Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee

CHAPTER II.

---

History.

To speak of the death of a former king, the Ashantees imagine to affect the life of the present equally with enquiring who would be his successor; and superstition and policy strengthening this impression, it is made capital by the law, to converse either of the one or the other. The inability of the natives to compute time, and the comparatively recent establishment of the Moors, may be pleaded as additional apologies for the imperfect history I have collected.

According to a common tradition, which I never heard contradicted but once, the Ashantees emigrated from a country nearer the water side, and subjecting the western Intas, and two lesser powers, founded the present kingdom. These people being comparatively advanced in several arts, the Ashantees necessarily adopted a portion of their language with the various novelties; which probably created the limited radical difference between their language and that of the Fantees; for I could not find, after taking the greatest pains, more than 200 words unknown to the latter. The weights of the Inta country, in particular, were adopted with their names, by the conquerors, without the least alteration.

The tradition, scanty in itself, is very cautiously adverted to, the government politically undermining every monument which perpetuates their intrusion, or records the distinct origins of their subjects: but, from the little I could collect, it appeared to have been an emigration of numerous enterprising or discontented families, to whom the parent state afterwards became subject. I am inclined to think, (the account of their coming from a country nearer the sea being too general for conjecture to revolt from,) that they emigrated from the eastward of south, where the territory admitted to be Ashantee proper is remote, compared with its extent southward, or westward of south, and the former consequence of Doompassie, and the towns eastward of it, support this: yet, the very few natives who pretended to any opinion on the subject, had an impression, that their ancestors emigrated from the neighbourhood of a small river, Ainshue, behind Winnebah: a croom called Coomadie is to be found there, but there is nothing else to countenance the report.

The Ashantee, Fantee, Warsaw, Akim, Assin, and Aquapim languages are indisputably dialects of the same root; their identity is even more striking than that of the dialects of the ancient Greek: now the Fantees and Warsaws both cherish a tradition, which exists also in many Ahanta families, that they were pressed from the interior to the water side by the successful ambition of a remote power; whence it may be concluded, that the Ashantee emigration we are now considering, was posterior to a more important movement of the whole people, corresponding with that of their neighbours. I will not dilate upon this secondary subject by referring to internal evidence, there is nothing to recompense either the investigation or the perusal.

One curious evidence however may be added of the former identity of the Ashantee, Warsaw, Fantee, Akim, Assin, Aquamboe, and part of the Ahanta nations; which is a tradition that the whole of these people were originally comprehended in twelve tribes or families; the Aquonna, Abrootoo, Abbradi, Essonna, Annŏna, Yoko, Intchwa, Abadie, Appiadie, Tchweedam, Agoona, and Doomina; in which they class themselves still, without any regard to national distinction. For instance, Ashantees, Warsaws, Akims, Ahantas, or men of any of the nations before mentioned will severally declare, that they belong to the Annŏna family; other individuals of the different countries, that they are of the Tchweedam family; and when this is announced on meeting, they salute each other as brothers. The King of Ashantee is of the Annŏna family, so was our Accra and one of the Fantee linguists; Amanquateä is of the Essonna family. The Aquonna, Essonna, Intchwa, and Tchweedam, are the four patriarchal families, and preside over the intermediate ones, which are considered as the younger branches. I have taken some pains to acquire the etymology of these words, but with imperfect success; it requires much labour and patience, both to make a native comprehend, and to be comprehended by him. Quonna is a buffalo, an animal forbade to be eaten by that family. Abrootoo signifies a corn stalk, and Abbradi a plantain. Annŏna is a parrot, but it is also said to be a characteristic of forbearance and patience. Esso is a bush cat, forbidden food to that family. Yoko is the red earth used to paint the lower parts of the houses in the interior. Intchwa is a dog, much relished by native epicures, and therefore a serious privation. Appiadie signifies a servant race. Etchwee is a panther, frequently eaten in the interior, and therefore not unnecessarily forbidden. Agoona signifies a place where palm oil is collected. These are all the etymologies in which the natives agree. Regarding these families as primæval institutions, I leave the subject to the conjectures of others, merely submitting, that the four patriarchal families, the Buffalo, the Bush Cat, the Panther, and the Dog, appear to record the first race of men living on hunting; the Dog family, probably, first training that animal to assist in the chase. The introduction of planting and agriculture, seems marked in the age of their immediate descendents, the Corn stalk and Plantain branches. The origin and improvement of architecture in the Red earth; and of commerce, probably, in the Palm oil: indeed, the natives have included the Portuguese, the first foreign traders they knew, in that family, alleging, that their long and more intimate intercourse with the blacks, has made the present race a mixture of the African and Portuguese. The Servant race reminds us of the curse of Canaan. This resembles a Jewish institution, but the people of Accra alone practise circumcision, and they speak a language, as will be shewn, radically distinct, yet not to be assimilated to the Intā, to which nation they are referred by the Fantees, merely because it is the nearest which practises circumcision. Accra is a European corruption of the word Inkran, which means an ant, and they say the name was either given or assumed on account of their numbers; this must have been before their wars with the Aquamboes.

When Adokoo, chief of the Braffoes, a Fantee nation, consulted the venerable fetish men of the sanctuary, near Sooprooroo, on the Ashantee war, they answered, that nothing could be more offensive to the fetish, than the Fantees preventing the peaceable intercourse of their inland neighbours with the water side, because they were formerly all one family.

