a country in Western Africa, situated in the interior of that part of Guinea called the Gold Coast. It forms now the most powerful of all the kingdoms in that quarter of Africa, and is perhaps the most improved of any among the completely native states which have remained strangers to the Arabic language and Moslem institutions. This kingdom, therefore, possesses now somewhat peculiar interest, and may deserve to be treated of at some length.

The Ashantee empire, including the numerous districts, once independent, but now entirely reduced under its control and jurisdiction, is considered by M. Dupuis as extending from 5. 0. to 9. 0. N. lat., and from 0. to 4. 0. W. long., and may thus comprise a space of about 50,000 square miles, inhabited by 3,000,000 people. The original Ashantee, however, occupied by the nation who have subjugated this large extent of territory, is not supposed to include more than a third of this large space, nor to have a population exceeding 1,000,000.

Tradition represents the Ashantees as deriving their origin from numerous bands of emigrants, who, two or three centuries ago, were driven before the Moslem tribes migrating southward from the countries on the Niger and Senegal. The Ashantees having occupied and cleared a region before covered with almost impenetrable forests, defended themselves with a valour which became part of their national character, and which raised them from a band of fugitives to the rank of a powerful and conquering nation. They even subdued and reduced into vassalage several of the Moslem tribes by whom they had been formerly supplanted.

Early in the 18th century the Ashantees first came under the notice of Europeans through the wars in which they engaged with the kingdoms bordering on the maritime territory. Among these, Dinkira is described by Bosman as holding such a pre-eminence in wealth and power, that it looked down with contempt on all the surrounding tribes. Yet Sai Tooto, the king of Ashantee, emboldened by successive conquests, and by the tried Ashanteecolour of his people, hesitated not to encounter this formidable potentate. The war was excited by an insult offered to a member of an embassy sent by the king of Ashantee, consisting, according to a usage prevalent in this part of Africa, of a detachment of his numerous wives. The pride of Dinkira caused its sovereign to refuse all explanation or atonement; and war immediately ensued upon a great scale, each party mustering their allies and tributaries; and successive battles were fought with such fury, that 100,000 men were reported to have fallen on each side. It terminated in the complete overthrow of Dinkira, which had its pride completely humbled, and has continued ever since a mere vassal and tributary of Ashantee.

Sai Tooto may be considered as the real founder of the power of this kingdom. He either built or greatly extended and embellished Coomassie, the capital; he subdued the Mahometan countries of Gaman and Banna, the latter of which has been called the right arm of Ashantee; and he extended the empire by conquests both on the east and west. But it remained still quite an inland state, nowhere approaching the coast nearer than 40 or 50 miles. Finally, Sai Tooto having invaded the country of Akim, when marching at the head of a small detachment to join his army, was surprised and slain. The Ashantees, who held that prince in the highest veneration on account of his justice and valour, were so deeply affected by this catastrophe, that they have ever since distinguished the day by terms expressive of its gloomy character—as the dreadful day—the day of God's chastisement. In fact, it was followed by a temporary anarchy, and by contests for the succession, which encouraged all the vassal kingdoms to throw off the yoke; so that when Sai Apoko in 1731 came into full possession of the throne, the conquests of his predecessor were to be made afresh. However, he did make them: Gaman, Assin, Akim, and Dinkira, were by new victories annexed to the empire more firmly than before, while farther acquisitions gradually opened his way to the coast. Sai Apoko, in the latter part of his reign, involved the kingdom in violent agitation by an attempt to deprive the nobles of their rights and privileges. This gave rise to a serious rebellion, which the king, indeed, triumphantly suppressed; yet on his death, which happened soon after, the chiefs, before raising his successor to the throne, were careful to abrogate these innovations, and regain their wonted share in the administration.

Sai Akwasi, the next sovereign, was chiefly employed in suppressing insurrections which continually arose among the numerous little subject tribes, amounting, it is said, to forty-seven, held in reluctant subjection to his government, and who seized every opportunity to shake off the yoke. The contest with Gaman was waged with various and long doubtful success, but at length it was triumphant. In an attempt, however, to cross the Volta and invade Dahomy, he encountered a complete overthrow; and Ashantee has never again ventured to extend her ambitious views to that fierce and warlike kingdom.

