Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee

A curiosity throughout Europe, proportionate to the ignorance of the Interior of Africa, exacts the publication of the proceedings and researches of every Exploratory Mission, from its Conductor, as a duty to the Public: “mandat fieri sibi talia.” The Public, in acknowledgment of the performance of the duty, reflecting that it constrains literary efforts which the Author otherwise might never have presumed to expose, should sympathise in his diffidence and anxiety, and receive and review them as a task imposed, and not as a spontaneous essay. If this indulgence is due even to gentlemen who have had the most enviable opportunities of qualifying themselves at the expense of a liberal Government, it is surely secure to one who never enjoyed those advantages; but, being suddenly called to the immediate conduct of a Mission, originated by a public Board of very contracted means, when estranged from all facilities, had no resource to aid his realization of the scientific desiderata, beyond the acquirements common to most private gentlemen. The vessel in which I am making my passage to England having been chartered to trade in the River Gaboon, which is immediately on the Line, I diverted a tedious delay of seven weeks in so unhealthy a situation, by visiting Naängo, a town about fifty miles from the mouth of the River, where I collected Geographical Accounts of the Interior, from several intelligent traders, and numerous slaves from different countries. I have added this compilation, (as it may borrow some interest from the adjacency of the Congo,) with a few notices of the customs and productions of this ruder part of Africa. Bosman and Barbot mention the Ashantees as first heard of by Europeans about the year 1700; the latter calls it Assiantee or Inta, and writes, that it is west of Mandingo, and joins Akim on the east; he asserts its pre-eminence in wealth and power. Issert, a physician in the Danish service, who meditated a visit to Ashantee, writes, “this mighty king has a piece of gold, as a charm, more than four men can carry; and innumerable slaves are constantly at work for him in the mountains, each of whom must collect or produce two ounces of gold per diem. The Akims formerly dug much gold, but they are now forbidden by the King of Ashantee, to whom they are tributary, as well as the Aquamboos, previously a very formidable nation.” Mr. Dalzel heard of the Ashantees at Dahomey, as very powerful, but imagined them, the Intas, and the Tapahs, to be one and the same nation. Mr. Lucas, when in Mesurata, was informed that Assentai was the capital of the powerful kingdom of Tonouwah. In Mr. Murray’s enlarged edition of Dr. Leyden’s discoveries in Africa, we find, “the northern border of Akim extends to Tonouwah, denominated also Inta, Assientè, or Assentai, from its capital city of that name, which stands about eighteen days journey from the Gold Coast.” In 1807 an Ashantee army reached the Coast for the first time. I would refer the reader to the extract in the Appendix, from Mr. Meredith’s account of the Gold Coast, as the particulars are introductory as well as interesting; and also serve to correct the misstatement in the work last quoted, that in 1808 the King of Ashantee destroyed the English fort of Annamaboe; originating, probably, from the storm of the Dutch fort at Cormantine, at that time. The Ashantees invaded Fantee again in 1811, and the third time in 1816. These invasions inflicted the greatest miseries on the Fantees. Few were slain in battle, for they rarely dared to encounter the invaders; but the butcheries in cold blood were incredible, and thousands were dragged into the interior to be sacrificed to the superstitions of the conquerors. Read more