The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-12-15
ATROCITIES ~ ASHANTEE.
Rcports In England OF the Slaughter OF
two Hundred Girls.

| The last hail from West Africa brings
US horrible story Of Ashantee cruelty
which, however, awaits confirmation. The
present sovereign Of that country is the
! brother Of King KoiIec kalkalli, with
whom in former days we had some
unpleasant words and Sir Garnet Wolsey
some hot blows. But until his majesty,
only few months ago, began to develop
his family tendancy TO raid on the Fantl
territories, and even TO threaten Cape
Coast Castle, so little had the affairs Of
Ashantce land troubled the outer world
that it came almost as surprise to learn
the KoHec had been deposed. and that
his brother rcigned in his stead. How
ever, the astutc monarch, when he heard !
of the rcinforccments from Sierra Leone,
hnstencd to assure the British governor
that the whole affair was t: mistake, and
that, so far from ever dreaming of mo-
Testing his gooi friends, the white men.
he was encouraging the missionaries in
every way. In brief. he was quite q re-
formed character and in proof thereof
dispatched his golden ak to keep compa-
ny in Windsor with his brothers umb.el-
In and the war club Of Tla I}oInhau, Of
| Fiji. Nevertheless, if the woman has
!
not telin. Travellers tales his Mnjesiy's
men,. Only recently-so runs the story
some swish" was required for the
repair Of one Of the royal buildings in
Coomas@c Now, the Swish" used in
ordinary houses is simply red earth
worked up with water until it thus ac-
quircs Il certain degree Of tcnaci!y. But
| tIis viiluar tnOrtar tyau mot uilfiiciaDt fur
the Kings purposes. Accordingly, he
directed 300 young girls to be murdered
in order that blood might De used TO
moisten the clay out Of which the palace
walls were to be constructed. This fcro-
cious mandate was duly executed, the
only one Of thc victims who escaped
being the refugee who has carried the
tale to Cape Coast Castle.
| For the sake Of human nature one
would fain believe this atrocious story to
be an invention, though, unfortunately, it
is SO thoroughly in keepisg with what
we know Of Ashantee customs, and SO
much on par with similar superstitions
elsewhere, that we fear there is n large
element Of truth in it, even should it
prove to be exaggerated in few minor
particulars. The Ashnntees, like their
neighbors the Flons, Of Dahomey, revel
in human blood. The kings ochras or
bufFoons, are slaughtered when he dies,
and the "king's STOOL" in which is
sprinklcd few drops Of the blood of
every person executed, when last seen
was horrible spectacle. The execu
TONERS are men of high rank. The most
trihing ofcnse is puns!.cd by decapita-
ton, and so familiar is the scene to the
residents in Coomassic That when the
little son Of one of the German missiona-
ries-who were freed by kinG Koffee on
the approach of our troops angry
with any one he would exclaim, "Your
head will fall tomorrow % The town
resembles charncl house. The piles of
skulls sud bones hcapcd up at intervals
testify to the long cOntinuan &c Of the in
human practices, and even when the
army of Sir Garnet Wolsely entered the
place the putrefying bodies, still unbu-
ried, filled the mir with dreadful
stencil.
The story which the Ashantee ,irl has
brought from. Coomassie is terrible
example of one of those fearful "surviv-
carthing. If the King mixes his palace
"swish'' with the blood of 200 virgins,
he is only nineteenth century repre-
sentative of the twelve master masons
who, when tho walls Of Copenhagen
sank IA fast as they were built, vailed
into them an innocent girl at play, and
thus alIayed the wrath OF the northern
"nisscr." The bridge Of Alta fell again
and again, until the workmen walled in
their masters wife, and we are told that,
ir accordance with her dying curse, it
trembles to this very day There is
scnrely church in Germany or Den
mark to which some legend does not at
tach, and in Poleneysia temples are
pointed out the foundations Of which are
imbedGd in human bodies. Two years
ago the native quarters of Madras were
wildly excited over d TIiii0r :ha: :io gov
ernment was about to sacrifice several
victims in order to insure the safety of
the new harbor works, and few years
earlier the same idea so generally pre-
vailed in Calcutta, while the Hooghly
bridge was being constructed, that for a
time the people dreaded to go abroad
after dark lest they should be kindnap-
ped In Galam, in Africa, g hoy and
girl used to be buried alive before the
chief gate of the city as fetch to make
impossible to an enemy. and in Bambar-
IN, Great Bassam, and Yarriba the zaEie
customs prevails. In Borneo, in Japan,
in Burmah, and, in addition to many
other regions, in the Punjaub, like ideas
oi the efficacy OF human victims to in
sure the safety of building hold their
ground, or were universal within very
recent times. Into each post hold of the
gates of TavOy criminal WAS placed /;
human victims were burned under the
fortress of Thatung: Queen is said to
have been drowned in Burmese reser-
| L. 10 oI-n lac, g., 81 g.
of q widows son was taken by the Rajah
of Sialkot with view to insure the sta
bility Of one of the bastions Of his fort.
1t is, therefore, more than probable
that the latest story form Ashantee is
substantially true. Human life is always
at discount in .hcse thickly populated
African Kingdoms. Could the African
potentates be taught to cultivate TIC soil,
1r to mine the minerals in it, they would,
with their natural shrewdness, speedily
discover a more profitably employment
for their subjects and captives han killing
them. Sixty years ago the King Of As
hantee told NJ. Cnpuis that since the
King Of England had prevented him
from selling his slaves he had TO murder
them. Africa is indeed never likely to
be the Eldorda Of traders, az for a time it
was thought to be. Mr. Joseph Thom-
son, in the course Of his recent journey,
saw nothing worthy of the attention Of
European capitalists, and in spite of the
inflated accounts of Mr.. Stanley DR..
Gouldsbury, minister of the Gambia,
in the report of his exploration into the
interior of that colony. just issued, af-
tirr-s most positively that "any hope based
on that fiction Of the future, to viii, the
event of Africa becoming England's
mnrI Tor manufactured r-nnha ~ Ia certain