-O. 
 
 
 
 % 

 
 INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 WITH 
 
 THOUGHTS UPON A HEALTHY IMPERIAL POLICY 
 FOE THE GOLD COAST AND ASHANTL 
 
 BY 
 
 CASELY HAYFOKD, 
 
 OF THE INNER TEMPLE, ESQUIRE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW, AND OF 
 THE GOLD COAST BAR. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 SWEET AND MAXWELL, LIMITED, 
 
 3, CHANCERY LANE, W.C. 
 1903.
 
 BRADBURY, AONEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS, 
 LONDON AND TONBRIDGK.
 
 r 
 
 THE LIVING INFLUENCE 
 
 OF 
 
 BEATRICE 'MADELINE CASELY HAYFORD, 
 
 MY LATE WIFE AND DEVOTED FRIEND, 
 
 THIS WOEK 
 IS REVERENTLY AND AFFECTIONATELY 
 
 INSCRIBED. 
 
 1273589
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 TABLE OF CASES. 
 PRELIMINARY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 1. The Native State 2 (A). The King 2 (B). The King's Para- 
 monntcy 3. The Chief 4. The Linguist 5. The Councillors 
 6. The Headman 7. The People 8. The Company System 9. The 
 Judicial System 10. The Commercial System 11. The Fetish 
 System 12. The Municipal System. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CONFLICT OF SYSTEMS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 
 
 1. The Gold Coast Settlements denned : their Nature and Extent 
 2. Early Jurisdiction of the King : its Nature and Extent 3. Bearing of 
 Ashanti Affairs upon the British Position on the Gold Coast 4. Bearing 
 of Treaty Relations and Acts of Parliament upon the British Position 
 on the Gold Coast.
 
 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LANDMARKS. 
 
 1. Early Political Movements, and the Rise and Progress of 
 Journalism 2. The Constitution of the Fanti Confederation 3. The 
 Debate on the Second Reading of the Lands Bill 4. The Concessions 
 Ordinance 5. Native Jurisdiction. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CONFLICT OF SENTIMENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IMPERIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 
 
 1. Building the Empire 2. Wrecking the Empire. 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 A. DECIDED CASES. 
 
 1. Oppon v. Ackinie 2. Regina v. Cudjoe Imbrah 3. The* Chidda 
 Concession Enquiry 4. The Chidda Certificate of Validity. 
 
 B. COLONY OE PROTECTORATE ? 
 
 C. 1. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FANTI CONFEDERATION 2. THE FANTI 
 NATIONAL EDUCATION SCHEME. 
 
 D. OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE AND OTHER INFORMATION. 
 
 1. Draft of an Order of the Queen in Council 2. Lord Stanley 
 to Lieutenant- Governor Hill 3. The Earl of Carnarvon to Governor 
 Strahan 4. Draft of a Proclamation defining the Nature and Extent 
 of the Jurisdiction of the Queen on the Gold Coast 5. Bond, 
 March 6th, 1844 6. British Charter providing for the Government 
 of Her Majesty's Settlements on the Gold Coast, &c. 7. Palaver 
 held at Government House, Cape Coast, May 10th, 1865. 
 
 E. OTHER MATTER. 
 
 1. The Sale of Land at Sekondi 2. List of some principal Native 
 States, with the Names of the Paramount Kings.
 
 TABLE OF CASES. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. Homia v. Hurna, C. C. Apps 22 
 
 2. Coffie Yammoah v. Abban Cooma. ..... 88 
 
 3. Opposed Concession Enquiries, Nos. 150 and 343, Axiui 
 (Esubankassa and Indumsuasu) 39, 58, 59 
 
 4. Enima v. Pai .......... 41 
 
 5. Bayaidee v. Mensah ........ 41 
 
 6. The African (West) Exploitation and Development Syndicate, 
 Ltd., v. Sir Alfred Kirby and the Princes River Gold Mines, 
 
 Ltd 41, 42, 45, 74 
 
 7. Opposed Concession Enquiries, Nos. 164 and 169, Axiin 
 (Impatassi) 49, 50, 58, 59 
 
 8. Appenquah's Case ........ 53 
 
 9. Quarnin Dansue v. Tchibu-Darcoon and Cancarn ... 53 
 
 10. Concession Enquiry No. 136, Axim (Essarman) ... 71 
 
 11. Hima Dicki v. Anansu Mensah ...... 74 
 
 12. Oppon v. Ackinie 94, 208, 273281 
 
 13. Hutton v. Kutah 202 
 
 14. Bolton v. Madden, L. E. 9 Q. B. 55 . . . . . 205 
 
 15. Begina v. Cudjoe Inibrah 260, 281288 
 
 16. Concession Enquiry No. 5, Cape Coast (Chidda) . 203, 289310 
 
 17. Le Neve v. Le Neve, White and Tudor's Leading Cases . 301 
 
 18. Punchard v. Tomkins, 31 Weekly Reports, 286 . . . 301 
 
 19. Yates Bros, and Shattuck v. Garshong ..... 301
 
 PKELIMINAEY. 
 
