Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee

CHAPTER VII.

The climate will be best judged of by the account of the thermometer (from May to February) in the Appendix. During the first two months, May and June, it rained about one third of the time, throughout July and August it rained nearly half, and abrupt tornadoes were frequent in the evening, just after sun set, ushered in by a strong wind from the south-west. The heaviest rains were from the latter end of September to the beginning of November, they fell even in more impetuous torrents than are witnessed on the coast.[96] The influence of the harmattan was described as very powerful. Generally speaking, from the elevation of Ashantee, (unfortunately we had no barometer,) it was much cooler in Coomassie than at Cape Coast; indeed, from four to six in the morning, there was a severity of cold unknown on the coast.

I can only calculate the population of the kingdom of Ashantee, small in itself, from its military force, of which the following is the most moderate of the estimates I received.

This appears an extravagant force, until we recollect that it is probably one fifth of the whole population.[97] The Romans when they were a nation of warriors, which these people are, raised a military force equally great in proportion to their population. Barbot heard of the Ashantees losing 50,000 men in two actions, an exaggeration which, nevertheless, serves to argue great military resources. Since the Ashantee invasions, their disposable force has been estimated by old residents in public reports, as upwards of 150,000. From the above particular statement, the population may be estimated at one million, which I believe is little more than half the population of Scotland, the area of which must be more than double that of Ashantee, which certainly does not contain more than 14,000 square miles. Amanquateä, Quatchie Quofie, Odumata, and Apokoo’s forces alone amounted to 25,000. The contingencies at command from tributaries, (21 in number) are too indefinite to attempt to detail. Neither Inta or Dagwumba furnish any, the Ashantees pretending to despise their troops too much to use them. The following, which are known to be pretty correct, have generally been the first called into action:

Though polygamy is tolerated to such an excess amongst the higher orders, I do not think, from observation, that the proportion of women to men is two to one. Most of the lower order of freemen have but one wife, and very few of the slaves (the greater proportion of the military force) any. The following calculation is the only one I can think of, and it supports my impression after five months residence.

The men are very well made, but not so muscular as the Fantees; their countenances are frequently aquiline. The women also are generally handsomer than those of Fantee, but it is only amongst the higher orders that beauty is to be found, and amongst them, free from all labour or hardship, I have not only seen the finest figures, (which the ease of their costume and habits may account for,) but, in many instances, regular Grecian features, with brilliant eyes set rather obliquely in the head. Beauty in a Negress must be genuine, since complexion prejudices instead of imposes, and the European adjudges it to the features only, which appeared in this class to be Indian rather than African; nor is it surprising, when we recollect that they are selected from, or are the daughters of the handsomest slaves or captives; or are expressly chosen by their interior neighbours, to compose part of their tribute to the King of Ashantee, who retains but a small proportion.

Both men and women are particularly cleanly in their persons, the latter washing themselves, and the former being washed by them daily on rising, from head to foot, with warm water and Portuguese soap, using afterwards the vegetable grease or butter, which is a fine cosmetic. Their cloths, which are beetled, are always scrupulously clean. The lowest orders are generally dirty. Occasionally, small delicate patterns in green or white paint are traced on their cheeks and temples. The Moorish negresses darken the edges of their eye lids with lead reduced to a fine powder. The ore was brought from Mallowa and is very rich. The powder is moistened a little, and kept in small boxes, like bodkin cases with a bulb at the end, and prettily covered with cow’s hair, within which is a metal stylus to apply the powder, as the women of India do antimony for this purpose. Top-cloths are generally worn, and not by the higher order only as in Fantee. They are commonly of a coarse silk bought at Dagwumba. They wear little or no antiffoo, a sort of cushion projecting from just below the small of the back in the Fantee women, by the size of which, frequently preposterous, and at all times unsightly, their rank, or the number of their children is known. The bosoms of girls of thirteen and fourteen are frequently models, but the young women sedulously destroy this beauty for what is considered a greater, wearing a broad band tight across their breasts, until ceasing to be globular they project conically. Their heads are shaved in fanciful elaborate patterns, having as intricate an appearance as a rich carpet.

