the last Assin town, at the foot of three high hills covered with wood, bearing W.N.W., N., and N.N.E.; the barriers of the Ashantee kingdom. Course N.⅕, N.W.b.N.⅐, N.b.E.⅛. Latitude by observation 6° 8′ 50″ N. Longitude C and D 2° 4′ 20″ W. The thermometer was broken on the 4th.

We passed the northern boundary the next morning; the ascent was a mile and a half in length, and very rocky; a small river called the Bohmen ran S.W. to the Jim, which falls into the Ofim: the water of the Bohmen is said to instil eloquence, and numerous Ashantees repair annually to drink of it: it flowed in a very clear stream, over a bed of gravel, and was three feet deep, and eight yards broad. The expectation of an open country was again disappointed; I bore several eminent points, in the hope of being able to do so again at some distance, and of thus, with the intermediate course, checking the distance computed by paces; but the forest soon shut them out entirely. The first Ashantee croom was Quesha; and we soon after passed through Fohmannee, which had been a very considerable town. We stopped there awhile at the request of a venerable old man, who regaled us with some palm wine and fruit: his manners were very pleasing, and made it more painful to us to hear that his life was forfeited to some superstitious observances, and that he only waited the result of a petition to the king to commiserate his infirmities so far as to allow him to be executed at his own croom, and to be spared the fatigue of a journey to the capital: he conversed cheerfully with us, congratulated himself on seeing white men before he died, and spread his cloth over the log with an emotion of dignity rather than shame: his head arrived at Coomassie the day after we had. On ascending the hill, the soil became a dark brown clay, and very productive. We passed the first large plantation of corn we had seen since we left Payntree, and halted at Doompassee. Distance 6 miles. Courses N.⅓, N.N.W.⅕, N.W.⅙. Latitude by observation, 6° 11′ 30″.

Doompassee had been a very large croom, but the caboceer having intrigued with one of Sai Cudjoe’s wives, who had permission to visit her family in this place, the greater part of it was destroyed in consequence, and the caboceer decapitated: the woman possessing irresistible art in practising upon the numerous admirers of her beauty, the king spared her life, and employed her thenceforth to inveigle those distant caboceers, whose lives or properties were desirable to him. It was the most industrious town on the path; cloths, beads, and pottery were manufacturing in all directions, and the blacksmiths’ forges were always at work. The intelligence of the beginning of the King’s fetish week, and Mr. James’s attack of fever, delayed us at Doompassee, and a messenger was dispatched in the interim to announce our approach. During our stay, I observed an eclipse of Jupiter’s first satellite, which gave the longitude 2° 6′ W.

We did not leave Doompassee until the 14th of May; after two miles, passing a small stream running N.W. we ascended a high hill, on which a large croom, called Tiabosoo, was situated. I looked into a pit here six feet deep; the first stratum was vegetable mould, the second gravel, the third, a kind of potter’s clay, and the remaining of brittle stone of a reddish brown, resembling that they call cabouc in the East Indies. The next croom was Sanquanta, where the path took an easterly direction, and about seven miles from Doompassee we passed Datiasoo, where large quantities of pottery were manufacturing, exclusively: it was not more than a mile distant from Dadawasee, where we found a messenger from the king, expressing his regret that we had come up in the rainy season, as he had heard it was a very unhealthy one for white men, and appointing us to enter the capital on the Monday following; he sent us a present of a sheep, forty yams, and two ounces of gold for our table; he had also given six ackies to our messenger, who returned at the same time. The path had been cleared by the king’s order, the plantations became more frequent and extensive, and numerous paths branching off from that we travelled, shewed that the country was thickly inhabited, and the intercourse of the various parts direct and necessary for an interchange of manufacture and produce: the crooms hitherto had appeared insulated. The Acassey or blue dye plant grew profusely. Distance seven miles. Courses N.¼, N.bW.⅐, N.N.W.⅐, N.N.E.⅙. Latitude by observation 6° 16′ 20″ N. long: C and D 2° 7′ 30″ W.

The next day, leaving Dadawasee, close to which was another large croom called Modjawee, we descended a very steep hill, and passed the Dankaran or Mankaran, a small river, in the rainy season eleven yards wide and four feet deep, running to the Birrim: not far from this river was Sahnfoo, and a short distance from that croom, a smaller river called Yansee, running N.N.W. We then passed through Korraman, near which was the small river Dansabow, running westward, and three other large crooms, Aquinasee (having a neatly fenced burial ground,) Amafou, and Agabimah; crossing another small river called Soubirree, near the latter, we reached Assiminia, distant eight miles from Dadawasee. The path was frequently eight feet wide, and kept as neatly as that of a garden in the environs of the crooms, which now disclosed themselves very prettily at some distance. Courses N.⅕, N.bE.⅙, N.N.E.⅙. Latitude by observation 6° 22′, longitude C and D 2° 7′ 50″ W.

There was a violent tornado in the night, during almost the whole of which the rain continued in torrents, increasing the small streams near the town from ancle to three feet deep. Almost all the inhabitants were employed in weaving the staple manufacture of Assiminia, which was formerly of much greater extent. Mr. James rested here the whole of the next day, and on Saturday we proceeded through Boposoo (on a very high hill), Agemum, Yoko, and Abountum; near which we crossed the Biaqua, running west to the Jim, and about seven yards wide and two feet deep; between this and Sarrasou, where we halted, were two large crooms, Pootooaga and Fiasou.

