20 
MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
We proceeded again at one o'clock, and passing through a small 
river, Assooneara, running eastward, we came to a second, called 
Okee, running in the same direction to the Amissa, which falls 
into the sea between Annamaboe and Tantum. We passed five or 
six swamps, one nearly half a mile long ; in these the soil was a 
. dark claj, but otherwise gravelly. We halted in the woods at a 
spot where our guide Quamina was busied in cutting down the 
underwood to accommodate himself and his women ; the bearers, 
resolute in their perverseness, had gone on with our provisions and 
clothes. The ground of our resting place was very damp, and 
swarmed with reptiles and insects ; we had great difficulty in 
keeping up our fires, which we were the more anxious to do after 
a visit from a panther : an animal which, the natives say, resembles 
a small pig, and inhabits the trees, continued a shrill screeching 
through the night ; and occasionally a wild hog bounced by, snorting 
through the forest, as if closely pursued. This day's distance was 
eight miles, and the course N. i N. b. E. -J-. Lat. and long, by 
account 5° 34' N. and 1° 48' W. Thermometer in shade 6 A. M. 74. 
We started the next morning at seven o'clock, and after three 
miles and a half crossed a small river called Gaia, and sometimes 
Aniabirrim, from a croom of that name being formerly in its neigh- 
bourhood ; it was ten yards wide and two feet deep, and ran to the 
E. just across the path, but afterwards N. N. E. to the Amissa. 
. Here Mr. Hutchison waited for Mr. James to come up, whilst 
Mr. Tedlie and myself walked on to overtake the people. The 
doom and iron-wood trees were frequent ; the path was a labyrinth 
of the most capricious windings, the roots of the cotton trees 
obstructing it continually, and our progress was generally by 
stepping and jumping up and down, rather than walking; the 
stems or caudices of these trees projected from the trunks like 
flying buttresses, their height frequently 20 feet. Immense trunks 
