* * * * *
_History._
To speak of the death of a former king, the Ashantees imagine to affect
the life of the present equally with enquiring who would be his
successor; and superstition and policy strengthening this impression, it
is made capital by the law, to converse either of the one or the other.
The inability of the natives to compute time, and the comparatively
recent establishment of the Moors, may be pleaded as additional
apologies for the imperfect history I have collected.
According to a common tradition, which I never heard contradicted but
once, the Ashantees emigrated from a country nearer the water side, and
subjecting the western Intas, and two lesser powers, founded the present
kingdom. These people being comparatively advanced in several arts, the
Ashantees necessarily adopted a portion of their language with the
various novelties; which probably created the limited radical difference
between their language and that of the Fantees; for I could not find,
after taking the greatest pains, more than 200 words unknown to the
latter. The weights of the Inta country, in particular, were adopted
with their names, by the conquerors, without the least alteration.
The tradition, scanty in itself, is very cautiously adverted to, the
government politically undermining every monument which perpetuates
their intrusion, or records the distinct origins of their subjects: but,
from the little I could collect, it appeared to have been an emigration
of numerous enterprising or discontented families, to whom the parent
state afterwards became subject. I am inclined to think, (the account of
their coming from a country nearer the sea being too general for
conjecture to revolt from,) that they emigrated from the eastward of
south, where the territory admitted to be Ashantee proper is remote,
compared with its extent southward, or westward of south, and the former
consequence of Doompassie, and the towns eastward of it, support this:
yet, the very few natives who pretended to any opinion on the subject,
had an impression, that their ancestors emigrated from the neighbourhood
of a small river, Ainshue, behind Winnebah: a croom called Coomadie is
to be found there, but there is nothing else to countenance the report.
The Ashantee, Fantee, Warsaw, Akim, Assin, and Aquapim languages are
indisputably dialects of the same root; their identity is even more
striking than that of the dialects of the ancient Greek: now the Fantees
and Warsaws both cherish a tradition, which exists also in many Ahanta
families, that they were pressed from the interior to the water side by
the successful ambition of a remote power; whence it may be concluded,
that the Ashantee emigration we are now considering, was posterior to a
more important movement of the whole people, corresponding with that of
their neighbours. I will not dilate upon this secondary subject by
referring to internal evidence, there is nothing to recompense either
the investigation or the perusal.
One curious evidence however may be added of the former identity of the
Ashantee, Warsaw, Fantee, Akim, Assin, Aquamboe, and part of the Ahanta
nations; which is a tradition that the whole of these people were
originally comprehended in twelve tribes or families; the Aquonna,
Abrootoo, Abbradi, Essonna, Annŏna, Yoko, Intchwa, Abadie, Appiadie,
Tchweedam, Agoona, and Doomina; in which they class themselves still,
without any regard to national distinction. For instance, Ashantees,
Warsaws, Akims, Ahantas, or men of any of the nations before mentioned
will severally declare, that they belong to the Annŏna family; other
individuals of the different countries, that they are of the Tchweedam
family; and when this is announced on meeting, they salute each other as
brothers. The King of Ashantee is of the Annŏna family, so was our Accra
and one of the Fantee linguists; Amanquateä is of the Essonna family.
The Aquonna, Essonna, Intchwa, and Tchweedam, are the four patriarchal
families, and preside over the intermediate ones, which are considered
as the younger branches. I have taken some pains to acquire the
etymology of these words, but with imperfect success; it requires much
labour and patience, both to make a native comprehend, and to be
comprehended by him. Quonna is a buffalo, an animal forbade to be eaten
by that family. Abrootoo signifies a corn stalk, and Abbradi a plantain.
Annŏna is a parrot, but it is also said to be a characteristic of
forbearance and patience. Esso is a bush cat, forbidden food to that
family. Yoko is the red earth used to paint the lower parts of the
houses in the interior. Intchwa is a dog, much relished by native
epicures, and therefore a serious privation. Appiadie signifies a
servant race. Etchwee is a panther, frequently eaten in the interior,
and therefore not unnecessarily forbidden. Agoona signifies a place
where palm oil is collected. These are all the etymologies in which the
natives agree. Regarding these families as primæval institutions, I
leave the subject to the conjectures of others, merely submitting, that
the four patriarchal families, the Buffalo, the Bush Cat, the Panther,
and the Dog, appear to record the first race of men living on hunting;
the Dog family, probably, first training that animal to assist in the
chase. The introduction of planting and agriculture, seems marked in the
age of their immediate descendents, the Corn stalk and Plantain
branches. The origin and improvement of architecture in the Red earth;
and of commerce, probably, in the Palm oil: indeed, the natives have
included the Portuguese, the first foreign traders they knew, in that
family, alleging, that their long and more intimate intercourse with the
blacks, has made the present race a mixture of the African and
Portuguese. The Servant race reminds us of the curse of Canaan. This
resembles a Jewish institution, but the people of Accra alone practise
circumcision, and they speak a language, as will be shewn, radically
distinct, yet not to be assimilated to the Intā, to which nation they
are referred by the Fantees, merely because it is the nearest which
practises circumcision. Accra is a European corruption of the word
Inkran, which means an ant, and they say the name was either given or
assumed on account of their numbers; this must have been before their
wars with the Aquamboes.