The path was continually well cleared: each croom presented one wide central street, with the ganian or cachou trees at the extremities. The soil ceased to be sandy, and became a reddish earth: we observed some quartz, but silex prevailed. Distance 11 miles. Courses N.¼, N.N.E.⅕. Lat. by observation, 6° 30′ 20″. Long. C. and D. 2° 6′ 30″.

The river Dah runs close to Sarrasou, rising at Sekooree near Dwabin, and falling into the Ofim at Measee in the Warsaw path; it is generally about sixteen yards wide, and four feet deep. There was an ingenious fishing weir in this river; two rows of very strong wicker work were fixed across it, supported against the rapidity of the stream by large stakes, driven into the ground obliquely on each side of them, and connected above and below by the trunks of two large trees. The funnel-shaped baskets, thickly inserted at the bottom, were of split cane, and about twelve feet long. There are large plantations of corn around Sarrasou, which is a great nursery for pigs. We left it on Monday morning, the 19th, and passing through a small croom, Oyoko, stopped at another, Agogoo, about four miles distant, to dress ourselves in full uniform. The soil from Sarrasou was a rich black mould, and there were continued plantations of corn, yams, ground nuts, terraboys, and encruma: the yams and ground nuts were planted with much regularity in triangular beds, with small drains around each, and carefully cleared from weeds.

Two miles from Agogoo, we crossed the marsh which insulates Coomassie; the breadth at that part forty yards, and the depth three feet. Being within a mile of the capital, our approach was announced to the king, who desired us by his messengers to rest at a little croom, called Patiasoo, until he had finished washing, when captains would be deputed to conduct us to his presence. Distance 6½ miles. Courses N.⅙, N.N.W.⅙.

We entered Coomassie at two o’clock, passing under a fetish, or sacrifice of a dead sheep, wrapped up in red silk, and suspended between two lofty poles. Upwards of 5000 people, the greater part warriors, met us with awful bursts of martial music, discordant only in its mixture; for horns, drums, rattles, and gong-gongs were all exerted with a zeal bordering on phrenzy, to subdue us by the first impression. The smoke which encircled us from the incessant discharges of musquetry, confined our glimpses to the foreground; and we were halted whilst the captains performed their Pyrrhic dance, in the centre of a circle formed by their warriors; where a confusion of flags, English, Dutch, and Danish, were waved and flourished in all directions; the bearers plunging and springing from side to side, with a passion of enthusiasm only equalled by the captains, who followed them, discharging their shining blunderbusses so close, that the flags now and then were in a blaze; and emerging from the smoke with all the gesture and distortion of maniacs. Their followers kept up the firing around us in the rear. The dress of the captains (see drawing, No. I.) was a war cap, with gilded rams horns projecting in front, the sides extended beyond all proportion by immense plumes of eagles feathers, and fastened under the chin with bands of cowries. Their vest was of red cloth, covered with fetishes and saphies[4] in gold and silver; and embroidered cases of almost every colour, which flapped against their bodies as they moved, intermixed with small brass bells, the horns and tails of animals, shells, and knives; long leopards tails hung down their backs, over a small bow covered with fetishes. They wore loose cotton trowsers, with immense boots of a dull red leather, coming half way up the thigh, and fastened by small chains to their cartouch or waist belt; these were also ornamented with bells, horses tails, strings of amulets, and innumerable shreds of leather; a small quiver of poisoned arrows hung from their right wrist, and they held a long iron chain between their teeth, with a scrap of Moorish writing affixed to the end of it. A small spear was in their left hands, covered with red cloth and silk tassels; their black countenances heightened the effect of this attire, and completed a figure scarcely human.

This exhibition continued about half an hour, when we were allowed to proceed, encircled by the warriors, whose numbers, with the crowds of people, made our movement as gradual as if it had taken place in Cheapside; the several streets branching off to the right, presented long vistas crammed with people, and those on the left hand being on an acclivity, innumerable rows of heads rose one above another: the large open porches of the houses, like the fronts of stages in small theatres, were filled with the better sort of females and children, all impatient to behold white men for the first time; their exclamations were drowned in the firing and music, but their gestures were in character with the scene. When we reached the palace, about half a mile from the place where we entered, we were again halted, and an open file was made, through which the bearers were passed, to deposit the presents and baggage in the house assigned to us. Here we were gratified by observing several of the caboceers pass by with their trains, the novel splendour of which astonished us. The bands, principally composed of horns and flutes, trained to play in concert, seemed to soothe our hearing into its natural tone again by their wild melodies; whilst the immense umbrellas, made to sink and rise from the jerkings of the bearers, and the large fans waving around, refreshed us with small currents of air, under a burning sun, clouds of dust, and a density of atmosphere almost suffocating. We were then squeezed, at the same funeral pace, up a long street, to an open-fronted house, where we were desired by a royal messenger to wait a further invitation from the king. Here our attention was forced from the astonishment of the crowd to a most inhuman spectacle, which was paraded before us for some minutes; it was a man whom they were tormenting previous to sacrifice; his hands were pinioned behind him, a knife was passed through his cheeks, to which his lips were noosed like the figure of 8; one ear was cut off and carried before him, the other hung to his head by a small bit of skin; there were several gashes in his back, and a knife was thrust under each shoulder blade; he was led with a cord passed through his nose, by men disfigured with immense caps of shaggy black skins, and drums beat before him; the feeling this horrid barbarity excited must be imagined. We were soon released by permission to proceed to the king, and passed through a very broad street, about a quarter of a mile long, to the market place.

