... And the head, which they
bore to Ashanti, has become their "fetish," which they worship till this
day.'--Native account of Macarthy's death, Zimmermann's _Grammar of the
Accra or Ga Language_, Stuttgart, 1858.] And yet we now learn that the
campaign did good work. Captain Lonsdale, who has spent some time in
Kumasi, reports that the Caboceers have built huts instead of repairing
their 'palaces.' Moreover, he declares that the story of sacrificing girls
to mix their blood with house-swish is a pure fabrication; the Ashantis
would no longer dare to do anything so offensive to the conqueror.
Last on the list of solid Ashanti grievances is her exclusion from the
seaboard. Unknown to history before A.D. 1700, the Despotism first invaded
the Coast in 1807, when King Osai Tutu Kwamina pretended a wish to recover
the fugitive chiefs Chibbu and Aputai. These attacks succeeded one another
at intervals of ten years, say the Fantis. The main object was to secure a
port on the coast, where the inlanders could deal directly with the white
man, and could thus escape the unconscionable pillaging, often fifty per
cent. and more, of the Fanti middleman. This feeling is not, indeed,
unknown to Europe: witness Montenegro.
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