When Adokoo, chief of the Braffoes, a Fantee nation, consulted the
venerable fetish men of the sanctuary, near Sooprooroo, on the Ashantee
war, they answered, that nothing could be more offensive to the fetish,
than the Fantees preventing the peaceable intercourse of their inland
neighbours with the water side, because they were formerly all one
family.
The conduct of the later emigration of the Ashantees is ascribed to Saï
Tootoo, who, assisted by other leading men of the party, and encouraged
by superstitious omens, founded Coomassie, and was presented with the
stool, or made King, from his superior qualifications. This account is
supported by the mixed nature of the government, founded on equality and
obligation, and the existence of a law, exempting the direct descendants
of any of Saï Tootoo’s peers and assistants, (in whom the Aristocracy
originated) from capital punishment.
The Dwabin monarchy is said to have been founded at the same time by
Boitinnë, who was of the same family as Saï Tootoo, being the sons of
sisters. Boitinnë and his party, took possession of Dwabin, the largest
of the aboriginal towns, (leaving Saï Tootoo to build Coomassie) whence
it seems his followers were the more powerful; indeed I have heard it
confessed by a few Ashantees, that Dwabin had formerly the pre-eminence,
though they have always been firm allies in war, and equal sharers in
spoil and conquest. This common interest, preserved uninterrupted more
than a century, by two rising powers, close to each other, with the view
of a more rapid aggrandisement, and their firm discretion in making many
serious disagreements subservient to the policy, is one of the few
circumstances worth considering in a history composed of wars and
successions. I do not think there is such an instance in our heptarchy,
nor do I recollect any other in history, but that of Chalcis and
Eretria.
Bakkee, who died, as I have related,[65] about a year ago, was the son
of Saï Apokoo, the second king, and an infant at the breast at the time
of his father’s death; he was a very old man when he incurred the
present King’s displeasure, which supports the report of the Moors, that
the kingdom has been founded about 110 years. Bosman and Barbot mention
the Ashantees, as just heard of by Europeans, about the year 1700, which
confirms this account. The anxiety of the Ashantee government for daily
records, immediately on the establishment of the Moors, who were only
visitors until the present reign, acknowledges the perplexities and
deficiencies of their early history too candidly, to leave any
encouragement to the researches of strangers. Records beyond half a
century are not to be found in the archives either of Cape Coast, or
Christiansburg Castles, so that the chronology can only be founded on
that of the Moors, and circumstances.
The Ashantee government concentred the mass of its original force, and
making the chiefs resident in Coomassie and the few large towns they
built in its neighbourhood, with titular dignities, conciliated those
whom they subdued by continuing them in their governments, and checked
them by exacting their frequent attendance at festivals, politically
instituted. Military command seems to have been the sole prerogative of
Saï Tootoo; his judicial and legislative power being controlled by the
chiefs or aristocracy much more than at present, who, as in the Teutonic
governments, directed the common business of the state, only consulting
a general assembly on extraordinary occasions.
Saï Tootoo defeated the Akims and Assins, subjected the Tufel country,
and subdued many small states in the neighbourhood. He also conquered
Dankara, the King of which, Intim Dakarey, was so considerable a trader
in slaves, that the Dutch Governor General paid him a monthly note from
his own purse, and assisted him with two or three small cannons, and a
few Europeans, on the eve of the Ashantee invasion: the former are now
placed as trophies in Coomassie, at the top of the street in which the
Mission was quartered. Booroom was subjugated soon after.
Saï Tootoo did not live to see all the streets of Coomassie completed,
for war being declared against Atoä, a district between Akim and Assin,
he invaded that country. The chief of the Atoas, unable to face such a
power, dexterously insinuated his small force through the forest, until
he reached the rear of the Ashantee army, which the King was following
leisurely with a guard of a few hundred men, all of whom were destroyed
by the Atoäs, who shot the King in his hammock. This happening near a
place called Cormantee, (razed to the ground in vengeance,) and on a
Saturday, the most solemn oath of the Ashantees, is “by Saturday and
Cormantee;” (“Mĭminda Cormantee;”) and no enterprise has since been
undertaken on that day of the week.
1720. Saï Apokoo, brother of Saï Tootoo, was next placed on the stool.
Had there been no brother, the sister’s son would have been the heir;
this extraordinary rule of succession, excluding all children but those
of a sister, is founded on the argument, that if the wives of the sons
are faithless, the blood of the family is entirely lost in the
offspring, but should the daughters deceive their husbands, it is still
preserved.
Saï Apokoo finished the building of Coomassie, and exchanged compliments
with the King of Dahomey, since which there has been no intercourse; the
latter, probably, as a despotic monarch, did not wish to give his people
any opportunity of contemplating the greater freedom of the Ashantee
government.
