CHAPTER VII.

* * * * *

_Climate, Population, Revenue, City, Market, &c._

The climate will be best judged of by the account of the thermometer (from May to February) in the Appendix. 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, just after sun set, ushered in by a strong wind from the south- west. The heaviest rains were from the latter end of September to the beginning of November, they fell even in more impetuous torrents than are witnessed on the coast.[96] The influence of the harmattan was described as very powerful. Generally speaking, from the elevation of Ashantee, (unfortunately we had no barometer,) it was much cooler in Coomassie than at Cape Coast; indeed, from four to six in the morning, there was a severity of cold unknown on the coast.

I can only calculate the population of the kingdom of Ashantee, small in itself, from its military force, of which the following is the most moderate of the estimates I received.

Coomassie district (extending to the northern frontier) 60,000

Dwabin ditto 35,000

Marmpon ditto 15,000

Soota ditto 15,000

Kokoofoo ditto 15,000

Becqua ditto 12,000

Adiabin ditto (between Coomassie and the lake) 12,000

Aphwagwiasee ditto 10,000

Daniasee ditto (southwards of Coomassie) 8,000

Koontarasie ditto (on the lake) 8,000

Gamasie ditto 8,000

Amafoo ditto 6,000 ------- 204,000

This appears an extravagant force, until we recollect that it is probably one fifth of the whole population.[97] The Romans when they were a nation of warriors, which these people are, raised a military force equally great in proportion to their population. Barbot heard of the Ashantees losing 50,000 men in two actions, an exaggeration which, nevertheless, serves to argue great military resources. Since the Ashantee invasions, their disposable force has been estimated by old residents in public reports, as upwards of 150,000. From the above particular statement, the population may be estimated at one million, which I believe is little more than half the population of Scotland, the area of which must be more than double that of Ashantee, which certainly does not contain more than 14,000 square miles. Amanquateä, Quatchie Quofie, Odumata, and Apokoo’s forces alone amounted to 25,000. The contingencies at command from tributaries, (21 in number) are too indefinite to attempt to detail. Neither Inta or Dagwumba furnish any, the Ashantees pretending to despise their troops too much to use them. The following, which are known to be pretty correct, have generally been the first called into action:

Coranza 10,000

Assin 8,000

Takima 6,000

Dankara 5,000

Warsaw 7,000

Booroom 12,000

Sawee 4,000

Akim 4,000, before their later destructive revolts 16,000

Aquapim, &c. 1,000

Though polygamy is tolerated to such an excess amongst the higher orders, I do not think, from observation, that the proportion of women to men is two to one. Most of the lower order of freemen have but one wife, and very few of the slaves (the greater proportion of the military force) any. The following calculation is the only one I can think of, and it supports my impression after five months residence.

204,000 Men able to bear arms, about one-fifth of the whole population 1,000,000

101,000 Or one-fourth, children under ten years of age as found in Great Britain.

50,000 Boys above that age not capable of bearing arms.

7,000 Or one in about 28 incapacitated by old age or accidents, as found in Great Britain. ------- 362,000 Males 362,000 ------- Females 638,000

The men are very well made, but not so muscular as the Fantees; their countenances are frequently aquiline. The women also are generally handsomer than those of Fantee, but it is only amongst the higher orders that beauty is to be found, and amongst them, free from all labour or hardship, I have not only seen the finest figures, (which the ease of their costume and habits may account for,) but, in many instances, regular Grecian features, with brilliant eyes set rather obliquely in the head. Beauty in a Negress must be genuine, since complexion prejudices instead of imposes, and the European adjudges it to the features only, which appeared in this class to be Indian rather than African; nor is it surprising, when we recollect that they are selected from, or are the daughters of the handsomest slaves or captives; or are expressly chosen by their interior neighbours, to compose part of their tribute to the King of Ashantee, who retains but a small proportion.

