HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF ASHANTEE.
ANTIQUITY AND POWER OF THE MONARCHY OF ASHANTEE — NATIONAL CHARACTER —
WAR OF DINKIRA — REIGN OF SAI TOOTO — MASSACRE AT ACROMANTEE — SAI APOKO
— CIVIL WAR — SAI AKWASY — SAI KODJOH — WAR OF GAMAN — SAI QUAMINA —
EMBASSY FROM DAHOMY — SAI APOKO II. — SAI TOOTO QUAMINA — WAR OF GHOFAN
— FIRST BONTOKO WAR — WAR OF ASSIN — MURDER OF THE KING’S MESSENGERS BY
THE FANTEES — FANTEE WAR — ATTACK OF ANNAMABO — DEATH OF CHEBOO —
RATIFICATION OF THE TRUCE — EXCHANGE OF PRESENTS — PRISONERS OF WAR
AWARDED TO THE GOVERNOR, AND THEIR DISPOSAL.
The growth and consolidation of this comparatively great empire, is much
talked of by the Heathens as well as Moslems; and both are agreed, that
the tribes of Ashantee, Gaman, Dinkira, and Akim, were driven by the
believers, in the early age of Islam, from their original inheritances
in Ghobagho, Ghofan, and Tonouma, to the _forests of Wangara_ (i.e. the
states of Ashantee inclusively, and the south eastern parts of Gaman)
where they maintained their independence at the expence of much blood,
and defended the country gifted with the precious metal, against the
most vigorous efforts that were made to bereave them of it. Whether the
sea coast was already peopled, tradition does not say; but it is
affirmed, the tribes spread over the land, down to the margin of the
ocean, peopling, it may be conjectured, some countries which heretofore
lay desolate, like the forests of Fantee and Assin, and others, whose
primitive inhabitants were not adequate to the defence of their towns.
Thus, Ashantee, contrary to what may have been represented, is the
parent country, and the stock from which the early generations of
Fantees and Dinkirans sprung.
As early as the hejyran year 1000, and from that to 1050 (A.D. 1640,)
Ashantee occasionally ruled, by its influence, over part of Akim, Assin,
Quahou, and Akeyah: it was then esteemed a powerful little monarchy, and
could probably send, in conjunction with its allies, sixty thousand men
to the field, indifferently armed with bows and arrows, and a very few
musquets; but even at that time they were men whose resolution, combined
with a natural ferocity, rendered their name terribly illustrious among
the adjacent tribes.
Nations, who term themselves the most civilized in the world, and others
which are the most savage of the human species, seem equally anxious to
justify every aggressive act, and vindicate the national honour, by
repelling what in their own countries passes for calumny and falsehood.
The Ashantees, not being competent to defend the honour of the throne,
and the national character by written memorials, in the systematical
style of Europe, endeavour to exonerate their sovereign and themselves
from the odious imputation of violence and ambition, by harangues
calculated to demonstrate that black is white, and white black; for the
truth of which men are too apt to appeal to whatever may be considered
sacred, whether it be the awful majesty of heaven, the day of final
retribution, or the deities of heathen adoration and superstition: the
rest is left to chance and the sword.
The Ashantees, of all ranks, are thus loyal and zealous, in common with
other nations, and the king himself takes pleasure in recounting his
forbearance, and describing the aggravation that roused the vengeance of
his ancestors and himself, against those federal powers, which, in an
earlier age, were independent little kingdoms, and now submit to the
yoke of government as provinces of the empire. The king, during various
desultory conversations, took particular pains to ingraft an impression
upon my mind, that it was a maxim associated with the _religion he
professed_, never to appeal to the sword while a path lay open for
negociation. He maintained that he would defy even his enemies to prove
that his assertion deviated from the truth, either as regarded himself
or his ancestors.[101] Be this as it may, the Moslems themselves
corroborate the assertion, although they accuse the government of
unbounded ambition.
The tribes under the early sovereigns (for they always enjoyed the rank
and title of kings) were unsettled in their habitations, while the Arab
influence yet existed on the Jolliba, Koara and Ghulby rivers; but they
were firm and compact as a nation, and not (as my informers reported)
wandering to the distance of the Arab.
It may not be amiss to observe, that in Africa, as in other countries
where slavery is tolerated, the wretched captive frequently turns his
thought towards home, his tribe and family. If his country is remote, he
is certainly less tortured by hopes and fears respecting his
emancipation; others, whose nation is a neighbouring one, and who are
less valued on that very account, are more or less in the practice of
emigrating in proportion to the treatment they receive; and if they can
successfully conceal themselves in the forest from the pursuit of their
masters, and the observation of travellers, they endeavour to shape a
course towards their homes; but should they fail in the undertaking, at
a distance, they simply exchange one master for another—a bargain which
is rarely the most profitable to them, as the new proprietor becomes
intimate with the secret propensity of his slave, and as an antidote for
the evil generally sells him in a distant land. The slaves of Fantee,
Ashantee, Assin, or any other country thereabouts, absolutely find no
security anywhere among the provinces, unless they are fortunate enough
to incorporate themselves with the tribe they belong to, for, if they
are picked up elsewhere, they become _legal_ prizes, and I believe this
custom prevails all over Africa.
The wars of Dinkira are still fresh in memory; the scull and thigh bones
of its last monarch are still trophies of the court of Ashantee, and
still those people, on solemn days, repeat their insults to the relics
of its king and caboceers.[102] The origin of this war and its sequel,
may be read in Bosman’s Description of the Gold Coast, which is so far
supported by current traditions, that I cannot do better than quote the
author’s words. “Dinkira, elevated by its great riches and power, became
so arrogant, that it looked on all other negroes with a contemptible
eye, esteeming them no more than its slaves, which rendered it the
object of their common hatred, each impatiently wishing its downfall,
though no nation was hardy enough to attack it, till the king of
Asiante, injured and affronted by its governor, adventured to revenge
himself on this nation in a signal manner.”
“The occasion of which was this—Bosiante, the king of Dinkira, a young
prince whose valour was become the admiration of all the negroes of the
coast, sent some of his wives to compliment Zay, the king of Asiante;
who not only received, and entertained them very civilly, but sent them
back charged with several very considerable presents, to express his
_obliging resentment_ of the grateful embassy: and being resolved to
return his obligation, he some time after sent some of his wives to
compliment the king of Dinkira, and assure him of the great esteem he
had for his person. These ambassadresses were not less splendidly
treated at Dinkira, being also loaded with presents; but the king cast a
wanton eye upon one of them, and being hurried on by exorbitant lust,
gratified his brutal desire: after satisfying of which, he suffered her,
together with the rest, to return to their country and their injured
husband, who was informed of this affront: But he took care to make the
king of Dinkira sensible that he would not rest till he had washed away
the scandal in his injurious blood. After he was made sensible of the
king of Asiante’s resolution, knowing very well who he had to deal with,
he heartily wished he had not been guilty of the crime; but since it was
done, he offered him several hundred marks of gold to put up with the
injury. The enraged prince, deaf to all such offers, prepared himself
for a vigorous war, by raising a strong army, in order to make a descent
on Dinkirat and not being sufficiently stored with gunpowder, he bought
up great quantities on the coast, the Dinkirans being foolish enough to
assist him themselves, suffering his subjects to pass with it
uninterrupted through their country, notwithstanding they knew very well
it was only designed for their destruction. Whilst he was making these
preparations, the king of Dinkira died, which might encourage a belief
that the impending cloud of war would blow over. Whether the governors
of Dinkira were too haughty to implore a peace of the injured Zay, or he
instigated by the enemies of that country, is uncertain; but he still
immoveably persisted in his purpose of utterly extirpating the
Dinkirans. And about the beginning of this year, being completely ready,
he came with a terrible army into the field, and engaging the Dinkirans,
who expected him, he beat them; but fighting them a second time, he
entirely defeated them. The negroes report that in these two battles,
above a hundred thousand men were killed. Of the negroes of Akim only,
who came to the assistance of the Dinkirans, there were about thirty
thousand killed, besides that a great Caboceer of Akim, with all his
men, were cut off. “Thus,” says this able author, “you see the towering
pride of Dinkira in ashes, they being forced to fly before those whom
they not long before thought no better than their slaves, and themselves
being sold for slaves.”
This Dinkira war, according to the Moslem records, commenced in their
year, 1132 (A.D. 1719.) Bosman wrote in 1721, and he says, these
transactions took place but a few months previous. This, they say, was
the first great war in which the believers were compelled to unite their
arms with the heathens of Ashantee, Banna, Juabin, and other tributary
states in the North, led on to battle by Sai Tooto, dignified by his
subjects with the epithet of Great. This monarch it was, who first
raised Coomassy from an inconsiderable town to the rank it now enjoys as
the metropolis of the empire. He did not, as Mr. Bowdich has
represented, found Coomassy, but he increased its size to a capacity for
the reception of the court and army, when he was influenced to translate
the seat of government, which, heretofore, was occasionally established
at Kikiwhary (N. of Coomassy) and Bequa, in the neighbourhood of
Doompassy. Sai Tooto was already king before the seat of government was
a permanent one, nor did he enjoy any increase of dignity, as the same
author writes, although a great increase of power and influence, after
the subjugation of Dinkira; for this kingdom introduced the Ashantees
and Moslems to a knowledge of white men, by the consolidation of an
empire now become maritime by its aspect over the Wossa country, whose
sovereigns were compelled to suffer the Ashantees to pass as they might
have occasion in the pursuit of commerce at the Dutch settlements, where
their early supplies of powder and guns were obtained with commercial
regularity.
The legends descriptive of the history of Ashantee, earlier than the
reign of Sai Tooto, are somewhat obscure; but were they the reverse, it
is not presumed the reader would find an interest in their perusal; for
this reason I shall suppress a series of unconnected accounts relating
to one or two of the earlier sovereigns.
The wisdom as well as valour of Sai Tooto are themes on which the
natives dwell with a national satisfaction; in short, he was, as they
say, the great, and the good; for, in his reign, justice was ever on the
alert, and the claims of his subjects were listened to without
distinction of rank or title.
The conquests effected by this prince were more comprehensive than has
been stated. He ravaged Assin with fire and sword, for some indignity
offered by its monarch towards his person; he entirely subdued Quahou,
and induced the government of Akim to a limited obedience. He subdued,
besides Dinkira and Tofal, a great extent of country beyond the Tando
river. He invaded Gaman with a powerful army, with which he vanquished
those tribes, and reduced their monarch to the condition of a tributary.
The Desert (of Ghofan) only was an impediment to the progress of his
arms north; and, in short, he created an empire, including tributaries
and allies, which was strictly of a feudal complexion, by the union of
all those kingdoms and principalities between the 6th and 9th degrees of
latitude, and between the 4th degree of longitude west from the meridian
of London and the river Volta. The auxiliary kingdom of Banna was the
right arm of Ashantee in those days, and still is.
Ashantee, however, excluding what it governed upon the western coast by
influence alone, was yet to be considered an inland power; for during
this reign its arms never penetrated within forty or fifty miles of the
European settlements upon the sea side; and all those countries, viz.