Saï is the family name of the present race of Kings, some of their
relatives bearing it as well. Innăna is also the cognomen of the Kings
of Dagwumba.
Apokoo invading the kingdom of Gaman, Abo, the King, fled to Kong,
whither the Ashantee army pursued him. The King of Kong politically
compelled Abo to meet his enemies on the frontier, least they might
disturb a neutral kingdom. Abo being defeated, purchased a peace by
presenting large sums of gold to the various chiefs, and consenting to
an annual tribute. Apokoo next subjected Takima, whence the Fantees are
said to have emigrated, and forced a second emigration of the people to
Gomawa, at the back of Winnebah. He dispossessed the Akims of the
English, Dutch, and Danish Accra notes.[66] The mortifying destruction
of European records, confines me to the report of the more intelligent
natives on the subject of these notes, who declare, that the people of
Accra being deprived of them by the fraud of the Akims, when they were
assisted by them against the Aquamboes, the Akims were in their turn
obliged to yield them to their conquerors the Ashantees.
Tribute being demanded from the neighbouring kingdom of Dagwumba, a war
ensued, and its troops were defeated. The King of Dagwumba, convinced
that his former reliance on a superior population was vain, from the
military genius of the Ashantees, and the commercial disposition of his
own people, dispirited from their want of fire arms,[67] prudently
invited a peace, before a more decisive defeat left him no dignity, and
his enemies no moderation for treating. As it was, they still respected
his resources, and were content to secure him as a tributary, rather
than exhaust their forces in his subjugation, in the infancy of their
kingdom. A triumph in policy was in the view of the King of Dagwumba,
equivalent to the small diminution of personal dignity; and at the
expense of an inconsiderable tribute, he established a commercial
intercourse, which, his markets being regularly supplied from the
interior, was both an advantage and a security to him, from the great
convenience to his warlike neighbours, whose superstition assenting to
his great reputation for making saphies, and for augury, would not only
augment his revenue, but insure him superior respect as a tributary.
Intā had previously become tributary.
I should have mentioned, that every subject state was placed under the
immediate care of some Ashantee chief, generally resident in the
capital, who seldom visited it but to receive the tribute from the
native ruler, for whose conduct he was in a reasonable degree
responsible. Thus Quatchi Quofie has now the care of Dankara, Odumata of
Soota, Apokoo of Aquamboe, Oöosa Quantabisa of Daboia, &c. &c. Their
policy, in short, not only in this particular, but in many others, seems
to have been closely similar to that of the Persians, as described by
Herodotus.
Boitinnë, the founder of Dwabin, died in this reign.
1741. Saï Apokoo was succeeded by his brother Saï Aquissi. I could not
learn any particular exploits of his, excepting that he preserved the
subjection of the states previously reduced. The King of Akim, in his
time, (the last who had the power of governing without consulting the
pynins or elders) desiring to go to war with his neighbours, was obliged
to obtain permission from the Ashantee government, which he did by the
promise of sending them half the spoil; but, gaining little or nothing,
he did not do so. He soon afterwards heard of Aquissi’s intention, to
demand his head; and knowing that King’s word was irrevocable, he
summoned his ministers, and desired to sacrifice his life for the quiet
of his people: his ministers insisted on sharing his fate; and a barrel
of powder being brought for each to sit on, they drank a large quantity
of rum, and blew themselves up with the fire from their pipes. Dr. Isert
also heard of this in Akim.
1753. Aquissi was succeeded by Saï Cudjo. The Aristocracy was retrenched
and conciliated by this monarch, who raised his favourite captains to
the vacant stools,[68] uniting three or four in one, and swearing that
their lives should be equally sacred, (see p. 4,) to anticipate any
doubts of his fidelity to the constitution.
Saï Cudjo defeating the Warsaws and Assins more decisively than his
predecessors, first compelled them to acknowledge their fealty to
Ashantee. He also subjected Aquamboe, and Aquapim, quelled several
revolts of other countries, and was esteemed a very great captain. The
grandfather of Amanquateä Atooa, conquered Sawee, killing the king
Boomancumma; and Bakkee, soon afterwards, subjugated Moinseä. In this
reign Quama, king of Dwabin, died.
1785. Saï Quamina succeeded his grandfather Saï Cudjo, at a very early
age. The Akims revolted soon after his accession, under Ofoosoo, their
most active ruler for many years: he engaged several smaller states in
alliance, and defeated the Ashantees repeatedly; at length the treachery
of his followers procured Quatchi Quofie, the Ashantee general, his
head; with which he returned to Coomassie, the country having again
submitted. The fame of Ofoosoo made Quatchi Quofie so vain of this
achievement, that he had a figure of him made, with which his umbrella
is still crowned, and before which he dances with every insulting
gesture and vaunt, when he arrives on the ground at the various
ceremonies. The present king has frequently been heard to say, that it
was a great pity this old man did not know better, for the Akim
caboceers generally attended his summons with alacrity and good will;
but the sight of the insulted effigy of their favourite leader,
disgusted them, and excited their revolt. These brave people have risen
from their dependence at least eight times.