The reigns of Sai Quamina and Sai Apoko II. were not distinguished by any events of great magnitude. In 1800 the throne was mounted by Sai Tooto Quamina, who soon showed himself animated by a peculiar spirit of enterprise and ambition. He appears early to have formed a desire of opening a communication with white nations, and of improving his country by the introduction of their arts and knowledge. Occupied, however, by wars in the countries to the north, and by an insurrection in Gaman, he could not for some time turn his views in that direction. About 1808, however, a dispute arose among the chiefs Ashantee of Assin, which the king seems to have made very great efforts to compose in a friendly manner; but, through the violence and rashness of the Assinese, it ended in an open rupture. The insurgent forces were defeated with great slaughter, and the chiefs compelled to seek refuge on the coast among the Fantees, there the ruling people. The king again made overtures of accommodation; but by a strange infatuation the rebel chiefs not only rejected these, but put his messengers to death with every species of outrage. The Ashantee monarch then threw away every remnant of forbearance, and determined that everything most dreadful in African warfare should be felt by them, and by the Fantees their protectors. The allies found themselves wholly unable to resist the torrent of invasion; the country was laid waste with fire and sword, and they were driven with dreadful slaughter towards the coast.

At length the fugitives reached the town of Anamaboe, where there was then a British fort. The governor exhorted the Anamaboese to endeavour to make pacific arrangements with this powerful enemy, and offered his mediation; but the citizens, falsely confident in their own strength, resolved to abide the contest. When a division, however, of the Ashantee army had destroyed the neighbouring town of Cormantine, the inhabitants of which came flying to Anamaboe for refuge, the governor contrived to open a communication with the king, requesting to know the cause of his attacking Anamaboe, and offering to mediate an accommodation. The reply was, that on sending 20 barrels of gunpowder and 100 muskets, the English would be made acquainted with the king's intentions. This reply afforded no opening to negociation; and in fact they learned that the Ashantee chief, on reaching the sea, had shown an extraordinary exultation, having three times dipped his sword into the water. A reconnoitring party, which the enemy in the first instance sent forward, was repulsed, after a hard contest, by the Anamaboese; but on the following day, when the whole force of the invader was brought up, the citizens were seen retreating in the utmost disorder. They found no refuge even in the town, to which they retreated, but were pursued with the most dreadful slaughter to the margin of the sea. The English governor, after receiving into the fort as many of the old men, women, and children, as its walls could contain, vainly endeavoured to repel the enemy by continued discharges of musketry and grape shot. The attempt was fruitless; and after having completely destroyed the town, they advanced against the castle, and made the most desperate efforts to carry it by storm. The situation of the English was critical in the extreme; to oppose a force estimated at 15,000 they had not above 24 men, several of whom were artificers and free mulattoes. The Ashantees continued the attack for several hours, firing with such precision as to cut off every man who appeared at an embrasure, and the garrison was reduced to eight men fit for service. Towards evening, however, the enemy, having been unable to gain an entrance at any point, desisted. Next morning the scene around the fort displayed a dreadful picture of the ravages of barbarous warfare; the houses of the city mostly unroofed or on fire; the shore strewn with numerous dead bodies, against which the waves were dashing; the piteous cries of the women and children who had found refuge within the fort. The enemy, however, showed no haste to renew the attack; and in the afternoon a reinforcement of four officers and twelve men was landed from Cape Coast. The governor then, in pursuance of directions from the commander-in-chief, hoisted a white flag in sign of amnesty, which was received cordially, and even with joyful acclamations. The two soldiers who bore the flag were welcomed and presented with a fat sheep; but it appeared that nothing final could be concluded without a meeting between the king and the chief governor, in which every effort was used to induce the king to pay a visit to Cape Coast Castle; but he very naturally declined to place himself in the power of those with whom he had just waged so deadly a warfare. Colonel Torrance, the chief governor, then repaired to Anamaboe, and forming a procession as handsome as his numbers admitted, went out and waited on the monarch. The English were dazzled by the splendour and dignity displayed by the retinue of the Ashantee prince, which greatly surpassed all that they had observed on the coast. The great men wore dresses of rich silk, and their swords, axes, flutes, and other instruments, were either of solid gold or profusely adorned with that precious metal. The court etiquette was studied and dignified; each of the great officers gave separate audience, seated under a huge umbrella, and surrounded by numerous attendants. The king, of a deep black complexion, was well formed, with an open and pleasing countenance: he wore a plain silk dress, without any of the golden ornaments with which the inferior captains were loaded. A treaty was concluded, which could not but be satisfactory to the monarch, since, according to M. Dupuis, it included a complete acknowledgment on the part of the governor, that the whole territory of Fante, including Cape Coast itself, the capital, belonged by right of conquest to the Ashantee empire. The governor took a still more questionable mode of securing the favour of this great potentate. Cheboo and Apoutay, the chiefs with whom this dreadful war originated, had fled to Cape Coast, where they lived under at least the tacit protection of the British government. Now, however, parties were despatched to attack them, who seized Cheboo after a desperate resistance; but Apoutay, beating off the assailants, effected his escape. The former chief was then delivered as a propitiatory offering to the king, by whom he was put to death with cruelty and ignominy.