The food of the higher orders is principally soup of dried fish, fowls, beef, or mutton, (according to the fetish,) and ground nuts stewed in blood. The poorer class make their soups of dried deer, monkeys flesh, and frequently of the pelts of skins. Yams, plantains, and foofoos, (see the kouskous of Mr. Park) are commonly eaten, and they do not make cankey of their corn, (a coarser sort of kouskous not cleared from the husk) as the Fantees do, but they roast it on the stalk, and when young the flavour closely resembles that of green peas. Besides palm wine they drink Pittō, made from dried corn, which I think must have been the beer Lieutenant Martyn relished so much, for it is quite as pleasant as a brisk small ale. They are forbidden eggs by the fetish, and cannot be persuaded to taste milk, which is only drank by the Moors. Their stews and white soups are excellent, and my companions reported their black soups (made with palm oil) to be equally so.

I cannot pretend to calculate the variable revenue of Ashantee, nor indeed to report its optional sources; I noted a few particulars.

1. The dust gold of all deceased and disgraced subjects. Boiteäm, the father of Otee, left five jars (said to hold about four gallons each) and two flasks. On Appia Nanu’s disgrace three jars were seized.

2. A tax in gold upon all slaves purchased for the coast.[98] Customs paid in gold by all traders returning from the coast, levied near Ansa in Assin.

3. A tax on the elephant hunters.

4. The small pits in Soko, which with the washings were reported to yield, sometimes 2,000 ounces per month, at others not more than 700.

5. The daily washings throughout Dankara, and the hills dividing Akim and Assin; very rich in gold.

6. A tax on every chief increasing the number of his gold ornaments. Apokoo paid 20 periguins to the King on melting 100.

7. The soil of the market place (see Laws) has been washed but twice during the present reign. I was told it produced about 800 ounces of gold each time. During our stay a heavy rain washed down a large quantity, which was replaced and carefully covered with the soil, by the Captain in charge of the market place. It was very easily seen after rain.

The tributes of the various nations they had subdued, were in some instances fixed, but more frequently indefinite, being proportioned to the exigencies of the year; indeed from various conversations with Apokoo and others, and my own observations during state palavers, it appeared that the necessities and the designs of the Ashantee government were the superior considerations, and the rule in levying tribute every where. I made the following memoranda.

Inta and Dagwumba never pay in gold, which though plentiful from commerce, is not found there, cowries being the circulating medium. Their capitals and all their large towns send the following tribute annually, and the smaller in proportion.

• 500 Slaves.
• 200 Cows.
• 400 Sheep.
• 400 Cotton cloths.
• 200 Ditto and silk.

Takima a smaller proportion of the same kind.

Coranza is generally excused, from fidelity, and a long series of military services.

Akim, Assin, Warsaw, Aowin, &c. &c. were taxed indefinitely by crooms.

Coomassie is built upon the side of a large rocky hill of iron stone. It is insulated by a marsh close to the town northwards, and but a narrow stream; half a mile distant from it N.W., and 60 yards broad; close to it N.E., E., S.E., and S., and about 100, 20, 70, and 50 yards broad at these points. In many parts depth after heavy rains was five feet, and commonly two. The marsh contains many springs, and supplies the town with water, but the exhalation covers the city with a thick fog morning and evening, and engenders dysentery, with which the natives of the coast who accompanied us were almost immediately attacked, as well as the officers. It is a little extraordinary that we never saw a musquito in Ashantee. I could find none but birds eye views of the city, which were uninteresting, presenting nothing but the thatch of the houses; it was encircled by a beautiful forest, which required more time than I could spare, and a more expressive pencil to pourtray. Coomassie is an oblong of nearly four miles in circumference, not including the suburbs of Assafoo nor Bantama, (the back town,) half a mile distant, and formerly connected by streets with the city, as is evident from the numerous ruins of houses on the path. The slaughter of constant warfare, and the extinction or removal of several ill affected chiefs with their adherents, account for this even in a rising state. The ruins in the interval to Bantama were indeed accounted for by Amanquateä (who holds his court there, as Quatchie Quofie does at Assafoo) informing us, that almost all the Ashantees killed before Annamaboe (about 2000 by the most moderate computation) belonged to him, as it was his division which marched along the beach from Cormantine, exposed to the cannon of the fort. Four of the principal streets are half a mile long, and from 50 to 100 yards wide. I observed them building one, and a line was stretched on each side to make it regular. The streets were all named, and a superior captain in charge of each; ours for instance, was Aperremsoo, big gun or cannon street, because those taken when Dankara was conquered, were placed on a mound at the top of it, near Adoo Quamina’s house. The area in which we had our first audience was called Daëbrim, the great market, in distinction to a lower street called Gwaba, or the small market. The street above where we lived was called Osamarandiduüm, meaning literally, “with 1000 muskets you could not fight those who live there.” One street was named after Odumata, and there was another near it, whose title I forget, but it was equal to prison street. The palace was situated in a long and wide street running through the middle of the town, from which it was shut out by a high wall, terminating at each end at the marsh, where it was discontinued, that being a sufficient boundary. It included Odumata’s and the King’s brothers residences, and two or three small streets, (besides the several areas and piazzas,) for the King’s relief and recreation when the superstitions of the country confine him to the palace. I reckoned twenty seven streets in all, which I have laid down in a ground plan of the town. The small grove at the back of the large market place was called Sammonpomë or the spirit-house, because the trunks of all the human victims were thrown into it. The bloody tracks, daily renewed, shewed the various directions they had been dragged from, and the number of vultures on the trees indicated the extent of the recent sacrifice; the stench was insupportable, and the visits of panthers nightly. Several trees were individually scattered about the town for the recreation of the inhabitants of those quarters, and small circular elevations of two steps, the lower about 20 feet in circumference, like the bases of the old market crosses in England, were raised in the middle of several streets, on which the King’s chair was placed when he went to drink palm wine there, his attendants encircling him.

