THE GOLD COAST, ASHANTI, AND KUMASSl <> 



than 10,000 inhal)itants, is situated on the Prab riven*, 72 miles 

 from the coast, and this I reached at the end of ten days. 'J'lie 

 road frt)ni the coast to this point has been through the Assin 

 country, a veritable wilderness of swamp and virgin forest, th(! 

 monotony of which was broken onl}' by great l)aml)oo groves 

 and by stagnant pools of fetid water. Villages of from 50 to 500 

 huts were passed at intervals of a few miles, and in all of them 

 the inhabitants proved hospitable and hdnest. The Prab, which 

 forms the southern boundary of the Ashanti countr}^ is an in- 

 significant stream whose course is frequently interrupted by 

 rapids and shoals. In the dry season it is navigable only a short 

 distance from its mouth, near Chama, 30 miles west of Ca})e Coast 

 Oastle. As water is a })recious commodity on the Gold coast, 

 particularly during the dry season, the natives have iniposed the 

 term "sacred" upon it. although it may have l)een in deference 

 to the particular god which makes its habitat therein. 



The path from Prahsu to Kumassi threads its way through 

 the Adansai country. For days at a time the liglit of the sun 

 never pierces the gloomy forest, and, although the traveler is thus 

 l)rotected from the fierce tropical heat, the damp atmosphere is 

 most depressing. Fort}^ miles south of Kumassi is the INIonse or 

 Adansai hill. Stanley, in 1873, roughly estimated its altitude at 

 1,600 feet, but recent observations determine it to be but 700. It 

 is an abrupt elevation, and a hundred Ashantis with modern 

 guns could easily repulse ten thousand adversaries from its rugged 

 slopes and passes. On our fourteenth day out from the coast a 

 small Ashanti village, within four miles of Kumassi, was reached. 

 My carriers insisted upon stopping here for an hour in order to 

 prejiare for an imposing entry into the capital of the Ashanti 

 kingdom. When we resumed our journey we found the physi- 

 cal features of the country changing raj)idly. 'i'he forest had 

 disappeared, and we passed along a narrow road, lined on either 

 side with tall plantains and bananas, until we emerged into an 

 open plain covered with stubble. Over this })lain our path led 

 for some two hundred yards, until the edge of the swamp which 

 surrounds Kumassi was touched. A corduroy road made this 

 easy of i)assage, and we soon found ourselves marching up a 

 slight incline that broadened into a wide street or avenue which, 

 as we afterward learned, was the main street of Kumassi. 'J'he 

 first glimpse was disappointing. Travelers, from liowditch to 

 Winwood Keade, have described Kumassi as a city of preten- 

 tious houses, possessing a stone [)alace wherein the king lived in 