Although the Ashantees carried all before them in the field, an epidemical disorder, causing a considerable mortality in their army, obliged them to retire. Then the Fantees, according to their usual rash and imprudent course of proceeding, threw off the yoke. This brought down upon them, in 1811, a second expedition, in which the invader met with equal success, and for some time carried all before him; but one of those internal rebellions to which the kingdom was always subject interrupted his career, and obliged him to return. The Fantees, always courageous in the absence of danger, again reared their heads, and prepared for themselves, in 1816, an invasion more formidable than either of the two preceding. They suffered a most disastrous overthrow; Cape Coast was held in long blockade, and the Fantees were finally compelled to own themselves the subjects of the king of Ashantee.

The British government, actuated by very enlightened views, felt a wish to cultivate the alliance of this great African potentate, and to open a direct communication with him. They thus hoped not only to secure his friendship and commerce with his territories, but to obtain extensive information respecting the interior of Africa. In 1817, Messrs James, Bowdich, and Hutchison, departed on a mission to Coomassie. They had to penetrate through a country, great part of which was overgrown with dense and entangled woods, the route through which consisted only of a narrow and difficult footpath. These obstacles, joined to an illness with which Mr James was attacked, caused the journey, though extending not more than 100 miles, to employ nearly a month. On their arrival they were considerably dazzled both by the extent and handsome appearance of the city, compared with the Ashantee.

Ashantee, maritime capitals, and also by the wild and brilliant array of the caboceros or great war-chiefs. They were soon introduced to the king, whom they found still more profusely loaded with embellishments, consisting of golden ornaments, beads, and amulets. Yet the strings of human teeth, and the executioner seated with his hatchet on his breast, and his stool clotted with blood, threw into the scene a character truly savage. The monarch received them, however, with that dignified politeness which, unless when overcome by passion, he always studiously maintained. He invited them to the market-place, and gave them a public audience in presence of the chiefs and people. The presents, which consisted chiefly of ornamental fabrics of British manufacture, excited his highest admiration; he carefully, and with an intelligent eye, examined their structure. After one or two of these harmonious interviews, subjects of business came under discussion. The king introduced the subject of certain sums which the British were bound to pay to the native governments, for permission to hold fortified factories; making in a manner the ground-rent of their castles. These sums the Fantees, as the ruling people on the coast, had been accustomed to receive; but the king, as having conquered the whole Fantee territory, claimed them now as due to himself. According to the ideas established in Africa, and indeed to the ordinary rights of conquest, the demand seems to have been legitimate. There had, however, been some misunderstanding: Mr James came unprovided with any instructions to meet this claim, and simply replied that he would refer for instructions to the government at Cape Coast Castle. This appears to have been quite foreign to the understanding and expectations of the monarch, who conceived that they came, as he said, "to make peace and settle all palavers." On finding them wholly unprepared to enter on what he viewed as the main object of discussion, he considered himself insulted; that contempt was thrown upon him, and a determination manifested for war. In vain did Mr James protest that they wished only peace and trade: his passion became always more furious; he called them cheats and liars, then started from his seat, bit his beard, exclaiming, that had a negro brought such a message he would have cut off his head. On seeing matters come to this extremity, the two junior members of the mission, Messrs Bowdich and Hutchison, formed a resolution certainly very imprudent and contrary to diplomatic rule. Conceiving that Mr James, by blind and obstinate adherence to rule, was endangering the English interests, and perhaps even the safety of the mission, they took upon themselves to supersede him, and assume the negociation into their own hands. They conducted it in a manner altogether satisfactory to the king: a treaty was concluded, by which all his demands were granted; and, after a residence of several months, in which they were perfectly well treated, they returned to Cape Coast.