 IN the present work I have indicated, or attempted 
 to indicate, the true nature of the problem which 
 Great Britain has to face in her administration of 
 the Gold Coast and her hinterland. 
 
 To find out what that problem is, and the way 
 successfully to deal with it, it has been necessary, 
 on theone hand, to examine the aboriginal State 
 
 System, holding, as I do, that apari from the .Natives 
 of the soil any attempt at statesmanlike adminis 
 tration is doomed to failure^ On the other hand, I 
 
 \ n T i 
 
 have collected and preserved the most important of 
 the evidence available as to the political relations, 
 past and present, of Great Britain with the Gold 
 Coast. I consider that there can be no greater safe- 
 guard to British administration on the Gold Coast 
 than in the free dissemination of the historical facts 
 embodied in this book. Further, I have ventured 
 to suggest a key to the solution of the problem. 
 It is none other than the imperialisation of the 
 Gold Coast and of Ashanti on purely aboriginal 
 lines, leading ultimately to the imperialisation of 
 West Africa.
 
 x PEELIMINAEY. 
 
 The propositions in the chapter on Native Institu- 
 tions have generally been supported by decided 
 cases ; and they may be taken, on the whole, as 
 a statement of the law as it exists at present. 
 I have also in this chapter given a sketch of the 
 Native State in Ashanti, as embodying the highest 
 development thereof, since both the Fantis and the 
 Ashantis come from the same stock, and may be 
 regarded as cousins, if not brothers, the difference 
 in character arising merely from their respective 
 local environments. 
 
 In the chapter dealing with early British relations 
 with the Gold Coast, and the bearing of Ashanti 
 affairs upon such relations, is embodied a deal of 
 evidence of a highly important character. It forms 
 essentially the Constitutional History of the Gold 
 Coast, and indicates her status. 
 
 In the Appendices I have collected a deal of 
 important matter which could not conveniently find 
 room in the body of the work. No earnest student 
 of the Constitutional History of the Gold Coast can 
 afford to pass them by. 
 
 The events to which this work relates mostly 
 happened during the reign of Her late Most Gracious 
 Majesty Queen Victoria. Little does the world 
 know how great was her influence in allaying 
 irritation and preserving peace among her dusky 
 subjects and allies on the Gold Coast. Long will
 
 PEELIMINAEY. xi 
 
 be remembered the solicitude which she showed for 
 the good government of this country and the welfare 
 of its people in the dark days of 1898. I take this 
 opportunity, therefore, of recording most respectfully 
 the high regard all Aborigines of the Gold Coast had 
 for her person and character. 
 
 It is the desire of the author that the ministers of 
 His Most Gracious Majesty King Edward VII. may 
 have some means of ascertaining the true relations 
 of Great Britain with the Gold Coast, and the nature 
 of the difficulties with which they have to contend ; 
 and if this book should be the means of even merely 
 promoting earnest and intelligent inquiry in proper 
 channels for information to guide future conduct, I 
 shall not have laboured in vain. 
 
 Kow,J,he sources of information in regard to the 
 Gold Coast are so meagre and, in parts, so unreliable, 
 that the intelligent reader may justifiably enquire 
 how I have come by the facts recorded in this book. 
 I shall satisfy that curiosity; and I do so the more 
 willingly, as I am desirous thalTthe reader should. 
 I have the opportunity of testing thp truths 
 stated for himself. 
 
 In the fall of 1897, I was requested professionally 
 by the Executive Committee of the Gold Coast 
 Aborigines' Eights Protection Society to prepare a 
 brief for the Western Tribes of the Gold Coast Pro- 
 tectorate, dealing with the new line of legislation then
 
 xii PRELIMINARY. 
 
 introduced by the Colonial Government, with par- 
 ticular reference to fundamental grounds of objection 
 to the famous " Lands Bill " of 1897. 
 
 Early in that year, the public mind of the country 
 had been deeply agitated by reason of the introduc- 
 tion into the Legislative Council of the said Bill, 
 and it was sought to prevent its becoming law by 
 appealing to Her Majesty in Council in the most 
 effective way. 
 
 In order to meet the general argument of a claim 
 of right on the part of the Government to legislate 
 away the lands of the Aborigines, I had to examine 
 carefully into the past history of the country, as 
 disclosed, among other materials acknowledged in 
 this work, in tomes of official reports and Govern- 
 ment Blue Books, and was in the end able to form 
 a clear, and, I flatter myself, a correct idea the 
 result of the evidence I had collected as to the true 
 position of the Gold Coast in her relation to Great 
 Britain. 
 
 Some result of my labours was to enable the 
 Executive Committee of the Society to place in the 
 hands of counsel in England, through the Society's 
 solicitors, a clear case for the country, which formed 
 the basis of the petitions to Her Majesty in Council, 
 which were submitted after the same, I believe, had 
 been settled by Mr. Asquith, K.C., M.P. The fate of 
 the " Lands Bill, 1897," is a matter of history. The
 
 PRELIMINARY. xiii 
 
 Colonial Office yielded to the logic of facts, and the 
 lands of the Aborigines of the Gold Coast were 
 preserved unto them. 
 
