MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
31 
obliquely on each side of them, and connected above and below 
by the trunks of two large trees. The funnel-shaped baskets, 
thickly inserted at the bottom, were of split cane, and about 
twelve feet long. There are large plantations of corn around 
Sarrasou, which is a great nursery for pigs. We left it on Monday 
morning, the 19th, and passing through a small croom, Oyoko, 
stopped at another, Agogoo, about four miles distant, to dress 
ourselves in full uniform. The soil from Sarrasou was a rich black 
mould, and there were continued plantations of corn, yams, ground 
nuts, terraboys, and encruma : the yams and ground nuts were 
planted with much regularity in triangular beds, with small drains 
around each, and carefully cleared from weeds. 
Two miles from Agogoo, we crossed the marsh which insulates 
Coomassie ; the breadth at that part forty yards, and the depth 
three feet. Being within a mile of the capital, our approach was 
announced to the king, who desired us by his messengers to rest 
at a little croom, called Patiasoo, until he had finished washing, 
when captains would be deputed to conduct us to his presence. 
Distance 6'| miles. Courses N.-|-, N. N.W.f. 
We entered Coomassie at two o'clock, passing under a fetish, or 
sacrifice of a dead sheep, wrapped up in red silk, and suspended 
between two lofty poles. Upwards of 5000 people, the greater 
part warriors, met us with awful bursts of martial music, discordant 
only in its mixture ; for horns, drums, rattles, and gong-gongs were 
all exerted with a zeal bordering on phrenzy, to subdue us by the 
first impression. The smoke which encircled us from the incessant 
discharges of musquetry, confined our glimpses to the foreground ; 
and we were halted whilst the captains performed their Pyrrhic 
dance, in the centre of a circle formed by their warriors ; where a 
confusion of flags, English, Dutch, and Danish, were waved and 
flourished in all directions ; the bearers plunging and springing 
