298 
MISSIONARY LIFE IN ASHANTEE. 
nation with the Wasa people. Other tribes also sought 
to place themselves under British protection, or aimed at 
completely freeing themselves from the Ashantee yoke ; 
the old jealousy on this subject especially showed itself 
iagain at Dwaben. 
The British administrator, captain Lees, went himself 
to Coomassie in July, in order to effect an arrangement 
of these affairs. He was received in the barely restored 
town with manifestations of joy and respect. The king 
and the queen mother coming to meet him, and everyone 
dancing around him. No definite public information has 
yet reached us as to the result of the negociations, but it 
is said, that the king seemed willing to acknowledge 
the independence of Dwaben. Lees refused to help the 
king to subdue the revolted princes of Dwaben and 
Bekwae, and even visited both of them, and was 
welcomed with great cordiality. This was a tempting 
example for the other tributaries, and Okwau, where it 
may be remembered the prisoners were welcomed with 
so much sympathy, has also expressed a wish to ally it- 
self to the Protectorate ; both Okwau and Dwaben has 
requested the erection of a missionary station in their 
towns, and David Asante finds people from these two 
districts among the most attentive of his hearers at his 
street preaching in Akem. 
From the latest reports we learn that the queen mother, 
who had long striven against the deposition of her son, 
had at last herself suggested a change of sovereign, so 
that the kingdom might at least be preserved for the 
dynasty, Adu Bofo appears to have rebelled against the 
king ; thus it seems that the continuance of the kingdom 
will only be possible under very limited and altered 
circumstances. 
Such a change as the abolition of the old national 
custom of human sacrifices would be a difficult matter for 
