232 MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
The Dwabin monarchy is said to have been founded at the same 
time bj Boitinne, who was of the same family as Sai Tootoo, being 
the sons of sisters, Boitinne and his party, took possession of 
Dwabin, the largest of the aboriginal towns, (leaving Sai Tootoo 
to build Coomassie) whence it seems his followers were the more 
powerful ; indeed I have heard it confessed by a few Ashantees, 
that Dwabin had formerly the pre-eminence, though they have 
always been firm allies in war, and equal sharers in spoil and con- 
quest. This common interest, preserved uninterrupted more than 
a century, by two rising powers, close to each other, with the view 
of a more rapid aggrandisement, and their firm discretion in making 
many serious disagreements subservient to the policy, is one of the 
few circumstances worth considering in a history composed of 
wars and successions. I do not think there is such an instance in 
our heptarchy, nor do I recollect any other in history, but that of 
Chalcis and Eretria. 
Bakkee, who died, as I have related,* about a year ago, was the 
son of Sai Apokoo, the second king, and an infant at the breast at 
the time of his father's death ; he was a very old man when he 
incurred the present King's displeasure, which supports the report 
of the Moors, that the kingdom has been founded about 110 years. 
Bosman and Barbot mention the Ashantees, as just heard of by 
Europeans, about the year 1700, which confirms this account. 
The anxiety of the Ashantee government for daily records, imme- 
diately on the establishment of the Moors, who were only visitors 
until the present reign, acknowledges the perplexities and deficien- 
cies of their early history too candidly, to leave any encouragement 
to the researches of strangers. Records beyond half a century are 
not to be found in the archives either of Cape Coast, or Christians- 
burg Castles, so that the chronology can only be founded on that 
of the Moors, and circumstances. 
* See Diary. 