The government at home, though they demurred somewhat to the very irregular course followed by Mr Bowdich and his companion, saw evidently the wisdom of cultivating an intercourse with this powerful African court. They determined to station at his court a fixed resident, and nominated to that station M. Dupuis, who had long filled with credit the important post of British consul at Mogadore. M. Dupuis was sent out with instructions to cultivate to the utmost of his power the friendship of this potent monarch, to promote trade with his dominions, and to open through them an intercourse with the interior.

The new consul, being detained in England by various circumstances, did not arrive at Cape Coast till January 1819. By that time a complete and unfortunate change had taken place in the views of the British local government. They had been gained entirely over to the interest of the Fantees or coast natives, who were constantly on the spot, and possessed eloquence, talents, and address. An insurrection had arisen in the interior of the Ashantee monarchy, respecting which the most exaggerated rumours were spread and listened to with blind credulity. Insulting messages were sent to the king, who was also informed that the natives of Cape Coast were setting his authority at open defiance, and were forming a wall to defend the town. The Fantees, so recently subjected, could not be blamed for endeavouring to procure their own emancipation; but the English, who had so much experience of their weakness, ought by no means to have committed themselves in the quarrel. Under the views which he had formed, however, the governor, on various pretences, prevented M. Dupuis from proceeding on his mission. Yet, while this rash and confident spirit continued in full force, rumours of a very opposite description began to arise, and became so prevalent, that the boldest adherents of the present policy were struck with apprehension. It was now confidently stated that the king had gained a complete victory over the rebels; nay, it began to be rumoured that he was in full march with an army upon Cape Coast. That prince, however, appears to have shown a very considerable disposition to effect an amicable adjustment of differences. A messenger of high rank arrived at the castle, and having produced a little Morocco trunk, drew from it the treaty, which was read over, article by article, and repeated appeals made to the governor on the manner in which it had been violated. He was unable to deny the charges; and the confusion which he could not avoid feeling, with the generally changed aspect of affairs, induced him to assume a much more moderate tone. M. Dupuis was even introduced, and his mission mentioned, with which the messenger seemed much pleased, though he could not, without some special instructions, give him an invitation to proceed to Coomassie. Soon after, an ambassador of much higher rank was announced, and excited a stronger sensation, it being reported that he brought with him an army to enforce compliance. His appearance, however, dissipated these apprehensions: he brought with him indeed a train of twelve hundred persons, but these were partly women and boys; and the assemblage was evidently one of state, not of war. The ambassador, however, brought the ultimatum of the king as to atonement demanded for the breach of fealty committed by the people of the town, and in which they had been supported by the English. After enumerating all the wrongs of which they had been guilty towards his sovereign, he demanded the sum of 1600 ounces of gold from the town, and the same amount from the governor. This last demand was rejected as wholly inadmissible, though there was not the same objection made to equitable compensation being required from the natives. It being then found that the ambassador had brought a welcome to M. Dupuis, the governor, in these urgent circumstances, deemed it wisest to withdraw the interdict hitherto placed upon that gentleman's proceeding to Coomassie, and to place in his hands the task of obtaining the best possible terms from this powerful monarch.