The Ashantees persisted that the population of Coomassie, when collected, was upwards of 100,000. I think it likely to be much greater than that of Sego, (which Mr. Park reported as 30,000,) from the extended masses of crowd I observed on festivals, when the plantations of the environs are almost wholly deserted. I compared them in my recollection with the crowds I have seen collected in the secondary cities of England, on similar occasions of public curiosity; the only criterion, as I had not time to finish reckoning the number of houses. I say when collected, because the higher class could not support their numerous followers, or the lower their large families, in the city, and therefore employed them in plantations, (in which small crooms were situated,) generally within two or three miles of the capital, where their labours not only feed themselves, but supply the wants of the chief, his family, and more immediate suite. The middling orders station their slaves for the same purpose, and also to collect fruits and vegetables for sale, and when their children become numerous, a part are generally sent to be supported by these slaves in the bush. Perhaps the average resident population of Coomassie is not more than from 12 to 15,000.

The markets were held daily from about eight o’clock in the morning until sun set. The larger contains about sixty stalls or sheds, (a small square frame covered with cotton cloth with a pole from the centre, stuck into the ground, see drawing, No. 9.) besides throngs of inferior venders, seated in all directions. Amongst the articles for sale, were beef, (to us about 8d. per lb.) and mutton, cut in small pieces for soup, wild hog, deer, and monkey’s flesh, fowls, pelts of skins; yams, plantains, corn, sugar-cane, rice, encruma, (a mucilaginous vegetable, richer than asparagus, which it resembles,) peppers, vegetable butter; oranges, papaws, pine apples, (not equal to those on the coast,) bananas; salt and dried fish from the coast; large snails smoke dried, and stuck in rows on small sticks in the form of herring bone; eggs for fetish; pittō, palm wine, rum; pipes, beads, looking-glasses, sandals, silk, cotton cloth, powder, small pillows, white and blue cotton thread, calabashes, &c. &c. See Chapter on Trade.

The following are the comparative prices of the markets of Coomassie and Yahndi, the capital of Dagwumba:

