a large town of Africa, the capital of the Ashantee country. It stands upon the side of a large rocky hill, and is nearly surrounded by a marsh. It is built in an oblong form, and is about four miles in circumference, not including the suburbs, which are about half a mile distant, and were formerly connected by streets with the city. Four of the principal streets are half a mile long, and from fifty to an hundred yards broad. A long and wide street runs through the middle of the town; and here the palace and other residences of the royal family are situated. Mr Bowdich reckons that the town contains altogether twenty-seven streets. At the back of it there is a small grove, into which are thrown the bodies of all the victims sacrificed in the barbarous rites of the Ashantee superstition. The town is supplied with water from the marsh, which contains springs; but this bog is otherwise highly injurious to the place. It gives rise to a putrid exhalation, which morning and evening envelopes the town in a dense fog, thereby engendering disease. There are excellent markets in Coomassie, which are open from eight in the morning till sunset, and in these there is always a plentiful supply of the various necessaries of life. With regard to the population of this place, the Ashantees assert a preposterous notion, believing it to contain a hundred thousand inhabitants when the whole are collected. This, according to Mr Bowdich, is a gross exaggeration, and he sets down the number at fifteen thousand as a near approximation to the truth.