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National Geographic : 1897 Jan
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THE GOLD COAST, ASHANTI, AND KUMASSI 9 than 10,000 inhabitants, is situated on the Prah river, 72 miles from the coast, and this I reached at the end of ten days. The road from the coast to this point has been through the Assin country, a veritable wilderness of swamp and virgin forest, the monotony of which was broken only by great bamboo groves and by stagnant pools of fetid water. Villages of from 50 to 500 huts were passed at intervals of a few miles, and in all of them the inhabitants proved hospitable and honest. The Prah, which forms the southern boundary of the Ashanti country, is an in significant stream whose course is frequently interrupted by rapids and shoals. In the dry season it is navigable only a short distance from its mouth, near Chama, 30 miles west of Cape Coast Castle. As water is a precious commodity on the Gold coast, particularly during the dry season, the natives have imposed the term "sacred " upon it. although it may have been in deference to the particular god which makes its habitat therein. The path from Prahsu to Kumassi threads its way through the Adansai country. For days at a time the light of the sun never pierces the gloomy forest, and, although the traveler is thus protected from the fierce tropical heat, the damp atmosphere is most depressing. Forty miles south of Kumassi is the Monse or Adansai hill. Stanley, in 1873, roughly estimated its altitude at 1,600 feet, but recent observations determine it to be but 700. It is an abrupt elevation, and a hundred Ashantis with modern guns could easily repulse ten thousand adversaries from its rugged slopes and passes. On our fourteenth day out from the coast a small Ashanti village, within four miles of Kumassi, was reached. My carriers insisted upon stopping here for an hour in order to prepare for an imposing entry into the capital of the Ashanti kingdom. When we resumed our journey we found the physi cal features of the country changing rapidly. The forest had disappeared, and we passed along a narrow road, lined on either side with tall plantains and bananas, until we emerged into an open plain covered with stubble. Over this plain our path led for some two hundred yards, until the edge of the swamp which surrounds Kumassi was touched. A corduroy road made this easy of passage, and we soon found ourselves marching up a slight incline that broadened into a wide street or avenue which, as we afterward learned, was the main street of Kumassi. The first glimpse was disappointing. Travelers, from Bowditch to Winwood Reade, have described Kumassi as a city of preten tious houses, possessing a stone palace wherein the king lived in
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