sophistry has power enough over every heart, | types of which Mr. Lane, of the Minerva Press not to need the aid of fine composition, and well-contrived incident-auxiliaries which Madame de Staël intended to bring forward in the cause, though she has fortunately not succeeded. very prudently keeps ready composed, in order to facilitate the printing of the Adventures of Captain C and Miss F, and other in teresting stories, of which he, the said inimitable Mr. Lane, of the Minerva Press, wel. knows these sentiments must make a part Another perilous absurdity which this useful production tends to cherish, is the common notion, that contempt of rule and order is a proof of greatness of mind. Delphine is everywhere a great spirit struggling with the shackles imworld around her; and it is managed so that her contempt of restrictions shall always appear to flow from the extent, variety, and splendour of her talents. The vulgarity of this heroism ought in some degree to diminish its value. Mr. Colquhoun, in his Police of the Metropolis, reckons up above 40,000 heroines of this species, most of whom, we dare to say, have at one time or another reasoned like the sentimental Delphine about the judgments of the world. M. de Serbellone is received as a guest into the house of M. d'Ervins, whose wife he debauches as a recompense for his hospitality. Is it possible to be disgusted with ingratitude and injustice, when united to such an assemblage of talents and virtues as this man of paper possesses? Was there ever a more deposed upon her in common with the little lightful, fascinating adulteress than Madame d'Ervins is intended to be? or a povero cornuto less capable of exciting compassion than her husband? The morality of all this is the old morality of Farquhar, Vanburgh, and Congreve that every witty man may transgress the seventh commandment, which was never meant for the protection of husbands who labour under the incapacity of making repartees. In Matilda, religion is always as unamiable as dissimulation is graceful in Madame de Vernon, and imprudence generous in Delphine. This said Delphine, with her fine auburn hair, and her beautiful blue or green eyes (we forget which), cheats her cousin Matilda out of her lover, alienates the affections of her husband, and keeps a sort of assignation house for Serbellone and his chère amie, justifying herself by the most touching complaints against the rigour of the world, and using the customary phrases, union of souls, married in the eye of heaven, &c. &c. &c., and such like diction, the To conclude-Our general opinion of this book is, that it is calculated to shed a mild lustre over adultery; by gentle and convenient gradation, to destroy the modesty and the caution of women; to facilitate the acquisition of easy vices, and encumber the difficulty of virtue. What a wretched qualification of this censure to add, that the badness of the principle is alone corrected by the badness of the style, and that this celebrated lady would have been very guilty, if she had not been very dull! MISSION TO ASHANTEE.* [EDINBURGH REVIEW, 1819.] CAPE COAST CASTLE, or Cape Corso, is a Durham to Edinburgh; and yet the kingdom factory of Africa, on the Gold Coast. The of Ashantee was, before the mission of Mr. Portuguese settled here in 1610, and built the Bowdich, almost as much unknown to us as citadel; from which, in a few years after- if it had been situated in some other planet. wards, they were dislodged by the Dutch. In The country which surrounds Cape Coast 1661, it was demolished by the English under Castle belongs to the Fantees; and, about the Admiral Holmes; and by the treaty of Breda, year 1807, an Ashantee army reached the it was made over to our government. The coast for the first time. They invaded Fantee latitude of Cape Coast Castle is 5° 6' north; again in 1811, and, for the third time, in 1816. the longitude 1° 51' west. The capital of the To put a stop to the horrible cruelties com kingdom of Ashantee is Coomassie, the lati-mitted by the stronger on the weaker nation; tude of which is about 6° 30′ 20′′ north, and to secure their own safety, endangered by the the longitude 2° 6' 30" west. The mission Ashantees; and to enlarge our knowledge of quitted Cape Coast Castle on the 22d of April, | and arrived at Coomassie about the 16th of May-halting two or three days on the route, and walking the whole distance, or carried by hammock-bearers at a foot-pace. The distance between the fort and the capital is not more than 150 miles, or about as far as from Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, with a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of other Parts of the Interior of Africa. By T. EDWARD BOWDICH, Esq., Conductor. London, MurJav, 1819. Africa—the government of Cape Coast Castle persuaded the African committee to send a deputation to the kingdom of Ashantee; and of this embassy the publication now before as is the narrative. The embassy walked through a beautiful country, laid waste by the recent wars, and arrived in the time we have mentioned, and without meeting with any remark able accident at Coomassie, the capital. The account of their first reception there we shall lay before our readers. "We entered Coomassie at two o'clock, pass. ing under a fetish, cr 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 frenzy, to subdue us by the first impression. The smoke which encircled us from the incessant discharges of musketry, 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 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 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. presents and baggage in the house assigned to us. Here we were gratified by observing seve ral of the caboceers (chiefs) 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."