172 MISSIONARY LIFE IN ASIIANTEE. 
CHAPTEK XXII. 
MR. flange's second EMBASSY. 
The heavy rains of July were almost too mucli for the 
old mission-house, with its soaked walls and leaking roof, 
yet so many new Dampans were being built, that canes 
needed for repairs were not procurable, and we petitioned 
the king to allow us to use grass instead. Forty years 
before this same request had been denied the Wesleyan 
missionaries, a grass roof being prohibited in Coomassie, 
but our petition was successful, and the king said, 
" Begin as soon as you please." 
Under an inundation of tropical rain, Mr. Plange and 
his wife were ceremoniously welcomed on the mpramaso 
place, after a terrible journey of ten weeks, during which 
his money was exhausted, and he and his people nearly 
starved. He brought a number of boxes with him which 
aroused the cupidity of Opoku, who zealously offered to 
receive him. Indeed the king had to interfere before the 
old man yielded the point, and we were allowed to wel- 
come him into the mission-house, and to receive the 
letters and presents he had brought us from unknown 
friends in Berne. 
Mr. Plange had been sent by both the English and 
Dutch governments, and gave the king official information 
of the ceding of Elmina to the British. He was com- 
missioned by the administrator, Mr. Pope Hennesy, to 
offer not only the usual yearly present, but to double it, 
that peace might be secured, and he expressed the hope 