Aowin, Amanaha, Ahanta, Wossa, Fantee, Inkran, Aquapim, Aquambo, besides
others their tributaries, on the line of coast, enjoyed the greatest
political freedom among themselves; and many of them, if Bosman may be
credited, wished for the downfal of Dinkira. Akim, it would seem, then a
powerful little kingdom, was alone sensible that its proper interest
warranted every exertion of vigour both in the cabinet and field, to
keep back so powerful an invader, and preserve the equilibrium of the
respective nations; hence, they joined their forces to the Dinkirans,
and by the unfortunate result of the campaign, entailed upon their
country the conqueror’s vengeance; for the sovereign of Ashantee, who
probably rejoiced in having so good a pretext for invading Akim, entered
that territory with the victorious army, and after defeating the king in
a pitched battle upon the confines, reduced him to the necessity of
supplicating a peace, which was granted upon the condition of his
becoming a tributary, and defraying the expence of the war, by a present
of two thousand bendas[103] of gold; for the fulfilment of which, two
Akim caboceers of high rank, named Kakramsee and Adjumako, were
compelled to take fetische, and deliver themselves up hostages on behalf
of their sovereign.
But these conditions the king of Akim endeavoured to evade, or, as some
say, the captains of his army, and the great chieftains, who were called
upon for their quota of the contribution, refused to subscribe to the
terms of the truce, threatening, if their king would not lead them to
battle, they would elect another in his place. Be the truth which way it
may, Sai Tooto, impatient at the delay, and urged by the reiterated
complaints of his rapacious captains, levied another army, which he sent
against Akim, and, followed by the flower of his nobility, quitted the
capital on the day following, to invoke the necessary aid of his
tutelary deities, at the sepulchre of Bantama. After the celebration of
certain orgies, the monarch tracked the steps of the army, at a leisure
pace, and before he could join the main body, was suddenly assailed by a
superior detachment of the enemy, as he was crossing the Praa at a ford
where that river separates the province of Yomoha from Akim. The first
volley, it is related, wounded the sovereign in the side; but still
vigorous, he threw himself out of the hammock, and rallied his men as
best he could; a second discharge from the forest killed him outright,
and he fell with his face into the river. The consternation was now
general; and in the panic that ensued, the Ashantees cast away their
weapons, each man endeavouring to save himself; but in vain, for the
ambuscade issuing from their concealment, fell sword in hand upon the
fugitives, and put every one to death, to the amount of two or three
hundred persons, of whom sixty were women and children, either belonging
to the monarch or his generals.
This calamity did not put an end to the war, which now broke out with
greater fury than ever. A town called Acromantee, that harboured the
enemy the night previous to the attack, (many or most of whom were
inhabitants of the place) was consigned over to the army, as a proper
object to wreak their fury upon; accordingly, it was razed by fire to
the ground, and every living creature, men, women, cattle, and even
fowls, except such as were of the sacred order, were doomed to bleed in
expiation. _Miminda Acromantee_, (implying Saturday and Acromantee,) by
which the national affliction is recorded, has been considered ever
since an oath of the most solemn and unequivocal import; and the day
itself has been cast into the calendar among the list of ominous days
stigmatized by the Ashantees as days which forebode evil; for which
reason they are dedicated to expiatory and propitiatory sacrifices; nor
will any man, be the emergency what it may, commence the most trivial
enterprize, either on Saturday or the other days so characterized. The
words, as recorded, are deemed too profane to utter, unless in a whisper
between friends; and this redoubtable oath is most commonly taken by
inference only, as, the dreadful day, the day of the Gods’ chastisement,
&c. The effect of these expressions only, as I have witnessed at the
court, clouds every brow with woe, from the king to the slave who stands
behind his chair; many fly from the presence,—such, for instance, who
are not men of influence at court, or who may be involved in litigious
palavers, the issue of which is uncertain, and may be dangerously
prejudiced when anger clouds the brow of Majesty. Others cover their
faces with both hands, uttering at the time a charm or invocation to the
patron Gods to shield them from the ominous import of those words, and
the effects of the king’s wrath or sorrow. If it is appealed to as an
imprecation, while justice is pending between parties, it signifies that
the life of one or both individuals is staked on the verdict, i.e. upon
the supposed justice of their cause; the oath itself entails the penalty
of death, frequently by torture; and hence it arises, that many men
bring those punishments upon themselves, from indiscretion in the heat
of argument, where the sum contended for may not exceed the value of
five shillings.
After the death of Sai Tooto, the Ashantee army returned home, bringing
in their train a considerable number of prisoners, who were doomed to be
immolated to his shade; for as to the body of the king, it was never
recovered. A gloom pervaded the capital, and that gloom at last
degenerated into bitter reproaches and invectives against certain chiefs
of the Issounah tribe, who, it was suspected, had temporized with Assin
while the king was on the march, and had, as it was imagined, betrayed
the interest of the state, through an act of imprudence, in not bringing
the Assins to battle at once. The kingdom stood in need both of a
sovereign and a new order of nobility, as most of the ministers and
officers holding the first rank were cut off at Cormantee; and these
great changes were not effected without bloodshed. The conquered
nations, thinking it a fit time to disencumber themselves from the chain
of vassalage, while the capital was in commotion for the election of a
new sovereign and new ministers, one by one proclaimed their
independence, and refused payment of the customary tribute. Thus, when
Sai Apoko, (سَيْ اَبُوكُ) the brother of the preceding monarch, was
called to the throne, A.H. 1144, A.D. 1731, the wars of his predecessors
were to be fought over again.
The most remarkable events during the reign of this prince, were the
entire reduction of Assin and Akim, the re-occupation of Dinkra, the
perfect conquest of Gaman, and its annexation to the empire as an
unconditional tributary. In fact, this monarch once more gave stability
and vigour to the government; and in effecting the subjugation of
Bouromy and Yobati, which he shortly after did, it may be said he
performed as much for his own glory as his great predecessor, and too
much by far for the nations of the sea-coast to expect any repose, while
they were encircled by the territory of a prince whose subjects derived
their very existence from foreign wars, as they themselves did from
intestine ones, and the quarrels between the English and Dutch, in
matters connected with local interest, when the parent countries were at
war in Europe.
When Akim bowed to the yoke of the conqueror, a new election of chiefs
ensued, and the lands were distributed among the favourites of the
court. Then it was the Ashantees became possessed for the first time of
certain deeds,[104] which in the language of the English settlers are
termed notes,—the conqueror’s right serving them as a title of course,
(although it does not appear that this title procured them payment.) The
path to the sea side was now invitingly exposed to this enterprizing
nation. In the west they were masters of the defiles in Tofal, and upon
the confines of Wossa, which opened to them a prospect of the kingdoms
of Aowin and Amanaha, commonly called Apollonia; the former on the Ivory
coast, near Bassam and Cape Lahon; Ahanta also lay before them on the
south, and Fantee on the south-east. In the east, or east-south-east,
they overlooked the now provinces of Inkran, or Accra, Aquapim, and
Adampe, while Aquambo, the only existing kingdom in that quarter worthy
that title, courted the conqueror’s alliance, and was received into
protection as a confederate of the empire.
In this stage of politics Sai Apoko, in the latter part of his reign,
enacted new codes of laws, adapted for the government of the various
departments of the state; but some of these regulations being considered
inimical to the interests of the chiefs, and as they represented it
again, to the public welfare, a dangerous conspiracy was raised against
the throne, in the very heart of the kingdom. The capital, moreover,
took a share in these transactions, and the king was obliged to fly his
palace, by night, and seek refuge at Juabin, where he convened a sort of
diet; but some of his enemies were already in arms, and he was compelled
to the same alternative. The province of Akiah is celebrated for a
battle, which Apoko fought with the rebels, near the town of Dinkenny,
and which terminated in their utter discomfiture, although many of the
ringleaders availed themselves of the vicinity of the mountains, and
saved the remnant of their scattered followers by a precipitate flight.
Here they endeavoured to make a defensive stand, while their friends in
the city implored pardon on their behalf; this, under certain
limitations, was granted, and the country, from a state of anarchy,
again subsided into tranquillity. But the king did not survive long
after, having been suddenly arrested by the stroke of death, as he was
sitting in council; and he expired as the attendants were removing him
to the harem, after a reign of twelve lunar years, short of some months,
for he died A.H. 1156; A.D. 1742.
At the demise of this prince, a revocation of the obnoxious edicts took
place, whereby an ample scope for ambition was again enjoyed by the
chiefs of the army, whose object it was to preserve the old
constitution, upon that basis which guaranteed to all the principal
officers of state, and generals, or captains in the army, a
proportionate share of influence in the city, a political preponderance
in the councils of the nation, and a princely rank in the provinces.
This was a fit time to regulate the terms of succession to the
hereditary prince,[105] and it was not suffered to elapse unheeded. Had
it been practicable to have given stability to the wise regulations of
Sai Apoko, it is generally believed by the Moslems, that the empire of
Ashantee, at this day, would have held a rank proportionate to several
of the most powerful monarchies inland; and instead of exhibiting that
unstable force of tribes and nations (forty-seven, as they say, in
number), whose interests are, in some instances, necessarily the reverse
of that of the court, from the oppression they daily groan under, (owing
mainly to the arbitrary influence of the chiefs), it would have
exhibited an irresistible union between every tribe, and every
principality of the empire; and it would have placed the nation upon
such a respectable footing, that it might have given laws to Dahomy,
Dagomba, and all the land westward. “But this wisdom,” said my informer,
(the Bashaw), “they are not gifted with; the eternal decree is sealed
upon the hearts of infidels; therefore are they suffered to wander in
ignorance, and perpetrate those horrid systems of slaughter that
desolate the land, and steel the breasts of the few, who are spared,
with hatred and revenge[106].” The truth of these sentiments is scarcely
to be questioned. Powerful as the monarchy of Ashantee certainly is,
collectively estimated, it may be considered as a fabric whose
foundation is subject to periodical decay, and therefore requires
unremitting attention; or figuratively speaking, it may be assimilated
to the coarser metals, which are brilliant only from continual friction;
and to pursue the similitude, governments that are founded upon laws
which the people, from record and tradition, are persuaded to be of
divine institution, may be compared with those metals, precious in the
estimation of the world, which preserve their own lustre unassisted by
art: and although at intervals they may not flash so vividly upon the
senses, yet exhibit an uniform refulgence derived from their incorrosive
nature.
Ashantee, and perhaps Dahomy, deserve to be called _powers of our own
creation_. But to reconcile the assertion with fact, it must be
admitted, we are intitled to no other rank than that of indirect
assistants. In using the name of his majesty, as I was compelled to do
in the course of the negociations, the king (of Ashantee) would
frequently exclaim; “The God of his fathers preserve him, and increase
his glory upon earth;” and, during familiar conversations, he would say,
“the good things I possess, I am indebted for to my Gods, and the
benevolence of your king. My ancestors never knew white men personally;
but they were equally sensible of the obligations they owed to the
whites, who enriched them when they were poor, and fed the people by
trade, while Ashantee was yet but an inconsiderable nation compared with
its modern extent.” “My great ancestor Sai Tooto,” said the king to me,
a short time before I parted from him, “would have served your king’s
great ancestors as faithfully as I will, (the illustrious son), if that
intimate knowledge which your presence conveys to us had been decreed
during his reign; for we all know the whites to be a people who serve
the God of all gods and men.”