 It occurred to me, in the course of my critical 
 examination of the issues raised and the evidence 
 necessary to throw light upon them, that ample data 
 existed, if only one would search for them, for a 
 concise statement of the political past and present 
 of the Gold Coast 'Aborigines, which would be useful 
 in the future, not only to the Aborigines anxious to 
 know the Constitutional History of their country, 
 but also to the official of the Government, seeking for 
 precedents to guide his conduct. 
 
 I have endeavoured, therefore, in the present 
 work, to embody the evidence collected by me, 
 which was partly unused in the preparation of the 
 brief ; and my object has been to present the facts 
 in the most authentic way in order that the results 
 arrived at may be obvious to the intelligent reader. 
 Nor can a charge of partisanship be levelled at me, 
 since the matters with which the historical parts of 
 this book deal have, by the imprimatur of the 
 Colonial Office, passed from the province of con- 
 troversy to that of history. 
 
 It only remains for me to add that the other 
 general propositions of law contained in this work 
 are based upon materials collected by me in the 
 course of over six years' extensive practice at the
 
 xiv PBELIMINAEY. 
 
 Gold Coast Bar, such propositions being generally 
 supportable by decided cases in the Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 The following Blue Books have been referred to 
 in the. course of this work: .(1) Papers relating to 
 the Gold Coast, 1864 to 1878 ; (2) Eeport from the 
 Select Committee on Africa (Western Coast), together 
 with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of 
 Evidence and Appendix, ordered by the House of 
 Commons to be printed 26th June, 1865. With 
 kind permission, reference has also been made to 
 " Fanti Customary Laws," the able work of my 
 learned friend, the Honourable John Mensah Sarbah, 
 and to other works, which will be duly acknowledged 
 in the text. 
 
 It is my settled conviction that, unless the 
 administration of the Gold Coast and her hinter- 
 
 bhe 
 
 -"1 L.'/ 
 
 land is based upon sound moral principles, ' it is 
 doomed to failure. It is for this reason that in 
 
 tne last chapter 1 have ventured to indicate the 
 moral duty of Great Britain to the country and the 
 hinterland. 
 
 Now, I know of no more thankless task under the 
 sun than that of criticism. Why a sensible man 
 should criticise at all, it is sometimes difficult to tell. 
 
 Surely, it is far more agreeable to take things as 
 they come than to be called a fool by one's friends 
 by assuming the role of a critic.
 
 PRELIMINARY. xv 
 
 Yet, what would become of Government, Politics, 
 and even Keligion itself without criticism, fair and 
 fearless ? 
 
 But as regards criticism on the Gold Coast in 
 public matters, a greater than I has written : 
 
 " English merchants cannot afford to offend the 
 Governor; they may tender for Government contracts, 
 or they may be guilty of some technical violation of 
 the Customs regulations and have to beg for the 
 remission of a penalty. They look on with approval 
 while some more reckless man expresses his and 
 their mind in the press. They may bring their 
 grievances to him to be ventilated, but they carefully 
 abstain from all overt acts of opposition to the 
 powers that be." 1 
 
 If the truth may be told, English merchants on 
 the Gold Coast are by no means singular in a policy 
 of self-preservation. 
 
 Personally, I confess, I cannot see any reason 
 why the powers that be should object to fair and 
 open comment upon public matters. There is, on 
 the contrary, good ground for assuming that an 
 enlightened Government would welcome fair and 
 intelligent criticism, however much such criticism 
 may expose administrative weakness. 
 
 Be that as it may, no matter what the personal 
 inconvenience to myself may be, I shall be well 
 
 1 Ernest Eiloart, Barrister-at-Law, in " The Land of Death."
 
 xvi PEELBIINARY. 
 
 satisfied if, by stating the truth and my honest 
 convictions, I am able in some slight degree to 
 promote the successful administration of the Gold 
 Coast and of Ashanti, and to help the cause of the 
 Fatherland ! 
 
 My acknowledgments are due to Mr. E. Haigh 
 Chalmers, the Editor of West Africa, for his courtesy 
 in allowing the reproduction of matter indicated in 
 the Appendix ; to the Kev. Attoh Ahuma, formerly 
 Editor of The Gold Coast Methodist Times, for kindly 
 giving me leave to use the article, " Colony or Pro- 
 tectorate " ; and to the Rev. Dr. Mark Christian 
 Hayford, whose assistance in connection with the 
 correcting of the proof-sheets has been invaluable. 
 
 C. H. 
 
 THE LIBRARY, 
 
 INNER TEMPLE, 
 
 July, 1903.
 
 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM. 
 
 G.C.
 