Both men and women are particularly cleanly in their persons, the latter washing themselves, and the former being washed by them daily on rising, from head to foot, with warm water and Portuguese soap, using afterwards the vegetable grease or butter, which is a fine cosmetic. Their cloths, which are beetled, are always scrupulously clean. The lowest orders are generally dirty. Occasionally, small delicate patterns in green or white paint are traced on their cheeks and temples. The Moorish negresses darken the edges of their eye lids with lead reduced to a fine powder. The ore was brought from Mallowa and is very rich. The powder is moistened a little, and kept in small boxes, like bodkin cases with a bulb at the end, and prettily covered with cow’s hair, within which is a metal stylus to apply the powder, as the women of India do antimony for this purpose. Top-cloths are generally worn, and not by the higher order only as in Fantee. They are commonly of a coarse silk bought at Dagwumba. They wear little or no antiffoo, a sort of cushion projecting from just below the small of the back in the Fantee women, by the size of which, frequently preposterous, and at all times unsightly, their rank, or the number of their children is known. The bosoms of girls of thirteen and fourteen are frequently models, but the young women sedulously destroy this beauty for what is considered a greater, wearing a broad band tight across their breasts, until ceasing to be globular they project conically. Their heads are shaved in fanciful elaborate patterns, having as intricate an appearance as a rich carpet.

The food of the higher orders is principally soup of dried fish, fowls, beef, or mutton, (according to the fetish,) and ground nuts stewed in blood. The poorer class make their soups of dried deer, monkeys flesh, and frequently of the pelts of skins. Yams, plantains, and foofoos, (see the kouskous of Mr. Park) are commonly eaten, and they do not make cankey of their corn, (a coarser sort of kouskous not cleared from the husk) as the Fantees do, but they roast it on the stalk, and when young the flavour closely resembles that of green peas. Besides palm wine they drink Pittō, made from dried corn, which I think must have been the beer Lieutenant Martyn relished so much, for it is quite as pleasant as a brisk small ale. They are forbidden eggs by the fetish, and cannot be persuaded to taste milk, which is only drank by the Moors. Their stews and white soups are excellent, and my companions reported their black soups (made with palm oil) to be equally so.

I cannot pretend to calculate the variable revenue of Ashantee, nor indeed to report its optional sources; I noted a few particulars.

1. The dust gold of all deceased and disgraced subjects. Boiteäm, the father of Otee, left five jars (said to hold about four gallons each) and two flasks. On Appia Nanu’s disgrace three jars were seized.

2. A tax in gold upon all slaves purchased for the coast.[98] Customs paid in gold by all traders returning from the coast, levied near Ansa in Assin.

3. A tax on the elephant hunters.

4. The small pits in Soko, which with the washings were reported to yield, sometimes 2,000 ounces per month, at others not more than 700.

5. The daily washings throughout Dankara, and the hills dividing Akim and Assin; very rich in gold.

6. A tax on every chief increasing the number of his gold ornaments. Apokoo paid 20 periguins to the King on melting 100.

7. The soil of the market place (see Laws) has been washed but twice during the present reign. I was told it produced about 800 ounces of gold each time. During our stay a heavy rain washed down a large quantity, which was replaced and carefully covered with the soil, by the Captain in charge of the market place. It was very easily seen after rain.

The tributes of the various nations they had subdued, were in some instances fixed, but more frequently indefinite, being proportioned to the exigencies of the year; indeed from various conversations with Apokoo and others, and my own observations during state palavers, it appeared that the necessities and the designs of the Ashantee government were the superior considerations, and the rule in levying tribute every where. I made the following memoranda.

Inta and Dagwumba never pay in gold, which though plentiful from commerce, is not found there, cowries being the circulating medium. Their capitals and all their large towns send the following tribute annually, and the smaller in proportion.

500 Slaves.

200 Cows.

400 Sheep.

400 Cotton cloths.

200 Ditto and silk.

Takima a smaller proportion of the same kind.

Coranza is generally excused, from fidelity, and a long series of military services.

Sawee 200 periguins annually.

Moinseän 50 bendas ditto.

Gaman had paid, (besides all large pieces of rock gold,) 100 periguins ditto.

Akim, Assin, Warsaw, Aowin, &c. &c. were taxed indefinitely by crooms.