The sovereign who succeeded to the throne of Sai Apoko, was named سي
اكوسي Sai Akwasy. Several intestine commotions took place during his
reign, in the provinces of Bouromy, Quahou, and Akim, whose Caboceers
were instigated to take up arms by the intrigues of the court of Dahomy,
whose monarch received them into pay, and promised to support them with
an army for the restoration of their original forms of government. Thus
animated they took the field, pitching upon Quahou as the most eligible
theatre of action, from its vicinity to the Volta at a point whence the
promised succours were to arrive. Sai Akwasy, having come upon them
rather suddenly, defeated the rebels with great slaughter, and took
prisoners the caboceers, or vice kings of Bouromy and Quahou; the other
escaped for the time; but being shortly after beset by the king’s
troops, he blew himself up with gunpowder, together with many of his
principal wives, children, and slaves, to avoid falling into the hands
of his enemies[107].
When the king discovered how matters stood with regard to Dahomy, he
determined to revenge the injury he had sustained, by passing the Volta
with his army contrary to the advice of his most able counsellors. This
resolution having been adopted, he ravaged a great track of land of the
king of Gouaso, who was a tributary of the Dahoman empire. On the second
day, news was brought of the approach of the Dahoman army, and shortly
after, one of the most sanguinary battles in the records and traditions
of the country was fought by the two monarchs: night only put an end to
the conflict. In the morning, Sai Akwasy was for renewing the
engagement, but was arrested in his plan by the screeching of some
ominous birds,[108] as it is said, and upon consulting the gods
(Fetische) it was discovered they were not propitious to the
undertaking. While a retreat was in agitation, the Dahomans, mistaking
the inactivity of their enemies for want of resolution, came on to the
charge with their accustomed impetuosity. The king, who did not think
proper to abide a second contest, drew off his army as best he could,
and fled rather than retreated to the Volta, re-crossing that river with
precipitancy. But he had the mortification to witness the destruction of
a great part of his army, who, for want of a sufficient number of
canoes, were compelled to remain stationary until the next morning. Thus
the Moslems describe the result of the campaign, although they are
persuaded that the resources of Ashantee, in the present day, are
adequate to crush the whole power of Dahomy to atoms, as the sovereign
of that country might have known some time back, to his cost, were it
not that the government of the former is apprehensive of giving umbrage
to the Sultan of Dogho, who is the protector of Dahomy, which is a
remote appendage of his crown, and which he considers, if not as a sea-
port of his own dominions, at least, as a maritime state, depending upon
his empire for its political rank among nations.
After the defeat of Sai Akwasy, as before related, the kingdom was
filled with grief and mourning; the provinces were severally beaten up
for victims to sacrifice in the capital, in expiation of offences done
to the guardian gods, and to appease the shades of the great captains
who fell in the war.[109] The streets of Coomassy, according to my
informers, were drenched in human and animal gore during the whole of
the great Adai custom, which is chiefly remarkable as it corresponds to
part of the lunar month called by the Moslems Dhu’l’hajet ذوالحجة the
12th of their calendar, and the twelfth day of which is particularly set
apart by their law for the great pilgrimage, when the victims (sheep,
&c.) are sacrificed in the valley Mina, near to the city of Mecca, as
expiatory offerings to the supreme Deity.
In proportion to the losses sustained by the court, so the policy of the
government occasionally decrees the affliction of the provinces; for
such a maxim is held efficacious, in order to check the imaginary
rejoicing of foreign tribes, held in vassalage; or any real plot the
opportunity might induce the tributaries to engender, with a view of
emancipating themselves from the conqueror’s yoke. Gold, and victims for
the altars, are the _only_ penalties enforced; the latter, it is true,
however, are not, as might be supposed, indiscriminately chosen; they
pass, indeed, under the name of delinquents, and are so far deserving
that anathema, as having been convicted of speaking disrespectfully of
the king, or of his government; of having harboured secret intentions
inimical to the prosperity of the state; of having violated the civil
laws; or of having invoked the wrath of their gods upon the heads of
their oppressors;—a crime which, of course, passes for witchcraft and
sorcery among the Ashantees; but which, in reality, is the same
ceremony, and is performed with the same invocations or incantations, as
they themselves practise, the conquerors’ prerogative making the only
distinction in the texture of the offence.
A war with Banna terminated the career of Sai Akwasy, for he there
received a wound, of which, although he lingered some months, he never
after recovered. Sai Kodjoh, سي كدجوح the nephew of the former monarch,
succeeded to the vacant throne, in the year 1166, A.H. 1752, A.D. On his
elevation to that dignity, he dispatched messengers to the tributaries
who had withheld payment of certain arrears while the war with Banna
lasted. Some of these powers would not submit to the demand, alleging,
as an excuse, that they had served in the wars under the former monarch,
and his death had deprived them of their proportion of plunder. The king
of Gaman first took up arms, and was imitated by the tribes of Dinkra,
Wassa, and Tofal. This war, the Ashantees admit, was the most desperate
they were ever involved in, and the empire stood at a crisis where
occasionally the hazards fluctuated to the advantage of the enemy. Twice
did the king carry his arms into Gaman, and was each time defeated with
great slaughter, owing mainly to the weapons wherewith his enemies came
armed to the field being of the same description as those of his own
troops, namely, musquets,—besides an auxiliary force from Kong and
Ghofan, consisting solely of cavalry. Each time the monarch returned
penitential to the capital, and made new invocations and new sacrifices
to the gods and his ancestors; being determined, as the Ashantees
relate, since he found them to be still auspicious, to abide every risk
rather than relinquish the enterprize.[110] The third invasion proved
successful, and the king returned to his capital, bringing with the army
a multitude of captives, of both sexes and all ages; the children were
preserved to recruit the losses his armies had sustained; and the adults
were either sacrificed or sold in the market of Mansue, upon the
confines of Fantee, from whence they found their way to the West Indies.
The province of Wassa fell shortly after under the avenging sword of the
king, who let loose the fury of his troops upon its northern confines,
and bereaved several large districts of their whole population. The most
culpable among the insurgents were dragged to the altars of the capital,
and two powerful tribes of that nation were subsequently removed to
Bouromy and Quahou, either to supply a deficiency of the population of
those parts, or to secure their future allegiance.
It is a prevailing maxim, I believe, with most negro princes, as it may
be with other barbarous nations, to exterminate their enemies whenever
the chance of war throws them in their power, rather than conciliate
them as subjects, and reconcile them to the change they undergo. But I
do not find that this maxim, which, under limitations, affected by
circumstances, is the policy of the court of Ashantee at the present
time, in proportion to the rancour and aversion of its enemies, was ever
so rigidly enforced, (excepting in the primitive wars against the
believers,) as in the reign of Kodjoh. A negro can hardly be persuaded
that an enemy might be converted to a friend, and as he naturally
thirsts after his gold, if he is so far successful, nothing can satiate
him short of his opponent’s blood, which is esteemed the portion of the
spoil due to the tutelar gods (and acceptable to the shades of his
ancestors) whose service it is incumbent on him not to neglect, lest
their wrath should overwhelm him on a future day. The fault, according
to the friendly Baba, “is in their nature:” whether the curse of God
rests upon them or not, it becomes not me to enquire; but I think it
highly probable that the absence of a system of moral feeling,
inculcated by doctrines like those of the purest of religions, is mainly
the cause why in Africa the passions of men are permitted to wander in
the labyrinth of vile excesses we daily see committed with impunity.
The subjugation of Gaman at this time laid the Sarem country prostrate
at the feet of the conqueror, who penetrated Shouy, Ghombati, and Ponin,
in a sort of _friendly_ way to receive the submission of the southern
and western tribes, and invite the Caboceers to court. This is one of
the chances, which, as the Moslems say, the fortune of Ashantee
presented for the utter conquest of Sarem, as far as _Mr. Bowdich’s
Kingdom of “Bahooree,”_ i.e. the sea, in the neighbourhood of Cape
Palmas. But this scope of ambition exceeded the aim or the judgment of
the monarch, who was content to receive presents from the Kings and
Caboceers of those nations who heretofore courted the alliance of Kong,
the original mistress of Sarem and that part of Ghunja, whereon the
metropolis of Ashantee is built.
After the return of Sai Kodjoh from Gaman, he was engaged in several
wars of a domestic character in Banna, Akim, and Aquapim, but they were
too trifling to be of any interest to the reader.
The Dahomy war seems to have been forgotten during the reign of Kodjoh;
for, what is remarkable in the politics of the two courts, a friendly
embassy arrived at the capital, with presents from Abomey, announcing
the succession of a new sovereign.[111] This flattering deputation
excited public rejoicings throughout the empire. Costly entertainments
were given to the ambassadors; and, according to the etiquette of
African courts, a splendid embassy was got up by Kodjoh, to express, as
Bosman’s translator says, “his obliging resentment” at the Dahoman
capital. Sai Kodjoh did not long survive these civilities; he died,
however, at a crisis rather unfortunate for the state; for as the
infirmity of age crept upon him, he confined himself to the palace, and
his enemies availed themselves of this opportunity, to circulate in the
provinces a report of his death: there was no king in Coomassy, they
said.[112] This notice at any time is a charm sufficiently powerful to
kindle the flames of war; accordingly, Assin, Akim, and Aquapim once
more raised the standard of rebellion or defiance; and when Kodjoh, by
invitation, enjoined them to keep the peace, and lay down their arms,
they killed his messengers, threatening, out of derision, they would
march to the capital, and seat one of their women slaves upon the
throne, who should settle the turbulence of the chiefs, by proper
chastisements. Preparations for war were then vigorously resorted to;
but Kodjoh died while the army waited for the approaching dry season.
Sai Koamina, or Quamina, (سي كوامين) mounted the throne, A.H. 1196, A.D.
1781. This prince made a vow never to enter the walls of his palace, or
associate with his wives, until he obtained the heads of Akombrah and
Afosoo, the two active leaders of the revolt. He joined the army without
loss of time, and by diligent marches took the Akims by surprise. The
head of the latter was the consequence of a partial engagement; and it
is still a trophy in the _royal cabinet_ of human relics, together with
that of Akombrah, a Bouromy chief, who had joined the confederacy. There
was no war with Banna during this reign, as Mr. Bowdich represents,
(page 258;) and his story of the king’s head being sewed up in the
abdomen of a woman, but which was afterwards discovered, and placed on
the king of Ashantee’s great drum, has no foundation whatever, according
to the testimony of Moslems and idolaters.
