince of the Ismaelian dynasty, who, by his am- 
 bassadors, prevailed upon one of the early sovereigns to abjure the Pagan rites, and embrace Islam ; 
 which being acceded to, and confirmed by oath, the Sheriffe, as an honourable epithet, bestowed upon 
 the city the name of v.*^^., (from ^Ji^', an oath,) implying it was a city sworn into confederation in 
 defence of the Koran.
 
 CALCULATIONS OF DISTANCE. XIX 
 
 are alike ignorant in these essentials. Journeys of days, half days, and 
 watches*, according to their own distribution of time, and according as the 
 Arabs themselves compute the distance of one place from another, serve them in 
 lieu of meridional lines and parts. The bearing and relative position of roads, 
 rivers, kingdoms, &c. they described even with a degree of accuracy. Shareka 
 and Moghareba, east and west, were terms not unknown to them, any more 
 than those which express north and south. But their favourite expressions 
 were the rising or setting Sun ; the Sun on the right eye or on the left, and the 
 Sun full on the cheek, implying the courses or bearing (relatively) E. and 
 W. — those NE. or NW. and that which pointed due north. By the same 
 characteristics they described the bearing, and by days' journies the distance of 
 one inland kingdom from another, confirming all they advanced by the testi- 
 mony of their travelling manuscripts, and the evidence of those amongst them 
 who had visited the places they mentioned. 
 
 The allowance of sixteen British miles, three-fourths of the same to be made 
 good on the horizontal distance, I think, from my own experience, is equivalent 
 to a day's journey, where the country is intersected by forest or thicket ; or 
 where the surface is interrupted by hills and mountains. One-fourth reduc- 
 tion from the actual distance by the path, is certainly not over-rated in pro- 
 portion to the capricious winding of roads, such as I travelled over ; and I have 
 been credibly assured that the southern roads exhibit, more or less, the same 
 aspect, whilst those inclining southward of east, and northward of west, are 
 moreover greatly impeded by hills, mountains, and ravines. 
 
 * These watches divide the twenty-four hours into nine parts. The first, at sun-set, is called 
 tJ^l, Mogharb; the second, Li^l, Lasha ; the third, jJ^], Shafak ; the fourth, Jj«m lJumJ, 
 NosafLeil, (midnight;) the fifth, JJs^all, Al Figer, (day-break ;) the sixth, ,^a-J!, Sabah, (sun-rise;) 
 the seventh, !j^1, A1 Ghada; the eighth, ^;^fl3!l, Dohor, (noon;) the ninth, ^;*-*!l, Al Aser. 
 Some, however, reckon no more than five watches, which are necessarily four hours forty-eight 
 minutes apart. These are Mogharb, Nosaf Leil, Al Figer, Dohor, and Al Aser. This division of time 
 denotes likewise the hours of prayer, when it is incumbent on true believers to assemble in the Mosques, 
 or to congregate in devotional exercises in the field, or in the house. 
 
 c2
 
 XX CALCULATIONS OF DISTANCE. 
 
 The impervious forest and thicket, in which most of the capital towns of 
 Ashantee are embosomed, breaks off in some places about fifty, and in others 
 sixty miles north-east and west of the metropolis ; the roads then become 
 open, free, and not much inclined to those curvatures, which are unavoidable 
 in the wilderness of Assin. Hence, from Akeyah, Quahou, Massy, and the 
 Tando, I imagine that twenty miles, with four-fifths of that distance to make 
 good for the horizontal distance, will not be over-rated, for those countries 
 reputed to be champaign land. It should be recollected, that horses are com- 
 mon inland, throughout the eastern districts, as far north as the Koara, and 
 that camels are not uncommon. In the north they are also plentiful ; they 
 abound, in short, wherever the country is adapted to their procreation and use, 
 and the natives of those parts, as Mr. Bowdich had a fair opportunity of see- 
 ing during the Yam Custom, make use of those valuable animals in their 
 caravans. 
 
 I have been in the practice of travelling in the same manner in the north of 
 Africa. In the year 1814, 1 travelled, that is, rode, from Mogadorc to Tangier, 
 between which there is a difference of nearly five degrees of latitude, and 
 about three of longitude, giving an horizontal distance some trifle short of three 
 hundred and fifty miles, but which in reality was about four hundred and 
 forty-five, for the road branched off inland, leaving the direct track, and upon 
 gaining the higher latitudes, the surface was abrupt and hilly. This journey I 
 performed in eighteen days, which would almost average twenty-four miles six 
 furlongs each day. This is what would be termed regular easy travelling, in 
 the countries of the Gharb, and every where north of the great Desert. The 
 actual and the horizontal distance in this calculation are at variance ninety-five 
 miles, which should be accounted for thus : — seventy-four miles to be reduced 
 by a rate of five-sixths for the angular inclination of the roads, and twenty-one 
 miles more for diagonal or indirect courses, a sweep that was made to avoid the 
 plains of a rebellious tribe of Arabs. But even this is nothing compared with 
 the rate at which couriers will travel on foot the same distance, as it is no un- 
 common thing for those hardy men to perform the journey to Tangier in eleven
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. XXI 
 
 days, nay, some few of them are able to accomplish the distance in ten. But 
 these efforts are put in practice upon cases of emergency only, and when the 
 express is desired to make his way by night as well as day. By the same 
 rule the Morocco, Suse, Taffilet roads, &c. are traversed, and at the same rates. 
 I have journeyed to the capital of this empire in all seasons of the year, and I 
 invariably found that six days or twenty-five miles each day was the full aver- 
 age rate* without incurring the risk of fatiguing the cattle. These, which may 
 be termed domestic journeys, apply exclusively to known places, the towns 
 and cities of the same empire ; whereas the routes leading to foreign parts, and 
 from kingdom to kingdom, are not trai^ersed so rapidly, whether they are 
 mountainous or the reverse. In the temperate zone, twenty-four miles by 
 the road is reckoned a full and complete journey in traversing remote districts, 
 and twenty miles is estimated as the average ; the former making good four- 
 fifths of the actual distance, would give about nineteen miles one and a half 
 furlong, and the latter exactly sixteen miles for the horizontal distance each 
 day. 
 
 It has been shewn by an authority no less respectable than the Quarterly 
 Reviewf, that "Mr. Bowdich seems determined to reconcile himself to every 
 hypothesis that had ever been formed of the course and termination of the 
 Niger. But the way in which he makes his QuoUa to perambulate the whole 
 of the African Continent, and literally to quarter it with its divergent branches, 
 some flowing to the east, some to the west, some to the north, and others again 
 to the south, is not only geographically absurd, but physically impossible." 
 I must confess that I am at a loss to conceive what materials that gentleman 
 could have found at Coomassy for the arrangement given to his map, in support 
 of an hypothesis of the texture of which he has submitted no evidence. The 
 Moslems of Coomassy, with all the elucidation I was capable of giving to the 
 
 * It is true I have travelled that space in four days, but I have no room to be vain of the feat, for a 
 gentleman who is now in England accomplished the same distance in three days, and his horse, although 
 greatly jaded, survived the fatigue. 
 
 t No. XLIV. March 1820, p. 292.
 
 j^^jj GEOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. 
 
 SU 
 
 biect with his book and map upon the table before us, were unable to com- 
 prehend not only the heterogeneous courses of the rivers, but the very names he 
 has given to many places, and which, it does appear, have no existence what- 
 ever, except on paper. 
 
 It would, perhaps, be an act of injustice to that gentleinan, to say I make 
 no doubt that his system of African geography, which, as he assures us him- 
 self, was checked by the ai'tless prattle of children, was a fabrication of his 
 own : I do not say so ; but this I will affirm, that the names of kingdoms, 
 cities, rivers, mountains, &c. which might have been familiar to his hearing at 
 Ashantee, were, as it seems, so transplanted and shoved about when he con- 
 structed his map, that, to use a hackneyed phrase, " Tis now so like nothing, 
 that there is nothing like it." Nay, it cannot be said to agree with those 
 names of places which are heaped together in the appendix, many of which 
 are really deserving of credit. The Gambaro running westerly out of the 
 lake called Caudee to Timbuctoo ; the QuoUa going to the rising sun, and 
 uniting to the Moonda, the Agooawai, the Zaire, or Congo, the Nile, &c. 
 
 I would not be thought hostile to any hypothesis, neither do I in the 
 capacity of reader object to speculations, even such as Mr. Bowdich has 
 indulged in, provided they are characterised by their proper names. But as 
 my pen may have been as indignant at these incongruities as my feelings 
 were at Coomassy, when the author's map was found to be useless, it is 
 incumbent on me to point out some of the most palpable errors, and this I 
 shall do as briefly as possible. Beginning then at the top of the map, I find 
 a place called Yahoodee, a country or town of non-existence. Yahoodee 
 simply implies Jews, the tribes of Jews, &c. which term the Moslems apply 
 to those people of the Mosaic faith who inhabit the lower Atlas, and the 
 district of Suse. They also apply the term Yahoodee to the Hebrew or 
 Jewish tribes, whether native Africans or not, who inhabit Marroa, some 
 parts of Fillany, and the neighbourhood of Timbuctoo. Of these people I 
 imagine the author of the information spoke, when he endeavoured to make 
 Mr. Bowdich comprehend the import of the word Yahoodee. As a nation or
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. XXIII 
 
 a tribe they cannot be inserted with propriety in any map, for they exist even 
 in a more deplorable state of servitude and humiliation in those districts than 
 in the empire of Morocco. 
 
 Haoussa, which stands in the neighbourhood of his Yahoodee, he repre- 
 sents a city with two lakes, &:c. giving it the latitude of nineteen degrees or 
 thereabouts ; but which should have been described as a mighty empire or 
 district whose capital city is Kassina ; and Youry, which he places on the 
 lower river, is Quolla, a powerful kingdom connected with and dependent 
 upon that metropolis, from which it is distant only fifteen good journies, east 
 and west. His kingdoms of Barrabadi and Kallaghee, are totally unkno%\Ti 
 at Coomassy. His Gambaroo river has no existence whatever; but Gam- 
 baroo is a large city and district eastward of Kano, and on the south bank of 
 the Koara. Katinna, the city placed between his kingdom called Kassina 
 and his city of Haoussa, is equally unknown, unless intended to express the 
 true Kassina, in which case it is placed as many hundred miles out of its 
 position as the Haoussa city in relation to the latter, being considered the 
 western limits of that district : but Haoussa and the tributary kingdoms are 
 upon the Koara. The towns conducting from the Gambaro to Katinna, are 
 entirely unknown by name, even to natives of Kassina or other parts of 
 Haoussa. Of the names scattered between the rivers, and eastward of his 
 JoUiba, some indeed are known, although the greater portion do not enjoy 
 that advantage. Taking a peep over the Quolla from Noffee, there will be 
 seen an extensive desert upon the chart; but which has no existence else- 
 where, if the natives of Nooffee or Noufy, are to be credited, any moi-e than 
 those long harmonious names in the vicinity of Wawa, spelt Goodoobirree, 
 Gillimakafoo, Garagooroogee, Paangee, &c. The same rule may be applied 
 to many more such, and the small writing is commonly erroneous. Of his 
 kingdoms south of the Koara, and between that river and the Aswada, 
 (supposing the Roman letters to have that signification) it is to be lamented 
 that some of them are not yet established ; witness his Firrado, Doolooe, 
 Fobee, Kaybee, and others. But in justice to the author it must be admitted, 
 that in the midst of such extensive regions hC: has hit upon some, perhaps I
 
 XXIV GEOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. 
 
 should have said, many places that really have existence, although in most 
 cases it appears he has mistaken kingdoms and districts for towns and cities, 
 and vice versa. In short, there is little to be commended, besides the names 
 of those provinces which now constitute the empire of Ashantee. Yet his 
 river Laka, his river Mory, his river Kaarhalla, and that which he calls 
 Coombo or Zamma, (unless Kambah) are alike unintelligible to natives of 
 those parts. True it is, there is a town called Coombo ; and his river called 
 Mory, or, as it should be written, Mawry, is a kingdom upon the banks of the 
 Ghulbi, a river which it seems he never heard of. Gooroma, which is 
 marked as a kingdom, happens to be the capital city of one of the most 
 puissant governments of interior Africa. Nay, he did not know that the 
 Volta was called the Aswada; that there was a great city called Nikky, the 
 metropolis of Killinga, distant from the Niger or Koara, and the vicinity of 
 Youry, only thirteen days; that there was a lake in the dominions of Ashantee 
 called Bouro; (although he will find it written and published in one of the 
 manuscripts) or that there were provinces in the empire bearing the name of 
 Akiyah, Ajorah, Yobati, Baboso, &c. All these inferences may be drawn 
 from his map. Turning from this barren subject, to the little sketch called 
 " Reported Courses of the Rivers," &c. affixed at the corner of the said map, I 
 shall only remark, that his Oongoora, which is pronounced by the Moslems 
 and Pagans broad and full, Wankara, nearly as we Avrite it, should be 
 removed from its elevated station, and be again inserted, in proper characters, 
 in a latitude considerably lower than his lowest river, (of those running east 
 and west) and above a thousand miles more to the westward of the longitude 
 he has assigned it. * 
 
 It would, perhaps, have astonished the survivors of the mission of 1817, to 
 be told, that their party had first the honour of exploring a region so famous in 
 
 * Since these sheets were written, accounts have been transmitted to England of the death of Mr. 
 Bowdich upon the Gambia. As an author, it is for the public to determine how his untimely end may affect 
 the world of African literature. As a private man, and a laudable adventurer in the pestilential climates 
 of that continent, all men of feeling will deplore a loss that adds another name of some little distinction to 
 the already inflated list of travellers, whose existence is now only to be found in the pages of history. I
 
 MAP OF WANGARA. XXV 
 
 record which has been so long searched after, and of which it has puzzled so many 
 men of erudition, (transcending our own by far,) to form a solution agreeably to 
 the writings of the ancients. Nevertheless it is an undoubted fact, authenticated 
 by the testimony of every Moslem in Coomassy, that Wangara, or Wankara, 
 is a mighty district (like what was called the province of Africa, where the 
 city of Aphrodisium stood, and from which that of Mehedia also took its name) 
 spreading over all that tract of land from Gaman inclusively, or the Manding 
 States of Enkasy and Ghombati, in the west, to Khimbee, and Ajasee, in 
 the east ; and from N. to S. from Ghofan and Tonouma, down to the margin of 
 the Atlantic ocean. But I shall submit, as I may find occasion, such other 
 observations as I am w^arranted to do, from the unanimity and confidence which 
 all my informers opposed against any argument of a character to destroy 
 their testimony. 
 
 Whatever class my literary errors may belong to, or however unworthy I 
 may be to obtrude upon the good sense of the public, I trust I shall not 
 deserve the imputation of having knowingly misrepresented facts. The 
 map of Wangara, will at least enjoy the merit of being free from* 
 
 too can mourn, because there are few to be found possessing as much zeal, enterprize, and literary talent 
 as Mr. Bowdich was qualified with, notwithstanding the blunders I lay to his charge in the volume he 
 wrote on Ashantee, or the revolting egotism and misrepresentation with which it abounds. While I dis- 
 claim the influence of prejudice in regard to this unfortunate gentleman, I am free to declare that I look 
 to his publication only, the false colouring it has given to matters of importance, and the consequent false 
 impression it is calculated to make on the understanding of the reader ; and whether its author be living 
 or not, I conceive my duty is the same. I will venture to assert, that had he been still in existence, it 
 would have been impossible, by any effort of the pen, to have extricated his name, with satisfaction, 
 from the obloquy associated with my charges. As he is dead, no degree of cens\ire can affect him. Let 
 him slumber, therefore, in a peaceful distant grave ; but let me undeceive the world in matters connected 
 with a public interest. 
 
 * When Mr. Bowdich arrived in England, Mr. Cock applied to me to translate his Arabic manuscripts. 
 I took some pains in doing so, and those papers which came under my observation did not support the 
 speculations he subsequently launched into, for they were in a limited degree supplementary, as his 
 book was already written, with the reservation, perhaps, of his geographical section. 
 
 d
 
 XXVI DESCRIPTION OF ASHANTEE. 
 
 speculative or conjectural matter, excepting where such speculations are 
 characterised as such (by dotted lines, &c.) Besides the corroborative 
 testimony of the manuscript, the two maps stand supported by a mass 
 of information gleaned from the Moslems of the interior parts. I have 
 purposely revised my old maps and sketches, expunging from them a variety of 
 reports which were unsubstantiated by writings in the native character, and 
 which it was my original intention to publish connectedly, but with a 
 specific mark, to distinguish those features which were corroborated by the 
 Arabic, from others which were not so. 
 
 Every thing short of ocular demonstration, it cannot be denied, is 
 defective ; or at least liable to error. Latitude and longitude are unquestion- 
 ably the criterions by which the mind may satisfy itself of the relative position 
 of objects: yet where these essentials cannot be obtained in practice, others, 
 founded upon authority, may be substituted with more or less pretension to 
 accuracy ; and information derived from these sources may even stand the 
 test of public criticism. Liable as my own map may be to errors, I shall not 
 deem it inconsistent at a future day, should my destiny again lead me to the 
 shores of Africa, to expunge, with my own hand, the faults I may then 
 discover, and publish to the world any misconceptions, however extensive 
 they may appear. Such, I conceive, is a duty incumbent upon every mzin, 
 who, by profession should, in a course of active service, enjoy local advantages 
 whereby he may, from time to time, reap information calculated for the 
 public ear. 
 
 The kingdom of Ashantee, from west to east, i. e. from Gaman to the 
 Volta River, embraces about four degrees of longitude, including its recent 
 acquirements in the west ; and from south to north, i. e. from Cape Coast 
 Castle to the tributary kingdom Ghofan, about four degrees of latitude. This 
 is the full extent of what, politically, is modern Ashantee ; for over this tract 
 the king rules with unrivalled sway : every king, chief, viceroy, or caboceer^ 
 being his absolute and unconditional vassal, as tributaries or not, and most of 
 them holding their governments by virtue of an appointment from the court.
 
 PROVINCES ROADS, - XXVII 
 
 The numerous kingdoms, or principalities, which in the days of Bosman 
 flourished in the vicinity of the Gold Coast, have successively been engulphed 
 in the vortex which has since spread under its modern name of Ashantee, into • 
 that great political association of kingdoms, that have fallen under the sword 
 of the ruling dynasty, and are now only to be distinguished as provinces 
 dependent on the court of Coomassy. This is to be understood as referring to 
 what originally was called the kingdom of Dinkra, the mountains of Tofal, the 
 kingdom of Wassau or Warsaw, that of Araanaha, Aowin, Showe, and 
 Toosequa, on its western longitudinal meridian ; those of Soko, Takima, 
 Coransa, Massy, Assin, Fantee, and Ahanta, on the central meridian ; and 
 the districts of Ghofan, Baboso, Banna, Yobati, Ajorah, Bouromy, Akeyah, 
 Aquahou, Akim, Aquapim, and Aquambo, in the east, bordering on the 
 Volta. 
 
 There is a free and unobstructed communication with all the leading 
 provinces, by roads or paths, which by way of distinction are collectively 
 called great roads ; and, separately, they bear the name of the sovereign in 
 whose reign they were cut, or the country they lead to. These roads are 
 eight in number; not nine as Mr. Bowdich was informed. The Aowin is the 
 first, leading to the western coast, to Apollonia, Assinee, Bassam, and Lahou. 
 The second is the Wassau road, leading through Dinkra to Wassau ; from 
 whence it again branches off, east and west, the former leading to the river 
 Praa, which is crossed to El Mina, Commenda, Chamah, &c., and the latter 
 striking through Ahanta, to Cape Three Points, and the European establish- 
 ments in its vicinity. The third road is that leading through Assin and 
 Fantee, to the village of Doonqua, where it forks off in two branches, the one 
 to Annamaboe, and the other to the Dutch fort at Mouree ; which is about 
 four miles eastward of Cape Coast Castle. The fourth is a road, running 
 south-east, and north-west ; through Juabin, Yomoho, Akim, and part of 
 Aquapim, to Accra, and the English, Dutch, and Danish settlements in that 
 neighbourhood. These are the four great maritime causeways, from whence 
 
 d2
 
 XXVIII DESCRIPTION OF ASHANTEE. 
 
 the Ashantees derive all their supplies of powder, guns, and European 
 
 merchandize. 
 
 The inland roads of Ashantee are, first, that leading from Coomassy, 
 north-west, to the ferry of Ensoota or Ensotah, on the River Tando, and from 
 thence branching off in two directions, the one to the northward, leading to 
 Bontoko, and Houraboh; the residence of the late king of that country, 
 (Enkasy, Kong, &c.); the other inclining more westerly, to Shouy, Soumah, 
 and Sarem in the west. The second road leads through Takimah west, or 
 Coransah and Banna east, to the River Aswada, and the mountains of 
 Sarga, the eastern circuit of which leads on to Ghobagho, and the western 
 to Enkasi, Kong, and Manding. The third is a road cut through Massy, 
 Coransa, and Banna, easterly to the Aswada, below the Desert of Ghofan, 
 where it again branches off northward to Ghobagho ; and eastward to Tonoma, 
 and the kingdoms of Dagomba. The fourth, and last great path, is the one 
 leading to Akiyah ; from whence it sprouts out in two branches, the one 
 easterly to Bouromi and the Volta, the other inclining to the northward of the 
 lake Bouro, through Ajorah, part of Yobati, and Baboso, to the Volta again, 
 beyond which is Salgha. The two last roads are sometimes called the old 
 roads, from their antiquity and pre-eminence. Besides these, since the recent 
 subjugation of Gaman, the king employed a considerable body of troops in 
 cutting a path more westerly through the forest, that would lead to the open 
 plains on the Tando, and to Gaman, by a route reported to be shorter by two 
 journies than the old one into which it is made to strike, at the distance 
 of one watch from Coomassy. 
 
 The minor roads and paths are more numerous ; the chief of them is one 
 leading through the north-eastern provinces to a ferry called Goya, named 
 after the chief town in Bouromy, south of the Bouro Water. Another of this 
 class proceeds to Quahoe, from whence there is a cross road to Akim, 
 Aquapim, Accra, Ningo, &c. ; and another, branching easterly, to Aquambo and 
 Dahomy : but it is reckoned extremely hazardous to enter that kingdom from
 
 ROADS PATHS FORESTS. XXIX 
 
 the side of Ashantee through Aquambo. There is another road leading from 
 Coomassy to Sumah and Showy, in the west, over the Tando. Another also, 
 taking through Akeyah, between the Banna road and the Volta, and leading 
 to the eastern extremity of the Desert, from whence it is only two good 
 journies to a considerable town of Ghunga, called Agaga. Several roads of a 
 like importance, lead, more or less, to the east and west of south, with 
 branches that fork to the principal towns on the sea coast, and to the forts or 
 factories of the three European powers, there established : viz. one over the 
 Aquapim Hills, to Ningo, Pram Pram, and the mouth of the Volta. Another 
 through Akim, to Berracoe and Winnebah. A third breaks out at Tantum by 
 a branch from the main track, leading to Annamaboe. Some other branches, 
 besides, extend from Wassau through the Ahanta country, opening a commu- 
 nication with the windward settlements, from the Praa to the Ancober rivers. 
 But all these roads are of comparative insignificance, and many of them are 
 shut up, from time to time, by fallen timber, swamps, and barriers of matted 
 vegetation, cemented together by uncommon rains, tornados, or the sudden 
 rush of torrents from the hills. Neither are the main roads exempt from these 
 casualties ; for sometimes it occurs that the most frequented tracks are 
 reported by the last traveller to have become impassable, in which case it is 
 usual for the government to employ men to remove the obstructions, or to cut a 
 new opening in the parts adjacent, as may be effected most expeditiously. 
 
 The principal towns, as well as most of the superior villages, are within 
 the track of the high roads : yet there are others, of distinction, to which 
 access is gained by traversing paths diverging from the main trunks. 
 
 Ashantee, from the latitude of 7° 30' north, down to the water's 
 edge, is a solid rampart of vegetation, extending east and west, from Aquapim 
 to Ahanta, in the form of one compact forest, either (as it is found about 
 fifteen miles inland) of the most stupendous character, or (as it may be seen in 
 the vicinity of the coast) exhibiting an entanglement of lofty bush, blended 
 with tall trees. The paths that intersect this forest are unavoidably the most 
 capricious and serpentine. The labour of cutting them straight would indeed
 
 XXX DESCRIPTION OF ASHANTEE. 
 
 be a severe tax upon the industry of the nation. But the government, for 
 ^ reasons of a political nature, connected with the recent aspect of some of the 
 Fantee towns in the neighbourhood of Forts, does not yet think proper to 
 remove the impediments of this natural barrier, between the sea coast and the 
 capital of the empire. Hence the generality of them notwithstanding they are 
 considered as main roads, are scarcely to be called footpaths.* 
 
 The roads or paths leading inland are infinitely superior to the others, and 
 as the forest is cleared on the fourth or fifth day, and in some places, the third 
 from leaving Coomassy, these tracks extend over vast plains where there is no 
 great impediment to the traveller, unless the jungle may have become matted 
 in certain spots. Gaman, Banna, and in short the greater part of Sarem, in the 
 south, is almost universally champaign land, in some places variegated by 
 clumps of trees and shrubbery, scattered in patches widely distant apart. 
 Ghunja beyond the Volta, as also Dagomba, have also a similar aspect, although 
 hilly, if not mountainous, in the vicinity of that river ; and it has more woods 
 than Sarem, 
 
 The seat of empire is environed by numerous large and small populous 
 towns, the chief of which is Juabinf, bearing south-east from Coomassy, one 
 ' day's journey. It is reckoned to be about one third the size of Coomassy, and 
 its population is estimated at seventy thousand souls. Below the city is the 
 lake Echouy, at a very inconsiderable distance, and in the neighbouring hills 
 (for it is inclosed in a natural amphitheatre) are many small towns and villages, 
 
 * As it was the universal impression, that all public disputes ceased with the ratification of the treaty, 
 I did not hesitate to urge the necessity of forming a broad open path down to our chief settlement, offer- 
 ing, as my instructions authorized me, the loan of tools for that purpose. The king, in reply, said, " I 
 know the white king is a true friend now, and he can only tell you to ask me that for my good ; but then 
 he lives a long way off, and does not hear what insolent people the blacks are, when they think the white 
 king is their friend, and will help them to fight. Now, as soon as my nephew comes back, 1 shall make 
 a proper road, that the trade may go to the English." The Moslems subsequently corroborated this in- 
 tention. 
 
 t Mr. Bowdich has erroneously spelt it Dwabin ; the natives pronounce it as 1 have written, and the 
 Moslems spell it ^y^'j?-, which is the same.
 
 ECHOUY, YOMOHO. QUAHOU. XXXI 
 
 whose inhabitants, beside their usual occupations, derive extra emoluments 
 from fishing, an operation which they perform with canoe and circular net, the 
 same as is practised on the ocean. Many thousands of Fantees, Assins, and 
 Gamans, are there detained prisoners of war. Of the two first nations some 
 are considered free, although narrowly watched to prevent their escape to the 
 sea side : the rest are absolute slaves, having been sold and transferred in due 
 succession from hand to hand. From their superior capacity in aquatic em- 
 ployments, they are considered valuable property by their taskmasters. * In 
 short, Echouy, or as it may be also called Bussem Echouy, and the territory 
 thereabouts may be considered the Siberia of the Court : for it is also a place 
 of banishment for inferior ranks of insurgents, whom the king may think proper 
 to spare, or reserve for future punishment. 
 
 Eastward of the lake is a little district of Akim, called Yomoho, 
 whose chief town is Adumpore. It has also a great population scattered ^ 
 about in little villages, whose inhabitants are agriculturists, and supply the 
 markets of Juabin, Bequa, Sarasoo, Dompassy, &c. with corn and yams. 
 
 Beyond Yomoho, on the north-east, is the province of Quahou, formerly 
 a little kingdom of itself. This is reckoned a very fruitful spot, and in many 
 places the land is clear and open, even down to the Volta, where there is^ 
 another valuable fishery that gives employment to many thousands of the 
 natives of those parts. 
 
 The route from Coomassy to the lower part of Aquambo, Aquapim, &c. 
 down to the mouth of the Aswada or Volta, lies over a very hilly country 
 greatly intersected by water-courses, many of which incline easterly, and 
 discharge themselves into the Volta ; the banks of which river, on both sides, 
 are occasionally infested by a banditti, who are sometimes daring enough to 
 plunder the smaller crooms in its vicinity. The insurgents are mostly 
 
 * Two of these unhappy men, whom I had an opportunity of conversing with, assured me, that 
 between Fantees and Assins together, their numbers now approached to twenty-five thousand, and that above 
 four times that number had perished, either on the altars of the metropolis, or by famine, misery, and the 
 cruelty of their masters.
 
 XXXII DESCRIPTION OF ASHANTEE. 
 
 Aquambo negroes, excited to rebellion against their conquerors the Ashantees, 
 by other branches of the tribe who fled before the invading army, and have 
 established themselves on the Dahoman shore ; yet, in peaceable times, they 
 are also considered the subjects of Ashantee. It is reckoned eighteen 
 journies from Coomassy to the mouth of that river. 
 
 The route to Accra lies through Yomolio, Atoa, and Akim. * The surface 
 for the most part is abrupt. The provinces of Akim and Aquapim are 
 mountainous or hilly ; yet many extensive tracts on the eastern frontier of 
 Akim are entirely free from forest and thicket. 
 
 A medical gentleman of the name of Isert, in the service of his Danish 
 majesty, made several excursive tours in Aquapim, and, as it is reported, 
 would have travelled further inland had it been agreeable to the views of the 
 Company. According to the traditions still preserved amongst the officers of 
 Christiansburg castle, this traveller experienced much hospitality from the 
 natives, and was greatly delighted with the beauteous novelties that opened 
 to view as he advanced to the northward. After passing the chain of hills he 
 found the land to be open, yet not entirely free from forest. The crooms on 
 the line of path, unlike the Fantee roads, were numerous, populous, and 
 imposing ; and they scarcely averaged the distance of two miles apart. 
 
 The streams are very numerous throughout the Akim and Aquapim 
 provinces ; some of them, particularly after heavy rains, are impassable until 
 the water subsides. The chief of the rivers crossed by the Akim path 
 between Coomassy and the coast, are, first, the Dah, which rises at no great 
 distance from Jamacasi, passing Juabin and falling into the Praa, two 
 journies westward of the ford at Prassoo. 
 
 The second river of magnitude is the Praa, which is crossed between 
 Anoka and Argol^i on the fifth day. This river being a tutelar god is dignified 
 
 * Mr. Bowdich says, that on the route to Accra, the river Boosempra is crossed on the sixth day, by a 
 tree laid over the stream ; but this is contradicted by general testimony. A messenger who came to me 
 from Accra travelled to the capital by this route, and he declared the breadth of the river to be great, adding, 
 "That it was not always fordable, and that no such thing as a bridge existed there or elsewhere on that route." 
 The Birrum river is about ten yards wide at Monosi.
 
 THE PRAA, BIRRUM, &C. XXXIIl 
 
 with the name of Bussem, which may be interpreted sacred, awful, majestic, 
 holy ; * it rises in a mountain between Akeya and Quahou, near a little croom 
 called Sumtasoo, and sacrifices are made at its spring head, which is said to 
 be a large gaping rock about halfway up the side of the mountain. Here the 
 full vigour of the God is supposed to exist, yet the water does not always 
 gush out with the same force. 
 
 The river Birrum is the third in rank on the Accra route ; it rises near 
 Sonara in Quahou, and falls into the Praa at a very short distance from 
 Dansansoo. 
 
 The Corim, the Sagwa, and the Souho, are streams which rise in the 
 Aquapim hills, and flowing eastward fall into the Aswada within forty miles 
 of its mouth. 
 
 The river Saccoom, between Accra and Berracoe, has also its rise in the 
 Aquapim mountains, and a branch of it is crossed at three journies from 
 Accra. 
 
 Accra is scarcely one hundred and sixty miles horizontal distance from 
 the capital, yet the surface is so rugged, and the paths so obstructed and 
 circuitous, that the real extent of ground is near two hundred and forty miles, 
 according to the time it employs the traveller in going that distance. 
 
