Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1895-11-29
THE FOREST OF DEATH.

4 AhSlc 10 tiFIng LO-uay mOnarcl
whose horrible orgies and blood
superstitions are comparable onl
to the stories of Rider Haggard
for the accounts of the deeds don
by the King of Ashantee read lik,
fiction.
The probability of another wal
between England and Ashantee il
now seriously discussed. Lord
Salisbury has sent an ultimatum tC
the savage King in regard to alleged
violations of the treaty of 1874, and
the matter of the reception of q
British representative at Coomassie.
Should another war occur the rule
OF the bloody monarch would likely
come to an end.
The account of the King Of
Ashantee's sacrifices given by Mr..
Melton Prior, the famous war cor
respondent of the London lllustrat-
ed News, in a recent issue of the
Album, reads like the chapter of
"king Solomou's Mines" which
describes the "witch dance" That
which most of the readers have
taken for the work of luridly i'm
aginative brain turns ont tu bv
sober truth and fact.
81 have felt all along that the
treaty promises made by the Asian
tees after the capture of Coomassie
would never be kept without the
presence of a British resident at the
capital, especially as regards the
discontinuance of human sacrifice"
tai principle of their religious belief,
and rests on a wild idea of piety
toward parents and chiefs whose
rank in the next world would be
the better assured by the number of
attendants sent after them, and
also as propitiation to their gods
generally. Not only the King but
each chief has his own slaughter
house, where slaves or prisoners Of
war are regularly massacred.
IN THE KINGS sLAUGHTER-HoUsE.
GAS to the Kings slaughter
house in the forest, it is a perfect
catacomb of skulls and bones, and
the dead bodies of 30 victims sacri-
feed few hours before our arrival,
to avert the final taking OF Coo
massie, were still warm, while-but
the scene was too awful and often
sive to describe in detail. sup
pose ! shall never forget the head
of one poor wretch whose tongue
protruded from his grinning mouth,
while his eyes stared at US in the
most CHASTITY manner, as il he were
still alive"
"And you think such episodes of
butchery still go on?'
"UndoubtedIy, ] should say. l
don't believe they ceased even
under the late King, and you can
well understand they would certain
ly be revived under the present
youthful potentate, who would pay
little attention to pledges given by
his predecessors as long as 25 years
ago. The King of Ashantee, re-
garding himself as an independent
monarch, would be eager to show
his people that he adhered to the
religion of his forefathers, and gain
credit by objecting to the interfer'
ence of repressive measures.
"Tell me, please, some of the
most thrilling incidents of the ad
vance up-country."
"Well, the danger of being picked
of in the impenetrable forests coulC
scarcely be said to be tranquillizing
1t was not particularly exhilaratinI
to come across the dead body of 9
slave, his feet pointing to Coomas
sic, while his servered head was in 1
reversed position and facing US
while certain mutllations were &C
companied by a paper of menaces
with a blood spot in its center
through which a nail was fastene'
to tree. Their superstitious be
lief is extraordinary. They too
our telegraph poles and wires 70
some kind of fetch, and actuall
carried q cotton thread tackled