Our observations en passant had taught us to conceive a spectacle far exceeding our original expectations; but they had not prepared us for the extent and display of the scene which here burst upon us: an area of nearly a mile in circumference was crowded with magnificence and novelty. The king, his tributaries, and captains, were resplendent in the distance, surrounded by attendants of every description, fronted by a mass of warriors which seemed to make our approach impervious. The sun was reflected, with a glare scarcely more supportable than the heat, from the massy gold ornaments, which glistened in every direction. More than a hundred bands burst at once on our arrival, with the peculiar airs of their several chiefs; the horns flourished their defiances, with the beating of innumerable drums and metal instruments, and then yielded for a while to the soft breathings of their long flutes, which were truly harmonious; and a pleasing instrument, like a bagpipe without the drone, was happily blended. At least a hundred large umbrellas, or canopies, which could shelter thirty persons, were sprung up and down by the bearers with brilliant effect, being made of scarlet, yellow, and the most shewy cloths and silks, and crowned on the top with crescents, pelicans, elephants, barrels, and arms and swords of gold; they were of various shapes, but mostly dome; and the valances (in some of which small looking glasses were inserted) fantastically scalloped and fringed; from the fronts of some, the proboscis and small teeth of elephants projected, and a few were roofed with leopard skins, and crowned with various animals naturally stuffed. The state hammocks, like long cradles, were raised in the rear, the poles on the heads of the bearers; the cushions and pillows were covered with crimson taffeta, and the richest cloths hung over the sides. Innumerable small umbrellas, of various coloured stripes, were crowded in the intervals, whilst several large trees heightened the glare, by contrasting the sober colouring of nature.

The king’s messengers, with gold breast plates, made way for us, and we commenced our round, preceded by the canes and the English flag. We stopped to take the hand of every caboceer, which, as their houshold suites occupied several spaces in advance, delayed us long enough to distinguish some of the ornaments in the general blaze of splendour and ostentation.

The caboceers, as did their superior captains and attendants, wore Ashantee cloths, of extravagant price from the costly foreign silks which had been unravelled to weave them in all the varieties of colour, as well as pattern; they were of an incredible size and weight, and thrown over the shoulder exactly like the Roman toga; a small silk fillet generally encircled their temples, and massy gold necklaces, intricately wrought; suspended Moorish charms, dearly purchased, and enclosed in small square cases of gold, silver, and curious embroidery. Some wore necklaces reaching to the navel entirely of aggry beads; a band of gold and beads encircled the knee, from which several strings of the same depended; small circles of gold like guineas, rings, and casts of animals, were strung round their ancles; their sandals were of green, red, and delicate white leather; manillas, and rude lumps of rock gold, hung from their left wrists, which were so heavily laden as to be supported on the head of one of their handsomest boys. Gold and silver pipes, and canes dazzled the eye in every direction. Wolves and rams heads as large as life, cast in gold, were suspended from their gold handled swords, which were held around them in great numbers; the blades were shaped like round bills, and rusted in blood; the sheaths were of leopard skin, or the shell of a fish like shagreen. The large drums supported on the head of one man, and beaten by two others, were braced around with the thigh bones of their enemies, and ornamented with their skulls. The kettle drums resting on the ground, were scraped with wet fingers, and covered with leopard skin. The wrists of the drummers were hung with bells and curiously shaped pieces of iron, which gingled loudly as they were beating. The smaller drums were suspended from the neck by scarves of red cloth; the horns (the teeth of young elephants) were ornamented at the mouth-piece with gold, and the jaw bones of human victims. The war caps of eagles feathers nodded in the rear, and large fans, of the wing feathers of the ostrich, played around the dignitaries; immediately behind their chairs (which were of a black wood, almost covered by inlays of ivory and gold embossment) stood their handsomest youths, with corslets of leopard’s skin covered with gold cockle shells, and stuck full of small knives, sheathed in gold and silver, and the handles of blue agate; cartouch boxes of elephant’s hide hung below, ornamented in the same manner; a large gold handled sword was fixed behind the left shoulder, and silk scarves and horses tails (generally white) streamed from the arms and waist cloth: their long Danish muskets had broad rims of gold at small distances, and the stocks were ornamented with shells. Finely grown girls stood behind the chairs of some, with silver basins. Their stools (of the most laborious carved work, and generally with two large bells attached to them) were conspicuously placed on the heads of favourites; and crowds of small boys were seated around, flourishing elephants tails curiously mounted. The warriors sat on the ground close to these, and so thickly as not to admit of our passing without treading on their feet, to which they were perfectly indifferent; their caps were of the skin of the pangolin and leopard, the tails hanging down behind; their cartouch belts (composed of small gourds which hold the charges, and covered with leopard or pig’s skin) were embossed with red shells, and small brass bells thickly hung to them; on their hips and shoulders was a cluster of knives; iron chains and collars dignified the most daring, who were prouder of them than of gold; their muskets had rests affixed of leopard’s skin, and the locks a covering of the same; the sides of their faces were curiously painted in long white streaks, and their arms also striped, having the appearance of armour.