A congratulatory embassy arrived from Dahomy, another from Salgha, and a
third from Yandy, shortly after the accession of this prince to the
throne. These flattering testimonies of friendship, it would seem,
instead of stimulating his ambition, bereft that prince of the necessary
energy to govern such a nation, and greatly conduced to his deposition,
the origin of which was his attachment to the Moslems, and, as it is
said, his inclination to establish the Korannic law for the civil code
of the empire. Sai Koamina, according to the Bashaw, was a believer at
heart; but the safety of his throne would not allow him to avow his
sentiments. His name is handed to posterity as the most merciful of the
race of kings. Towards the close of his reign, he prohibited many
festivals at which it was usual to spill the blood of victims devoted to
the customs; yet he could not be prevailed upon to relinquish the
barbarous practice of watering the graves of his ancestors with human
gore. These and other innovations were of a tendency to alarm the great
captains; they feared, it is said, that the Moslem religion, which they
well know levels all ranks and orders of men, and places them at the
arbitrary discretion of the sovereign, might be introduced, whereby they
would lose that ascendancy they now enjoy. To anticipate the calamity
they dreaded, a conspiracy was entered into, and he was deposed.
Sai Apoko, the second of that name, was elevated to the throne of the
deposed monarch A.H. 1212, A.D. 1797. This was one of the most promising
princes the nation ever had. He was the brother of the deposed Koamina,
who (in revenge it is supposed) occasioned his death, it is said, by
sorcery, after a reign of two years[113]; during which the Bontokos
(Gamans), once more broke out into rebellion at the instigation of Kong,
threatening to march to the capital and restore the lawful prince to his
ravished dignity. This war lasted upwards of fifteen months, during
which the entire force of Kong and its allies joined with that of Gaman,
crossed the Tando and gave battle to the Ashantees, near a large town
called Barbanou, which is distant one watch from that river.
The force of the enemy, as the tradition goes, was above four times that
commanded by the king. The princes and Caboceers of Banna, Juabin,
Takima, and Coransah, took an active part against the invaders; and the
Moslems, in despite of their prejudices, on one memorable, as on some
inferior occasions, were compelled to join the ranks of the heathens
against their brethren in faith. The Ashantees suffered some reverse of
fortune during the first campaign; for the enemy’s cavalry spread over
the open plains of Massy, but could not penetrate that intricate mass of
forest in which the capital stands. The Gamans fought hard and bravely
upon the Tando, for notwithstanding the national antipathy that prevails
against strangers, the Ashantees liberally bestow the titles of warlike
and courageous upon this nation.[114]
The king, it would seem, acted purely on the defensive, until the
tributaries came up, he then gave battle to his enemies in the open
plains, whom, after several days fighting, he defeated with prodigious
slaughter, and returned to his capital laden with spoil and captives.
Among the latter were upwards of five thousand Moslems, who were
distributed among the provinces and in the capital. In no instance were
these people subject to the penalty of death, as many of the heathens
were, neither were they sold into slavery. Some, according to their
inclinations or capacity, were suffered to redeem themselves from
captivity by paying a ransom; some were ransomed by the pious Moslems of
their own country, or of Dagomba, and others were liberated at a
subsequent period, when their sultan sent an embassy to Coomassy; many,
however, to whom the king had been bountiful, chose to remain in
Ghunjah, and they are now incorporated with the tribes of believers who
inhabit Baboso, Western Sarem, and Banna[115]. The king did not survive
his triumph many months; but died from a lingering illness.
The reigning sovereign, Sai Tooto Quamina, سَي تُوتُ كوَامِينَ brother
of the deceased monarch, was elevated to the throne A.H. 1215, A.D.
1800. Sai Quamina, for this is the name by which his subjects call him,
gave a sample, in early life, of that spirit of enterprize which is so
prominent a feature in his political career. “Thank the great God and
the gods of my country,” said the king, one day, “that I have been made
acquainted with white people, for Ghunja will now become a place of
knowledge, and my subjects will gain knowledge from the whites, who read
in books what old people say. Hear this, captains!” said his majesty,
addressing the conversation to Adusai, Apoko, Kankam, and some others in
waiting, “what say you?” “Tis true O king,” replied Adusai, rising, “now
what have you to fear? The great God of the Moslems, who is the same as
the white men worship, is your guardian. He defends your dominions on
the land side, where the believers live; and he protects you on the sea
coast, for he gives you a great name in the land of white men, and turns
their king’s heart to do you good.” “Yes,” answered the sovereign,
spreading out his hands and looking up towards heaven, as the Moslems do
in prayer, “I am a thankful slave of the God of all gods and men—I am
not ungrateful, I am not proud and ignorant, and therefore I know the
great God has made me kill all my enemies, that the white king should
tell me true things for my good, so my heart is open to him, and I will
serve him as he shall desire.”
This prince took the field (a few months after his elevation to the
throne) against Ghofan, when, as the Moslems say, he was yet a beardless
boy. Ghobagho shortly after united with his enemies, who drove the king
of Banna, his ally, from his capital, which they razed to the ground,
carrying off in their retreat a multitude of captives. But here their
success terminated. The king advanced in time to prevent the same
devastation in Coransah. The belligerent armies met at a short distance
from the town of Kaka, where a fierce engagement ensued. The enemy
retreated, and perhaps on that account the victory was claimed by the
Ashantees. The king diligently pursued his adversaries as far as the
desert, where they joined a body of reserve and again offered battle to
the Ashantees. This action was decisive, for the enemy, defeated at all
points, fled precipitately to the Volta, leaving, as it is said, 100,000
men upon the field, between killed and prisoners. Two tributary kings
fell alive into the hands of the Ashantees, and one, the king of Ghofan,
(a Moslem) breathed his last in the Ashantee camp, after witnessing the
slaughter of all his defenders. Amon Koitea, who commanded an army,
consisting of 50,000 men, gained infinite honour by a charge which
proved decisive in the fortune of the day. This defeat lead to the
occupation of a considerable territory, bordering the desert, which,
heretofore, belonged by a sort of feudal, yet a limited title, to the
Ashantee monarchy; although, in reality, its inhabitants enjoyed a state
of comparative independence.
A war with Gaman, called for distinction, the first Bontoko war of his
reign, again challenged the military genius of Sai Tooto Quamina. This,
however, was no more than a partial revolt of the people, who availing
themselves of an opportunity which they deemed favourable, transferred
their allegiance from the reigning prince, a tool of the court of
Coomassy, to the nephew of their late monarch, who had sought protection
of the sultan of Ghofan, the prince who lost his life on the desert
confines in the prosecution of his plan for subverting the government of
Ashantee. These commotions were, however, quickly suppressed, and the
vigour of the Ashantee councils (which, as the king says, never slumber)
gained the nation a more exalted character than it, perhaps, ever
enjoyed before. A profound peace of five years duration subsequently
fixed that character abroad, and created a flattering belief in other
powers, that at length the empire was controuled by more moderate
principles. What greatly contributed to the national satisfaction, was
the arrival of ambassadors at Coomassy from Abomey, Salgha, and Yandy,
bearing honourable presents, and congratulatory messages to the young
Sai, whose alliance was courted by all the powers of Ghunja and Dagomba.
This calm, hitherto unprecedented in duration, might have lasted if the
king’s word may be taken for it, to the end of his reign; but for the
secret passions of unjust men, who fanned the flame of war, and nurtured
discord into open rebellion against his authority, by arming the people
and exciting them to hostility against his person. Remonstrance served
only to confirm their assurance and augment their audacity, for when he
sent honourable tokens of his esteem to the chiefs, recommending them to
keep the peace, they killed his messengers, and bade open defiance to
his authority.[116]
The memory of Meredith, the author of an “Account of the Gold Coast of
Africa,” justly claims a tribute from my pen, for the candour with which
he describes the progress of the Ashantee war in Fantee. As long as
fidelity shall, in the public estimation, be superior to method and
studied language, this little book with all its blemishes,[117] (for
some indulgence may surely be extended to an author who, at his peril,
speculated a little conscientiously upon tender points of the service he
was engaged in,) will claim a proportionate rank with Bosman, the only
other author I know of who has written honestly of that part of the
world, as became a modest and an honorable historian.
The great movement of the Ashantees southward, as related to me by the
king himself, and which was confirmed by the Moslems, who participated
in the victories over the Fantees, and at Annamaboe, I shall briefly
describe, without robbing Mr. Meredith of his own words.
Assin, at the accession of the reigning monarch, enjoyed profound
tranquillity, under the government of three chiefs of that nation,
Cheboo, Apoutai, and Amoo; the two former ruling over the western, the
other over the eastern half of what once unitedly constituted a kingdom,
which, after the conquest effected by Sai Apoko about the year of the
Hejyra, 1146 or 1147, was torn thus asunder by the policy of that
prince, to induce a tractable submission to the court of Coomassy. The
great Sai Tooto, it is affirmed, forfeited his life in endeavouring to
bring to pass what his successor could only accomplish by the massacre
of thousands, and the expatriation of those tribes who were attached to
the ancient monarchy.
The grave of a distinguished caboceer, a subject of Amoo, was pillaged
of a quantity of gold by a near relation of Apoutai, who happened to be
present at the obsequies. This marauder fled during the night, and was
pursued by messengers, who, failing in their object, demanded
satisfaction at the house of Cheboo. The policy of that chief inclining
hostilely towards Amoo, the complainants were dismissed somewhat rudely,
with a message purporting that it was a tale of Amoo’s invention. The
messengers next proceeded to Coomassy, where they opened the business to
the king, who suspended judgment for several months, with the hope of
effecting an amicable negotiation, and reconciling the chiefs; but being
disappointed in his expectations he at last issued a decree, that the
relations of the deceased should be reimbursed by Apoutai, to the amount
of the property alledged to have been stolen. This chief happened to be
at Coomassy when the palaver was discussed, and availing himself of a
favourable opportunity, fled back to Assin, collecting his followers on
the route. Amoo, instigated perhaps by the court of Ashantee, resorted
to arms to enforce his claims; but after gaining one battle, was
defeated in a second, and compelled to fall back upon the frontiers of
his protector. Here, however, he took up a strong position, and defended
himself vigorously until succoured by a reinforcement: thus
strengthened, he once more took the field, transferring the war into the
heart of his enemy’s country, where he burned several large towns, and
defeated his adversaries in a pitched battle. Moderation, as the king
said, it was no longer incumbent upon him to observe, for he could not
remain a passive spectator of violence that tended to the destruction of
_his_ people by their own hands; but as he was still averse from using
coercion, he once more endeavoured to tranquillize the passions of the
belligerents, and bring them to a sense of their _duty_ to him, by
sending to each party a present of gold.