The government finding a pretext to invade Banda, the King Odrasee
vigorously opposed the Ashantee army; but at length, seeing he must
inevitably fall into their hands, to prevent his head being found, which
circumstance he knew would sorely disquiet the enemy,[69] and solace his
own people, ordered, just before he killed himself, a woman to be
sacrificed, and the abdomen being ripped, his head to be sewn up within
it, and her body afterwards to be buried in the heap of the slain. It
was discovered by bribes, and is now on one of the King’s great drums.
Soota was also subjugated in this reign, occupying the army under
Odumata ten years, during which period he was not allowed to see
Coomassie. Odumata afterwards subdued Coranza, the larger part of his
army being Gaman auxiliaries.
Saï Quamina raised Apokoo to the stool of Assimadoo, to whom he had been
a servant, in exclusion of the family.
The Danish Governor-General, meditating the punishment of the Popos,
applied to Saï Quamina for 5000 Ashantee auxiliaries; the request was
granted, but while the troops were on their march down, the Governor
died, and his successor prudently paid 250 ounces of gold, (alleged to
have been advanced by the King for their subsistence on their march to
Christiansburg Castle) rather than involve himself in the expenses and
troubles of such an alliance.
1798. Saï Quamina had remained twelve months on a visit at Dwabin, deaf
to the remonstrances of various deputations urging his return, and
infatuated beyond recovery by the arts of his mistress, Gyawa, the
daughter of the King; when it was formally announced to him, that if he
was not present at the approaching Yam custom, he would be deprived of
the stool. It is said, that this woman refused to accompany him to
Coomassie, either dreading the resentment of his mother, a woman of
violent passions, and great ambition, or, which is more probable,
influenced by her father to mingle this repugnance with her
blandishments, to accelerate the ruin of Saï Quamina, which he was not
without hopes might lead to his own aggrandisement. The form of the
dethronement is interesting. Appia Danqua, whose power seems to have
been equal to that of mayor of the palace, repaired to the King’s mother
with the chief captains, and deliberately recounting the offences of her
son, commanded her to remonstrate with him, as the daughter of their old
king, and the parent to whom he owed his elevation. The mother, who no
doubt had assisted in the private council, affecting to bewail her own
misfortune and her son’s disgrace, confessed, with seeming reluctance,
that her remonstrances had already been despised, that the king had even
attempted her life, and begged them to raise her second son, Saï Apokoo,
to the stool the elder had forfeited. This was complied with, and they
sent Saï Quamina a few of his women and slaves, desiring him to retire
into the bush and build himself a croom, and on his death, which
happened soon after, as it was said, from the poignancy of his feelings,
they made the greatest custom for him which had ever been known. The
sable Cleopatra died soon after him. It was whispered, that those he had
formerly injured incessantly insulting him in his retirement, even to
abusing his wives before his face, he had a private interview with the
present King, communicated several schemes of conquests, invoked him to
distrust, and, if possible, to punish those who had forsaken him, and
implored death; which was inflicted (as the blood of the royal family
could not be shed, and as he could not be privately drowned in the
sacred river) by fixing his feet on the ground, bending his body
backwards with a prop in the small of his back, and suspending several
large teeth of ivory from a noose around his neck, which, hanging from
the prop, strangled him.
1799. Saï Apokoo did not live more than a few weeks after being elevated
to the stool, and was succeeded by his brother Saï Tootoo Quamina, the
present King, who must then have been about seventeen years of age. On
this occasion, the general assembly of the captains, jealous of the
aristocracy, and desirous of making a favourable impression on the young
King, insisted that the remaining members of it, should propitiate the
reign, by publicly disclaiming their exemption from capital punishment.
The invasion of the Fantee kingdom in 1807 was the first important
military act of the present reign, the circumstances and origin of
which, being pretty accurately described by Mr. Meredith, in the extract
in the Appendix, I need not repeat. Whilst the invasion was meditating,
Baba, now the chief of the Moors, presented himself to solicit an asylum
in Coomassie, having been driven from Gamba by the rapacity of the King,
his near relative; and professing solely to desire the recovery of a
large property with held from him, to make the King of Ashantee the heir
to it. The King promised he would oblige the King of Gamba to do him
justice, on his return from the Fantee war, if Baba and his companions
were fortunate in their prayers and charms for his success. The King of
Gamba did not think proper to resist the demand afterwards made through
the Ashantee government.
1807. Coonadua, the King’s mother, was left regent during his absence;
this woman was a second Messalina, and many young captains who refused
to intrigue with her, from fear or disgust, have been ultimately the
victims of her artifice and vengeance.
Yaboquorra, the King of Dwabin, died in this interval, and was succeeded
by his grandson, Boitinnë Quama, now about twenty years of age.