 Akeyah, Bouromy, Ajorah, Yobati, and Coransah, are reckoned among 
 the most populous provinces of the empire. The habits of the people are 
 more commercial and enterprising, and their evil passions less predominant 
 than those of the Ashantees. This may be, in some degree, attributed to the 
 great influence of the Moslems in the above-named provinces, in Bouromi, 
 and in Baboso, where likewise they sojourn in great numbers, ■f It is also to 
 
 f Bussem is the native word for Fetische. 
 
 * Notwithstanding the Moslems who inhabit the capital are necessarily induced to espouse the court 
 politics in public life, they are secretly averse from coalescing with the army, for two simple reasons ; the 
 first is religion, which forbids that the lives and liberties of " true beUevers" should be sacrificed to the 
 caprice, or in the avaricious wars of heathen monarciis ; the second is an innate repugnance to contribute 
 to the aggrandizement of a power that is already dreaded by the Moslems in general. 
 
 6
 
 XXXIV DESCRIPTIOX OF ASIIAXTEE. 
 
 be observed, that these people, in conjunction with the inhabitants of Banna, 
 were the vassals, in the middle of the last century, of the sovereigns of Salgha. 
 
 The road leading to Bouromy and the Volta, at Goyah and Odanty, is 
 frequented by the traders who convey merchandize to the markets on the 
 confines of Dahomy, for the supply of that empire. The distance to this ferry 
 is reckoned twelve days good travelling. The path is passably smooth as far 
 as the mountains of Akeyah, about sixty miles from Coomassy, yet the forest 
 extends to their very basement. After gaining access to the opposite side, the 
 path takes through extensive plains, where trees are only to be met with in 
 detached spots, and sometimes none will be seen for many miles. The surface 
 is covered with high grass and jungle, which the inhabitants fire, and employ 
 the ashes to manure the plantations. 
 
 Elephants abound in Bouromy, Yobati, Baboso, and Banna ; and hunting 
 these animals is one of the chief occupations of the people. The natives of 
 Yobati are reckoned so adroit at the sport, that they can furnish above a 
 hundred loads of ivory, for Coomassy, in the space of a month, if required. It 
 would seem that the elephant was an equivalent gift of Providence in the lieu 
 of those veins of precious ore, which are to be met with in some districts south- 
 ward, and westward, where these animals do not usually herd. 
 
 The Moselms are particularly numerous in Yobati, and in all the provinces 
 to the east and west of north : they live in political societies governed by their 
 respective princes, who are vassals to the king, but who enjoy prerogatives 
 exceeding those of any other class of subjects. 
 
 The lake Bouro, a sheet of water of a greater extent than the Echouy 
 lake, lies to the northward of Yobati, and in the season of rain is distant from 
 the Volta one watch, or about three hours easy walk. The Echouy being 
 situated in the land of the heathens, and close to the capital, is a place of 
 greater renown. It is supposed hence to have obtained the title of Bussem, 
 being called indiscriminately Echouy, or Bussem Echouy, the sacred lake.* 
 
 * There is, as Mr. Bowdich relates, a popular superstition that the Europeans will cut a water 
 communication from the sea to the Ecliouy, the guardian God of the metropolis ; but that the Moslems
 
 tAKE BOCRO. XXXV 
 
 Hypothetical as this may appear, it is in some degree corroborated by the 
 reports of the Moslems, who affirm that the title of Bussem was conferred upon 
 it by an ancestor of the reigning sovereign, in commemoration of a battle gamed 
 in its neighbourhood, over the Akims, when they attacked the royal army by 
 land and water. During those wars the Echouy was considered the guardian 
 of the capital against Akim, then the most powerful and warlike tribe of 
 negroes in the neighbourhood. The water of Echouy, notwithstanding it is 
 filled by the torrents, and by rain descending from the amphitheatre of hills, is 
 sometimes brackish, and this happens particularly dxiring the greatest heat, 
 when the land has been droughty for any length of time. Yet I never heard Mr. 
 Bowdich's assertion that the water gave a reddish hue to the colour of the hair 
 confirmed by the most credulous native ; on the contrary my enquiries extorted 
 a smile, and a reply, that it was like other water, only " sometimes salt like the 
 sea.'' In this property the Echouy diflfers from the Bouro, for the latter is 
 perfectly fresh and pure, at all seasons. The Bouro is also deeper as well as 
 larger, and is navigated by fishing canoes like the former. If the rains are ex- 
 cessive, it overflows its natural limits to the extent of many miles, and some- 
 times discharges its surplus of waters into the Aswada. A little river that rises 
 in a mountain between Banna and the little desert of Ghofan, flows by a south- 
 easterly course into the lake, and contributes, during the sun's greatest action, 
 to supply the deficit occasioned by evaporation. This stream, as the lake 
 rises, inundates and fertilizes the land periodically on both sides, and the 
 natives plant their fields as soon as the water subsides. Fish of a large size, 
 and of delicious flavours, are said to be taken in the lake, and conveyed alive 
 to Salgha. Many thousands of families also gain a living on its shores by 
 
 nourish the legend, I cannot believe ; although I do not say they may be unmoved by a rumour which 
 would flatter their hopes of emancipation from the yoke of heathen vassalage, mild as it is in respect to 
 them, and place them in a situation from whence they might draw the same mercantile resources, as do 
 now the Ashantees, who, by means of powder and shot alone, support that great political influence. Absurd 
 as the tradition certainly is, if the Moslems are at all affected by it, it can only be with a friendly anxiety 
 for its completion. 
 
 e2
 
 XXXVI DESCRIPTIOX OF ASHAXTEE. 
 
 drying the article, and selling it to traders who make it a profession to frequent 
 the markets of Dagombah. 
 
 . Between Bouromi and Akeyah, there is a small stream that has its source 
 in the mountains of the latter district, and which in its course easterly to the 
 Aswada, forms a continuation of swampy patches like the bogs which surround 
 Coomassy on the south and east. To this land they give the name of Ghore- 
 kati ^jc. a name synonymous with humid, watery, and deep. 
 
 The distance of Yagy from the capital by the above route will be about 
 two hundred and fifteen miles. 
 
 The route to Daboya and the kingdom of Ghobagho takes northerly 
 through the districts and provinces of Massy, or Akeya, Coransa, Banna, and 
 the Desert. The principal towns are Jamakasi, Kikiwhari, Enaso, Sakado, 
 Kikiwasi, Graga, Dankari, Measi, Batmali, Coransa, Boben, Kerahem, Kan- 
 tano, Kaka Caranda, Dawa; then the desert of Ghofan, and the Aswada river. 
 
 The route to Salgha, the metropolis of Ghunja, takes through the provinces 
 of Akeyah, Ajorah, Bouromi, Yobati, and Baboso : the towns are numerous, 
 but those of note are Jamacasi, Antoa, Damoka, Akroforom, Manbon, Adijani, 
 Amatini, Akokoa, Batoda, Atabaho, Yobati, Sakenim, Yagy, and Salgha. 
 
 The route to Kong and Manding, leading on to the great kingdom of 
 Melly on the JoUiba, intersects the provinces and districts of Massy, Safoy, 
 Takima, Ghombati, and Enkasy. Here, however, the policy of the natives 
 (who from about nine degrees to twelve degrees of latitude in this direction, 
 are principally Moslems) is directly inimical to that of the court of Ashantee, 
 and consequently there is rarely any commercial intercourse with the southern 
 Manding tribes, excepting the few who, after the defeat of Dinkera, sub- 
 mitted to the yoke of vassalage, under the government of Ashantee, and were 
 permitted to enjoy their inheritances peaceably in Ghombaty, Sokoo, and the 
 confines of Ghofan. 
 
 A few of these people I occasionally saw in Coomassy. They are fairer 
 complexioned than any of the heathens of these parts, but less robust, and 
 seemingly less vigorous. Yet the greatest resistance the Ashantees met with
 
 JIETROPOLIS OF ASHANTEE. XXXVII 
 
 during the campaign in Gaman, is admitted to have originated with the Man- 
 dings, who are the best cavalry troops, as they are also the best Elephant 
 hunters in any part of Sarem. 
 
 Their warlike weapons are scimiters, bows and arrows, darts, and lances 
 of the old Arab* construction, and whose blades, besides being of the length of 
 sixteeen or eighteen inches, are sometimes barbed and envenomed the same as 
 the arrows with a deadly sort of poison, said to be known only to the inhabi- 
 tants, and differing materially from what is prepared in Ashantee or Banna. 
 
 The more easterly kingdoms of Wangara, above the parallel of eight 
 degrees of latitude, contain a still greater proportion of Moslems than the 
 western, as far at least to the eastward as the great lake of Ayoh. The Moslem 
 powers north and north-west of Dahomy are, it is affirmed, when united, able 
 to raise an army adequate to drive the Dahomans from the capital, and strike 
 terror into the breasts of the surrounding nations, as they have done on former 
 occasions. But the Sultan of Zogho, to whom the Dahomans are tributary, is 
 adverse to these invasions, as long as they are faithful in their remittances to 
 the Court. 
 
 The Natives of Entaa, Mahee, and Gouaso, over the Aswada, are mostly 
 of a tawny brown complexion, alike in persons, language, and features; but 
 diflfering in customs, inasmuch as the tribes of the two last named provinces, 
 distinguish themselves by scarifying and puncturing various parts of the body, 
 besides the face, which the Moslems practise in common. 
 
 The metropolis of Ashantee,-f according to my reckonings, will be found 
 
 • One of these lances and some darts wliich I gave to the late Sir George Collier, were tolerably 
 ingenious specimens of workmanship. The former was covered alternately with silk, pieces of red 
 cloth, and tiger's skin, ornamented with tassels and amulets neatly cased : the handle was covered with 
 the skin of a snake. 
 
 t The territory of Ashantee is particularly ill adapted to surveys upon any trigonometrical principles^ 
 or even the application of astronomical instruments. Choice of stations can never avail in the country ; 
 and accident alone must guide the footsteps of the traveller to a spot where he can obtain a partial
 
 XXXViri DESCRIPTION OF ASHANTEE. 
 
 about nine geographical miles to the southward of the parallel of seven degrees 
 of north latitude, and in two degrees sixteen minutes or nearly so of west 
 longitude. It approaches in bearing nigher to the meridian of Elmina, than 
 any other town on the line of coast, and when the path is open, the distance 
 by that, which is called the Wassau path or route, is traversed in less time by 
 one day, and as some say one day and two watches, than any other station on 
 the sea coast, a proof of its westerly inclination in regard to the longitudinal 
 meridian of Cape Coast Castle. 
 
 The military resources of Ashantee are great indeed, without casting into 
 the scale her preponderating influence in Sarem and Dagomba. The bashaw 
 Mohammed assured me, that the armies of Ashantee that fought in Gaman, 
 amounted to upwards of eighty thousand men, (without including the camp 
 attendants, such as women and boys) of whom at one time above seven 
 thousand were Moslems, who fought under his orders. In this estimate I 
 speak within bounds, for I am inclined to believe he alluded to the army of 
 Banna as a distinct force, whose numbers varied from twenty to twenty-five 
 thousand men, armed with tomahawks, lances, knives, javelins, and bows and 
 arrows. Of the eighty thousand the King ceSi put muskets and blun- 
 derbusses in the hands of from forty to fifty thousand. The opposing enemy, 
 including the auxiliary Moslem and Heathen powers allied to the army of 
 Dinkera, amounted at times to one hundred and forty thousand men, of whom 
 a great proportion were cavalry. The issue of that war, which restored 
 
 glimpse of the firmament, of scope sufficient to enable him to make use of an artificial horizon : for 
 where vegetation, such as 1 have described its character, does not grow, houses stand, the former being 
 removed to give place to the latter in the stations of crooms, or in the land that may have been cleared 
 lor the reception of grain and yams. 
 
 A pocket sextant, a compass, a thermometer, and an horizon, were all the instruments I could 
 procure at C^pe Coast antecedently to the journey ; for, on my application to the governor and council 
 for the use of others (which, it is true, belonged to them privately) I was assured that none could be 
 procured ; or that there were none. To add to my misfortunes, the sextant was so much disorganized, 
 that after repeated trials, I was compelled to lay it aside, and the thermometer got broken in Coomassy.
 
 MILITARY RESOURCES. XXXIX 
 
 the sovereignty of Gaman to the king of Ashantee, must unquestionably have 
 increased his military strength to the extent of twenty or thirty thousand 
 more men, although it is true the relics of those tribes who submitted, or 
 escaped the butcheries, were not considered worthy to be trusted with arms 
 during my stay at Court. 
 
 The Kingof Dahomy and his auxiliaries, the bashaw says, can raise about* 
 fifty thousand men, of .whom from eight to ten thousand only are fusileers ; the 
 rest are armed with bows and arrows, besides sabres, and iron maces. This, 
 he says, is the greatest force the Dahomans ever sent into the field. 
 
 The king of Benin is, however, by far the most powerful of the three 
 monarchs, in regard to the number of his troops, for he can arm two hundred 
 thousand upon an emergency, but he cannot furnish above ten thousand with 
 muskets. 
 
 The dominions of the Ashantees, east of the Aswada, are considerabfe, 
 but do not extend as far as has been represented. Yandy forms no part of the 
 empire ; but it is true that Ashantee influence carries great weight in the 
 councils of the sovereign of Dagomba. Those which are deemed the north- 
 east frontier towns are Coobeya, Yansala, Banko, and Toubary, in Tonouma 
 and Entaa ; the town last mentioned serving as a frontier on the Dahoman 
 side ; but in none of these places are Ashantee troops stationed, the people being 
 left to the government of their caboceers, and the jurisdiction of their own laws. 
 In fact, they seem to belong rather to the class of tributaries, than subjects ; 
 yet they are compelled, whether Moslems or heathens, to serve in the wars of 
 
 • The population of Dahoiny, notwithstanding, is infinitely greater than that of Ashantee properly 
 so called, with the provinces of Akim, Assin, Fantee, Dinkra, &c. included. It is greater in proportion 
 to extent of territory, although the character of its wars, as described in Mr. Dalzel's history of that 
 kingdom and the conquests of Ardrah, Whydah, and Popo, is precisely the same as in Ashantee. 
 The most populous provinces and principalities of Ashantee lie to the northward of the seventh degree of 
 latitude. That of Bouromy alone can raise 10,000 men, and Coransah, about half ihat force ; Quaho 
 six thousand, Amanaha, and Aowin (termed the kingdom of Apollonia,) three thousand ; and the great 
 provinces of Soko and Takima twenty thousand. These troops are to be considered independent of the 
 actual armies of Ashantee, as also of the auxiliary forces of Banna, of Gaman of the upper provinces on the 
 banks of the Aswada, and the alliances with ihe sultan of Yandy, or the tributaries eastward of that river.
 
 XL DESCRIPTION OF ASHANTEE. 
 
 the empire. Salgha, the chief city of these districts, whose station I have 
 assigned 8°. 50. latitude, and 0°. 25 . longitude east, is reported to be 
 of twice the size of Coomassy, and its population, of whom nearly one- 
 sixth part are Moslems, to be about four hundred thousand souls. The 
 Korannic law is that which governs the population not only of Tonouma, but 
 also of Simmer, Ghofan, Ghomba, and the northern tribes of Ent^a ; and in 
 most of these places the heathens are, notwithstanding their numerical 
 superiority, either subservient to it, or they cheerfully comply with a judicial 
 doctrine whose ministers they are from childhood taught to respect as apostles 
 of the great God, and whose fetische is thought to be of greater power and 
 efficacy than any ritual or magical incantation known among themselves. 
 
 The route to central Wangara, leading to the capital of Dahomy, the 
 Moslems sometimes travel over, but the heathens never. This is a path which 
 forks off in two branches from Quahou ; the upper or northern one leading 
 through the southern districts of Bouromy to Goyah and the ferry at Odanty, 
 and the lower or southern one, through Aquambo to the ferry at Nagho, a 
 capital town now subject to the dominion of Ashantee. The upper road, by a 
 circuit round the Mahee hills, leads to the towns of Fosoko, Arico, Chaca, 
 Gholamto, Meami, Atoy, and Abomey. 
 
 The land is supposed to be equal in fertility in these parts to that of 
 Benin, which is universally allowed to be the richest and best cultivated in 
 any part of Wangara ; but the population is not by any means so great as the 
 latter, for the tribes are constantly harassed by invasions of the Dahomans, who 
 pursue the same barbarous maxims in their wars as the Ashantees themselves. 
 The countries to the eastward of Dahomy, including Ghodau, Yagah, Khim- 
 bee, Ayoh, Ajasee, and Benin, are all heathen, or are governed by heathen 
 monarchs, whose laws and religion have no relation to the Korannic institu- 
 tions, but are in a proportionate degree the same as prevail generally among 
 the heathens, although in a milder manner, from the more commercial and 
 agricultural habits of many or most of the tribes in eastern Wangara. The 
 people of these parts, however, in common with the Moslems, practice cir- 
 cumcision.
 
 WANGARA. XLI 
 
 The current coin throughout these regions is cowries ; not only do they 
 circulate east of the Aswada, in Dahomy, and Dagomba, but also in the 
 Ashantee provinces of Bouromy, Baboso, Yobaty, Quahou, Aquambo, and 
 Inkran, where gold is not found ; for the Gold Coast extends no farther east 
 than Berracoa. 
 
 *Wangara, as I have already noticed, written l^j -f- and consequently 
 pronounced nearly as we do, excepting that the g should be blended with the 
 sound of guttural k, imitating the Arabian j, is that great strip of land 
 which comprehends the minor districts of Sarem, Ghunja, and the southern 
 parts of Dagomba, with part of Yarraba in the south also. Its sweep along 
 the line of coast embraces about six hundred and sixty geographic miles, 
 i. e. from Cape Lahou, the boundary of Ashantee, and its Gaman province or 
 kingdom on the west, to the parallel of longitude that marks the track of the 
 Formoso or Callebar rivers, which, according to my authors, are its boundaries 
 
 * See those very interesting reports in the Quarteriy Review of 1820, No. XLV. Art. " Course 
 of the Niger," founded upon the intelligence obtained by the late Mr. Ritchie, a gentleman who sailed 
 for Tripoli about the same time that I embarked for Guinea, and whose hopes, as he assured me in Eng- 
 land, embraced not only the survey of the Niger westerly from Bomou, but also the prospect of joining 
 me at Coomassy, on his anticipated route homeward by the way of Cape Coast. 
 
 Mohammed, a native of Timbuctoo, with whom Mr. Ritchie became acquainted, furnished him 
 with the information his reports convey, substantiated, as he describes them to be, by the testimony of 
 " Sidi Hamet Tooghar, the Cadi of Tripoli, who resided many years in the interior, and by Sidi Mahom- 
 med Dghies, late Prime Minister," &c. 
 
 Of Wangara, a place but vaguely known to the northern Moslems, it is a remarkable coincidence, 
 that one of these reports should actually corroborate my own information on that point, as the following 
 extract will shew : — " From Timbuctoo to Wangara is about twenty-Jive days' journey ; the inhabitants 
 bring gold duH to Timbuctoo," He (Mohammed) had not been there, but understood it to be in a 
 southerly direction. Diffident as I may be in obtruding my own opinions on the world, or biassing the 
 reader's judgment, I cannot in this instance refrain from stating my entire conviction of the identity of 
 Ashantee, Gaman, &c. &c. with the true and only Wangara known to the nations of North Africa; 
 wonderful as it may seem, that we should have actually colonized the country for many ages past, without 
 ever having known it even by name. 
 
 f And by some |;^j or, adopting the Persian '^- l/^^^y 
 
 f
 
 XLII WANGARA. 
 
 to the rising sun, (the east.) The navigation between Benin (and between 
 all those great streams which intersect the Warree coast,) and the Koara and 
 Ghulby rivers, is not, as my informers say, to be doubted ; and it ispossible 
 to perform the voyage from Benin to Timbuctoo and Sago without setting 
 foot on shore, although it is not usual to navigate against the streams of those 
 great waters, the Kadarko, the Shawanka, the Ghulby, the Koara, Shady or 
 JoUiba, particularly in the rainy season, when the rivers are full ; for although 
 they know of no rapids or cataracts to the south of Wawa, yet the natural 
 velocity of the streams is so great as to impede the canoes in a northerly 
 progress, although impelled forward by the strength of fifty men and more. 
 Two of my informers declared, they had performed the voyage from north to 
 south, under protection of the sultan of Youry, as far as the gates of Benin. 
 
 Returning to Wangara, the first individual to whom I applied for informa- 
 tion, was the very Bashaw Mohammed known to Mr. Bowdich by the name of 
 Baba {father). Wangara was a subject of interest in our earliest conversations. 
 Of this man I begged to know where that celebrated country, its lakes, its 
 rivers, and its swamps existed. The reply was, " Wangara is a large place; 
 it is not a kingdom, neither is it a city ; but it contains many kingdoms and 
 many cities : the ground you tread upon is Wangara." At this explanation I 
 betrayed a mixture of surprise and incredulity. " Can you doubt what I tell 
 you ?" replied the chief; " if you do, enquire of our people whether I do not 
 speak what is true."' Shouma, Abou Beer, Cantoma, Mohammed bel Cas- 
 sim, and some others who were present, confirmed the assertion, (as did the 
 king himself, on a day of subsequent enquiry if he knew Wangara,) in terms 
 the most positive and convincing. * Wangara was naturally an object that 
 claimed a leading interest, from its having been the great focus of speculation 
 among the learned in Europe. Rivers it has many ; for the eastern confines 
 are exceedingly low ; but swamps (except little incidental ones, such as occur 
 
 * l»Lc .dll J'j iJi i.^j J! .■ There is no doubt about it," was the expression used by the 
 Moslems, " and God knows it is true."
 
 RIVERS. XLiri 
 
 on the Ashantee path) it has none, besides what may be found on the great 
 tropical Delta, (Warree) during the season of rain, when in truth the whole 
 eastern country, as far as the Callebar river, or the Rio del Rey, is more or 
 less swampy, and may in many places be navigated over in canoes, through 
 the heart of the lower forest regions, where the trees are at this time to be 
 seen growing as in the bed of a lake. 
 
 In the course of many subsequent meetings, although my enquiries were 
 reiterated where doubt and conviction were still somewhat at variance, the 
 replies were uniform : — " This is Wangara, and we believe there is no other 
 country of that name on our side of the great deserts ; but if there is, we 
 never heard mention of it, and therefore it must be a very small place." 
 " Where are the great rivers talked of in the Gharb, (in Ismaelia) and which 
 the Arabs say run to Wangara ?" "The rivers ofWangara are numerous; 
 they are such as we have already described, running into the great salt sea of 
 Benin, and from whence you came (Cape Coast.) The greatest fiver of 
 Wangara runs south behind Dahomy, direct to Warree, and is fifteen long 
 journies to the east of Abomey." " Is not this the Koara you speak of?" 
 " No ; the Koara is another very great sea ; * it runs to Noufy, where it takes 
 three days to cross the water ; from Noufy, the water runs by two or three 
 channels into the Lake of Shady, and the sea or river so called, passing 
 Bousa, Souy, Kassina, Yakoo, Kano, and Gambaro, in its course easterly, 
 below Bornou, to the Bahar Neel (Nile) of Egypt. The Ghulby, after a long 
 eastern course, inclining to the north, runs into it at Noufy, and the great 
 Benin river turns from it to the south, cutting from the direction of Wawa, 
 through Kaima, Khodobari, Agiassy, and Benin. They are all great seas, 
 but the Koara is the greatest in the universe." " Is the great river of Benin 
 
 • The Guinea Moslems, in speaking of rivers, invariably called them seas ; J^- was (heir charac- 
 teristic name of running water, salt or fresh, to which they subjoin large or small. The terms Wad, 
 Wadai, or Wadan, properly signifying river, which the Arabs and Northern Africans commonly use, were 
 not in use among the Wangara Moslems. 
 
 f 2
 
 XLIV WANGARA. 
 
 the Ghulby that flows from Ghoroma in the kingdom of Magho ?" — " It is not 
 that sea itself, but it is connected with its waters through the lake Noufy." 
 
 This conversation is extracted from a diary, which it was my practice 
 to keep. On a subject which I deemed of importance, I have preferred 
 inserting the arguments verbatim, devoid of all embellishments of the pen, 
 or any bias which a change of language or my own conceptions might 
 suggest. 
 
 I have, in an earlier page, ventured a somewhat anomalous comparison 
 of Wangara with that district of the north, known by the name of Africa to 
 Greece and Rome. But, perhaps, it might be more correctly compared 
 with that vague appellation Guinea, by which we describe the country 
 itself. The discovery of the true position of this district, assuming the fact 
 upon the grounds I have stated, would, I am aware, incline to a revolution 
 in the theory of the Niger itself; but as it is no part of my plan to speculate 
 or infringe upon the prerogatives of the reader, I shall abstain from any 
 hypothetical conclusions of this nature. 
 
 Concerning the course of the Niger itself— the Jolliba of Park, called 
 by the Arabs, Bahar Neel, Bahar Abied, Bahar Soudan, &:c. and by the 
 Wangara Moslems, Bahar Koara, I never heard of two different opinions 
 in regard to its termination. South or north of the Great Desert, in Wangara 
 or Mauritania, the sentiments were the same, that the great flow of water 
 is easterly to the Egyptian Nile. Yet it must be confessed, that none of 
 my instructors had ever tracked its course beyond the western limits of 
 Bornou. It was an orthodox opinion, that the Shady, as well as the Koara, 
 united its waters with innumerable other large and small rivers (like the 
 Amazon) which contributed to replenish its channel in the dry season, when 
 it usually tracks its course mildly ; and in the season of rain when it runs in tem- 
 pestuous eddies, sweeping off in its current whole islands of matted vegetation. 
 
 The great rivers of Wangara, besides such as exclusively belong to 
 Ashantee, are, first the Aswada, or Volta, called by the heathens Adirray. 
 This river rises in a cluster of hills or mountains called Sarga, bearing north.
 
 RIVERS. XLV 
 
 from Coomassy, behind the desert of Ghofan, and distant seventeen journies, 
 
 or about two hundred and seventy-two miles horizontal. Its course through 
 
 the desert inclines greatly to the eastward of south, until it passes Yajy, 
 
 where its general inclination is southerly, till it discharges itself near Cape 
 
 St. Paul, and where it is known to navigators by the name of the Volta. In 
 
 its course it laves the provinces of Baboso, passing Salgha, Yobati, Bouromy, 
 
 Quahou, Aquambo, and Adampy. In Ghofan it is a narrow stream not 
 
 much above ancle deep ; but, on the parallel of a town in Tounouma, called 
 
 Dafoo, it is broader, and becomes navigable from its junction with another 
 
 small river, called Bahar Bourgan. In the neighbourhood of Salgha it is a 
 
 great river, as wide according to the testimony of my informers, as from 
 
 the quarters I occupied to the palace gate, a distance about equal to the 
 
 dimensions of the Thames at Battersea. The lake Bouro, south of the town 
 
 of Yajy, does not always overflow its embankments to a great extent ; but 
 
 only when the rains are heavier than usual. It then runs by a channel into 
 
 the Aswada. This inclination of the water of the lake, is propelled by 
 
 a stream which rises on the confines of Ghofan, as it has been stated, and 
 
 empties itself in the Bouro. In Bouromy, and Quahou, the Aswada is much 
 
 wider and deeper than at Salgha, particularly in the latter province, where its 
 
 dimensions in some places exceed double the width before related, and 
 
 consequently it is greater than the Thames at London. In Aquamboe, near 
 
 the mouth of the river, it is so wide that the human voice at its greatest 
 
 elevation cannot be heard from the opposite shore. 
 
 The great river that flows between Dahomy and Benin, and which 
 consequently must be the Logos, is crossed in the forest east of Tounoma, 
 where it is very narrow and shallow; but it is navigable near the town 
 of Konjasi, where it bends south-east in its track to the sea behind Ardrah. 
 The name of it, according to a Moslem of Tounoma, I was assured, is 
 Komashar (^iU^ ) from a valuable sort of gum, so called, which abounds 
 in its neighbourhood, and is collected for the markets of Yandy and 
 Nikky, where it is sold to the northern traders. This river is inferior in
 
 j^Lvi W ANGARA. 
 
 size to the Aswada, although equally adapted to the purposes of navigation, 
 they both being exempt from cataracts and dangerous rapids. From Goyah 
 it is fourteen journies, easterly, to the Komasha, or about two hundred 
 geographic miles ; but from Salgha to the same river, in the upper part of 
 its course, it is no more than six. Its source is near Yandy. 
 
 Behind the Komashar in the Ayoh country, and upon the parallel of 
 Salgha, is a lake of very great extent, whose shores the traveller, on an 
 eastern or western journey, does not quit for two days ; the name of it I 
 know not ; but my informers describe it as a fresh water lake, which had no 
 communication with any river. Zogho is due north of this lake, from which 
 it is distant six journies, or less than one hundred horizontal miles. From 
 hence to Abomey it is seven journeys, and to Benin eleven. Its distance 
 from the Komashar, at the ford, is three journies only. There are many 
 populous islands in this lake, with towns and villages, and the natives of 
 these parts are subject to the dominion of the sultan of Zogho. The tribes of 
 Ayoh inhabit an extensive flat surface, south of the lake, and they also serve 
 the sovereign of Zogho as tributaries. 
 
 The great river of Benin is among the easternmost of the great Wangara 
 rivers. From Abomey to this river it is fourteen journies due east ; and from 
 the lake, before-mentioned, to the Kadarko River, a river which is said 
 to fall into or unite with the Benin, it is but four good journies through the 
 Yagah country, a country inhabited by a race of heathens ; the same nearly 
 in language, laws, and customs as Ayoh. Khimbee is the last district 
 or principality in Wangara east ; and that also is an appendage to the throne 
 of Zogho. 
 
 This great empire (Zogho), I conceive to be the Gago of Leo ; and that the 
 g, intended doubtless for a soft one, has been inserted by the translator to 
 express the Arabian characters, ^ or j which, being nearly synonimous, 
 are oftentimes indiscriminately used to mark the same sound. My informers 
 said, in the* most positive terms, there was no kingdom existing between 
 Dahomy and Zogho, except such small ones as were tributary to the latter.
 
 AXCIENT STATE. XLVII 
 
 the sultan of which was the most powerful monarcli known in these parts, 
 without excepting the kings of Ashantee or Benin. They confinned what 
 Mr. Dalzel reported in his history of the kingdom of Dahomy ; that the 
 sovereigns of this country pay tribute to Ayoh, which they affirm is the same 
 as Zogho, for these southern tribes are employed, as occasion may require, 
 to collect it by force of arms. They call the sultan of Zogho, although 
 a rigid Moslem, the friend of Dahomy ; because that monarch suffers the 
 government of Dahomy to exist when he might destroy it at his pleasure, for 
 he can lead on an army of 500,000 men, a very great proportion of whom 
 are good cavalry troops, well armed with short javelins, lances, bows 
 and arrows, and cutting swords. The affinity, therefore, between Ayoh 
 and Zogho, is the same as between Ashantee and Inta, or Entaa agreeably 
 to what Mr. Dalzel has said, for Entiia is also the name of those tribes in 
 Ghunja, who are settled near the Aswada, and who built the city of Salgha. 
 The sections of Wangara, as they are now politically divided, were, 
 according to the traditions of the country, once united in one consolidated 
 empire, under the government of a king, who resided at Yandy, and who 
 governed Dahomy and Benin, the latter in tributary subjection. This 
 southern empire, which was of no long duration, enjoyed its supremacy 
 before the Arabs were known upon the Niger ; and it was their encroach- 
 ments chiefly, which, by causing the northern powers to fall back, contracted 
 the resources of government and ultimately gave occasion to the tributary 
 kingdoms to shake off their allegiance, (the tide of conquest flowing from 
 east to west,) some of these sovereigns, in the sequel, becoming proselytes 
 and others tributaries to the Arabs and their auxiliaries. Somewhere about 
 the hejyran year 300 (that memorable epoch when the Arabs were led 
 to expect that some portentous revolution would occur in the west ; or, as it 
 was metaphorically predicted, the sun would rise in that quarter ;) the great 
 empire of Wangara, which might then have been nearly as extensive as 
 Bornou, was compelled to receive laws from the natives of the banks of the 
 Koara and Ghulby. The auxiliary Moslem powers poured their forces into the
 
 XLVIII TERRITORIAL CHANGES. 
 
 northern provinces, establishing their head-quarters at Killinga ; from 
 whence, at that time and for two or three subsequent centuries, they 
 overawed the surrounding countries to the effect of eliciting tribute in ivory, 
 slaves, and the produce of the gold mines of Ashantee and Gaman. 
 