We were suddenly surprised by the sight of Moors, who afforded the first general diversity of dress; there were seventeen superiors, arrayed in large cloaks of white satin, richly trimmed with spangled embroidery, their shirts and trowsers were of silk, and a very large turban of white muslin was studded with a border of different coloured stones: their attendants wore red caps and turbans, and long white shirts, which hung over their trowsers; those of the inferiors were of dark blue cloth: they slowly raised their eyes from the ground as we passed, and with a most malignant scowl.

The prolonged flourishes of the horns, a deafening tumult of drums, and the fuller concert of the intervals, announced that we were approaching the king: we were already passing the principal officers of his houshold; the chamberlain, the gold horn blower, the captain of the messengers, the captain for royal executions, the captain of the market, the keeper of the royal burial ground, and the master of the bands, sat surrounded by a retinue and splendor which bespoke the dignity and importance of their offices. The cook had a number of small services covered with leopard’s skin held behind him, and a large quantity of massy silver plate was displayed before him, punch bowls, waiters, coffee pots, tankards, and a very large vessel with heavy handles and clawed feet, which seemed to have been made to hold incense; I observed a Portuguese inscription on one piece, and they seemed generally of that manufacture. The executioner, a man of an immense size, wore a massy gold hatchet on his breast; and the execution stool was held before him, clotted in blood, and partly covered with a cawl of fat. The king’s four linguists were encircled by a splendor inferior to none, and their peculiar insignia, gold canes, were elevated in all directions, tied in bundles like fasces. The keeper of the treasury, added to his own magnificence by the ostentatious display of his service; the blow pan, boxes, scales and weights, were of solid gold.

A delay of some minutes whilst we severally approached to receive the king’s hand, afforded us a thorough view of him; his deportment first excited my attention; native dignity in princes we are pleased to call barbarous was a curious spectacle: his manners were majestic, yet courteous; and he did not allow his surprise to beguile him for a moment of the composure of the monarch; he appeared to be about thirty-eight years of age, inclined to corpulence, and of a benevolent countenance; he wore a fillet of aggry beads round his temples, a necklace of gold cockspur shells strung by their largest ends, and over his right shoulder a red silk cord, suspending three saphies cased in gold; his bracelets were the richest mixtures of beads and gold, and his fingers covered with rings; his cloth was of a dark green silk; a pointed diadem was elegantly painted in white on his forehead; also a pattern resembling an epaulette on each shoulder, and an ornament like a full blown rose, one leaf rising above another until it covered his whole breast; his knee-bands were of aggry beads, and his ancle strings of gold ornaments of the most delicate workmanship, small drums, sankos, stools, swords, guns, and birds, clustered together; his sandals, of a soft white leather, were embossed across the instep band with small gold and silver cases of saphies; he was seated in a low chair, richly ornamented with gold; he wore a pair of gold castanets on his finger and thumb, which he clapped to enforce silence. The belts of the guards behind his chair, were cased in gold, and covered with small jaw bones of the same metal; the elephants tails, waving like a small cloud before him, were spangled with gold, and large plumes of feathers were flourished amid them. His eunuch presided over these attendants, wearing only one massy piece of gold about his neck: the royal stool, entirely cased in gold, was displayed under a splendid umbrella, with drums, sankos, horns, and various musical instruments, cased in gold, about the thickness of cartridge paper: large circles of gold hung by scarlet cloth from the swords of state, the sheaths as well as the handles of which were also cased; hatchets of the same were intermixed with them: the breasts of the Ocrahs, and various attendants, were adorned with large stars, stools, crescents, and gossamer wings of solid gold.

We pursued our course through this blazing circle, which afforded to the last a variety exceeding description and memory; so many splendid novelties diverting the fatigue, heat, and pressure we were labouring under; we were almost exhausted, however, by the time we reached the end; when, instead of being conducted to our residence, we were desired to seat ourselves under a tree at some distance, to receive the compliments of the whole in our turn.

The swell of their bands gradually strengthened on our ears, the peals of the warlike instruments bursting upon the short, but sweet responses of the flutes; the gaudy canopies seemed to dance in the distant view, and floated broadly as they were springing up and down in the foreground; flags and banners waved in the interval, and the chiefs were eminent in their crimson hammocks, amidst crowds of musquetry. They dismounted as they arrived within thirty yards of us; their principal captains preceded them with the gold handled swords, a body of soldiers followed with their arms reversed, then their bands and gold canes, pipes, and elephants tails. The chief, with a small body guard under his umbrella, was generally supported around the waist by the hands of his favourite slave, whilst captains holla’d, close in his ear, his warlike deeds and (strong) names, which were reiterated with the voices of Stentors by those before and behind; the larger party of warriors brought up the rear. Old captains of secondary rank were carried on the shoulders of a strong slave; but a more interesting sight was presented in the minors, or young caboceers, many not more than five or six years of age, who overweighed by ornaments, were carried in the same manner, (under their canopies), encircled by all the pomp and parade of their predecessors. Amongst others, the grandson of Cheboo was pointed out, whom the king had generously placed on the stool of his perfidious enemy. A band of Fetish men, or priests, wheeled round and round as they passed with surprising velocity. Manner was as various as ornament; some danced by with irresistible buffoonery, some with a gesture and carriage of defiance; one distinguished caboceer performed the war dance before us for some minutes, with a large spear, which grazed us at every bound he made; but the greater number passed us with order and dignity, some slipping one sandal, some both, some turning round after having taken each of us by the hand; the attendants of others knelt before them, throwing dust upon their heads; and the Moors, apparently, vouchsafed us a blessing. The king’s messengers who were posted near us, with their long hair hanging in twists like a thrum mop, used little ceremony in hurrying by this transient procession; yet it was nearly 8 o’clock before the king approached.

