At this moment the town of Cape Coast, which had long been agitated by secret intrigues, assumed the aspect of open disaffection and revolt. Hopes and wishes for the annihilation of the Ashantee monarchy, and reports, even confirmatory of these hopes, were circulated with great perseverance.

"Traders now but rarely visited the settlements; and when they did come, it was found impracticable to elicit from them what alone would have passed current for authentic information, namely, an admission that the king had been defeated!

6

By this time, we think our readers will be of opinion with us, that Mr. Dupuis had no common difficulties to overcome, in getting forward to Coomassy. It is not an easy matter to disentangle the plexus of cabal, secret hostility and intrigue, against which this public spirited envoy had to struggle, during upwards of a year's forcible detention at Cape Coast.' But as the preface to his valuable narrative lets in so much light upon the origin and causes of our rupture with Ashantee, hitherto so imperfectly understood, we shall make yet some elucidatory extracts before we accompany him into the interior. Indeed, in the present article, such is the magnitude of its importance, we shall be compelled, principally, to confine ourselves to the Introduction.

"Towards the end of March, a messenger, bearing the gold-hilted sword, came to the castle from the camp, stating that he had been deputed by his sovereign to acquaint the governor that an outrage had been committed at Commenda upon two men of office, who had represented to him their inability to procure redress; but that the king expected, upon the faith of the treaty, and the friendship that existed between them, that justice would be done. However, if the governor declined taking that trouble, he should send some troops for that purpose. "The king, it was added, had also heard with anger and regret, that the natives of Cape Coast were not disposed to be friends; that they talked foolish things, as if they wanted him to come down again to the water side; but he trusted the governor would look to it for him, bẻcause he was then engaged in war.

"This was substantially the message which was laid hold of as a palliative argument for having bidden defiance to the king in language which that monarch deemed insulting, and a farewell adieu to the treaty of Mr. Bowdich: for Mr. Smith, without listening to the main argument, or attending to the justice of the king's complaint, interrupted the man, by desiring him to return to his master and acquaint him that he might come down "in forty days, or in twenty, or as soon as he thought proper."

"This messenger, whose name was Accra Dehe, lingered about the town for some time, and vainly intimated that he durst not carry such a

message back that it would be an insult to the king, and perhaps cost him his head. But at length he was compelled to depart.

"In order to elucidate these rash councils, so abruptly resorted to, without the concurrence of any other individual associated in the commission for the administration of public affairs; it is requisite to say something of a finesse that was employed to give sanction to hostility at such a crisis, when so many interests and expectations were thrown away. Will it be credited that the message itself was perverted, through the medium of the interpreter, who was instructed so to do, that a plausible opportunity might be afforded for breaking off the friendly connexion that existed with Ashantee? This was roundly asserted by many who were not known as friends to the king. and who freely declared that De Graaf, the castle linguist, interpreted the king's message to the governor with exaggerations, and even falsehood, in the course of which he said (or as it was suspected was urged to say), The king would certainly come down to Cape Coast in forty days and punish those who had abused him.' In order to obtain, as it were, a tacit sanction, Mr. Smith invited me to meet the messenger in the hall, in company with Captain Kelly of his Majesty's ship Pheasant. We caught the words as they fell from the lips of De Graaf, and I confess, for my own part, the colouring was so artfully contrived, that I saw no other alternative than waiting patiently where I was. Indeed, for some time after, I was a dupe to the prejudice that the king actually designed war; notwithstanding that Accra Dehe, before he quitted the Cape, declared that De Graaf had perverted the king's message.

“The elders and chiefs of the town were then privately instructed to arm their people, and defend themselves in case of necessity. A wall of circumvallation, extending across the hills, and entrenching the town and castle, was hastily erected with mud and swish, loop-holed for defensive warfare, as if it were actually believed that the Ashantees would come down; and if so, that the people would find security behind these frail bulwarks, against an enemy so terrible to their remembrances.

"Accra Dehe returned to the camp, and, as I learned at Coomassy, truly reported what had occurred, together with his own suspicions regarding the imposition. The king, however, was enraged to a great degree of anger against his officer, whom he accused of falsehood, put him to the torture of the bastonade to extort confession, and finally threw him into prison with the intention of putting him to a cruel death, in case he discovered equivocation or deceit.

"In the meantime the farce was conducted at Cape Coast, with every ostensible show of promptitude, although in reality it all ended in the erection of the wall; for Aggry, who had boasted of his ability to procure five thousand auxiliaries from the bush (country), found it impossible to obtain a single man: every town and every village, being either overawed by a dread of the vengeance of Ashantee, or in strict alliance with that powerful nation." P. xv.

In June the King dispatched another Messenger to the 6

Castle, " desiring simply to know whether the Governor had actually sent him up a defiance, or if ACCRA DEHE had deceived 'him?" The charge of defiance was retorted upon the King, and the Messenger dismissed abruptly. In the mean time, intelligence reached the Camp, at Houraboh in Gaman, that the town of Cape Coast had been fortified with a wall, and that the natives were in arms against their Sovereign. When this was communicated to the King, his Captains unsheathed their - swords in unanimous indignation, and solicited to be sent down to the Coast, that they might destroy the place. "We will -kill them," said the Captains, or bring them before you; for this insult is insufferable." However, enraged as the King was, he was satisfied with telling his Captains that he held a "book" with the white men, and could not acquiesce in the general wish: but that he would, nevertheless, swear to seek satisfaction. In compliance with this pledge to his army, the King sent down another Messenger of high rank, who entered the town of Cape Coast in September. In addition to the original grievance at Commeneda, the disaffection and fortification of the town was made a subject of strong remonstrance, not unaccompanied with an intimation that the ultima ratio regum would be appealed to, if redress were any longer withheld. As this Messenger concluded a recapitulatory speech," he drew from under his garment a little morocco trunk, out of which he took the treaty, and presented it to Mr. SMITH, who declared "he had nothing to do with it." It was then read over by the Castle linguist, DE GRAAF, as far as the fourth Article, when the Messenger again rose, and demanded_satisfaction in the name of his master upon the faith of that clause: adding, if it were not accorded, that the vengeance of Ashantee would overtake the town; that his master did not wish to quarrel with white men, but his own subjects must not rebel with impunity, and that his orders, moreover, were imperative, to leave the treaty with the governor in the event of a denial of satisfaction: for the King's conscience would not allow him to go to war, while he held such a document in his possession. In the language of Ashantee, it was not his principle" to march against the town with the musket in hand, and the book' in

