ter within (fresh and putrified) to complete the charm, and to produce invincible fetish! All the chiefs kill several slaves, that their blood may flow into the hole whence the yam is taken. The royal ornaments are melted down every yam custom, and fashioned into patterns as novel as possible. The decease of a person is announced by a discharge of musketry, proportional to his rank or the wealth of his family. In an instant, all the slaves rush from the house, hoping to escape. One or more, however, are always sacrificed at the door of the house. At one of these inhuman butcheries, the executioners wrangled and struggled for the office; the right hand of the victim was lopped off, and the sawing of his head was most cruelly, if not wilfully prolonged. Twelve more were then dragged forward to undergo the same fate. On the death of a king, his brother's sons and nephews, affect ing insanity, fire among the crowd. No rank is safe. The kings ocras (favourite slaves, generally, and some of them relatives, and men of rank) are all murdered on his tomb, with women in abundance. The custom for Sai Quamina was repeated weekly for three months; and each time two hundred slaves were sacrificed. But the custom for the king's mother is still more terribly celebrated. The king himself devoted 3000 victims! The large towns furnished 100 victims each, and most of the smaller ones ten. Human sacrifices are also frequently made to water the graves of the kings. Though the law allows the king 3333 wives, a number carefully kept up, his majesty had seldom more than six resident with him. Many of them reside in seclusion at the king's pala.ces, and the remainder in two streets of the capital exclusively. They are said to live as daintily as the king himself. The king has a small troop of boys who carry the fetish bows and arrows, and are licensed plunderers. Whatever they can steal is fair game. They are, with the Ashantees in general, admirable mimics. The king has a buffoon, whose movements were as irresistibly comic as those of Grimaldi. The king's weights are one third heavier than the current weights of the country, a source of emolument to his household. When the king sends an ambassador, he enriches the

splendour and attire of his suite as much as possible; but there is also attached to the embassy a mean shrewd boy, as a kind of spy on the whole proceeding. It is a practice of the king to consign sums of gold to the care of rising captains, without requiring the same for two or three years, at the end of which time, however, he expects the money to be restored. If no advantage has been made of it, the person is thought too paltry for farther elevation. Apokoo, keeper of the royal treasures, holds a kind of exchequer court at his house daily, to decide all cases relative to revenue. In all public trials, the charges are preferred against the criminal by the king's linguists; the accused is always heard fully, and is obliged either to commit or exculpate himself on every point. The oaths are various ;-that by the king's fool is not considered decisive, as perjury to this oath is commutable by fine. Those "by the king's father" are held binding, and still more so those made "by Cormantee and Saturday." The army is prohibited, during the active parts of a campaign, from all food but meal, which each man carries in a small bag at his side, and mixes in his hands with the first water he comes

to.

This is to prevent cooking fires from betraying their position. They also chew the boossee or gooroo nut. The Ashantee army very frequently consists merely of tributaries and allies, though commanded by Ashantee captains. Two divisions of the army are rarely allowed to go the same path or march, lest the supplies should fail. Infants are frequently married to infants, and often to elderly men, for the connexion of families. Their principal games are worra, (which Mr Bowdich says he could not understand), and drafts, which both moors and negroes play well and constantly.

The Ashantees show considerable skill in constructing their houses. They do not appear to use stone, but frame or wicker work, neatly plastered. Arcades and piazzas are common. There are certain points where some Europeans might copy them with advantage, as their houses are always "nice and cleanly." Mr Bowdich has given a number of drawings of their houses, which are very neatly executed, and which afford a favourable proof of Ashantee architecture.

The king was very fond of referring to a project, which he declared he would carry into effect directly the Gaman war was over. This was, to build a house for his own immediate residence, roofed with brass pans, beaten into flat surfaces, and laid over an ivory frame-work appearing within. The windows and doors are to be cased in gold, and the door posts and pillars are to be of ivory. He meditates also great improvements in his capital. The Ashantee loom is precisely the English one. Their cloths are very fine and brilliant-their patterns are painted with a fowl's feather, with much taste and regularity. They excel likewise in pottery: the clay is very fine, polished (after baking) by friction, and the grooves of the patterns are filled up with chalk. The natives are also tolerably skilful in goldsmiths work; they have, however, no idea of making iron from ore, as their interior neighbours do. They tan leather, and work well in carpentry. Their sanko or guitar is neatly made, and the chasteness and Etruscan character of the carving is very surprising. The surface of the wood is first charred in the fire, and then carved deep enough to disclose the original white in the stripes of the pattern. Very good specimens of their handicraft were brought away by Mr Bowdich, and have since been deposited in the British museum. We have not as yet been able to see them.