The conduct of the later emigration of the Ashantees is ascribed to Saï Tootoo, who, assisted by other leading men of the party, and encouraged by superstitious omens, founded Coomassie, and was presented with the stool, or made King, from his superior qualifications. This account is supported by the mixed nature of the government, founded on equality and obligation, and the existence of a law, exempting the direct descendants of any of Saï Tootoo’s peers and assistants, (in whom the Aristocracy originated) from capital punishment.

The Dwabin monarchy is said to have been founded at the same time by Boitinnë, who was of the same family as Saï Tootoo, being the sons of sisters. Boitinnë and his party, took possession of Dwabin, the largest of the aboriginal towns, (leaving Saï Tootoo to build Coomassie) whence it seems his followers were the more powerful; indeed I have heard it confessed by a few Ashantees, that Dwabin had formerly the pre-eminence, though they have always been firm allies in war, and equal sharers in spoil and conquest. This common interest, preserved uninterrupted more than a century, by two rising powers, close to each other, with the view of a more rapid aggrandisement, and their firm discretion in making many serious disagreements subservient to the policy, is one of the few circumstances worth considering in a history composed of wars and successions. I do not think there is such an instance in our heptarchy, nor do I recollect any other in history, but that of Chalcis and Eretria.

Bakkee, who died, as I have related,[65] about a year ago, was the son of Saï Apokoo, the second king, and an infant at the breast at the time of his father’s death; he was a very old man when he incurred the present King’s displeasure, which supports the report of the Moors, that the kingdom has been founded about 110 years. Bosman and Barbot mention the Ashantees, as just heard of by Europeans, about the year 1700, which confirms this account. The anxiety of the Ashantee government for daily records, immediately on the establishment of the Moors, who were only visitors until the present reign, acknowledges the perplexities and deficiencies of their early history too candidly, to leave any encouragement to the researches of strangers. Records beyond half a century are not to be found in the archives either of Cape Coast, or Christiansburg Castles, so that the chronology can only be founded on that of the Moors, and circumstances.

The Ashantee government concentred the mass of its original force, and making the chiefs resident in Coomassie and the few large towns they built in its neighbourhood, with titular dignities, conciliated those whom they subdued by continuing them in their governments, and checked them by exacting their frequent attendance at festivals, politically instituted. Military command seems to have been the sole prerogative of Saï Tootoo; his judicial and legislative power being controlled by the chiefs or aristocracy much more than at present, who, as in the Teutonic governments, directed the common business of the state, only consulting a general assembly on extraordinary occasions.

Saï Tootoo defeated the Akims and Assins, subjected the Tufel country, and subdued many small states in the neighbourhood. He also conquered Dankara, the King of which, Intim Dakarey, was so considerable a trader in slaves, that the Dutch Governor General paid him a monthly note from his own purse, and assisted him with two or three small cannons, and a few Europeans, on the eve of the Ashantee invasion: the former are now placed as trophies in Coomassie, at the top of the street in which the Mission was quartered. Booroom was subjugated soon after.

Saï Tootoo did not live to see all the streets of Coomassie completed, for war being declared against Atoä, a district between Akim and Assin, he invaded that country. The chief of the Atoas, unable to face such a power, dexterously insinuated his small force through the forest, until he reached the rear of the Ashantee army, which the King was following leisurely with a guard of a few hundred men, all of whom were destroyed by the Atoäs, who shot the King in his hammock. This happening near a place called Cormantee, (razed to the ground in vengeance,) and on a Saturday, the most solemn oath of the Ashantees, is “by Saturday and Cormantee;” (“Mĭminda Cormantee;”) and no enterprise has since been undertaken on that day of the week.

1720. Saï Apokoo, brother of Saï Tootoo, was next placed on the stool. Had there been no brother, the sister’s son would have been the heir; this extraordinary rule of succession, excluding all children but those of a sister, is founded on the argument, that if the wives of the sons are faithless, the blood of the family is entirely lost in the offspring, but should the daughters deceive their husbands, it is still preserved.

Saï Apokoo finished the building of Coomassie, and exchanged compliments with the King of Dahomey, since which there has been no intercourse; the latter, probably, as a despotic monarch, did not wish to give his people any opportunity of contemplating the greater freedom of the Ashantee government.

Saï is the family name of the present race of Kings, some of their relatives bearing it as well. Innăna is also the cognomen of the Kings of Dagwumba.

Apokoo invading the kingdom of Gaman, Abo, the King, fled to Kong, whither the Ashantee army pursued him. The King of Kong politically compelled Abo to meet his enemies on the frontier, least they might disturb a neutral kingdom. Abo being defeated, purchased a peace by presenting large sums of gold to the various chiefs, and consenting to an annual tribute. Apokoo next subjected Takima, whence the Fantees are said to have emigrated, and forced a second emigration of the people to Gomawa, at the back of Winnebah. He dispossessed the Akims of the English, Dutch, and Danish Accra notes.[66] The mortifying destruction of European records, confines me to the report of the more intelligent natives on the subject of these notes, who declare, that the people of Accra being deprived of them by the fraud of the Akims, when they were assisted by them against the Aquamboes, the Akims were in their turn obliged to yield them to their conquerors the Ashantees.

Tribute being demanded from the neighbouring kingdom of Dagwumba, a war ensued, and its troops were defeated. The King of Dagwumba, convinced that his former reliance on a superior population was vain, from the military genius of the Ashantees, and the commercial disposition of his own people, dispirited from their want of fire arms,[67] prudently invited a peace, before a more decisive defeat left him no dignity, and his enemies no moderation for treating. As it was, they still respected his resources, and were content to secure him as a tributary, rather than exhaust their forces in his subjugation, in the infancy of their kingdom. A triumph in policy was in the view of the King of Dagwumba, equivalent to the small diminution of personal dignity; and at the expense of an inconsiderable tribute, he established a commercial intercourse, which, his markets being regularly supplied from the interior, was both an advantage and a security to him, from the great convenience to his warlike neighbours, whose superstition assenting to his great reputation for making saphies, and for augury, would not only augment his revenue, but insure him superior respect as a tributary. Intā had previously become tributary.