 Whether the great districts of tropical Africa, such as Ghunja, Sarem, 
 Dagomba, Killinga, Marroa, Fillany, &c. &c. are indebted to the Arabs for 
 tlie names they now bear, I am not able to decide ; but that of Yarraba, as I 
 was assured by many, certainly received its name from the eastern Arab 
 tribes, as the sound itself implies ; as did also Fillany, from the western, 
 in relation to Taffilet, (east of the Atlas Mountains), the land which 
 gave birth to the conquerors of the West. Fillany is the proper name 
 of the tribe of Taffilet. The deplorable action of war in this country is 
 unquestionably a bar to the attainment of a correct and lasting system of its 
 geography ; and this evil, coupled with the few incidental opportunities 
 that offer for checking the reports of travellers, and comparing their writings 
 with those of ancient or established authority, must ever increase the obstacle 
 as long, perhaps, as the natives of Europe and Africa shall be found to have 
 feelings and interests of opposite characters. We need not go far for 
 a solution of what this problem would give : It may be seen by a reference to 
 maps of Guinea, which were engraved as recently as the early part of last 
 centurjr, that upon the Gold Coast only, many kingdoms enjoyed, in their 
 day, a political and substantial existence ; but which are now no more ; or at 
 most they exhibit but a shadow, which gives only a faint outline of their 
 original splendour, their opulence, and their vigor ; having been, from time to 
 time harassed by cruel wars, of a tendency to extirpate or expatriate the 
 population in a mass, and their names as nations. Let the reader refer to the 
 map of Bosman's description of Guinea, where he will discover the names of 
 powerful little kingdoms, such as Dinkera, Akim, Quahou, Aquamboe, 
 Fantyn ; besides those of less note, such as Adorn, Coomany, Saboe, 
 Ladincour, Acron, Agouna, and some others, the most celebrated of which 
 barely enjoy their present oblivious rank and names as provinces of the
 
 HAOrSSA. XLIX 
 
 Ashantee Empire, while many places are totally extinct, and their ancient 
 glory is supplanted by the ingress of a foreign population, bearing the names of 
 their own tribes, to distinguish the new colony nationally. 
 
 The works of the ancients upon the subject of African kingdoms, 
 appreciated by the most celebrated geographer of the present age, should not 
 therefore be rashly rejected ; however we may feel inclined to scepticism, on 
 the ground of natural and permanent distinctions of land and water. 
 
 Another tradition says, that after the decline of power in the east, 
 Dagomba and Ghunja were both united, more intimately than at present, 
 and formed one great kingdom, that ruled from JVIagho to the sea shore 
 of Dahomy; and that this was the political aspect of western Wangara for 
 many generations, between the dismemberment of the original Wangara 
 empire and the first coming of the Europeans ; or, as they express it, the 
 first knowledge their ancestors had of white men ; the early Portuguese 
 navigators. 
 
 At another period, when I know not, Kong and the Manding country 
 were mistresses of Sarem ; and they governed many other maritime nations 
 in the south west. Haoussa, says the Bashaw, was then governed by a 
 sherifFe, whose armies were composed of Arabs and Africans, from the north 
 and east. Yarraba, at times, was tributary to it, as well as Killinga, and 
 Arab fleets ruled the cities and tribes upon the banks of the Koara, the 
 Ghulby, &c., as did their camel and cavalry armaments by land, wherever the 
 country was adapted to open warfare. The heathens then could only find 
 safety in the mountains, in close countries, and in those extensive forest 
 lands wherewith the continent abounds; for the Arabs scowered every 
 assailable point, to the effect of exacting tribute, and propagating the creed 
 of the prophet in nations the most remote. The Moslem countries of the 
 Koara, continued my informer, in a tone that evinced envy and regret, owe 
 their religious felicity and the security they now enjoy to the wisdom of the 
 old Arabian councils, and the vigour of their horse and camel troops, which 
 the most powerful of the heathen nations trembled to confront on the plains
 
 L • POLITICAL SITUATION OF THE MOSLEMS. 
 
 of north-east Africa ; for most of the northern tribes, as well as those of 
 Wano-ara, were possessed of none of those useful animals before they knew 
 their conquerors. But, he concluded, the same causes which contributed to 
 the subjugation of Soudan, and the propagation of Islam, in the revolution of 
 years, aided the converted people, by God's will, to drive back the holy 
 nation upon the deserts from whence they came, and where their posterity 
 still exist, although some Arab tribes are yet to be found on the Koara, whose 
 influence, comparatively, is not great; and whose jurisdiction is limited 
 to the government of themselves, and the few insulated Ethiopian tribes of 
 Moslems in their neighbourhood. 
 
 But for these events, it is the opinion of the Moslems of the south, that 
 every nation, down to the sea coast itself, would have been converted to the 
 service of Allah, long ere this, and the Koran would have been known 
 throughout Africa ; whereas now the Idolaters are strong in the south ; and 
 although they respect the Moslems from the fear of the most high God, 
 to whom they observe them pray, yet many tribes of true believers are 
 by them held in subjection, as may be seen at Ashantee ; and are compelled 
 to pay tribute and fight the battles of heathen princes, whose religion and 
 whose interests are necessarily the reverse of their own. 
 
 The absence of that political co-operation in the north, it is affirmed, is 
 mainly the cause why the southern believers are checked in their efforts 
 to propagate God's worship by dint of arms ; for the existing governments in 
 the vicinity of the great inland waters are supine, and devoid of that energy 
 which distinguished the career of the Arabs. If I might hazard an opinion 
 I would say, that the European trade upon the western and Guinea coasts, 
 particularly the importation of guns, powder, and rum, operated greatly to 
 the prejudice of the southern Moslem tribes, by arming so powerfully against 
 them the idolaters of their neighbourhood. 
 
 The Moslems with whom I conversed are agreed that the maritime 
 nations of heathens maintain their political preponderance on the coast, and 
 their influence inland, by the use of European arms, the means of procuring
 
 TRAVELLING IN THE INTERIOR. Lt 
 
 which are necessarily at their command, from the wealth of Africa, (the gold 
 mines of Wangara), so eagerly sought after by all nations, from the reign 
 of Solomon*, being the produce of the soil they cultivate ; and which is 
 defended by such forests, mountains, and morasses, as defied the strength 
 of the Arabs and their auxiliaries to approach, in the plenitude of their 
 conquests. The Moslem sovereigns of Dagomba and Ghunja, and the sultan 
 of Zogho, they assured me, ardently wished for a free communication with 
 the whites ; although the latter, from political reasons, did not think proper 
 to root out the heathens in Dahomy, as he might if he had chosen. All these 
 nations ardently desired such an intercourse, as would procure them the 
 same weapons and commodities as the Europeans now import to Fantee, 
 Amanaha, and the windward countries ; a commerce which it is not the 
 policy of the maritime powers, such as Ashantee and Dahomy, to permit ; 
 and therefore the interior states purchase what they require of the manu- 
 factures of the north, at the great markets of Haoussa, Killinga and Sarem, 
 besides certain other stationary markets, upon the Koara, frequented by the 
 northern traders. 
 
 In reply to a question, if it were possible for me to visit Yandy, Zogho, 
 and Nikky ; — the Bashaw said, it was not to be doubted, that the name of the 
 king of Ashantee was sufficiently powerful to carry me safely to those places, 
 or any part of the east to the extent of Yarraba ; (Benin excepted) and if 
 coupled with that of the great white sultan, my sovereign, it would not 
 only be a sufficient passport, but gain me the friendship of any court in 
 Soudan. The king of Dahomy also, he added, would be jealous, and the king 
 of Ashantee would not wish me to visit his country, because it lies on the sea 
 side : whereas in the north and eastern districts, where the alliance exists, my 
 visits would give pleasure to the king and caboceers, who would feel pride 
 in the envy of other nations. 
 
 * I scarcely need observe, that Solomon's Wangara was on the eastern shores. 
 
 g2
 
 LII MOSLEM GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 The great kingdoms or empires of modern Wangara are three in number, 
 Ashantee, Dahomy, and Benin, and their dependencies. Those of minor 
 importance contained in the districts of Sarem, Ghunja, Dagomba, and 
 Yarraba, including the tributaries, are, in the West, Enkasy, Gaman, Aowin, 
 and Amanaha, or Apollonia ; in the centre, Ghofan, Tonouma, Entaa, Mahee, 
 Gouaso, Kerapy, Popo, Whydah, and Ardrah. In the east, Yagah, Khimbee, 
 Ajasee, Jaboo, Kosie, and Waree. 
 
 The Moslems are scattered over the new^ provinces of Bouromy, Yobaty, 
 Baboso, Sokoo, and Takima ; but their political sw^ay is confined to the 
 government of themselves. Enkasy is the first Moslem principality in the 
 north-west, inhabited by some strayed tribes from Manding. From 
 Coomassy to Soke Aila, the capital (or market-place) of Enkasy, it is 
 fourteen journies, and six more to Kong. Agreeably to this, I have placed 
 the former in 9" 26' N. lat. 3\ 42' W. Ion. and the latter 10" 12' 
 lat. 4° — Ion. and w^hich I conceive to be very near the truth. Enkasy is 
 tributary to Kong, and Kong itself pays tribute to Melly, a kingdom in which 
 the Moslem influence is great, although its sovereign is an unbeliever. 
 
 Ghofan is the first Moslem government in the north beyond Banna, from 
 which it is separated by the Gaman province of Sokoo, formerly a little 
 principality, by Banna itself, Baboso, and the Deserts. It is hilly or moun- 
 tainous in the NW. and desert in the SE. but it- has many extensive fertile 
 plains, well cultivated, and the country contains a moderate population, who 
 were the most warlike and active of the enemies of Ashantee (Kong, and 
 the Manding tribes, perhaps, excepted). Ghofan, seven years back, w as 
 tributary to the sultan of Kong, but since the subjugation of Gaman, in the 
 late war, the king of Banna, the ally of the Ashantee empire, has overrun 
 many places in the south, and established a new frontier upon the river. 
 The Koran is the only established law here, and at Ghobagho, another 
 Moslem country, to the north east, now of a greater importance than Ghofan, 
 from which it is distant only seven journies, or about one hundred and twelve
 
 EASTERN DISTIUCTS. LllI 
 
 miles; and from Coomassy to Daboya, its capital, (altkougli the sultan 
 mostly resides at Botintasy) sixteen journies or two hundred and fifty-six 
 miles. I have accordingly assigned it the latitude and longitude of 10" 15' 
 N. andO°32' W. 
 
 The Desert, which must be crossed from Ghofan, is an extensive track 
 of coarse white sand, with a few stunted bushes, whose greatest breadth 
 from N. to S. is four journies. Water, however, is to be found in abundance 
 in the Desert ; mostly in large stagnant pools, or lakes, besides the Aswada, 
 and many of its tributary streams, which flow through the heart of it. The 
 Sarga mountains, which are very lofty, lie to the westward of Ghobagho, 
 from which the loftiest ridges are distant five journies; but a branch of them 
 may be seen from Daboya and Botintasy. 
 
 Yandy, the metropolis of Dagomba, is seated in a small district named 
 Simmer, on the confines of the great forest of Tonouma. It is on the line 
 of the main road from Salgha, from which it is distant six days to the NN.E. 
 and from Coomassy twenty-one, or three hundred and thirty British mdes, 
 which would give it about the latitude and longitude of 0° 40' N. T 20' E. 
 as I have assigned its position on the map. From Yandy to Abomey, the 
 capital of Dahomy, it is thirteen journies, and to Benin twenty-eight, givmg 
 to the former a distance of two hundred British miles, and to the latter three 
 hundred and forty. Different from travelling in Ashantee, all these journies 
 may be performed with facility, from the general open state of the country,, 
 and the use of horses, and other beasts of burthen. The great forest, or 
 wilderness of Ghomaty, is five journies distant from Yandy, in the NE., the 
 southern boundary of which serves also for the boundary of Wangara in 
 that direction. 
 
 The eastern kingdoms and tribes of Wangara, are deemed infinitely 
 more populous and more civilized than the western : a truth which, I 
 believe, is not to be questioned, for there agriculture is encouraged, and 
 commerce exists upon an equal scale with the most commercial people in 
 Africa. In pursuit of gain the natives of Khimbee, Ajasee, Ghodau, Benin,
 
 I_jV WEAPONS, &C. 
 
 and Mazam, wander to the most remote parts of the continent in caravans, 
 or by means o( the great waters that intersect Yarraba and Killinga. 
 
 In all these countries, Benin excepted, horses are plentiful, particularly 
 in Ayoh and Yagah. Fire arms and gunpowder are, however, unknown 
 in these parts or very scarce, but their weapons, which they wield 
 with great dexterity and execution, are much dreaded in that country. 
 These weapons, which I have seen in Coomassy, are very long supple lances, 
 barbed and poisoned, targets, bows and arrows, tomahawks and iron 
 maces, the former of which they are in the practice of poisoning with a 
 venom more deadly than that which is used by any other nation, as its 
 operation is said to be sometimes instantaneous, and its wound, although 
 ever so slight, usually produces death within the lapse of a few minutes. 
 The troops of the sultan of Zogho are armed in the same manner, and his 
 subjects, who, although commercial, are as brave as the Ashantees, and 
 perhaps more enterprising, are proportionably dreaded by the surrounding 
 nations. Benin itself, although not strictly tributary to the sovereign of 
 Zogho, frequently sends presents to the Court of the latter, where, by his 
 ambassadors, the king cultivates the friendship of a power he has too much 
 reason to fear, from his great resources inland, and the means he has of 
 insinuating a Dahoman army on the west over the Lagos river. 
 
 Benin itself is rich, and comparatively a civilized well governed kingdom, 
 superior to Ashantee in the arts and conveniences of life, in the state of 
 society, and in the administration of the laws, which, however, have no 
 better foundation than custom and tradition. The spirit of commerce reigns 
 here, and particularly in the northern provinces, in its utmost vigour ; and 
 the land itself is so fertile and populous, that it is usual to travel the day 
 long amidst corn fields or plantations, of which the tall and stunted palm, 
 date, plantain, banana, yam, cassada, and some kinds of fruit trees besides, 
 occupy the surface of many acres, which are enclosed with mud walls or 
 bramble, to distinguish them as private property. 
 
 The Moslem traders of Benin are said to navigate on their great rivers.
 
 BENIN. LV 
 
 and the eastern branches which join the Kadarko, the Shoanka, and Sha- 
 derbah.* Some of these rivers open a communication with a tribe of 
 heathens named Gargari, who live in tents, and are not black, but a red 
 skinned people, yet they are not of the Arabian stock. The best breeds of 
 horses and mules come from these parts. 
 
 On the sea shores of Benin there is no navigation adapted to canoe 
 voyages, for the sea runs so high, and breaks with such violence upon the 
 Warree, Kosie, and some parts of the Dahoman coasts, (as I have seen the 
 effect myself,) that the natives of those parts scarcely ever venture out of 
 their rivers ; and the sea, unlike that of the Gold Coast, yields them little or 
 no tribute from its stores ; but in requital, they enjoy in security from the 
 surf and the tempest, the most prolific inland fisheries known any where in 
 Soudan. There is, moreover, an open navigation, by means of these rivers 
 and lakes, extending from the city of Benin westward to the Volta, crossing 
 the Cradoo lake, the Lagos, passing Porto Nova, Whydah, Popo, and Cape 
 St. Paul. On the eastern side of Benin, the extent of river navigation is not 
 precisely known, unless to the natives themselves ; but it is admitted that 
 there are channels which intersect all the Warree rivers at right angles, 
 running within the compass of one or two days from the sea shore, out of the 
 Formosa river into the Forcados, Dodo, Nun, St. Nicholas, Bartholomew, 
 Callebar, Bonny, &c ; that the land hereabout is covered with thicket and 
 forest trees ; f that the navigation in Warree, although unobstructed by natural 
 causes, is proportionately dangerous, from the ferocious character of the 
 people in these parts, and the bands of robbers who lurk in concealment 
 among the trees, ready to attack the trading canoes. The sovereign of Benin, 
 
 * This river is called by the natives of Dagomba, Ghulby Kanbaja, and by the Haoussa Moslems, 
 Shaderbah. It is remarkable, that there is a city in the kingdom of Maury, near the Lake Noufy, which 
 is also called Kanbaja. 
 
 t I have been at the Dodo, and have seen many of the rivers between the Formosa and Callebar, 
 and such I know to be the aspect of the country.
 
 LVI 
 
 GAMAN. 
 
 powerful as he is, cannot, as my informers say, exact entire obedience from 
 these people, who are supported in their independence by the association of 
 numbers of the discontented subjects of Benin itself, who emigrate to the 
 forests of Warree for personal security, or to escape the retaliation of violated 
 laws. There are said to be three great forks which branch off from Ajasse at 
 ten journies from the sea, to which they run in a course inclining to the east 
 of south ; and all these streams, in their upper courses, are studded with 
 richly cultivated islands, towns, and villages. 
 
 On the western boundary of Wangara is Gaman, formerly a powerful 
 kinodom, and now a province of the Ashantee empire. Its boundary on the 
 west is a flat country inhabited by the Mandings ; Ghombaty, and Enkasy 
 bound it on the north. The Tando river separates it from Ashantee Proper on 
 the east, and Aowin, Amanaha, Lahou, and Bassam on the sea-coast, are its 
 limits in the south. The town of Bontokoo, the ancient residence of its sove- 
 reigns, bears north-west from Coomassy, from which it is distant eight jour- 
 nies. I have accordingly assigned its place on the map, T 36'lat. N. 3° 25^1on. 
 W. Houraboh, the residence of its last king, is five journies beyond Bontokoo, 
 and its position, by the same calculation, will stand good at 8° 30'' — 3" 58'. 
 
 Gaman, and particularly its provinces of Ponin, Safoy, and Showy, con- 
 tain the richest gold mines known to my informers, in this or any other part 
 of Africa ; who by way of illustration say, that in Ashantee, Dinkra, and 
 Wassau, the veins of metal are found at the depth of twelve cubits (twenty- 
 two feet) below the surface, but in these Gaman provinces at five (nine feet.) 
 The ore is dug principally out of large pits, which belonged to the late king, 
 in the neighbourhoods of Briquanti and Kontosoo. The gold from these parts, 
 according to specimens which were shewn to me, is of a very deep colour, 
 mixed with red gravel and pieces of white granite. It all falls under the 
 denomination of rock gold, and is considered of more intrinsic value than that 
 of Ashantee, although the latter, as it passes for current, is mostly pure. 
 The gold of Gaman, i. e. the pit gold, is sometimes brought to the Ashantee 
 market in solid lumps, imbedded in loam and rock, which together would
 
 GOLD MIXES. Lyjl 
 
 probably weigh fourteen or fifteen pounds troy, and of pure metal might 
 possibly yield, if separated from the dross, about one pound or one pound 
 and a half. But even this, as I was credibly assured, is no sample adequate 
 to convey a just idea of the richness of the mines, many of which, and of the 
 richest in ore, are either dedicated to the national gods, or are deemed, as in 
 Ashantee, too sacred to cut into. Other specimens which bore the most 
 perfect natural appearances, were displayed daily before my eyes, in solid 
 lumps, which the caboceers wore attached to the wrists, during and after the 
 Adai custom, and which would in some instances, I am inclined to think, 
 weigh as much as four pounds. The dust gold of Gaman, which is collected 
 by washing in the beds of torrents during the rains, the same as in Ashantee, 
 Fantee, and Ahanta, is also higher coloured, cleaner, and better than what is 
 gathered in any other country*. On the banks of the Barra, a stream which 
 rises near the large Moslem town of Kherabi, and flows south into the Tando 
 or Assinee river, the Gamans also wash for gold ; and during the season of 
 rain, my informers relate, there is occupation for eight or ten thousand slaves 
 for two month.s ; and the metal they collect, added to the produce of the pits, 
 the great bulk of which used formerly to be exported to Manding and Kong, 
 (where it was manufactured into trinkets, and from thence transported to the 
 nations of the Jolliba) now finds its way to Ashantee, from whence it passes 
 in small quantities to the maritime provinces of ApoUonia, Ahanta, Fantee, &c. 
 and is there alloyed before it reaches the hands of the whites ; and the prin- 
 cipal part of the metal is either carried away by the inland traders, or remitted 
 to the correspondents of the Moslems at Yandy, Salgha, Banko, Wabea, and 
 
 * Although Quaho, Akim, and some other parts of the empire bordering the Volta, formerly, 
 yielded much gold, yet, at present, there are few, if any, pits in those provinces, which pay the working, 
 unless it should be imagined that the inhabitants have purposely neglected them of late years, perhaps to I 
 avoid the evils they might anticipate from the cupidity of their conquerors the Ashantees. To the west- 
 ward of Cape Coast, in the little district called Adoom, which is one journey inland of Poho, or three 
 short ones from the sea ; in the neighbourhood of Jaccorary, the natives have many rich mines or pits, 
 where they dig out the ore and grind it between rubbing stones to separate the metal from the quartz pebble. 
 
 h
 
 l^yill GOLD MINES. 
 
 Other o-reat cities of the north-east districts. In this active state of currency it 
 shortly reaches Zogho, Salamo, Kook, and last, Nikky, the metropolis of the 
 great kingdom of Bargho, where also it is transformed into trinkets and ducats, 
 (Mitskal) and under its new characters is as rapidly translated to the Koara 
 at Haoussa, or is circulated in the provinces or neighbouring kingdoms of 
 Wawa, Maury, Kairaa, Baman, and Kandashi. From the Koara and the 
 Ghulby it is circulated through all parts of Soudan, the Desert, and its king- 
 doms, Bornou, Egypt, and the Gharb, but it never finds its way to any of those 
 countries perfectly pure, and never in its crude state, either as it is dug from 
 the mines, or in lump or dust as it passes for the medium of exchange in 
 western Wangara. The Ashantees themselves manufacture a little into 
 trinkets, chains, breast-plates, and ornaments ; it melts away in a moderate 
 equal proportion in its north-easterly progress, even before it reaches the 
 kingdoms of Bargho or Magho, where the great manufactories are. 
 
 Within the empire, the provinces of Soko and Takima, independent of the 
 native population, who are heathens, contain many large towns, where the 
 Moslems live in distinct societies under the jurisdiction of their own laws, but 
 in subordination to the caboceers, appointed by the king of Ashantee, or the 
 tributary sovereigns and princes, whose governments were not violated in 
 the late war. Nomassa, the metropolis of Soko, is said to contain about a 
 thousand Moslems. In Waraki, the proportion is even greater than this, and 
 at Kherabi they are permitted to live entirely by themselves in a city which 
 was described to me to be as large as Doompassy, and where the head 
 bashaw of the believers resides, who governs, for the king, the Moslems 
 of the north-west, in number, probably exceeding 80,000 of both sexes, 
 including the proselytes. But even at this estimate, as I conceive from 
 the reports of the Bashaw of Coomassy, the believers who are settled 
 in the north-eastern districts and provinces of Ashantee west of the 
 Aswada, in Yobati, Bouromy, Baboso, Coransah, part of Ghofan, and 
 the kingdom of Banna, are infinitely more numerous, and may, upon the 
 total average, bear a proportionate relation to the heathens, as one to fifteen.
 
 CHARACTER OF THE FAXTEES. LIX 
 
 As the maritime nations, and the Fantees in particular, are, of 
 all the tribes of Wangara, those with whom the Britisli have hitherto 
 been the most intimately connected, I shall conclude this chapter with 
 some information respecting their character. The king of Ashantee alluded 
 to them in several conferences, public and private : " If I had not loved 
 white men,'' said he, " surely I should not have made peace when the white 
 flag was displayed, but I would have had the forts where I knew there was 
 plenty of gold and merchandize. The Fantees wanted to govern the castle, 
 and they alone were enemies to us both ; they formerly ill-used white men, * 
 but they dare not now." Indeed the king's observation was a just one, in 
 every point; for, previous to his visit to the Coast, it was perhaps hardly 
 known at times whether the British governed themselves, or were governed 
 
 * Meredith, in characterizing the natives of the Coast, says, " They are too well acquainted with 
 our weak condition," &c. " They know we are only formidable when surrounded with walls and guns. 
 It was a most fortunate circumstance for the British character in this country, that the Ashantees made a 
 trial of their courage and strength against Annamaboe. If they had attacked any otiier fort, under similar 
 circumstances, they most probably would have succeeded," &c. " We hear of contributions being im- 
 posed on our neighbours, forts pillaged, governors threatened with torture or beheading, others actually 
 murdered, one gentleman surprized, and now a prisoner," &c. " Neither have the British been per- 
 mitted to enjoy perfect tranquillity. The governor of this fort (himself at W'innebah) was seriously 
 threatened twice, by Attah, the late king of Akim. He sent a peremptory message, demanding a quantity 
 of powder, lead, and guns, accompanied with threatening language, calculated to excite terror," &c. 
 *' This demand was not complied with, but a present was sent to him, as a token of friendship,'' &c. 
 In a second demand, according to this author, he met a polite refusal, which so irritated him, that he 
 says, we believe, " he would wish to be revenged," &c. In consequence, the governor is obliged to 
 keep within certain limits ; and prudence restrains him from walking any distance from the fort, for fear of 
 being surprized. Again he says, " Two instances he is obliged by candour to state, have come to our 
 knowledge, of two governors liaving been literally flogged, &c. ; one captain of a ship nearly flogged to 
 death, and another almost murdered, besides other cruelties and indignities too painful to relate." Might 
 it not be reasonably asked, if these are the people, as the Committee would insinuate, for whom we 
 should risk the honour of the flag so precariously insulated, our property, and our lives, against a friendly 
 power, who claims their allegiance by right of conquest and cession, and who, at the same time, meets 
 our overtures with open arms, and hails our footsteps in the capital, as the treading of demigods > The 
 Committee are bound to answer the question to their country ! 
 
 h2
 
 LX CHARACTER OF THE FANTEES. 
 
 by the natives, whose arrogance knew no moderation, in the plenitude of their 
 strength, and whose maxim it was to terrify into compliance, by every act 
 that cruelty, falsehood, and treachery could devise. True, however, it is, and 
 equally humiliating, that they palliate their sins of this dye by recriminating 
 upon the whites, whom they accuse of acting towards them unconscientiously, 
 and without any other regard than to their own proper interests. It was no 
 uncommon thing for the natives to assemble in arms, at any little disgust they 
 might take, and shut up the garrisons within their walls. Cape Coast Castle 
 itself, the redoubted fortification, that, as Mr. Smith would insinuate, was to 
 bid defiance to the whole power of Ashantee, has repeatedly experienced this 
 calamity from the natives of its town only ; and the last time it happened was 
 but a very few years back, and since their subjugation by the Ashantees, 
 when the people, from their house-tops, had almost, T had said, overawed the 
 garrison ; for the cannon-shot could only perforate the mud walls, without 
 dislodging the enemy from the thatch ; while these plied their weapons effec- 
 tually through the embrasures, killing the sergeant, and maiming others ; and 
 this disgusting anarchy terminated, as usual, in a humiliating compromise, 
 wherein each party bound themselves to restore peace to the other, as it would 
 seem, upon the basis of a mutual forgiveness. As to the out-forts, excepting, 
 perhaps, Annamaboe, they have occasionally exchanged masters with the 
 natives : and his sable Excellency has been seated under the flag-staves, or in 
 the halls of his deposed predecessors, negotiating at head-quarters for their 
 own abdication, upon golden terms. What, I would ask, led to the demoli- 
 tion of the fort at Winnebah, recently, but these very outrages ? And what 
 befel Mr. Meredith himself? Did not the natives drag that gentleman and 
 another, barefoot, over burning stubble, that lacerated and scorched their feet 
 at every step,— flogging them, at the same time, in a most inhuman and 
 degrading manner ? and was not Mr. Smith an eye-witness of this brutality, 
 which in the sequel cost one or both gentlemen their lives ? Can it be denied 
 that matters have been carried to that point of extremity, that governors in 
 former years have been compelled to fire their magazines, and blow themselves
 
 OUTRAGES COMMITTED BY THEM. EXI 
 
 into the air, to avoid falling into the hands of an infuriated people ? But in 
 palliation of these acts, as the Fantees relate, if it were practicable to draw 
 out a just list of aggravations and offences, and enumerate the sins of all, it 
 would probably be a matter of speculation which way the balance might 
 incline. 
 
 The ponderous power of Ashantee, in lieu of contributing to the insecu- 
 rity of life and property, alone guarantees both to us, by its friendship, its bi- 
 terests, and the position it occupies in the rear of its maritime provinces. The 
 Fantees have it no longer in their power, as the king justly observed, to 
 pursue their rancours so audaciously, although other tribes may still enjoy such 
 privileges. 
 
 In the wantonness of cruelty, it was a common practice with the Fantees 
 to attack the canoes of white men, drag them on shore, make them carry the 
 great drum on the tops of their heads, flog them, compel them to pay ran- 
 som, &c. Mr. Swanzy himself, if his own confession may be entitled to 
 credit, has had the honour, in common with others, of undergoing one or both 
 operations. * 
 
 And what are the people of the sea coast, now. I have sat in council at 
 Cape Coast Castle to arbitrate upon a business relating to Mr. Blinkarni, 
 or Blenkairn, the governor of Apollonia fort, and the insignificant king of that 
 country ; wherein his black majesty, by threats and insults the most alarming, 
 
 * The Fantees, Mr. Meredith writes, " demanded of the Dutch government forty ounces of gold, 
 under a threat of destroying their fort at Cormantine, (originally built by ourselves) if the sum should be 
 denied them. The Dutch government would not comply with their demand; in consequence of which 
 the Annamaboes marched out, headed by their king ; and as the fort was incapable of making resistance, 
 it was pillaged, the guns rendered useless, part of the walls levelled, and the artificers attached to it made 
 prisoners. 
 
 t This is the same Captain Blenkairn, who, it seems, has tlie command of one division of the forces 
 raised for the defence of the British settlements on the Gold Coast, and which was too far distant to 
 share in the action wherein Sir Charles M'Carthy, and the troops under his immediate command, 
 sustained that terrible defeat.
 
 l^Xll CHARACTER OF THE FANTEES, 
 
 the most aggravating, extorted from that gentleman gold and merchandize, 
 exceeding I believe the value of thirty or forty ounces ? And what redress did 
 he obtain ? What were the steps taken to vindicate the honour and inviolability 
 of the British flag ? and lastly, what expedient was resorted to, to check the 
 cupidity of the petty tyrant on future occasions, and secure the person and 
 property of this officer from fresh indignities, or the outrages resistance might 
 bring on his head ? These are questions which I, of course, must answer ; 
 None*! No, not a shadow even of consolation; but on the contrary, the 
 affected dignity of these legislators having, perhaps, in contemplation that 
 aspect which was necessary to give currency to the pecuniary grant of the 
 government, and carry weight in Downing Street, at the Treasury, or before 
 Parliament, induced its award so far in favour of the princely robber, that it 
 suggested the necessity of censuring the conduct of Mr. Blenkalrn for having 
 complied with the demand ; as if his loss and the predicament he stood 
 in were not severe enough, or that he durst have expostulated with the 
 tyrant. This gentleman made a long stay at head-quarters, and from 
 what I could learn, he was placed in that critical situation which created a 
 dread at the thought of returning to the dominions of a despot, who to renew 
 the expression, had as great, or a greater share in the government of a 
 British castle than himself, or the Company he represented. Yet it would 
 seem to have been instilled in the public mind, that the government there 
 enjoyed power and influence, and that empire belonged to us on the shores 
 of that continent. The ?wtes alone might suffice to prove that a veil has 
 hitherto concealed from public observation the actual state of things as they 
 lately existed. But setting those deeds aside, I assert, in positive terms, 
 that the Company were never entitled to any rank as territorial rulers ; for 
 
 • Indeed, it must be confessed, that if the united British garrisons had been conveyed to Apollonia 
 with intent to revenge the affront, the chances are, that few would have returned to report the issue of 
 the campaign. This does not argue, however, against the adoption of a course of poUcy adequate to 
 the emergency of the business.
 