This expedient was but temporarily efficacious; other battles were
fought with alternate success; but Amoo had the prudence to subscribe to
the king’s authority, by again resuming his defensive position in the
hills of Moisy, and between that town and Doompassy, where some partial
skirmishing however took place, and in the interval messengers once more
arrived at both camps with presents of a golden hilted sword, an axe,
and a pike, plated with that metal, for each chieftain. The purport of
the message to Amoo was an injunction to break up his camp, and leave
the palaver as it stood, until the next Adai custom. That to Apoutai was
a requisition to keep the peace, and not molest Amoo during his homeward
march. But this chief, elated by his last victory, thought of nothing
but how to destroy an enemy whose situation appeared to him hopeless,
and who, in imagination, was already a captive; accordingly he
dissembled his policy, and signified acquiescence to the authority of
the king, by drawing off his troops. His opponent, confiding implicitly
in the truce, descended unhesitatingly into the plains, where he was
attacked so vigorously and so suddenly, that he could purchase his
safety only by a speedy flight, at the expence of the greater part of
his followers, who retreated as best they could, to the first Ashantee
town. This aggravation was a prelude to the massacre of the king’s
messengers, and a number of Ashantees and Moslems who were in the camp.
Some of these people were barbarously mutilated, and others suspended by
the feet or arms to trees, upon the frontiers of the province.
The king, justly irritated, now determined to wreak his vengeance upon
the authors and abettors of the injury; and accordingly he raised a
powerful army, with which he entered the Assin territory. But Cheboo and
Apoutai, terrified at last by the threatening calamity, fled together
towards the Praa, after making an ineffectual attempt to cover the towns
Ansah, Kikiwhary, &c. The first, called by way of distinction, the great
chastisement, happened between Ansah and Kikiwhary, where, after a
partial conflict, the chiefs and allies, (for some Fantees, as the king
affirms, were among the prisoners) were compelled to fall back upon the
Praa, and in the confusion attending a retrograde march, they were put
entirely to the rout, by an impetuous charge of their pursuers, who
chased their enemies to the opposite bank of the river. These events are
recorded in many popular songs and traditions, according to which it
would seem the Ashantees destroyed thirty thousand of their adversaries.
The fugitive chiefs, however, escaped this time, and the Fantees
received them with open arms, promising, that as their interests were
linked in one chain, they would exert their whole power to protect them.
The king, anxious to gain possession of his enemies by a friendly
overture to the Fantee chiefs, deputed messengers to Akoom, the caboceer
of Assekomah, a Fantee province that preserved connexions and some
shadow of allegiance to the sovereign of Ashantee, requiring that Cheboo
and Apoutai might be given up to him. The present of the king on this
occasion was twenty ounces of gold, an umbrella, and fifteen slaves.
These articles were accepted, but the council of Abrah rejected the
monarch’s solicitation, neither would the Fantees, although repeatedly
invited, send deputies to the royal camp, to assist in discussing the
palaver, when the king proposed to settle the differences by a legal
investigation, permitting the Fantees to have a voice in his own
councils. Hereupon the Ashantee ultimatum contained a demand to march
through Fantee in pursuit of the relic of the Assin army; and, as it was
perhaps foreseen, the messengers were rewarded for their temerity by a
course of barbarous torture, and finally, their bodies were cut open,
and stuffed with a preparation of salt and malagueta pepper.
The king, gaining no intelligence of his messengers, ordered the army to
advance under Ado Matta and Aby Dougah. These chieftains, with very
little loss to themselves, defeated an united force of Assins and
Fantees upon the frontiers, and the two distinguished fugitives were
once more compelled to seek their safety in a precipitate retreat
through the forest, where they sheltered themselves for some days, and
to avoid being cut off fell back upon the main army which was then on
its march from Abrah. Another rencounter happened not long after between
the Ashantee advanced guard and the main body of Fantees, headed by
Cheeboo, Apoutai, and many Braffoe chiefs, whose prowess in war was the
characteristic of the dignity they enjoyed: but this engagement, like
the other, terminated in the disgrace and ruin of the Fantees, who seem
to have had no conduct whatever in the field, at least against a
resolute enemy. The king arrived upon the ground in time to support the
van of his army, and, by a judicious manœuvre, decided what little
chance the Fantees might have enjoyed by a charge in flank, that cast
his enemies into a panic, and left him undisputed master of the field.
The rout was again general, some fled tumultuously towards Abrah, and
others to the sea side, Cheboo himself setting the example.
In this stage of the war Apoutai made overtures of peace which savoured
more of art than sincerity, promising to deliver up hostages for his
future allegiance, upon condition that the king would take upon himself
the payment of certain debts which had been contracted during the war,
and swear by his great oath not to disinherit him hereafter of his
stool. All this the king agreed to, and in token of a perfect
reconciliation, again sent presents to Cheboo and Apoutai. The latter
received thirty ounces of gold, some slaves, and a large quantity of
provision for the subsistence of his followers. To the former was
delivered an equal quantity of gold, and a number of Fantee prisoners of
war. But, unaccountable as it may seem to those who are unacquainted
with the force of the passions in Africa, the king’s messengers again
experienced the fate of their predecessors, and the Braffoes, it is
said, boasted of devouring their hearts in a state of palpitation.
The heads of these hapless men were struck off, and, in frolicsome
aggravation, the carcases were suspended from the boughs of trees, and
the mouths of the victims being stuffed full of excrement, the heads
were placed in regular succession along the path where it was known the
Ashantees would advance. After this act of brutality the Assins and
Fantees thought proper to decamp to the southward, for still the chiefs
were emboldened, by an opinion that the king would not choose to risk a
campaign among the large towns, and particularly those seated under the
guns of the British and Dutch forts. But in this speculation they were
woefully deceived, for whatever might have been the early policy of the
Ashantee councils, the late indignity practised upon the king, wound
that monarch up to a pitch of phrenzy, and he vowed by his redoubted
oath he would never sheath the sword nor return to his capital, without
the heads of Cheboo and Apoutai. The war henceforth assumed the sternest
features, even of African hostility. The utter extermination of the
Fantees was contemplated, and orders were issued to spare neither the
aged nor young children; but both sexes, and all ages were for a time
doomed to expire by the sword and the musquet, or in the flames of their
houses. The avidity with which the Ashantees thirsted, as they called
it, after perjured blood, the mouldering ruins, the solitude, and
desolate plantations of Fantee, but too plainly indicate at the present
hour. Many of the inhabitants fled at an early stage of the conflict.
Some chose to remain, in the presumptuous confidence of destroying, or
witnessing the destruction of the king’s army, and participating in the
spoil: and others, including the slaves, and those who may be termed
fortune hunters, associated in marauding bands, plundering and murdering
both friend and foe, indiscriminately. This feint of resolution was,
however, but of short duration, for the king advanced rapidly, taking
town after town, without encountering any serious obstacle,[118] until
he approached Abrah and Emperou, although several skirmishing
engagements and one or two severe but partial conflicts, happened on the
route. The aggregate of the enemy’s loss was incalculable, for literally
none were left alive in the rear. Atia, the chief Caboceer of Abrah (the
capital of Fantee), was a prisoner at head quarters, and every overture
made for his ransom was rejected. The Braffoe tribe (like the Shorfa
among the Moslems) was a particular object of the king’s vengeance, and
accordingly they suffered the severest effects of his power.
The few who escaped the destruction of the capital (for that fell to the
conqueror after a battle, or rather slaughter, of the most sanguinary
character) fled to Annamaboe, then the largest city upon this part of
the coast. Thither also Cheboo and Apoutai fled, and the king, nothing
relaxing from the rigour of his oath, pursued the retreating forces with
one-half of his army, while the other was employed in razing the towns,
and exterminating every living soul they met with; for none, by the
monarch’s own confession, were at that time received as prisoners,
except a few Caboceers of the first rank, who were doomed to expiate
their offences in the capital, that the people might also participate in
the exultation of the army.
The military policy of an African government, is conspicuous in the
cabinet maxim of Ashantee, during the war with Fantee. It may in some
degree be assimilated to the modern tactics of recent introduction to
Europe, by which the armies of France, under their late leader, pursued
a direct object, however remote, with that celerity which frequently
guaranteed its own success, and leaving half the war behind, terminated
the campaign by a single blow at head quarters. The only material
difference existed in those horrid butcheries practised by the Africans,
who, (unprovided with that efficient force calculated to overawe the
frontiers of an enemy, and check the population of towns, where every
man by habit and education is trained to war) are instinctively taught
to exterminate their enemies as a precaution necessary to their own
safety, in victory or defeat. The African will rarely be persuaded to
leave an enemy in the rear of his army. If he be a merciful invader, it
is usual for him to put to death those, only, who may be captured in
arms. The population of towns must, nevertheless, be translated to a
spot of security, and sometimes their houses razed to the foundation,
while the invader’s aim is unremittingly rivetted upon the seat of
government. By this policy, the subversion of a powerful state is
frequently accomplished, by what is figuratively termed a handful of
men; and the prisoners become hostages, and in some degree responsible
for the aggravations that may follow.
In the Fantee war, the exasperated feelings of the king would not allow
him to tread the path of mercy; hence the other alternative of
sacrificing the population to his own security, was resorted to.
Acoom, the Caboceer before mentioned, who preserved some shadow of
respect, or allegiance to the king, was taken into protection; but by an
act of treachery, in which he sold a thousand or twelve hundred
Ashantees to the slave dealers upon the coast, he forfeited that favour,
and was shortly after defeated by the royal forces, who compelled him to
abandon to their fate the wreck of his little army.
The Ashantees, after destroying Abrah and Emperou, moved to the coast,
from which they were now distant a march only. Cheboo and Apoutai,
not caring to trust their persons to the defence of the Annamaboes,
again fled, in time to secure their retreat, with six or seven hundred
followers, upon Cape Coast, where they had been invited to sojourn by
the natives themselves, who introduced these unfortunate men to the
acquaintance of governor Torrane; from whom they received _assurances
of protection either by mediation or force of arms_. In the meantime
the viceroy, or king of Dinkra, leading on the advanced guard, first
gained sight of the sea in the neighbourhood of Cormantine, where he
not only destroyed the town, but took possession of the Dutch fort.
There the Annamaboes had hitherto vainly boasted that their enemies
would never gain sight of the sea, and this success, as it seems,
gave the governor the first uneasy impression,[119] for he instructed
Mr. White, then governor of Annamaboe Fort, to send a message to the
commander of that division, _requiring to know what could have induced
the king to march his armies to the coast_. The king of Dinkra, as I
was told at court, mistook the purport of the governor’s message for
a specious pretext to gain time, or obtain by policy what arms could
never accomplish,—“chaffing,” as it is called in the enlightened age
in which we live,—and the chief’s reply, that when the governor would
send _him twenty barrels of powder and one hundred musquets_, he should
be told what the king’s designs were, savoured as strongly of the same
tortuous system of perversion; for the Ashantees are not a shade behind
ourselves in consulting that primary feeling in every man of honour,
the preservation of the dignity conferred upon him by nature and rank.
It was in vain to shew the return messengers the destructive power of
artillery, as that brave gentleman, Mr. White, humanely did, in hopes of
averting the approaching tempest from the town. The whites were ignorant
of the king’s force, and as Mr. Meredith justly observes, “had but an
imperfect idea of the bravery and intrepidity of the Ashantees; for it
was supposed they were like the natives of the coast, who cannot stand
against a regular fire: and often conceal themselves in holes during an
engagement. It was little imagined that the courage of these people
would carry them to the very muzzles of the cannon,” &c.
