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But Richard married.

His wife was one, who carried The cleanly virtues almost to a vice, She was so nice:

And thrice a week, above, below, The house was scour'd from top to toe,

And all the floors were rubb'd sobright,

You dared not walk upright
For fear of sliding:

But that she took a pride in.

Of all things else Rebecca Strype
Could least endure a pipe.

She railed upon the filthyherb tobacco,
Protested that the noisome vapour
Had spoil'd her best chintz curtains.

and the paper,

For grief makes people dry:

But Dick is missing, nowhere to be found.

Above, below, about

They search'd the house throughout, Each hole and secret entry,

Quite from the garret to the pantry, In ev'ry corner, cupboard, nook, and shelf,

And all concluded he had hang'd himself.

At last they found him---Reader, guess you where,

"Twill make you stare--

Perch'd on Rebecca's coffin, at his rest, Smoking a pipe of Wishart's best.

LONDON: Printed and Published by W. KEENE, New Church Court, Strand; and DUNCOMBE, Little Queen Street.

OF

ENTERTAINING AND INSTRUCTIVE VARIETIES

IN

History. Literature, the Fine Arts, &c.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic]

THE DEFEAT OF THE BRITISH TROOPS BY THE

ASHANTEES, JAN. 21, 1824.

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the King destroyed the Dutch Fort at Connantine.

The Ashantees invaded it again in 1811, and the third time in 1816; the occasion of this incursion is supposed to have arisen from the following cause:A man of opulence of Amoo died, and, as is customary on those occasions, gold and other valuable articles were deposited with the body in the grave. On this occasion, one of Chiboo's people, (a rival petty King) was present, and seeing what was done, watched an opportunity to rob the grave, which he effected, and escaped with the treasure. Amoo

sought redress of his neighbour in vain; and at last appealed to the King of the Ashantees (to whom they were both tributary), he summoned both parties before him, and after an impartial hearing, decided in favour of Amoo, The No. 64.

other party not relishing this judgment, refused obedience to the decree-committed fresh aggressions on his neighbour and ultimately induced the Ashantees to take up arms against them. The Fantees joined the Cheboos, and became an equal object of hatred with their allies.

This war inflicted the greatest miseries on the Fantees; few were slain in battle, for they rarely dared to encounter the invaders, but the butcheries in cold blood were incredible, and thousands were dragged into the interior to be sacrificed to the superstitions of the conquerors. From the prolonged blockade of Cape Coast Castle in the last invasion, government were induced to offer their mediation with the Ashantees, and an Embassy was dispatched with a large sum in gold, and suitable presents, which was conducted by the late M. Bowditch.

The Ashantee King having asserted claim of sovereignty over the Fantee country, that claim was admitted and guaranteed on the part of England by the British Consul, Mr. Dupuis.

Thus stood the affairs of the Gold Coast in 1821, when all the British settlements there were added to the Colony of Sierra Leone, and placed under the command of that most able and active Governor Sir Charles MacCarthy. Sir Charles shortly afterwards went thither in person, and was ever after incessantly moving from one part of his Government to another, promoting improvements of all kinds, and personally directing their execution. The new energy thus displayed by the English on the Gold Coast imposed a salutary check on 13 the savage Chief of Ashantee; and at the same time held out to the neighbouring States a hope of protection against his oppressions. He was there"fore for some time quiet; but having in a fit of passion seized on a Negro serjeant in our service, and put him to death, Sir Charles MacCarthy felt himself bound to avenge the insult. A new Bi. corps had been formed on the Gold Coast, under the title of the Royal African Light Infantry, and had attained a high degree of discipline. A detachment of this corps took the field under Captain Laing, an officer peculiarly well qualified for this service, inasmuch as he had a year or two before penetrated very far into the interior on an exploratory mission had previously suffered

tribes which

Leone. The

from the tyranny of Sai Tootoo Qua

mina now seized the opportunity of shaking off his yoke, and many of them spontaneously swore allegiance to the English government. In May last, all the districts on the sea coast west of the volta were in arms, to the amount of thirty thousand warriors; whilst in the interior the inhabitants unanimously refused to pay the tributary exactions. Captain Laing took the Fantee country under his especial care. This officer, in August last, with a detachment of the 2d West India regiment, and a body of the Annamaboe militia, supported by several Native Chiefs, totally defeated the Ashantees at Assecuma. On the 19th of last November Sir Charles Mac Carthy arrived from Sierra Leone at Cape Coast, where he remained on the 13th of December, the date of the last Gold Coast Gazettes which have reached this country. At that time the Ashantees had not ventured to approach the coast; a camp had been formed by the British troops; and great numbers of the Native Chiefs had joined them, and sworn allegiance to the British govern

ment.

