124 
MISSIONARY LIFE IN ASIIANTEE. 
the same. Mr. Forson had therefore been sent to demand 
our freedom, and it was hoped the king would send us 
back with the ambassador. He also read us a letter from 
Brother Schrenk, in which he requested the release of my 
wife, and urged the fact that our mission had several 
times ransomed Ashantees or otherwise saved them, and 
always cherished the idea of extending the mission- work 
to Ashantee itself. 
Days passed, and we heard nothing. At length a 
present for Mr. Forson, far handsomer than we had expected, 
arrived. It consisted of a cow, two sheep, food of all 
sorts, and £18 sterling of gold dust; but he failed to 
obtain an interview with his majesty, the same answer 
being returned to every application — " The king is very 
fond of you, but has no time." Kari-Kari was just then 
engrossed with an important domestic transaction. He 
had elevated one of his wives above all the rest, and had 
made her a present of six villages, with six hundred in- 
habitants. More than a hundred ounces of gold dust 
were given away on the occasion, and the legal arrange- 
ments were very important. 
We were invited, with Mr. Forson, to visit the king's 
favourite minister, Sabeng, a man high in office. He 
showed us his treasure with great satisfaction, and his 
bed covered with rich European materials ; but between 
the mattress and the bedstead, we observed several golden- 
handled daggers, while the caps of half a dozen execution- 
ers were hanging on the wall. In a yard outside were 
some seventy Fetishes and charms, and large sheets of 
paper were covered with Arabic signs, and verses from 
the koran, &c. The mohammedans have great influence 
here, though they understand little of Arabic, simply 
reading and writing a few words like parrots. We under- 
stood the meaning of the daggers, when we heard the 
next day that this polite man not only had human 