 ... In dealing with Crown Colonies people at home are 
 apt, on the whole, to take a very narrow and material view 
 indeed, deliberately or unconsciously. And yet these Colonies, 
 even the smaller ones, are countries often as large and as full 
 of people as many a place in Europe which holds a niche of its 
 own in the world's history, and whose movements are watched 
 and recorded by the public press of the world. These latter 
 countries, however small they may be, are deemed important 
 as the homes of a people who are, or have been, factors in the 
 political and social questions of the day. Of imports there may 
 be none beyond those necessary for the civilised wants of a 
 frugal race, and the exports may be equally unnoticeable, 
 because the people are of more importance in the world than 
 the productions they have to dispose of. With the Crown 
 Colonies it is different ; they are apt to be written and spoken 
 of as if their productions, actual or potential, were of more 
 importance than the inhabitants ; and yet it is a fact that 
 imports and exports, and revenues and debts, may all show an 
 increase, and the condition of the people may not be advanced, 
 or may even have retrograded amidst all this show. 
 
 All this is so obvious to those acquainted with these Colonies 
 that it gives rise to a conviction in many minds that the only 
 people fit to judge of internal affairs in any country whatever 
 are the people who inhabit it. C. S. SALMON, Ex- Administrator 
 of the Gold Coast, in "The Crown Colonies of Great Britain," 
 pp. 1, 2 and 3.
 
 CHAP. i. THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM. 
 
 AFRICA, I believe, has been compared somewhere 
 by Dr. Blyden in his writings to the Sphinx of old, 
 which, sitting by the wayside, calmly propounded 
 riddles. Trouble and great confusion to the nation, 
 European or otherwise, which would attempt to 
 read them without her aid. It could only mean 
 disappointment bitterer than Jordan apples. 
 
 The analogy holds good with regard to the attempt 
 on the part of Great Britain successfully to ad- 
 minister the Gold Coast and Ashanti without the co- 
 operation of the sons of the soil. Indeed, the very 
 difficulties which beset the path of the British 
 Administrator can be correctly indicated sometimes 
 only by the intelligent ones of the country, and the 
 method, if not the means, of solution must also be 
 with them. I venture here to indicate the problem. 
 
 It is desirable, at the outset, to clear our minds 
 of certain impressions which recent writers upon 
 the Gold Coast have sought to create. It has been 
 assiduously inculcated that the only object of Great 
 Britain on the Gold Coast is trade legitimate trade, 
 
 12
 
 4 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. i. 
 
 if you please. It is then urged that, since trade 
 follows the Flag, and civilisation trade, the Aborigines 
 of the Gold Coast cannot but be benefited by the 
 presence of the British upon their soil. This is true 
 to a certain extent ; but let me point out in what 
 way it is not wholly true. 
 
 There is a keen pleasure in the sense of posses- 
 sion. My land, my house, as contradistinguished 
 from your land, your house, will remain, till the end 
 of time, worthy objects of ambition. As with the 
 individual man, so with the individual nation. That 
 being so, when you come across professions on the 
 part of writers upon the Gold Coast and others that 
 Great Britain is on the Gold Coast for trade and no 
 more, do not take them seriously. You may assent 
 to the proposition, if you please, that her only 
 reasonable ground of occupation is the free expan- 
 sion of her trade. But that is a different matter. 
 Whether you call them spheres of influence, terri- 
 tories, possessions, protectorates, or colonies, there 
 is hardly a European power which will not fight for 
 their acquisition, even though there is derived from 
 holding them not one farthing's worth of profit, 
 taking the outlay it involves into consideration. I 
 believe Mr. Andrew Carnegie has shown conclusively 
 in an able article 1 how comparatively unprofitable 
 for purposes of trade are some of the colonies and 
 
 1 Nineteenth Century, May, 1901.
 
 CHVP. i. THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM. 5 
 
 protectorates of Great Britain, let alone the so-called 
 possessions or spheres of influence. There is, in 
 some cases, an insane thirst for territorial acqui- 
 sition, cost what it may. 
 
 To state the proposition broadly, it is simply the 
 primitive instinct of acquisitiveness in man which 
 operates in the case of nations, no matter the extent 
 of their boasted civilisation. Primitive ma.n in/ 
 primitive society says : " I will have your land, 01 
 your hut, if you will ffive it to me. If not. I 
 take it. When I have taken it, and yon cannot 
 ; retake it, of p.onrsp^ T will frgfip it." The civilised 
 nations of the world are to-day like unto primitive 
 man, else international courts of arbitration would 
 more frequently be sitting in one European capital 
 or another, and the weak nations of the earth would 
 have a little peace, if not a little justice. 
 
 If you are inclined to deny the foregoing propo- 
 sition, then I ask you to accept this, that commonly, 
 there are two ethical sanctions to the fact of posses- 
 sion. In the first place, you must come by your 
 possession honestly, and secondly, you must bear 
 manfully its responsibilities ; which two sanctions 
 are generally not observed, if recognised at all, by 
 the great nations of the earth. 
 
 Since, however, the world is as we know it to be ; 
 since the weak must go to the wall, and the fittest 
 survive, irrespective of what is right or wrong, fair
 
 6 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. i. 
 
 or unfair ; it is, I confess, but practical philosophy 
 that the weak should side with the strong. 
 