The governor’s message met with no attention at head quarters, and the
king on a sudden made his appearance at the back of Annamaboe, whither
the infatuated natives had drawn out their force to meet the invader.
The usual skirmishing battle took place; the Fantees were driven in with
great slaughter, and the enemy entered the town pell-mell in pursuit.
The fort was already crowded with as many women as it would contain, and
whole troops of the sex, beside children and aged men, took their
station under the ramparts, where the guns afforded them a feeble
protection, and that but momentary. I am justified in using the term
feeble, for these unfortunate people, in defiance of the fire of the
garrison, were every one carried off or inhumanly butchered upon the
spot,[120] and the fire became so hot as the Ashantees advanced towards
the beach, that not a man, _white_ or _black_, could stand at the
embrasure, or shew his head above the ramparts:—neither was it
practicable to work the great guns any more, without the certainty of
being picked off by the enemy, who surrounded the fortification on every
side, within the distance of half pistol shot. As to the Fantees, who
fired without taking aim, they were already dead, or dispersed, and the
enemy prowled in mixed groups among the ruins, some seeking for plunder,
and others glutting their revenge by cutting and mutilating their
victims, or severing the heads and legs from the bodies of the slain,
and slicing the flesh and sinews from off the bones, in order to convert
them to drum pegs and whistles; and the lower jaws and teeth, to
ornamental trophies, and necklaces. In this state of consternation and
distress, the utmost the little garrison could do, was to defend their
gate, which the Ashantees endeavoured to force or fire. The governor,
and two or three others, were disabled by wounds; two men were killed,
and the remainder of the garrison sought refuge in the two little
bastions on the west, that flank the approach to the gate; here they
laid themselves prostrate, to avoid the enemy’s shot and arrows, and
from time to time repelled, with musquets only, the most intrepid of the
assailants who attempted to force an entrance below.
The king assured me that it was no part of his plan to attack the
castle, and even after the guns had been turned against him, he would
willingly have negotiated, if any serious overtures had been made; and
in this expectation he refrained, during the remainder of the day, from
carrying matters to extremity against the whites; whereas the castle he
knew, was at his mercy, and had not the white flag been lowered the next
morning, he would, by the help of his gods, have seated himself in the
governor’s chair. To pursue the confession, it would seem that
dispositions had been made during the night, and the army had received
orders to hold themselves in readiness for an assault on _the following
day_, when orders came down from Cape Coast Castle to display a flag of
truce. This emblem of peace, which was just in time to prevent an
assault that foreboded the last calamity, was hailed with repeated
acclamations, and the king gave every assurance that he was pacifically
disposed. “My enemies,” replied his majesty to the deputation who waited
upon him, “are the Assins and Fantees; and I have now pretty well
assuaged my anger against them.”
Governor Torrane, in his public letter of the 18th June, 1807, _designed
for the king’s hearing_, palliated his conduct by saying, that
notwithstanding the steps he had taken _to give protection_ to the
Fantees, he had ever held him (the king) in the highest respect, and
that had he seen any messenger from him, antecedent to the attack on
Annamaboe, it was his opinion the blow would have been avoided _in that
quarter_.[121]
The king listened to every thing that was reported, with that cautious
reserve belonging to the councils of his nation when roused to
hostility; but as his majesty required ocular demonstration of the
sincerity of white men’s professions, and as it was not convenient to
that monarch to meet the governor at Cape Coast, it was politely
insinuated that the latter should visit the camp at Annamaboe.
The ill-fated Princes of Assin had lived some time at Cape Coast, under
the protection, as they had been given to understand, of the governor’s
negotiating talents, and the faith of the African company, pledged by
their head servant. Their personal security was, however, but a
transient delusion; for although the natives of Cape Coast at first
resisted the overtures of the governor to give up their guests, they
were finally prevailed upon, by the impending danger, to relinquish
their defence, and the governor, unsolicited by the king, insinuated an
armed force into their houses, and seized, not without resistance, the
person of Cheboo, whom he consigned to the little mercy his enemies were
in the habit of displaying. Apoutai, by the vigour of his defenders,
made good a retreat, and once more shone in arms in distant warfare. But
his coadjutor was sent as a present to the king, to serve for the basis
of a treaty and an introduction, to give the colouring of sincerity at
the meditated interview: and this man, after suffering tortures and
indignities the most exquisite, was compelled to resign his head as a
trophy for the king’s death horn, which is its decoration at this day.
This policy, cruel as it was, procured governor Torrane an honourable
reception, when he subsequently waited upon the king in his camp at
Annamaboe. The latter confessed to me that if he had been inclined to
visit Cape Coast, his army would not have been restrained from following
his steps, and as mercy had been solicited for those people, he did not
wish to bring upon them any calamity their imprudence might give rise
to.
The treaty of peace was a formal and a solemn acknowledgment on the part
of the governor, that by right of conquest Fantee, including _Cape Coast
and every other town in the neighbourhood, belonged exclusively to the
empire of Ashantee_, with the reservation of a judicial authority to the
company over such towns as stood in the vicinity of any of the castles;
and in confirmation or ratification of these terms, the governor
expressly admitted the king’s title to those deeds, called notes, upon
which he paid him the arrears then due, and a tribute, called perhaps a
present, which was demanded of the Cape Coast people.
The feelings of the monarch, by his own reiterated confessions, were
overpowered by the _handsome_ behaviour of this officer, when he sallied
out to meet him.[122]
When the preliminary discussions took place, the king urged his right to
dispose of the prisoners as he might think proper. All disputations
proving ineffectual to move a conqueror’s title, the terms of agreement
were acceded to, by which, if the most credible witnesses are to be
believed, some of the refugees who had availed themselves of the
protection afforded by the fort, were consigned, together with a
proportion of the relic of butchery, to slavery. A certain portion of
the prey are said to have been accepted by the governor, for the
purpose, it is to be hoped, of restoring them to their families, and not
that he might pocket the emoluments arising from their sale into
bondage; nevertheless, many or most of these wretched creatures, found
their way eventually to the West India plantations, where they or their
posterity may still drag on the chains of slavery.
The last military act of the government of Ashantee, previous to my
mission, was the invasion of Gaman in the year 1819, the defeat and
death of its sovereign, and the annexation of that kingdom to Ashantee
as a province, in lieu of the tributary rank it enjoyed before.
Torrane, whose name it delighted the king to hear, was a man like
Daendals, who, if properly supported, would have created empire in
Africa: of his moral qualifications, I may say in the words of Horace:—
· · · · · · · Omnisenim res,
Virtus, fama, decus, divina humanaque, pulcris
Divitiis parent; quas qui contruxerit, ille
Clarus erit, fortis, justus—Sapiens ne? Etiam et rex,
Et quidquid volet. · · · · ·
[Illustration: Military Weapons of the Ashantees.]
[Footnote 101: It is worthy of remark, that many of the whites upon the
gold coast so far acquiesced in these sentiments, as to admit that
Ashantee has never been engaged in war with the maritime states from
sheer caprice and rapacity. I may also be permitted to quote Mr.
Mollan’s words to me, “that he never knew the king to make a palaver
without cause, or violate his word.”]
[Footnote 102: After the decisive battle which preceded the conquest of
Dinkira, the body of the deceased Boshanty (Bosiante) was disinterred.
The flesh being separated from the bones, the former with barbarous
indignity, was given to be devoured by serpents, and the latter (the
scull and thigh bones) preserved as trophies.]
[Footnote 103: The Benda is two ounces weight.]
[Footnote 104: These notes, or title-deeds, convey an obligation on the
part of the late African Company, to pay to the chiefs to whom they were
delivered a certain annual sum, by way of rent for the ground upon which
the settlements stand. At least, it cannot be denied that this was the
original import of the deeds in question, for the object was to purchase
security of person and property, by attaching the leading characters of
the country to the British interest, while yet in its infancy. Mr.
Bowdich, _upon his own testimony_, “laments the mortifying destruction
of European records, by which he is confined to follow the reports of
natives,” on the subject of the notes in question. Whether this author
felt that his own dignity was implicated, is not material. But had he
candidly said, these feudal bonds, (for such they unquestionably are,)
disgrace my country, and, (in the language of the king of Ashantee) put
shame upon my face at the court of Coomassy, that the honour of my
sovereign and the flag of the nation should be so degraded in the
estimation of the lower classes of society, as to pay an indirect
tribute, he would have spoken the language of zeal and honour.]
[Footnote 105: Or the prince elective, for the Ashantees are not over
scrupulous provided he is of the blood royal.]
[Footnote 106: The prevalence of this opinion among the Moslems in
general, coupled with my own observations upon the Negro character,
almost warrant the assertion positively, that the latter from innate
causes are incompetent to spread into a large consolidated monarchy,
such as we see in Asia, the northern parts of Africa and Europe.
Notwithstanding the ambition of Negro princes, stimulated by that of
their captains, is certainly more conspicuous, and perhaps more volatile
in the path of life, than sovereigns of the northern zone are accustomed
to feel; the latter contenting themselves, for the most part, with
preserving their estates inviolable from foreign encroachment, and their
kingly prerogatives from innovations attempted by the subject; while the
former, we see, impelled by an inordinate thirst after power and wealth,
wherever they may be acquired, and at whatever expence; consult nothing
upon the casualties of war; but eagerly stake their crowns, their lives,
and what is religiously of greater importance to them, the insult their
relics are subject to, upon the issue of a single battle. This contrary
action of the passions incidental to man, and the propensities of our
nature is, doubtless, affected, however remotely, by the operation of a
moral law, which in countries where it prevails, serves the subject as a
standard, by which he may lawfully weigh the actions of a prince,
although he may not under all governments be permitted to pass judgment
upon them _viva voce_.]
[Footnote 107: Suicide is very prevalent in the Negro states; but its
complexion is materially different from the horrors so called in Europe.
It is put into practice chiefly by men of rank, who are solicitous to
preserve their remains from the brutal insults of their enemies; for
which reason a retired thicket is usually selected, or they blow
themselves to atoms, by confined powder; or procure a faithful slave, or
their children, to destroy them, and inter their bodies in secret.
Another description of suicide is when a man deprives himself of life in
revenge against an opponent, while any matter where justice is concerned
may be pending: in this case, the party is said to have killed himself
upon the head of his oppressor, who seldom escapes the retaliation of
the law without a pecuniary fine to the state, and other disbursements
among the courtiers. The third class of suicide is totally different
from either of the foregoing, from its connexion with the religious or
superstitious belief of the people; as when the priests ordain that a
sacrifice, voluntary or involuntary, is incumbent upon an individual,
who may have incurred their displeasure, (the displeasure of the gods or
fetische, as they term it,) or whose wealth may have fired their
avarice. These victims of blind bigotry go singing and dancing into the
grave, for when their doom is sealed, they habit themselves in their
best attire, and adorn their persons with pieces of sacred gold,
chaunting their own dirges, and dancing about for several days, previous
to the appointed one of self sacrifice; or as it is usually called,
making their own custom.]
