WE GO TO ASHANTI 57 



CHAPTER XI 



WE GO TO ASHANTI 



FROM Accra we return by boat to Seccondee, whence 

 we go by train to Coomassie, the capital of Ashanti. 



The distance by rail from Seccondee to Coomassie is 

 168 miles, and under existing travelling conditions the 

 journey takes about twelve hours. The train passes 

 through African junglelands that present gorgeous 

 pictures of forest trees and flowers, reveal exciting 

 glimpses of famous goldfields, and recall modern history 

 stories of savagery, memories of which almost make 

 one's hair stand on end. 



At Coomassie we are met by our host and his wife. 

 He is the Agent-in-Charge for the same British cocoa- 

 buying organization with whose representative we 

 stayed at Accra. His wife is one of the twelve white 

 women in the whole European population of Coomassie, 

 which now reaches a total of about eighty. 



Our host and hostess prove to be two of the kindest 

 of all the kind people it has ever been our good fortune 

 to meet on our travels. All day and every day they 

 devote themselves to making our study of Ashanti 

 cocoa production a varied round of entertainments, 

 and their many good friends in the neighbourhood play 

 such an active part in this conspiracy in our honour that 

 we shall always remember Coomassie as one of the most 

 hospitable places we have ever visited. It is, too, a 

 particularly picturesque and historically interesting city. 



Ashanti is now a Dependency of the Gold Coast 

 Colony. We shall better understand and appreciate 

 the country as we find it to-day if we remind ourselves 

 how it came under British rule. 



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