I should have mentioned, that every subject state was placed under the immediate care of some Ashantee chief, generally resident in the capital, who seldom visited it but to receive the tribute from the native ruler, for whose conduct he was in a reasonable degree responsible. Thus Quatchi Quofie has now the care of Dankara, Odumata of Soota, Apokoo of Aquamboe, Oöosa Quantabisa of Daboia, &c. &c. Their policy, in short, not only in this particular, but in many others, seems to have been closely similar to that of the Persians, as described by Herodotus.

Boitinnë, the founder of Dwabin, died in this reign.

1741. Saï Apokoo was succeeded by his brother Saï Aquissi. I could not learn any particular exploits of his, excepting that he preserved the subjection of the states previously reduced. The King of Akim, in his time, (the last who had the power of governing without consulting the pynins or elders) desiring to go to war with his neighbours, was obliged to obtain permission from the Ashantee government, which he did by the promise of sending them half the spoil; but, gaining little or nothing, he did not do so. He soon afterwards heard of Aquissi’s intention, to demand his head; and knowing that King’s word was irrevocable, he summoned his ministers, and desired to sacrifice his life for the quiet of his people: his ministers insisted on sharing his fate; and a barrel of powder being brought for each to sit on, they drank a large quantity of rum, and blew themselves up with the fire from their pipes. Dr. Isert also heard of this in Akim.

1753. Aquissi was succeeded by Saï Cudjo. The Aristocracy was retrenched and conciliated by this monarch, who raised his favourite captains to the vacant stools,[68] uniting three or four in one, and swearing that their lives should be equally sacred, (see p. 4,) to anticipate any doubts of his fidelity to the constitution.

Saï Cudjo defeating the Warsaws and Assins more decisively than his predecessors, first compelled them to acknowledge their fealty to Ashantee. He also subjected Aquamboe, and Aquapim, quelled several revolts of other countries, and was esteemed a very great captain. The grandfather of Amanquateä Atooa, conquered Sawee, killing the king Boomancumma; and Bakkee, soon afterwards, subjugated Moinseä. In this reign Quama, king of Dwabin, died.

1785. Saï Quamina succeeded his grandfather Saï Cudjo, at a very early age. The Akims revolted soon after his accession, under Ofoosoo, their most active ruler for many years: he engaged several smaller states in alliance, and defeated the Ashantees repeatedly; at length the treachery of his followers procured Quatchi Quofie, the Ashantee general, his head; with which he returned to Coomassie, the country having again submitted. The fame of Ofoosoo made Quatchi Quofie so vain of this achievement, that he had a figure of him made, with which his umbrella is still crowned, and before which he dances with every insulting gesture and vaunt, when he arrives on the ground at the various ceremonies. The present king has frequently been heard to say, that it was a great pity this old man did not know better, for the Akim caboceers generally attended his summons with alacrity and good will; but the sight of the insulted effigy of their favourite leader, disgusted them, and excited their revolt. These brave people have risen from their dependence at least eight times.

The government finding a pretext to invade Banda, the King Odrasee vigorously opposed the Ashantee army; but at length, seeing he must inevitably fall into their hands, to prevent his head being found, which circumstance he knew would sorely disquiet the enemy,[69] and solace his own people, ordered, just before he killed himself, a woman to be sacrificed, and the abdomen being ripped, his head to be sewn up within it, and her body afterwards to be buried in the heap of the slain. It was discovered by bribes, and is now on one of the King’s great drums. Soota was also subjugated in this reign, occupying the army under Odumata ten years, during which period he was not allowed to see Coomassie. Odumata afterwards subdued Coranza, the larger part of his army being Gaman auxiliaries.

Saï Quamina raised Apokoo to the stool of Assimadoo, to whom he had been a servant, in exclusion of the family.

The Danish Governor-General, meditating the punishment of the Popos, applied to Saï Quamina for 5000 Ashantee auxiliaries; the request was granted, but while the troops were on their march down, the Governor died, and his successor prudently paid 250 ounces of gold, (alleged to have been advanced by the King for their subsistence on their march to Christiansburg Castle) rather than involve himself in the expenses and troubles of such an alliance.

1798. Saï Quamina had remained twelve months on a visit at Dwabin, deaf to the remonstrances of various deputations urging his return, and infatuated beyond recovery by the arts of his mistress, Gyawa, the daughter of the King; when it was formally announced to him, that if he was not present at the approaching Yam custom, he would be deprived of the stool. It is said, that this woman refused to accompany him to Coomassie, either dreading the resentment of his mother, a woman of violent passions, and great ambition, or, which is more probable, influenced by her father to mingle this repugnance with her blandishments, to accelerate the ruin of Saï Quamina, which he was not without hopes might lead to his own aggrandisement. The form of the dethronement is interesting. Appia Danqua, whose power seems to have been equal to that of mayor of the palace, repaired to the King’s mother with the chief captains, and deliberately recounting the offences of her son, commanded her to remonstrate with him, as the daughter of their old king, and the parent to whom he owed his elevation. The mother, who no doubt had assisted in the private council, affecting to bewail her own misfortune and her son’s disgrace, confessed, with seeming reluctance, that her remonstrances had already been despised, that the king had even attempted her life, and begged them to raise her second son, Saï Apokoo, to the stool the elder had forfeited. This was complied with, and they sent Saï Quamina a few of his women and slaves, desiring him to retire into the bush and build himself a croom, and on his death, which happened soon after, as it was said, from the poignancy of his feelings, they made the greatest custom for him which had ever been known. The sable Cleopatra died soon after him. It was whispered, that those he had formerly injured incessantly insulting him in his retirement, even to abusing his wives before his face, he had a private interview with the present King, communicated several schemes of conquests, invoked him to distrust, and, if possible, to punish those who had forsaken him, and implored death; which was inflicted (as the blood of the royal family could not be shed, and as he could not be privately drowned in the sacred river) by fixing his feet on the ground, bending his body backwards with a prop in the small of his back, and suspending several large teeth of ivory from a noose around his neck, which, hanging from the prop, strangled him.