-(pp. 31-33.) The embassy remained about four months, leaving one of their members behind as a permanent resident. Their treatment, though subjected to the fluctuating passions of barbarians, was, upon the whole, not bad; and a foundation appears to have been laid for fu ture intercourse with the Ashantees, and a mean opened, through them, of becoming bet ter acquainted with the interior of Africa. The Moors, who seem (barbarians as they are) to be the civilizers of internal Africa, have penetrated to the capital of the Ashantees: they are bigoted and intolerant to Christians, but not sacrificers of human victims in their religious ceremonies;-nor averse to commerce; and civilized in comparison to most of the idolatrous natives of Africa. From their merchants who resorted from various parts of the interior, Mr. Bowdich employed himself in procuring all the geographical details which their travels enabled them to afford. Timbuctoo they described as inferior to Houssa, and not at all comparable to Boornoo. The Moorish influence was stated to be powerful in it, but not predominant. A small river goes nearly round the town, overflowing in the rains, and obliging the people of the suburbs to move to an eminence in the centre of the town where the king lives. The king, a Moorish negro called Billabahada, had a few double-barrelled guns, which were fired on great occasions; and gunpowder was as dear as gold. Mr. Bowdich calculates Houssa to "This exhibition continued about half an be N. E. from the Niger 20 days' journey of hour, when we were allowed to proceed, en- 18 miles each day; and the latitude and loncircled by the warriors, whose numbers, with gitude to be 18° 59' N. and 3° 59′ E. Boornoo the crowds of people, made our movement as was spoken of as the first empire in Africa. gradual as if it had taken place in Cheapside; The Mahometans of Sennaar reckon it among the several streets branching off to the right the four powerful empires of the world; presented long vistas crammed with people; the other three being Turkey, Persia, and 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 Abyssinia. The Niger is only known to the Moors by the name of the Quolla, pronounced as Quorra by the negroes, who, from whatever countries they come, all spoke of this as the largest river with which they were acquainted; and it was the grand feature in all the routes to Ashantee, whether from Houssa, Boornoo, or the intermediate countries. The Niger, after leaving the lake Dibbri, was invariably described as divid ing into two large streams; the Quolla, or the greater division, pursuing its course southeastward, till it joined the Bahr Abiad an. the other branch running northward of east, | and domestics of every description, are sacri near to Timbuctoo, and dividing again soon af- ficed on their tombs. They have two sets of terwards the smaller division running north- priests: the one dwell in the temples, and wards by Yahoodee, a place of great trade, and communicate with the idols; the other species the larger running directly eastward, and en- do business as conjurors and cunning men, tering the lake Caudi under the name of Gam- tell fortunes, and detect small thefts. Half baroo. "The variety of this concurrent evi- the offerings to the idols are (as the priests dence respecting the Gambaroo, made an im- say) thrown into the river, the other half they pression on my mind," says Mr. Bowdich, "al- claim as their own. The doors of the temples most amounting to conviction." The same are, from motives of the highest humanity, author adds, that he found the Moors very cau- open to runaway slaves; but shut, upon a fee tious in their accounts; declining to speak un- paid by the master to the priest. Every perless they were positive-and frequently refer- son has a small set of household gods, bought riag doubtful points to others whom they knew of the Fetishmen. They please their gods by to be better acquainted with them. avoiding particular sorts of meat; but the The character of the present king is, upon prohibited viand is not always the same. the whole, respectable; but he is ambitious, Some curry favour by eating no veal; some has conquered a great deal, and is conquering seek protection by avoiding pork; others say, still. He has a love of knowledge; and was that the real monopoly which the celestials always displeased when the European objects wish to establish, is that of beef-and so they which attracted his attention were presented piously and prudently rush into a course of to him as gifts. His motives, he said, ought to mutton. They have the customary nonsense be better understood, and more respect paid of lucky days, trial by ordeal, and libations to his dignity and friendship. He is acute, and relics. The most horrid and detestable capricious, and severe, but not devoid of hu- of their customs is their sacrifice of human manity; and has incurred unpopularity on victims, and the tortures preparatory to it. some occasions, by