men and women, priests and priestesses of this strange religion constitute a numerous order. They are supported by the liberality of the people, and by means of secret agencies through the country, they acquire such an amount of information on all subjects and about all people, as to strengthen the belief in their supernatural powers and enable them to terrorize their dupes.

But light was dawning on Darkest Africa, and some of the people doubted, and finally discovered and exposed many of the priestly tricks. This destroyed the power of their "spells" and opened the way for the spread of Christianity.

A call for help came from Ashanti. One of the members of the first little band of native Christians at Cape Coast had gone to live in Coomassie, as the king's secretary. He had conversed and prayed with some of the princes, and even held worship in the palace. Mr. Freeman's "heart had been set on winning Ashanti for Christ," from his arrival in Africa. "The tales of horror, wretchedness and cruelty which I had often heard respecting the Ashantis wrought in my mind," he writes, "the deepest commiseration, and a constant restlessness to commence missionary operations among them."

Mr. Freeman was expecting the Rev. Robert Brocking as his assistant on the coast. Leaving Mr. de Graft, another member of the first band of Fanti Christians, in charge till the new missionary should arrive, Mr. Freeman commenced his journey to Coomassie, the "City of Blood." Innumerable difficulties, dangers and delays had so retarded his progress that he was more than two months in covering the 170 miles from the coast.

The king of Coomassie sent a messenger on a tour of inspection, and on his return asked the man if he had seen the new fetishman, and had he plenty of drums? On

learning that Mr. Freeman had no drums, and what his errand really was, he was sorely puzzled and exclaimed, "Never, since the world began, has there been an English missionary in Ashanti! What can he want?"

At last came the summons to the presence of the king. A band of music and officers with gold-hilted swords and enormous umbrellas were deputed to conduct the stranger to court. As they entered the city they passed between two new heaps of earth, which Mr. Freeman afterwards learned contained two human victims buried alive, as a fetish to avert any evil that might result from the visit of a missionary! When they reached the marketplace there sat the king in all his barbarous splendour, surrounded by officers of state, captains, soldiers, and vast throngs of people-certainly not less than forty thousand! Each chief in the party was followed by a crowd of slaves and retainers. Most of the slavery in Ashanti is due to this great love of show, each chief desiring to have a more imposing retinue than his neighbour!

Upon several occasions Mr. Freeman held quite lengthy conversations with the king and his chief linguist, a person of great influence. He gave them all possible information as to the object of his visit, but found much difficulty in making them understand his motives. A very lengthy "custom" for one of the king's relations, during which there was horrible human sacrifice, caused much delay and much suffering. Many times during these days the missionary heard the sound of the dreaded death-drum. His interpreter remarked, "Do you hear. the drum? A sacrifice has just been made and the drum says, 'King, I have killed him!'"

Of Coomassie itself Mr. Freeman writes that the streets are large, clean and uniform, in some instances quite thirty yards broad, and shaded

by rows of splendid banyan trees, though full of dangerous holes washed out by the heavy rains. On each side are the houses of the chief inhabitants, with unique, open fronts beautifully carved and polished. Behind these were numerous small sheds, the private apartments of the people. On one side of the large market-place the bodies of victims and slaves were cast, from which there arose an intolerable stench.

Mr. Freeman made a good impression on the king, and finally asked permission to return and bring a resident missionary. After a very polite and kindly farewell, in the course of which, according to Ashanti custom, the king presented his guest with a slave, Mr. Freeman commenced his homeward journey well satisfied with the result of the expedition, and hoping much from the influence of two young Ashanti princes who had been accepted as hostages in the recent war, and been taken to England for education.

A little later the king sent a request for a missionary and school, when it was thought best for Mr.

Freeman to visit England in the interests of the new mission, leaving the Coast missions in charge of Mr. Brooking, lately arrived. Great enthusiasm was aroused in the mother land, and six new missionaries returned with Mr. Freeman.

