22 
MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
the Ashantee traders to deposit yams and plantains to subsist them 
on their return ; so severe was the scarcity in the Fantee country : 
we could purchase nothing, and were admitted to the best hovel 
with reluctance. This day's distance was 14 miles. The courses 
N. f N. N. W. i N. b W. i. The latitude of Fousou by observation, 
was 5° 43' 20'' N. and the longitude by account r 52' W. 
The next morning, the 29th of April, we marched seven miles to 
Ancomassa, a name given to half a dozen sheds ; the path was still 
of the same rugged nature, and the gloom unvaried. A strong 
fragrance was emitted from the decaying plants and trees of the 
mimosa kind, whilst others in the same incipient state of putrefac- 
tion were very offensive. We passed through two small rivers, 
Bettensin and Soubin, six yards wide, and shallow ; they both ran 
eastward to the Owa, of which I could not learn more than that it 
emptied itself into the Boosempra. 
We proceeded at four o'clock, and had not gone two miles on 
our gloomy route before it became dark. The path was level, but 
very swampy, and generally covered with water. The fire-flies 
spangled the herbage in every direction, and from the strength of 
their light, alternately excited the apprehension of wild beasts, and 
the hope that we approached the resting place our guide, whom 
we never saw after starting, had told us of in the morning. The 
greatest fear of the people Avas of the spirits of the woods, (whom 
Mr. Park's interpreter, Johnson, propitiated by a sacrifice between 
Jing and Gangaddi) and the discordant yells in which they 
rivalled each other to keep up their courage, mingled with the 
howls and screeches from the forest, imposed a degree of horror 
on this dismal scene, which associated it with the imaginations of 
Dante. Three or four times we suddenly emerged from the most 
awful gloom into extensive areas, on which the stars shed a 
brilliancy of light gradually softened into the deep shade which 
