paid to the owners of the slaves as an indemnity. No other nation has yet imitated this example, although the new republics of Spanish America, generally speaking, emancipated their slaves at the time of the revolution.

It is calculated, on good evidence, that not less than 150,000 negro slaves are annually imported from Africa into the Spanish West India Islands and Brazil, in direct contravention of the laws and the treaties existing between Great Britain and Spain and Portugal; the local authorities either winking at the practice, or being unable to prevent it. But another appalling fact is, that, since the slave-trade has been declared illegal, the sufferings of the slaves, in their passage across the Atlantic, have been increased, owing to the necessity of concealing the cargoes by cooping up the negroes in a small compass, and avoiding the cruisers stationed on the coast to prevent the traffic. They are often, as we have seen, thrown overboard during the chase. The loss in the middle passage is reckoned at a fourth of the whole number, and there is a further loss, after landing, in what is called the "seasoning" of the slaves. The mortality of slaves in Brazil is described, by all who know that country, as truly frightful.

An establishment for restoring liberated slaves to their own country has been formed, by a voluntary association of Americans, on the western coast of Africa, between Sierra Leone and Cape Coast Castle. This colony, which has received the name of Liberia, was founded in 1821, and now comprises a territory extending three hundred miles along the coast. The principal town is Monrovia. Many of the inhabitants of the settlements belong to the neighbouring tribes,

and others are prize slaves, liberated by the government of the United States, and sent to Liberia in order to be provided for, when they cannot be immediately restored to their particular homes. For this purpose, grants of money have been annually made by Congress, and the legislatures of many of the States have followed their example. The American ships of war are ordered occasionally to visit Liberia, although the country is not claimed as a colony by the United States.

THE ASHANTEES.

THIS powerful and warlike African nation attracted little notice in Europe till the present century, although two or three centuries ago it was a powerful monarchy, which, in conjunction with its allies, could bring into the field an army of 60,000 men. The present kingdom of Ashantee is upon the seacoast, in the Gulf of Benin; but, formerly, it appears to have been confined to a small inland district. The government, for political purposes, endeavours to obliterate all traditions and historical monuments, so that the annals of this country are necessarily very imperfect. The first war by which the Ashantees are believed to have secured any considerable increase of dominion was that which resulted in the conquest of the neighbouring kingdom of Dinkira, about the beginning of the last century. An outrage, offered by Bosiante, the king of Dinkira, to one of the wives of Zay, the king of Ashantee, produced hostilities. Bosiante, in the mean time, died, but this produced no change in the resolution of the king of Ashantee, who invaded Dinkira with a large army. Two battles were fought, in which it is stated that a hundred thousand men were

killed. The Ashantees were victorious, and spent fifteen days in plundering the country. The body of King Bosiante was disinterred, the flesh was given to be devoured by serpents, and the skull and thigh-bones were preserved as trophies. These relics still remain at the court of the king of Ashantee, and are exhibited on certain holidays to gratify the vindictive spirit of the populace.

Zay, or Say Tootoo, was the founder of Coomassie, the present capital of the kingdom. The conquest of Dinkira gave so great an accession of power and territory to Ashantee, and so completely altered its relations to the surrounding powers, that this monarch, upon whom has been bestowed the epithet of "the Great," may be considered almost as the founder of the present empire. The history of the country before his time is acknowledged to be legendary and obscure. He is said to have been the first king by whom the Mohammedan inhabitants were reduced to the same state of subjection with the heathen negroes, and cornpelled to serve in his armies. It was in his reign, also, that a commercial intercourse with the Dutch settlements on the coast first introduced the Ashantees to an acquaintance with white men. Besides Dinkira, he subjugated several other neighbouring states. In short, he created an empire, including tributaries, which was chiefly of a feudal complexion. It was augmented by subsequent monarchs, and, in 1807, an Ashantee army first reached the coast, where the Europeans had established forts and factories. Down to this time, from the mention of the Ashantees by Bosman, the Dutch governor of Elmina, early in the preceding century, they

appear not to have been visited by any person from Europe, and their very name had become almost forgotten. In May, 1807, the king had established himself and his army at Abrab, not more than fifteen or twenty miles from the sea. He soon attacked and captured the Dutch stations of Cormantine and Fort Amsterdam. He next assaulted Annamboa, a town where the English had a fort and garrison; eight thousand of the inhabitants were killed, and the fort would have been captured but for a negotiation, resulting in a treaty, by which the British governor acknowledged that the sovereignty of the country resided in the king of Ashantee.

This led to several wars, as the king never failed to insist on his pretensions to the country when any of the native chiefs refused the payment of their tribute, and the British, inciting them to revolt, or interfering in the difficulties, brought the arms of the Ashantees against them. In 1823, on the accession of a new king, he issued a regular declaration of war against the British, accusing them of the infraction of treaties, treachery, cruelty, &c. In the early part of the contest, the Ashantees sustained some reverses. Encouraged by success, the British governor, Sir Charles McCarthy, advanced into the interior with an army of 2,000 men. On the 21st of January, 1824, he was attacked by a force of 10,000 Ashantees, near the River Praa, and totally defeated. The governor was wounded and taken prisoner, and all the officers who were with him, excepting two, were either killed or made prisoners. He was confined for nearly three years. Finally, the British concluded a treaty with the Ashantees, by which