As to the climate of Ashantee, it appears that, during the first two months, May and June, it rained about one third of the time; throughout July and August it rained nearly half, and abrupt tornadoes were frequent in the evening. The heaviest rains fell from the latter end of September to the beginning of November. The population of Ashantee is estimated at one million. The men are well made, but not so muscular as the Fantees; the women are generally handsomer. Both men and women are particularly cleanly in their persons, and their clothes are scrupulously so.

The food of the higher orders is chiefly soup of dried fish, fowls, beef or mutton, and ground nuts stewed in blood. The poorer classes make their soups of dried deer, monkeys' flesh, and the pelts of skins. Besides palm

wine, they have a drink made from dried corn, called Pitto.

The revenue arises from various sources;-the gold dust of all deceased and disgraced subjects; a tax in gold upon all the slaves purchased for the coast; a tax upon the elephant-hunters; the washings of the small pits in Soko, yielding sometimes 700, sometimes 2000 oz. per month; a tax upon every chief increasing his gold ornaments: also the tributes paid by dependent states. Coomassie is built upon the side of a large rocky hill of iron stone. It is an oblong, of nearly four miles in circumference. Four of the principal streets are half a mile long, and from fifty to a hundred yards wide: they have all a name, and a principal captain resides in each. The street in which the mission resided was called Osamarandiduiim, meaning literally, "With 1000 muskets you could not fight those who live there." The palace is situated in a long and wide street running through the middle of the town. There are about twenty-seven streets in all. The cattle in Ashantee are as large as the English. The sheep are hairy; the horses are small, and like half-bred galloways, with large heads and lathy legs. The Ashantees are bad horsemen. Some of the Moors ride on bullocks, with a ring through their nose. They use no implement but the hoe. They have two crops of corn a-year, plant yams at Christmas, and dig them early in September. The oranges are large, and of exquisite flavour. The castor oil rises to a large tree. The cotton plant is very common, but little cultivated. The usual African animals and birds are found in these parts. The currency of Ashantee is gold dust. They are not a commercial people; they have no idea of purchasing articles beyond their own consumption. The chiefs consider trade as beneath their attention, and as likely to divert the genius and ambition of the people from war. When Mr Bowdich urged the policy of clearing the ground, forming plantations, and otherwise encouraging and extending trade, they replied, that the Gooroo nut (very much prized amongst them) grows spontaneously; that salt was brought to the frontier by poorer nations, and sold for very little, without the trouble of fetching it. The Ashantees will

commerce.

purchase no tobacco but the Portuguese, a serious obstacle to English A more sad and fatal obstacle is the slave trade, which is continued to this hour under the Spanish flag. It formed the most stubborn impediment to the objects of the mission, as slaving is the main trade of the natives; being at once the most indolent and lucrative, the English have created the strongest prejudice against themselves by their opposition to this barbarous traffic. One thousand slaves left Ashantee for two Spanish schooners, or Americans under that flag, during the stay of the mission there.'

In the chapter entitled "Language," Mr Bowdich has entered rather minutely into that of Ashantee and its Dependencies, and has managed, by the help of Horne Tooke's Diversions of Purley, and Jones' Greek Grammar, to afford some kind of analogy of these barbarous tongues with those of the civilized world. We should, however, be inclined to conjecture, that this show of African lore is very gratuitous; an unknown barbarous language, without local or written assistance, is not to be acquired in a few months: and the uncalled-for learning here displayed strengthens our doubts of Mr Bowdich's proficiency on the subject. The Ashantees generally use vehement gesture in their recitative mode of speaking: their action is exuberant, but graceful. They are frequently obliged to vary the tone in pronouncing a word, which has more than one meaning. They have no expression short of, "You are a liar ;" and the king was surprised on being told that the English made a great difference between a mistake and a lie; he said "the truth was not spoken in either case, and therefore it was the same thing." Like the American languages, those of this part of Africa are highly picturesque and hyperbolical. The Accras, instead of Good night, say, 66 Sleep till the lighting of the world." One of their imprecations against their enemies is, "May their hiding-place be our flute," that is, our play thing. When they speak of a man imposing on them, they say, "He turned the backs of our heads into our mouths."