1799. Saï Apokoo did not live more than a few weeks after being elevated to the stool, and was succeeded by his brother Saï Tootoo Quamina, the present King, who must then have been about seventeen years of age. On this occasion, the general assembly of the captains, jealous of the aristocracy, and desirous of making a favourable impression on the young King, insisted that the remaining members of it, should propitiate the reign, by publicly disclaiming their exemption from capital punishment.

The invasion of the Fantee kingdom in 1807 was the first important military act of the present reign, the circumstances and origin of which, being pretty accurately described by Mr. Meredith, in the extract in the Appendix, I need not repeat. Whilst the invasion was meditating, Baba, now the chief of the Moors, presented himself to solicit an asylum in Coomassie, having been driven from Gamba by the rapacity of the King, his near relative; and professing solely to desire the recovery of a large property with held from him, to make the King of Ashantee the heir to it. The King promised he would oblige the King of Gamba to do him justice, on his return from the Fantee war, if Baba and his companions were fortunate in their prayers and charms for his success. The King of Gamba did not think proper to resist the demand afterwards made through the Ashantee government.

1807. Coonadua, the King’s mother, was left regent during his absence; this woman was a second Messalina, and many young captains who refused to intrigue with her, from fear or disgust, have been ultimately the victims of her artifice and vengeance.

Yaboquorra, the King of Dwabin, died in this interval, and was succeeded by his grandson, Boitinnë Quama, now about twenty years of age.

1811. Attah, caboceer or King of Akim, had followed the King to the first Fantee war, and behaved well. Apokoo being sent on an expedition against the Fantees of Winnebah and Berracoo, Attah received orders to join him with his contingency; instead of which, he sent a message to Apokoo, before he passed the Boosempra river, refusing to join him, and advising him not to attempt to pass through his country. Apokoo reported this immediately to the King, who, as is usual, sent to Attah to enquire if he had said so. He confessed that he had, without hesitation, adding, that the King treated him like a slave, in incessantly summoning him to attend his wars, and besides, that he never could forget that Saï Cudjo had cut off his grandfather’s head, and that he would fight with Apokoo whenever he came. Soon afterwards, Quamina Guma, (the father of Becqua, captain of Danish Accra,) and one of the King’s sons, returning to Coomassie with a large quantity of gold collected to make custom for the King’s mother, Attah intercepted, robbed, and murdered them and their party, with the exception of one, whom he desired to tell the King that this act would convince him he was in earnest, and determined to go to war with him. Apokoo was immediately ordered to proceed against Attah, who had engaged Quaw Saffătchee as a party in the revolt, who was weary of the same laborious vassalage. When Apokoo entered the Akim country, Attah was for attacking him immediately, and at sun rise, but Quaw impressing his doubts of their succeeding against the superior warfare of the Ashantees, begged him to stop until three o’clock, when the Ashantees generally ate and slept, and when they might be better able to retreat if worsted, as the enemy never pursued in the dusk. The attack was a surprise, but the fight continued obstinate and undecided until night, when Apokoo found he had lost so many men, that he immediately dispatched a messenger to summon the Accras to his aid, as vassals to the King. His messenger reached Accra the next day, and that people joined him on the following, on which the enemy retreated precipitately; Attah to windward, and Quaw to Adda. Apokoo followed the latter, who having escaped him after a tedious watchfulness, Apokoo, believing the Danish governor, Mr. Flindt, to have connived, made him his prisoner, and kept him with the army, which soon afterwards encamped in Aquapim, five months, during which time he was treated with kindness and respect, but his ransom amounted to nearly £400. Apokoo was soon after ordered back to Coomassie. He told me he brought the bell of Adda fort as a trophy.

Appia Danqua had been sent, at the same time with Apokoo, with 6000 men against the Fantee states which were disposed to the revolters. He defeated them at Apam, and took Baffoo the Annamaboe caboceer prisoner, but whilst his army was before Tantum, intelligence of the approach of Attah, who had retreated from Apokoo, but whose name was as redoubtable as his disposition was rapacious, subdued his firmness, and under the plea of prudence, hurried him back to the interior.