 CLAIMS OF PROTECTION. LXIII 
 
 they never enjoyed jurisdiction over an inch of ground upon the continent, if 
 we except those inches circumscribed by the walls of the castles ; to which, 
 as we have seen, their titles were frequently contested by the maritime 
 towns, and which they at all times held in insecurity, notwithstanding they 
 paid annual, quarterly, or monthly tributes, or presents (call them by either 
 term) to purchase that respect which they were never able to command for their 
 sovereign's flag ; whether from incompetence or the inadequacy of the funds 
 at their disposal or not. If any trifling exception deserves to be registered 
 against this sweeping clause, it is simply this ; that the invasion of Fantee, 
 by the king, and the extirpation or expatriation of its tribes by the armies of 
 Ashantee in 1807, and subsequently, opened, as it might seem, a field for the 
 scope of ambition, feeble and dishonourable as it was, upon the face of the 
 treaty, whereby the title of the conqueror was acceded to and formally acknow- 
 ledged ; violated, acknowledged again ; violated during the government of 
 Mr. Smith, and acknowledged once more by his nephew at Coomassy, in 1817. 
 The political aspect of Cape Coast, after the great invasion of 1807, and 
 other subsequent movements, with a powerful sovereign, now the liege monarch, 
 in the rear, and the European castles in the van ; the people reduced, as we see, 
 to the shadow of their former strength, in course of time naturally threw them 
 to a certain degree into our arms, for that protection which they knew we could 
 at all times purchase by negotiation : hence although tribute had been paid over 
 and over again, they were encouraged to resist the demand exactly as I landed 
 in the country, purposely and sinisterly, as it did appear, to prevent my journey 
 to court, without awakening my just suspicions ; or to gain time for the climate 
 and disappointed hopes to work their baneful effects on my constitution. It 
 must be observed, however, that linked as the interest of blacks and whites 
 may seem to have been in political feelings, the former, in some towns, could 
 never be brought to forget the sway they heretofore enjoyed over the councils 
 of the chief establishments ; accordingly we find them, enfeebled as they were, 
 lording it in the town, compelling the garrison at Cape Coast to seek safety
 
 LXIV VICES OF THE FANTEES. 
 
 behind their walls ; where they remained shut up, upon an insignificant quarrel 
 about a man who refused to pay his debts. The appeal, as usual, was to arms, 
 and some fell in the conflict*. 
 
 As another proof how limited this dependence was, the governors of 
 forts were never, at any time, able to prevent those horrid systems of murder 
 and sacrifice connected with the superstitious rituals of the barbarous 
 pagan religions. I have known many unhappy victims to water the earth 
 with their blood within gunshot of the walls of castles. At Accra, two 
 women and as many men were butchered, with every aggravating circumstance, 
 directly under the ramparts ; and all that could be employed, persuasion, was 
 urged by the governor (the late Mr. Gordon) to no purpose. At Tantura, 
 during the government of the late Mr. Adamson, the same class of murders 
 were continually practised with impunity ; the same at Apollonia, Dixcove, 
 Succondee, and Chamah. The only degree of decency observed at Cape 
 Coast (and that but latterly,) was to compel the natives to practise their 
 odious massacres at a distance from observation. Rather than adopt a system 
 of moral and religious policy which might be found to interfere with long 
 established interests ; rather than pursue maxims of humanity supported by 
 good example; the people have purposely, I am justified in saying, been 
 suffered to practise, among other vices, these diabolical tragedies in open day, 
 and in open spots ; or in their houses, and in " the bush." I should disgust 
 my readers of the tender sex were I to relate more of the depraved pro- • 
 pensities of these untutored people ; suffice it to say generally, that they 
 
 * The king once observed to me, that he knew the nations of Cape Coast were a saucy turbulent 
 people, and that they cheated the English as much as they did the Ashantees, bidding defiance to the 
 authority of governors, and treating white men, in common, with brutality. " If you," said the monarch, 
 " tell me my master (the king of England) is agreeable to it, I will bring them all to Coomassy and send 
 another tribe to live among the whites ; I will not kill them, but will give them land, and a good governor 
 to make them obedient, and if the people I send should become saucy I will remove them also, or 
 authorize the whites to cut off their heads."
 
 ATTEMPTED IMPROVEMENTS. LXV 
 
 inherit all the vice, and much of the infirmity of human nature ; all the evil 
 affections or passions of the v^^hites ; all the malignant and brutal incli- 
 nations of savages ; and none of those refinements which do honour to the 
 human heart and understanding. If this is not a fair picture, let who will 
 contradict it. The humane, the charitable, and religious in parliament, here- 
 tofore used their efforts, to induce the inculcation of a system of education 
 among the natives ; whereby these unhappy propensities might ultimately be 
 corrected, and the people enlightened by scriptural and other knowledge. 
 The liberal vote of £5,000 per annum, in addition to the former grant, was 
 carried in the House of Commons, expressly to promote that desirable object, 
 in association with the views anticipated by government when His Majesty 
 was graciously pleased to honour me with the appointment of consul at the 
 court of Ashantee. 
 
 Neither the Dutch, the Danes, nor ourselves, can claim merit for having 
 ameliorated the heart of the Gold Coast African, or even softened the 
 barbarous asperity of his nature. But, as may regard recent improvements 
 in the morals of men, in that country, during the administration of his 
 excellency, the late Sir Charles M'Carthy, they are out of the question ; 
 for with the means at his disposal, over a people so greatly reduced in 
 strength, and as regards the serious interest taken by government in pro- 
 moting knowledge, spreading civilization along the coast, and in short 
 encouraging the prosperity of those colonies by means, which to them 
 seemed reasonable, advantageous, and promising; there can be no doubt 
 that some, perhaps many, of the evils I have described to have existed in my 
 time, were rooted out ; for power must exact obedience, and as a tribute to 
 the memory of Sir Charles, I will say, that few men knew better than he 
 did how to regulate it, and fewer possessed more ability or inclination 
 to temper it with indulgence towards the feelings and interests of those who 
 were dependent upon him. 
 
 The Dutch have suffered from the villainous disposition of the people, 
 both in former and recent years ; perhaps, in some instances, proportionately 
 
 i
 
 LXVI CRUELTIES PEACTISED ON THE COAST. 
 
 with ourselves. It is but a short period back, when the natives of El Mina 
 rose upon their chief governor Hogenboom, (I think the name was) the 
 predecessor of President Oldenburgh ; chased him into his garden, on the 
 banks of the Salt River, and there murdered him in a barbarous manner. 
 At Eguira, many years back, it is true, they and their fort were blown up 
 together into the air. In the Anteese country, at Adoom, Abocroe, Axim, 
 Accoda, Boutry, Shamah, and other lands in the west, they have occasionally 
 borne their share of the calamities ; whether they originated in their own 
 mismanagement, or from the natural fraud, turbulence, and ferocity of the 
 tribes of those parts. 
 
 At Succondee, where we are still established, the Anteese negroes, in 
 former times, burnt our fort, massacred the governor and his garrison, 
 and plundered the Company's warehouses, private property and all. 
 
 See what Bosman relates of the Adomese negroes, and others inhabiting 
 the banks of the Praa or Chamah River, at its outlet in the gulf; for it is a 
 fair specimen of Avhat they would be, in common with the Ashantees, and 
 Dahomans at least, if they had the same power as those nations. 
 
 " Anqua, the king," he says, " having, in an engagement, taken five of 
 his principal Anteese enemies prisoners, he wounded them all over, after 
 which, with a more than brutal fury, he satiated, though not tired himself, by 
 sucking their blood at their gaping wounds ; but bearing a more than 
 ordinary grudge against one of them, he caused him to be laid bound at his 
 feet, and his body to be pierced with hot irons, gathering the blood that 
 issued from him in a vessel, one half of which he drank and offered up the 
 rest unto his God." On another occasion he put to death one of his wives 
 and a slave, drinking their blood also, as was his usual practice with his 
 eiiemies. 
 
 At Commenda itself, now the dirty little mass of fishermen's huts, where 
 originated (through the insolence of the inhabitants) the existing quarrel 
 with the king of Ashantee, the people formerly were as turbulent as they 
 are still. Cor were in my time) insolent and despicable : the Dutch themselves
 
 INSOLENCE OF THE NATIVES. LXVII 
 
 can bear testimony to it. In tlie early days of which I speak, and since also, 
 they attacked the fort of that nation from the tops of their houses, as Cape 
 Coast itself was insulted by them of late years. The action, on one occasion, 
 lasted five hours during the night, and although they failed in their object, yet 
 they succeeded in intercepting a reinforcement, as they landed on the beach, 
 and cut their throats. The treacherous chief gunner, in the service of the 
 Dutch, while the massacre was taking place within reach of the cannon, had 
 nailed up the touch-holes of the pieces, and thereby prevented them giving 
 any assistance to their comrades, whose slaughter they were compelled to 
 witness in silence. 
 
 Coming eastward to the Fantee country, the same writer says, and he 
 truly says it, that the English were so horribly plagued by these people, that 
 they were sometimes confined to their fort and not permitted to stir out. 
 And if the negroes disliked the governor of the fort, they made no more to do, 
 than send him packing back to Cape Coast in a canoe, in contempt ; and 
 which, so far from being able to resent, we were compelled to make peace by 
 a present. 
 
 Christiansburg itself, the chief settlement of the Danes, and one of the 
 best fortifications on the Guinea coast, was once actually taken from them by 
 the negroes of the leeward coast; and they entirely gutted it of its stores and 
 property ; nor was the castle again restored until the Danes condescended to 
 send a handsome present to the king of Aquamboe. 
 
 In later days the disorders have raged in a moderate equal proportion : 
 many instances could be deduced to prove, that those tribes from whom we 
 might have had reason to hope for a greater degree of friendship, and in whom 
 from local interests, we had a right to expect a greater share of honesty 
 and attachment, have been the very parties who have wantonly triumphed in 
 sedition, insult, and knavery. 
 
 But, our relations on the Guinea Coast, I am inclined to think, have 
 
 never been properly understood ; and yet Meredith, a servant of the company, 
 
 and who is comparatively a very modem author, has in some way been suffered 
 
 i2
 
 LXVIII TENURE OF THE FORTS. 
 
 to betray the secret : he says, " It maybe necessary to remark that we appear 
 to claim no light of conquest in Africa, as far as it respects the natives ; 
 the company pay ground rent and water aistom at most of their settlements. 
 The people are regulated by their own laws and customs and will not submit 
 to ours. When they agree to any laws, between the whites and themselves, 
 they generally break them, if they operate against the interest of the blacks. 
 The forts have been maintained for the purposes of trade only ; and to enforce 
 laws is attended with much difficulty, expense, and risk, consequently it is 
 prudent to avoid hostilities, if they can any way decently be avoided." What 
 can be clearer than this ? If it is now the object of the legislature to establish 
 a sovereign controul on the Gold Coast, it would probably be adviseable in 
 the first instance, to purchase the Dutch and Danish settlements ; then, by a 
 very different kind of alliance than that which was effected, carry the war to 
 the neighbourhood of the metropolis. 
 
 The connection existing, in my time, between the whites and the natives 
 of the maritime towns, but chiefly Cape Coast Castle, was indeed in all matters 
 concerning the inland people, a pure and intimate association of interest with 
 those of the Coast ; having for its object, as Mr. Bowdich justly remarked, an 
 united effort to profit by the ignorance of the unsuspecting trader of the 
 interior. I have conversed with several of the Company's servants, upon the 
 impolicy, as well as injustice of such a system ; and the usual reply was, 
 " the Governor conducts his trade upon the same principle as we do, for it has 
 existed time out of memory, and were we to set our faces against it our goods 
 might remain on hand for ever, as the town brokers, upon whom we depend 
 to bring us trade, would give the preference to another, who would comply 
 with established regulations." Our neighbours, the Dutch, wisely protect 
 the interest of the foreign trader, and thereby guarantee their own ; the con- 
 sequence is, that they enjoy a proportionate mercantile, as well as political 
 confidence at Coomassy ; and the commerce of the interior, for those reasons 
 chiefly, may be carried to El Mina, in preference to any other town upon the 
 Ime of coast, or any other European establishment.
 
 COJIJIERCIAL FRAfDS. LXIX 
 
 There is no slander, then, in saying, as not only Sir James Yeo, and 
 Mr. Bowdich, but many others besides have said, that the British and the 
 blacks were, however compulsively on the part of the former, leagued together 
 for the purpose of defrauding those Ashantees who might place some faith in a 
 white countenance ; nor those alone, but strangers of all colours. It has been 
 stated, that the grievances and disorders of this and other complexions were 
 imaginary and unfounded. Let us see if the defence will bear the test of 
 investigation ; and, in doing so, I shall commence with the remarks made by 
 Bosnian, pages 12 and 13, of the nature of African commerce in his days. 
 
 " At Dikjeschoftt (Dixcove) properly called Infuma, the English built a' 
 small fort, anno 1691. I have often heard the English themselves complain 
 of this place ; for, besides that it is not a place of good trade, the negroes 
 thereabouts are so intractable, fraudulent, villainous, and obstinate, that the 
 English cannot deal with them ; for if they have recourse to violence in order 
 to bring them to reason, they are also opposed by force ; and that so warmly, 
 that these five years past they adventured to besiege them in their fortress, 
 and were very near taking it ; at last, they obliged the English to their terms 
 without allowing them to exercise any power over them ; and hence pro- 
 ceeded an alliance so strict betwixt them, that they jointly cheated all the 
 ships that came to trade there, by putting sophisticated gold upon them, a 
 fraud which they have frequently practised, as they did about three months 
 past, upon two small English ships (one of which was laden to the value of 
 £1,700 sterling) for all which the master received only false gold; so that 
 he lost his whole voyage at once; nor did his companion suffer much 
 less : and what mostly surprised them was, that they received it as well from 
 the whites as the negroes. They applied themselves to the English chief 
 governor on the coast, desiring they might have their goods returned, or good 
 gold exchanged for the false : but, to complain to him, was to go to the devil to 
 be confessed ; for he, participating in the fraud, would by no means help them. 
 This cheat has become so common that it daily happens ; but that the whites 
 have ff/M-tfj/^ a hand in it, is what I dare not affirm ; however, I am very sure that
 
 j^j^X GOLD FRAUDS, 
 
 this place deserves the name of the false mint of Guinea, of which every trader 
 who comes to the coast ought to be warned ; for the making of false gold is 
 here so common that it is publickly sold, and become a perfect trade ; the 
 price current being in my time about a croivn in good gold for two pounds 
 sterling of false."* 
 
 The Fantees, the natives of Cape Coast, and in general those of the 
 other maritime towns, enrich themselves by these very means, coupled with 
 the impositions they practise upon the inland people, as well as upon us. In 
 reference more particularly to the gold frauds, it may be observed, that it is 
 usual for the towns-men to call themselves brokers, because the Ashantees, 
 Dinkrans, Wassaws, Akims, Assins, and others from the inland parts, on their 
 arrival at the settlements, in times of intercourse, are in the practice of put- 
 ting up at the houses of one or other of the natives who speak a little English, 
 and are in the service and pay of the whites ; and these men receive it pure 
 and unadulterated, as it passes current in the interior. Before they accom- 
 pany the trader to the house of the white merchant, they endeavour, either 
 during the hours of repose, or as a fit occasion may present itself, to change 
 the gold, or reduce its value, by the intermixture of what is no other than 
 coloured brass filings ; or if the guest is too much on the alert, they contrive 
 to do it in the merchant's apartment, before the face of patron and guest, — 
 unknown, of course, to the latter, but oftentimes with the knowledge of the 
 former, who dare not resist the fraud, as they confess, and as I have repeatedly 
 witnessed myself. Nay, these conscientious brokers themselves, when 
 taxed with their impositions, will say, " How can I aff'ord to keep the traders 
 in my house, unless I make a profit by them ? — innocently, as it would seem, 
 imagining that they are entitled to pay upon two, or perhaps as many more 
 
 * As Bosman then wrote upon the subject of sophisticated gold, and the manner in which it is 
 palmed upon the whites ; so I may now write of what came under my observation ; for the same system 
 prevailed generally, and even the established white merchants were victims to it ; as they took the gold 
 knowing it sometimes to be a fabricated mixture.
 
 COMMERCIAL FRAUDS. LXXI 
 
 brokerage commissions as they can secure to themselves. Thus, the emolu- 
 ments these people were in the habit of reaping, through their agency, in 
 commerce, amounted, upon an averaged estimate I made, at 12 or 15 per 
 cent, reduction of the value of gold, and 10 per cent, at least for frauds,* and 
 pay they were in the habit of exacting from the merchant, making together, 
 at the very lowest estimate, 20 per cent, reduction from the profits due to the 
 toils, and upon the property of the British trader, to the detriment of local 
 and commercial interests in general. Instead, however, of 20 per cent., they 
 have even been known to cheat and plunder all parties, to the amount of 
 50 per cent, and more ; but this extensive villainy usually happens from 
 accidental opportunities, or when the confiding master trusts his servant to 
 inspect and pack his gold for the London market, from whence he gains his 
 earliest knowledge of the fraud, by letters from his correspondent. 
 
 Such sentiments as integrity, honour, and even honesty, would inspire, 
 are wholly unknown or disregarded by these people, be their relations to the 
 white man intimate and confidential as they may ; for the truth of the matter 
 is, they are strictly and almost exclusively engrossed with plans and plots, 
 which have no other object than their own proper interests and feelings. I 
 believe, indeed, that there is no criterion to judge when the broker would 
 pause in his career of chicanery, as long as he imagines he is secure from 
 detection ; but whether the whites first set them the example, or that the 
 latter only conformed to established orders of trade, is what I cannot answer. 
 
 * One description of fraud or extortion was conducted in this manner : — An Ashantee would 
 have occasion, let it be supposed, for guns. The broker would enquire of his employer, iti English, 
 how much he would sell for. If the fixed price was seven ackeys a gun, he would tell the trader nine, 
 and pocket the other two himself, with the knowledge and consent of his master, who, as I have said 
 before, dare not resist the imposition, for fear of losing the broker's services and connexion. Hence the 
 natives are so anxious to place their children under the whites, as servants, to learn, as they call it, 
 proper sense; for when once they have a smattering of English, their fortunes are made, as brokers and 
 rogues.
 
 LXXII ADCLTERATIOXS. 
 
 An unfortunate French vessel, in 1819, scarcely experienced any better 
 treatment at Cape Coast Castle itself, than did those English ships recorded 
 by Bosnian. The captain shewed me some of his " brass pan" trash, mixed 
 with good gold ; and I believe he weighed anchor from the Cape earlier on 
 that account. Some English captains have also been duped by the same 
 artifice, in my time ; and I am justified in saying, that some of the whites 
 are in the practice of procuring sophisticated metal from the natives, which 
 they mix with current gold dust already alloyed, and pass off upon 
 strangers and foreigners, as occasion may offer. Indeed, those who were the 
 least implicated in the fraud, perhaps, had boxes containing two separate 
 qualities of metal, the one (designed for the London market) sifted, or blown, 
 as it is called, out of the other, which is reserved for the unwary and unsus- 
 pecting. Indeed I had a practical knowledge of these truths, for I suffered a 
 loss of four ounces of gold, shortly after landing, by the same deception. The 
 term fraud, in application to the latter instance, may perhaps sound harsh ; 
 for certainly there is a great distinction in the nature of the two offences, 
 where one man makes a secret trade of the commodity, and the other merely 
 gets rid of an article to the best profit, which may have come into his pos- 
 session in a fair course of trade. 
 
 What is no less obnoxious to the true interests of Great Britain, and of 
 course equally detrimental to the mercantile interests of individuals, they 
 practise, besides gold frauds, others, such as watering the rum, and then 
 restoring its pungency wath Mallaguetta, Chili, and other peppers ; pulveriz- 
 ing charcoal, and sifting the granulated particles, which they intermix with 
 the gunpowder; and various tricks besides, in which, it is degrading to confess, 
 they were not only countenanced, but imitated by the whites. The king 
 (of Ashantee) is no stranger to these peculating intrigues, for he assured me 
 that his own purchases, coming from the governor's store-room, were alike 
 adulterated ; but he innocently attributed the whole of the cheat to the people 
 of Cape Coast.
 
 FRENCH COMMERCIAL SYSTEM. ' LXXIII 
 
 The French nation, enterprizing and renowned in its commercial rela- 
 tions with the colonies of the East and West Indies, and with Africa itself, as 
 regards the reigning dynasty, I am inclined to believe reaps as much or more 
 solid benefit from its system of intercourse with strangers, than any other 
 European nation, however commercial, speculative, and enterprizing. The 
 acknowledged vivacity and courtesy of this renowned and gallant people may 
 in some degree contribute to banish scruples, and establish the necessary con- 
 fidence ; but those qualifications alone would certainly be insufficient to 
 promote their relations, to the extent at which they have been seen to 
 flourish. Looking to Africa only, it will be apparent, that at Senegal, which 
 is of little local value, as compared with a station on the gold coast, they 
 have pushed their trade to a far greater distance inland, than any other 
 European power, not exempting even the Portuguese in the southern hemi- 
 sphere ; and they journey by land to their factory at Galam, on the river, 
 with as much safety, probably, as they would travel from Marseilles to Paris ; 
 for the native kings and princes of those parts are either strictly in alliance 
 with them, upon terms of mutual interest, or they are bound down by treaties 
 which they rarely violate ; for their interests are, moreover, consulted, in the 
 payment of annual presents, consisting of the manufactured goods of France, 
 such as cutlery, cloth, powder, &c. all which are stipulated for in these 
 covenants, and written down in the Arabic language. 
 
 Thus, moreover, they are permitted to count on the defensive alliance of 
 the Trassart, Braknart, and other Arab tribes who inhabit that part of the 
 desert between the Senegal river and Portendic, as also occasionally in the 
 south, in the kingdom of Cayor, and the tribes adjacent, as far, may be, as 
 within a few journies of the Gambia. 
 
 Fairs or markets might be established on the Gold Coast, upon the pre- 
 vailing principle of trade throughout Africa. It is not for us to change long 
 established maxims, commercial confidences, and rooted prejudices of such 
 notoriety, but to conform to the customs of the countries in which we live 
 
 k
 
 LXXIV FAIRS AND MARKETS, 
 
 (surely as long as they have a tendency to promote our interest,) and reconcile 
 ourselves to those reasonable systems of traffic upon which the native reposes 
 his faith, either in the shape of barter, as the Arabs and Africans of the 
 Desert, of Numidia, and even of many parts of Mauritania itself conduct 
 it, or in gold and cowries, as the natives of Wangara are in the practice of 
 dealing. A weekly, or perhaps monthly fair of this description, at the 
 settlements, would have no tendency to interrupt the course of trade at other 
 intervals ; and it could not fail, when known and confided in at Coomassy, if 
 properly conducted, supported, and persevered in, to be made known to the 
 inland nations, as far as the Koara at leust ; and the natives of those parts, if 
 we were upon terms of friendship with the king of Ashantee, would, it is 
 probable, be permitted to resort to the sea coast, to purchase of every com- 
 modity, save and except guns and powder ; or if that were not permitted, (as 
 I entertain little doubt it would) the Ashantees themselves would take the 
 same commodities, and dispose of them again at their own markets, to the 
 traders who come from Salgha, Yandy, Daboya, and other parts of the north 
 and east. 
 
 I have hitherto suggested nothing for the more orderly and more profit- 
 able regulation of trade ; for I have hitherto been scrupulous about intruding 
 my conceptions upon the province of the legislature. I cannot avoid think- 
 ing, that by the practice of a judicious system, such as the French adopted 
 when Canada belonged to that nation, it would conduce to establish the fun- 
 damental principle of all fellowship and intercourse — confidence. That once 
 accomplished, would render all the attempts of the maritime natives to 
 defraud, nugatory ; for instead of placing the broker paramount, it would 
 reduce him to his natural level, as an auxiliary, and not a dictatorial 
 dependent. The commerce of Barbary is regulated by daily or weekly 
 markets ; — for instance, Morocco, Fez, Algiers, and Tunis. Eastward 
 of those places, as far as the Persian Gulf, the practice is the same. In 
 the deserts, and upon the shores of the Niger; in Dagomba, Killinga,
 
 COMMERCIAL SUGGESTIONS. LXXV 
 
 Haoussa, and Marroa, &c. the natives, whether Arabs or Ethiopians, know 
 no other medium of intercourse, or they give their confidence to no other. 
 The whites, however, must first set the example of probity, then rigorously 
 enforce it, as their influence may admit ; and in lieu of suffering the inland 
 trader to take up his abode at the broker's house, his independence ought 
 to be provided for by a public bazaar or inn, free of cost, and adequate to 
 shelter him and his effects, during his stay upon the coast. The Dutch 
 come nigher to the feelings of the inland natives than ourselves, but they 
 might find room for improving their system of commerce also. 
 
 k2
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SOUDAN. 
 
 ANCIENT AFRICA-DERIVATION OF THE NAME-THE GHARB-SOUDAN-TRADITIONS— 
 INROADS OF THE OCEAN— NAMES GIVEN BY THE ARABS-ANCIENT POPULATION-IGNORANCE 
 AND INDIFFERENCE OF THE PAGANS— GREAT DIVISIONS OF AFRICA, SOUTH OF THE DESERT— 
 GHUNJA— SAREM-DAGOMBA— GANOWA-BAMBARA— FILLANY-MARROA-KILLINGA— HAOUSSA 
 -YARRABA-THE NIGER-SHARY— GHULBY-CAPTAIN LAING'S OBSERVATIONS— DESCRIPTION 
 OF ROUTES MARKED ON THE MAP— JEWS OF SOUDAN— TRAVELS OF THE ASHANTEES— 
 PRIVILEGES OF MOSLEM TRAVELLERS— CURRENT COIN— WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 
 
 Of all the various names given by the ancients to that vast continent 
 we now call Africa, those of Lybia and Ethiopia appear to have been the 
 most generally adopted ; and, perhaps, the most comprehensive in relation to 
 the whole peninsula, as far as actual knowledge, or imagination prescribed its 
 limits : for it is not to be supposed that Africa beyond the equator was ever 
 known either to the Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks, or Vandals, except from 
 vague reports ; circulated for the most part through the channels of upper 
 Egypt, Judea, and the districts of Hejaz and Yaman, in Arabia, nighest to 
 the opposite shores of the sister continent. This, at least, may be inferred 
 from the want of records to prove a contrary fact, in regard, specifically, to the
 
 AXCIENT AFRICA. LXXVIl 
 
 distant inland parts, and the mode of traversing those regions, as practised by 
 the Arabs and Moslem Africans of the present age. It is a truth not 
 improfitable to pause at here, that the religion propagated by Mohammed is, 
 of all other doctrines ancient or modern, sacred or profane, the only one 
 which insures safety to its votaries among the savage hords of Lybia ; and 
 therefore, it would seem, that the ancients, for opposite reasons, never could 
 traverse even the deserts with that security which their posterity enjoy. We 
 are told, that so early as six hundred or six hundred and four years before 
 the birth of Christ, the limits of the continent were, in some rude degree, 
 known to the Egyptians, from an actual voyage of circumnavigation, per- 
 formed in the reign, and by order of Pharoah Necho, monarch of Egypt ; 
 that these ships, we may suppose a fleet, departed from the Red Sea, (per- 
 haps the port of Suez) doubled the Cape of Good Hope, the westernmost 
 projections of the land in the north Atlantic Ocean, and Cape Spartel, at 
 the mouth of the Straits, returning to the shores of the Nile, by the way of 
 the Mediterranean sea. The respectable authority from whence this has 
 €manated, scarcely leaves room to hazard a doubt upon the subject ; yet 
 many may, notwithstanding, feel inclined to disbelieve it ; according to the 
 various objections that might be urged in refutation of the probability, that 
 such frail barks as were constructed by the ancients should be adequate to 
 a voyage of that magnitude in unknown seas, and in comparatively high 
 southern latitude ; where the turbulent charactei- of the elements so rigorously 
 beset the Portuguese in after ages, that in commemoration of their sufferings, 
 the headland, now the Cape of Good Hope, was anathematized by the appel- 
 lation of Stormy, or the Cape of Storms. But admitting that the same class 
 of vessels, which were capable of navigating all parts of the Mediterranean 
 and Red Seas, were alike calculated to navigate the ocean, still there would 
 be room for doubts connected witli the manner in which these mariners sup- 
 ported life ; for they could hardly have carried with them preserved flesh, 
 <;orn, or dates sufficient to last them out the voyage ; and if the old Africans 
 were disposed as the moderns are, and have been for generations past, these
 
 LXXVIII SOUDAN. 
 
 voyagers could not presume to effect a landing unless their numbers were 
 sufficient to preserve them from becoming the slaves of the natives. 
 
 Dismissing the train of unavailing conjectures this might lead to, it may 
 not be amiss to notice what the Arabs say in relation to the etymology of 
 the word Africa ; for they pretend to give a clear explicit account of its 
 derivation. In the first place it is a term acknowledged to be of Arabian 
 extraction, as indeed its sound implies ; although its etymology has been, by 
 many, so vaguely handled. The most important in the list of European 
 reasonings, and one which, in fact, conveys an air of some plausibility, is, 
 that it derived its name from a certain Arabian King called Ifraki or Ifriki, 
 who fled before an Assyrian army into Egypt, and from thence into the 
 deserts of Barca ; but finding no sustenance for his followers, and their herds 
 of cattle, he sent out scouts westward towards the Cyrenaica, or perhaps the 
 Tripolitana, who shortly afterwards returned with the joyful tidings of land fit 
 for pasture and tillage. This tradition, which I must confess I never heard of, 
 is intended to combine, jointly, not only the derivation of the word Africa, but 
 of Barbary also, notwithstanding its actual distance from these Lybian 
 deserts, or from the ancient Syrtis, now called the Gulf of Sidra, which sepa- 
 rates the Tripolitana from the Cyrenaica. To this effect, it is added, that 
 when the fertile districts were discovered, the scouts impatiently rushed into 
 the presence of their sovereign, crying out ber ber, signifying in Arabic, land, 
 land ; and from that it derived a name, which, by the Romans, when they 
 became acquainted with the country, was softened down with a Latin termi- 
 nation to their own liking, into the word Berberia, or something resembling 
 the sound of that combination ; and which we, claiming, naturally, the same 
 privilege, have again corrupted to Barbary. 
 
 If it be inquired of a modern Arab by what name he distinguishes the 
 continent of Africa, he will perhaps say there is no specific name for it, by 
 reason that there are many regions in the southern hemisphere, which are 
 entirely unknown to us ; but that since his countrymen became masters of the 
 land now enjoyed by their posterity, those great districts have been jointly
 
 DIVISIONS OF THE GHARB. LXXIX 
 
 distinguished by the appellation of Al Gharb, or Maghariba, signifying the 
 western land, in relation to its bearing from Arabia and Syria, the focus of 
 empire under the primitive Khalifs, whose arms were so ably carried to the 
 margin of the Atlantic Ocean ; the waters of the setting sun. Gharb (which 
 is comparatively a modern name) he would again subdivide for the different 
 sections, calling the land and deserts westward of the Nile, comprehending 
 the whole Cyrenaica and the Lybian desert down to the ancient Syrtis and 
 southward as far as the present kingdom of Fezzan, Magharib Mokribi, or 
 the First Division West. This is perhaps a more explicit name than Afrikia 
 (from Mafroka), but both are well understood as relating to this great tract. 
 The westernmost boundary of the old Tripolitana, properly so called, and 
 the old Carthageniensis, including the present Bashalics of Tunis and Algier, 
 and the vice-regency of Tenez, embracing also part of Telmsen on the line 
 of coast, and south as far perhaps as the old Roman garrisons of Tuggert, 
 or Worgala, in or on the desert confines, would be distinguished as Maghareb 
 al Wasat, (al Ouast) or the JMiddlemost, or Central West ; and Moghareb al 
 Woasa, the Furthermost West, if he were a native of the western Mauritania, 
 would be the name by which he would describe his own country. 
 