1811. Attah, caboceer or King of Akim, had followed the King to the
first Fantee war, and behaved well. Apokoo being sent on an expedition
against the Fantees of Winnebah and Berracoo, Attah received orders to
join him with his contingency; instead of which, he sent a message to
Apokoo, before he passed the Boosempra river, refusing to join him, and
advising him not to attempt to pass through his country. Apokoo reported
this immediately to the King, who, as is usual, sent to Attah to enquire
if he had said so. He confessed that he had, without hesitation, adding,
that the King treated him like a slave, in incessantly summoning him to
attend his wars, and besides, that he never could forget that Saï Cudjo
had cut off his grandfather’s head, and that he would fight with Apokoo
whenever he came. Soon afterwards, Quamina Guma, (the father of Becqua,
captain of Danish Accra,) and one of the King’s sons, returning to
Coomassie with a large quantity of gold collected to make custom for the
King’s mother, Attah intercepted, robbed, and murdered them and their
party, with the exception of one, whom he desired to tell the King that
this act would convince him he was in earnest, and determined to go to
war with him. Apokoo was immediately ordered to proceed against Attah,
who had engaged Quaw Saffătchee as a party in the revolt, who was weary
of the same laborious vassalage. When Apokoo entered the Akim country,
Attah was for attacking him immediately, and at sun rise, but Quaw
impressing his doubts of their succeeding against the superior warfare
of the Ashantees, begged him to stop until three o’clock, when the
Ashantees generally ate and slept, and when they might be better able to
retreat if worsted, as the enemy never pursued in the dusk. The attack
was a surprise, but the fight continued obstinate and undecided until
night, when Apokoo found he had lost so many men, that he immediately
dispatched a messenger to summon the Accras to his aid, as vassals to
the King. His messenger reached Accra the next day, and that people
joined him on the following, on which the enemy retreated precipitately;
Attah to windward, and Quaw to Adda. Apokoo followed the latter, who
having escaped him after a tedious watchfulness, Apokoo, believing the
Danish governor, Mr. Flindt, to have connived, made him his prisoner,
and kept him with the army, which soon afterwards encamped in Aquapim,
five months, during which time he was treated with kindness and respect,
but his ransom amounted to nearly £400. Apokoo was soon after ordered
back to Coomassie. He told me he brought the bell of Adda fort as a
trophy.
Appia Danqua had been sent, at the same time with Apokoo, with 6000 men
against the Fantee states which were disposed to the revolters. He
defeated them at Apam, and took Baffoo the Annamaboe caboceer prisoner,
but whilst his army was before Tantum, intelligence of the approach of
Attah, who had retreated from Apokoo, but whose name was as redoubtable
as his disposition was rapacious, subdued his firmness, and under the
plea of prudence, hurried him back to the interior.
[Sidenote: 1814.]
The path was afterwards shut for two years, through the vigilance, and
from the terror of Cudjo Cooma, who had been elected to the stool of
Akim, six months after the death of Attah, whose immediate successor
(Quawko Ashantee) tyrannized so cruelly during that period, that he was
commanded by the people to kill himself, and could only obtain the
indulgence of a week’s respite, which he spent in singing and dancing,
in fact in making his own custom Quaw Saffătchee had also leagued with
the Fantees who attacked the Accra town, but were repulsed. The King
suddenly determined to open the path to receive the arrears of pay due
from the Forts, and sent Amanqua Abiniowa with an army of 20,000 men,
charging him to offer no violence nor commit hostility, unless provoked
by attack, but to receive the submission of the Akims and Aquapims, and
merely to exact a fine to seal it. Appia Danqua was sent at the same
time with a smaller army to the back of Winnebah and Tantum, to
intercept the revolters if they fled to windward. Abiniowa proceeded to
Aguiasso, one day’s march from Aquapim, unmolested, when one of his
foraging parties was attacked by Cudjo Cooma and seven men killed. A
general engagement took place the next morning, and after six hours
fighting the Ashantees were victorious, and sent a jaw-bone and a slave
to each of the Accra towns. Amanqua then marched to Accra to receive the
King’s pay, and remained nearly twelve months in its neighbourhood. He
then returned to Aquapim, where, after some time, he received a message
from the King, with a large quantity of gold, advising him that he must
not see his face again unless he brought the heads of Cudjo and Quaw.
Amanqua did not immediately communicate this message to his captains,
but ordered them to deposit their equipage and property in Accra, and
then, making a large custom for three days, to propitiate the
enterprise, he took fetish with all his captains that they would never
return to Coomassie without the heads.
1816. Appia Danqua had died in Assin in the interim, and was succeeded
by his brother Appia Nanu, under whom Bakkee was the second in command.
The King hearing nothing of his progress, and his indolence being
reported to him, sent orders to Amanqua to join him, which he did at
Essecooma, reproaching him for his cowardice. Soon after this, the
skirmish at the salt pond near Cape Coast took place, the detachment was
principally of Assins, and commanded by Quasheemanqua. Yokokroko soon
afterwards joined the combined army, (which had marched to Abra,) with a
few hundred men destined to attack Commenda.