The surprising exorbitance of the former is to be accounted for by the abundance of gold, yet labour and manufacture was moderately purchased. In Mallowa, provision is dearer than in Dagwumba, but the articles of trade much cheaper; they manufacture very little cloth, the Moorish traders supplying it so abundantly. The cattle we saw in Ashantee were as large as the English, unlike those on the coast, which resemble the Jersey. The sheep are hairy in Ashantee, but woolly in Dagwumba, an open country, where they manufacture a coarse blanket. The horses in Dagwumba are generally small, some were described to be 15 hands high, but these were never parted with, and the Ashantees did not desire them, for I never saw but one who rode fearlessly. The horses I saw were like half bred galloways, their legs lathy, with a wiry hair about the fetlock, only requiring to be pulled. Their heads were large; dun and mouse colours were said to be common; they were never shod, and their hoofs consequently in the eye of the European, though not in nature, disproportionate; they were fed on guinea grass, occasionally mixed with salt, and sal-ammoniac was frequently dissolved in the water. The saddles were Moorish, of red leather, and cumbersome; the bridles of twisted black leather thongs, and brass links, with a whip at the end; the bit severe, with a large ring hanging from the middle, and slipped over the under jaw instead of a curb chain; the stirrups were like large blow pans, and hung very short. Some of the Moors rode on bullocks, with a ring through the nose.

The extent and order of the Ashantee plantations surprised us, yet I do not think they were adequate to the population; in a military government they were not likely to be so. Their neatness and method have been already noticed in our route up. They use no implement but the hoe. They have two crops of corn a year, plant their yams at Christmas, and dig them early in September. The latter plantations had much the appearance of a hop garden well fenced in, and regularly planted in lines, with a broad walk around, and a hut at each wicker gate, where a slave and his family resided to protect the plantation.

All the fruits mentioned as sold in the market grew in spontaneous abundance, as did the sugar cane: the oranges were of a large size and exquisite flavour. I believe this fruit has hitherto been considered indigenous to India only. We saw no cocoa nut trees, nor was that fruit in the market. Mr. Park’s route was through a very different country.[99] In the marshy ground, a large species of fern is very abundant, there are four varieties of it; in shady places that have been cultivated, various tribes of urtica; and the leontodon grows abundantly to the north of Coomassie. The miraculous berry, which gives acids the flavour of sweets, making limes taste like honey, is common.[100] The castor oil, (ricinus communis) rises to a large tree, I have only seen it as a bush about three feet high on the coast; and the wild fig is abundant, though neither of them are used by the natives. The cotton plant is very plentiful, but little cultivated. The only use to which they apply the silk cotton, is to the stuffing of cushions and pillows.[101] Mr. Park observed the tobacco-plant, which grows luxuriantly in Inta and Dagwumba, and is called toah. The visitors from those countries recognised it in a botanical work. They first dry the leaves in the sun, then, having rubbed them well between their hands, mix them with water into oval masses, as will be seen; it is further noticed in the Trade Report.

Lions are numerous on the northern frontiers of Inta, elephants (assoon, F. A. soorer, B.[102]) are remarkably numerous in Kong, but they are also found in Ashantee, with wild hogs (yambo, F. A.) hyænas (patacoo, F. A. boofooree, B.,) cows (anantwee, F. A. B.,) sheep (ygwan, F. A. tsan, B.,) goats (apunkie, F. A. terrie, B.,) deer (wonsan, F. A. B.,) antelopes (ettwan, F. A. B.,) dogs (boddum, etcha, F. tweä, A. opooree, B.,) approximating to the Danish, cats (agramwaw, F. A. B.,) extremely sharp visaged and long necked, Gennet cats (essoor, F. A. B.,) pangolins (appra, F. A. aypra, B.,) alligators (dankim, F. A. B.,) &c. &c. &c. The rhinoceros (năree) is found in Boroom, and the hippopotamus (shonsa, A. tchoosooree, B.) in the Odirree river.

The Ashantees say, that an animal called sissah or sissirree, will attack every other however superior in size. The Fantees who had never seen it, had imbibed a tremendous idea of it, from the stories in their own country. I doubt its being so formidable to all other animals, for the skin I saw was not more than three feet long, and the legs short, it resembled that of a boar, but the natives said it was between a pig and a goat. I enquired of the people of Inta and Dagwumba if they had ever heard of a unicorn; one replied, yes! in the white man’s country. It is extraordinary that the gnoo, (antelope gnu,) which is found behind the Cape of Good Hope, is known in Inta by the same name.[103] Where the beds were not an accumulation of cushions, the skin of the gnoo was nailed to a large wooden frame, raised on legs about a foot from the ground, and stretched as we would sacking. It was a revered custom that no virgin of either sex should sleep on this kind of bed. Another animal, called otrum, was described by the inhabitants of the eastern frontier as having one very long horn on one side of the head and a short one on the other; it is much larger than the gnoo. We met with a spotted animal of the cat kind (gahin, F. A. B.,) very common, and allied to the leopard or panther, but whether referable to either of those species, or to be considered as distinct, we could not determine, owing to the very vague and unsatisfactory character by which naturalists have attempted to distinguish them, the kind and number of the rows of spots; which we have observed in individuals of the same decided species, to present almost an infinity of variation.