The path was afterwards shut for two years, through the vigilance, and from the terror of Cudjo Cooma, who had been elected to the stool of Akim, six months after the death of Attah, whose immediate successor (Quawko Ashantee) tyrannized so cruelly during that period, that he was commanded by the people to kill himself, and could only obtain the indulgence of a week’s respite, which he spent in singing and dancing, in fact in making his own custom Quaw Saffătchee had also leagued with the Fantees who attacked the Accra town, but were repulsed. The King suddenly determined to open the path to receive the arrears of pay due from 1814.the Forts, and sent Amanqua Abiniowa with an army of 20,000 men, charging him to offer no violence nor commit hostility, unless provoked by attack, but to receive the submission of the Akims and Aquapims, and merely to exact a fine to seal it. Appia Danqua was sent at the same time with a smaller army to the back of Winnebah and Tantum, to intercept the revolters if they fled to windward. Abiniowa proceeded to Aguiasso, one day’s march from Aquapim, unmolested, when one of his foraging parties was attacked by Cudjo Cooma and seven men killed. A general engagement took place the next morning, and after six hours fighting the Ashantees were victorious, and sent a jaw-bone and a slave to each of the Accra towns. Amanqua then marched to Accra to receive the King’s pay, and remained nearly twelve months in its neighbourhood. He then returned to Aquapim, where, after some time, he received a message from the King, with a large quantity of gold, advising him that he must not see his face again unless he brought the heads of Cudjo and Quaw. Amanqua did not immediately communicate this message to his captains, but ordered them to deposit their equipage and property in Accra, and then, making a large custom for three days, to propitiate the enterprise, he took fetish with all his captains that they would never return to Coomassie without the heads.

1816. Appia Danqua had died in Assin in the interim, and was succeeded by his brother Appia Nanu, under whom Bakkee was the second in command. The King hearing nothing of his progress, and his indolence being reported to him, sent orders to Amanqua to join him, which he did at Essecooma, reproaching him for his cowardice. Soon after this, the skirmish at the salt pond near Cape Coast took place, the detachment was principally of Assins, and commanded by Quasheemanqua. Yokokroko soon afterwards joined the combined army, (which had marched to Abra,) with a few hundred men destined to attack Commenda.

Not long after the palaver was settled at Cape Coast, and the army again divided, Cudjo Cooma was killed by a party of Appia Nanu’s at Insoom or Incoom near Essecooma; upon which, Appia, instead of marching to join Amanqua as had been concerted, returned to Coomassie, where he was coldly received, but not accused until the 12th of July last (see Diary). Adoo Danqua, the brother of Quaw Saffătchee, came to the Accras and concerted the delivering of him up, as he had tired him out with his wanderings. The Ashantees agreed to prevail on the King to give him the stool if he did. A few Accras and a few Ashantees accompanied him, and when he came near where his brother was hid, one day’s journey from Accra, he placed an ambush, and sitting down, expostulated with him, and recommended him to kill himself; but Quaw would not, alleging that he should eventually wear out the King’s patience in pursuing him; on this Adoo rose, and a shot was immediately fired at Quaw, who was brought down and rose again four times, exclaiming that his brother was his murderer, who reflected the reproach on his own obstinacy. The body was brought to Accra, and his head sent to Coomassie, and it is now a trophy at Bantama or the back town. Amanqua then returned to Coomassie, and arrived about six months before the Mission.

The Aowins, to anticipate the ambitious views of the Ashantee government, lately sent an embassy with offers of service and tribute, but the amount of the latter has not yet been decided.

The King had sent to demand the royal stool of Buntooko or Gaman which was thickly plated and embossed with gold; it was given up by Adinkara, the King, from fear; his sister, a woman of masculine spirit and talent, and the soul of the government, being absent. On her return, she reproached her brother severely, and ordered a solid gold stool to be made to replace it. That being also demanded, as the right of the superior, with a large gold ornament in the shape of an elephant, dug out from some ruins, the sister, receiving the ambassadors, replied, that the King should not have either, and added, impressing it with more force than delicacy, that her brother and she must change sexes, for she was most proper for a King, and would fight to the last rather than be so constantly despoiled. The King of Ashantee sent word that she was fit to be a king’s sister, and a strong woman, and he would give her twelve months to prepare for war. Several embassies have been sent however to negotiate; two during our stay, the latter, it was said, with an offer of 400 Bendas, (£3200.) but the aristocracy were obstinate, and urged to the King, that his other tributaries would laugh at him, if he did not get the King of Gaman’s head. The small pox was raging in Buntooko.

It is clear, that the King of Ashantee contemplates the reduction of the King of Dwabin from an independent ally to a tributary. We witnessed one circumstance to the point. A messenger being sent to require gold of Dwabin, the King of which is a very weak young man, a captain of the royal family replied, that there was no war on foot to require gold, and as it could only be for the individual benefit of Ashantee, the government must be reminded that Dwabin had formerly exacted gold, and was not now to be subjected to imposition, because the right had been yielded from respect to the sister kingdom. This being reported to the King, he suppressed his anger, and sent a gold headed sword, with other marks of dignity and favour to this man, who, to his surprise, refused them, alleging, that the honours he already possessed at home became him better. The King still temporised. Some months after, at the full assembly convened for the proclamation of the treaty with the British Government, the mother of the King of Dwabin, who acts as regent, and over whom Saï is known to have much influence, suddenly, and no doubt at his instance, accused this captain of plotting to deprive her son of the stool. The accusation was supported by others, who prayed the King to judge the palaver. The King of Dwabin sat with the greatest indifference. The accused made an animated appeal to the assembly, and Saï affected to support him vehemently, and ordered the linguists to give him chalk, or acquit him. The man thanking him very earnestly, Adoosee was desired to tell him, that his ill-will to the King of Ashantee had been reported in a very aggravated manner; but as it was no longer believed, he was only required to take fetish, that he liked the King, and would do him all the good he could; this done, the man received several marks of favour and bounty.

Saï Tootoo is considered to take better care of the treasury than any of his predecessors: he cautiously extends his prerogative, and takes every opportunity of increasing the number of secondary captains, by dignifying the young men brought up about his person, and still retaining them in his immediate service.