Coomassie is built upon the side of a large rocky hill of iron stone. It is insulated by a marsh close to the town northwards, and but a narrow stream; half a mile distant from it N.W., and 60 yards broad; close to it N.E., E., S.E., and S., and about 100, 20, 70, and 50 yards broad at these points. In many parts depth after heavy rains was five feet, and commonly two. The marsh contains many springs, and supplies the town with water, but the exhalation covers the city with a thick fog morning and evening, and engenders dysentery, with which the natives of the coast who accompanied us were almost immediately attacked, as well as the officers. It is a little extraordinary that we never saw a musquito in Ashantee. I could find none but birds eye views of the city, which were uninteresting, presenting nothing but the thatch of the houses; it was encircled by a beautiful forest, which required more time than I could spare, and a more expressive pencil to pourtray. Coomassie is an oblong of nearly four miles in circumference, not including the suburbs of Assafoo nor Bantama, (the back town,) half a mile distant, and formerly connected by streets with the city, as is evident from the numerous ruins of houses on the path. The slaughter of constant warfare, and the extinction or removal of several ill affected chiefs with their adherents, account for this even in a rising state. The ruins in the interval to Bantama were indeed accounted for by Amanquateä (who holds his court there, as Quatchie Quofie does at Assafoo) informing us, that almost all the Ashantees killed before Annamaboe (about 2000 by the most moderate computation) belonged to him, as it was his division which marched along the beach from Cormantine, exposed to the cannon of the fort. Four of the principal streets are half a mile long, and from 50 to 100 yards wide. I observed them building one, and a line was stretched on each side to make it regular. The streets were all named, and a superior captain in charge of each; ours for instance, was Aperremsoo, big gun or cannon street, because those taken when Dankara was conquered, were placed on a mound at the top of it, near Adoo Quamina’s house. The area in which we had our first audience was called Daëbrim, the great market, in distinction to a lower street called Gwaba, or the small market. The street above where we lived was called Osamarandiduüm, meaning literally, “with 1000 muskets you could not fight those who live there.” One street was named after Odumata, and there was another near it, whose title I forget, but it was equal to prison street. The palace was situated in a long and wide street running through the middle of the town, from which it was shut out by a high wall, terminating at each end at the marsh, where it was discontinued, that being a sufficient boundary. It included Odumata’s and the King’s brothers residences, and two or three small streets, (besides the several areas and piazzas,) for the King’s relief and recreation when the superstitions of the country confine him to the palace. I reckoned twenty seven streets in all, which I have laid down in a ground plan of the town. The small grove at the back of the large market place was called Sammonpomë or the spirit- house, because the trunks of all the human victims were thrown into it. The bloody tracks, daily renewed, shewed the various directions they had been dragged from, and the number of vultures on the trees indicated the extent of the recent sacrifice; the stench was insupportable, and the visits of panthers nightly. Several trees were individually scattered about the town for the recreation of the inhabitants of those quarters, and small circular elevations of two steps, the lower about 20 feet in circumference, like the bases of the old market crosses in England, were raised in the middle of several streets, on which the King’s chair was placed when he went to drink palm wine there, his attendants encircling him.

[Illustration: _Ichnographical Sketch of_ COOMASSIE, _with the principal Streets and the Situations of remarkable Houses._

1. Entrance from Fantee and Assin.

2. Agwabu or the small market.

3. King’s eldest Sister’s house.

4. —— Goldsmith’s ditto.

5. Appia Nanu’s ditto.

6. Otee’s (3d Linguist) ditto.

7. Odumata’s (1 of the 4) ditto.

8. King’s youngest Sister’s ditto.

9. Adoom Street.

9.* Baba’s house and the Crambos (Moors) Street.

10.* Aboogaywa or place of execution.

10. Palace.

11. King’s wives Croom.

12. Marsh.

13. Entrance from Dwabin.

14. ——— Barramang.

15. King of Dwabin’s temporary Court.

16. King’s Blacksmith’s Croom.

_a._ Himma or the King’s fetish temple.

_b._ Apokoo’s (1 of the 4) house.

_c._ Adoocee’s (chief linguist.)

_d._ Apirremsoo Street.