limiting the number of This takes place at all their great festivals, or human sacrifices more than was compatible customs, as they are called. Some of these with strict orthodoxy. His general subjects occur every twenty-one days; and there are of discourse with the mission were war, legis- not fewer than a hundred victims immolated lation, and mechanics. He seemed very de-at each. Besides these, there are sacrifices at sirous of standing well in the estimation of his European friends; and put off a conversation once because he was a little tipsy, and at another time because he felt himself cross and out of temper. the death of every person of rank, more or less bloody according to their dignity. On the death of his mother, the king butchered no less than three thousand victims; and on his own death this number would probably be The king, four aristocratical assessors, and doubled. The funeral rites of a great captain the assembly of captains, are the three estates were repeated weekly for three months; and of the Ashantee government. The noble quar-200 persons, it is said, were slaughtered each tumvirate, in all matters of foreign policy, have a veto on the king's decisions. They watch, rather than share, the domestic administration; generally influencing it by their opinion, rather than controlling it by their authority. In exercising his judicial functions, the king always retires in private with the aristocracy, to hear their opinions. The course of succession in Ashantee is the brother, the sister's son, the son, and the chief slave. The king's sisters may marry, or intrigue with any person they please, provided he is very strong and handsome; and these elevated and excellent women are always ready to set an example of submission to the laws of their country. The interest of money is about 300 per cent. A man may kill his own slave; or an inferior, for the price of seven slaves. Trifling thefts are punished by exposure. The property of the wife is distinct from that of the husband-though the king is heir to it. Those accused of witchcraft are tortured to death. Slaves, if ill treated, are allowed the liberty of transferring themselves to other masters. The Ashantees believe that an higher sort of god takes care of the whites, and that they are left to the care of an inferior species of deities. Still the black kings and black nobility are to go to the upper gods after death, where they are to enjoy eternally the state and Inxury which was their portion on earth. For his reason a certain number of cooks, butlers, time, or 2400 in all. The author gives an account of the manner of these abominations, in one instance of which he was an unwilling spectator. On the funeral of the mother of | Quatchie Quofie, which was by no means a great one, "A dash of sheep and rum was exchanged between the king and Quatchie Quofie, and the drums announced the sacrifice of the victims. All the chiefs first visited them in turn; I was not near enough to distinguish wherefore. The executioners wrangled and struggled for the office: and the indifference with which the first poor creature looked on, in the torture he was from the knife passed through his cheeks, was remarkable. The nearest executioner snatched the sword from the others, the right hand of the victim was then lopped off, he was thrown down, and his head was sawed rather than cut off: it was cruelly prolonged, I will not say wilfully. Twelve more were dragged forward, but we forced our way through the crowd, and retired to our quarters. Other sacrifices, principally female, were made in the bush where the body was buried. It is usual to 'wet the grave' with the blood of a freeman of respectability. All the retainers of the family being present, and the heads of all the victims deposited in the bottom of the grave, several are unsuspectingly called on in a hurry to assist in placing the coffin or bas ket; and just as it rests on the head or skulls a slave from behind stuns one of these free-piazzas were common. A white wash, very frequently renewed, was made from a clay in the neighbourhood. Of course the plastering is very frail, and in the relief frequently discloses the edges of the cane, giving, however, “About a hundred persons, mostly culprits a piquant effect, auxiliary to the ornament. reserved, are generally sacrificed, in different The doors were an entire piece of cotton wood, quarters of the town, at this custom (that is, cut with great labour out of the stems or but at the feast for the new year). Several slaves tresses of that tree; battens variously cut and were also sacrificed at Bantama, over the large painted were afterwards nailed across. Sc brass pan, their blood mingling with the vari- disproportionate was the price of labour to ous vegetable and animal matter within (fresh that of provision, that I gave but two tokoos and putrefied), to complete the charm, and for a slab of cotton wood, five feet by three. produce invincible fetish. All the chiefs kill The locks they use are from Houssa, and quite several slaves, that their blood may flow into original: one will be sent to the British Muthe hole from whence the new yam is taken.seum. Those who cannot afford to kill slaves, take the head of one already sacrificed, and place it on the hole."