The following is the most accurate account of the battle, which our engraving delineates :

It seems, that notwithstanding the amicable arrangements which were supposed to have taken place between the British settlers on the coast of Africa and the ferocious Ashantees, the latter have attacked Sir Charles M'Carthy, Governor of Sierra Leone. The result has been most disastrous.

This melancholy affair is thus related in the Barbadoes Mercury:

---

"BRIDGETOWN, March 20, 1824.

The brig which arrived on Thursday last Africa, gives an account of a sanguinary conflict that lately happened between the Ashantees, a very powerful race, and a force composed of about 4,000 natives and others of Cape Coast Castle, an English settlement in that neighbourhood. The former had, of late, made frequent incursions for the purpose of plundering the latter territory; and in one of these had seized a British sergeant, whom they murdered, and afterwards mutilated in a most horrid manner. To avenge this crime, and the insult offered the English flag, Sir Charles M'Carthy, Governor of Sierra Leona, immediately prepared this expedition, which was formed commanded, and was into three divisions, one of which he accompanied by many merchants and volunteers; but, be

fore the three parties could form a junction, Sir Charles was intercepted by -10,000 of the Ashantees, with whom he fought as long as his ammunition lasted; but being at length overpowered by such an immense number of the foe, he and those with him were either massacred or made prisoners; and, from their bloodthirsty characters, it is feared the first of these disasters has befallen him, and under circumstances of aggravated cruelty. Although fourteen days has elapsed since the departure of this expedition, no intelligence of Sir Charles or of the merchants had reached the Cape when the Elizabeth left that coast. It has been surmised that the Ashantees had been instigated to their late ill conduct by some foreign traders in a neighbouring district, on account of the exertions of the British in intercepting the African slave trade."

A Captain L'Estrange was so affected by the dreadful sights which he saw on the march, that, on seeing two children hung up by the neck, and two with their bellies cut open, he dropped down and died!

The following particulars relating to this barbarous people we select from the travels of Bowditch, and other authentic

'Sources:

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The Gold Coast extends from about three degrees W. long. to as many degrees E., and lies in 5 or 6 degrees N. latitude. Ashantee, which is the capital of the nation of that name, is more inland than our settlement of Sierra Leone, and is bounded on the W. by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the S. by the Gulph of Guinea. Bosman and Barbot mention the Ashantees as first heard of by Europeans, about the year 1700; the latter calls it Assiantee or Juta, and .writes that it is west of Mandingo, and joins Akim on the east; he asserts its pre-eminence in wealth and power.Issert, a physician in the Danish service, who meditated a visit to Ashantee, writes---"this mighty king has a piece of gold as a charm, more than four men can carry, and innumerable slaves are "constantly at work for him in the mountains, each of whom must collect or produce two ounces of gold per diem." The Akims formerly dug much gold, but they are now forbidden by the King of Ashantee, to whom they are tributary as well as the Aquamboos, formerly a very formidable nation. In Dr. Leyden's discoveries in Africa, we find "the northern border of Akim extends to Tonouwah, denominated also Juta, E

Assienti or Assentai, from its capital city of that name." Mr. Dalzel heard of the Ashantees at Dahomey, as a very powerful nation.

At some distance from Cape Coast Castle, the principal British settlement in the interior, is situated the town of Comassie, the residence of Sai Tootoo Quamina, the Chief or King of the Ashantees. His dominions are of great extent, the population considerable, and the disposition both of King and people extremely prone to war. The Ashantee army,' says Sir George Collier, 'is numerous beyond belief; and though quite an irregular mass, yet more than 60,000 can be collected, acquainted with the use of fire-arms, ready to sacrifice their lives to the nod or caprice of their Chief or King, who is known to be savage and cruel in the extreme.'