_e[Symbol]._ Aboidwee’s house, the quarters of the Embassy.

_f._ Adoo Quamina’s (chief Captain) house.

_g._ Osarramandiduum Street.

_h._ King’s Umbrella maker’s Croom.

_i._ Entrance to the high street of Bantama.

_k._ Croom.

_l._ Ditto.

_m._ Ditto.

_n._ Long irregular suburb, and road to Dankara.

_o._ Sammonpome or the Spirit Grove.

_p._ Adooebrim, the large market place.

_p*._ Small Market.

_q._ High Street of Assafoo. Course of the procession of the Embassy on its entré.

_r._ Halted to witness the war dance.

_s._ Halted to pass the baggage and presents.

_t._ Halted to witness the human sacrifice.

_u._ Presented to the King and Chiefs.

_w._ Seated to see them march home.

_T. E. Bowdich_, 1817.]

The Ashantees persisted that the population of Coomassie, when collected, was upwards of 100,000. I think it likely to be much greater than that of Sego, (which Mr. Park reported as 30,000,) from the extended masses of crowd I observed on festivals, when the plantations of the environs are almost wholly deserted. I compared them in my recollection with the crowds I have seen collected in the secondary cities of England, on similar occasions of public curiosity; the only criterion, as I had not time to finish reckoning the number of houses. I say when collected, because the higher class could not support their numerous followers, or the lower their large families, in the city, and therefore employed them in plantations, (in which small crooms were situated,) generally within two or three miles of the capital, where their labours not only feed themselves, but supply the wants of the chief, his family, and more immediate suite. The middling orders station their slaves for the same purpose, and also to collect fruits and vegetables for sale, and when their children become numerous, a part are generally sent to be supported by these slaves in the bush. Perhaps the average resident population of Coomassie is not more than from 12 to 15,000.

The markets were held daily from about eight o’clock in the morning until sun set. The larger contains about sixty stalls or sheds, (a small square frame covered with cotton cloth with a pole from the centre, stuck into the ground, see drawing, No. 9.) besides throngs of inferior venders, seated in all directions. Amongst the articles for sale, were beef, (to us about 8_d._ per lb.) and mutton, cut in small pieces for soup, wild hog, deer, and monkey’s flesh, fowls, pelts of skins; yams, plantains, corn, sugar-cane, rice, encruma, (a mucilaginous vegetable, richer than asparagus, which it resembles,) peppers, vegetable butter; oranges, papaws, pine apples, (not equal to those on the coast,) bananas; salt and dried fish from the coast; large snails smoke dried, and stuck in rows on small sticks in the form of herring bone; eggs for fetish; pittō, palm wine, rum; pipes, beads, looking-glasses, sandals, silk, cotton cloth, powder, small pillows, white and blue cotton thread, calabashes, &c. &c. See Chapter on Trade.

The following are the comparative prices of the markets of Coomassie and Yahndi, the capital of Dagwumba:

_Coomassie._ _Yahndi._

A fat bullock £.6 0 0 £.1 0 0

A sheep 0 15 0 0 4 0

A fowl 0 1 8 0 0 5

A horse 24 0 0 8 0 0

Yams 0 0 8 for two 0 0 8 for ten.

The surprising exorbitance of the former is to be accounted for by the abundance of gold, yet labour and manufacture was moderately purchased. In Mallowa, provision is dearer than in Dagwumba, but the articles of trade much cheaper; they manufacture very little cloth, the Moorish traders supplying it so abundantly. The cattle we saw in Ashantee were as large as the English, unlike those on the coast, which resemble the Jersey. The sheep are hairy in Ashantee, but woolly in Dagwumba, an open country, where they manufacture a coarse blanket. The horses in Dagwumba are generally small, some were described to be 15 hands high, but these were never parted with, and the Ashantees did not desire them, for I never saw but one who rode fearlessly. The horses I saw were like half bred galloways, their legs lathy, with a wiry hair about the fetlock, only requiring to be pulled. Their heads were large; dun and mouse colours were said to be common; they were never shod, and their hoofs consequently in the eye of the European, though not in nature, disproportionate; they were fed on guinea grass, occasionally mixed with salt, and sal-ammoniac was frequently dissolved in the water. The saddles were Moorish, of red leather, and cumbersome; the bridles of twisted black leather thongs, and brass links, with a whip at the end; the bit severe, with a large ring hanging from the middle, and slipped over the under jaw instead of a curb chain; the stirrups were like large blow pans, and hung very short. Some of the Moors rode on bullocks, with a ring through the nose.

