ommence Lent until the following Sunday: the present commencement was instituted by Pope Felix III., A.D. 487.a country in Western Africa, in the interior of the Gold Coast. The Ashantee empire, including the numerous districts at that time entirely reduced under its control and jurisdiction, was considered by M. Dupuis as extending from Lat. 5°. 0. to 9°. 0. N., and from Long. 0°. to 4°. 0. W., comprising a space of about 50,000 square miles, inhabited by 3,000,000 of people. The original Ashantee, however, is not supposed to include more than a third of this large territory.

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 eighteenth century the Ashantees first came under the notice of Europeans, through the successful wars in which they engaged with the kingdoms bordering on the maritime territory. Sai Tooto may be considered as the real founder of the Ashantee power. He either built or greatly extended and embellished Coomassie, the capital; he subdued the neighbouring state of Denkera, and the Mahometan countries of Gaman and Banna, the latter of which has been called the right arm of Ashantee; and extended the empire by conquests both on the east and west. His successor made further acquisitions of territory towards the coast.

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 and insurrections, he could not for some time turn his views in that direction. About 1808, however, a dispute arose among the Ashantee chiefs of Assin, which in spite of the king's efforts at conciliation ended in an open rupture. The insurgent forces were defeated with great slaughter, and the chiefs compelled to seek refuge among the Fantees, the ruling people on the coast. The king's overtures of accommodation being again slighted, he determined to make the rebels and their protectors feel the weight of his vengeance. 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 Anamaboes 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. The result was the complete destruction of the town, with great slaughter among the inhabitants. The attempts of the Ashantees, however, to storm the English fort were unsuccessful, though the skill of their fire reduced the garrison, originally amounting to 24, to the number of 8 men fit for service. A truce was concluded, and the king having refused to make any terms except with the chief governor of Cape Coast, Colonel Torrance, who filled that office, at once repaired to Anamaboe. He was received by the Ashantee monarch with great pomp, and the result of their interview was a treaty by which the whole territory of Fantee, including Cape Coast itself, the capital, was ceded by right of conquest to the Ashantee empire. The governor took a still more questionable mode of securing the favour of this great potentate, delivering up to his mercy the two chiefs with whom the war had originated. The one effected his escape; the other was put to death with cruel ignominy.

The British government, actuated by very enlightened views, felt a wish to cultivate the alliance of this monarch, 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. On their arrival they were received with dignified politeness, and invited to a public audience in the market-place. After one or two harmonious interviews, 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. 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. Mr James, who had come unprovided with any instructions to meet this apparently legitimate claim, simply replied that he would refer for instructions to the government at Cape Coast Castle. The king, 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, broke out into an uncontrollable rage; 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, conceiving that Mr James, by blind and obstinate adherence to rule, was endangering the English interests, and perhaps even the safety of the mission, took the negotiation 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 satisfied; and, after a residence of several months, they returned to Cape Coast.

The government at home, though they demurred somewhat to the very irregular course pursued by Mr Bowdich and his companion, saw the wisdom of cultivating an inter- Ashantee course 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. The new consul arrived at Cape Coast in 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. Under the views which he had formed, the governor, on various pretexts, prevented M. Dupuis for some time from proceeding on his mission; but on the arrival of more than one ambassador from the king, demanding reparation for the wrong committed against him, it was thought prudent that he should proceed to the court of Ashantee.

M. Dupuis set out on the 9th February 1820, and on the 28th arrived at Coomassie. He seems to have proceeded very judiciously, and in a manner at once firm and courteous; and after several confidential meetings with the king, 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.

On his return to Cape Coast, he was deeply disappointed to find that 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; 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 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 Fantees natives. He placed the town in a posture of defence, and formed alliances with all the neighbouring tribes, who ranged themselves under his standard. The dreaded conqueror of the Gold Coast appears to have died during the summer of 1823, and it was hoped that the hostile attitude exhibited by the English would overawe his successor. He, however, was already busied in warlike preparations. At length a negro sergeant 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 negotiation being opened for his release, was beheaded at Donqua. The king now declared open war, summoning all his vassal princes, and calling upon them "to arm against Britain, even to the fishes of the sea." Yet at this very time he made overtures through the Dutch government at Elmina, who had always prudently cultivated his alliance; but these were 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. In their first encounter, a reconnoitering party under Captain Laing defeated a body of the enemy; but the rash confidence thereby engendered soon after received a dreadful blow by the utter rout of the British force of 1000 men, near the boundary stream of the Prah, by a native army of about 10,000 men. The ill-fated commander, Sir Charles McCarthy, is supposed to have perished in the disastrous attempt to retreat. Only fifty men, including two officers, Major Ricketts and Lieutenant Erskine, returned to the castle. All the rest, among whom were the chief civil functionaries, paid the penalty of their rash counsels.

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 at last sustained a signal defeat, on the 7th August 1826. He was then obliged to purchase peace at the price of 6000 ounces of gold, and to send his son as a hostage to Cape Coast Castle. Since this event, the Ashantee power on the coast has become extinct, and its limits are now many miles distant from the sea.

By the treaty concluded at the end of the war, the river Prah was fixed as the boundary of the Ashantee kingdom, and all the tribes to the south of it were placed under the British protection. Till within a comparatively recent date, this treaty was duly respected by the kings of Ashantee. Towards the end of 1852, however, decided symptoms were evinced of a disposition on the part of the Ashantee monarch to interfere with the states which this treaty had absolved from his jurisdiction. Two Assin chiefs, Chibbu and Gabri, who had in the time of the war revolted from Ashantee and joined the Fantee alliance, were discovered to be intriguing with the king of Ashantee, who had paid them 400 ounces of gold as the price of their meditated treason. According to the plan concerted, the king was to make a visit to Donqua for the purpose of making "custom" for the late chief of Denkera (who had formerly been a vassal of Ashantee), the pretext for an armed aggression of the Assin territory. With this view he had crossed the Prah with a force of about 7000 men. These warlike movements naturally excited much uneasiness at Cape Coast Castle, and for a period of some months no effort was spared by the British authorities to bring matters to a pacific settlement, while an armed force was at the same time held in readiness to meet the aggressors. It is satisfactory to know by the last despatch of Governor Hill to the Colonial Secretary (dated April 26, 1853), that the negotiations had proved so far successful, that the Ashantees had retraced their steps across the Prah, giving considerable hopes that war is for the present averted. The two chiefs, who had been found guilty of treason, had before this been publicly beheaded on the 18th April 1853, after a regular trial by the allied chiefs and the captains of Assin.

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 Ashbourne 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 of simple and rude construction. 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 and 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 barbaric pomp. Polygamy is indulged in to an 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 brother, or 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 negotiation. 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.

The darkest feature in the Ashantee character is visible in the dreadful system of human sacrifice. 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 Adaï and little Adaï, 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. These are chiefly prisoners of war or condemned criminals. British influence, however, seems to have diminished this shocking practice.