The vulture (pittay, F. A. epraykee, B.,) which I have before mentioned to be venerated by the natives, for the same reason which the Egyptians venerated the Vulturus Percnopterus, is the Vulturus Monachus, figured by Le Vaillant. Green pigeons (assam) are found, and crows with a white ring round their necks, probably the corvus scapularis figured by Le Vaillant. There were several small birds of beautiful plumage, which sung melodiously; two in particular, the one like a blackbird, and the other of the same colour as the English thrush, but larger. Also a variety of parrots beautifully spangled with different colours. M. Cuvier was misinformed when he wrote (Regne animal, tom. i. p. 108) “Macaque est le nom générique des singes à la côte de Guinée.” The name is unknown there as well as in the interior. Dokoo is the generic name. The Simia Diana (effoor, F. A. B.,) which has the most beautiful skin of any monkey, is found in Ashantee as well as in Warsaw. All the natives agree that they do not know of any monkies which dare to attack men, but the akonëson, which they describe as small, and always seen in troops.

Snakes (aboïtinnee, F. A. ewaw, B.,) green, and of all colours; scorpions, lizards, &c. &c. were found as on the coast, with a curious variety of beetles, and the most beautiful butterflies. A few specimens preserved in spirits will be sent to the British Museum,[104] as the best apology for my ignorance rather than neglect of natural history.

CHAPTER VIII.

Most of the slaves in Coomassie, were sent as part of the annual tribute of Inta, Dagwumba, and their neighbours, to Ashantee; very many were kidnapped, and for the few who were bought, I was assured by several respectable Ashantees, 2000 cowries, or 1 basket of Boossee was the greatest price given; so full were the markets of the interior. I have brought some pods of the Boossee; it is astringent, and the natives chew it to excite a flow of saliva, and allay the sensation of hunger. The[106] Boossee must be the Gooroo nut, which Mr. Lucas describes as one of the articles of trade between Fezzan, Kassina, Bornoo, and the states south of the Niger. He writes, “Gooroo nuts, which are brought from the Negro states on the south of the Niger, and which are principally valued for the pleasant bitter that they communicate to any liquor in which they are infused,” and again “a species of nut—which is much valued in the kingdoms to the north of the Niger, and which is called Gooroo. It grows on a large and broad leafed tree, that bears a pod of about 18 inches in length, in which are inclosed a number of nuts that varies from 7 to 9. Their colour is a yellowish green; their size is that of a chesnut, which they also resemble, in being covered by a husk of a similar thickness, and their taste, which is described as a pleasant bitter, is so grateful to those who are accustomed to its use, and so important as a corrective to the unpalatable or unwholesome waters of Fezzan, and of the other kingdoms that border on the vast Zahara, as to be deemed of importance to the happiness of life. They are purchased at the rate of 12s. for 100 pods.”

Sal ammonia is found abundantly in Dagwumba: in the Ashantee market, a lump the size of a duck’s egg, was sold for 2s.: they grind it to mix with their snuff, (of which they take large quantities,) as it gives it a pungency agreeable to them. They also dissolve it in the water they give to their cattle, and sometimes drink it themselves for pains in the bowels. The Tamool practitioners in the East Indies suppose it to be a useful remedy in certain female obstructions, and morbid uterine enlargements. Mr. Lucas writes, “No commercial value appears to be annexed to the fleeces which the numerous flocks of the Negro kingdoms afford; for the cotton manufacture, which, the Shereef says, is established among the tribes to the south of the Niger, seems to be the only species of weaving that is known among them.” In Dagwumba, however, they manufacture a coarse kind of blanket from sheep’s wool. There is a white grease, which has long been called Ashantee grease by the natives on the coast, who supposed it to be produced in that country. They use it daily to anoint their skins, which otherwise become coarse and unhealthy. The Ashantees purchase it from the interior, and make a great profit by it: it is a vegetable butter, decocted from a tree, called Timkeëä: it is doubtless the Shea butter of Mr. Park.[107] Mr. Lucas mentions, “small Turkey and plain Mesurata carpets,” among the articles exported from Fezzan to Kassina: a small carpet fetches 2 oz. of gold at Coomassie. The Ashantees procure most of their ivory from Kong, where they give 8 ackies, or 40s. in barter, for a very large tooth.