 The deserts, also, are divided simply in this manner, for the word Sahara, 
 which is desert, does not imply any 'particular district, and is equally appli- 
 cable to any sterile spot in Arabia, or elsewhere. 
 
 Soudan from i>^l Aswad, (black) is a general and vague appellation 
 in use among the Arabs and northern African tribes, as relating parti- 
 cularly to those nations which border the left bank of the Niger, although not 
 exclusively so, for they as frequently apply the term in a far more comprehen- 
 sive sense, whereby they include the whole of tropical Africa known to them ; 
 and it may consequently be translated with the greatest propriety the Land of 
 Negroes, or B/ac/c People, for that is simply the meaning, and no other*. 
 
 * If what may be described with the greatest simplicity, suitable to the understandings of all men, is 
 also the most beautiful, as many are inclined to believe, these names of the Arabs are not to be called trifling.
 
 LXXX SOUDAN. 
 
 Like the word CafFreria, which is a corruption of the Arabic Kauferau, a term 
 in use among the Arabs of the sixth and seventh centuries, it is (although not 
 of the reproachful character of the latter, which implies " the land of infidels") 
 somewhat contemptuous in signification, as it then stigmatized the southern 
 tribes indiscriminately as an inferior order of the creation, of whom many 
 about that period, and since the wars of the Arabs upon the " Bahar Soudan" 
 Niger, have embraced the Korannic faith and incorporated themselves with 
 their conquerors. 
 
 The Moslems of Haoussa, Killinga, and Dagomba, however, as also some 
 of the desert tribes in the west, use Soudan as a generic and proper name, by 
 which they describe certain very extensive tracts inland. The name, accord- 
 ing to the signification given by the Arabs, is perfectly familiar to them, and 
 in conversation with foreigners they use it, by adoption ; but still they reject 
 it in their geography, as a term of a vague and indefinite importance, which is 
 truly the case. Soudan is the name given by the Wangara Moslems in gene- 
 ral, and particularly by those of Ashantee, to that great strip of land stretch- 
 ing away east and west along the parallels of the desert, and the great 
 central rivers and waters from Bambarra in the west to Bornou in the east. 
 These regions they again subdivide into two parts, calling the first Kably or 
 Soudan ; Kably in reference to its greatet approximation to the Kabla of the 
 city of Mecca (the east) and the latter Gharby, or Soudan Gharby, from its 
 bearing west, towards the regions of the setting sun. Some also make a third 
 division of Soudan, " beyond the waters," and this they call Wastany Wasat, 
 or Soudan al Wastany, signifying simply Middlemost Soudan. 
 
 Beside these principal divisions, they allow of another Soudan in the 
 more central parts of the continent, below the southernmost provinces and 
 kingdoms of the Bornou empire, on the south bank of the Shady ; and this 
 they call Soudan Dakhlala; a term which they admit to be vague, and which 
 I conceive to be synonimous with interior Ethiopia, for its meaning is strictly 
 interior Soudan. 
 
 Africa, according to traditions I have oftentimes heard repeated by Arabs
 
 TRADITION'S. LXXXI 
 
 (for the Berrebers, or mountain Africans, know little of the matter), is the old 
 name, somewhat corrupted, by which the land beyond Nile westwards was 
 called by their ancestors, many ages before the birth of Christ, and probably 
 long before they had any practical knowledge of its internal features. This 
 original name, as they pronounce it, was Al Mafroka, the disunited, or divided 
 land ; implying as the general opinion goes, that it was cut off from the conti- 
 nent of Asia by the course of the Nile from south to north ; for the eastern 
 geographers, it is well known, included all that tract of land bounded on the 
 east by the Arabian gulf, and on the west by the river Nile, under the head of 
 Asia. 
 
 Another tradition, which however is not so popular, gives it the name 
 ascribed to it, not from the separation of the land by the course of the Nile ; 
 but from the division caused by the Red Sea; from whence, they say, the 
 ancient Arabs named the opposite shore Mafroka, the disjointed or broken 
 land, because they believed the waters to have concentrated there after the 
 deluge subsided ; or that they preserved the tradition of a subsequent rush of 
 the Indian ocean, whereby the Almighty inflicted a heavy chastisement for 
 the transgressions of certain tribes in the Hajaz, or stony Arabia, whose loss 
 may be found on record in the Koran itself. 
 
 Although, as I before remarked, the Berreber tribes know so little of these 
 traditions, it is a singular truth that they are firmly persuaded that the AfricEUi 
 continent originally joined that of Europe in the west, where the Herculean 
 pillars now stand ; and also, that in the same early age, the land of Mauri- 
 tania projected a considerable number of leagues more in the Atlantic Ocean 
 than it now does. No one presumes, however, to account for the age it hap- 
 pened in ; except as they vaguely narrate, that since the universal deluge the 
 sea broke in upon the land where the straits of Gibraltar now exist, and 
 spread its waves around to the extent it now does ; sweeping into the abyss 
 myriads of human beings, with their cattle, and habitations ; burying all but 
 the summits of the highest land, which, together with the tops of mountains, 
 are still to be seen under the semblance of islands scattered over the surface 
 
 1
 
 LXXXII SOUDAN. 
 
 of the water. The Arabs and Asiatics in general shew no great respect to 
 this mountain tale ; yet it is worthy of remark, that when the early Moslem 
 tribes carried their victorious arms to that part of the Spanish coast opposite 
 the Tingitana*, the fortunate generals, in pursuing the system of naming the 
 conquered territory, as caprice or accident might dictate, without respect to 
 the names by which the Spaniards themselves called them, any more than 
 they had heretofore respected the old African names of places (excepting, 
 however, where the Atlas, and other mountainous ridges bid defiance to their 
 encroachment,) adopted the African legend, as it agrees with several capes and 
 head-lands, as Trafalgar and Algezeiras, called by those people Terf al Gharb, 
 and Al Zeira, or Jazeira, implying part of the Gharb, or Mauritania, and its 
 island, are expressive of the credit given to the tradition by the old Africans, 
 literally, and perhaps by the Asiatics, figuratively. 
 
 Here, indeed, the imagination might wander into a labyrinth, but which 
 could lead no where beyond unprofitable conjecture. That the world has been 
 more than once buried under water, totally or partially, the accounts of other 
 lands, or the geological researches in our own, might induce some to con- 
 jecture in opposition to chronology, sacred or profane. If we were to consider 
 the subject of any real importance, and that some hypothesis must necessarily 
 be established, this great influx of water eastward might be associated with the 
 effect produced by the inclination of the currents of the North Atlantic Ocean, 
 from their vital source of action in the Gulf or Straits of Florida. This, again, 
 might lead to a supposition, if any one were inclined to speculate so far, that 
 the New World, as it is called, (the Continent of America) has been justly so 
 named, or at least, that some mighty revolution in nature, caused (if it ever 
 was the case) the separation of the two continents, Europe and Africa, and 
 gave the name of Inland, or Between-land Sea, to the water that now divides 
 
 * This happened in the reign of the Khalifa Walid ben Abdalmalek the 6th sovereign of the 
 dynasty called Bani Ommeya (Ommiade) who governed the empire about ten years and six montlis, 
 namely, till the year of Christ 715.
 
 IGNORANCE OF THE PAGAN XEGKOES. LXXXIII 
 
 tiiem, as its modem name implies in the Arabic, as well as the languages of 
 past and present times in Europe. 
 
 It is a popular notion of the modern Africans, as well those of Barbary 
 as the natives of Sarem, Ghunja, and Dagombah, that the original influx of 
 inhabitants came from the east, some time after Misraim, the son of Ham, 
 founded the empire of Egypt ; which event took place, according to our own 
 chronology, 2188 years before the birth of Christ, and 160 years after Noah's 
 embarkation. 
 
 In quoting the authority of Ashantees, and other natives of Guinea, it is 
 invariably to be considered, as relating to African Moslems, born in those 
 parts ; for the unlettered heathen is so decidedly ignorant and disinterested 
 about researches into past ages, that I will venture to affirm, if he should pre- 
 tend to describe any thing remote, it will only be with a view to impose upon 
 the credulity of the enquirer ; for his ordinary replies even to the most simple 
 question regarding the custom of a neighbouring tribe or nation, is. How can 
 Itdl? I am not of that country, and I never u-as there to see ; and so he drops 
 a subject that would fatigue his understanding, because it neither gives him 
 pleasure, nor is likely to be productive of advantage. In fact, it would 
 almost warrant the assertion, that the negro is qualified with knowledge only 
 that he exists, and that he must one day die. If questioned about his ancestors, 
 he can only affirm, with the same simplicity, they lived, and they are dead. 
 And as regards the creation of the world, its political changes, or any of the 
 records of sacred or profane historj^ if it did not put the muscles of his face in 
 motion, to be asked such a question by a white man, he would at least mildly 
 say. Enquire of the Moslems, toho pray to the great God, and hold strong fetish ; 
 they know these things, and more : they can tell you ; but I am igtiorant. I 
 speak this upon the most satisfactory information, namely, a practical know- 
 ledge of the habits of indolence, ignorance, and superstition by which their 
 faculties are obscured, and their understandings bewildered ; for during the 
 many trials I made at Ashantee, and upon the Coast, without casting in the 
 scale my Barbary experience, every attempt failed me, even in the most trivial 
 
 1 2
 
 LXXXIV AFRICA SOUTH OF THE DESERT. 
 
 enquiries, to elicit information from the Pagan, either directly, or through his 
 interpretation ; for they are equally given to misrepresent facts, if they imagine 
 the recital will amuse ; added to which, their very limited knowledge of 
 European dialects is another insuperable obstacle to the attainment, through 
 their agency, of any, even the most superficial knowledge whatever. This 
 truth is grafted upon my mind so positively, that it must be confessed I have 
 but little respect for books whose authors have compiled them upon negro 
 authority. 
 
 Africa south of the Desert is divided into many important sections or 
 districts, by which certain tracts of land are characterized and known to the 
 natives of remote countries, who, perhaps, never heard mention of the king- 
 doms they contain. Those familiar to my informers were Ghunja, Sarem, 
 Dagomba, Ganowa, Bambara, Fillany, Marroa, Killinga, Haoussa, and 
 Yarraba. 
 
 These great sections, all within the Torrid Zone, extend east and west 
 from about 7° of west longitude, to 12" east, or thereabout, and from the 
 shores of the Gulf to the 17th or 18th parallel of north latitude. 
 
 Ghunja, collectively, contains the empires of Ashantee and Dahomy, 
 exclusive of Gaman in the west, and Banna in the north. The western 
 boundary of this section is the River Tando, and eastward it stretches away 
 as far as the Lagos river. Its southern base upon the line of coast, may there- 
 fore be computed at five hundred geographic miles, in which is included the 
 military and commercial establishments of all the European nations who 
 traffic in Guinea. Upon the 8th parallel of latitude, it is more contracted, 
 and does not probably exceed three hundred and eighty miles ; yet here it 
 occupies twenty days to traverse from its eastern to its western confines, and 
 sixteen from north to south. 
 
 Sarem is separated from the former by the River Tando ; yet its eastern 
 limit northward of Coransah, is the Aswadah river. It stretches away 
 westerly, as far as the land that projects into the sea, (doubtless, Cape Palmas.) 
 This land they call LSfs^. Ji\, (Al bir Bahooree) the maritime country.
 
 YARRABA KILLIXGA. LXXXV 
 
 (west,) and which it is probable Mr. Bowdich mistook for a kingdom so 
 called, as he has assigned a position to Bahooree, (the sea-coast) between the 
 8th and 9th parallels of latitude, behind Gaman. Sarem contains the king- 
 doms of Gaman, the tract of land known by the name of the Ivory Coast, 
 Banna, Takima, Soko, Ghofan, Enkasi, and Kong. There is no town called 
 Sarem, but the district so named is about five hundred and thirty or five hun- 
 dred and forty miles in extent, from east to west, and it occupies full thirty- 
 six days to traverse from limit to limit. From north to south it may be 
 about three hundred and seventy miles in extent ; for it also requires twenty. 
 four stages to traverse it in that direction. Sarem is environed on the east by 
 Dagomba; south, by Ghunja; north, by the Manding country ; and west, or 
 north-west, by the mountainous district of Ganowa. 
 
 Yarraba is the greatest in extent among these southern sections. Its 
 boundaries are, on the north, Killinga ; on the east, unknown districts of the 
 Soudan, called Dakhlata ; on the west, Ghunja and Dagomba ; on the south, 
 Benin and Waree. It is said to occupy the traveller forty days, in tra- 
 versing from east to west ; but its extent north and south I cannot speak of 
 with any certainty ; however, it may possibly spread as many as four hun- 
 dred and sixty geographic miles, reckoning from the southernmost provinces 
 of the kingdom of Bargho, in Killinga, to the land which runs parallel with 
 Cape Formosa. 
 
 Killinga, which is a district of great political and natural importance in 
 central Africa, is not inferior in extent to any of these southern departments, 
 Sarem and, Yarraba excepted. It has for its boundaries, Fillany, on the 
 north-west ; the Koara, Marroa, and Haoussa, on the north and north-east ; 
 the kingdom of Yakoo, and the Soudan Dakhlata, east ; Yarraba and 
 Dagomba, south and south-west. The Ghulby river flows through the heart 
 of it ; and beside the kingdom and principalities of Kambah and Maury, it 
 contains those of Zogho, Baman, Wawa, Kandashy, &c. The popu- 
 lation cf Killinga is reckoned to exceed in numbers that of any other 
 district of an equal surface ; and the inhabitants, who, for the most part, are
 
 XXXXVl GANOWA- — MELLY BAMBARA FILLAXV. 
 
 Moslems, are considered the most opulent people of any in the south. It 
 may be reckoned, indeed, that the districts of the east, namely, Haoussa, 
 Killinga, and Yarraba, are in a comparative state of civilization, and that they 
 enjoy, moreover, the metallic riches of the earth, which the nations of the 
 west, who in turn become masters of the Wangara mines, pour into these 
 countries as fast as the precious metal can be collected, and which is only, as 
 it would seem, held in trust for the public good, at the expence of much 
 blood, and a barbarous system of rapine and extortion. 
 
 Ganowa is a district bearing north, inclining west from Sarem, which is 
 its boundary on the south, as is also Bambara on the north, the kingdom of 
 Melly, and part of Dagomba, on the east. Its surface is, for the most part, 
 hilly or mountainous, particularly in the west. It is a district known only to 
 the western Moslems, who journey from Kong, Enkasy, and Manding, to the 
 Jolliba at Bammakoo, to Kaarta,Woled, Omar, (the Ludmar of Park) and the 
 Desert. 
 
 The kingdom of Melly, which lies to the southward of Bambara, and 
 between that district and Dagomba, is also by some rated among these sec- 
 tions, as one of equal celebrity, in proportion to its size, and equally ancient 
 as the rest, over which, however, it has the advantage of having preserved its 
 original political influence in those parts, and which, consequently, still entitles 
 it to the rank of kingdom. 
 
 Bambara is that district whose western limits the unfortunately 
 renowned Mungo Park traversed, in his journeys to the Niger. Its ancient 
 metropolis is Sego, pronounced Sago and Sagho ; but it has now many 
 cities, as well Moslem as Heathen, of equal importance. Its boundaries are 
 the Great Desert; Massina, and Beroo north ; Fillany, east ; Dagomba, 
 Manding, and Melly, south ; Kaarta and the Foulah country, west. 
 
 Fillany is also a district of much importance in the features of African 
 geography. The Niger runs through the heart of it, and it is watered by 
 many other large navigable streams, connected v/ith that river, both in the 
 northern and southern shores. Its boundaries are Marroa on the north east.
 
 TIMBUCTOO. LXXXVll 
 
 Killinga on the south east, Magho on the south, Bambara on the west, and 
 the Desert on the north west. It is considered also an extensive tract, and as 
 my informers supposed (although erroneously) was tributary to Ismaelia, or 
 the empire of Morocco. That it was conquered by the Arabian arms and 
 colonized by those people is well authenticated by the annals of Barbary. 
 The Moslems of Guinea also, admit the fact; they are aware too that 
 the Arabs have been progressively driven backward upon the deserts, and 
 many of their conquests wrested from them by the heathens (a catastrophe 
 which they religiously deplore) ; yet they persist in saying, that tribute is 
 exacted, from the people of those parts, in the name of the Sheriffe of 
 Mauritania, whoever he may be. Fillany, it is but a reasonable conjecture, 
 derived its name from the province of Taffilet, behind the Atlas mountains 
 eastward, from whence all the Mauritanian armaments issued, prior to the 
 Mahadi dynasty, and the building of the imperial city of Morocco in the 
 Mauritania, properly so called ; and, indeed, where the camps and caravans 
 yet assemble preparatory to their departure for the east or south. 
 
 Fillany, as relating to Taffilet, is perfectly synonimous with it, although 
 coinciding with the African mode of assimilating the land to the name of its 
 tribes. Thus the tribes of Taffilet are indiscriminately called Fillany, exactly 
 as the other is pronounced and spelt in the Arabic character. Concerning 
 the tribute, which they affirm is still collected in the name of the Sheriffe, 
 and remitted to him by land, across the desert, I think I may venture to 
 affirm, that not an atom of the money ever reaches the treasury of that 
 prince. Perhaps, it may be employed to subsidize some of the neigh- 
 bouring Arab tribes, and for state reasons it is still denominated heddia 
 (tribute or donation) as heretofore, when the emperors of Morocco were 
 powerful enough to exact their claim by force of arms, whenever their 
 colonists in Soudan were remiss in their payments. 
 
 The celebrated city of Timbuctoo, or Tombuctoo as it is better known, 
 still enjoys a supremacy in Fillany, notwithstanding those of Taslima, Jennie,
 
 LXXXVni MARROA. 
 
 and Wakwari, are esteemed larger, and more populous ; it is therefore called 
 the head, or metropolis of that district. 
 
 Marroa, a district that joins Fillany in the south west, Haoussa in the 
 south east, the Koara south, and the desert at opposite points of the compass, 
 is known only to occupy a somewhat remote although central position 
 between Fillany and Haoussa ; its limits I do not presume otherwise to 
 describe. The land hereabouts is deemed a sort of African paradise, and 
 the population is proportionably great ; numerous streams intersect the 
 plains, some of which are of great magnitude, rolling volumes of water 
 southerly or easterly to the Niger. 
 
 This district, and some of the eastern provinces of Fillany, were origi- 
 nally subdued by the Arabs, at a very early period. The Moslems of 
 Ashantee relate many traditions concerning the early wars of the Arabians, 
 when they turned their arms beyond the desert, the most prominent of 
 which relates to an invading army, sent by one of the Viceroys of Cairowan, 
 during the dynasty of Bani Abbas ; somewhere about the hejyran year 180, 
 which corresponds with that of our own era 796. These wars were of many 
 years duration, and the " sacred" volume made an effectual impression 
 on this part of Soudan by the vigorous efforts of the old Arabs, under several 
 successive Khalifs of that dynasty, from the magnificent Haroun al Raschid 
 to the reign of that celebrated prince of the dynasty called Fathemia, Moez 
 al din Allah, who was lineally descended from the great reformer Mahadi. 
 
 A very intelligent Moslem, a native of Nikky, named Jelelly ben Shoam, 
 who sometimes took a leading part in these historical conversations, affirmed 
 that Moez, as soon as he had seated himself upon the Egyptian throne, 
 directed the whole force of the Khalifat against eastern Soudan, which he 
 ravaged with fire and sword, extending the law (Koran) to kingdoms of 
 idolaters, that were hitherto unknown to the Arabs. When the general, whom 
 he called Abdallah ben lyak, had effected a passage for the army down to the 
 Koara, he distributed his forces into several divisions, forming them into
 
 MARROA IIAOUSSA. LXXXIX 
 
 naval armaments with which he ravaged many of the central kingdoms, 
 overaweing others, and inducing many powerful sovereigns to renounce their 
 diabolical superstitions for a religion of " purity and peace."' This, which 
 appears to have been the first great effort of the Arabs beyond the Niger, 
 succeeded beyond all human calculation, and for many ages after, perhaps until 
 the destruction of the Khalifat itself, by the Tartar Holagul, tribute was punc- 
 tually remitted to the Mediterranean shores, to Cairoan, Mehedia, Cairo, or 
 Damascus ; cities whose former renown still delights the ears and imagi- 
 nations of these Ethiopian converts, as it does those of the present generation 
 of Arabs. 
 
 Marroa was thus early reduced to the form of a province, dependent 
 upon the vice royalty of Cairoan, Avith which it was so far incorporated as to 
 be colonized by a population of Arabs, who made that district a sort of head 
 quarters, or rendezvous for the caravans, to and from the central Gharb ; or 
 that tract of land comprehended between the Tingitana and the Cyrenaica. 
 The virtue or efficacy of camels and horses is still venerated in proportion 
 to the religious part they bore in the wars against their idolatrous ancestors ; 
 for both these valuable animals were introduced by these Arabs, or at least 
 they were not known south of the Niger, until the Arab supremacy prepon- 
 derated on that river, and their influence extended as far as the Ghulby. 
 
 Haoussa is a district of no less importance than either Marroa or Fillany. 
 It is an extensive tract of land, stretching easterly from these two districts, 
 as far as Rakka or Kano. The Desert is its northern boundary, and Killinga 
 and the Koara river its southern. It is reckoned eighteen journies, or about 
 three hundred miles horizontal, from east to west ; and may be as many more 
 from north to south. Youry is a powerful kingdom of this district, together 
 with several others of less magnitude, as Konbash, Garanti, and Yandoto, the 
 whole of which are tributary to the sultan who rules in Kassina. 
 
 This district shared the fate of the others, when the Arabs lorded it over 
 the Niger, and it still contains a remnant of the conqueror's posterity, who 
 having escaped a certain great persecution of the believers, when the Arab 
 
 m
 
 XC DAGOMBA. 
 
 garrisons were driven to the deserts, obtained permission to establish a form 
 of government among themselves, according to their respective tribes and 
 kindred. The Arab population of these parts is now estimated at four large 
 tribes, or about two hundred and fifty thousand souls. Haoussa is described 
 to be of great wealth, luxuriant, and populous. Beside the Koara, many- 
 large navigable streams intersect the land, and a constant and free communi- 
 cation, by water, exists between its chief cities and those of Bornou, Yarraba, 
 Benin, Fillany and Marroa. Independent of this traffick, a more remote 
 intercourse by caravans is maintained, under limitations, with the tribes 
 or hordes of Desert Arabs, with Azben, Ferjan, (or Fezzan,) and even with 
 Egypt. Its boundaries, as given to me by the Bashaw of Coomassy, are the 
 Desert and Jekky north ; the Koara south ; Noufy east ; and Marroa west. 
 
 Dagomba is a district separating Ghunja from Bambara and Fillany, and 
 Sarem from Yarraba and Killinga. It is also highly populous, the land 
 mostly champaign, and well cultivated. Yandy, the chief city, is said to be 
 at least four times as extensive as the capital of Ashantee. The length of 
 this district, from north to south, is about two hundred miles ; and from east 
 to west nearly three hundred and thirty. Yandy enjoys great celebrity all 
 over the African continent for its riches and its manufactures. The natives 
 are, moreover, highly enterprising and commercial, and they maintain a 
 constant communication with the neighbouring kingdoms ; but particularly 
 so with Haoussa and Sarem, for the conveniency of whose traffick their city 
 becomes a depot, and a periodical mart, as well for their own manufactures 
 as for those of Fezzan, Egypt, Smyrna, &c., as also for slaves, gold, and 
 ivory, collected in and upon the confines of Wangara. Its distance from 
 Coomassy is but twenty-two days ; yet the Ashantees rarely venture so far 
 from home, unless under the escort and protection of a Moslem. 
 
 This district, says the Bashaw, was never subject to the depredations of 
 the Arabs, yet in former ages, when the spirit of religious enterprise existed 
 in full vigour among the Moslem nations *of east and west Soudan, the 
 powers on the Niger, and their auxiliaries ravaged many of the eastern
 
 SOURCE OF THE NIGER. XCI 
 
 kingdoms ; and the navigation of both the Ghulby and Koara, were almost 
 exclusively under Arabian controul. Even that great section Yarraba sub- 
 mitted to Korannic jurisdiction, or was compelled to receive laws from the 
 Moslems of Haoussa, Marroa, and Fillany, whose preponderating influence, 
 from time to time, affected more or less every kingdom down almost to the 
 shores of the Atlantic, or that tract which collectively is termed Wangara_ 
 The particular period to which these traditions refer, nearly corresponds 
 with the year of Christ 1200 ; for the prevailing belief is, that the Moslem 
 arms were everywhere successful, up to this time ; and their religion, indeed, 
 still gained rapidly over the continent until the commencement of the seventh 
 Hejyran century, when civil dissentions crept into the state and engaged the 
 tribes to war with each other, in opposition to the denunciations of the 
 Koran, and that ostensible maxim of policy which should have harmonized 
 their councils for the preservation of their political and religious footing amidst 
 tribes so barbarous and warlike. 
 
 As enemies, the Arabs are said never, at any time, to have penetrated 
 beyond Nikky, which is thirteen days south of the Koara. Two of the most 
 powerful sovereigns in that neighbourhood, namely those of Magho and 
 Dzogho embraced their creed by invitation, and deputed ambassadors to the 
 Arabian head-quarters tendering their submission. 
 
 The names of these sections refer particularly to the Moslem system of 
 geography ; from whom, in all probability, they derive an exclusive origin, 
 as the Ashantees know them, it would seem, through the agency of the 
 Moslems, and the Fantees know nothing about the matter ; but on the 
 contrary say, "We don't know that; it is the Crammo's (Moslems) talk." It is 
 presumed, however, that the information is of importance, for these names are 
 commonly known to every Moslem nation in Africa. 
 
 The Moslems of Kong and Manding commonly used the term Wangara, 
 as relating to Ashantee, Dahomy, and Benin, east of the Formosa. Of the 
 Niger, well known to them by its Bambara name Joliba, they reported to this 
 effect ; that it has its source in a chain of mountains which bears west, and 
 
 m2
 
 XCII COURSE OF THE NIGER. 
 
 something north of the capital of Kong, from whence it is distant eighteen 
 journies. According to this estimation I conceive, its fountain may exist in 
 about 11° 15' latitude north, and 7° 10' longitude west of the meridian of 
 Greenwich. The intermediate space comprises a part of the district called 
 Ganowa, inhabited by the Manding and Falah (Foulah) tribes. The surface 
 for the first five or six days, they relate, is inclining to hilly, yet it is by no 
 means abrupt ; and forests alternately abound, but they are not so impervious 
 as those of Ashantee. After the first hundred miles, the traveller commences 
 ascending a cluster of lofty mountains, and this labour occupies him six days. 
 The mountains abound in rivers and rapid torrents, which discharge them- 
 selves on the opposite sides into the JoUiba, and further to the westward they 
 are so high and steep that no man can ascend to their summits ; which are 
 barren, bleak, and oftentimes covered with snow. They are inhabited about 
 half way up by ferocious tribes of cannibals. The source of the river lies 
 about two days distant up the mountains ; and is distant from Coomassy 
 thirty-eight journies, or about five hundred British miles horizontal. 
 
 The river in the neighbourhood, at the head of the mountains, is a small 
 rapid stream full of cataracts, which foam over a bed of rocky ground, where 
 it would not be possible to float a canoe. It flows on to a considerable 
 distance among the valleys and broken ground until it has cleared the 
 mountains, which it leaves far to the south, as it explores a channel on the 
 plains of Melly. On the confines of Bambara it is already a large river, 
 occasioned by the junction of many other rivers of almost equal magnitude 
 and whose sources are in these mountains. It passes Yamina, Safana, and 
 Sago, to Massina and Jenny ; beyond which it spreads into a large lake, 
 called Bahar Dibber, or the Sea of Ghimbaba. The Dibber is very large, 
 and in the season of rain the land on the opposite side, although high, is 
 not discernible. Beyond Jenny the river, at the opposite outlet of the lake, 
 inclines to the north till it reaches Timbuctoo. From thence its track is 
 easterly to Ghou, having then traversed the district of Fillany. From Ghou 
 it enters Marroa, passing through Corimen, Kaby, and Zanberma, as it
 
 THE GHULBY. XCIll 
 
 inclines with a southerly fall to the Youry, and the lake of Noufy. From 
 Youry the river inclines south-east, passing the cities of Noufy, Homan, and 
 Magamy, in the form of a great sea, which has several outlets to the south 
 and three great branches which communicate with the Shady on the east. 
 From the Shady the river flows, under its new name, to Gambaro, after 
 having passed Haoussa, Rakka, Yakoo, and Kano. From Gambaro it 
 sweeps a little to the southward of Bornou, Ghotta, and Arkani, till it enters 
 Bagharmy, where it forms a junction with the Nile of Egypt. Its course 
 beyond this is through Kordofan.Foor, Wady, Sennar, Nubia, &c. On the 
 confines of Habesh, (Abyssinia) it again spreads into a large sea, and its 
 channel receives the tributary waters of innumerable rivers of the largest size, 
 of which that called Shary, between Foor and Wady, is best known from 
 its situation in the land of believers. Indeed, this is the substance of what 
 was advanced by the Moslems, as well from the east as the west, natives of 
 Sarem, Dagomba. and Ghunja ; or inhabitants of the banks of the Ghulby 
 and Koara. Briefly, they would say, the great sea flows to Egypt, and the 
 little one to the salt sea, from whence you came, (the Guinea Gulf,) but they 
 are both united at Noufy. 
 
 The Ghulby is said to flow also easterly upon a parallel with the Koara 
 itself, which it joins, as has been related, in Haoussa. Admitting this to be the 
 case, its source may be considered somewhat conjectural. In truth there was a 
 diversity of opinion upon this topic, some maintaining that its fountain existed 
 in the chain of mountains before mentioned, between Kong and the river 
 Ahmar ; whilst others affirmed that the Ghulby itself was a branch sepa- 
 rated from the Koara by a ridge of mountains, in the vicinity of Janny ; and 
 that the navigation of this southern limb was open and unobstructed from 
 Janny to Ghoroma, the capital of Magho, through Konbory. Perhaps the 
 latter was the prevailing opinion. All my informers were ignorant of the 
 rivers called in Park's map, Ba Nimma, Maniana, Ba, and Moosica : of 
 these names that of Maniana alone was familiar to them as a nation of
 
 3JC1V CAPTAIN LAING S OBSERVATIOXS. 
 
 idolatrous mountaineers; behind Kong, and subject to the sovereign of 
 Manding, who was a Moslem. Yet the route to Sego, on the Niger, by the 
 way of Banna, Ghofan, and Baddin, leads to a great river or sea, runnmg 
 also easterly, and distant from the JoUiba but four or five days. This river 
 is named the Yasser. 
 
 In reference to the source of the Niger, it was published in a London 
 paper, of the 14th of January, 1823; that Captain Laing, (the gentleman 
 who has recently returned from the Gold Coast with ofiicial dispatches of the 
 late disasters in that quarter) saw the hill during his mission to the interior, 
 " where the Niger (called Timbie) springs. The river flowing on from the hill 
 ofLomain 9° 15' north latitude, and 9° 36 'west longitude, marks the boundary 
 between Sangara and Joolimani, the former bearing to the right of east, 
 and the latter to the left of west. The geographical scite of Loma was 
 ascertained by taking the bearings of two points, and from the well known 
 accuracy of Captain Laing, there can be no doubt of the obsen^ations being 
 correct." This officer started on the 16th April, and returned the 29th 
 October. 
 