t

-the box."

"At this juncture I requested the governor would make known to the messenger the object of my mission, and the desire I had to see the king; for, incredible as it may appear, that monarch was in total ignorance of any thing concerning me, unless from report. My request was complied with. The messenger again rose, bowed to me, and

took me by the hand in token of respect and good-will. This circumstance appeared to stagger the resolution he had formed; and he was, for some time, pensive and doubtful, as if he knew not what course to pursue; his inflexibility, however, was overcome, as he testified by enquiring whether he was to leave the treaty, or whether I would talk the palaver with the king. The reply was, that he must be guided by his own discretion, and accordingly he retired with the treaty to his quarters in town.

"The town chiefs and their retainers were now, for the first time, warned of the danger they had incurred in giving an unbridled licence to their tongues. Indeed the advice was scarcely needful at this time, for their minds were riveted upon the impending peril; and the scenes of former years were revived in imagination, as they contemplated the daring spirit of their enemies, and the power of the king. In the town tranquillity predominated for a time, among all orders of men ; not a whisper, or the rumour of one, was to be heard prejudicial to the character or interests of the offended monarch, and the reports of a Gaman invasion were now woefully discredited or silenced. Yet, in the castle, the same idle speculations were indulged in, but whether their propagators actually believed in such trash, although they affirmed it, is very doubtful." P. xxi.

But, to proceed with Mr. Dupuis' narrative. The Messenger, struck with the importance of an embassy coming direct from the King of England, had consented to retain the treaty, and await upon the spot farther instructions from his Sovereign. Nothing was conceded to the demands of Ashantee, which, considering the magnitude of the provocations, had been sufficiently temperate. At last, in the month of January, 1820, a special Ambassador from the black Potentate was announced to be within a few journeys of the town.

"From this period it was a sort of breathless suspense for a day or two, until the advanced guard, as it was termed, was seen traversing the beach.

"The ambassador entered the place with a degree of military splendour unknown there since the conquest of Fantee by the king, and according to prevailing courtesy, the town chiefs, headed by Aggry, were drawn up to receive their unwelcome visitors.

"Let the imagination trace the routine of etiquette, and let it be believed, as there is no doubt of the fact, that the number of people in the ambassador's train, at the lowest estimate, was about twelve hundred, of whom about half were either Ashantees or Assins (some of them women and boys) and the remaining half Fantees of Doonqua and Mouree, joined by some El Mina people, who all professed allegiance in common to the king.

"The ambassador, who was a man apparently between the ages

of

thirty and thirty-five, stood in the relationship of nephew to the king: it will be unnecessary, therefore, to say more of his rank and influence

at court.

"On the day of audience, he delivered a speech in the hall, which De Graaf interpreted briefly as follows:

"The king says, you (the governor) sent white men to Coomassy, and they told him it was because the whites wished for peace and a good trade; on hearing which he rejoiced to think that he should gratify the great king and his captains. These white men saw the king's face, and they knew he was a good king and wished well to the governor and a white man who lived in the country; therefore they made treaty of strict friendship. Then the king sent down all the trade to the governor, thinking he loved him as a true friend.

"The king was afterwards obliged to make war against Dinkera, who had defied him, and refused to pay him gold as before. He ordered his captains to bring all the people together, and clean the guns. And when the white man * who lived with him heard that, he said, now I must go back to the water side; and the king, considering that to be right, let him go.

"The trade went on as before, and the king was happy, because he thought, as the white men were friends, they would not allow Fantees to do foolish things and shame him before his captains.

"When the messengers went to Commenda, it was because he loved the people; he, therefore, sent a jaw-bone of Dinkera's captain, that they might know the king's enemies were dead, and rejoice at it. Now the governor knows that these messengers were robbed and beaten, and the people laughed at the king; therefore, the messengers went to complain to the governor of Cape Coast, but he would not hear them,

"When the king heard that, he was much grieved, and he sent to Accra Dehe to make his compliments and tell the governor to examine that affair, and do what was right. When Accra Dehe returned to the camp, and told the king that the governor did not care for him, and said that he might come down in twenty days, it broke his heart, because it shamed him before his captains, and all the kings and great caboceers who fought for him. He could not think the governor would use him in that manner, because he never sent an offensive message to the castle. The king then punished the messenger, but the captains said it was wrong, and that the people of Cape Coast were insolent; and they took their swords to march against the Fantees. But the king forbade them, saying he must do what was right according to the book, and he should have satisfaction. Then the king sent more messengers to the governor; but they tell him the governor will not give satisfaction according to the book, and the captains believe that it was true he sent a defiance, saying if the king chose to come and fight he was ready. Then the king called all the chiefs and the old men together. and told them the truth; and they said, This disho

Mr. Hutchison.