The wild music of this people is described by Mr Bowdich as sweet and animated. Their instruments are a kind of violin called the Sanko, the

horn made of elephants' tusks, and an instrument like the bagpipe; with other inferior instruments, such as drums, castanets, gonggongs, flat sticks, rattles, and even old brass pans. As some of these native notes have been set to music, we have heard the whole which Mr Bowdich has furnished played upon the piano forte. What effect they may have when accompanied with words and gestures, we know not, but we can scarcely discover in them any harmony at all worthy of the name of tune.

The chapter on the Materia Medica and Botany of Ashantee, was furnished by Mr Surgeon Tedlie, who fell a victim to dysentery, caught during his attendance on the mission. A list of thirty-seven plants used as medicines by the Ashantees, is afforded, which our contracted limits forbid us to transcribe. The most common diseases in the Ashantee country are the lues, yaws, itch, scaldheads, and colic. When a fracture of the leg or arm happens, the part is rubbed with a soft species of grass and palm oil, and the limb bound up with splints. The natives were very eager to receive, and very grateful in acknowledging, Mr Tedlie's assistance.

Mr Hutchison, in his Journal attached to Mr Bowdich's account, has this curious information. An old Moor from Jenne related, unasked, that while he was at Askanderee (Alexandria) twenty-six years ago, he saw a fight at the mouth of the Nile between ships, and that one of them was blown up in the air. This must have been the bat tle fought by Lord Nelson, although there is a mistake in the date of seven years. He surely could not invent such a story. A seal was shewn him of Pompey's Pillar, which he said he knew. He had travelled from Jenne to masser on a joma (camel,) and drew a map of the Quolla (Niger) from its source to its emptying itself into the sea at Alexandria. When he was told of the conjectures that this great river of Africa emptied itself into a large lake, he laughed at such an idea. "God, say they, made all riv ers to run to the sea, you say that small rivers go there. The Quolla is the largest river in the world, and why should it not go there also?" The Quolla is described as five miles in breadth, with a rocky channel, and high rugged banks.-Inoculation for

the small pox, Mr Hutchison informs us, is practised at Ashantee. The sickness continues but a few days, and rarely any person dies of it. We do not know that any thing of importance or interest is to be gleaned from Mr Hutchison's diary beyond this. He is evidently a gossip; and in reading his journal we have been strongly reminded of Mr Campbell's Travels in Southern Africa; than which, we have seldom read a more garrulous or less instructive performance.

The vessel in which Mr Bowdich took his passage to England, having been chartered to trade in the river Gaboon, which is immediately on the line; "I diverted," he adds, " a tedious delay of seven weeks, by visiting Naango, a town about fifty miles from the mouth of the river, where I col lected geographical accounts of the interior from several intelligent traders and numerous slaves from different countries. I have added this compi lation, with a few notices of the cus toms and productions of this ruder part of Africa."

Kings are numerous in Gaboon, though scarcely equal to the petty caboccers of Fantee. The greatest trader, or richest man of every village, assumes the title, though he frequently suffers gross indignities from his subjects, whom he has not the power to punish. The king of Naango seems of acknowledged superiority, and is known to the traders by the name of King George. All children share the property of the father in equal proportions, except the eldest son, who has about half as much again as any other. They assured Mr Bow dich, that they never made human sacrifices. A man of consequence never drinks before his inferiors, be lieving, that at this moment only his enemies have the power of imposing a spell on his faculties. When a man dies, the door of his house is kept shut seven days. "I could not discover," says Mr Bowdich, " amongst the natives, any distinct ideas of the creation or of a future life." They however believe implicitly in the superior fetish of individuals, from Sappalah and other countries in the interior. Naango consists of one street, wide, regular, and clean. The houses are very neatly constructed. The manners of the superiors are very

