154 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
It would seem that geographical science had little to 
expect from a diplomatic mission to a country already 
visited by Bosnian, Loyer, Des Marchais, and many 
others, and on which Meredith and Dalzel had written ; 
but Bowditch turned to account his stay of five months 
at Coomassie, which is but ten days’ march from the 
Atlantic, to study the country, manners, customs and 
institutions of one of the most interesting races of 
Africa. 
We will now briefly describe the pompous entry of the 
English mission into Coomassie. The whole population 
turned out on the occasion, and all the troops, whose 
numbers Bowditch estimated at 30,000 at least, were 
under arms. 
Before they were admitted to the presence of the 
king, the English witnessed a scene well calculated to 
impress upon them the cruelty and barbarity of the 
Ashantees. A man with his hands tied behind him, his 
cheeks pierced with wire, one ear cut off, the other 
hanging by a bit of skin, his shoulders bleeding from 
cuts and slashes, and a knife run through the skin above 
each shoulder-blade, was dragged, by a cord fastened to 
his nose, through the town to the music of bamboos. 
He was on his way to be sacrificed in honour of the 
white men ! 
“ Our observations en passant" says Bowditch, “had 
taught us to conceive a spectacle far exceeding our 
original expectations; but they had not prepared us for 
the extent and display of the scene which here burst 
upon us. An area of nearly a mile in circumference 
was crowded with magnificence and novelty. The king, 
his tributaries and captains, were resplendent in the 
distance, surrounded by attendants of every description, 
fronted by a mass of warriors which seemed to make 
our approach impervious. The sun was reflected, with 
a glare scarcely more supportable than the heat, from 
the massive gold ornaments which glistened in every 
direction. More than a hundred bands burst at once on 
our arrival into the peculiar airs of their several chiefs ; 
the horns flourished their defiances, with the beating of 
