580 Adams' s Account of the 



One of these unfortunate helngs was a 

 ■very oUl Assliantee man, the remaininR 

 four were natives of Chamba, and all 

 men 5 two of whom were middle-aged, 

 one very old, llie other young. Before 

 Ihey were led to execution, every effort 

 was made by the Europeans to purchase 

 them, but without effect. The poor 

 creatures, in this state of suffering, were 

 paraded through the town, and received 

 every ignominy that savage cruelly 

 -could devise or inflict, without a sigh 

 escaping them, and were ultimately 

 t<iken to thebeacli, under the very walls 

 of the fott, where they were butchered 

 amidst the most savage and diabolical 

 shouts of the multitude. Even females 

 assisted at the horrid ceremony, and 

 marked tliemselves with the blood of the 

 wretched victims, as it flowed from their 

 headless trunks; and, iionible to relate, 

 libations of brandy were poured into, 

 and drank from human skulls, which a 

 few minutes before had life and being. 

 VoUies of musketry were fired, savage 

 dances performed, and intoxication was 

 carried to excess during three days and 

 three nights, when the custom making 

 ceased. Their customs, or obsequies to 

 the manes of deceased ancestors, are 

 often carried to such excess by indivi- 

 duals, as to leave them in a state of 

 extreme poverty ; but all men of conse- 

 quence are compelled, at some period of 

 their lives, to perform this savage att of 

 duty to those who have long been num- 

 bered with the dead, or they would be 

 degraded, and held in the lowest esti- 

 mation by their countrymen j but more 

 especially by their own townsmen. 



A short time after this event, Capt. 

 Agry, a native of Cape Coast, and a 

 man of wealth and consequence, died. 

 He had long lingered under the malady 

 which finally terminated his existence, 

 and, as it is the practice of the Fantees 

 to execute the crabba, and cransa, or the 

 youngest wife, where the marriage has 

 not been consummated, and the boy who 

 carries the smoking apparatus belonging 

 to a great man, the moment the breath 

 leaves his body ; the progress of his 

 disease was watched with the utmost 

 anxiety, by IMr. Field, the governor of 

 the castle, who was determined to rescue 

 from a premature death, the young and 

 destined victims. The surgeon of the 

 castle, who had access to the dying 

 chief, gave noiice to the governor of his 

 approaching dissolution, and the chil- 

 dren were by stratagem brought within 

 the walls of the castle, before the fatal 

 event arrived that would have sealed 

 thiirdooiii, and sent them to an untimely 



Country extending from 

 grave. The girl was about eleven years 

 of age, and the boy nine or ien. The 

 friends and townsmen of the deceased 

 used every entreaty, and much art, to 

 obtain possession of them from the 

 governor, and even descended to 

 menaces, but without effect, Agry 

 was, therefore, interred without the 

 usual and shocking sacrifice having 

 been performed at his demise, or funeral ; 

 and his relations, a few months after- 

 wards, accepted from the governor a 

 quantity of brandy and gunpowder, to 

 be expended over his grave, as an equi- 

 valent for the lives of the two children, 

 who, at the expiration of twelve months, 

 were permitted to join the family of the 

 deceased, and lived to exi)ressiheir gra- 

 titude to their protector wherever they 

 saw him, for having rescued tliem from 

 a dreadful and premature death. The 

 circumstance of another individual 

 being saved from a sanguinary and 

 unmerited death, by a gentleman of the 

 castle, took place while I was there. 



A FIllE. 



One night we were called from our 

 beds in the castle by the sentinel on duly 

 giving an alarm of fire, and the drums 

 beating to arms. When we got on the 

 ramparts, we observed beneath us seve- 

 ral houses in the town, and near the 

 eastern wall of tiie fort, in flames, 

 which spread with great ra|)idity, as it 

 was the dry season, the houses crowded 

 logethcr, and built of very combustible 

 materials, which, during half an hour, 

 when the whole town was on fire, 

 emitted so extensive and brilliant a 

 blaze, as to give to the surrounding 

 scenery, a character of sublimity and 

 grandeur, beyond anjtiiing I had ever 

 witnessed. The night was unusually 

 dark, and not a breath of wind disturbed 

 a leaf of the forest. The flames rose 

 perpendicularly, and illuminated Iho 

 whole of the east and north sides of the 

 fort, and of the high buildings in its cen- 

 tre, forming the storehouses, and resi- 

 dence of the governor and garrison ; the 

 long dark shadows of which fell upon 

 the sea, that was brightly iMuminated on 

 each side of them to a considerable dis- 

 tance, and the surface of which was 

 tranquil, and smooth as a mirror, ex- 

 cept where tiie surf, rolling in heavy 

 masses on the shore, and covering it 

 with white foam, gave notice of its 

 proximity. Light and shade weie finely 

 contrasted and sliewn in the dense woods 

 which clothed the hills in the back- 

 ground, as they were prominent, or 

 otherwise ; and the groups of natives 

 assembled ou the beach, either in 

 despair 



