“The Governor said—‘Give me the paper.’ He said to Enguie—‘Are you Enguie? Are you the man who signed the treaty that Assin, Gaman, and Denkera, should be under the English, and now do you come to me to break the treaty?’ Enguie said—‘I do not break the treaty.’ After this we wished to leave Elmina in order to go to Cape Coast, but next morning a messenger came and told our messengers that they must not go, for the Governor had still something to say. Then our messengers waited and the Governor said he must make a book,[4] because Enguie had broken the treaty. Our messengers replied—‘No one can read at Coomassie, but we will take your letter to the king.’
“Then the letter was carried to the king, and the king said—‘Enguie did not break the treaty. The words he spoke were his own words. He was sent to the Governor to be kept on the coast. He is the Governor’s servant, and it must not be said that he broke the treaty.’ For this reason the king has sent us, his linguist and sword-bearer, to let the Governor know that this is the case. We mean to say that Enguie himself said these words, and not the king. He is the servant of the Governor as well as of the king, and it was his own speech, and not the king’s message.
“Again we say to the Governor, the king of Adansi made a report that the king of Ashanti is going to march upon the Adansis and fight with them. But, in consequence of the treaty between England and Ashanti, the Ashantis would not come down to fight with anybody. They would not bring a single gun across the Prah to fight. As to the people under the English Government, the king will never come to fight any one of them. The king says so. If the Governor has heard that the Ashantis are ready to attack any part of the protectorate, the report is not true. The king wishes to be a friend to this Governor, as Quacoe Duah was to Governor Maclean. If any one says that the king of Ashanti intends to attack the protectorate it is false, and not true. He has sent us to say that it is not true. He wishes to be friendly with the Governor.
“As to the gold axe, it means nothing. It is not used as a symbol; you can ask any of the chiefs about here. Amankrah Accoomah, the axe-bearer, used to bring the axe, but it is no symbol. The king says—‘You can tell the Governor that the axe is nothing.’ If any one comes and reports to the Governor this and that of the king, let the Governor send a messenger to the king, and the king will clear himself.
“We have finished. For this reason have we come, we wish to be friends with the Governor. As to what Enguie has said, Enguie is the Governor’s servant, and the Governor can forgive Enguie and let that pass.”
After this some conversation ensued, in the course of which both Enguie and Busumburu, amid considerable confusion, denied that the former had ever said that the king would attack Assin. The Lieutenant-Governor thereupon called the Government interpreter, Davis, and in answer to questions the latter said that Enguie had told him, at his house, that if Awoosoo were not given up the Ashantis would attack Assin. It is worthy of notice that Davis said nothing of any such threat having been formally made during the audience with the Lieutenant-Governor; indeed, for some inscrutable reason, the regular interpreter had not been employed upon that occasion, and the duty of interpretation had been left to a young clerk employed in the Colonial Office, a fact which renders the theory of a formal threat having been made exceedingly doubtful.
This was all that occurred of moment, and as the Governor, Sir Samuel Rowe, was expected to arrive soon, the Lieutenant-Governor decided to leave things as they were, and merely returned a message to the effect that he was glad to hear of King Mensah’s peaceable intentions, and that so long as these were manifest he would be his friend. Yet, having heard that Sir Samuel Rowe would arrive in a few days, he thought it better to leave the matter in his hands, as the Governor coming direct from the Queen would know her mind on the subject.
Having seen what was taking place in the protectorate it may be now interesting to know what the Ashantis had been doing in their capital, and to ascertain the causes which led to the threatening attitude, and to the subsequent peaceful and apologetic messages.
As I have endeavoured to show in Chapter XI., affairs were in rather a critical condition in Coomassie owing to the struggle for supremacy between the war and court parties, and the escape of Awoosoo, happening at this crisis, placed the winning card in the hands of the former. As I have already said, it was necessary in the interests of Prince Korkobo of Gaman, the good friend and ally of Ashanti, that Awoosoo should be detained in Coomassie, and the unexpected escape of a person of such importance in Ashanti politics created the greatest consternation, which feeling, when it became known that the fugitive had claimed British protection, was soon mingled with a longing for revenge. Numerous influential chiefs, who had hitherto either belonged to the court party or had equally held aloof from both sections, now joined the war party, which carried everything before it, and at the “palaver” which was held Mensah could do nothing but acquiesce in their proposals: in fact any attempt on his part to stem the popular current would only have resulted in his downfall.
From time immemorial in Ashanti it had been the custom when any important personage sought asylum with the British Government to send an embassy to demand the surrender of the refugee, with instructions, in the event of a refusal, to threaten prompt hostilities. At the meeting of turbulent “caboceers” it was determined to follow this haughty precedent, and the king was compelled to submit. To use the words of an eye-witness—“The king said to the messengers who were to start for Cape Coast—‘All black men are subject to me and I will have my revenge for all this.’ He then took the golden axe and the golden hoe, saying: ‘If this man should escape up a tree, here is an axe with which to cut it down. Should he burrow into the ground, here is a hoe with which to dig him up. Go, and bring him back.’”