The extent and order of the Ashantee plantations surprised us, yet I do not think they were adequate to the population; in a military government they were not likely to be so. Their neatness and method have been already noticed in our route up. They use no implement but the hoe. They have two crops of corn a year, plant their yams at Christmas, and dig them early in September. The latter plantations had much the appearance of a hop garden well fenced in, and regularly planted in lines, with a broad walk around, and a hut at each wicker gate, where a slave and his family resided to protect the plantation.

All the fruits mentioned as sold in the market grew in spontaneous abundance, as did the sugar cane: the oranges were of a large size and exquisite flavour. I believe this fruit has hitherto been considered indigenous to India only. We saw no cocoa nut trees, nor was that fruit in the market. Mr. Park’s route was through a very different country.[99] In the marshy ground, a large species of fern is very abundant, there are four varieties of it; in shady places that have been cultivated, various tribes of urtica; and the leontodon grows abundantly to the north of Coomassie. The miraculous berry, which gives acids the flavour of sweets, making limes taste like honey, is common.[100] The castor oil, (ricinus communis) rises to a large tree, I have only seen it as a bush about three feet high on the coast; and the wild fig is abundant, though neither of them are used by the natives. The cotton plant is very plentiful, but little cultivated. The only use to which they apply the silk cotton, is to the stuffing of cushions and pillows.[101] Mr. Park observed the tobacco-plant, which grows luxuriantly in Inta and Dagwumba, and is called toah. The visitors from those countries recognised it in a botanical work. They first dry the leaves in the sun, then, having rubbed them well between their hands, mix them with water into oval masses, as will be seen; it is further noticed in the Trade Report.

Lions are numerous on the northern frontiers of Inta, elephants (assoon, F. A. soorer, B.[102]) are remarkably numerous in Kong, but they are also found in Ashantee, with wild hogs (yambo, F. A.) hyænas (patacoo, F. A. boofooree, B.,) cows (anantwee, F. A. B.,) sheep (ygwan, F. A. tsan, B.,) goats (apunkie, F. A. terrie, B.,) deer (wonsan, F. A. B.,) antelopes (ettwan, F. A. B.,) dogs (boddum, etcha, F. tweä, A. opooree, B.,) approximating to the Danish, cats (agramwaw, F. A. B.,) extremely sharp visaged and long necked, Gennet cats (essoor, F. A. B.,) pangolins (appra, F. A. aypra, B.,) alligators (dankim, F. A. B.,) &c. &c. &c. The rhinoceros (năree) is found in Boroom, and the hippopotamus (shonsa, A. tchoosooree, B.) in the Odirree river.

The Ashantees say, that an animal called sissah or sissirree, will attack every other however superior in size. The Fantees who had never seen it, had imbibed a tremendous idea of it, from the stories in their own country. I doubt its being so formidable to all other animals, for the skin I saw was not more than three feet long, and the legs short, it resembled that of a boar, but the natives said it was between a pig and a goat. I enquired of the people of Inta and Dagwumba if they had ever heard of a unicorn; one replied, yes! in the white man’s country. It is extraordinary that the gnoo, (antelope gnu,) which is found behind the Cape of Good Hope, is known in Inta by the same name.[103] Where the beds were not an accumulation of cushions, the skin of the gnoo was nailed to a large wooden frame, raised on legs about a foot from the ground, and stretched as we would sacking. It was a revered custom that no virgin of either sex should sleep on this kind of bed. Another animal, called otrum, was described by the inhabitants of the eastern frontier as having one very long horn on one side of the head and a short one on the other; it is much larger than the gnoo. We met with a spotted animal of the cat kind (gahin, F. A. B.,) very common, and allied to the leopard or panther, but whether referable to either of those species, or to be considered as distinct, we could not determine, owing to the very vague and unsatisfactory character by which naturalists have attempted to distinguish them, the kind and number of the rows of spots; which we have observed in individuals of the same decided species, to present almost an infinity of variation.