-(p. 279.) Where they raised a first floor, the under room was divided into two by an intersecting wall, to support the rafters for the upper room, which were generally covered The Ashantees are very superior in disci- with a frame-work thickly plastered over with pline and courage to the water-side Africans: red ochre. I saw but one attempt at flooring they never pursue when it is near sunset; the with plank; it was cotton wood shaped engeneral is always in the rear, and the fugi-tirely with an adze, and looked like a ship's tives are instantly put to death. The army is prohibited, during the active part of the campaign, from all food but meal, which each man carries in a small bag by his side, and mixes in his hands with the first water he comes to; no fires are allowed, lest their position should be betrayed; they eat little select bits of the first enemy's heart whom they kill; and all wear ornaments of his teeth and bones. deck. The windows were open wood-work, carved in fanciful figures and intricate patterns, and painted red; the frames were frequently cased in gold, about as thick as and is not the least of the many circumstances cartridge paper. What surprised me most, deciding their great superiority over the generality of negroes, was the discovery that every house had its cloaca, besides the common ones for the lower orders without the town." (pp. 305, 306.) their In their buildings, a mould is made for receiving the clay, by two rows of stakes placed The rubbish and offal of each house are at a distance equal to the intended thickness of the wall: the interval is then filled with burnt every morning at the back of the street; gravelly clay mixed with water, which, with and they are as nice in their dwellings as in the outward surface of the frame-work, is plaspersons. The Ashantee loom is precisely tered so as to exhibit the appearance of a thick on the same principles as the English: the mud wall. The captains have pillars which firmness, variety, brilliancy, and size of their assist to support the roof, and form a prosce-cloths, not inelegantly, as fast as an European cloths are astonishing. They paint white nium, or open front. The steps and raised floors of the rooms are clay and stone, with a can write. They excel in pottery, and are Their weights are very thick layer of red earth, washed and painted good goldsmiths. daily. neat brass casts of almost every animal, fruit, and vegetable, known in the country. The king's scales, blow-pan, boxes, weights, and pipe-tongs were neatly made of the purest gold. They work finely in iron, tan leather and are excellent carpenters. "While the walls are still soft, they formed moulds or frame-works of the patterns in delicate slips of cane, connected by grass. The two first slips (one end of each being inserted in the soft wall) projected the relief, commonly mezzo: the interstices were then filled up with the plaster, and assumed the appearance depicted. The poles or pillars were sometimes encircled by twists of cane, intersecting each other, which, being filled up with thin plaster, resembled the lozenge and cable ornaments of the Anglo-Norman order; the quatre-foil was very common, and by no means rude, from the symmetrical bend of the cane which formed it. I saw a few pillars (after they had been squared with the plaster), with numerous slips of cane pressed perpendicularly on to the wet surface, which, being covered again with a very thin coat of plaster, closely resembled fluting. When they formed a large arch, they inserted one end of a thick piece of eane in the wet clay of the floor or base, and, bending the other over, inserted it in the same manner; the entablature was filled up with wattle-work plastered over. Arcades and Mr. Bowdich computes the number of men capable of bearing arms to be 204,000. The disposable force is 150,000; the population a million; the number of square miles 14,000. Polygamy is tolerated to the greatest extent; the king's allowance is 3333 wives; and the full complement is always kept up. Four of the principal streets in Coomassie are half a mile long, and from 50 to 100 yards wide The streets were all named, and a superior captain in charge of each. The street where the mission was lodged was called Apperensoo, or Cannon Street; another street was called Daebrim, or Great Market Street; another, Prison Street, and so on. A plan of the town is given. The Ashantees persisted in saying that the population of Coomassie was above 100,000; but this is thought, by the gentlemen of the mission, to allude rather to the popula tion collected on great occasions, than the permanent residents, not computed by them at more than 15,000. The markets were daily; | clear for shipping them to America. A third and the articles for sale, beef, mutton, wild-large Spanish ship, well armed, entered the hog, deer, monkeys' flesh, fowls, yams, plan- river the night before we quitted it, and hurried tains, corn, sugarcane, rice, peppers, vegetable our exit, for one of that character was commit. butter, oranges, papans, pine-apples, bananas, ting piracy in the neighbouring rivers. Having salt and dried fish, large snails smoke-dried; suffered from falling into their hands before, I palm wine, rum, pipes, beads, looking-glasses; | felicitated myself on the escape. We were sandals, silk, cotton cloth, powder, small pil afterwards chased and boarded by a Spanish ars, white and blue thread, and calabashes. armed schooner, with three hundred slaves on The