It was a beautiful star light night, and the torches which preceded him displayed the splendor of his regalia with a chastened lustre, and made the human trophies of the soldiers more awfully imposing. The skulls of three Banda caboceers, who had been his most obstinate enemies, adorned the largest drum: the vessels in which the boys dipped their torches were of gold. He stopped to enquire our names a second time, and to wish us good night; his address was mild and deliberate: he was followed by his aunts, sisters, and others of his family, with rows of fine gold chains around their necks. Numerous chiefs succeeded; and it was long before we were at liberty to retire. We agreed in estimating the number of warriors at 30,000.

We were conducted to a range of spacious, but ruinous buildings, which had belonged to the son of one of the former kings, and who had recently destroyed himself at a very advanced age, unable to endure the severity of disgrace: their forlorn and dreary aspect bespoke the fortune of their master, and they required much repair to defend us from the wind and rain, which frequently ushered in the nights.

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CHAPTER III.

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Proceedings and Incidents until the Third Dispatch to Cape Coast Castle.

Coomassie, May 22nd, 1817.

To the Governor and Council, Cape Coast Castle.

Gentlemen,

The important objects of the Mission, and the safety and prosperity of the Settlements, have this day demanded our public dissent from our superior officer, Mr. James; to prove the act tutelary to these objects, can be our only justification.

The Mission has engrossed our thoughts and exertions from the moment we were honoured by the appointments; we have felt that the credit of the Committee, the character of the service, and the good of our country were associated in the enterprise; and that we were personally responsible for these important objects, to the extent of our industry, fortitude, and ability. Our reflections naturally associated obstacles commensurate with the importance of the objects affected; and to overcome the former in a manner auspicious to the latter, we conceived to be the duty expected from us, as composing a Mission originated to remove a portion of the formidable barriers to the interior of Africa. We anticipated prejudice, intrigue, and difficulty, as inevitable; as obstacles to invigorate and not to sicken our exertions.

At Dadasey, on Wednesday the 14th instant, we received a present from the King, of two ounces of gold, a sheep, and thirty yams, with a second appointment to enter his capital the succeeding Monday. When within a short distance, the messenger who announced us, returned, to desire us to wait at a croom until the King had washed. We were permitted to enter soon after two o’clock, and the King received us with the most encouraging courtesy, and the most flattering distinction. We paid our respects in turn, (passing along a surprising extent of line) to the principal caboceers, many of remote, and several of Moorish territories; and all of these encircled by retinues astonishing to us from their numbers, order, and decorations. We were then requested to remove to a distant tree to receive their salutes; which procession, though simply transient, continued until past eight o’clock. It was indescribably imposing from the variety, magnificence, and etiquette: its faint outline in Mr. Bowdich’s report, will impart our impression of the power and influence of the monarch we are sent to conciliate. The King as he passed, repeated his former condescensions.

The next morning (Tuesday) the King sent to us to come and speak our palaver in the market place, that all the people might hear it: we found him encircled by the most splendid insignia, and surrounded by his caboceers: we were received graciously. Mr. James, through his linguist, declared to the King’s, (who are alone allowed to speak to him in public) that the objects of the Mission were friendship and commerce; impressed the consequence of our nation, and the good feelings of the Committee and Governor towards the King, as would be testified by our presents; he submitted the wish of a Residency, and of a direct path. The King enquired if we were to settle the Commenda palaver; the reply was, no! He rejoined, “that he wished the Governor of Cape Coast to settle all palavers for him with the people of the forts, and that he had thought we came to make all things right, and so to make friends with the Ashantees.” The King had previously observed, as literally rendered, that “the forts belonged to him,” meaning (as the context, and the whole of his sentiments and conduct have confirmed) nothing humiliating to our dignity and independence; but simply, that the advantages derived by the Fantee nations from the forts, should now be his. He desired the officer to be pointed out to him who was to be the Resident; and then enquired if that was all our palaver, he was told yes: he said he would give us his answer the next day.

Soon after we returned to our house, the King’s linguist delivered this message. “The King knows very well the King of England has sent him presents; if you wish to be friends with him you must bring these presents to his own house, and shew them to him and his friends, and not give them before all the people.” This, in our judgment was a policy, to prevent any favourable bias of the body of caboceers and people anticipating the King’s and his councils satisfaction of our motives and professions.