The vulture (pittay, F. A. epraykee, B.,) which I have before mentioned to be venerated by the natives, for the same reason which the Egyptians venerated the Vulturus Percnopterus, is the Vulturus Monachus, figured by Le Vaillant. Green pigeons (assam) are found, and crows with a white ring round their necks, probably the corvus scapularis figured by Le Vaillant. There were several small birds of beautiful plumage, which sung melodiously; two in particular, the one like a blackbird, and the other of the same colour as the English thrush, but larger. Also a variety of parrots beautifully spangled with different colours. M. Cuvier was misinformed when he wrote (Regne animal, tom. i. p. 108) “Macaque est le nom générique des singes à la côte de Guinée.” The name is unknown there as well as in the interior. Dokoo is the generic name. The Simia Diana (effoor, F. A. B.,) which has the most beautiful skin of any monkey, is found in Ashantee as well as in Warsaw. All the natives agree that they do not know of any monkies which dare to attack men, but the akonëson, which they describe as small, and always seen in troops.

Snakes (aboïtinnee, F. A. ewaw, B.,) green, and of all colours; scorpions, lizards, &c. &c. were found as on the coast, with a curious variety of beetles, and the most beautiful butterflies. A few specimens preserved in spirits will be sent to the British Museum,[104] as the best apology for my ignorance rather than neglect of natural history.

[Footnote 96: At Cape Coast in 1815 there was scarcely any rain fell in its season, from May to August. In 1816, the rains were heavy, but no fogs succeeded. In 1817, there was but little rain, but a protracted succession of slight fogs. The climate has been observed, by old residents, to alter as unaccountably within these few years as that of Europe.]

[Footnote 97: “My friend Mr. Morton Pitt, M.P. has proved, by the enumeration of the inhabitants of a country parish in Dorsetshire, that the men of an age capable of bearing arms are one fourth of the whole community. Mr. Horneman, if I understand him rightly, states the number of actual warriors to be 1500; so that we ought, perhaps, to multiply that number by 5, to get nearer to the total amount of the population.” _Major Rennell_.]

[Footnote 98: Issert mentions this being levied in Akim and other tributary states.]

[Footnote 99: “It is observable, however, that although many species of the edible roots which grow in the West India islands, are found in Africa, yet I never saw, in any part of my journey, either the sugar cane, the coffee, or the cocoa tree; nor could I learn, on inquiry, that they were known to the natives. The pine apple, and the thousand other delicious fruits, which the industry of civilized man (improving the bounties of nature,) has brought to such great perfection in the tropical climates of America, are here equally unknown. I observed, indeed, a few orange and banana trees, near the mouth of the Gambia; but whether they were indigenous, or were formerly planted there by some of the white traders, I could not positively learn. I suspect that they were originally introduced by the Portuguese.” Park’s First Mission.]

[Footnote 100: The curious fruit mentioned in the introduction, and to which I have given the name of oxyglycus, I find was known to Des Marchais, who describes it as a little red fruit, which, being chewed, gives a sweet taste to the most sour or bitter things. Dalzel’s Dahomey.]

[Footnote 101: Cotton of the cotton tree (or _silk_ cotton) _Bombax Pentandrium_ _Lin._ This cotton is not made into thread, but is used for making pillows and beds. It is also, from its catching fire so easily, commonly put into tinder boxes, and employed in the preparation of fire works. Ainslie’s Materia Medica of Hindostan.]

[Footnote 102: F. A. affixed to assoon, denote that to be the native name in the Fantee and Ashantee languages, as B. represents Boroom.]

[Footnote 103: C’est probablement lui qui a donné lieu à leur _catoblepas_. Voyez Pline, lib. 8, c. 32, et Ælien, lib. 7, c. 5, Cuvier. The gnoo is almost always _looking down_.]

[Footnote 104: See Dr. Leach’s notice in the Appendix.]