Saï Acotoo, the King’s brother, and the heir to the stool, appeared to me very inferior in ability; but the Ashantees say otherwise.

The King’s private character is amiable; the children of his brothers share the fondness and indulgence which endear him to his own, and his few moments of recreation are the liveliest of theirs. The circumstances connected with the various instances which we witnessed of his generosity to others, justify me in ascribing it to the benevolence of his disposition. His admiration of ingenious rather than splendid novelty, has frequently imposed the appearance of a covetousness, scarcely culpable from his reverence for invention, and the amazement its extent excited. To present him with the trifles which attracted his notice when he visited us, offended him, he told us we must only answer his questions, and let him examine them; to make dashes on the occasion of a private visit, was to vitiate the motive of the condescension, which could not be repeated unless we paid more respect to his dignity and friendship. The King is certainly capricious, and his liberality of mind is stained by prejudices against individuals which he confesses to be unaccountable; and to several of the principal actors in his brother’s deposition, (which, desirous to extend his prerogative, he would tacitly censure,) he has been unjustly severe. His humanity is frequently superior to his superstition and policy, he offended Quatchi Quofie, one of the four, by limiting the human sacrifices at his mother’s funeral, and resisted all the importunities, founded on precedent, for the allowance of a greater number. He dismissed us twice with apologies for not proceeding to business, confessing, the first time, that he had been unusually irritated just after he sent for us, and had not recovered his calmness; the latter, that some agreeable news had induced him to drink more than fitted him to hear great palavers like ours. In his judicial administration, a lie always aggravated the punishment, and truth generally extenuated, and sometimes atoned of itself for the offence: he invariably anticipated the temerity of perjury, where convicting evidence was to be opposed to the accused. The King’s manners are a happy mixture of dignity and affability, they engage rather than encourage, and his general deportment is conciliating though repressive. He speaks well, and more logically than most of his council, who are diffuse, but his superior talent is marked in the shrewd questions by which he fathoms a design or a narrative. He excels in courtesy, is wisely inquisitive, and candid in his comparisons: war, legislature, and mechanism, were his favourite topics in our private conversations. The great, but natural fault of the King is his ambition; I do not think it has ever proved superior to the pledge of his honour, but it certainly has, and that frequently, to his sense of justice, which is repressed rather than impaired by it. This sketch of his character being narrowed to my own knowledge, will be assisted by the following history of Agay, the second linguist.

Agay, when a boy, carried salt from Aquoomo to Coomassie for sale; he was afterwards taken into the service of Aquootoo, caboceer of that place, against whom the government had instituted a palaver, but wrongfully. Agay accompanied the caboceer when he was sent for to Coomassie for judgment. After the King’s messengers had spoken, misrepresenting the case in preference to confessing the King to be in the wrong, and the caboceer was confused, this boy suddenly rose, and said, to use the words of the narrators, “King, you have people to wash you, to feed you, to serve you, but you have no people to speak the truth to you, and tell you when God does not like your palaver.” The assembly cried out unanimously, that the boy might be hurried away and his head taken off; but the King said, “No! let him finish;” and Agay is said to have spoken three hours, and to have disclosed and argued the palaver to the King’s conviction, and his master’s acquittal. He was retained to attend the King, but treated with no particular distinction. A serious palaver occurring between two principal men, it was debated before the council, who were at a loss to decide, but inclined to the man whom the King doubted; judgment was suspended. In the interim the King sent Agay, privately, to the house of each, to hear their palavers in turn, tête-à-tête; he did so, and when the King asked him who he thought was right, he confirmed his impression. “Now,” said the King, “I know you have a good head.” Agay was then made a Linguist, and presented with a house, wives, slaves, and gold. Sometime afterwards, the King confessing a prejudice against a wealthy captain, his linguists, always inclined to support him, said, “If you wish to take his stool from him, we will make the palaver;” but Agay sprung up, exclaiming, “No, King! that is not good; that man never did you any wrong, you know all the gold of your subjects is your’s at their death, but if you get all now, strangers will go away and say, only the King has gold, and that will not be good, but let them say the King has gold, all his captains have gold, and all his people have gold, then your country will look handsome, and the bush people fear you.” For this the King made him second linguist, and much increased his property. When Amanqua had the command of the army against Cudjo Cooma, the King asked him which linguist he would take, he replied, Adoosee or Otee; the King said, no! I will give you this boy, he has the best head for hard palavers. Amanqua urged that he was too young, the King told him he was a fool to say so. He then made Amanqua take fetish with him to report the merits of Agay faithfully, who distinguished himself so much, that he is always employed in difficult foreign palavers.

The manners of the higher orders of captains, always dignified, are courteous and hospitable in private, though haughty and abrupt in public. I believe them to be jealous rather than tenacious of their honour, and their sophistry is as ingenious as their maxims are prepossessing. They consider that war alone affords an exertion or display of ability, and they esteem the ambition of their King as his greatest virtue. They have no idea of the aggrandisement of a state by civil policy alone. They are candid in acknowledging their defeats, and just to the prowess of their enemies, but they possess little humanity, and are very avaricious and oppressive. They listen to superstition with the most childish credulity, but they only cultivate it for the preservation of life and the indulgence of passion; beyond this, the Moors could never advance their enquiries; they are neither curious nor anxious about a future state, pretending to it from rank and achievement rather than domestic virtue; and believing, if the latter were outraged, the solemnities and sacrifices of their funeral customs would purchase their repose. Indeed, licensed as they are by the zealous conflicts of rival superstitions, (Moorish and Pagan,) their lives are moderate and benevolent to what might be expected, and merit more than our excuses.