M. Dupuis set out on the 9th February 1820, and on the 28th arrived at Coomassie. He soon obtained a public audience of the king, who received him with dignified politeness. After a few days spent in pompous and unmeaning ceremonies, more confidential meetings took place, and business was entered upon at full length. The king expressed uniformly the utmost indignation at the attempt of the natives to shake off his authority. On one occasion Ashantee, when he happened to be in peculiarly bad humour, this broke out in a demeanour partaking almost of madness. Raising his voice to its utmost pitch, and assuming a countenance of demoniacal frenzy, he threw himself convulsively back in his chair, clenched his fists, and stretched out his arms and legs, while he bellowed out the most direful imprecations against the natives of Cape Coast, not even excepting those present. The foam all the while flowed down his beard in copious discharges, and the saliva spurted from his mouth upon all around him. He even vociferated, "White men come to my country to trade,—what have they to do with my slaves? Sinitty (Governor Smith) cheats, and joins the Fantees. The Cape Coast people ought to die. Let me go there, let me have the jaw-bones of Aggry and Deljmaat. I don't want their gold; I want the blood of bad men to wash my stool." Afterwards, however, he made a sort of apology for this violent sally, and in his calmer moods was found reasonable and even conciliatory. He expressed great dissatisfaction with the governor of Cape Coast, but the highest respect for the king, whom he seems even in some degree to have owned as a superior, and called him, of course in mere courtesy, his master; only saying, "for the blacks, I am king, and I will be paid or I will kill them." M. Dupuis seems to have proceeded very judiciously, and in a manner at once firm and courteous. The king occasionally showed suspicions of his acting as a spy, and even threw out hints to that effect, with many apologies, however, and representing the idea as having originated with his nobles and chiefs. He seems in general to have been fully convinced of the candour and good faith of the English envoy, who, on his side, recognized fully the monarch's claim to the entire sovereignty of the Gold Coast, including the ground on which the forts stood. This implied the validity of the notes of rent, amounting for each to the mighty sum of L8 a month, which threatened to involve Africa in warfare. The king again dropped entirely the large payment demanded from the governor; and, admitting the plea of their poverty, greatly reduced his requisition from the natives. He agreed likewise that the English should exercise a certain jurisdiction in the immediate vicinity of their forts, even over such of his own subjects as should happen to reside there. Upon these principles, a treaty was drawn up, which adjusted satisfactorily all the differences between the two parties. The king dismissed M. Dupuis with many marks of esteem and kindness, sending along with him two natives of distinction, to proceed as ambassadors to England, with a present of two beautiful leopards.

M. Dupuis now returned to Cape Coast with the agreeable impression of having brought this important and difficult negociation to a fortunate issue. He was deeply disappointed when the governor altogether disowned the treaty, representing it as having betrayed British interests, and as having wantonly transferred to Ashantee the sovereignty of the Gold Coast. At the same time the Fantee party persuaded Sir George Collier to refuse transporting to Britain the ambassadors sent by the king of Ashantee; a conduct which could not but be in the highest degree offensive to that monarch.

M. Dupuis returned to England to represent the particulars to the government; but an entire change meantime took place in the administration of the British affairs in Africa. The African Company were induced to resign the command hitherto held by them over the forts, which were taken entirely into the hands of the crown. The first step adopted in consequence, was to invest Sir Charles McCarthy with the general government of all this range of coast. The king of Ashantee, though highly indignant at the conduct of the former governor, on learning this alteration, seems to have paused, in hopes of its bringing more conciliatory counsels. The new governor arrived early in 1822; but though he had communicated with M. Dupuis, who earnestly endeavoured to impress him with his own ideas of African politics, Sir Charles soon implicitly adopted the principles and policy of the Fantee natives. He placed the town in a posture of defence, and formed alliances with all the neighbouring tribes, who ranged themselves under his standard. Nothing was heard of the former dreaded conqueror of the Gold Coast, who, it was hoped, had been overawed by the formidable force which the English exhibited. In fact, however, he was busied in preparations of various kinds, collecting troops, making incantations, and determining the lucky or unlucky times of commencing the campaign. At length a negro servant in the English service was seized in the great square of Anamaboe, on pretext of some injurious expressions respecting the king; and after being detained for six weeks, seemingly in expectation of some negociation being opened for his release, was beheaded at Denqua. The king then commenced open war, summoning all his vassal princes, and calling upon them "to arm against Britain, to the very fishes of the sea." To Sir Charles he sent notice that his skull would soon adorn the great war-drum of Ashantee. Yet at this very time he made overtures through the Dutch government at Elmina, who had always prudently cultivated his alliance. Messengers sent by each party met at Elmina, and a speech was made on the king's part, when he presented indeed a most formidable list of grievances, yet showed himself willing to impute these to the Fantees and the people of Cape Coast rather than to the English; but this discourse was deemed unworthy of answer.