 The rout from Ghofan to that part of the Niger, which is in the vicinity 
 of Sago or Sego, takes through the kingdoms of Ghobagho, Kasogho, 
 and Safany, the latter of which is tributary to Melly, another kingdom 
 westward, of greater power than either of the others ; and which is separated 
 from the Manding states (most of whom pay a tribute to it notwithstanding,) 
 by a chain of high mountains called Jibbel Kaunagh, probably the same 
 mountains observed by Park from the Niger. The chief towns on this route, 
 after crossing the desert, are Lankantira, Katary, Botintasy, and Daboya the 
 capital of Ghobagho. The route from thence inclines to the NNW. taking 
 through the towns of Denkary, Bonough, Bouasa, Cabary, and Yaba (a city 
 of greater extent than Salgha). From Yaba the traveller proceeds through 
 several other towns, which are marked on the map and described in the 
 manuscript, until he alights on the banks of a great river, called by the 
 
 I
 
 NORTH BANKS OF THE NIGER. XCV 
 
 natives of those parts Bahar Yasser.* At this station, to which I have 
 assigned the latitude and longitude of 12° 50' north and 2" west, it is usual for 
 the traveller to stop several days at a city of some magnitude, called Borma 
 from the island on which it is seated. Kow, which is a city of great 
 magnitude in Safany, is distant from the Yasser river one easy journey, and 
 from Kow to Sago, in a direction still inclining to the westward of north, it is 
 no more than four journies. The usual track pursued by the traders from 
 Ashantee is to Kantano in Banna, a city little inferior in size and population 
 to Coomassy itself, and from this station to Sago, or any part of the Wiger in 
 Bambara, it is no more than twenty seven days' journies, or eighteen from 
 Daboya. From Sago to Jenny it is no more than four water journies, or ten 
 long ones by land. 
 
 The north banks of the Niger, westward of the Dibber lake, were little 
 known to my informers, except that they knew them to be populous, 
 containing tnany tribes of heathens and Moslems intermixed. But south of 
 the river, in the kingdom of Konbory, they described many large towns 
 and cities, some of which, as Tastima and Fedanky, were inhabited by a 
 population exclusively Moslem. The Korannic law governs all these parts, 
 or the people from choice and the veneration they have for Moslems conform 
 to its tenets in civil matters. 
 
 Camels and horses abound in all these parts, as well as in Manding, and 
 the people are warlike as well as commercial. The houses of the inhabitants 
 are flat-roofed, and constructed, for the most part, with clay, although not 
 diftering materially in architecture from such as may be seen in the northern 
 states of Africa, on the Mediterranean shores ; they are not built, however. 
 
 • In the construction of my map, it may be necessary to remind the reader, that I have studied 
 nothing as regards the probable termination of rivers, &c. ; not conceiving myself warranted to do so in a 
 work of this kind : but where the natives described water to exist, or any other local object, there I have 
 simply inserted it, leaving all speculative matter out of the question ; so that the map itself is no other 
 than a compilation of their own, at least founded upon their authority exclusively.
 
 XCVI THE WOLED MOGHATA. 
 
 higher than those of Ashantee, with the exception only of a few, which are 
 two stories. The common luza, (almond) the tfita, (mulberry) the luzal hendi, 
 (cocoa) and many of the productions of North Africa, grow spontaneously in 
 these parts, blended with the palm, date, plantain, and a variety of other, 
 species, such as may be found everywhere in the Torrid Zone, 
 
 Janny is a very large city in the kingdom of Massina, and Ghimballa a 
 district or principality bordering the river, and having a town called by the 
 same name, which is seated one journey from the Dibber lake, on its northern 
 shores. Massina is the most westerly kingdom of Fillany. 
 
 From Janny it is reckoned seven or eight land journies to Timbuctoo ; 
 and it is usual to travel the distance on horses or camels through Ghimbala, 
 in preference to performing the voyage across the Dibber, which, besides its 
 southerly inclination, is subject to storms, the merchant being moreover 
 harassed by canoes belonging to the petty kings and chiefs who live on its 
 banks, and who are in the practice of extorting goods and money. 
 
 The Arab tribe called Woled Moghata, inhabit the desert confines 
 behind Massina ; and in travelling to their douars, or encampments, from 
 Janny, you fall in with a large river, on the 10th day, which flows to the 
 south-east, (perhaps south ;) the name of it, however, was not known. 
 Neither these Arabs nor the neighbouring African tribes use fire-arms ; they 
 may indeed have possession of a few, which they purchase or take from the 
 natives of the Senegal and Gambia; but gunpowder being at all times a 
 scarce commodity, these weapons are not in much repute. The fact may be, 
 that the inland people of those districts are debarred a free traffic in those 
 commodities by their maritime neighbours, the same as the practice is among 
 the Ashantees and Dahomans. Many of the chiefs, however, have a few, 
 which they exhibit with great ostentation on days of ceremony. Beyond the 
 river which flows through the country of the Woled Moghata, is the great 
 and populous district of Marroa, of which the kingdom of Foulaha, containing 
 the tributary states or principalities of Ghou and Kaby, are the westernmost 
 boundaries. Atogho and Zanberma are kingdoms on the south bank of the
 
 ROUTE TO GOROMA. XCVII 
 
 Koara, opposite the former, in the district of Fillany. The Great Desert 
 approaches the river at Sago, within the distance of twelve journies ; this desert, 
 called by way of distinction Sahara Azki, or the Pure Desert, is the most 
 barren of vegetation of any known in these parts ; and the traveller can 
 seldom procure water for his cattle, under the lapse often or twelve days. 
 
 The second route falling under description, is that leading from Salgha 
 to the right of north through Tonouma, part of Ghobagho, Ghomba, and 
 Mousee, to the powerful kingdom of Magho, whose capital city is Ghoroma. 
 There are two roads by which the traders journey, — one taking north from 
 Salgha to the city of Betariby, the other inclining more easterly, through 
 Banko and Caja to Yandy, in the country of Simmer. The former, however, 
 is considered the more direct route ; and as such it is preferred by travellers 
 whose object may be to visit Ghoroma direct. The towns between Betariby 
 and the Ghulby, are Yashily, Deghony, and Wabia, a capital city, as large 
 as Coomassy, and a territory purely Moslem. The great wilderness of 
 Ghomaty, frequented by the elephant-hunters, lies to the right or eastward of 
 this, stretching off to the neighbourhood of the city of Zogho itself, from 
 which it is distant a single journey only. * From Wabia the road leads 
 through Kousagho, Takolshi, Sakoya, and Coltega, to Boughori, (a city of 
 the heathens, of very considerable magnitude;) from thence it is only one 
 journey to the Ghulby, |_<aU^, in the kingdom of Magho, passing through 
 the town of Batili. 
 
 This, which is a circuitous route to Haoussa, (for the Niger itself they 
 rarely or never visit between the parallels of 1*^ west, and 6° or 7*^ east,) is 
 often preferred by the traders who visit Haoussa, on account either of the 
 
 • All the countries in this direction, from Ghobago and Mousee to the kingdom of Kaima, are 
 considered only in the light of provinces or principalities of the great kingdom of Zogho, whose sultan 
 receives tribute or presents from most of the neighbouring nations, Dahomy and Benin included. 
 
 n
 
 XCVIII SOUDAX. 
 
 commercial habits of the people, or their proximity to the great fairs * and 
 markets, which are generally holden weekly in the vicinity of the Koara, and 
 to which the merchants from all parts of the north-east are in the constant 
 practice of resorting. Ghoroma is on the north bank of the Ghulby, and 
 distant from Batili one journey by water, or three by land. By this road it 
 is seventeen journeys from Salgha to Ghoroma ; but by the way of Yandy it 
 is one day more, the track upon either parallel bearing to the right of north. 
 
 The traders who visit Magho generally proceed northward to the little 
 tributary heathen kingdom of Ghotto, to which there is a communication by 
 water, either by the overflowing or connexion of a lake, called by the 
 Moslems Kouzagha, and which lies to the north-east of Ghoroma, at six 
 journeys distant. The River Ghulby is parted from at the great city of 
 Andary, a capital station of the traders, on the second day. The lake itself 
 is considerably more than one journey in length, from east to west, and the 
 water of it is perfectly pure and sweet-flavoured. To Ghoroma I have 
 accordingly assigned the latitude of 12° 25" north longitude, 1.33 east. 
 Nearly upon the parallel of Popo, and to Andary, I have given 12° 34 lati- 
 tude, 2° 12 longitude, which would place it on a line nearly with Whydah. 
 
 Magho is a kingdom which contains a mixed population of Moslems and 
 Heathens, — the former enjoying the government. The sultan f is one of the 
 most powerful princes south of the Koara, and may, as my informer stated, 
 vie in rank with the sultan of Bargho, his eastern neighbour. The dominions 
 of the sovereign extend right and left of north to Atogho, (a principality of 
 heathens south of the Koara and Koubory,) where the population again is 
 
 • Fairs and public markets are common in all parts of SouJan, as well as in the states beyond the 
 deserts. The African, indeed, gives his confidence to no other medium of intercourse. Even among the 
 ferocious tribes of Guinea, the people are in the enjoyment of their weekly or monthly markets. 
 
 t The name of the reigning monarch, as described to me, — 1 think it will be seen in the MSS. 
 iSj^^it^ j^, Mariba Sheikhy,
 
 LAKE CALLIO MAKARO. XCIX 
 
 mixed. The people of these parts, Moslems or Heathens, are highly com- 
 mercial and enterprizing. 
 
 From Magho the traders sometimes drop down the Ghulby to Kook, 
 Nikky, or Rougha ; but there is another route leading inland through many 
 towns, which may be referred to in the chart or native MSS. leading also to 
 Nikky, the metropolis of Killinga, and the great kingdom of Bargho. From 
 Nikky, the Haoussa road leads over the Ghtilby, to Wory and other towns 
 in the north-east, through the heart of Bargho, and from thence to its tributary 
 kingdom of Wawa, as it will fall under description next in order. The road 
 from Nikky to. Kassina, below the Noufy lake, takes through the kingdoms 
 of Maury, Kandashi and Souy, leaving Kaima and Atagara, two other 
 powerful states ; the former Moslem, and the latter Heathen, in the south and 
 south-east. The track of country on this route is mostly champaign, rich, 
 and fruitful, well watered with innumerable small rivers, and some great ones, 
 which it is affirmed flow southerly, and fall into the sea in the neighbourhood 
 of Benin. 
 
 Two or three journies eastward of Nikky is a lake of moderate dimen- 
 sions, called Callio Makaro, which they relate, has no connexion with the River 
 Ghulby ; and the water of it is said to be brackish, or salt. Salt is also dug 
 out of the earth hereabouts, and transported to all parts of the south and west, 
 as also to the markets of Nikky, Youry, Boussa, Kook, Kassina, &c. To this 
 lake I have assigned the latitude of 12'^ north, and 6*^ 30 east. The chief 
 towns in its neighbourhood are Ghora and Ghatagha, — the latter a very large 
 and populous city, inhabited by a great proportion of Moslems, and resorted 
 to from all parts of Soudan. From Ghatagha, the route to Kassina inclines 
 to the left of east,* through Fogha, Toukani, Bakoridi, and Conka, to 
 
 * This is the city of which mention has been already made, that its name is the same as a 
 great southern river called Shaderbah, or Vahar Kanbaja. 
 
 n 2
 
 SOUDAX. 
 
 Hanbaja, along the track pursued by the Ghulby in its course to the Noufy. 
 Some of the other principal towns are Kaado, Fakaro, Ghosi, Rekena, and 
 Marina, which is a city of the very first rank, and the metropolis of Souy. 
 To this place I have assigned a position, 13'^ 28" north latitude, ll'' lO" east 
 lon'^itude. It bears south-east from the Noufy lake, from which it is d'stant 
 two journies. The Moslem law prevails throughout these districts. At 
 Fakaro, Kaado, and Kanbaja, the governments are in the hands of these 
 people, who rule a mixed population of Moslems and Idolaters ; but the 
 latter are not tolerated in any part of the kingdom of Souy. The intercourse 
 between Bornou and Souy is very great, and both nations are skilled in 
 manufactures. The land is said to be amazingly rich and productive in corn 
 and fruits. The city itself is said to be as large as Yandy, which is the 
 largest in the south, upon that parallel, or below it. The fairs which are 
 held here are resorted to by people not only from all parts of Haoussa, but 
 also from Bournou, Yakoo, Gambaroo, Maury, and Bargho. The heathen 
 kingdom of Yakoo, the capital of which is Saghona, bears easterly from 
 Marina, inclining, perhaps, a little to the south, as it is below the lake called 
 Shady. Still further to the south-east is the negro kingdom of Gambaro, 
 which, as well as Yakoo, are sometimes tributary to Bornou. From Marina 
 the road leads northerly over a river called Ghulby Kerba, to a small town 
 called also Souy, from whence, after crossing a second large river, whose 
 name is unknown to me, it will lead to Rouma, also a large city of the Mos- 
 lems, and an important place of trade. From Marina to Rouma it is four 
 good journies, and from Rouma to Kassina, which bears north of it, it is four 
 more, over the great eastern outlet of the lake Noufy, called the Koara Raba, 
 or Koara Rafa, through the towns of Cooney, Mayo, Moro, Malabo, and 
 New Birini, (built after another city of this name, and of great renown.) 
 Old Birini, which is still a place of some importance, bears about west 
 north west of Kassina, from which it is distant three journies. To Kassina I 
 have assigned the latitude of 15* 12'- north, longitude, 11'' 50" east, it being
 
 BAIIAR BAIRA.M. Ct 
 
 about nine hundred geographic miles from Coomassy, or seventy-three 
 journies, by the foregoing route through Magho, Bargho, and Maury, and 
 sixty-eight hard travelling by a direct path. 
 
 There is a river, the Moslems relate, of very great dimensions, and which 
 serves as the boundary on the lakes, between Bornou and Haoussa and the 
 desert. This river, which they name Bahar Bairam, comes out of Bornou, 
 and falls into the Koara, somewhere betv.'eenthe Noufy and Shady, or perhaps 
 into one or the other of them. To go from Kassina to Rakka and Kano, two 
 large principalities of the Moslems, on the banks of the Shady, it is usual to 
 cross the Bairam, I think the first or second day. Haoussa is separated on 
 the north-east from the desert, and Sokory, a place of some importance, on its 
 confines, by a chain or cluster of small mountains, called Jibbel Taurica. 
 The Felatah tribes inhabit all the country hereabouts. The sultan of Kassima, 
 which is a city no way inferior to those of the first class in Africa, is supreme 
 in Haoussa, receiving tribute from all parts of it, including the lesser king- 
 doms of Youry, Koubash, Bousa, Garanty, and Yandoso. The Felattah 
 tribes, and the Arab territory of Jekhy, I think, stand in the same relation to 
 this monarch, who is a rigid Moslem, and whose dominions in the east contain 
 none who do not conform to the faith. The Moslems, in fact, compose the 
 great bulk of the population of Haoussa, and its government is exclusively in 
 their hands. Jekhy, which is a station of much greater renown than Sokory, 
 is distant from Kassina twenty journies, in a north-west direction. It is a 
 rocky or stony district, inhabited by a branch of a tribe of Arabs called 
 Woled Gormah. From Jekhy the caravans and traders explore their way to 
 all parts of the north and north-west,— to Taffilet, Algier, Akabli, Tunis, 
 Tripoli, &c. 
 
 There is a route from Janny to Jekhy, as may be seen in one of the 
 MSS. by dropping down the Dibber to Alfine, and from thence, by land, 
 through Kasoo, Dansoo, Sakam, Boghfom, and Aty, then over the Koara to 
 Kankawansa, Henkonta, Dankasado, Dody, Kamana, and Jekhy, from 
 whence to Azban it is twenty-three day's journey, and to Egypt (Cairo) one
 
 Cii SOUDAN. 
 
 hundred. This is the usual track of pilgrimage performed by the natives of 
 the west and south-west, besides those of Safany, Melly, Manding, 
 Koubory, &c. Haoussa and Marroa are, perhaps, the most important com- 
 mercial districts in central Africa, and their manufactures of cotton goods, 
 carpets, trinkets, and cutlery, some of which I have seen, are little, if any 
 thing, inferior to those of Mauritania. Horses and camels aboimd every- 
 where, and the inhabitants fight with bows, arrows, darts, and lances, in 
 common with most or all of the inland nations. The population of these parts 
 must indeed be great, if it is true, as related, that, like Benin itself, or 
 superior to it, there is scarcely a piece of waste land to be seen, or where 
 corn and other nutritious vegetables are not cultivated by the inhabitants, 
 who, I think the Bashaw told me, here make use of the plough, and I believe 
 nowhere else south of the Desert, unless that instrument may be used in 
 Bornou. Some of the mosques and public inns in Kassina, Old and New 
 Berini and Marina, as well as in Haoussa and Marroa, in general are 
 said tobe very elegant structures, having marble basins and fountains for 
 ablution. The palaces of the sovereigns are built with proportionate magni- 
 ficence. 
 
 Akom in Bornou is considered a sort of metropolitan sovereignty or 
 principality ; for here the sultan, it is said, chiefly resides, who rules the 
 whole empire, to the confines of the Desert, Nubia, and Sennar. Bornou is 
 considered the greatest monarchy in Africa, without exception. The 
 inhabitants are Moslems, not only there, but probably from the 8th or 9th 
 parallel of longitude upon the Koara and Shady, to the shores of the Red Sea, 
 excepting some insulated tribes, as it is stated, of Christians, and perhaps 
 Jews, the former living independent in the mountains, and the latter in 
 subserviency to the believers. 
 
 The city of Bornou is stated at twenty journies to the east of Kassina. 
 Ganem, Bagharny, Foor, and Wady, are eastward in rotation from Bornou, 
 on the southern route to Masser (Egypt) and the Holy Land, called Shem, 
 or Shemo. The principal stages, or places where pilgrims and travellers
 
 BORxor. cm 
 
 alight to refresh, are marked in the map called Soudan, from Wady to Upper 
 Egypt. The Shary is a great river, running easterly into the Nile, at Sennar. 
 More than these general outlines of Bornou and the districts eastward of that 
 empire, I dare not take upon myself to give, for all those countries were but 
 imperfectly known to my informers, as they confessed themselves. From 
 Wady to Egypt it is fifty-three days direct, or sixty by the usual track 
 through the heart of Sennar and Nubia. 
 
 Another route called, by way of distinction, the direct track from 
 Coomassy, or from Salgha to Youry in Haoussa, takes from the Aswada 
 river through Tonouma, Simmer, and the mountains of Gofil and Yarako to 
 Zogho, the metropolis of the kingdom so called. From thence through part 
 of Killinga to the Ghulby, in the neighbourhood of Nikky or Kook ; then 
 over the river to the kingdom of Bargho and that part of Killinga which 
 stretches away to the south western banks of the Koara, and which contains 
 the kingdoms and principalities of Baman and Zamberma in the west ; and 
 Batako, Wawa, and Fagh, in the east. This is a road as well beaten, and, 
 perhaps, as safe as any in Africa ; and by this channel there is a constant 
 communication kept up with Haoussa, Killinga, Kaima, Maury, Atagaru, and 
 Yakoo. The towns on this route (from Salgha) are Bokoky, Yanomo, and 
 Kanyasha* ; the last mentioned a city of great renown in Tonouma. From 
 Kanyasha, to Kadanki, Cabouto, and Koujasi another city of some magnitude 
 near the neighbourhood of the Komashar river, or perhaps a branch of 
 it, which explores a course through Dahomy in its passage to the sea ; and 
 which I imagine to be the Logos, or connected with that river. From 
 Konjasi the road leads on to Zoukoma, Jadagho, and Keno, another capital 
 
 * From Kanyash or Kanjasa ihere is another main road, leading a little to the right (east) of north, 
 through Masoko, to the great cities of Dagomba, Banko, and Yandy ; the former as prosperous and 
 extensive, and the latter more so than Coomassy. From Yandy the tradere frequent the Ghulby by 
 another road, leading to the city of Kisba, in the principality of Simmer ; easterly and on to Arigoh, the 
 wilderness of Ghomaty and Banano, or Grcgary in the little kingdom of Kambah. All these countries 
 are either Moslem, or under Moslem laws.
 
 CIV SOUDAX. 
 
 city of Dagomba, where the Moslems are very powerful. From Keno, over 
 the mountains to Gofil, a frontier town-of Zogho, on the south west. These 
 mountains, which are described to be very lofty, precipitous, and barren, and 
 Avhich usually occupy the traveller three days, to traverse from south west to 
 north east, are the natural boundaries between Zogho and that part of 
 Dagomba which is governed by the sovereigns of Yandy, the former power 
 having from time to time made great encroachments on the latter district. 
 To Gofil, which is eleven journies E.SE. from Salgha, or about one hundred 
 and seventy British miles, (horizontal) I have assigned the latitude of 9° 45' 
 north, longitude 2° 39'' east. The Yagah tribes, who are heathens, lay to the 
 right of it, or easterly. The Ayoh, and their lake, are in the south ; the latter 
 distant from it five good stages. Khimbee, and the " land of the great 
 waters which flow to Benin," are still further to the east. 
 
 From Gofil the road leads on to Arjou, Motom, and over another chain 
 of mountains in Zogho, of two good days march to Yarakoo, from whence it 
 is' one more journey to the city of Zogho. This, as I have elsewhere observed, 
 is a place of very great importance as regards its relations both commercial 
 and political, with all parts of Wangara ; and with Killinga, Haoussa, 
 Dagomba, and Yarraba. Its influence between the longitudinal parallels of 
 the Volta and Callebar rivers, is said to be bounded only by the ocean. 
 
 The Moslems are incredibly numerous in these parts ; the government 
 exclusively belongs to them, and more than half the population of the empire 
 are probably of the Mohammedan faith. To Zogho I have assigned the 
 latitude 10° 27', longitude 3° 34' east, and which I have reason to think will not 
 be found to be many miles from its true position. It is distant from the ocean at 
 the nighest point of approximation (near its parallel, the Logos river,) twenty 
 journies or little more than three hundred horizontal miles. And Yandy, to 
 which I have assigned 9° 42 'north latitude, 1° 14'east longitude, is distant from 
 the sea coast in the neighbourhood of Whydah no more than fifteen journies, 
 or about two hundred and forty horizontal miles. 
 
 From Zogho the traders journey forward to Dankou, then over a forest
 
 ROUTE TO YOURV. CV 
 
 of small dimensions to Salano, a town of considerable note. The route then 
 inclines north, through Jambodo, Sooso, and Corerey to the capital city of 
 Kook, a station of the Moslems, and a place of great trade on the Ghulby. 
 To Kook I have assigned a station in my map at 11° 50' latitude north, 
 and 4° 45' east longitude. From Kook to Nikky the capital of Bargho, or 
 Killinga, it is no more than two stages by land. The whole distance from 
 Salgha to Nikky being no more than twenty-five journeys, or about four 
 hundred miles (horizontal distance). This will assign to Nikky a station at 
 the latitude 12° 7' north, longitude 5° 12' east. 
 
 From Nikky to the Niger, in the neighbourhood of Youry (the most 
 powerful of the kingdoms tributary to the government of Haoussa,) it is 
 no more than twelve days, or short of two hundred miles horizontal, making 
 the whole distance from Salgha to that station upon its banks, no more than 
 thirty-eight moderate journies, or fifty-two from Coomassy. The towns on 
 the route from Nikky to Youry are, first Rougha, a place of great magnitude 
 on the Ghulby ; over that river to Sabousara ; then Wory, a city also of the 
 first class in Baman ; then Roa, Ghado, Doshi, Confi, and Wado, the 
 metropolis of Wawa. From Wado to Sholo, and Ghasaghasa, where the 
 Koara is crossed over to Youry, which is distant about half a day from the 
 river. To Youry, therefore, I have assigned the latitude of 14° 30' north, 
 longitude T 33' east. The Noufy lake and town are seven journies to the east 
 or south east of Youry ; Bousa is midway on that track, and it is eight 
 journies more to Kassina, by the route north of the Koara. From Youry 
 to Timbuctoo it is twenty-six journies westerly by the route north of the Koara, 
 through Kaby and Ghou. Bargho, better known to the eastern Moslems by 
 the name of Killinga, is a kingdom of equal renown with Zogho, and the 
 Moslems are, in most of its districts, in greater numbers than the heathens.* 
 
 • The other list of routes, their bearing, distance, &c. in day's journies, according to the Moslem 
 maps, or manuscripts, caravan and pilgrim tracks, &c., it has not been deemed essential to copy here, as they 
 may be referred to by the reader in a more systematical arrangement in the little map entitled Soudan. 
 
 O
 
 ^yj SOUDAN. 
 
 The Jews of Soudan are, according to my informers, divided into many 
 laro-e and small tribes, with whose names they are unacquainted. Their 
 mode of life in some countries is pastoral ; but the towns are filled with 
 traders and artificers of that faith, who gain a subsistence at their several 
 employments, in the service of the Moslems, under whose government they 
 live as vassals. This, in reference to Mr. Bowdich's kingdom of " Yahoodie," 
 I may be permitted to say, is the only state of society in which that oppressed 
 nation is suff"ered to live ; and the tribes, without security in their possessions, 
 without public revenue or arms, are hourly exposed to insult and rapine 
 from the blind zeal and active bigotry by which their lords are animated in 
 those countries. The lands occupied by these people cover a wide extent, 
 between Massina and Kaby. They are said to be mingled also with the 
 upper Foulaha tribes, eastward of Timbuctoo, and in many parts of Marroa 
 they have inheritances or are employed as artificers in the cities and towns ; 
 " As we live among the heathens," said the Bashaw, " so do the Jews in 
 Marroa and Fillany with our brethren ; but they are not esteemed like us, for 
 they are a people hardened in their sins and obstinate in infidelitj' ; the anger 
 of God is upon them, and therefore are they given to the rule of the Moslems, 
 until they shall become incorporated with the faithful. The tribes are not 
 black, but of a colour resembling the Arabs of the north. But what is more 
 material, these Soudanic Jews are reported to have been the original inhabi- 
 tants thereabout, before the Arabs were acquainted with central Africa. 
 They are. perhaps, distinguished from the Hebrews, the posterity of 
 Abraham, inasmuch as I never heard them described under the appellation of 
 Bani Israel ; although that name must have been familiar to the Moslems 
 from the pages of the Koran ; and 1 found, in antecedent conversations, upon 
 the subject of Egypt, they were well informed of the events which befel the 
 children of Israel in the days of Moses. The estimation in which the 
 Moslems of Wangara hold the glorious reign of Solomon, King of Israel, is 
 equal to that of their northern brethren ; and does not materially vary from the 
 translations that have been given of the works of Arabian authors who have
 
 AFRICAN JEM'S. CVII 
 
 written fictitious popular tales known in Europe as such, and which occa- 
 sionally refer to that age or the relics of that miraculous power over the 
 elements and invisible spirits with which Solomon was entrusted. I shall 
 not, however, tire the patience of the reader with what might be too 
 marvellous for the comprehension of any but a Moslem. It will be sufficient 
 to say, that the introduction of the Jews to Soudan is a subject worthy of 
 investigation. If my information be well grounded, and a correspondence 
 could by any means be opened with these insulated tribes, much important 
 information relative to the early ages in Africa, might be derived through 
 their agency, as they would have been the first people, it is presumed, who 
 were gifted with the art of writing. These tribes, whether Hebrew or 
 African, wandered, it is believed, originally from the neighbourhood of 
 Upper Egypt, while the children of Israel were held in captivity. 
 
 The countries westward of Gaman are but little known to the Ashantees, 
 who court no alliance in that quarter, nor does an Ashantee trader ever ven- 
 ture his person beyond the distance of fourteen journies west. In the north 
 they sometimes travel as far as Aughoa, the capital of the heathen kingdom 
 of Mousee, whose position is to the south of Magho, and to the east of Kaso- 
 gho. Aughoa is distant from Coomassie twenty-five journies by the Salgha 
 and Yandy Roads, which would give a distance of three hundred and sixty 
 British miles. Their object in frequenting this place is to collect that vege- 
 table substance called in Park's Travels by the name of Shea Butter, 
 although oftentimes they draw their supplies from a forest in Banna, near 
 the town of Kantano its capital, where it does not grow so spontaneous, nor 
 are the trees so prolific. 
 
 The Ashantees now constantly visit Ghofan, south of the Aswada, and 
 sometimes also Baddim, * a district in Manding by a circuitous route, 
 avoiding the territory of Kong, which is considered politically hostile to 
 their country, and occasionally, although very rarely, they visit the Niger at 
 
 * Perhaps the Baedo of Park. 
 
 o2
 
 CVIII SOCDAX. 
 
 Sao-o, where the Moslems say a remnant of one of the tribes fled during a 
 former reign, and are to this day retained in the service of the king of that 
 country, but in these journies they must first consult their safety by a religious 
 escort, or by their ability to obtain the use of the king s name. 
 
 Eastward, the Ashantees rarely visit Dahomy, and never Benin. 
 Between the feelings of the three courts there is a rankling, although some- 
 what torpid inclination to hostility, founded upon jealousy and maritime 
 influence. As regards Dahomy, Mr. Bowdich was misinformed if he was 
 told that the kings of Ashantee and Dahomy had but once exchanged com- 
 pliments, for it is a practice which is politically adopted on various occasions. 
 At Benin, the Ashantees have no friends, consequently there is no corre- 
 sjiondence between the two courts. 
 
 The NE. is mainly the track of amity and alliance, and this, which is 
 one of the most beaten roads in Africa, the Ashantees travel over without 
 scruple, but mostly in the society of Moslems, to Salgha, Tonoma, Ghamba, 
 Yandy, and other parts of Dagomba. Sometimes these traders extend their 
 journies to Kook, Makrari, Nikky, &c. and sometimes, although less 
 frequently, to the Koara at Haoussa. But in these latter excursions they 
 require the aid of the Moslems as religious protectors. 
 
 More to the northward of east, there is another great track leading 
 through Dagomba to the great kingdom of Magho on the Ghulby. This 
 road the traders are also familiar with, and they now and then extend their 
 journey as far as Ghoroma, and more rarely to the northward of that station, 
 but never without the usual precaution. It is a fact of notoriety in the 
 countries of Wangara, that no heathen can be perfectly secure in his person 
 and property beyond the precincts of his sovereign's jurisdiction, excepting, 
 however, the character of ambassador, whose person should be held 
 inviolate, that of king's merchant or trader which is equally sacred, hunters 
 of elephants in the king's name, and on his account ; and lastly, men of rank, 
 or others whose influence or interest at court is powerful enough to gain for 
 them a travelling protection by the use of the king's name, and recommen- 
 
 ( 
 I
 
 CUSTOMS RESPECTING TRAVELLERS. CIX 
 
 dation to other sovereigns and princes. These, and only such characters, 
 are passports for the subjects of Ashantee, by which they may travel in 
 security, and this maxim, I am credibly assured, relates not only to the empire 
 in question, but also to all the heathen kingdoms thereabouts. It is the 
 practice to arrest all strangers upon the confines, and conduct them to court, 
 where the palaver is discussed, and the fate of the intruder, should he have 
 ventured without the necessary precautions, terminates either in detention, 
 slavery, or death. Hence the favour of using the king's name is great, and 
 the king of Ashantee never confers it except upon those whom he has con- 
 fidence in, as men of ability and prudence. 
 
 The Moslems, as it has been stated, may travel secure and unmolested 
 in all known parts of the African continent, yet such of them as are subject 
 to the rule of heathen princes, will not willingly venture their persons in the 
 territory of a hostile state ; like the heathens they may not pursue a direct 
 journey to the place of their destination, avoiding thereby the capital cities 
 and abodes of princes and sovereigns, but must directly shape a course to 
 the metropolis of each kingdom, there to participate in the hospitality of the 
 court, to make known their intentions, and to claim the protection of the 
 sovereign as far as his influence may extend,* and all this may be accom- 
 
 • This is also the simple method practised by the Arabs and the northern nations of Africa, in 
 journeying from the shores of the Red Sea, from Syria, Egypt, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, &c. to the remote 
 parts of the Continent. Such, moreover, is the practice dI the Mauritanian Arabs and .\f[icans, in their 
 excursions over the desert to Soudan, for every sheikh of a tribe looks either for a present or a visit by 
 which he may confer the sacred rights of hospitality, and receive the stranger's acknowledgments. 
 Without these formalities it is by no means safe to pass from one district to another, unless the caravan 
 is of sufficient magnitude to afford protection to itself. I cannot help thinking that the misfortune which 
 befel Mungo Park was owing to the neglect of these indispensable precautions, without which a voyage 
 down the Niger would be impracticable, unless indeed it were possible to fit out a vessel of the class of 
 gun-brigs for that service. By a reference to the journal of Amadi Fatouma, it will be seen that the 
 influence of the king of Bambara afforded protection to the white men as far as Janny, where it does 
 not appear that any other attention was paid to the sovereign, than by .sending on shore a piece of
 
 f.^ SOUDAX. 
 
 plished by the Moslem with or without a present, as his property or circum- 
 stances suogest themselves to his royal host. Nay, on the journey from 
 Coomassy to Haoussa, he seldom disburses a mitskal of gold or coAvrees 
 (the value of ten shillings) but, on the contrary, is frequently a gainer by the 
 s^enerosity of princes, and his daily wants are moreover liberally supplied 
 at their expence, and oftentimes with unbounded hospitality. 
 