 From this point of view, always remember, the 
 Aborigines of the Gold Coast triumph in the wave 
 of imperialism which at present sways the public 
 sentiment of Great Britain. It may overwhelm 
 them, and play havoc with all that is dear to them 
 of law, custom and practice ; it may reduce them 
 to the condition of bondsmen and captives in their 
 own fair domains ; it may denationalise them and 
 make them a people of no reputation, a by-word 
 and a reproach among men ; but, for all these things, 
 they would rather have the ills that they know of 
 than fly to others that they know not of. It is 
 nothing but common sense. What is more, they 
 know what evils there are, are such that they can, 
 cope w r ith, and that, truth being on their side, they 
 will triumph in the end. 
 
 Now, since we have the British with us, and the 
 object of an enlightened Government should be to 
 promote the healthy national development of the 
 governed by conserving and not destroying the 
 institutions of the people ; and since in the past 
 the tendency has been toward disintegration rather 
 than toward conservation we have the right to say 
 to them : " You have disorganised our institutions, 
 you shall help to reorganise them ; you have 
 enriched your homes with the luxury that the
 
 CHAP. i. THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM. 7 
 
 Gold Coast has afforded, 3*011 shall help us to rebuild. 
 our homes ; you have made here princely fortunes*. 
 
 you shall help us to live peaceably in our own 
 vineyards and under our own fig trees " it is about 
 
 time, I hold, that the Authorities at Downing Street 
 confined themselves more to external administration, 
 leaving the internal government of the people to 
 develop upon the natural lines of their own institu- 
 tions.___Will the public opinion of Great Britain 
 insist upon this being done, or will it allow the 
 work of spoliation to proceed ? This is the 
 problem in its naked form. The people of the 
 
 Gold Coast observe that for nearly a century you 
 
 i\ / 
 
 have been trying to mould for them their insti- 
 tutions, and that you have most signally failed. 
 They see in the civilisation you offer much that 
 is fair, but cannot fail to perceive the weak spots 
 and blemishes in the same. They say to you, " We 
 are anxious to take part in the race of nations 
 towards the attainment of higher ideals, if you will 
 only give us a chance to work out our ow r n salvation." 
 But no, you will continue to regard them as inno- 
 cents, and they, the pigmies, must march with you, 
 the Colossus, whether it is expedient or not. This 
 is not right or fair. It is not even common sense. 
 Therefore, with all earnestness, I humbly urge that 
 henceforth the Aborigines and their Protectors should 
 adjust themselves respectively to their proper spheres
 
 8 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. i. 
 
 of work. Let them do this, and the problem of a 
 century will readily be solved. 
 
 But how about this adjustment ? you will ask. 
 Permit me to ask you to go to history and to science, 
 and they will teach you what to do. Science will 
 tell you that there can be no healthy growth except 
 from within ; and the history of the Gold Coast will 
 disclose to you the facts and circumstances which 
 must guide such internal growth. This has been 
 the stumbling-block all along, this want of adjust- 
 ment of the proper spheres of work of the parties 
 concerned. It must be removed now. Let us 
 see how. 
 
 Truly, the present is a critical moment in the 
 constitutional history of the Gold Coast and her 
 hinterland. He who runs may see that the time 
 has come to determine what policy shall govern the 
 administration of the country by the Colonial Office 
 in the commercial interests of Great Britain and in 
 the practical uplifting of the native tribes in the 
 scale of civilisation. 
 
 But unhappy recollections surround the name of 
 the Colonial Office in the mind of the historian. That 
 hoar-headed institution, generally dormant and leth- 
 argic, occasionally erratic and irrepressible, if not 
 irresponsible, will have much to answer for in the 
 day when the public intelligence of Great Britain 
 will awaken to the golden opportunities which the
 
 CHAP. i. THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM. 9 
 
 Empire has lost on the Gold Coast and in Ashanti 
 through its blunders. 
 
 Let me at once clear this matter, namely, the 
 blunders of the Colonial Office, of all misconcep- 
 tions. The custom has grown up, within recent 
 years, that the moment the Colonial Office is men- 
 tioned the mind of the reader instinctively flies back 
 to the right honourable gentleman who at present 
 presides over that institution. He is at once fixed, 
 rightly or wrongly, with all the blame, past and 
 present, attributable to that office. This is not. fair ; 
 and I will say this, that the Aborigines of the Gold 
 Coast, in their criticism of the methods of the 
 Colonial Office, disclaim the propriety of attacking 
 any particular Cabinet Minister who, in past, present, 
 or future Administrations,was, is, or will be, Secretary 
 of State for the Colonies. 
 
 But, without apportioning blame, one can pretty 
 accurately indicate the line Colonial Office policy 
 has taken under the guiding genius of a particular 
 Colonial Minister. Bear in mind, if you please, 
 that there is a Colonial Office policy, which may be 
 allowed to droop, or pursued to its logical objective, 
 according as the Colonial Minister for the time being 
 is a weak or a strong man. And, remember, the 
 world always admires a strong man who has the 
 courage of his convictions. 
 