cattle in Ashantee are as large as English board; they only desired provisions." cattle; their sheep are hairy. They have no These are the most important extracts from implement but the hoe; have two crops of this publication, which is certainly of considecorn in the year; plant their yams at Christ-rable importance, from the account it gives us mas, and dig them up in September. Their of a people hitherto almost entirely unknown; plantations, extensive and orderly, have the and from the light which the very diligent and appearance of hop gardens well fenced in, and laborious inquiries of Mr. Bowdich have regularly planted in lines, with a broad walk thrown upon the geography of Africa, and the around, and a hut at each wicker-gate, where probability held out to us of approaching the a slave and his family reside to protect the great kingdoms on the Niger, by means of an plantation. All the fruits mentioned as sold in intercourse by no means difficult to be estathe market grew in spontaneous abundance, blished with the kingdoms of Inta and Dagas did the sugarcane. The oranges were of a wumba. The river Volta flows into the Gulf large size and exquisite flavour. There were of Guinea, in latitude 7° north. It is navigano cocoa trees. The berry which gives to ble, and by the natives navigated for ten days, acids the flavour of sweets, making limes to Odentee. Now, from Odentee to Sallagha, taste like honey, is common here. The castor- the capital of the kingdom of Inta, is but four oil plant rises to a large tree. The cotton tree days' journey; and seven days' journey from sometimes rises to the height of 150 feet. Sallagha, through the Inta Jam of Zengoo, is Yahndi, the capital of Dagwumba. Yahndi is described to be beyond comparison larger than Coomassie, the houses much better built and ornamented. The Ashantees who had visited it, told Mr. Bowdich they had frequently lost themselves in the streets. The king has been converted by the Moors, who have settled themselves there in great numbers. Mr. Lucas calls it the Mahometan kingdom of Degomba; and it was represented to him as peculiarly wealthy and civilized. The markets of Yahndi are described as animated scenes of commerce, constantly crowded with merchants from almost all the countries of the interior. It seems to us, that the best way of becoming acquainted with Africa, is not to plan such sweeping expeditions as have been lately sent out by go The great obstacle to the improvement of commerce with the Ashantee people (besides the jealousy natural to barbarians) is our rejection of the slave trade, and the continuance of that detestable traffic by the Spaniards. While the mission was in that country, one thousand slaves left Ashantee for two Spanish schooners on the coast.-How is an African monarch to be taught that he has not a right to turn human creatures into rum and tobacco? or that the nation which prohibits such an intercourse are not his enemies? To have free access to Ashantee, would command Dagwumba. The people of Inta and Dagwumba being commercial, rather than warlike, an intercourse with them would be an intercourse with the interior, as far as Timbuctoo and Houssa northwards, and Cassina, if not Boor-vernment, but to submit to become acquainted noo, eastwards. with it by degrees, and to acquire by little and After the observations of Mr. Bowdich, se- little a knowledge of the best methods of arrangnior officer of the mission, follows the narra- ing expeditions. The kingdom of Dagwumba, tive of Mr. Hutchinson, left as chargé d'af- for instance, is not 200 miles from a well-known faires, upon the departure of the other gentle- and regular water carriage, on the Volta. men. Mr. Hutchinson mentions some white Perhaps it is nearer, but the distance is not men residing at Yenné, whom he supposes to greater than this. It is one of the most com. have been companions of Park; and Ali Baba, mercial nations in Africa, and one of the most a man of good character and consideration, civilized; and yet it is utterly unknown, exupon the eve of departure from these regions, cept by report, to Europeans. Then why not assured him, that there were two Europeans plan an expedition to Dagwumba? The exthen resident at Timbuctoo.-In his observa-pense of which would be very trifling, and the tions on the river Gaboon, Mr. Bowdich has the following information on the present state of the slave trade: "Three Portuguese, one French, and two large Spanish ships, visited the river for slaves during our stay; and the master of a Liverpool vessel assured me that he had fallen in with twenty-two between Gaboon and the Con༢༠. Their grand rendezvous is Mayumba. The Portuguese of St. Thomas's and Prince's Islands send small schooner boats to Gaboon for slaves, which are kept, after they are transported this short distance, until the coast is issue known in three or four months. The information procured from such a wise and moderate undertaking, would enable any future mission to proceed with much greater ease and safety into the interior; or prevent them from proceeding, as they hitherto have done to their own destruction. We strongly be lieve, with Mr. Bowdich, that this is the right road to the Niger. Nothing in this world is created in vain: lions, tigers, conquerors, have their use. Ambitious monarchs, who are the curse of civi lized nations, are the civilizers of savage people |