A General is appointed to the command of an army by receiving a gold handled sword of the King's from his hand (who strikes him gently with it three times on the head), swearing to return it encrusted with the blood of his conquered enemies. One of the King's Linguists always accompanies an army of any consequence, to whom all the politics of the war are intrusted, and whose talent and intelligence in negociating are expected to mature the fruits of the military genius of the General, and to re-imburse the expence of the war by heavy fines and contributions. The Ashantees are superior in discipline, and in courage, to the people of the water side, though their discipline is limited to the following precautions:---They never pursue when it is near sun-set; the General is always in the rear; the secondary captains lead the soldiers on, whilst those in command, with a few chosen individuals, urge them forward with their heavy swords, and cut any man down who retreats until the case is desperate. The first object of the Ashantee, in close fight, is to spring upon the throat of his enemy; to advance every time he fires, he feels to be imperative if his commander thinks it possible, who would otherwise, if he escaped death in the action, inflict it on him directly it was over. The General has his umbrella spread in the rear, and besides his guard has several musquets ready loaded, for those soldiers who may be driven to him in case of reverse. His band plays all the time, and in his assumed contempt for the enemy, it is his etiquette to divert himself at some game, whilst the heads of the slain of

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any rank, in the hostile army, are sent to him to put his foot on. When the result of an important action is expected even with an anxiety by no means sanguine, and the messengers are known to be near the capital, the King is always seated, in public, with his golden worra before him, playing with some dignitary, and thus receives the news, to impress the people with confidence by his affected indifference to victory or defeat.

"Several of the hearts of the enemy are cut out by the fetish men who follow the army, and the blood and small pieces being mixed with various consecrated herbs, all those who had never killed an enemy before, eat a portion; for it is believed if they did not, their vigour and courage would be secretly wasted by the haunting spirit of the deceased. It was said that the King and all the Dignitaries partook of the heart of any celebrated enemy. The army is prohibited during the active parts of the campaign from all food but meal, which each man carries in a small bag at his side, and mixes in his hand with the first water he comes to: this, they allege, is to prevent cooking-fires from betraying their position, or anticipating a surprise. Ashantee spies have been stationed two or three days in the high trees overlooking Cape Coast Castle, with no other supply than this meal and a little water, before the enemy has shewn himself. There is always a distinct body of recruits with the army, to dispatch those with their knives whom the musket has only wounded, and they are all expected to return well armed from despoiling the enemy, or they are not esteemed of promise, and dismissed to some servile occupation.

"It is the invariable policy of Ashantee to make the contingents of the power last subdued, the revolters recently quelled, or the allies last accepted, the van of their army throughout the campaign, and very frequently there are no Ashantees but Captains with the army; but it is composed entirely of tributaries and allies.'

Speaking of the military forces, Mr. Bowditch says, "I can only calculate the population of the kingdom of Ashantee, small in itself, from its military force, which amounts to 204,000; this appears an extravagant force, until we recollect that it is probably one-fifth of the whole population. Barbot heard of the Ashantees losing 50,000 in two actions, an exaggeration which, neverthe

less, serves to argue great military sources. Since the Ashantee invasion, their disposable force has been estimated by old residents, in public reports, as upwards of 150,000."

In Mr. Hutchinson's Diary, which is quoted by Mr. Bowditch, the following statement is made:--

"When any public execution or sacrifice is to take place, the ivory horns of the King proclaim at the Palace door. Wow! Wow! wow! death! death! death! and as they cut off their heads, the bands play a peculiar strain till the operation is finished.

"On a particular occasion a message was sent to one chief to say that the King was going to his mother's house to talk a palaver, and shortly after his Majesty arose and proceeded thither, ordering the attendants to conduct me out by another door.

"This sacrifice was in consequence of the King imagining that if he washed the bones of his mother and sisters, who died while he was on the throne, it would propitiate the Fetish, and make the war successful. Those who had done any thing to displease the King were then sent for in succession, and immolated as they entered, ‘that their blood might water the graves.' 'The whole of the night the King's execu• tioners traversed the streets, and dragged every one to the palace, where they were put in irons (which is often the case); but some one had disclosed the secret, and almost every one had filed--so that the King was disappointed of most of his distinguished victims. The Sacrifice was continued till the next Adai custom, seventeen days, at the end of which time the chiefs came from their concealment, and paraded the streets, rejoicing that they had escaped_death, although a few days might put them in the same fear."

We shall give further particulars of these people in our next.

SKETCHES OF MEN, MANNERS, &C.

THE ANIMALCULÆ. In warm weather I frequently amuse myself with examining the animalculæ contained in water, by means of a microscope; a small drop appears to contain thousands of beings endued with life; and I can look at them for hours

together without experiencing the least disposition to ennui ;---sometimes I

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