In a short time four of the new recruits and a native teacher died of the dread African fever. In spite of all these troubles, Messrs. Freeman and Brooking prepared to start for Ashanti with the two native princes, who were returning home. Mr. Brooking writes:

"We are now ready for our journey to Coomassie-nearly four hundred in all, including the carriers for the princes. I am looking forward with great anxiety to this important mission, seeing I shall have to remain there alone for several months at least. I see the great importance of the work before me, and am ready to exclaim, 'Who is sufficient for these things?' But I am blessed with the consideration that I am not called to wage a warfare at my own charge. He who stood by His servants in former ages will, I am sure, be with me. I shall cast myself into His gracious hands and leave the event to Him. Hitherto He has helped me !"

In thirty-seven days our mission

aries reached Coomassie, and were greeted with all barbaric splendour.

The labour of conveying the carriage, a present which it was deemed advisable for the Missionary Society to send to the king, in accordance with Ashanti custom, was almost incredible. "It had to be borne bodily on men's shoulders, through forest and over river and hill."

The king examined the carriage very carefully, and said, "Never, since the world began, was a thing of this sort seen here!" Mr. Brooking writes:

were

66 "We received our summons from the king, and were escorted into the town. In the market square there must have been thirty thousand persons in the king's retinue, exclusive of those who lined the streets. The moment we entered the area bursts of their wild music sounded forth, and a universal buzz, which I can only compare to the roar of a heavy sea on a rock-bound shore. . . . The numerous splendid umbrellas, the great number of gold and silver trinkets and utensils, the grotesque appearance of some of the attendants, all united to give the grand effect which so delights this barbarous people. After having passed around the immense semicircle and paid our respects to every chief in succession, we directed to a place where we had to sit and receive their salutations in turn. the whole procession passed before us, in the course of which were carried one hundred and twenty-five large umbrellas, from twelve to twenty feet in diameter, and made of different materials according to the rank of the chief. The king himself had four carried over his person, all made of silk and velvet, different colors patched together. Those belonging to officers of the king's household were surmounted with the emblem of office-that of the steward with a small gilt box, the cook's with an arm and hand grasping a ladle, the chief musician a trumpet, the executioner a knife. There was a very great display of gold, indeed it would be impossible to estimate its value.

So

"It was nearly dark before all this show was over, and we were heartily glad to return to our quarters. Surely such honour was never paid to Christian missionaries before."

The next day the king granted a private reception, when the carriage

was formally presented in the name of the Missionary Society. He accepted the present very graciously. "When he heard that Her Majesty the Queen of England had seen it, he was much pleased, and said, 'The Queen of England is queen of queens of the white people, and I am king of kings of the black people; now we have carriages alike: this is very good!'"

Mr. Freeman writes again:

"This morning I conducted divine service under a large shed. Many Ashantis were present. The service was conversational, and many interesting and vital questions were asked by the people. They said at the close that it was a 'good palaver,' and that if all men would obey God and keep His commandments we should have a happy world.

66

'Christmas day, at eleven a.m., we held divine service. I read prayers, and Mr. B. preached on the nativity of Christ. This is, I presume, the first Christmas day on which the Gospel has ever been preached in Ashanti."

At the close of one very interesting conversation with the king, in the course of which they mentioned their wish, as missionaries, to introduce Christianity into his dominions, the king said, "I will protect you, and supply you with land on which to build a house." A little later Mr. Freeman visited Dwabin, an important town about twenty-one miles from Coomassie, in order to prescribe for a royal lady, aunt of the king, who was suffering from a peculiar nervous disease. Mr. Brooking also visited Dwabin, remaining for two weeks, and conducting services between the old lady's demands on his medical skill. The work commenced under such strange circumstances is still carried on with success.

with feelings of a peculiar nature. Here I am alone, two hundred miles from an European settlement, amongst a barbarous people. If I should be taken ill, no one to give me so much as a dose of medicine or a drink of water! But these feelings soon passed, and I was enabled to cast my burden upon the Lord, knowing that I was engaged in His work and that He would not suffer me to need."