“The preference of the Ashantees for the Dagwumba and Inta markets, for silk and cloth, results not merely from their having been so long accustomed to them, but because they admit of a barter trade. The Boossee or Gooroo nut, salt, (which is easily procured, and affords an extravagant profit,) and small quantities of the European commodities, rum, and iron,[108] yield them those articles of comfort and luxury, which they can only purchase with gold and ivory from the settlements on the coast. Gold they are all desirous of hoarding; even those less covetous than is generally their nature, that they may be prepared for the purchase of guns and powder to a large extent, on any sudden war, and thus ingratiate themselves with the king and the government. Were the Ashantees a commercial people, they might be the brokers between the interior and Europeans, or, purchasing supplies more adequate to the demands of their neighbours for European commodities, which would be bought with avidity, realize large properties. But they have no idea of buying more of the various articles than will supply themselves; and leave a small residue to barter for the cloth, silk, and tobacco in the Inta and Dagwumba markets. They are as little commercial as the Romans were in their infancy, and their government would repress rather than countenance the inclination, (believing no state can be aggrandized but by conquest,) lest their genius for war might be enervated by it, and lest, either from the merchants increasing to a body too formidable for their wishes to be resisted, or too artful from their experience to be detected, they might sacrifice the national honour and ambition to their avarice, and furnishing Inta, Dagwumba, or any of their more powerful neighbours (who have yielded to circumstances rather than force) with guns and powder (which are never allowed to be exported from Ashantee,[109]) break the spell of their conquests, and undermine their power. The chiefs are fed bountifully by the labours of their slaves, and sharing large sums of the revenue, (the fines their oppression has imposed on other governments,) with incalculable fees for corruption or interference, refine upon the splendor of equipage even to satiety, and still possess a large surplus of income daily accumulating. Were they to encourage commerce, pomp, the idol of which they are most jealous, would soon cease to be their prerogative, because it would be attainable by others; the traders growing wealthy, would vie with them; and for their own security, stimulated by reflections they have now too little at risk to originate, they would unite to repress the arbitrary power of the Aristocracy; and even if they did not, inevitably (as the chiefs conceive) divert the people’s genius for war.

It will occur that even to furnish the necessities or luxuries of the Ashantees alone, in cloth, silk, &c. would, considering the extent of the kingdom, considerably augment the returns of our commerce in this part of the world; and therefore it would be well to wean them, gradually, from the markets of the interior, by inducing their cultivation of cotton, which grows abundantly, is of a superior quality, and which, offered in quantities, in addition to the ivory, would lessen the balance of trade now in our favor, and by enabling them, in some degree to purchase with produce instead of gold dust, remove the present comparative disadvantage in trading with Europeans entirely. This occurred to me, and I explained the view not only to the king, but to the more enterprising and reflecting natives: but they had no idea of a quantity, and immediately concluded cotton to be so desirable to us, that 40 or 50 lbs. would be received in barter for twenty times its value; and they required one tokoo and a half per lb. for it, (say one shilling,) even in gold, and on the spot. When I urged that they must clear the ground, form plantations, and superintend the labours of their slaves; they replied, that the Boossee or Gooroo nut grew spontaneously, and required no labour, that salt was brought to their frontier by poorer nations, and sold for little without the trouble of fetching it; and these articles, with the value, their prevention of all intercourse but their own with the water side nations, attached to a little rum and iron in the interior, furnished them with silks and cotton cloths at a much easier rate, pattern and quality.