Not long after the palaver was settled at Cape Coast, and the army again
divided, Cudjo Cooma was killed by a party of Appia Nanu’s at Insoom or
Incoom near Essecooma; upon which, Appia, instead of marching to join
Amanqua as had been concerted, returned to Coomassie, where he was
coldly received, but not accused until the 12th of July last (see
Diary). Adoo Danqua, the brother of Quaw Saffătchee, came to the Accras
and concerted the delivering of him up, as he had tired him out with his
wanderings. The Ashantees agreed to prevail on the King to give him the
stool if he did. A few Accras and a few Ashantees accompanied him, and
when he came near where his brother was hid, one day’s journey from
Accra, he placed an ambush, and sitting down, expostulated with him, and
recommended him to kill himself; but Quaw would not, alleging that he
should eventually wear out the King’s patience in pursuing him; on this
Adoo rose, and a shot was immediately fired at Quaw, who was brought
down and rose again four times, exclaiming that his brother was his
murderer, who reflected the reproach on his own obstinacy. The body was
brought to Accra, and his head sent to Coomassie, and it is now a trophy
at Bantama or the back town. Amanqua then returned to Coomassie, and
arrived about six months before the Mission.
The Aowins, to anticipate the ambitious views of the Ashantee
government, lately sent an embassy with offers of service and tribute,
but the amount of the latter has not yet been decided.
The King had sent to demand the royal stool of Buntooko or Gaman which
was thickly plated and embossed with gold; it was given up by Adinkara,
the King, from fear; his sister, a woman of masculine spirit and talent,
and the soul of the government, being absent. On her return, she
reproached her brother severely, and ordered a solid gold stool to be
made to replace it. That being also demanded, as the right of the
superior, with a large gold ornament in the shape of an elephant, dug
out from some ruins, the sister, receiving the ambassadors, replied,
that the King should not have either, and added, impressing it with more
force than delicacy, that her brother and she must change sexes, for she
was most proper for a King, and would fight to the last rather than be
so constantly despoiled. The King of Ashantee sent word that she was fit
to be a king’s sister, and a strong woman, and he would give her twelve
months to prepare for war. Several embassies have been sent however to
negotiate; two during our stay, the latter, it was said, with an offer
of 400 Bendas, (£3200.) but the aristocracy were obstinate, and urged to
the King, that his other tributaries would laugh at him, if he did not
get the King of Gaman’s head. The small pox was raging in Buntooko.
It is clear, that the King of Ashantee contemplates the reduction of the
King of Dwabin from an independent ally to a tributary. We witnessed one
circumstance to the point. A messenger being sent to require gold of
Dwabin, the King of which is a very weak young man, a captain of the
royal family replied, that there was no war on foot to require gold, and
as it could only be for the individual benefit of Ashantee, the
government must be reminded that Dwabin had formerly exacted gold, and
was not now to be subjected to imposition, because the right had been
yielded from respect to the sister kingdom. This being reported to the
King, he suppressed his anger, and sent a gold headed sword, with other
marks of dignity and favour to this man, who, to his surprise, refused
them, alleging, that the honours he already possessed at home became him
better. The King still temporised. Some months after, at the full
assembly convened for the proclamation of the treaty with the British
Government, the mother of the King of Dwabin, who acts as regent, and
over whom Saï is known to have much influence, suddenly, and no doubt at
his instance, accused this captain of plotting to deprive her son of the
stool. The accusation was supported by others, who prayed the King to
judge the palaver. The King of Dwabin sat with the greatest
indifference. The accused made an animated appeal to the assembly, and
Saï affected to support him vehemently, and ordered the linguists to
give him chalk, or acquit him. The man thanking him very earnestly,
Adoosee was desired to tell him, that his ill-will to the King of
Ashantee had been reported in a very aggravated manner; but as it was no
longer believed, he was only required to take fetish, that he liked the
King, and would do him all the good he could; this done, the man
received several marks of favour and bounty.
Saï Tootoo is considered to take better care of the treasury than any of
his predecessors: he cautiously extends his prerogative, and takes every
opportunity of increasing the number of secondary captains, by
dignifying the young men brought up about his person, and still
retaining them in his immediate service.
Saï Acotoo, the King’s brother, and the heir to the stool, appeared to
me very inferior in ability; but the Ashantees say otherwise.