In addition to visits, conversations, services, and the immense amount of toil undertaken in visiting outlying towns to unfurl the Banner of the Cross, Mr. Brooking was busily engaged in building a new mission-house. Prejudice on the part of the Ashantis seemed to pass away "as the morning cloud and the early dew." Of this same little mission-house Sir William Win

niett, governor of the Gold Coast, who visited Ashantee in 1850, writes:

"Greatly as I had been interested with the manner in which the king received me, and the many strange sights, I was equally interested and excited at the appearance of the Wesleyan missionhouse, a neat cottage built chiefly with the teak-wood of the country. As I

sat down in the airy, spacious hall, in the cool of the evening, after all the toils and excitement of the day, and contemplated this little European establishment planted in the midst of barbarism, two hundred miles into the interior of Africa, exhibiting to thousands of untutored pagans the comforts of civilized life and the worship of the true God, I could not but think deeply and feelingly on the great triumph thus achieved by Christianity and civilization."

This "neat little cottage" in the heart of heathendom has been the

seeing headless bodies lying in the street or being dragged along to the place where sacrifices are deposited. On coming in from a ride the other day, I saw the body of a man, scarcely cold, lying in the street through which I had to pass, with the vultures feasting thereon. Nearly ninety human sacrifices have been made to-day in the city, besides numbers in the crooms or villages adjoining. Four small crooms have been quite depopulated! I asked for what reason such a number of persons were put to death, when a man of note dies, and all the answer was, "To let the people know that they have a strong master!"

Turning to a more cheerful picture, we find some very bright accounts of the royal old lady of Dwabin, whom Mr. Brooking had visited. He had taken a diagnosis of her case to the Coast surgeon, and the course of treatment suggested by him was

now to be put in operation by Mr. Brooking. The royal patient asked innumerable questions about England, such as whether the sky and earth did not touch there; if she had been informed correctly that the stars often fell there and that the English picked them up; if English silks were not blown together by the wind? When told that the machinery by which silk was made was put in motion by the steam produced by boiling water, she came to the conclusion that truth was indeed stranger than fiction, and remarked, "Wonderful people!- they make everything minister to them!"

Upon seeing Mr. Brooking's watch, hearing it tick, and observing its movement, she was almost petrified, sat back in silent amaze for some minutes, and then inquired whether it was the work of a human being or a spirit! When offering refreshment, she proceeded to pour out a libation to the fetish. Mr. Brooking requested her not to do so for him. She replied with dignity, "Who are we that we should dare to keep back part from God?"

As the treatment eased her suffering, she became more charmed with English skill than ever, and explained that they (the English) were recognized as peculiar favourites of the Almighty. For, in the beginning, God created two kinds of people, white and black. He then placed before them a box and a book. The blacks had the first choice, and took the box, which contained gold, but the whites took the book, which brought them all sorts of good knowledge!

During the summer Mr. Brooking was called to meet Mr. Freeman at the river Prah, where he was bringing Mr. Rowland, a noble and consecrated young man who was to work in Ashanti. So they met in the heart of the bush, and spent three days in strengthening fellowship, after which these two young men started north again to Coomassie.

But only two weeks after their arrival we find this entry in Mr. Brooking's diary: "This has been to me a day of sorrow. This morning Brother Rowland exchanged time for eternity. . . . He was a noble young man, deeply pious, and died in full hope of an eternity of bliss."

That same afternoon we find the young missionary alone once more, making some of the beautiful tropical wood into a coffin for his fallen comrade. One of the princesses passing by exclaimed, "Oh, if I were sure of being buried in such a beautiful box, I would consent to die to-morrow!

To quote from the journal again: "In the cool of the evening we buried him, in a part of the mission premises. Here his remains will rest in peace until the resurrection morning, when the trump of God' shall sound even in Coomassie."

Still the work went on a slow and often discouraging warfare against the superstitious fears and degrading habits of heathenism. In about a year and a half Mr. Brooking was obliged to return to England for a rest, leaving a tiny Church "in the desert," and many persons of influence gradually losing confidence in the national superstitions. Just before leaving Mr. Brooking writes:

"When Christianity shall have 'leavened the whole' of this people there will not be a nobler race under the heavens, for notwithstanding the awful state they are now in and the degrading nature of their superstitions, there are many fine traits in their character. Not long since Osai Kudjo showed me a gilt crucifix, given to some of his ancestors by a Portuguese, and asked me what it meant. I shall never forget the intensity of his feelings when I told him the story of this world's redemption!"

In 1844 the resident missionary writes: "Osai Kudjo has begun to meet in class."

Mr. Chapman gives an interesting account of the sincerity of one young