We attended: all the curiosity the packages excited could not incline the King to regard them, until he had desired distinctly to understand who had sent them, the King of England, or the Governor. He was told, the Company to whom the forts belonged under the King; the interpreter seemed to render it the King individually; it was more intelligible, and the agreeable impression it made was striking. The presents were displayed. Nothing could surpass the King’s surprise and pleasure, but his warm yet dignified avowal of his obligations. “Englishmen,” said he, admiring the workmanship of the different articles, “know how to do every thing proper,” turning to his favourites with a smile as auspicious to our interests, as mortal to the intrigues of our rival. Much of the glass was broken; Mr. James expressed his regret, and offered to procure more; the King replied, “the path we had come was bad and overgrown, that we had many people to look after;” and waved our excuses with superior courtesy. He desired the linguists to say, “this shewed him that the English were a great people, that they wished to be friends with him, to be as one with the Ashantees; that this made him much pleasure to see, (and to repeat again and again,) that he thanked the King of England, the Governor at Cape Coast, and the officers who brought the presents much, very much.” He made very liberal presents of liquor to our people, and delivered the distinct presents to his four principal caboceers in our sight.

We learned from Quashie, the Accra linguist, the favourable reports he had collected through his intimacy with some of the principal men. All the caboceers, he said, had thought we had come for bad, to spy the country; the King thought so too a little, but much fetish was made, and all shewed that we meant well, and now the King thought so; the mulatto sent by General Daendels, directly after Mr. Hydecoper, and who arrived just before us, had sent to the King for a pass to go back, and the King told him, that he would give him this message, “that the King had thought to do good to the Dutch, but now he sees their white mens faces, he should do good to the English.” This mulatto man (who is not in the service, but a free man of Elmina town) visited us afterwards, and his complaints and sentiments confirmed these reports in our favour.

On Wednesday morning the King’s sisters (one the caboceer of the largest Ashantee town near the frontier) paid us a visit of ceremony, and retired to receive our’s in return; their manners were courteous and dignified, and they were handed with a surprising politeness by the captains in attendance.

Mr. James being indisposed, we went by invitation to see the chief captain’s horse, when the King sent to us to say, he was walking that way, and requested us to get our chairs and wait, that he might bid us good morning. Directly he saw us he ordered the procession to alter its course, and stopped to take us by the hand. The procession consisted of about 2000 men, and was marked by all the suit and parade of royalty. The caboceers that day in attendance appeared as warriors, being divested of the rich silks of the preceding day; the executioner, the master of the bands, and the cook, were in the train, with suits which shewed the importance of their offices; the latter was preceded by a massy service of plate. Mr. Bowdich’s report will be more particular.

The king sent his messenger this morning to repeat, that he thanked the King of England and the Governor very much for yesterday.

The King was much pleased when Quashie, the Accra linguist (who is our only intelligible medium,) attempted to describe the use of the sextant; consequently, when Mr. Bowdich saw the King’s chief captain this morning, he offered to shew it to the King, with the camera obscura and telescope; the captain said it would please the King, and reported, that the King was much pleased with us, that he liked to be friends with the English, that he wished to make pleasure with us, and would send for us by and by to do so. We have been particular in these lesser circumstances, as they are the evidence of the King’s good feelings, and of the fair prospect of the consummation of the Mission, superior to all the prejudice and intrigue opposed to it.

We were sent for to the King’s house; he was only attended by his privy counsellors; he expressed much delight at the camera obscura and instruments. He said, “the Englishmen knew more than Dutchmen or Danes—that black men knew nothing.” He then ordered our people to be dismissed, said he would look at the telescope in a larger place, that now he wished to talk with us. He again acknowledged the gratification of Tuesday, and desired Mr. James to explain to him two notes which he produced, written by the Governor in Chief at the request of Amooney, King of Annamaboe, and Adokoo, Chief of the Braffoes, making over to Saï, King of Ashantee, four ackies per month of their company’s pay, as a pledge of their allegiance and the termination of hostilities. The impression seemed instantly to have rooted itself in the King’s mind, that this was the Governor’s individual act, or that he had instanced it; his countenance changed, his counsellors became enraged, they were all impatience, we all anxiety. “Tell the white men,” said the King, “what they did yesterday made me much pleasure; I was glad we were to be friends; but to day I see they come to put shame upon my face; this breaks my heart too much. The English know, with my own powder, with my own shot, I drove the Fantees under their forts, I spread my sword over them, they were all killed, and their books from the fort are mine. I can do as much for the English as the Fantees, they know this well, they know I have only to send a captain to get all the heads of the Fantees. These white men cheat me, they think to make ’Shantee fool; they pretend to make friends with me, and they join with the Fantees to cheat me, to put shame upon my face; this makes the blood come from my heart.” This was reported by his linguist with a passion of gesture and utterance scarcely inferior to the King’s; the irritation spread throughout the circle, and swelled even to uproar.