 If, therefore, you complain of Mr. Chamberlain,
 
 10 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAF. i. 
 
 you only complain of the circumstance that the 
 Unionist Government, for once, has done the 
 Colonies the unique honour of placing at the head 
 of their affairs and the direction of their destinies 
 a first-rate man, who has the courage of his con- 
 victions, and who presses such convictions home to 
 their logical conclusions. Hence the crisis. Here 
 is a man of nerve, who has schooled himself inta 
 the belief that his objective is the right goal. Will 
 he wreck the ship, or will he save it ? Men of local 
 experience and knowledge think it looks like ruin ; 
 and it becomes necessary to sound the alarm if, 
 haply, the steersman will heed, correct the chart, 
 change the course, and save the ship. For, pray, 
 remember that, whatever the capacity of a Colonial 
 Minister, and with the best of intentions in the 
 world, he cannot be expected to be fully acquainted 
 with local conditions, native peculiarities, and the 
 past constitutional history of the Gold Coast. 
 
 Unlike Australia, Canada, and other Colonies 
 of Great Britain rightly so denominated, here, on 
 the Gold Coast, you have to deal with an aboriginal 
 race with distinctive institutions, customs, and laws, 
 which, now and again, European writers may attempt 
 to portray, but which they can never fully interpret 
 to the outside world. 
 
 It follows, therefore, that a Colonial Minister has 
 to gather information, as guide for his conduct,
 
 CHAP. i. THE ADMINISTBATIVE PEOBLEM. 11 
 
 second-hand. Now, what are the sources of infor- 
 mation open to a Colonial Minister ? There is 
 principally the Colonial Governor, whose tenure of 
 office is so uncertain, and who, during his adminis- 
 tration, be it long, or be it short, -is somehow 
 generally surrounded with officials not always the 
 best qualified to inform him accurately concern- 
 ing the significance and hidden meaning of Native 
 institutions. He, the Colonial Governor, sometimes 
 supplements the erroneous ideas he thus acquires 
 by desultory reading of authors who, in writing, 
 seek not the making of history, but that of their 
 own ephemeral fame. In his despatches he freely 
 makes use of such information ; and the Colonial 
 Minister, when pressed for a division in the House 
 of Commons, presses into his service the ill-digested 
 lesson he has learnt from the despatches. Thus, 
 between the Colonial Minister and the local 
 Governor, ignorance at times reigns supreme as to 
 the real merits of a given issue. This adds to the 
 difficulty of the problem under consideration. 
 
 What, for example, could have been more pitiable 
 than the excuses put forward by the Colonial Secre- 
 tary in the " Golden Stool " debate in the House of 
 Commons on the 19th of March, 1901 ? Speaking of 
 the cause of the rising in Ash'anti, the right honour- 
 able member for West Birmingham said : " The 
 earlier expedition was so far successful that it was
 
 12 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. i. 
 
 concluded without a single drop of blood having 
 been shed. And when you ask what is the cause of 
 the subsequent disturbance, I have no hesitation in 
 saying that it was the bloodlessness of the previous 
 expedition. The people of Ashanti, in common with 
 every savage tribe, hold it to be a point of honour to 
 fight for their chief, and to fight for their cause. They 
 are ready to accept defeat, but they are not ready to 
 accept the consequences of defeat without being 
 actually defeated." l (Sic.) Unhappy Ashanti, a nation 
 steeped in grossest barbarism, addicted to human 
 sacrifices, slave-raiding, and the breaking of treaties! 
 You must be thankful for small mercies ; for, until 
 the Colonial Secretary spoke, we,, your brethren on 
 the Gold Coast, could not believe that you could be 
 guilty of such a thing as a point of honour ! But 
 there it is in black and white. Who told Mr. Cham- 
 berlain this ? Did he read it in books, or in Sir 
 F. M. Hodgson's despatches ? I have never seen 
 this in any authentic book on savage tribes, and so 
 it is just possible it was from the despatches. 
 
 Or, again, take this bit : " Sir Frederick Hodgson 
 did not ask my permission to go for the golden stool, 
 but, speaking now after the event, I entirely approve 
 of his attempt to secure it. The golden stool is of 
 very great moral and intellectual value (laughter). 
 