It behoved now the English to meet in the field the formidable enemy whom they had provoked, and taken no pains to appease. Captain Laing having been sent forward with a reconnoitring detachment, encountered an advanced corps of the enemy and totally defeated it; an exploit which increased the rash confidence now prevalent among the British and their allies. The force which could be depended upon, though small, and consisting in a great measure of the merchants and civil servants of the colony, was imprudently divided. Besides Mr Laing's detachment, the main body was split into two parties, under Sir Charles McCarthy and Major Chisholm. The former, commanding about 1000 Europeans, was attacked near the boundary stream of the Bossem Pra, by a force of the enemy amounting to 10,000. The English fought for some time with great bravery, till their ammunition failed, when Sir Charles commenced his retreat; but the enemy then succeeded in throwing a large corps on his rear, and thus causing a total and destructive route. Only 50 men, including two officers, Major Rickotts and Lieutenant Erskine, returned to the castle. All the rest, among whom were the chief civil functionaries, paid the penalty of their rash counsels. Respecting their fate, there is only the fatal alternative, that they either fell on the field or perished amid tortures inflicted by this barbarous enemy. The former and milder lot, according to the most probable account, befell Sir Charles, though his bones were carried as a trophy to Coomassie.

The Ashantee army now marched upon Cape Coast, laying waste the country with fire and sword. At that place, however, the detachments of Major Chisholm and Captain Laing had united with the wrecks of the main corps, and prepared for defence with the characteristic vigour and courage of English troops. The king, flushed with victory, made repeated and desperate assaults, but was on each occasion repulsed with great loss; and sickness having made its way into his camp, he at length broke up and retired to Coomassie. It was supposed that he withdrew only to collect a more formidable force, and renew the invasion. Such a design was frustrated by internal disturbances; and the English having since greatly limited their connection with the Gold Coast, and even withdrawn their garrisons from all the forts except the one at Cape Coast, and having also wisely adopted a more conciliatory policy, the good understanding between the two powers has been happily restored. There is even, we believe, at present, a British resident at Coomassie.

Ashantee proper, comprising about 14,000 square miles, and a million of inhabitants, presents a dense and almost impenetrable forest, the routes through which consist merely of narrow winding tracts, in which, though it is possible for a man to ride, or a palanquin to be carried, no waggon of any description could pass. The interior country round the towns, however, is cultivated with diligence, the fields being kept very clean, and yielding in abundance grain, yams, vegetables, and fruits. The territory yields also a considerable quantity of gold; and that precious metal is brought in still greater abundance from the regions farther to the north, particularly Gaman, where it occurs not merely in the usual form of gold dust, but in pretty large fragments, mingled in pits with rock and gravel. It is even said that, but for a superstitious idea, which induces the natives to leave the largest deposits untouched, the produce might be much more ample.

The Ashantees are skilful in several manufactures, particularly in the great African fabric of cotton, which they weave with a loom differing little from that of Europe. Their pottery and works in gold are also skilful, though surpassed by those produced in the more southern countries.

The government of Ashantee forms a mixture of monarchy with a military aristocracy; the lower orders being held in the most complete thraldom, and liable either to be put to death or sold into slavery at the will of the chiefs. The king carries on all the ordinary administration of the state; but in questions relating to peace or war he is bound to consult the council of the caboccers or captains, which M. Dupuis calls a senate. Each of these caboccers keeps a little court, where he gives audience, and makes a profuse display of barbarous pomp. They wear rich silken robes, curiously interwoven with variously coloured threads; and the most common domestic utensils are of solid gold. Leopards' skins, red shells, elephants' tails, eagle and ostrich feathers, are intermingled with Moorish charms and amulets, and with strings of human teeth and bones. Polygamy is indulged to the most enormous extent. The king has a regular allowance of 3333 wives; but in Africa these princesses are employed variously, as guards, messengers, and even in the humblest services. The crown, as often happens in barbarous countries, descends to the king's sister's son, not to his own offspring.