The lower order of people are ungrateful, insolent, and licentious. The King repeatedly said, he believed them to be the worst people existing, except the Fantees, and not comparable with many of their inland neighbours. Perhaps we should agree with Voltaire, “Je crois qu’il faut plutôt juger d’une puissante nation par ceux qui sont à la tête, que par la populace.”[70]

---

CHAPTER III.

---

Constitution and Laws.

The King, the Aristocracy, now reduced to four, and the Assembly of Captains,[71] are the three estates of the Ashantee government.

The constitution requires or admits an interference of the Aristocracy in all foreign politics, extending even to a veto on the King’s decision; but they watch rather than share the domestic administration, generally influencing it by their opinion, but never appearing to control it from authority; and their opinions on civil questions, are submitted with a deference, directly in contrast to their bold declarations on subjects of war or tribute, which amount to injunction.

The Ashantees advocated this constitution by the argument, that the interference of the Aristocracy in all foreign politics, makes the nation more formidable to its enemies, who feel they cannot provoke with impunity, where there are so many guardians of the military glory; who, by insisting on a war, become responsible in a great degree for the issue, and pledge an energy and exertion, in comparison with which, such as could be excited by a despotic monarch, must be deemed disinterested. They added, that an almost independent administration of the King, was better calculated for the domestic government, because the decrees of a monarch have naturally more force with the people, (over whom his power is unlimited) and, further, that a civil power in the Aristocracy could not be reconciled to the Assembly of Captains, to whom the former estate was already sufficiently invidious for the health of the constitution.

In exercising his judicial authority, the King always retired in private with the Aristocracy to hear their opinions, to encourage their candor without diminishing his majesty in the eye of the people; and in using his legislative prerogative, he was said always to give them a private opportunity of defending the old law, rather than of objecting to the new; though, from the same state policy, the latter was announced to the Aristocracy as well as to the Assembly of Captains, before the people, as the sudden and arbitrary pleasure of the King.

The general Assembly of the Caboceers and Captains, is summoned merely to give publicity to the will of the King and Aristocracy, and to provide for its observance; unless on state emergencies, or unprecedented occasions, such as the Treaty with the British Government. The following anecdote, related to me by many Ashantees, will illustrate the freedom of their constitution.

A son of the King’s quarrelling with a son of Amanquateä’s, (one of the four) told him, that in comparison with himself, he was the son of a slave; this being reported to Amanquateä, he sent a party of his soldiers, who pulled down the house of the King’s son and seized his person. The King hearing of it sent to Amanquateä, and learning the particulars, interceded for his son, and redeemed his head for 20 periguins of gold.

The most original feature of their law, that of succession, has been mentioned in the History, with the argument on which it is founded: it is universally binding; the course is, the brother, the sister’s son, the son, the chief vassal or slave to the stool. In the Fantee country, the principal slave succeeds to the exclusion of the son, who only inherits his mother’s property, frequently considerable, and inherited from her family independently of her husband: the daughters share a small part of the fetish or ornamental gold, which is much alloyed with silver.

The sisters of the King may marry or intrigue with whom they please, provided he be an eminently strong or personable man; that the heirs of the stool may be, at least, personably superior to the generality of their countrymen.

The King is heir to the gold of every subject, from the highest to the lowest; the fetish gold and the cloths are generally presented by him to the successor to the stool, from which the slaves and other property of the deceased are inseparable. The King contributes to the funeral custom to validate his claim, and usually bestows ten periguins of the dust gold on the successor, (if of a rich man,) who is in all cases liable for the debts of the deceased, though the amount is generally made good to him sooner or later, if he has influence with those about the King, or recommends himself to his notice personally. This law is sometimes anticipated, by a father presenting his children with large sums of gold just before his death. Boiteëm, the father of Otee, one of the King’s linguists, is known to have done so, but the son discovers his wealth very deliberately.

The gold buried with members of the royal family, and afterwards deposited with their bones in the fetish house at Bantama, is sacred; and cannot be used, but to redeem the capital from the hands of an enemy, or in extreme national distress; and even then, the King must avoid the sight of it, if he would avoid the fatal vengeance of the fetish or deity.

If a slave seeks refuge from an ally or tributary, he is restored; if from an unconnected power, he is received as a free subject.

The tributary state which distinguishes itself in suppressing the revolt of another, is rewarded by privileges at the expense of the offending power: thus if a subject of the former kills a subject of the latter, the price of a slave only can be recovered, instead of the fine otherwise attached to the death of a freeman; and the damages for other injuries are reduced in proportion.

If the subjects of any tributary do not like the decision of their ruler, according to the laws of their own country, they may appeal to the King, and claim decision by the law of Ashantee. The commission allowed to the collectors of tribute or fine, is two periguins out of ten.

The direct descendants of the noble families who assisted the enterprise of Saï Tootoo, the founder of the kingdom, are not subject to capital punishment, but can only be despoiled. There are now but four remaining, Ananqui, Assafee, (see Diary,) and two others, all beggars.

