MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
151 
the King's hand for the last time, when I reflected on the benevo- 
lence, the soHcitude, and the generosity I had exeprienced whilst 
my life was in his hands, affected bj the most untoward and 
irritating political circumstances, by the aggravated suspicions of 
his chiefs, and by the poisonous jealousy of the Moors, there was 
a painful gratification in the retrospect, which blended the wish to 
linger another hour in listening to acknowledgments of esteem and 
obligation, more affecting than flattering, and enhanced by the 
consoling reflection, that they were the natural emotions of one of 
those monarchs we are pleased to call barbarians. Night was 
coming on, but as I had so positively declared before the King 
and his council, on the former occasion, that nothing should deter 
me from keeping my word in quitting Coomassie on this day, it 
would not do to delay even until the morning. A strict observance 
of your word, is every thing in the eye of a Negro. The King 
said, he would not beg me to stay, as I had declared I dared not; 
he would only ask me to go no further than Ogogoo, that pight, 
and his people should join me early in the morning. Our exit was 
a brilliant scene, from the reflection of the glittering ornaments of 
the King and his captains by the torches ; they were seated in a 
deep and long line, without the palace, accompanied by their 
retinues ; all their bands burst forth together, as we saluted the 
King in passing, and we were enveloped in the smoke of the 
musketry. The darkness of the forest was an instantaneous and 
awful contrast, and the bowlings and screeches of the wild beasts, 
startled us as we groped our way, as if we had never heard them 
before. The torches provided for our protection against them 
were extinguished in crossing the marsh, which had swollen to 
between four and five feet deep, and the descent to it from Coo- 
massie was rocky and abrupt. The hnguists and soldiers lost 
themselves in the forest, and did not arrive at Ogogoo until long 