[Footnote 108: It is worthy of remark, that the Ashantees are as
superstitiously affected by birds, as the Greeks and Romans were in
former ages.]
[Footnote 109: The Ashantees are firmly persuaded, that the ghosts of
the departed are suffered to revisit the earth, and brood over the
actions of their families and kindred. If due oblations are made to
these shades, it is imagined they will intercede with the deities to
render the lives of their progeny happy and prosperous. Some imagine
these spectres to be employed, as witnesses, over the actions of the
living, and that every new moon they report their knowledge to the gods.
Others believe as the Koran teaches, that the witnesses who are to bear
evidence against the conduct of the wicked are the shadows of their own
bodies while living.]
[Footnote 110: This is one of the wars religiously deplored by the
Moslems, for they were in this instance compelled to fight in the ranks
of the heathens, against their brethren in faith who espoused the
interest of Gaman.]
[Footnote 111: Several messages of this formal complexion have been
exchanged between the two courts; but this in particular, as the Moslems
relate, was the second _embassy_,—the first being in the reign of Sai
Tooto. They suppose, and perhaps justly, that the sultan of Dogho,
disappointed of the Dahoman councils that conduced to the war on the
Volta, in the late reign, and hearing continual reports of the growing
power of Ashantee, was anxious to reconcile the wounded feelings of that
court, from an apprehension that the government would not neglect the
opportunity, at a period of tranquillity, for carrying the war into the
Dahoman territory, where the result of victory or defeat might equally
operate in checking his own influence upon the sea-coast, and at all
events deprive him of a share of the revenue he annually derives from
that maritime kingdom.]
[Footnote 112: During the recent war of Gaman, Kong, &c. against
Ashantee, the Cape Coast people, because they wished it, gave out a
similar report, aggravated by a circumstantial account of the manner in
which they had been informed that the sovereign of Ashantee had fallen
in a great battle, wherein the Ashantees were cut up to a man.]
[Footnote 113: Mr. Bowdich says a few weeks, but upon what authority is
unknown to me, for the Ashantees contradict his statement.]
[Footnote 114: The king, in conversing upon the topic of the Fantee
tribes, invariably said, they were the most despicable people in his
dominions, or that any of his ancestors ever triumphed over in their
days. “I could forgive them for being insolent,” said the monarch, on
one occasion; “if they were capable of facing me in battle, like the
Bontoko tribes; for then, however angry I might be, I should respect
them as men, and when the war was over I should love them as I do other
people: but the Fantees are like women, who quarrel with their tongues
only; and if they are corrected, they shed tears to excite compassion.”
The Caboceers, the commonalty, and in short all sects and classes of
people, entertained no other sentiments than those of the last degree of
contempt for the Fantee nation; while no one withheld his tribute of
admiration from the Bontokos. The tribes of Banna, Bouromy, Akim, and
Quahou enjoy proportionate reputations for valour.]
[Footnote 115: It is worthy of reflection, that the doctrine taught by
Mohammed is, in leading matters of faith, congenial to the feeling, the
prejudices, and passions, of most African tribes. The Ashantees without
knowing the contents of the Koran, are equally persuaded that it is a
volume of divine creation, and consequently that it contains ordinances
and prohibitions, which are most congenial to the happiness of mankind
in general. It may be that the Moslems sedulously inculcate a prejudice
which operates so greatly to their own prosperity in heathen countries;
for their lives and property are secure to them only in relation to the
faith they profess. The African, however, laments his ignorance of the
art of writing, with more ostentation than sincerity; for he boasts at
the same time that his gods like to be served with vigor and activity in
the field, rather than by prayer and actions such as we term moral; and
which belong as a form of worship to the great God only, whom they
regard as a Being more intimately attached to the whites than
themselves, although not exclusively so, for they allow that the gods of
Africa are his subordinate agents.]
[Footnote 116: This sketch of history relating to a period when Ashantee
was scarcely known to us, even as an inland nation, was related by the
Bashaw, Aboubecr, Kantoma, and some others. Its interest may be trifling
with the public, for it is confessedly a plain narrative, designed to
shew the progressive aggrandizement of the empire, and its influence
over the Moslem powers.]
[Footnote 117: I shall consider an apology for excluding the last
section of Meredith’s book from sharing in the panegyric as unnecessary,
for I am greatly of opinion that what passes under the title of “A short
History of the African Company,” was never written by that author. The
political influence designed in that narrative sufficiently betrays the
source from whence it emanated. Setting aside its ostensible object for
appeasing the public mind, and reconciling the government to a
continuance of ministerial or parliamentary favour, I believe it may
rank in fidelity with other parts of that work.]
[Footnote 118: From the observations I have made upon the genius of the
two nations, there is nearly as much disproportion in force between the
Ashantees and Fantees as between an organized European force and an
undisciplined body of rioters. The Ashantees are trained to firing with
celerity, as we ourselves use the musquet; their manœuvres are rapid,
orderly, and uniform, and their other military tactics, which it would
seem have been borrowed from those of Europe, are ably seconded by a
propensity to war, and a natural bravery that is not excelled by any
nation upon earth. The Fantees, on the contrary, display no skill in
military evolutions, unless we should take into account the uncouth and
disorderly antics they practise in the field; and for the use they make
of the musquet, I am fully convinced their old weapons, bows and arrows,
would be equally and perhaps more efficacious in defending their persons
against the assaults of their enemies; for as if the recoil of the piece
were capable of inflicting a wound, they sedulously hold the weapon at a
distance, and discharge its contents at the elevation of a few feet from
the ground, without taking aim.]
[Footnote 119: The conduct of governor Torrane in not endeavouring to
negotiate or mediate with the king on behalf of the people, before the
destruction of Abrah, and the total extinction of the Braffoes, was
certainly blameable; but after that event had occurred, to leave matters
to the issue of another battle, where the people wanted both courage and
conduct to defend themselves, was deserving of a high degree of censure;
for indeed the promise of his support, inadequate as it was to effect
the smallest impression beyond the reach of the cannon of the forts,
alone encouraged that puerile and fatal obstinacy which led to the
massacre of so many thousands of misguided victims, even under the walls
of Annamaboe, a fort which, from the extraordinary disbursement its
erection cost the British government, has been represented as the
bulwark and the “_sine quâ non_” of African fortifications.]
[Footnote 120: These are the words of Meredith:—“The Annamaboes
conceived that with the aid of their canoes and their knowledge of
swimming, they would be able to escape; but they were pursued too
closely by the Ashantees, whose fury appeared insatiable; men, women and
children were followed by indiscriminate destruction in defiance of the
efforts of the garrison,” &c.—p. 141.]
[Footnote 121: This affected recrimination (for surely no milder epithet
could be bestowed upon it) was doubtless calculated to meet its object
in England. Colonel, or Mr. Torrane, was confessedly a man of greater
talents and education than any of his successors, or, for aught I know
to the contrary, his predecessors; and it is evident he saw his
political errors when it was too late to negotiate upon terms strictly
suitable to the honour of his country and the dignity of the British
flag. Admitting that this officer did not know that the united Fantee
forces were incompetent to check the incursion of the enemy, will any
man doubt that he did not know his own incapacity to do so; and since
his policy, ostensibly or virtually, might incline to support the
Fantees and protect them, did not the active part of the business, war,
or negotiation, belong entirely to himself? Would it not,—since his
judgment had failed or been outwitted, would it not have been more
humane, more honourable to himself and his country, to have turned his
guests (Cheboo and Apoutai) into the forest, to provide for their own
security? Surely even the king in his heart would have applauded the
act.]
[Footnote 122: From the hour governor Torrane delivered up Cheboo, said
the king one day to me, I took the English for my friends, because I saw
their object was trade only, and they did not care for the people.
Torrane was a man of sense, and he pleased me much. He gave me these
presents (shewing a trunk containing various articles of value). Mr.
White was also a man of sense, and a brave man; but Mr. Smith, said the
monarch, rising from his seat, is contem or contempo, (a weak vain
boaster), I think he learned all he knows of the Fantees, as white men
read books and learn better things.]
[Illustration: A MAP _OF_ WANGARA
_It’s political Sections, Ancient & Modern, the courses of it’s Rivers,
& the Routes from Ashantee to the Jolliba, Ghulby and Koara Rivers,
compiled from Manuscripts and other information collected at Coomassy
during a Mission to that Kingdom. By J. Dupuis Consul._
A MAP _OF_ SOUDAN
_Compiled from Manuscripts and Information obtained at Coomassy of the
Courses of the Rivers, and of the central Regions of Africa; Their
bearing from Ashantee and distance, according to the reported Journies
of Days Marches &c. By J. Dupuis, Consul._]
PART II.
ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF WESTERN AFRICA.
CHAPTER VIII.
WANGARA.
CREDIBILITY OF INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM THE MOSLEMS OF GUINEA —
CHARACTER OF THE RELIGION OF ISLAM — ANECDOTE OF THE KHALIFA OMAR —
ANECDOTE OF MULAI SOLIMAN, EMPEROR OF MOROCCO — VINDICATION OF THE
CHARACTER OF THE MOSLEMS OF ASHANTEE — THEIR CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE
AUTHOR — REMARKS ON THE MISSION FROM CAPE COAST CASTLE, IN 1817 —
TRAVELS OF THE MOSLEMS — AUTHORITIES, AND EXPLANATION OF THE MAP OF
WANGARA — REMARKS ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS PUBLISHED BY MR.
BOWDICH, RELATING TO THE COURSES OF THE NIGER — ON THE VARIOUS DISTANCES
DENOMINATED A DAY’S JOURNEY — ENUMERATION OF ERRORS IN MR. BOWDICH’S
SYSTEM OF THE GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICA — GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF
ASHANTEE; ITS ROADS, PATHS, TOWNS, RIVERS, LAKES, &c. — WANGARA — COURSE
OF THE NIGER — THE ASWADA — THE LOGOS — GREAT LAKE OF AYOH — RIVER OF
BENIN — EMPIRE OF ZOGHO — YARRABA — RAPID CHANGES IN THE POLITICAL
DIVISIONS OF AFRICA — HAOUSSA — RELATIVE SITUATION OF THE MOSLEMS AND
HEATHENS — PROTECTION NECESSARY FOR TRAVELLING IN THE INTERIOR — GREAT
DIVISIONS OF WANGARA — ENKASY — GHOFAN — YANDY — ABOMEY — EASTERN
DISTRICTS OF WANGARA — HORSES, WEAPONS, &c. — BENIN — GAMAN — ROCK GOLD
AND GOLD DUST — MANUFACTURES IN GOLD — MOSLEM POPULATION IN ASHANTEE —
CHARACTER OF THE FANTEES.