 1 Times report, March 19th, reproduced in West Africa, March 
 30th, 1901.
 
 CHAP. i. THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM. 13 
 
 It is not loot in the sense the honourable member 
 supposes. It has no great pecuniary value. But in 
 the opinion of the tribe, and according to the custom 
 of the tribe, the possession of the stool gives supre- 
 macy. And if, therefore, we should secure this stool, 
 we would be doing mure for the peace of Ashanti 
 than, probably, by any armed expedition. Therefore, 
 it was of the greatest importance to get hold of this 
 symbol of sovereignty, if we could possibly do it." 1 
 
 Again, how came the Colonial Secretary by this 
 ex post facto explanation ? This time I have read 
 somewhere something very similar. Here it is : 
 " The stool appears among the Ashantis and neigh- 
 bouring peoples to be the emblem of possession, for 
 the expression ' to succeed to the stool ' is applied 
 not only to a king on his accession, but also to 
 private persons when they inherit property. Hence 
 a conquered country is not considered to be fully 
 subjugated until the royal stool has passed into the 
 hands of the conqueror. It was for this reason, no 
 doubt, that King Ajiman of Jaman exhibited such 
 eagerness when he spoke to me of his desire to invade 
 Ashanti and recover the Gold Stool, and this is also 
 the probable explanation of the fact that in neither of 
 the British invasions of Ashanti has this stool been 
 allowed to fall into the hands of the invaders." 2 
 
 1 Times report, reproduced in West Africa, March 30th, 1901. 
 
 Dr. Freeman's " Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman," 
 pp. 442443.
 
 14 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. i. 
 
 The first point to note in reading these two 
 passages is that, from Dr. Freeman's account of 
 the King of Jaman's eagerness to recover the " gold 
 stool," the said stool must once have been the stool 
 of Jaman, otherwise there could be no need to 
 "recover " it. That being so, the reflection is 
 reasonable that, upon Jaman losing her " gold 
 stool," she did not cease to be a nation, or to 
 possess a stool, "gold" or otherwise, upon which 
 .subsequent kings sat, down to the time of Ajiman. 
 
 The second point to note is that the Colonial 
 Secretary disclaims having directed Sir Frederick 
 Hodgson to go for the golden stool. It is very 
 unlikely, therefore, that Mr. Chamberlain knew till 
 "after the event" of the great "moral and intel- 
 lectual value" of the golden stool. But Sir 
 Frederick Hodgson must have known of it, or he 
 would not have, unsolicited, gone in quest of it. 
 I am sure he did not get his information from any 
 of his advisers, for his conduct in this matter has 
 received the severest condemnation alike of officials 
 and the general public of the Gold Coast. It is 
 charitable to assume that the good Governor probably 
 misread Dr. Freeman. Dr. Freeman, like the 
 -careful writer that he is, speaks of " appears," " no 
 doubt," "probable explanation." He kept an open 
 mind in the matter. Perhaps later observation and 
 experience might show that, after all, there was no
 
 CHAP. i. THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM. 15 
 
 virtue in the " golden stool." But when these 
 tentative propositions pass through the official mill, 
 they come out in a debate in the House of Commons 
 as positive facts. 
 
 This sort of thing, or anything like it, is a source 
 of danger, and adds to the difficulty of the problem 
 before us. We want an intelligent and scientific 
 study of Native Institutions, and a right under-' 
 standing of the nature of the work Great Britain 
 is called upon to do in the Gold Coast and Ashanti, 
 and the limit of her capacity to carry out such work 
 apart from the Aborigines of the country. When 
 once this principle has been .fully grasped and an 
 attempt made to work it out, we shall, at last, be on 
 the way to a successful administration of the Gold 
 Coast and Ashanti.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 NATIYE INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 G.C.
 
 I had asked him how the more intelligent of the peasantry 
 and workmen regard those constitutional reforms which the 
 educated non-official classes demanded with almost one voice. 
 
 " What do you mean by reforms ? " he interrupted. 
 
 " Western institutions generally a Parliament, liberty of 
 the press, legal guarantees." 
 
 " What on earth have we to do with legal guarantees and 
 Western institutions?" he interrupted, seemingly astonished 
 that any one should ask such a question. " Your mistake is 
 always assuming that Western institutions are a stereotyped 
 model upon which all forms should be based. It is this 
 delusion that is at the bottom of half the wars and predatory 
 aggressions carried on by Europeans against men of other 
 races. If reforms are wanted in Eussia, it is not either 
 Western or Eastern reforms, but measures suited for the 
 people, and not other peoples. The assumption that reforms 
 so-called must be constructed upon Western models is a pure 
 product of Western exclusiveness, and is opposed both to 
 Christianity and to common sense." COUNT TOLSTOY, Eeview 
 of Reviews, May 15th, 1901.
 
 CHAP. ii. THE NATIVE STATE. 19 
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 1. THE NATIVE STATE. 
 
 THE Native State, in its highest development, is to 
 be found where a number of considerably important 
 communities combine and own allegiance to one 
 central paramount Authority. Such Authority is the 
 King, properly so called. Thus in Ashanti, before 
 the breaking up of the Court at Kumasi, there 
 were the Manpons, the Juabins, the Kokofus, the 
 Beckwas, the Adansis, and several other large and 
 important communities, owning allegiance to the 
 stool of Kumasi as the paramount stool of all Ashanti. 
 Each of these important communities, when regarded 
 with respect to the entire State, was a sort of imperium 
 in Imperio in fact, several distinct native states 
 federated together under the same laws, the same 
 customs, the same faith and worship, the people 
 speaking the same language, and all owning allegiance 
 to a paramount king or president, who represented 
 the sovereignty of the entire Union. 
 