 The river of Sago and Janny is called by the natives of those countries 
 Joulaba, (or Jolliba) they have also distinct names for the other rivers, that 
 flow into and from the Dibber, but the Arabs call the water Bahar Neel, or 
 Neel Zakhar, the swelling Nile. 
 
 Ghimbala, the Jimbala of Park, is a sort of principality dependent upon 
 the sovereign of Massina, and Wakwari is the metropolis of the country. 
 
 I did not meet with a man who had visited the celebrated city of 
 Timbuctoo, although I conversed with two or three whose travels extended to 
 
 Baft ; an attack was then made on the party in the Dibber Lake, which ended in the defeat of the 
 aggressors, who were unprovided with fire arms. In passing Kakbara and Timbuctoo, it would seem 
 that no notice whatever was taken of the sovereign, nor any present sent on shore to him, so that to me 
 it does not seem surprising that the party were so constantly assailed by war canoes from Janny to Kaffo, 
 or that they encountered so many obstacles on the voyage to Youry. The story of Mr. Park's death was 
 no secret with any of the Moslems in Coomassy, and it happened precisely as Mr. Bowdich has related, 
 which, in point of fact, agrees with the journal of Isaaco. The capital of Youry is distant from the 
 river a sljort day's journey, and it is said, that when the king sent provisions to the canoe, he entreated 
 by message, that the wliite chief would visit him on shore, and he would meet him near the waterside, 
 an intention which that sovereign put in practice, but was irritated at finding the canoe would not wait, 
 and had already gained an offing from the port ; for Park, anxious, no doubt, for the prosecution of the 
 voyags, quitted his anchorage without thinking it incumbent on him to pay his respects to the king, 
 although thJ public cvriosity or suspicion was excited by his detention two days on the river in gleaning 
 information of Araadi Fatouma. It is the opinion of the Moslems, that no present was sent in return 
 for the provisions, and if so, the conjecture of Park's editor, that they were withheld from the king 
 by the chief, is well founded. When the king sent his army to Boussa, the Moslems say it was done to 
 bring the white men back by force, but their destruction was never meditated ; and the king, when the 
 catastrophe was related to him, punished his officer with fine and imprisonment.
 
 TRAVELLERS FROM TIMBCCTOO. CXI 
 
 Sago and Janny. The travellers frequently saw canoes and caravans arrive 
 at Janny, from the interior, by the way of Walet Tuano, or Timbuctoo ; the 
 latter journey, which they also performed by land, occupied seven days, the 
 route lying through Ghimbala and Massina. The journey from Janny to 
 Walet, cities purely Moslem, took up ten days, in the direction of the Great 
 Desert, west of Massina. The Moslems were' reported to be very numerous 
 on the southern plains; but the unbelievers were not less so in the mountains 
 which separate Fillany from Bambara, and the greater proportion of both sects 
 marked their faces and bodies with cuts or punctures, to distinguish the 
 tribes they belonged to, the same as is practised in Sarem and Ghunja. 
 During my informer's residence at Janny, he had seen many opulent traders 
 arrive from Ismaelia (Mauritania), from Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. Those 
 from the north and east came by the way, either of Mobaruka, Woled 
 Gormah, Woled Mohata, or Jekky. It was usual with these traders to arrive 
 in Soudan about the close of the rains, and retui'n homewards at all seasons ; 
 but more frequently when the river began to swell and the rains were far 
 advanced. The natives of the Niger, according to this authorit) , were as 
 black as most of the Wangara tribes ; and the Arabs, called Woled Moghata, 
 were few, if any, shades lighter. Between Safany and Ghimbala, the houses 
 are all flat roofed, and built of clay, the same as the mosques ; but where 
 lime is to be procured the natives use a thick wash, which looks much 
 brighter than the white or grey clay of Ashantee. In some countries, how- 
 ever, they build with stone and mortar, and the houses of the rich are generally 
 of two stories ; i. e. the ground floor, as it may be called, raised two or three 
 feet, and another floor above it ; upon this principle the palaces of Calamby, 
 Sago, Baa, Taslima, and Janny, are all constructed. 
 
 Couries are the current coin of the Niger, and of most or of all the interior 
 parts of the continent, excepting the westernmost countries of Wangara, 
 Ashantee, Gaman, and some of their dependencies, where gold also is found. 
 Large payments, however, are usually made in Upper Soudan in coin, in 
 manufactured trinket gold, or by bartering one commodity for another, and
 
 CXII SOUDAN. 
 
 paying the balance in couries, salt, or grain; but in the countries before 
 named (as the gold mines exist no where else) the people use the crude metal 
 in lump or dust for the same purpose. In Salgha, Zogho, Nikky, Bargho, 
 Youry, and the eastern countries, the people either use a substantial or a 
 nominal coin, of the same name and value, and this is called mitskal, 
 a thin gold coin, varying in its value in proportion to the weight. It 
 is the same, in fact, which is the national coin of Mauritania, and of most of 
 the Arabian and Turkish governments. This piece of money is esteemed 
 of high antiquity, having been introduced into Soudan beyond the Niger^ as 
 it is related, as early as the second or third hejyran centuries, and many, it 
 is added, are still current which were fabricated at Damascus, Baghdad, 
 Mehedia, and Morocco, during the reigns of the houses or dynasties of Abbas 
 and Ismaelouni. The mitskal has a general circulation, even in countries 
 where it is not a national coin ; nor do the Ashantees refuse them in payment ; 
 but such of them as are esteemed by the Moslems for antiquity and the 
 epoch of a celebrated prince are highly prized by the heathens, who, when 
 they are to be procured, give a great price for them, for the purpose of 
 dedicating to their patron gods, and wearing on days appropriated to religious 
 ceremony. In fact, some of these mitskals are the fetische of the sovereign 
 and nobles.* 
 
 In Entaa, Tonouma, Ghobagho, Zogho, and many neighbouring coun- 
 tries the mitskal which is employed as the medium of exchange, is con- 
 sidered nevertheless a nominal coin, for they are not manufactured in those 
 countries ; they are only partially current from the influx of specie brought 
 by the northern traders. Nikky, the capital of Bargho or Killinga, is the great 
 
 * According to the weight and rate of currency given to the mitskal in Morocco, Fez, and other 
 parts of the Gharb, the average value of what passes for a full weight coin, does not exceed 
 10s. 9d. sterling. It is true, however, that a few of the old coin, of that denomination, are worth 
 something more, but I think I may venture to say, they rarely ever exceed lis. or lis. 3d. in sterling 
 value.
 
 CURRENT COl.V. CXIII 
 
 mint of Soudan, south of the Niger, as Bornou is that of the north ; such was 
 the similitude used by my informers, who shewed me two pieces of money of 
 that description, which were stamped, as clearly as I could discern, with 
 characters similar to the mitskal of Morocco, although the impression, from 
 the purity of the metal, was too much defaced to enable me to trace the year, 
 or the whole of the writing. I was told they were the coin of Killino-a, and 
 that they were current not only in Wangara, but also in Bambara, Marroa, 
 Fillany, Haoussa, some parts of the Desert, and even in Egypt. Thirteen of 
 these mitskals (metsakol in the plural) were considered in Ashantee equiva- 
 lent to the Benda,* or two ounces of pure gold. Thus supposing ll.y. 2d. 
 to be an average value for the mitskal, it would shew the true value of pure 
 gold in Ashantee, 3/. 125. Id. sterling, the ounce weight of that countrj', 
 which may be about sixteen grains heavier than our ounce troy ; reducing it 
 therefore, in sterling money, to 3/. 10*. or thereabouts 
 
 The minkali of Park is evidently no other than the true mitskal, and the 
 value in sterling money, at which his editor has estimated it, i. e. \2s. 6d. is, as 
 it would seem, overrated 2s. a trifle moreor less. This mistake cannot indeed be 
 satisfactorily accounted for, as it rests entirely with that unfortunate traveller, 
 who describes the weight of the minkali about eighty grains, and its value in 
 
 * The names given by the Arabs to several denominations of coin carry their importance in the 
 meaning, which is metaphorical or otherwise. These people, indeed, are pretty uell known even in 
 Europe, as professors of acute sapngs. When a Mauriianian is disappointed in a scheme that requires 
 the assistance of friends or money, it is usual for him to retort acrimoniously, " God rest the souls 
 of the old Arabs, who first gave the name of countenance (or face) to money : enigmatically implying 
 a curse upon the obduracy of the rich, whose arrogance is kindled by the wealth they possess. This 
 word of the Arabs is Xs^ Wajoh or Oujoh, and in strictness it has many appropriate meanings 
 besides countenance or visage, such as honour, purity, respect, reason, primitive prince, &c. bat its 
 common signification is as I have stated. The small copper coins, something less in value than our 
 farthings, are by the same people called [_/^ (Falas) which means poverty, indigence, want, &c. and 
 to a stranger it is a scene of comic novelty to hear the Arabs dispute together, as they frequently 
 do in money matters, exchanging, with animated gesture, the words wajoh, oiijine, tiltonjou, arbaa, 
 falas, &c. — One two, three, four countenances and poverty. 
 
 P
 
 CXIV SOUDAN. 
 
 British currency, as before quoted ; whereas I seldom have had possession 
 of one of those coins that would turn the scale at seventy four grains, and 
 they were not to be rejected at sixty-eight or sixty-seven. It is probable 
 that circumstanced as Park was at Sansanding, the sales he effected are what, 
 commercially speaking, would deserve the name of sacrifices ; for his object was 
 to disencumber himself of those bulky packages which could not conveniently 
 be stowed in the canoe, and of such articles as could be dispensed with, 
 for the more portable coin in gold and cowries, hence the profits calculated 
 upon his account of sales, must not be considered by any means equivalent 
 to what a Barbary merchant would realize for the same articles. 
 
 The mitskal is, according to a tradition in the north, even of older 
 standing than the first emigrations of the Arabian tribes ; but the Guinea 
 Moslems trace their circulation, in Soudan, to the conquests effected by those 
 tribes in Marroa, Fillany, Killinga, &c. before and after the celebrated 
 dynasty of Mohahidouni, or Mahadi. 
 
 The following, shewing the relative value of the mitskal in cowries, as 
 furnished by the Bashaw, may not be uninteresting to the reader. 
 
 COWRIES. 
 
 In Dahomy and Benin it is equivalent to - , 4500. 
 
 In Salgha, Bouromy, and Banna to - - 4300. 
 
 InYandy ..... 4200. 
 
 In Zogho ..... 4000. 
 
 InNikky ..... 3800. 
 
 On the Niger at Haoussa between - - 3.500 and 3400. 
 
 The mitskal of Nikky, I was informed, never varied from the standard 
 that passed for currency in all parts of the continent ; and it was not the 
 usual practice to weigh them as the Ashantees do gold dust. The same 
 mitskal was the coin of Janny and Sago, as well as Youry, Kassina, Wawa, 
 Boussa, kc. They are also circulated in Kambah, Maghu, and Manding ; but 
 where they did not abound, the value in cowries, rock or dust gold, and mer-
 
 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. CXV 
 
 chandize to that amount, was established in most countries and served as a 
 standard medium of currency, by which the natives computed large sums. 
 
 Besides the coin of the Arabians, many or most of the African tribes 
 beyond the Volta, make use of the same weights and measures. Thus the 
 Khroba is a corn measure, containing about two pecks; the Kantar, is one 
 hundred pounds (the same probably as the Mauritanian, which is equivalent 
 to one hundred weight and six pounds English, or one hundred and eighteen 
 pounds). The ratal is a single pound ; the kama is a fathom : and the kaula 
 the cubit measure of twenty-two inches, which they subdivide into three 
 spans. 
 
 P2
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 APPOINTMENT OF THE AUTHOR, AS CONSUL AT COOMASSY. 
 
 In the name and on the behalf of His Majesty. 
 
 (Signed) GEORGE P. R. 
 
 George the Third, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, to all to whom these presents shall come, 
 greeting ; 
 
 We, being desirous to maintain the peace and establish a good correspondence between 
 us, our subjects and the Kingdom of Ashantee in Africa, and to advance and encourage 
 tlic trade and commerce that has been made and now is between our dominions and the said 
 Kingdom, have thought fit to appoint some person well qualified to discharge the office of 
 Consul there ; and whereas we are well assured of the ability of our trusty and well-beloved 
 Joseph Dupuis, Esq. and of his loyalty, experience, diligence, and fidelity ; We, therefore, 
 for the purposes abovementioned, and for the greater benefit, and the good, and more 
 orderly government of our Enghsli merchants and other our subjects trading thither, or 
 residing at Coomassy, the capital city of the said Kingdom of Ashantee, or within any of 
 the dominions of the said kingdom, have nominated, constituted, and appointed, and by 
 these presents do nominate, constitute, and appoint him, the said Joseph Dupuis, to be our 
 Agent and Consul at Coomassy aforesaid, hereby giving and granting unto him the said
 
 CXviii APPENDIX. 
 
 Josepli Diipuis, full power and authority by all lawful ways and means, to aid and protect 
 as well our said merchants and other our subjects trading, or that shall trade, or have any 
 commerce with the said Kingdom of Ashantee, or that do, or shall reside at Coomassy 
 aforesaid, or within the dominions of tlie said Kingdom of Ashantee aforesaid, as also all 
 and every of their goods, wares, and merchandises there, and their ships and vessels and 
 trade aforesaid ; and also, as our said Agent and Consul, to use his utmost endeavours to 
 preserve and keep all our said merchants and subjects in their rights and freedoms there, 
 and also to examine and hear, and as much as in him lies to compose and determine all and 
 all manner of differences, contentions, suits, and variances that shall or may happen or 
 arise, or that are now depending at Coomassy aforesaid, or wthin any of the dominions of 
 the Kingdom of Ashantee as aforesaid, between our said merchants and subjects, or any of 
 tiicm, and to do and execute, from time to time, all and every other act or acts, thing or 
 things, that may advance and encrcase, and be for the benefit of trade and mutual commerce 
 between our said kingdoms and the ports in the Kingdom of Ashantee aforesaid: 
 To have, hold and exercise the said trust and employment of our Agent and Consul at 
 Coomassy as aforesaid, during our pleasure, together with all privileges, immunities, 
 allowances, rewards, profits, and advantages to our Agent and Consul there, anyways 
 belonging or appertaining. Wherefore we will, and by these presents, do strictly charge and 
 command all and every our said merchants and other our subjects coming into, trading or 
 residing in the Kingdom of Ashantee aforesaid, or any of the dominions thereof, to own 
 and acknowledge the said Joseph Dupuis as our Agent and Consul there, in and by all due 
 respects and regards to the said trust belonging or appertaining, for and during the conti- 
 nuance of this our connnission and authority to him in that behalf hereby granted as afore- 
 said, and also to permit and suffer him the said Joseph Dupuis to have, receive and enjoy 
 all such and the like privileges, immunities, and allowances, rewards, profits, benefits, and 
 advantages whatsoever, as do or ought to belong to our Agent or Consul, by reason of the 
 said trust and employment; and we do also, in a friendly manner, pray and desire the King 
 of Ashantee aforesaid, and all others in public authority there, whom it may any way 
 concern, that they receive and admit him, the said Joseph Dupuis, for our Agent and Consul 
 in the said city and dominions thereunto belonging, and upon all his reasonable requests to 
 do him that justice, and afford him that assistance which may testify their friendship to us, 
 and which we shall upon all occasions be ready to acknowledge. 
 
 Given at our Court, at Carlton House, the twenty-sixth day of January, 
 1818; in the fifty-eighth year of our reign. 
 
 By command of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in 
 the name and on the behalf of His Majesty. 
 
 (Signed) BATHURST.
 
 APPENDIX. CXix 
 
 No. II. 
 
 TREATY MADE WITH THE KING OF ASHANTEE, BY MR. BOWDICH, IN THE NAME OF THE 
 GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL, &c.« 
 
 TuEATY made and entered into by Thomas Edward Bowdich, Esquire, in the name of the 
 Governor and Council at Cape Coast Castle, on the Gold Coast of Africa, and on 
 behalf of the British Government, and Zey Tootoo Quamina, King of Ashantee, and 
 its Dependencies. 
 
 1st. There shall be perpetual peace and harmony between the British subjects in this 
 country, and the subjects of the King of Ashantee. 
 
 2d. The same shall exist between the subjects of the King of Ashantee, and all nations 
 of Africa residing under the protection of the company's forts and settlements on the Gold 
 Coast ; and it is hereby agreed that there are no palavers now existing, and that neither 
 party has any claim upon the other. 
 
 3d. The King of Ashantee guarantees the people of Cape Coast from the hostilities 
 threatened by the people of Elmina. 
 
 4th. In order to avert the horrors of war, it is agreed that in any case of aggression on 
 the part of the natives under British protection, the king shall complain thereof to the 
 governor-in-chief, to obtain redress ; and that he will in no instance resort to hostilities with- 
 out endeavouringj as much as possible, to effect an amicable arrangement. 
 
 5th. The King of Ashantee agrees to permit a British officer to reside constantly at his 
 capital, for the purpose of instituting and preserving a regular communication with the 
 governor-in-chief at Cape Coast Castle. 
 
 6th. The King of Ashantee pledges himself to countenance, promote, and encourage 
 the trade of his subjects with Cape Coast Castle and its dependencies, to the extent of his 
 power. 
 
 7th. The governors of the respective forts shall at all times afford every protection in 
 their power to the persons and property of the people of Ashantee, wlio may resort tq the 
 water side. 
 
 8th. The governor-in-chief reserves to liimself the right of punishing any Ashantee 
 guilty of secondary offences, but in case of any crime of magnitude, he will send the offender 
 to the king, to be dealt with according to the laws of his country. 
 
 9th. The king agrees to commit children to the care of the govemor-in- 
 
 chief for education at Cape Coast Castle, in the full confidence of the good intentions of 
 the British government, and the benefits to be derived therefrom. 
 
 • See Note, p. 139.
 
 CIX APPENDIX. 
 
 10th. The king promises to make dihgent inquiries respecting the officers attached to the 
 Mission of Major John Peddie and Captain Thomas Campbell, and to influence and oblige 
 the neio-hbouring kingdoms and his tributaries, to befriend them as the subjects of the British 
 
 government. 
 
 The mark of ZEY '/, TOOTO QUAMINA. 
 
 (Signed) THOMAS EDWARD BOWDICH. 
 In the presence of 
 ^Signed) WILLIAM HUTCHINSON. 
 HENRY TEDLIE. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 TRE.VTY MiVDE WITH THE KING OF ASHANTEE, BY THE AUTHOR, ON BEHALF OF HIS MAJESTY. 
 
 Treaty made and entered into by Joseph Dupuis, Esquire, his Britannic Majesty's Consul 
 for the Kingdom of Ashantee in Africa, in the name and on behalf of the British 
 Government, with Sai Totoo Quamina, King of Ashantee and its dependencies. 
 
 1st. The King of Ashantee agrees to receive and acknowledge Joseph Dupuis, Esquire, 
 as his Majesty's Consul at Coomassy, to the full intent and meaning of his commission, and 
 if at any time ill health should oblige the said Joseph Dupuis to leave this country, the king 
 will receive and acknowledge any gentleman that he may appoint to succeed him. 
 
 2d. The King of Ashantee liaving taken Ills sacred oath of allegiance and fidelity to 
 the crown of Great Britain, in the person of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, makes 
 known to all to whom these presents shall come, that he will with all liis power and influence, 
 support, aid, and protect the British interests, in this country, and that he will, if necessary, 
 on all occasions, march his armies to any part of the country, w;here the interests of Great 
 Britain may require their aid and assistance. 
 
 3d. The claim recently made by the King of Ashantee, on the governor of Cape Coast 
 Castle, amounting to one thousand six hundred ounces of gold, or -£'6,400 is hereby 
 acknowledged to be relinquished ; and it is agreed that there ai'c now no differences or 
 palavers existing between the King of Ashantee and the Governor, or between the king and 
 any other of His Britannic jMajesty's subjects, collectively or individually. 
 
 4th. Tlie King of Ashantee agrees and binds himself to support and encourage the 
 commerce of this country with Cape Coast and its dependencies, by all the means in his 
 power ; and pledges himself not to allow any diflerences that may occur to interrupt the trade 
 with the Enghsh merchants on the Coast.
 
 APPENDIX. CXxi 
 
 5th. The King of Ashantee claims the Fantee territory as his dominions, which the 
 consul, on the part of the Britisli government, accedes to, in consideration and on the express 
 condition that the Iving agrees to acknowledge the natives, residing under British protection, 
 entitled to the benefit of British laws, and to be amenable to them only in case of any act of 
 aggression on their part. 
 
 6th. After the final adjustment of the present claims upon the natives of Cape Coast, the 
 King binds himself to submit all future complaints to the Consul only, and on no account 
 whatever to make war with the natives, at any of the English settlements, without first allow- 
 ing the consul an opportunity of settling such differences. 
 
 7th. The consul, on the part of the British government, guarantees all the protection in 
 his power to the subjects of the king of Ashantee, who may have any commerce with the 
 British Settlements on the Coast. 
 
 8th. The consul binds himself on the part of the British government and the governor 
 and council, to keep half the path that is at present made between Cape Coast and Ashantee 
 well cleared, and the king of Ashantee agrees to keep the other half of the path constantly 
 in good order, so that there shall always be a free and easy communication with the Ashantee 
 dominions. 
 
 9tb. It is expressly agreed and understood that the consul shall at all times be at liberty 
 to visit the capital of Ashantee, and to take his departure therefrom, whenever he may think 
 fit, without being subject to any interruption or detention, and that the consul's residence 
 may either be at Coomassy, or at Cape Coast, as he may, from time to time, deem expedient 
 for the public good ; but if at any time during the consul's absence from Coomassy, the king 
 of Ashantee has any complaint or palaver against the natives of the British Settlements the 
 same is to be submitted to the consul at Cape Coast, and if it cannot be settled without his 
 presence at Coomassy, it is agreed that the consul shall immediately proceed to the capital on 
 all such occasions. 
 
 lOtb. The king of Ashantee having publicly and repeatedly complained of the exorbi- 
 tant prices charged on the notes he holds from the forts, for the goods he receives in payment 
 of those notes ; and in consequence of the manifest dissatisfaction expressed bv the king on 
 this subject in particular, the consul, in order to obviate any objections to the ratification of 
 the present treaty, concedes this point to the king, agreeing in future to take upon himself 
 the payment of those notes : and the king declares he will not from henceforth receive any 
 payment of those notes, except through the medium of the consul. 
 
 11th. The king on thepart of his principal captains and counsellors hereby acknowledges 
 to their having also taken the oath of allegiance and fidelity to the crown of Great Britain. 
 
 12th. In virtue of this treaty, it is mutually agreed and expressly understood, that all 
 former treaties between the king of Ashantee and the authorities of Cape Coast Castle, on 
 the behalf of his Majesty's govcrnn.ent, particularly the treaty of 1817, are from henceforth to 
 become null and void, and are hereby declared so accordingly. 
 
 Given under our Hands and Seals, at the King's Palace, at the capital Coomassy, this 
 
 q
 
 CXxii APPENDIX. 
 
 23d Day of March, in the Year of our Lord, 18^0, and in the Fifty-ninth Year of the 
 Reign of His Majesty George III. &c. 
 
 The mark of X SAII TOOTOO QUAMINA. 
 In the presence of 
 BENJAMIN SALMON. JOSEPH DUPUIS. 
 
 FRANCIS COLLINS. 
 DAVID MILL GRAVES. 
 
 Supplementary articles annexed to the General Treaty entered into this day between Sai 
 Tooto Quamina, King of Ashantee, on the one part, and Consul Dupuis on behalf 
 of His British Majesty's Government on the other part, which articles are hereby 
 considered to be equally binding to the said contracting parties as if they were 
 inserted in the primary or general treaty itself. 
 
 1st. The King of Ashantee having, by force of arms, subdued the kingdom of Gaman 
 or Buntooko, which he now governs in full and undisputed sovereignty ; and whereas, from 
 political motives, it has been deemed prudent to station troops in Amanaha, on the banks of 
 the Assinee River, and other parts of the said kingdom, to prevent the inhabitants from 
 trading or holding any communication with the sea coast ; the king now pledges himself, 
 in virtue of this article, to remove the before-mentioned obstacles to the commerce of the 
 kingdom of Buntooko or Gaman ; and he guarantees the same privileges of trade to the 
 natives of that country, which the Ashantees themselves enjo}% provided their intercourse 
 with the sea coast is confined to Cape Coast Castle, or any other of the British forts and 
 settlements on the Gold Coast. In promotion of this object the king has already nearly 
 completed a road forming a direct communication to the heart of the said country of 
 Gaman, and he hereby binds himself to support, aid, and encourage the trade of that 
 country. 
 
 2d. The King of Ashantee being decidedly averse to relinquishing his claim on tlie 
 natives of Cape Coast Town, and in consequence of certain private negotiations which are 
 now pending through the medium of Mr. Smith, the Governor of Cape Coast Castle, on behalf 
 of the parties concerned ; (and whereas, tlie consul possesses no authority to guarantee pay- 
 ment to the king of any sum of money on behalf of the natives of Cape Coast beyond 
 the limit of one hundred ounces of gold, which has only tended to excite the king's anger 
 and indignation) as well as for other reasons unnecessary to introduce in this treaty, it 
 is hereby stipulated that the natives of Cape Coast Town, being subjects of the King 
 of Ashantee, are excluded from participating in the benefits of either of the treaties, 
 as the kmg is resolved to eradicate from his dominions the seeds of disobedience and insu- 
 bordmation ; nevertheless, in consideration of the friendship existing between him and the
 
 APPENDIX. cxxiii 
 
 King of England, and as the King of Ashantee is particularly anxious to convince the 
 world of the sincerity of his regard for the honour and dignity, as well as the interests of 
 the British Government and people, he will endeavour, as much as possible, to avoid 
 giving offence either to the consul or to the authorities of Cape Coast Castle, directly or 
 indirectly, and, therefore, whatever plans the King of Ashantee may tliink advisable to 
 adopt, in order to bring his people under due subjection, he binds liimsslf not to destroy 
 the town of Cape Coast, nor will he allow a gun to be fired in the town, or suffer his 
 troops to commit any act of hostility or depredation therein on the inhabitants or on their 
 property ; and in particidar as regards the wliite part of the population, to say all the free 
 merchants and traders, he guarantees to them not only full security of person and pro- 
 perty, but also full protection in case of need. Moreover, the king will not suffer his 
 difference with the Cape Coast people to interfere with his plans for the promotion and 
 extension of the commerce between the interior and the British settlements on the sea coast, 
 which he promises shall be immediately restored.* 
 
 3d. (Not granted.) The King of Ashantee agrees to permit and promises to en- 
 courage the establishment of schools at Doonqua, for the religious instruction of his 
 people, and the king, moreover, guarantees perfect security and protection there to any 
 English merchant or others of his Britannic jVIajesty''s subjects in person and effects. 
 
 4th. Tlie King of Ashantee pledges himself for the security and protection in person 
 and property, to missionaries or others, being subjects of his Britannic Majesty, who may wish 
 to establish themselves in any part of his territory for the purpose of propagating the 
 Christian religion ; and the king hereby cordially invites to his country such well-disposed 
 men. 
 
 Given under our hands and seals at the King's Palace at the capital of Ashantee, this 
 twenty-third day of March, in the year of our Lord, 1820, and in the fifty-ninth 
 year of the reign of His Majesty George III. &c. &c. &c. 
 
 The mark of X SAII TOOTO QUAMINA. 
 
 In the presence of 
 
 (Signed) BENJAMIN SALMON. JOSEPH DUPUIS. 
 
 FRANCIS COLLINS. 
 DAVID MILL GRAVES. 
 
 * The Articles No. 1 and 2 of ihe Supplementary Treaty, were inserted at the particular request of the King of 
 Ashantee, to shew, as he said, without disguise, his friendship for white ra^n, and, ot the same time, his determined 
 policy as regarded the people of Cape Coast. Originally this monarch intended to have written a Ittter to the 
 King of England, containing sentiments to this efTtcl ; but changinj his intention after the general t.-eaty had 
 been signed, he desired his ambassadors to explain his sentiments at the British court as they are hire recorded. 
 The propriety of writing them down in a treaty, he adirmed, was manifest, as the Governor and white men would 
 know liis immutable policy and the public sentiments of his captains. 
 
 q 2
 
 (,^^y APPENDIX. 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Fob the convenience of investigation, it has been deemed requisite to separate from the 
 body of the work the materials which give authority to the geography as depicted in the 
 maps, and described more fully in the sections of Wangara and Soudan. The most 
 essential among a voluminous packet of MSS. are submitted in their native character (the 
 Arabic) affording thereby all the facility the author can give to the more acute researches 
 of the learned in oriental literature. These, together with some others, which are too 
 bulky, or too vaguely written, and tortured with repetitions to admit of an insertion in 
 their native garb, were composed chiefly by those Moslems, whose names are mentioned in the 
 work, and who corroborated many or most of their statements by the authority of a variety 
 of travelling guides and directions, such as are commonly used by the caravans of the 
 north, and by these people also in their journies to and from the kingdoms of the Niger. 
 
 The description they gave of the courses of the rivers, of the positions of lakes and 
 other natural objects, of their bearing, distance, &c. from Coomassy, or other inland city, 
 was equally supported by the testimony of the African road books and manuscripts, 
 although the names of some places, which may be found in the maps, are not to be traced 
 in those MSS. which I have considered of importance to submit in their foreign characters. 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 oL L^ Xj^^ U! ^jj\=ji J«^j jjja* ^"ii Lii jJJiil J«- xiJl iU JvaJI ^^1 ^^jc^\\ <sJJl J 
 
 fy^.j^^ V A t^ '^. J i^^j^. ^r- (f- Sf- r^ ^> r^- ^^ c- V r^ '^ J' .>^^' ^>
 
 APPENDIX. CXXV 
 
 » 
 
 cry '^ u-^ ^j-^ 'y^ u^j '^ u-^ 'y^ '^^j ^/- f>'^. '^'j "-^ ^f- c^. "-^ 
 
 \j^ U«J1 lijl- ^ iUu, (^ ^ j^. U'j ;^,^i^ Jl J^ ^j^ ^^^ Jji v^^j^ 
 f^e/^yl -^l c^JI*^^j^y/^li^1 i^J! ^> aL'^ ^y^IL' ^1 Jl^^ aL ^^ 
 
 Jas._. ;^_^jju!1 c:^ J^j ^« (J^?-j ^y- ^y= Jf?" jj/* Jjl l*'^* l)^))^ Ij^y- V-^' L-Ai^ 
 
 y;x<I 5.XJO ^ ^_jk .icJJl |_jl-ffj ^ S^'^^ C-5^(_5^' ^;y' '"^ ''^'* 
 
 TRANSLATION OF No. 4. 
 
 In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, &c. &c. This is a direction 
 from country to country, &c. taking the departure from Salgha, the chief city of Giiunja. 
 
 From Salgha in one day to Dangho, from Dangho, through Yanomo, to Kanyaslia 
 one day ; from Kanyasha in one day to Kadanki, and from Kadanki to Cabouto in one 
 day ; from Cabouto one day to Konjasi. After leaving Konjasi, you enter a smaJi 
 wilderness leading through Tonouma. One journey more leads to a little river, beyond 
 which is Zonkoma.* From Zonkoma to Jadogho one day, and then a wilderness over 
 which you proceed to Keno one day. From Keno you must travel three days over a great 
 range of mountains, vhich will convey you to Ghofil. From Ghofil in one day to Arjo, from 
 Arjo (over the little river Komba) in one day to Motom. From Motom (over mountains) 
 three days to Yarako. From Yarako to Zogho, it is one journey : Zogho is a great city. 
 From Dagho to Dankon, one day, and the road then leads through a forest of three 
 journies, to a country called Salamo. From Salamo proceed on to Jambodo (a long 
 journey) and from Jambodo to Sooso, one journey, where there is a small river -vi-CjsV 
 
 • This river is by some called the Komashar, and is said to fall into the great river of Dahomy — the Lagos.
 
 s- 
 
 CXXvi APPENDIX. 
 
