18 
MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
a large granary raised on a strong stage. As we returned we paid 
him a visit, and were refreshed with some excellent palm wine : 
his dwelling was a square of four apartments, which were entered 
from an outer one, where a number of drums were kept; the 
angles were occupied by the slaves, and his own room, which had 
a small inner chamber, was decked with muskets, blunderbusses, 
cartouch belts fantastically ornamented, and various insignia. 
The order, cleanhness, and comfort, surprised us ; the sun had 
just set, and a cheerful fire on a clean hearth supported the evening 
meal. The old man was seated in his state chair, diverting himself 
with his children and younger wives, the elder one was looking on 
from the opposite apartment with happy indifference ; it was the 
first scene of domestic comfort I had witnessed among the natives. 
There was a small plantation or garden neatly fenced in, near the 
house, for the supply of the family. 
On Saturday the 26th we left Payntree's croom, and proceeded 
through two romantic little valleys, with a few huts in each : the 
variety of trees increased with the number, and ornamented the 
hills with almost every lint and character of fohage : the path was 
frequently covered with water. Just before we reached Cotta- 
coomacasa, a most beautiful landscape opened, the fore-ground 
darkly shaded with large cotton trees, and the distance composed 
of several picturesque little hills ; their fanciful outlines, and the 
beautiful variety of fresh and sombre tint of the small groves which 
encircled them, forcibly reminded me of the celebrated ride by 
Grongar hill, from Carmarthen to Llandilo. 
Cottacoomacasa is about six miles and a quarter from Payntree's 
croom, and consisted but of a few miserable huts and sheds, which 
scarcely afforded shelter, and were close and filthy. I took the 
angles of a cotton tree near us, arid the height proved to be 139 
feet ; generally speaking, those we had passed were, to appearance, 