The Ashantee monarchs, though so extremely ambitious, appear to pay considerable regard to the faith of treaties, seeking always a plausible ground of war; and, even when justly provoked, not usually commencing it without previous overtures of negociation. The barbarous and capricious governments, however, by which they are surrounded, jealous of the Ashantee power, without duly measuring their own strength, afford frequent cause of justifiable invasion. Thus, during the last century the Ashantees have conquered Dinkira, Aquamboe, Aquipim, and Assin, countries which lay between them and the coast, and held the chief sway there on the first arrival of Europeans. Then they reduced the whole of the Gold Coast. During the same period, towards the north and the interior of Africa, they subdued the territories of Gaman, Banna, Tonouma, and Degomba, inhabited chiefly by Moslems, before whom the Ashantees had been at first compelled to recede; but notwithstanding the enmity thus naturally generated, the conquerors wisely extended their full protection to the professors of this faith, and raised them often to equal favour and honour with the natives. The king even had made them believe that he felt some disposition to embrace their faith.

The darkest feature in the Ashantee character undoubtedly consists in the system of human sacrifice, carried to a truly dreadful extent. It is founded on a wild idea of filial and relative piety, which makes the chiefs fancy it their duty to water with blood the graves of their ancestors, whose rank in the future world will, they imagine, be measured by the number of attendants thus sent along with them. There are two fixed annual periods called the great and little Ada customs, at each of which human victims are immolated to a monstrous extent. Still more dreadful is the custom celebrated after the death of the king, or any member of the royal house. When Mr. Bowdich was at Coomassie, the monarch, in honour of his mother, had sacrificed no less than 3000 victims. They are chiefly prisoners of war or condemned criminals. The nobility also vie with each other on these occasions in testifying respect by the number whom they immolate; they often rush out, seize the passenger of humble birth, and drag him in for this fatal purpose. Hence, during this awful period, the citizens of Coomassie shut themselves up in their houses, or, if compelled by necessity to go abroad, by along the streets with trembling speed, every moment in fear of becoming victims to this cruel superstition.

There appears to prevail at this court a very considerable desire to introduce a higher degree of civilization, and to raise the Ashantees in the scale of nations. Conscious of the superiority of Europeans, the monarch shows a peculiar ambition to assimilate his system with theirs. From the first he was anxious to cultivate a connection with the English; and M. Dupuis found him impressed with the most lofty ideas of the power and magnificence of king George. He was then employed in erecting a palace in the European style, under the direction of Dutch architects from Elmina. His subjects were very unskilful in this task, but, by numbers and by loud cries, they endeavoured to compensate for the deficiency of skill; they suggested to Dupuis the odd idea of "a legion of demons attempting in mockery a Babel of modern invention." The interior was meant to be splendidly adorned with gold and ivory; and the king said on another occasion, "I must have every thing suitable, and live like a white king." Perhaps, indeed, there is no quarter where the views entertained for the civilization of Africa could be prosecuted with a fairer chance of success. The people of free barbarous states are turbulent, intractable, attached to their former rude and irregular habits, compared to the indulgence of which a few external accommodations are regarded with great indifference. It is otherwise with an absolute monarch, who, when once inspired with a desire for the refinements and enjoyments of civilization, can enforce their production by the ministry of others, and may thus, in gratifying his own ambition, rapidly introduce among his subjects the elements of improvement and industry.

ASH-WEDNESDAY, the first day of Lent, supposed to have been so called from a custom in the church, of sprinkling ashes that day on the heads of penitents then admitted to penance.

ASBOURN, a market-town in the hundred of Wirksworth, and county of Derby. It is 139 miles from London, on the high road to the north-west part of the island. It stands on the small beautiful river Dove, by which Ashburton stream some mills for spinning cotton are turned. There is a good corn market held every Saturday. The population was, in 1801, 2006; in 1811, 2112; and in 1821, 2188; but the parish of Ashburn is more extensive than the town, and at the last census contained 4708 inhabitants.