"Until the slave-trade was suppressed on the coast of Western Africa, Ashantee had a thriving business in selling prisoners of war or disposing of its surplus population, but of late years this commerce has been cut off, and the country has been restricted to dealings in gold and other products of the land. It is separated from the coast by the country of the Fantees, who are hostile to the Ashantees, and frequently at war with them. On two occasions, when the English have supported the Fantees in hostilities against the Ashantees, the latter have marched large armies to the coast and threatened the safety of Cape Coast Castle and Elmina. Once they actually compelled the British governor to make terms of peace, and in 1824 they defeated a British army, and killed the commander and nearly all his officers. [Illustration: THE BURNING OF COOMASSIE.] "Things went on in a very unsatisfactory way till 1873, when the Dutch fort of Elmina and the surrounding possessions were ceded to the English. The Dutch had paid the King of Ashantee a tribute of £500 a year, which the English discontinued. Thereupon the king sent an army to collect it, but he was defeated, though not driven back. In 1874 Sir Garnet Wolseley was sent there with two thousand English troops. To these he added a large force of Fantees, with which he invaded Ashantee and burned Coomassie, its capital city. Two severe battles were fought, and in the second of them the king commanded in person, and only retreated after a fight of six hours. "This is the famous 'Ashantee war' of which we read a few years ago. The treaty of peace which followed the burning of Coomassie required the king to pay an indemnity of fifty thousand ounces of gold, keep a road open to the coast, and abolish human sacrifices." "I have read about these sacrifices," said Frank. "It is stated somewhere that at least a thousand slaves were sacrificed every year, in a certain grove near the king's palace at Coomassie." "That is the case," replied Doctor Bronson, "and the worst of the story is not told. It was the custom, on occasions of festivity or mourning--in fact, on every affair of publicity--to kill a certain number of victims. If slaves were convenient they were selected to be offered up; but it often happened that the immediate attendants of the king were taken at an instant's notice. A traveller tells that one day two messengers came to inform the king of the discovery of a new gold-mine, and brought samples of the gold produced by it. "The king looked at the gold with evident pleasure, and then ordered a sacrifice in honor of the discovery. The most convenient victims were the two messengers. They were immediately seized and taken to the sacrificial grove, where they were given to the Ashantee divinities, with the customary ceremonies." [Illustration: A BELLE OF THE GUINEA COAST.]