278 
MISSION TO ASHANT.ee. 
in tunics, bearing lances, and his musicians with rude vioHns, 
distinct from the sanko. The back of the whole assembly is lined 
with rojal soldiers, and the commoner ones are ranged in front, 
with here and there a captain and a group of musicians, who, some 
with an old cocked hat, some with a soldier's jacket, &c. Sec. aiford 
a ludicrous appearance. This description will be rendered more 
illustrative of the drawing, by referring to that of our entr6. 
The next morning the King ordered a large quantity of rum to 
be poured into brass pans, in various parts of the town ; the crowd 
pressing around, and drinking like hogs ; freemen and slaves, 
w^omen and children, striking, kicking, and trampling each other 
under foot, pushed head foremost into the pans, and spilhng much 
more than they drank. In less than an hour, excepting the prin- 
cipal men, not a sober person was to be seen, parties of four 
reeliug and rolling under the weight of another, whom they affected 
to be carrying home ; strings of women covered with red paint, 
hand in hand, falling down like rows of cards ; the commonest 
mechanics and slaves furiously declaiming on state palavers ; the 
most discordant music, the most obscene songs, children of both 
sexes prostrate in insensibility. All wore their handsomest cloths, 
which they trailed after them to a great length, in a drunken 
emulation of extravagance and dirtiness.* 
Towards evening the populace grew sober again, the strange 
caboceers displayed their equipages in every direction, and at five 
* The description of the siege of Pondicherry in Voltaire occurred to me ; it will assist 
the imagination of the reader : " De grands magasins de liqueurs fortes y entretenaient 
rivrognerie et tons les maux dont elle est le germe. Cest une situation qu'il faut avoir 
vue. Les travaux, les gardes de la tranchee etaient faits par des homines ivres - 
_ _ - - De-la les scenes les plus honteuses et les plus destructives de la subordination et de 
la discipline. On a vu des officiers se colleter avec des soldats et mille autres actions 
infames, dont le detail, renferme dans les bornes de la verite la plus exacte, paraitrait une 
exageration monstreuse." 