We were present at the promulgation of the following law: “All persons sent on the King’s business shall no longer seize provisions in any country, whether tributary or otherwise, in his name; but requiring food, shall offer a fair price for the first they meet with, if this is refused, they shall then demand one meal, and one meal only, in the King’s name, and proceed. This extends to all messengers sent by the head captains, whose servants, as well as the King’s, have been long in the habit of extorting goods from traders, and tobacco and provisions in the market place, in the names of their masters, which they shall do no longer without incurring the same penalty which is attached to the former part of this law, 110 penguins.” The form of making this law, was, the linguists with their insignia advanced and announced it to each of the four members of the Aristocracy, then to the whole assembly; afterwards Cudjo Appăni, the chief crier, proclaimed it to the people, who shouted their thanks; his fee from the King was ten ackies, from the people twenty. This attachment of the penalty to the law (the chief merit of Zaleucus) manifests some advancement in polity, in securing the accused against arbitrary judgment.[72]

The caboceers of Soota, Marmpon, Becqua, and Kokofoo, the four large towns built by the Ashantees at the same time with Coomassie, have several palatine privileges; they have an independent treasury, though subject to the demands of the government and a judicial power, with the reserve of an appeal to the King. They celebrate their own yam custom after they have attended that at Coomassie, at which all dependents and tributaries must be present, and which seems to have been instituted like the Panathenæa of Theseus, to unite such various nations by a common festival. These four caboceers, only, are allowed, with the King, to stud their sandals with gold.

The blood of the son of a King, or of any of the royal family cannot be shed; but when guilty of a crime of magnitude, they are drowned in the river Dah, by a particular captain, named Cudjo Samfani.

If a man swears on the King’s head, that another must kill him, which is understood to be invoking the King’s death if he does not, the other man must do so, or forfeit the whole of his property, and generally his life. This very frequently occurs, for the blacks in their ardor for revenge, do not regard sacrificing their own lives to bring a palaver on their murderer, which their families are sure to do.

To be convicted of cowardice is death.

A subject may clear any part of the bush for building a croom, or making a plantation, without paying any thing to the King as lord of the soil; but he must pay a small sum to the possessor of the nearest croom or plantation, through which his path runs.

The government has no power to direct the traders to any particular market, though it interdicts the commerce with any power which may have offended it.

All the King’s linguists take fetish to be true to each other, and to report faithfully.

If any subject picks up gold dropped in the market place, it is death, being collected only by order of the government on emergencies; see Revenue.

Theft of the King’s property, or intrigue with the female attendants of the royal family, or habitual incontinence, is punished by emasculation; but crim. con. with the wife of a man who has been so punished, is death: being considered an aggravated contempt of law.

Interest of money is 33⅓ per cent. for every forty days, which is accompanied after the first period by a dash of liquor. When the patience of the creditor is exhausted, he seizes the debtor, or even any of his family, as slaves, and they can only be redeemed by the payment. This barbarous law was nearly the same in Athens.[73]

In almost all charges of treason, the life of the accuser is at risk as well as that of the accused, and is forfeited on the acquittal of the latter. I understood this, from the best authorities, to be indispensible as a check on the palavers; envy, spleen, or covetousness would otherwise accumulate.

The accuser is never discovered or confronted to the accused, nor the evidence revealed, until the latter has fully replied to the charge, as outlined by the King’s linguists.

Palavers are frequently allowed to sleep even for years, as in the Fantee country, to make the damages sued for, the heavier: for instance, if a man stole a hen twelve months before, the value of the broods and eggs it would have produced, on a fair average, in the interval, would be shrewdly calculated, and sued for.[74] State palavers are also allowed to sleep for years, but that is to impose the confidence on the accused that the principal witnesses are dead, and the impression is artfully assisted by the policy of the council. The witnesses against Appia Nanu, who had reported his haughty message to the King, had not been seen for nearly twelve months before they burst before him on the day of his trial, having been sent into the bush on the most distant frontier.

No man is punished for killing his own slave, but he is for the murder of his wife or child.[75] If he kills the slave of another, he must pay the value. If a great man kills his equal in rank, he is generally allowed to die by his own hands: the death of an inferior is generally compensated by a fine to the family, equal to seven slaves.[76]

If a person brings a frivolous palaver against another, he must give an entertainment to the family and friends of the acquitted.

If an aggry bead is broken in a scuffle, seven slaves are to be paid to the owner.

Trifling thefts are generally punished by the exposure of the party in various parts of the town, whilst the act is published; but more serious thefts cannot be visited on the guilty by any but his family, who are bound to compensate the accuser, and punish their relative or not as they think fit; they may even put him or her to death, if the injury is serious, or the crime repeated or habitual.

If a man cohabits with a woman without the house, or in the bush, they are both the slaves of the first person who discovers them; but redeemable by their families.

It is forbidden, as it was by Lycurgus, to praise the beauty of another man’s wife, being intrigue by implication.

A captain generally gives a periguin to the family on taking a wife, a poor man two ackies: the damages for intrigue in the former case are ten periguins; in the latter, one ackie and a half, and a pot of palm wine.

If a woman involves herself in a palaver, she involves her family, but not her husband.

None but a captain can sell his wife, and he, only, if her family are unable to redeem her by the repayment of the marriage fee.

The property of the wife is distinct, and independent of the husband, though the King is the heir to it.

None but a captain can put his wife to death for infidelity, and even then he is expected to accept a liberal offer of gold from the family, for her redemption. To intrigue with a wife of the King’s is death.

If the family of a woman are able and willing, on her report of her dislike to her husband, or his ill-treatment of her, to tender him the marriage fee, he must accept it, and the woman returns to her family, but may not marry again.

If a husband is not heard of by his wife for three years, she may marry again, and if the first husband returns, the claim of the second is the better; but all the children of the after marriage are considered the property of the first husband, and may be pawned by him.

Those accused of witchcraft, or having a devil, are tortured to death.

The good treatment of slaves is in some degree provided for, by the liberty they have of dashing or transferring themselves to any freeman; whom they enjoin to make them his property by invoking his death if he does not; an imperative appeal.