slaves were sacrificed, and twenty-five barrels of powder fired each time. But the custom for the king's mother, the regent of the kingdom during the invasion of Fantee, is the most celebrated. The king himself devoted three thousand victims, upwards of two thousand of whom were Fantee prisoners. Five of the largest places furnished one hundred victims, and twenty barrels of powder each; and most of the smaller towns, ten victims, and two barrels of powder each."
Mr. Dupries relates many instances of the most atrocious cruelty. As an instance of the bloody customs of Ashantee, he tells us that the king, previous to entering upon the campaign against Gaman, sacrificed "thirty-two males and eighteen females, as an expiatory offering to his gods;" but the answers from the priests being deemed by the council as still devoid of inspiration, the king was induced to "Make a custom" at the sepulchers of his ancestors, where many hundreds bled. On the conclusion of the war, 2000 prisoners were slaughtered, in honor of the shades of departed kings and heroes."
The existence of these bloody customs is confirmed by the Rev. Thomas B. Freeman,[1] Wesleyan missionary to Africa, who was an eyewitness to many scenes of horror. Visiting Ashantee in February, 1839, he writes: "Last night a sister of Ko-
- ↑ For an interesting account of the condition of the Africans, see "A History of the Wesleyan Missions on the Western Coast of Africa," hy William Fox, upwards of ten years a missionary on the Gambia. London, 1851.