pleasing and hospitable, and Europeans may reside amongst them not only with safety, but with comfort. The town does not contain above 500 inhabitants; and the climate, from the prevalence of sickness, must be unhealthy. The Empoongwa seems the softest negro language. They do not possess a single manufacture, but depend entirely upon the superior skill of their inland neighbours, and the supplies of the shipping. The African ourang-outan is found here. It has the cry, visage, and action of a very old man. Their death is accelerated by their observing the natives carry heavy burdens through the forest, upon which they tear off the largest branches from the trees, and accumulate a weight (sometimes of elephants' teeth) disproportioned to their strength, which they carry till fatigue and hunger exhaust them. They are also said to build houses, in imitation of the natives, and sleep outside or on the roof of it, and also to carry about their infant dead, closely pressed to them, until they putrify and drop away. The larger birds in the creeks were uncommon, if not unknown. Pelicans and camelions abounded. The tobacco grows spontaneously. The Portuguese probably have introduced it into Gaboon. The natives here, as well as elsewhere, in these parts, have a number of fetish plants. The vegetable butter brought to the Ashantee market is here well known by the name of Onoongoo; it is a large tree, and the nuts are enclosed in a round red pod, containing from four to six. The nut is first boiled, and the oil or butter afterwards expressed. It tasted quite as good as fresh butter before any salt is added, and the meat fried in it is very relishing. Three Portuguese, one French, and two large Spanish ships entered the river during Mr Bowdich's stay, and the master of a Liverpool vessel assured him that he had fallen in with twenty-two ships between Gaboon and the Congo.

In the last chapter Mr Bowdich offers some suggestions for future missions to the interior of Africa. He very clearly intimates his own proficiency for the management of his proposed plans. He recommends three missions, one to Dagwumba, a second to Wauwaw, and the third to Ogooa

wai; the whole of which, he adds, would not cost above a thousand pounts judiciously expended in England. "Three respectable establishments, also, one at Cape Coast Castle, one at Accra, and one at Succondee, (if Axim could not be purchased), with an allowance of £1000 a-year, for a progress into the interior (beneficial to commerce, science, and humanity), would be productive of fame and honour, and probably of wealth, to our nation." We have only time to enumerate the contents of the appendix. It contains the origin and history of the Ashantee war, extracted from Mr Meredith's account of the Gold Coast-translations of a manuscript, descriptive of Mr Park's death-routes -courses of the Niger, or Qualla, by different Moors-reptiles-Mr Tedlie's and Mr Hutchison's account of the thermometer-the numerals of thirty-one nations, which, (with the exception of three, the Fantee, the Accra, and the Bornoo,) have never been reported before.

We should most willingly make some extracts from these curious papers, but we cannot afford further room for an article which has already greatly transgressed its limits. We must therefore refer our readers to the volume itself.

It is true, that we have very unreservedly given an opinion of Mr Bowdich's treatment of Mr James, and also of his own pretensions. It is but justice to add, that we think no little praise is due to his talent, perseverance, and industry. The collection of so much information is in itself a very laudable undertaking, whatever the lack may be of skill to arrange, or language to convey it. We have indeed our suspicions, that many of his statements will be found incorrect; but still, after every abatement, enough will remain to class his volume

among the fullest accounts of Western Africa.

No nation of this boundless continent seems to offer more facilities towards European intercourse, than that of Ashantee. Swarms of adventurers will doubtless flock thither, in defiance of every hazard. In these days of trading speculation, and sectarian proselytism, numbers are ever on the wing, to hail the first invitation for the furtherance of their views. We confess frankly, we expect as little benefit from the avaricious merchant, as we do from the visionary fanatic. If any good can be done among these people, we look for it in the pious patient tempers, and the useful practical labours of the Moravian missionaries. They have succeeded admirably and incontestibly among the Hottentots of Southern, and why not among the natives of Western Africa? We therefore most earnestly and sincerely trust, that the attention of the directors of this valuable institution may be turned to Ashantee:-and that every possible encouragement will be afforded towards enabling them to carry their superior and approved plans of conversion and civilization, to these inviting though hitherto neglected shores. Scientific discoveries are most important, and cannot be too highly valued or rewarded; nor should commerce be disregarded; but as christians we surely fall lamentably short of our responsible duties, if we do not, with our ardour for discovery or emolument, unite our best endeavours to extend the philanthropy and salvation of the gospel to those who "live without God, in the world," and who sacrifice both reason and humanity to the most absurd and at the same time the most inveterate and destructive of superstitions.

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made acquainted unexpectedly in the midst of common-place prosers, with a chance man of originality and genius. How the world brightens before our eyes, in company with a friend who