The King’s private character is amiable; the children of his brothers
share the fondness and indulgence which endear him to his own, and his
few moments of recreation are the liveliest of theirs. The circumstances
connected with the various instances which we witnessed of his
generosity to others, justify me in ascribing it to the benevolence of
his disposition. His admiration of ingenious rather than splendid
novelty, has frequently imposed the appearance of a covetousness,
scarcely culpable from his reverence for invention, and the amazement
its extent excited. To present him with the trifles which attracted his
notice when he visited us, offended him, he told us we must only answer
his questions, and let him examine them; to make dashes on the occasion
of a private visit, was to vitiate the motive of the condescension,
which could not be repeated unless we paid more respect to his dignity
and friendship. The King is certainly capricious, and his liberality of
mind is stained by prejudices against individuals which he confesses to
be unaccountable; and to several of the principal actors in his
brother’s deposition, (which, desirous to extend his prerogative, he
would tacitly censure,) he has been unjustly severe. His humanity is
frequently superior to his superstition and policy, he offended Quatchi
Quofie, one of the four, by limiting the human sacrifices at his
mother’s funeral, and resisted all the importunities, founded on
precedent, for the allowance of a greater number. He dismissed us twice
with apologies for not proceeding to business, confessing, the first
time, that he had been unusually irritated just after he sent for us,
and had not recovered his calmness; the latter, that some agreeable news
had induced him to drink more than fitted him to hear great palavers
like ours. In his judicial administration, a lie always aggravated the
punishment, and truth generally extenuated, and sometimes atoned of
itself for the offence: he invariably anticipated the temerity of
perjury, where convicting evidence was to be opposed to the accused. The
King’s manners are a happy mixture of dignity and affability, they
engage rather than encourage, and his general deportment is conciliating
though repressive. He speaks well, and more logically than most of his
council, who are diffuse, but his superior talent is marked in the
shrewd questions by which he fathoms a design or a narrative. He excels
in courtesy, is wisely inquisitive, and candid in his comparisons: war,
legislature, and mechanism, were his favourite topics in our private
conversations. The great, but natural fault of the King is his ambition;
I do not think it has ever proved superior to the pledge of his honour,
but it certainly has, and that frequently, to his sense of justice,
which is repressed rather than impaired by it. This sketch of his
character being narrowed to my own knowledge, will be assisted by the
following history of Agay, the second linguist.
Agay, when a boy, carried salt from Aquoomo to Coomassie for sale; he
was afterwards taken into the service of Aquootoo, caboceer of that
place, against whom the government had instituted a palaver, but
wrongfully. Agay accompanied the caboceer when he was sent for to
Coomassie for judgment. After the King’s messengers had spoken,
misrepresenting the case in preference to confessing the King to be in
the wrong, and the caboceer was confused, this boy suddenly rose, and
said, to use the words of the narrators, “King, you have people to wash
you, to feed you, to serve you, but you have no people to speak the
truth to you, and tell you when God does not like your palaver.” The
assembly cried out unanimously, that the boy might be hurried away and
his head taken off; but the King said, “No! let him finish;” and Agay is
said to have spoken three hours, and to have disclosed and argued the
palaver to the King’s conviction, and his master’s acquittal. He was
retained to attend the King, but treated with no particular distinction.
A serious palaver occurring between two principal men, it was debated
before the council, who were at a loss to decide, but inclined to the
man whom the King doubted; judgment was suspended. In the interim the
King sent Agay, privately, to the house of each, to hear their palavers
in turn, tête-à-tête; he did so, and when the King asked him who he
thought was right, he confirmed his impression. “Now,” said the King, “I
know you have a good head.” Agay was then made a Linguist, and presented
with a house, wives, slaves, and gold. Sometime afterwards, the King
confessing a prejudice against a wealthy captain, his linguists, always
inclined to support him, said, “If you wish to take his stool from him,
we will make the palaver;” but Agay sprung up, exclaiming, “No, King!
that is not good; that man never did you any wrong, you know all the
gold of your subjects is your’s at their death, but if you get all now,
strangers will go away and say, only the King has gold, and that will
not be good, but let them say the King has gold, all his captains have
gold, and all his people have gold, then your country will look
handsome, and the bush people fear you.” For this the King made him
second linguist, and much increased his property. When Amanqua had the
command of the army against Cudjo Cooma, the King asked him which
linguist he would take, he replied, Adoosee or Otee; the King said, no!
I will give you this boy, he has the best head for hard palavers.
Amanqua urged that he was too young, the King told him he was a fool to
say so. He then made Amanqua take fetish with him to report the merits
of Agay faithfully, who distinguished himself so much, that he is always
employed in difficult foreign palavers.
The manners of the higher orders of captains, always dignified, are
courteous and hospitable in private, though haughty and abrupt in
public. I believe them to be jealous rather than tenacious of their
honour, and their sophistry is as ingenious as their maxims are
prepossessing. They consider that war alone affords an exertion or
display of ability, and they esteem the ambition of their King as his
greatest virtue. They have no idea of the aggrandisement of a state by
civil policy alone. They are candid in acknowledging their defeats, and
just to the prowess of their enemies, but they possess little humanity,
and are very avaricious and oppressive. They listen to superstition with
the most childish credulity, but they only cultivate it for the
preservation of life and the indulgence of passion; beyond this, the
Moors could never advance their enquiries; they are neither curious nor
anxious about a future state, pretending to it from rank and achievement
rather than domestic virtue; and believing, if the latter were outraged,
the solemnities and sacrifices of their funeral customs would purchase
their repose. Indeed, licensed as they are by the zealous conflicts of
rival superstitions, (Moorish and Pagan,) their lives are moderate and
benevolent to what might be expected, and merit more than our excuses.