A serious disadvantage opposed to the English trade, is that the Ashantees will purchase no tobacco but the Portuguese, and that eagerly even at 2 oz. of gold the roll. Of this, (the Portuguese and Spanish slave ships regularly calling at Elmina,) the Dutch Governor-General is enabled to obtain frequent supplies, in exchange for canoes, two of which, though they cost him comparatively nothing, fetch 32 rolls of tobacco; and the General has sometimes received 80 oz. of gold a day from the Ashantees for tobacco only. If they cannot have this tobacco, they will content themselves with that grown in the interior, of which I have brought a sample. A preference for the Dutch has long been natural to the Ashantees, from an earlier though limited intercourse with them, and from the natural impression, that the English settling amongst their enemies, the Fantees, have encouraged and assisted their provocations and resistance. With this bias in his favor, though the Dutch market, destitute of supplies, had not been visited for many years, the talent of General Daendels, “callidum quicquid placuit,” would no doubt have again raised it to a level with the English, cæteris paribus; and his unlimited importation of powder and guns in the first place, with the still more valuable supplies of Portuguese tobacco he receives at present, as superior advantages, have, of course, possessed the Dutch market of superior inducements.

It is to be lamented, the indifference of the Dutch and Danes to their settlements here, being evident from their neglect and reduction of them, that the British government did not take advantage of the disregard, and add them to their own. Elmina is a much finer position for head quarters than Cape Coast; the Dutch fort at Succondee, the best point for the Warsaw trade, and where we have but a house, is strong, admirably situated, and might be put in good condition for £1000. in addition to which, Axim, near the mouth of the Ancobra, would be the only fort to windward worth keeping; and the Danish head quarters, Christiansburg Castle at Accra, with their fort at Adda, (to secure the navigation of the Volta,) would have answered every purpose and view to leeward. One system could then have been acted upon towards the natives, the commerce, confined to the English, would have grown from wholesome regulations, which no other settlers could counteract by selfishness, jealousy, or by facilitating the illegitimate trade we would crush; and the benevolent views of the British government for the improvement and civilization of the natives, would not be defeated by those, who, holding their private interest superior to views in which their own government has evinced no interest, militate against them by fostering suspicions to bar our progress in the interior, and by indulging those habits and customs of the natives, which it must be our first step to correct and divert.

In addition to the obstacles which the inconsistent and selfish conduct of the different European powers towards the natives presents to intercourse and civilization, the continuance of the slave trade under the Spanish flag, is one more serious: no one can imagine the stubborn impediment it was to our negotiations at Ashantee, where the native emissaries from these slave ships arrived not long after us. It not only injures the British commerce here, almost to annihilation, but, slaving being the natural trade of the natives, because it is the most indolent and the most lucrative, the opposition, which is insinuated and believed to proceed from the English alone, conveys a disagreeable impression of us to the interior, as inauspicious to our intercourse and progress, as the even partial continuance of such a trade is to legitimate commerce and civilization. One thousand slaves left Ashantee for two Spanish schooners or Americans under that flag, to our knowledge, during our residence there, doubtless the whole number was much greater; since our return it must have been very considerable, for the slave trade was never more brisk than it is at this moment under the cloak of the Spanish flag, and great risk has been incurred, in consequence, of offending our new friend and formidable neighbour the King of Ashantee, from the firm resistance of his strong intreaties to the Governor in Chief, to allow the return of a powerful mulatto slave trader to Cape Coast town, whence he had been expelled under the present government, as the most daring promoter of that commerce. It is a great pity, in the infancy of our intercourse with this great interior power, that there should have been occasion either for the request or refusal; which there would not have been had the slave trade been abolished, instead of crippled, at the expense, probably, of our own interests and views in the interior, and, which is worse, of the happiness and improvement of the natives. For it is certainly our duty, because it is the most acceptable and the only efficient acknowledgment we can make of the superior blessings and endowments by which we are so indulgently distinguished from these nations, to extend the influence and the participation, both by enterprise and policy, even if our commerce may not be benefitted; and if we gain no other recompense than the satisfaction of our own minds in the ameliorated condition of others, and the opportunity we have made to ourselves of exemplifying our own gratitude.[110] Whilst one slave ship is allowed to visit this coast, the great convenience and the great profits of the trade will recur, and be perpetuated amongst the Ashantees; they will linger in the hope of its entire renewal, and view the English invidiously, as the enemies to what they conceive to be their only natural commerce; this is another advantage to the Dutch, added to the inherent bias in their favour; and, from the reception and facilities which slave ships meet with at Elmina, our odium is aggravated instead of being participated. “Delenda est Carthago.”