Thus much was inevitable; it was one of our anticipated difficulties; it was not a defeat, but a check; and here originates our charge against Mr. James, whom we declare to have been deficient in presence of mind, and not to have exerted those assurances and arguments which, with a considerate zeal, might at least have tended to ameliorate the unjust impression of the King, if not to have eradicated it. Mr. James said, “the Governor of Cape Coast had done it, that he knew nothing about it, that he was sent only to make the compliments to the King, that if the King liked to send a messenger with him, he was going back and would tell the Governor all that the King said.” This was all that was advanced. Was this enough for such a Mission to effect? the King repeated, “that he had expected we had come to settle all palavers, and to stay and make friends with him; but we came to make a fool of him.” The King asked him to tell him how much had been paid on these notes since his demand—that he knew white men had large books which told this. Mr. James said he had seen, but he could not recollect. Nothing could exceed the King’s indignation. “White men,” he exclaimed, “know how many months pass, how many years they live, and they know this, but they wont tell me; could not the other white men tell me.” Mr. James said, “we never looked in the books.”

We were not so indiscreet as to expect or wish Mr. James to commit himself by promising the satisfaction of the King’s wishes; but dwelling on the expense and importance of the Mission, on the expectations it had excited, and feeling the reason of the King’s argument, that its object should be to settle all palavers if we wished to be good friends, we conceived we but anticipated the feeling of the Council and of the Committee, in our anxiety for Mr. James to offer to communicate with the Governor by letter, and to wait his reply, with a confidence that his good feeling towards the King, his instructions from England, and his own disposition, would lead him to do every thing that was right to please him.

Mr. James’s embarrassment had not only hurried him to extricate himself as an individual at the expense of his own dignity and intellect, but, which was worse, he had thrown the whole onus of this invidious transaction on the shoulders of the Governor in chief, against whom the King’s prejudice would be fatal to all, and whose interest in his honour was most flattering to the King, most auspicious to us, and the hopes of the Mission; not only the future prosperity, but the present security of the Settlements hung upon this, and the dagger was at this moment suspended from a cobweb. Mr. Bowdich urged this in the ear of Mr. James, urged the danger of leaving the King thus provoked, the fatal sacrifice of every object of the Mission, the discredit of the service, the disgrace of ourselves; Mr. James replied, “he knew the Governor’s private sentiments best.” The Moors of authority seized the moment, and zealously fanned the flame which encircled us; for the King looking in vain for those testimonies of British feeling which presence of mind would have imposed, exclaimed, as he turned his ear from the Moors, “I know the English come to spy the country; they come to cheat me; they want war, they want war.” Mr. James said “No! we want trade.” The King impatiently continued, “They join the Fantees to put shame upon my face; I will send a captain to-morrow to take these books, and bring me the heads of all the Fantees under the forts; the white men know I can do this, I have only to speak to my captains. The Dutch Governor does not cheat me; he does not shame me before the Fantees; he sends me the whole 4 oz. a month. The Danes do not shame me, and the English 4 ackies a month is nothing to me; I can send a captain for all; they wish war.” He drew his beard into his mouth, bit it, and rushing abruptly from his seat exclaimed, “Shantee foo! Shantee foo! ah! ah!” then shaking his finger at us with the most angry aspect, would have burst from us with the exclamation, “If a black man had brought me this message, I would have had his head cut off before me.” Mr. James was silent.

Gentlemen! imagine this awful moment, think what a fatal wound menaced the British interests; the most memorable exertion of the Committee, the pledge to the Government of their energies, of the zeal and capabilities of their officers, this important and expensive Mission falling to the ground, the sacrifice to supineness; the Settlements endangered instead of benefited, ourselves disgraced as officers and men, our key to the Interior shivered in the lock, and the territories of a great and comparatively tractable prince shut against us for ever. Could we be expected to look with indifference on these sacrifices, to risk nothing to avert them; to be auxiliary to the triumph of the intrigues and duplicity of our rival, which you know to have been exerted even to our destruction? Not a moment was to be lost; Mr. Bowdich stood before the King, and begged to be heard; his attention was arrested, the clamours of the council gradually abated: there was no interpreter but the one Mr. James brought from his own fort, and no alternative but to charge him promptly in the Governor’s name, before reflection could associate the wishes of his master, to speak truly. Mr. Bowdich continued standing before the King, and declared, “that the Governor wished to gain his friendship more than he could think that we were sent, not only to compliment him, but to write what he had to say to the Governor, and to wait to tell his answer to the King, and to do all he ordered; to settle all palavers, and to make Ashantees and English as one before we went back. That the Governor of Accra was sick, and in pain, and naturally wished to go back soon, but that himself, and the other two officers would stay with the King, until they made him sure that the Governor was a good friend to him. That we would rather get anger, and lose every thing ourselves, than let the King think the Governor sent us to put shame on him; that we would trust our lives to the King, until we had received the Governor’s letter, to make him think so; and to tell us to do all that was right, to make the Ashantees and English as one; and this would shew the King we did not come to spy the country, but to do good.” Mr. Bowdich then assured Mr. James that no outrage on his dignity was meditated; that we should continue to treat him as our superior officer, but that we felt the present act imperative, as our duty to the Service and our Country.