The lower order of people are ungrateful, insolent, and licentious. The
King repeatedly said, he believed them to be the worst people existing,
except the Fantees, and not comparable with many of their inland
neighbours. Perhaps we should agree with Voltaire, “Je crois qu’il faut
plutôt juger d’une puissante nation par ceux qui sont à la tête, que par
la populace.”[70]
[Footnote 65: See Diary.]
[Footnote 66: See the explanatory list of words and the early dispatches
in the First Part.]
[Footnote 67: Fire arms are unknown to such of the nations on the south
of the Niger as the Shereef has visited; and the reason which he assigns
for it is, that the Kings in the neighbourhood of the coast, persuaded
that if these powerful instruments of war should reach the possession of
the populous inland states, their own independence would be lost, have
strictly prohibited, and by the wisdom of their measures, have
effectually prevented this dangerous merchandise from passing beyond the
limits of their dominions. Lucas.]
[Footnote 68: “To succeed to the stool,” does not mean to the seat in
the council, but is the common expression for succeeding to a property
even in private life. The same stool, or seat descends through many
generations.]
[Footnote 69: On the death of the late King of Amanaheä, two competitors
for the stool appeared, one called Suikee or Suiquah; the other’s name I
am ignorant of. Both collected their slaves and adherents, and fought.
Suikee was obliged to fly, and hide himself in the bush; but the people
being dissatisfied with the conqueror, Suikee re-appeared against the
town. When his rival was reduced beyond all hope, he threw all his gold,
which filled several jars, into the lake; and then collecting his wives
and the different branches of his family, went with them into a remote
part of the bush, and cut all their throats, with the exception of one
son, whom he reserved to assist him in burying the bodies. He then made
this son swear on his fetish, to kill and bury him, and never to
discover where the bodies were laid: the son fulfilled the oath, and
returned to Apollonia, but I am not certain what became of him. After
Suikee had seated himself firmly on the stool, he by some means
discovered where the bodies were concealed; he caused them to be dug up,
and taken to Apollonia town; he then ranged them in a sitting posture,
in a row along the beach, with stakes to extend their arms, and support
their heads: this horrid spectacle was exhibited until even their bones
had perished. One of Suikee’s first acts after his accession, was to
consecrate his hiding place in the bush, making it death, or a heavy
fine, for any one to swear by Suikee’s bush, and not to keep the oath.]
[Footnote 70: The principal districts of Fantee, are, the Affettoo, the
Braffoo, and the Essecoomah; Cape Coast is in the former. The Dey of
Affettoo (a title probably introduced by the Portuguese) was formerly
supreme in Fantee, so far as summoning the other kings and caboceers at
pleasure, prescribing their political conduct, and being appealed to and
sentencing in all cases of life and death, wherever or by whomsoever the
crime may have been committed; witchcraft excepted. Upwards of a century
ago the small pox almost depopulated Affettoo, then the largest town and
capital of all Fantee, (it is about 10 miles inland from Cape Coast,)
and all the immediate heirs to the stool being cut off, the supremacy
was transferred to Mankasim. The present Dey, however, preserves a
spiritual authority over the other kings and caboceers, and is esteemed
as the superior fetish man; when they desire rain, for instance, they
apply to him to procure it, and they look to him solely for their
chronology, which he preserves by knotting strings. Mankasim then became
the capital and largest town of Fantee, but it was almost destroyed by
the Ashantees in their first invasion of 1807. Any Fantee caboceer who
did not attend the summons of the King of Mankasim, was suspended by
him, and afterwards displaced by the diet. Adoo, the last King of the
Braffoos, despoiling all his subjects of their most valuable property,
and countenancing the individuals of his family in the same assumption
and violation, without any regard to persons; they were all seized, on
his death, by a simultaneous rising of the people, and sold off the
coast as slaves, to get rid of the race. Adookoo, one of the leading
men, was then called to the care of the stool, with the title of
caboceer only, it being still considered as an interregnum, but he
exercised the same supremacy and privileges which the King had done, and
was acknowledged by the whole country. During his retreat and wanderings
in the bush, after several defeats by the Ashantees, the Fantee towns
have assumed many political and judicial rights before centered in
Mankasim; but Adookoo is now expected to summon them all, and re-
establish the ancient order of things, which they deem too sacred to
think of resisting. It was not the Braffoos, or the whole people of that
district, who had the privilege of living abroad at the public expense,
and who took whatever they pleased of the property of others, as Mr.
Meredith has stated; but the state officers of that district called
Brofoos, who acquired that name from the hide in which the tobacco is
rolled, being formed into a seat peculiar to them, never using a wooden
stool. They were the executors, and not the organs of the law, and
always sat to the right and left of Adookoo, but had no voice. The
number was twelve, and the dignity immemorially hereditary in as many
families. These men were allowed to take whatever they pleased at home
and abroad, but since Adookoo’s misfortunes, and inability to support
them, they have been content to beg for their tithes in the large towns,
and only exercise their rapacity in the small crooms of their own
district.]