Let us suppose this irreconcilable obstacle to be annihilated, as no doubt it will be, and resume our reflections on a commercial intercourse with the interior. The people of Inta and Dagwumba, being commercial rather than warlike, the object, deliberately to be obtained, is an intercourse with them, which would in fact be an intercourse with the interior as far as Timbuctoo and Houssa northwards, and Cassina, if not to Bornoo, eastwards. The wealth, civilization, and commerce of Dagwumba, Mr. Lucas has before reported. Now, in effecting such an intercourse through the Ashantees, who are indisputably the greatest and the rising power of western Africa, and who, having acquired their present extent of influence and command in little more than a century, may be expected to aggrandize their empire considerably; in seeking this connection through them, there are these adverse circumstances, their policy, their jealousy, and their inaptitude to commerce. It has been suggested to the King, and urged with all the address of General Daendels, to open a path to the interior through his kingdom, and to receive a duty or tax on all the merchandize transported, which would afford him a certain and considerable addition to his revenue; but even this appeal to the avarice of the Ashantee government has had no influence. It would be dangerous as well as impolitic to offend the King of Ashantee at any time, with the present garrisons of the forts, madness; and though his influence through that of Dagwumba, which is at his command, would extend to the Niger, yet, I think our anxiety to explore so far should be suppressed for two or three years, until he is satisfied that commerce and not ambition is the impulse. But in the interim, it would be desirable gradually to approach Inta and Dagwumba, by establishing a settlement up the Volta, which has been shewn to run close to Sallagha, the grand emporium of Inta, and is navigable within four days of it; and possibly might be made so even nearer. The Danes would no doubt relinquish their claim to the navigation of the Volta, for it is a doubtful one. Dalzel writes, “the Danes claim the exclusive navigation of the Volta, which is disputed by the English, who have a settlement near it, called Loy.” The great prices the Ashantees get for rum, iron, &c. from the people of Inta and Dagwumba, and the avidity with which they purchase their small supplies, leave no doubt of the eagerness with which they would resort to our market; and the silks they obtain from Fezzan being dearer than our own, I should think we could induce a preference. Our Manchester cloth and cotton manufactures would be novel and useful to them, as those I saw wore vests and tunics. But here I must observe, that whenever our commerce with the interior may be established, the returns of it, in my opinion, will fall short of the general idea and expectation.

The King of Ashantee viewing our settlements on the Volta, would, I have no doubt, be reconciled by our undertaking to sell neither guns or powder to any but his own people; a measure due to humanity as well as policy, for the preponderance of one great nation is auspicious to the civilization as well as the tranquillity of Africa; but for that, the slaughter of the human species would be incalculable; there would be a constant warfare between the numerous states, naturally querulous, and our passage to the interior would be impossible, not only on that account, but because there would be no powerful monarch to recommend or protect us. If the King of Ashantee were not satisfied with our new settlement confining the trade of guns and powder to himself, he would certainly be repressed by the alarming reflection, that it was at our discretion, (depending on his behaviour,) to supply Inta and Dagwumba with both, and thus to undermine his empire; for it is well known, and has been confessed, that the greater population of these countries, could they but procure fire-arms, would give them a superiority over the Ashantees, to which their greater civilization seems to entitle them. Our force and establishments should be respectable; not to arrogate or to intrude, but to protect the legitimate commercial views, sanctioned and invited by the voice of less arbitrary powers, and also to make their first impression of the English imposing and preservative. Residencies should be established at these courts, and young men of talent, temper, and discrimination be found to fill them, collecting the geographical and statistical desiderata, and forwarding them to be investigated and digested into one report at head quarters, before they were transmitted to England. One or two intelligent Moors might also be engaged to trade by different routes, and minute the directions, distances, and descriptions of the several places; thus paving the way, and lessening the difficulties of a future Mission to the Niger. If the working of gold mines were also an object, the vicinity of the Ancobra affords a rich field; and a small district might either be purchased of the natives, or they might receive a dividend of the proceeds, which would produce them much more than their present inadequate researches, suppressed by their more powerful neighbours the Warsaws.

The benevolent and politic views of the British Government, would thus, by making use of what we have or might easily get, be more probably, if not more speedily realized, than by the perilous, desultory, and limited enterprises of two or three individuals.