Conviction flashed across the countenance of the interpreter, and he must have done Mr. Bowdich’s speech justice, for the cheerful aspect of the morning was resumed in every countenance. The applause was general; the King (who had again seated himself) held out his hand to Mr. Bowdich, and said, “he spoke well; what he spoke was good; he liked his palaver much.” The King’s chief linguist came forward and repeated his commendations with the most profound bows; every look was favourable; every where there was a hand extended. The King then instructed his linguist to report to Mr. Bowdich, personally, his arguments respecting the books. “That he had subdued the Fantees at the expense of much powder and shot; and that, in consequence, all their notes were his: that he had only to send a Captain to bring all their heads, that he did not want to do no good, and keep the books; he would do more for the forts than the Fantees could; that the Dutch Governor did not cheat him, but gave the four oz. a month. That he wished to be friends with the English; but that the 4 ackies a month put shame upon his face.” To this Mr. Bowdich replied, that he could only say he knew the Governor would do what was right; that he could not say more until he heard from him; but that he would write every word the King said; and he was sure the King would see that the Governor would do what was right. We shook hands and retired.

All the Fantees being detained by the King, Mr. Bowdich and Mr. Hutchison went in the evening to the chief captain to request a messenger from the King to Cape Coast; about two hours afterwards he reported the King’s reply almost literally as follows: “The King wishes you good night; this is his palaver and yours, you must not speak it to any one else, the white men come to cheat him. The King recollects the face of the white man who spoke to him to day, he likes him much, he wishes he would talk the palaver; the King likes the other white men who stood up with him very much; he thinks the Governor of Accra wishes to put all the wrong on the Governor at Cape Coast, and not to tell any thing. The King thinks that not right, and he sees you do not like that. You must not speak this palaver again; ’tis the King’s palaver, and yours; the King’s captain will speak right to the King what you say, and you shall have a messenger.”

We again affirm positively, that Mr. James made no offer to communicate with the Governor, but spoke only of his return, which we know he was meditating at the expense of the treaty, and every object of the Mission.

Referring to our detail previous to the serious business of to day, you will find every circumstance to have been encouraging, and in our opinion, auspicious to the consummation of the Mission. Yet at that moment, unclouded as it was, we know Mr. James, by his own confession, to have written to head quarters with a gloom which existed only in his own imagination; this letter did not go from the detention of the Fantee bearers. We believe firmly, that had there been no interference on our part at the critical moment, Mr. James would have returned forthwith to Cape Coast, without effecting one object of the Mission, and that the future good of the Settlements would not only have been sacrificed, but their present security endangered.[5]

Mr. James may write that Mr. Bowdich rose with great warmth: this we deny, and affirm that he displayed no more than a temperate zeal, considerate in its declarations, and respectful even in its dissent from Mr. James. The attention of the King was arrested by the novelty of a white man addressing him in the oratorical manner of his own country, but it was not until the linguist had conveyed the arguments, that the King held out his hand and the applause was general. Mere observations whispered in the ear of the linguists had lost all effect, and would not have answered the crisis.

Mr. James has talked, and perhaps written much of the King’s suspicion, but we must contend that much of this is misnamed, and is no more than that deliberate policy which is a pledge of the durability of the confidence it precedes. Certainly there has been suspicion, but not more than must have been expected, not more than was commensurate with the important novelty which challenged it. It has been confessed here, that our political rival has exerted all his address to vitiate our objects in the eyes of the King, to convince him our ostensible views were pretences; our real ones dangerous and unjust; that we sought sovereignty, not commerce. The Moorish chiefs and dignitaries by whom the King is surrounded, whose influence is powerful, not only from their rank but their repute, naturally urged these arguments against unbelievers and competitors in trade, and their extensive intercourse has unfortunately possessed them of facts to the point of our ambition. Let these considerations be weighed, let our account of the King’s general deportment be again referred to; let us impress, that he has never once adverted to our destruction of his troops before Annamaboe, or of the critical situation of the fort; that he has evinced a disposition to a sound understanding, by veiling every irritating retrospect, by acknowledging every conciliatory circumstance.

We do not presume to enter our opinions into the important question of the King’s demand of the whole of these two notes; we have advanced nothing but our assurance that the Governor will do what is right, and we have pledged our lives to convince the King of this; the importance of the Mission would have claimed a more valuable pledge.

Whilst we impress the surprising power and influence of the King, we must do him the justice to acknowledge the convincing manner in which he urged the injuries and forbearance which preceded the Fantee war; his willingness to do every thing for the forts, and the conduct of the Dutch Governor in giving him the whole of the four ounces, were impressively and ingeniously associated.

To wear away suspicion, Mr. Bowdich has ceased his enquiries and observations for a time. The resources for intelligence of the Interior are infinite. Timbuctoo has been visited by most of the sojourners, and a mass of valuable information may be gathered with caution.[6] The eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites will be regularly observed by Mr. Bowdich, and the mean longitude reported; the want of a good watch imposes considerable trouble.

We have reflected on what we have done, and if we are so unfortunate as to be visited by your and the Committee’s displeasure, we shall console ourselves in our reluctant change of pursuit, by the satisfaction of our own minds of the honourable zeal of our motives.

We most respectfully solicit our recall, as we cannot implicate our character and our responsibility with Mr. James’s judgment and perseverance in prosecuting the Mission, of the consummation of which we cannot agree to despond. We could not reconcile ourselves to the sacrifice of one of its important objects to our personal apprehensions (supported as we are by authority and circumstances) whilst the recollection of the illustrious energies of an enterprising traveller, forlorn and destitute, appeals to our spirit, and impresses the expectations of our country. We are, &c.

(Signed)