An enquiry into the credibility of information derived through the
agency of Moslems, may perhaps be no uninteresting or unprofitable
introduction to this chapter; for in weighing this subject with due
attention, I conceive I have anticipated all that can be urged in
opposition to the testimony of native African travellers; by which
expression I mean Moslems; for as to the heathen Negroes, I have reason
to know that their fidelity as narrators or interpreters may be justly
suspected. In fact, their intellectual faculties, like those of savages
in general, although powerful in the emergencies of life, never stray
from the usual routine of human pursuits to explore unprofitable
mysteries; neither is it to be forgotten that a cautious scepticism is
necessary, where the secret interests or affections of men are to be
poised against the words to which their tongues may give utterance.
Although I do not submit my name to the reader, as guaranteeing the
veracity of the Moslems to whom I am indebted for the substance of these
remarks, yet I will take upon me to say, that I depend with as much
reliance upon the information I obtained through their means, as I
should on the testimony of any class of honourable men in Europe. And
why not? Are there not many standing authorities of literary renown,
whose writers were of that faith, and whose works are the rallying
points in Oriental literature, quoted moreover by the most respectable
in the classes of Christian authors of every nation? But as regards the
Moslems of Ashantee and interior Africa, it may be urged, they are some
degrees below the Arabs and northern Africans in the scale of
civilization and intellectual acquirements. Admitting, upon the general
average, that this is an undeniable truth, its effect is more than
counterbalanced by the advantage these Guinea tribes evidently possess,
in being more intimately acquainted with the land of their nativity, and
the countries through which they are in constant habits of travelling,
than the Arabs can possibly be. And these lands, be it remembered, are
situated precisely in that part of the African continent which is most
interesting to the geographical inquirer: for there the African maps of
the most modern construction exhibit naught to the eye, save a dreary
blank, here and there indeed broken upon by courses of rivers, positions
of mountains, and names of kingdoms, like the paucity of islands
scattered over the surface of its western ocean: but with this
difference, that many of the characteristics inland are either vaguely
marked down, or, what is even more to be lamented, their fidelity is in
no very remote degree associated with hypothetical criticism and
unsubstantiated axioms, gleaned from the testimony of authors of a very
early age, and who, in fact, never knew the central parts of this
mysterious continent, excepting through the reports of its natives.
Public curiosity, in short, finds nothing to feed upon that is
satisfactory, beside the bare outlines of this vast surface, with the
tracks of a few successful European explorers of our own times, among
whom the name of Park is deservedly pre-eminent; and that pre-eminence
is infinitely enhanced by a modesty of style almost unrivalled in modern
literature of that description, forming a strong contrast to the
unblushing pages of some authors, who vainly attempt to rival his fame
by egotism and a redundancy of words.
Moslems, of whatever nation, provided they have been initiated in the
doctrine they profess, are virtually men of knowledge, as they ought to
be men of honour and probity; and the educated negro is with justice
esteemed upon a par with other professors of the faith, whether from
Cairo, Medina, or the sacred city itself. The Koran, wherein the
prerogatives of all men concentrate as within a focus, was, morally
speaking, conceived in the true spirit of benevolence, whereby every
professor of that religion, however abject his condition in life may be,
is strictly upon terms of equality with his neighbour, as the law
instructs in civil and religious matters. This fascinating maxim, from
which the balm of consolation oozed into the breasts of the afflicted
idolaters of subordinate ranks, enticed a willing audience among the
lowly and oppressed, such as most of the inferior tribes of Arabs were
before the chapters were revealed, or the new law formally promulgated.
Indeed, the Moslems themselves do not hesitate to admit a truth, which,
in point of fact, may be traced through every page of the Koran,
although lurking under the mask of religion; namely, that Mohammed
raised the oppressed against their oppressors; or, in a political
retrospect, planned a revolution in the morals of men, upon the
prevailing principle of action whereby ordinary innovators are
actuated—by winning to his interest those who laboured under real or
imaginary grievances, and by their agency sapping the edifice which
prescribed limits to the several classes of society, and obedience where
it was due.[123]
What I have already advanced on the subject of “Islamism,” (for I
consider it to be by no means irrelevant to explain its impression) may
be still more essentially elucidated, so that the reader may be
furnished with materials wherewith to establish an opinion of his own.
In the reign of Omar, the second Khalifa, about the Hejyran year twenty,
(according to the historian ben Shohnah) an Arab prince named Jiabalah,
chief of the Pagan tribe of Ghassanida, who wandered over the plains of
Syria, professed a desire to renounce idolatry. With that intention he
visited the court of Omar, to whom he did homage as his liege, and was
initiated in the law. The Khalifa, feeling an interest in the voluntary
sacrifice his guest had made, conceived a partiality for the prince, and
took him with him on the pilgrimage to Mecca, with intention to instruct
him in the rites and mysteries incumbent upon devotees. In running the
tour of the temple conformably to custom, it happened that a pilgrim of
ordinary rank took the prince by his sleeve and pulled him on one side,
in order to pass himself, at which incivility Jiabalah was so enraged
that he struck the intruder a violent blow; and, not satisfied with the
vengeance he had taken, continued a strain of vehement abuse, in which
he reproached the man with insolent conduct towards a person of his
quality. Omar, noticing the immoderate anger of the prince, and that he
reiterated menaces and ill usage against a man whom he had already
punished and turned out of the ranks, said to him, “Calm your
transports, otherwise I shall cause that man to return the blow you gave
him, for you ought to know that Islam has rendered you both equal; and
the prince and the slave, when in the exercise of their worship, or acts
of piety, such as the functions of the pilgrimage, are but as men equal
in all their prerogatives.” Jiabalah, stung to the quick by the words of
the Khalifa, conceived so great a disgust, that he promptly gave up his
newly adopted faith, and retired to Constantinople, where he became a
Christian.
A circumstance which occurred during my residence at the court of
Morocco, in the year 1811, is also illustrative of this point. The
Sultan Mulai Soliman, conformably to his usual practice, visited the
public mosque of Sidi Yousif on a certain Friday; but being a little
after time, the area was crowded with worshippers to the very portico.
It happened also, that the congregation were in the act of adoration,
(in a prostrate posture,) and the Sultan could barely find room for the
ceremony, by squeezing his body amidst a motley group who occupied the
threshold; and that with great inconvenience; for his head, in lieu of
touching the ground, repeatedly came in contact with the heels of a
slave, who occupied the space before him. This man, finding himself
molested, left off his devotion to enquire into the occasion of it, but
instantly recognizing the features of the sovereign, he started upon his
feet, and would have retired on one side, had he not been restrained by
the forcible grasp with which the Sultan held his hayk, and again
dragged him involuntarily into the posture he had quitted. When prayers
were over, Mulai Soliman desired the attendance of the slave’s master,
whom he reprimanded for not inculcating into the mind of his vassal a
true knowledge of the “law of God.” To the slave he said, “Mark these
words, which have a relation in common to the class you belong to:—on
the throne, in the palace, in the city, or in the field, you shall know
me for the sovereign commander of the faithful by day or night; but in
the Mosque, or at devotions, you shall not know me as what I am, neither
shall you know your own master, for before God the prince and the slave
are equal, and must meet judgment according to their several actions,
without distinction of rank.”
Thus the religion of Islam, as it is properly styled, wherever it
prevails, whether at the splendid courts of Constantinople, Delhi and
Morocco, or in the less ostentatious governments of interior Ethiopia,
is uniform, as well in practice as in its influence upon the minds of
men.
The Moslems of Ashantee, with whom I held communion, were for the most
part men of strong natural parts; all were more or less acquainted with
the doctrine of their prophet, and some, particularly the natives of
Salgha, Yandi, Kook, Nikky, and other parts of the north and east, were
men of education and talent, the majority equalling, perhaps, the
average population of the states of Morocco: for even there the
proportion may exceed ten to one against those who are capable of
expressing their thoughts by written characters. The fidelity and
pointed attention of these Guinea Moors, during my stay among them,
biassed me with a conviction of their sincerity, and thereby established
a mutual understanding and attachment; for when it was discovered that I
was acquainted with the language of their religion, my apartments became
the receptacle for all ranks of that faith, and figuratively speaking, I
was an idol to whom the daily congratulations were paid with an
exactitude and benignity not very unlike devotion.
This will seem strange to some of my readers who have perused the work
of Mr. Bowdich, wherein it appears they treated him with a scowling
inhospitable malignancy, arising from prejudices of a commercial nature.
The truth is, no such feeling ever existed, as far as my information
carried me at Coomassy; but I regret to say it is one of the many
instances abounding in that work, of egotism and hyperbole, assuming the
character of all the zeal and talent of the greatest hero that ever trod
the African plains. But dismissing the evidence of my own conviction of
facts coupled with the confessions of Moslems and idolators, it may be
only requisite to pass judgment agreeably to the author’s
acknowledgments. These men who treated him so unworthily, were, as it
appears in other pages, in habits of strict intimacy with the mission,
whereby reciprocal acts of courtesy were exchanged, and mutual visits
were paid. These men who wantonly insulted the dignity of his public
character, from rival jealousy of European influence in the commerce of
the country, were his daily companions, and they were the identical
parties who furnished him with such materials for his book as are really
deserving of credit. Yet this cordiality, the author would have it
appear, was the result of time and prudence. It were loss of time to
pursue the inquiry further; but as the characters of men may in some
degree gleam through their writings, I will yet trespass upon my
reader’s patience by inserting a few notes of correspondence that were
occasionally written to me by these Moslems, and which are still in my
keeping.
الحمد لله الذي جمل القلم لنا كلام متكلم وجعل قرطاس لنا رسول مرسلا بلد
الي بلد مكان الي مكان ذاك الحبيب اني عبدك يا سيدنا ومولاني &c. صوم
“Praise be unto God who created the use of the pen for conversation, and
who created paper that we may substitute letters for ambassadors, &c.
This (an enclosed MSS.) shews you the route from country to country, and
from place to place, written by your servant for his beloved friend,
master, &c.
(Signed) “Shouma.”
الحمد لله وحده هذا القلم اني يسمع اني جا اليك محبت والخير والكرمة والحب
بالله ورسوله سلم الي مني وسلم عليك يا سيدنا اي نتهن
“Glory is due to God alone. I comprehend what you have written. I hear
your words and return my love, blessing, and gratitude; and may the love
of God and his apostle in peace attend you. May peace dwell with you.
(properly my lord), &c. From me, &c.
(Signed) “Abou Becr ben Touri.”
الحمد لله وحده ثم الحمد لله جعل القلم لنا لسانا متكلم بين الحبيب والحبيب
وبين اخي واخوانه اشهدكم يا ملاكتي ربي اي مرني مسكن صاحب العباد كله وصاحب
السعد انه سعد في بطن امه انه شهد انه لا الله الا الله وان محمد رسول الله
دليله من بركر الر بلدنا فد وصل السعادته الي كل الخلابوبشهادة جماعة كله
وصاحبه الملك اشنتي سي كومن يقول سي ادي اسبي الله جعل الخير والرزم وسعد
بينهما صح صاحبي اصحب المسلمون طول الله عمرك مع الخير والسعد والدرجت مع
الحب الله والحب الناس صح