 From Sooso it is one long journey to Corery, and from Corery travel on to Kooka 
 (on the Ghulby.) From Kooka to Makrara (one day.) From Makrara, in one day, you 
 will arrive at Nikky, which is a very large city, and from Nikky in one day to Rougha, and 
 from thence (over the Ghulby) to Makaba. From Makaba to Sabonsara, one day, and 
 from Sabonsara to Wory, one day. From Wory through Snabendia to Roa, and from 
 Roa to Ghado. From Ghado in one day to Doshi, from Doshi to Confi and from 
 thence to Wado. After leaving Wado you enter the country of Batako, which is a di 
 trict so named (very mountainous.) From thence to Sholo it is one day, and from Sholo 
 to Ghasao-hasa one day more, where there is a great sea or river, the like of which b no 
 where to be found : it is called Koara ['J From Ghasaghasa (cross over the Koara) and 
 
 in one day you will reach the city of Youry, which is a very great city. 
 
 From Youry to the country of Konbash, it is seven days' journey. From Konbash to 
 the country of Gharanti, it is five days more ; from thence to Yandoso it is also five days, 
 and from Yandoto to Kassina is seven journies. Kassina is a mighty city, the metropolis 
 (liead) of Haoussa. 
 
 In travellin"- from Haoussa (in the high northern road to Egypt and the Holyland) 
 proceed to Ferjan Fezzan, which is a journey of forty days; from Ferjan to Masser 
 (perhaps the confines of Egypt) it is forty days more ; and to Toonasa thirty days. From 
 Toonassa to Mecca is twelve* days. From Mecca to the Holy City Shamor (Syria) it 
 is forty hard journies: this country stands in the centre of the world. From Medina to 
 Svria it is twenty full journies, and from Syria to Jerusalem is twenty more. 
 
 In this land is the mountain Tor, of Sinai, on the summit of which God conversed 
 with the Prophet Moses,-j- upon \^hom be peace, &c. and he was entombed dierein. The 
 peace of God, &c.J 
 
 * The author of this MS. seems to have made a slip of the pen in the description of the distance 
 between Tunis and Mecca; or, which is very probable, he intended to have wriltin Ihe name of some other 
 
 citv bearing a relation in sound to ihat of Tunis. The words, however, are \j]j;^i:[j^] ^ Jl ,J J- aK - 
 as tliey are translated. 
 
 t There exists a current tradition resting upon the authority of the chapter of the Koran, intitltd A\ 
 Araf, that when tlie Ahnighty divested himself of the awful attributes of his omnipotence, which none of 
 mortal race could look upon and live, he appointed his servant Moses to meet him ntar a certain mountain 
 called Al Zabbar. But the Prophet doubtful if he was in the presence of his Creator, cried out, " O Lord ! shew 
 me thy glory that I may behold thee." To which the Almighty answtred, thou shalt not in any wise behold 
 mo ; but look at the mountain, and if it is still rooted in its place, then, indeed, thou shalt see my glory. Moses 
 turned his head in that direction, as the attributes of Divine Majesty biazed en the mouutain, and reduced it to 
 dust, throw ing tne Prophet also into a deep swoon. 
 
 \ The concluding parts of ^he MSS. whit h are chiefly of a religious character, coupled, moreover, with a 
 description of mountams known to my informers, I have not deemed it r.ectssary to tianslate, as the neighbour- 
 hoods of Egypt and Syria may be better known to the European than the tropical African in tlie west.
 
 APPEVDIX. CXXvii 
 
 And this is a direction to the country of the Prophet of God, on whom be peace, &c. 
 for the service of our friend (master) the Christian, &c. written by his loving friend Souma, 
 and now pray to God, &c. — Amen.* This is termed the main eastern road. 
 
 No. 5. 
 
 This relates to the direct route from Ashantee (Coomassy) to Salgha, a journey of 
 fifteen days. Its writer was a native of Ghunjah, whose sovereign had granted him per- 
 mission to visit the Court of Ashantee. He had been several times to Haoussa, &c. as 
 also to Dahomy and Benin in the east. 
 
 ''^l ^1 ^] 1^'j : ^xl j^i ^-^ ^t x,ij ; ^^u : ^ : -^uj^ ; ij'^ ,i^i |^l 
 
 • crt^' r^' t^*" J' st'-^' tr-^ • 
 
 TRANSLATION OF No. 5. 
 
 Glory be unto God, for the use of .speech, the knowledge of writing, &c. This is a 
 direction for travelling, &c.-t- by the route from Coomassy to Salgha. Leaving Coomassv, 
 you arrive the first day at Jaraakasi, the second at Antoa, the third at Damoka, the fourth 
 at Akoroforom, the fifth you enter Akeyah, which is the name of a mountainous 
 country ; then to IVIanbon, and from Manbon to Dinkeny ; then to Adijani, and Ajora, 
 Amatini, and Akokoa (each one day.) From Akokoa to Batoda, and from thence to 
 Yobati, in which there is a large water or lake I .jj^] ^i^\ ^^ and the name of the lake 
 is Bouro. Then to Coulan and Sakenim and Yaji. In the last named country is a large 
 
 * There existed a feeling of emulation among the followers of Moliammed, to anticipate anv conjecture 
 I might form that tliey were deficient in a knowledge of then- scriptures, and of the land sacred to the memory of 
 the Prophets Shouma, who never travelled to the northward of the kingdom of Haoussa ; but as he did not wish 
 to be thought inferior to others who were more intimately acquainted with the countries he attempted to describe, 
 beyond the Koara, he probably wrote the supplementary part from his gleanings among the Haoussa Moslems, 
 established in Coomassy. 
 
 t The preliminary and some superfluous parts of the MS. it is conceived may be generally omitted.
 
 CXXVUl APPENDIX. 
 
 river sea ( .1/ ^ ) the name of which is Aswada (the black river) and the name of 
 the land on the banks of the river is Babosoo. This is the end of the journey to Salgha 
 (for that city is on the opposite bank of the river.") 
 
 The subsequent part of the manuscript falls next under consideration. It runs as 
 
 follows : — 
 
 No. 6. 
 
 ^_jici) : ^JLi : ^jxi : l**jo : .y : ^^:jS^^\ fU ^^ iU jJuJl ^\ !JJt> tJ^J^ cr**^" ^^ f^ 
 <.^^^ijS XjiiJ : ^^ 5UII ^] jJx Uj : jZji : iilK : b^L, ^^aII^'^ iL^Ji '. Lo^ : 
 
 iJJ^ i_s^^ v.s^^'^ • f*'^ '^' yj'iaL. |»««1 jAji' jJjJ! »*«1 ^'j : ^yJjii : jj J : ^«^l^ *t«JI *-jI 
 
 ^1^^< : iy : cL-'i: : juo jUjI !y;:yjjLi' ij ^^aJ^: jJijJ! ^ sU *--1 IJ'Lc.' pIjL! : J^j: jlSs.; 
 : ijii'x^ •jr^ (_s^ • '^'^s^ e;^=^ r"' ^-^ i_slr- * ;r° ' ^^ '^' ''^ "-^ r"' f ^ " 'i''^ " 
 
 «j:^) ^_j!l .Lc _ i- ^y ^ .'-^.JJlj UuJ Uy jsyic jLc ^1 iub J.a!1 _^ fi^.J-^i ^ ("V. *r** (►^j *ii^ ^^ 
 
 TRANSLATION OF No. 6. (to the ghulby at magho.) 
 
 In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate. This is a direction (by the route 
 NNE.) &c from Salgha to the interior countries. Salgha to Kakashi then Dafo, Touro, 
 Yansala, Betareby, Yashely, Deghony, Wabeya, Keresago, Jakolishi, Sakoya, Coultegha, 
 Boughori, Batili to the river Ghulbi at Coky, (or which is the name of the water of Eook)
 
 APPENDIX. CXxix 
 
 (Proceed on) to Dedery, Conghobo, and then Magho, which is a large kingdom or country 
 governed by a Sultan whose nanie is IMariba Sheky ; the name of his capital city is Ghoroma, 
 (on the other side the river.) Kenagha (is next, and then) Tacly, Balogiio, Andari, where the 
 name of the water is still the Ghulby ; Zabogho, Datokoro, Banian, — which is the name 
 of a large country, governed by a sultan called Zafory Detaki. The river Ghulby 
 next, and then to a very large water (a lake) called Konzagha ; Yangodi, jMajori, and 
 Kobogho, (ai-e all on the road which leads on to the mountains called Fagh) in the kingdom 
 of Wawa. 
 
 (The towns in succession) fi-om the Konzagha lake are Sabawa, Batikati, Etana, Kati, 
 Kikidi, Tcntati, Tedadema, Dako, Jata, Zaghore Touri, Natagho, and Makoro : — this is 
 the name of a lake or great water standing in the country; Conti, Digho, Cabar, 
 Ghoro ; where the water is very broad : Ghatagha, Fougha, Tokani, Bakoridi, and 
 Fagh, which is the name of the mountains in this country. Then through Conka, to the 
 kingdom of Maury ; from Maury to Berini, Cabi. The name of the sultan (of iMaury) 
 is IVIohammed. Then (over the) Ghulbi, Kanbaja, (called also Shaderbah,) to Kadoa. 
 Then (by land) to Rago, Fakaro, Ghoshi, Fawa, Rekena, Kototori, Marina. Kandashi 
 is the name of this country — and great Sony is the name of the next. There is also ano- 
 ther place called Sony, where the water is vei"y large, and bears the name of Bouromi Mag- 
 hami. The name of the sultan is Bawa Jouromi. Then Komi, Moromalabo, Barni, (and 
 lastly) Kassina. This is a very large country, for it is Haoussa. 
 
 Leaving Kassina (for the north) you will travel on to Azban (Azben) in forty days, 
 and from Azban to Ferjan (Fezzan) it is forty join-nies more. Leaving Ferjan you will 
 arrive in forty days at Egypt ; and from Egypt to Mecca it is twenty journies, hard travel- 
 ling (literally night and day). From Mecca (back) to Medina, the city of the Apostle, with 
 peace, prayer. Sic. &c. it is ten days hard travelling. Leaving Medina you will arrive at 
 Arou in ten days more, at the same pace ; from Arou to Jerusalem, it is ten journies, and 
 from Jerusalem to Shem it is also ten journies. This land is nigii unto Heaven, and here is 
 the finish. 
 
 The name of the writer is ^lohammed Camati, alias* (i. e. as he is called by the 
 Pagans) Cantoma, in company with his friend Aboubecr Touria, (or Ben Touri.) 
 
 » This manuscript is the copy from another original document, which the author preserved with great care 
 to serve him as a travelling guide by the least fatiguing route to Arabia, where he intended to go on a pilgrimage 
 as soon as the king granted him permission, or that he could arrange his afiairs satisfactorily. 
 
 Another manuscript, written by a Mohammedan chief, who hid been many years established (as a courtier 
 and trader) at Ashantee, will be perused with interest, as its supplement is a route to the Jolliba at Sego and 
 Jinnie. The author was a native of Ghomba, in Dagombah; he was the celebrated Bashaw, commonly called 
 Sheikh or Alkaid Baba — a name which he derived from his advanced age. During his youthful days he had 
 travelled through many kingdoms in the East ; yet he had never been either at Timbuctoo or Jinnie. 
 
 The author had resided some time at the courts of Zogho, Bargho, Magho, and Kambah. The Joliba he 
 
 r
 
 CXXX APPENDIX, 
 
 No. 7. 
 
 jk «J' 1;^ cr*^ r^-W ^^* ^^ i^' '^' ury ^^ "^ ^^Z^' i^^- f^- ir^'-} V^-' ^^ 
 
 * ^y 'S:^'-^' 1.5^^^ J' </« try r^-' S^^" «^ 
 TRANSLATION OF No. 7. 
 
 Glory be unto God in unity. This chapter (of knowledge) is directed to the esteemed 
 and beloved friend who sohcited us to furnish him with information for travelling, (through 
 this country,) &c. 
 
 From Ashantee first to the country of Salglia, which is fifteen journies. From 
 Salgha to the country of Dagomba, i. e. Yandi, (the capital city) which is six days. From 
 Yandi to the country of Zogho, and from Zogho to that of Killinga, which (together) make 
 a journey of eighteen days. The capital city (of Killinga) belonging to the king, is called 
 Nikky. From Nikky to the river Koara it is thirteen journies more, and from the Koara 
 to Youry it is but a single day. From Youry (back) to Ghobagho it is thirty days ; from 
 Ghobagho to Mousee it is seven days ; from Mousee to Kasogho it is four days. From 
 Kasogho to Safany it is eight days, and from Safany to Jany (or Jinnie) it is eight days 
 
 always spoke of as a river distinct from the Koara, being separated by a sea or lake, which he sometimes called 
 Bahar Ghimbala, and at others Bahar Deby, or Zeby. The Joliba he conceived to be inferior, by far, in dimen- 
 sions, as well as in the multitude of lakes and large populous islands the Koara abounds with. 
 
 • Contrary to what Mr. Bowdich has insinuated, I did not meet with the slightest interruption, neither 
 was I annoyed by suspicious glances during my geographical researches in the society of the north eastern 
 Moslems. The king and his ministers were early apprised of the intimacy that existed, and of our daily occu- 
 pation ; but so far was he from resenting the familiarity, that it gave him great pleasure, and which he evinced 
 by making it, from time to time, a topic of conversation, in which he would frequently talk of neighbouring 
 kingdoms ; of Dahomy, Sareni, Dagomba, &c. At the same time it must be admitted, that the king or his 
 ministers were tacitly averse to an intimacy with the Kong, Ghofan, and Manding Moslems, who were taken in 
 arms against him dunng the last Bontoko war : yet the king, himself, never even hinted at the jealousy which 
 it was but natmal for him to feel on the occasion.
 
 APPENDIX. CXXxi 
 
 This, which is the preliminary part of the manuscript, exhibits the lines of communi- 
 cation between Lower Guinea and the districts of Haoussa, Fillany, &c. The supplementary 
 part is as follows : 
 
 No. 8. 
 
 J] j'j J! li/ ^1 i\i J] )£i J] ^^5 j\ ^^ ji p^- ji Jli^ J] ^\ ^li 
 ji y Jl ^^ JI 7 J' u5^ J' u?^' J' f^ J' rV' J' £?^ J' v^' Jl ^ 
 
 '^ c;^ J' e^^^ J^ /^ '^' J^ uiS J' '^^' J' ? J'/==^];^.!>^ IV^"" J' C^*-= 
 
 ^^i J' J/- J' ^^^ J ;^- J' j/ J' J"^ J' ^^^ Jl 7 J' ? Jl t-r'i'' '^^^^ 
 
 ^..^s-Lo ^iiJl *Jki,^' ^! ^u^ ^11 'b ^. *L^ jL ^b jIj Jl CjJdi Jl LXjjoUj Jl 
 A-.,cJv iuiJl J^;S^' Jl ^jyl^Il^ji" jJo ^V Jl L«.*J. Js J' ^J J Jl iSlll y_5 iu^I 
 
 J 'c^ ;?'i' cT^;^^ f^ '^ € J' ^v-^ JI r^. c;*^'^V' J f^ Ji r^-' j^ 
 
 r^ J' ^^^-^' J'j^^ Jl t>^;;i=Il 
 
 TRANSLATION OF No. 8. 
 
 Moreover, from hence — Cocmassy, to Jamacasi, from Jamacasi to Tataroom, and from 
 Tataroom to Kikiwhari. From Kikiwhari to Enaso, and to Sakado, which is the (chief city of) 
 the country called Massy. (From Sakado) toDonkori, to Conta, and from thence to Coransah. 
 From Coransah to Boubin, to Kerahem, to Kantano to Kaka, to Caranda to Dawa, and ihe 
 Desert — where there is no resting place, and through which the river runs* iss^.- 
 When you get through it (the Desert, which is two days journey from N. to S.) you will 
 arrive at Ghofan, a country of the Moslems. And from Ghofan to the country of the King's 
 Son, and to Lankantera. From thence through Katari to Botintasi, and Daboya. From 
 Daboya proceed to Solaba, and (or through) Ghobagho. From Ghobagho tx) Dankairy, 
 
 * This is the Bahar Aswada, as it is called by the Moslems: the other name by which it is distinguished by 
 the Idolaters is Adirrai. 
 
 r 2
 
 CXXxii APPENDIX. 
 
 to Bonough to Bouasa, to Cabari to Yauba, Ejagho to Baddim, to Kanjakha to Baghi, 
 to Sela to Kobar, to Kaii — or Karey — to Foura, to Soumbo and Boiirnia, which is an island in 
 the river (^s^! ^U»-) From Bourma to Kou, to Calambi to Couini, to Baforo to Shougho 
 (Seo-o) in Safani. This (last named place) is a large country, with churches (mosques) in it. 
 From Safani to Nouno, to Karou to Bouradi, to Dorra to Kerba, to the river (again) to 
 Kooda to Soonore, to Fee to Feer, to Sadankera to Felanki, to Baa, a country of Moslems. 
 And from Baa, and Conbori, to Taslima,* the country of holy (religion) resignation and 
 learning (which is governed by a chief (of the family) sacred to God's service, &c. From 
 Taslima to Noumodogho, to Toumayama to Jennie, which is a large country of IMoslems. 
 
 From Jennie to the sea, whereon ships sail (it is a journey of) fifteen days by water, and 
 then by land thirty days more imtil you get afterwards to Jekhy, a salinous, rocky, or stony 
 country : and from these rocks you will fall in the direct track for Egypt, whose sea is the 
 great sea, &c. -f- 
 
 The following MS. is a route by the same author, from Jennie to Bornou : 
 
 • Whatever may be the prevailing opinion concerning the tribes and nations of interior Ethiopia.it is not to be 
 doubted tliat many powerful states and principaKties are exclusively Mohammedan ; indeed, from such accounts as 
 are deserving of credit, it appears that the proportion of Moslems is nearly upon a par with the idolatrous population, 
 between the Aswada and the Koara Rivers, on the Haoussa road. In Ghunja, beyond the Aswada or Volta, 
 excluding Dahomy and its tributary states, the Moslems are supposed to exceed in numbers the idolaters. In 
 Dagomba, Ghomba, Zogho, Kambah, and Kook, they are very numerous: In Bargho and Killinga they enjoy 
 independent governments, reaching even to the banks of the Koara. 
 
 t The author candidly admitted his incompetence to give any intimate description of the countries eastward of 
 Bornou, as his geographical knowledge was limited to the capital of that empire; but he professed capacity to 
 describe with accuracy the interior features of the continent as far as the Koara, both geographically and politi- 
 cally. In the north and west he maintained that the creed of the Prophet had not made as much progress 
 as in central Africa, and the states eastward of Dagomba and Killinga: and this he accounted for in a manner 
 by no means unsatisfactory. The former regions, he said, beyond Ghobagho, were for the most part either 
 mountainous or hilly, and were beside clothed in impenetrable forests and thickets, from whence the natives 
 ( who, in certain districts were more barbarous than the Ashantees,) were able to oppose the Moslem arms 
 successfully, where cavalry, besides being scarce, could not act: whereas the latter districts being champaign 
 land, and the Arabian horse and camel (from having been early introduced there) being abundant, the 
 Moslem princes, tributaries of Bornou on the south of Koara, reduced nation after nation, compelling some' 
 the most assailable, to renounce idolatry, and all to pay tribute ; which, like the Arabs, they collect by 
 flying camps, and large squadrons of horse and camel, The King of Ashantee, it was added, owed his 
 safety to the same causes, added to a maritime intercourse by which he obtained those scarce articles, 
 powder and guns. 
 
 (
 
 APPENDIX. cxxxiii 
 
 No. 9. 
 
 J' r-^ J'i'-n & ^i^^ <J' r^' ttT*? (^ JV'*^ c/^'-^^' J'c/^.'^' u5/^ Ji v'"^' '^ 
 
 J! ^yor ^j ^_^ya; J! ^sl ^^^ ^s'! Jl ^1 ^ j^\ ^^ ^-^1 i^ j^\ 
 cT*? t:/^ J' •^'^ cry '^^ J' r-^' v-^Aij^!! ^' j^^i^jM Jl i^r^JLOa ^^ e:^Juai)^l Jl 
 ^^1 C^lj ^j^l c;^l=J- ^> J- ^ "^/l Jl \r^\ Jl^AJaiJoJl^l J^ Jl ^ 
 J> "^ i=^ J' ^;-<= c>^j J' '^ »^-J 'rt J' u^' J' uyi:r«J*i^y J^ 1;^ J' u5^-/^ 
 
 TRANSLATION OF No. 9. 
 
 First, the country of Alfine; and from Alfine to Casou Dousoii, and then to Sakam, 
 and from Sakam to Boghifom, from Boghifom to Aty or Aowati, where the water (of the 
 river) is very great. From Aowati, cross the river, (the Koara) and land at the large rocks ; 
 from whence proceed on to Kankawansa, and from Kankawansa to Henkonta. From Hen- 
 Ivonta to Dankasado (again) cross a river, (sea) and rest the day at Dody. From Dody to 
 Kamana, and from Kamana to Honafokon ; and then to a great range of mountains, on the 
 other side of vvhicli is the Desert. The next place is Akom, the country of the king of 
 kincs JuOCi! iaLj LLj jJj (meaning the sultan of Bornou.) Then Sokori, then the De- 
 sert, and Foony. And from Foony to Tama, Tegho, Woso or Wodo, and Bornou. 
 
 The following MS. describing the journey to Kassina, was written by a native of that 
 country, but recently arrived at Coomassy on a trading speculation from the former city : like 
 the MS. No. 3, it leads to Magho on the Ghulby, and from thence eastwai-d along its shores. 
 
 No. 10. 
 
 ^b ^^ ^.^b ly:/L ^ij. : ^AL. : l^lil : ^/ : LJj. Ij^jJ : lylo ^/^ : J:5L : 
 
 : ^^ : ^"i : l^b : ^\^^ : ^\i!yc : _yjl£j : Lo : ^//--'^J cL-iJli : J:_jc : y;'Js 
 : liy : 1^1 J : lij^ ^^^jO : *aa1j : bj, : *l^/ ^b : j^Jy : U_j_^ :^l*.« : ^ : ^L : y^bb 
 ; ^UlJjiij^^^:^/^; : 1^^"^S: JuL : £1 : ^1.1^_: ^ Ji c3/ ^b ^^o : yy^
 
 CXXXIV 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 TRANSLATION OF No. 10. 
 
 Glory be unto God, and peace unto you, &c. (The places) are Jamakasi, Majokoasi, 
 Adijani, Amateny, Ataboba, Banaa. Then Yajy and Salgha. From Salgha to Bokoky, 
 Zafo, Dorowa, Yansala, Coobeya, Laja, and tlien Yandi. From Yandi to Cardosi, 
 Sakogho, Baki, and (the next journey is to) the river Ghulbi. From the Ghulbi (go to) 
 Dajy, Todoge, Kokojo to IMagho ; and from thence to Tady, Balagho, F'adaly, Dahegha, 
 Yanka, Yarmesy, Kodeba, Yanboti, Tagho, Ghogha, Fadeseka, Dansareka, Caya, Daghabo 
 Atkali, Alomagho, Dawa, Lagamana, Komosy, Dabakou, Sameya, Alomoan, ^laury, Rougha, 
 Todo, and then (you ai-e on the banks of the) Koara (the Koara Rafa. ) Then Redaba, 
 Beledy, Dosyrouga, Doua, Fougha, Kotobo, Deby, Dajy, Kooka, Cabi, and then the river 
 Ghulbi again. From thence to Kalabaina, Sala, Saghara, Droo, Bokory, Komsi. Ghado, 
 Damaji, Sara, Nofawa (the country of NifFy) Daraa, IMai-iki, Rouma, Mayo, Berini, (and 
 lastly) Kassina. 
 
 The following is a sketch from a native chart, describing distance, he. It was taken 
 from an original in the possession of a man named Mohammed Shallum, al Marouy, a 
 native of Maroa, who travelled in company with the SherifTe Brahim, and was left in Ghunja 
 when that prince departed.* 
 
 No. 11. 
 tir*J |iy .s-?^! ^^ ^ji <sl'jb y>.> hr> ^1 i^J}i Lj^ 6l^^ jSm 'il^r'jj.^ |*^r' tif*^'' ^^ 1**^- 
 c/ h)^ vJ' t^ «ry ''^i^-J'^} '''-*'^ '-^ J' ^J^- U^J • "-^ J^^3 'rf'^'^ J^^ ^J'^ib^ 
 cr*J^''^' u/ ^^^ (^ ^-"'^ J-^-'^V^ J^=^ ^hjv^^'f;^ ^/ »J' e/ ^/ tiT*; ^)^- ar' 
 
 ij<}^ii lk*,jytj -sill l::^ju ^^^L^iltj 5U Ujj ^^^| &Cy Lb,j«.cJl ^^'^1 r^^^-^j ^^. "^^ 
 
 '■^^^ iJ' r''^ ttT'j '^y^- ti4r^ c*^ 'H/ iJ' '^.'^- ^;/ j^r*^ /v^'j ^ Lc^. y^ ^.j*^ ^/ ^' ij^ 
 
 • The author, who called himself El Hadge ben Saido, was the only man amongst my associates who had 
 performed the pilgrimage; and consequently the Only one of the party who enjoyed the tide of Hadge. His
 
 ArPEXDIX. cxxxv 
 
 TRANSLATION OF No. 11. 
 
 In the name of God, the merciful, &c. This is a direction for travelHng from Haoussa 
 (the kingdom of) Youry to the city of Bornoii, called Berini, by water upon the Koara, and 
 from Bornou to the sea Shady and the sea Nile. 
 
 From Youry to Kassina, it is fifteen days. From Kassina to the city of Kano, nine days. 
 From Kano to the city of Bornou it is one month ; — and the sultan of this country, whose 
 equal exists nowhere else, governs all the land. Then from Bornou to the sea called Shary, 
 it is thu-ty da3's ; and from Shary to the sea called Shady it is four days. The Shady is a 
 large sea because the Koara runs into it. From the Shady to Foor it is seven days, and from 
 Foor to Wady five days more. Then from Wady to the city of Egypt, (Masser or Cairo) 
 it is fifty-three days; from Cairo to Medina and IMecca it is forty days hard travelling. The 
 Temple of God stands in it, (the Caaba) and the city itself stands in the middle of the world. 
 From Mecca to the city of Aledina it is ten days hard travelling ; and from Medina to the 
 capital of Syria (Damascus) it is twenty days, from whence (the city of Shem) to the city of 
 Jerusalem it is ten days, and the mountain called Tor of Sinai* is in it, upon the top of which 
 God conversed with the Prophet Moses, and the mountain Tor of Sinai fell and buried Moses. 
 
 Another chart or manuscript in the possession of this man was called ^^^^ 
 
 " A travelling guide from the country of Ghunja to that of Haoussa, from the time you leave 
 the city of the king (Coomassy) until you alight upon the banks of the sea called Koai-a : — a 
 sea (river) whose equal no where exists."" It will be unnecessary, however, to insert this 
 document as it deviates but little from ilS. No. 1, than which, in regard to time, and distance, 
 it is less precise. 
 
 education, however, was but an imperfect one, and his writing, like that of some others, betrays the fact. This 
 man was particularly communicative, and anxious, as he affirmed, that 1 should know his country, (Houssa) 
 which was of more importance in every shape than Ghunja and Dagombah put together. 
 
 • The author is evidently under a mistake in placing the mountain Tor, or Sinai, in the neighbourhood of 
 Jerusalem, from which it is distant ten joumies south. Another circumstance worthy of notice is, that he places 
 Wady to the eastward, or northward and eastward of Foor: i. e. in the journey to Eg)-pt from Ghunja, thetra- 
 \^ller, as he describes, must necessarily traverse Foor, or Dar Foor, before he enters Wady, called also Dar Wady. 
 
 The author of this work, who is also the editor and translator of the Arabic it contains, deems it right to 
 announce to the oriental scholar, that some trifling errors have mtruded themselves amongst the characters of that 
 language which precede the Appendix;— an elucidation however maybe briefly given. There is a distinc- 
 tion between the formations of oriental and occidental Arabic ; and notwithstanding the characters 
 cf both are nearly the same, the ditfertnce trifling as it is in other respects— ^ is material as 
 regards the letters ^ and j which the African Arabs, and the natives of that Continent universally write 
 with single dots; the former at bottom, the latter at top. The author consequently, to whom, from custom, the 
 occidental style is most familiar had already commenced the work of publication, and had proceeded in his correc- 
 tions nearly to the extent described before he discovered that no suA type as an occidental one could be procured. 
 For ^_J tlierefore it will be necessary in the part foregoing the Appendix to read q 
 
 THE END.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 Page xix. lines 10 and 11, for " report of the king's death did lose ground," read, did not lose ground. 
 
 xxiv. line 1, for " ong," read long. 
 
 — XXV. lines 25 and 26, for " as if sensible last," read, as if sensible at last. 
 -^— xxxvii. line 19, omitted direction; — To the Governor and Council. 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 Page 18. lines 17 and 18, for " Mimosa Scandriensis," read Bauhiuea Scandens. 
 64. line 15, for " Benjamin," read Benzoin. 
 
 73. in the note, for ' ' ^^■•Jj^J') read ^;^*^1 
 
 77. line 4, for "lions," read loins. 
 
 123. line 24, the asterisk at line 24, following " told me," should fall at line 25, following Annamaboe. 
 
 177. line 4, for ^i^> '^^^ '^Jj': 
 
 WANGARA. 
 
 Page XXIV. line G, for " Kambah," read Komba. 
 
 x.xxin. The marks of reference to the notes at the bottom of the page should be reversed Urns, No. ], 
 
 the'.No. 2, thet. 
 
 xxxvii. line 13, for " the capital," read their capital. 
 
 - — LVii. note, line ti, for " in the neighbourhood of Jaccorary," read, and ia the neighbourhood of Taccorary. 
 
 SOUDAN. 
 
 Page l.xxx. line 28, for " Soudan Dakhlala," read Soudan Dakhlata. 
 
 Lxxxix. line 6, for " Holagul," read Holagu. 
 
 xci. line 29, for " east of the Fonnosa," read wset, &c. 
 
 — — xciv. line 12, for " Jocliinani," read Soolimani. 
 
 xcv. line 17, for " Tr.stima," read Tasliraa. 
 
 xcvn. line 19, for " Takolshi," read Jakolshi. 
 
 xcviii. line 11, for " Kouzagha," read Konzagha. 
 
 _^ line 24, for " Koubory," read Konbory. 
 
 xcix. line 18, for " Callio Makaro," read Makaro. 
 
 note, for " Vahar Kanbaja," read Bahar, &c. 
 
 c. line 1, for " Hanbaja," read Kanbaja. 
 
 CI. line 13, for " Kassima," read Kassina. 
 
 cii. line 1.3, for " south of the desert," read south of the Niger. 
 
 CIV. line 28, latitude and longitude of Yandy redundant, having been recorded in Wanf^ara- 
 
 ex. line 2, in the note, for, " Kakbara," read Rakbara. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Page cxxiv. line 7, of the Arabic, for j«I> read |»*«1 
 
 cxxv. line 4, ditto for CL;jiiJU-«j, read &c. ^^ 
 
 line 7, ditto for f^r'i > read &c. ^<j 
 
 The author, in apologising to the public for such a list of errata as the foregoing, begs to observe, that he was 
 seized with a dangerous illness during the progress of the publication, which consequently deprived him of the 
 advantage of correcting some of the proofs, daily, as they came from press. That by the great professional skill 
 of his medical attendant, (Dr. Herbert of Grafton Street,) he was able, after the lapse of a fortnight, to attend to 
 the task of correction ; but too late to remedy the evil, particularly as regards the section " Soudan." 
 
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