 The greater the number of such states in one 
 
 22
 
 20 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 great native federal Union, the greater the import- 
 ance of such Union. Hence the supreme influence 
 which the occupants of the golden stool exerted in 
 the nineteenth century, and the efforts they made, 
 by war or otherwise, to keep the federal States 
 together. This natural process of self-preservation, 
 instinct with high statesmanship, has been, by ill- 
 informed writers, set down for a slave-raiding 
 propensity. You may as well call the war of the 
 North and the South of the United States, or the 
 struggle in the British Isles to preserve the inte- 
 grity of Great Britain, slave-raiding wars. Having 
 arrived at the zenith of her power about the first 
 quarter of the last century, the central Authority 
 in Ashanti, represented by the occupants of the 
 golden stool, which had its seat at Kumasi, strove 
 steadily to keep the Union together up to the 
 last quarter of the century, when Her Majesty's 
 Government, consciously or unconsciously, set to 
 work to disintegrate the Union. Mr. Fox Bourne 
 seems to think that Great Britain undertook this 
 work consciously, and with a light heart. For he 
 says in a recent pamphlet : " The desire to assert 
 control over natives far away from the seat of 
 government, and for whose conduct the authorities 
 were in no way responsible, had striking exemplifi- 
 cation in the treatment of the Ashantis, which, 
 for the time being, culminated in the occupation
 
 CHAP. ii. THE NATIVE STATE. 21 
 
 of Kumasi in January, 1896. Ever since the 
 Ashanti War of 1873-74, by which the powerful 
 dominion of King Kwofi Kara Kari and his pre- 
 decessors was broken clown, it had been the policy 
 of the British administrators on the Gold Coast to 
 coax away from allegiance to the occupant of the 
 1 golden stool ' at Kumasi all its former adherents, 
 and especially those nearest to the coast." 1 This 
 passage is, unfortunately, strikingly in accord with 
 facts. Here we find a civilised Christian Power, the 
 professed Protector of native races, doing unto a 
 people struggling to maintain its national integrity 
 that which she would not be done by. It is as if 
 America should steadily set to work to coax Ireland 
 away from her allegiance to the British Crown. The 
 wrong being clear, will Great Britain make repara- 
 tion by helping now to restore the integrity of 
 Ashanti, or will she say, it is but a weak, savage 
 nation, and pass by on the other side ? 
 
 In^ the Gold Coaat J>roper we have, for example, 
 the native states of Fanti, Ahanta, Insima, Ga, 
 Wassa, and others, having more or less the same 
 laws and customs, and ^sneaking generally the 
 same language, or dialects of the same language. 
 
 Each federal State takes rank in the order of its 
 importance in the native States Union, and its com- 
 position and constitution is the same as that of the 
 
 1 " Blacks and Whites in West Africa," p. 36.
 
 22 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 principal or premier State, which is usually the State 
 of the paramount King. 
 
 Next in importance to a federal State is a province 
 of such a State. A province is the district of a Head- 
 Chief. Thus, taking Ahanta as a native State, the 
 district over which Atta, the Head-Chief of Axirn, 
 in Ahanta, rules would be a province. A province 
 may be a large or a small one, but every province 
 consists of a number of towns and villages whose 
 principal town or capital is the town of the Head- 
 Chief. The same principles guide the constitution of 
 a province as that of a federal State. Then come the 
 other towns, villages, and hamlets of the province, 
 the government of the smallest hamlet being more 
 or less on the same lines as that of a town. 
 
 I may now usefully trace the beginnings of the 
 Native State from the hamlet to its highest develop- 
 ment, a union of Native States under one King or 
 President. Let me make use of the facts of a con- 
 crete case. In the case of Homia v. Huma, which 
 went up to appeal, the facts were as follow : l A 
 man named Inkertsia, a huntsman, had asked per- 
 mission to squat near a village called Ankraku for 
 the purpose of hunting elephants, and founded there 
 a hamlet which was called after him Inkertsia Krom, 
 that is, Inkertsia's hamlet. Now, Ankraku, according 
 
 1 Homia v. Huma, Cape Coast Appeals, November, 1900. Coram 
 Griffiths, C.J., and Nicoll, J.
 
 CHAP. ii. THE NATIVE STATE. 23 
 
 to the evidence, was a village of the district whose 
 chief town was Ayenasi, the district of Ayenasi being 
 in the province of which Attuabu was the capital, 
 which province was the premier province of the State 
 of Appolonia. It was stated that cases arising in 
 Inkertsia Krom, and not disposed of, were first 
 referred to Ankraku, thence to Ayenasi, and thence 
 to Attuabu. Here you have complete the links 
 uniting the lowest to the highest native community. 
 
 There is hardly a native of the Gold Coast, where- 
 ever he may roam, who will not tell you, when you 
 ask him, the name of his paramount King. I shall 
 long remember the air of self-satisfaction and pride 
 with which a body of Fanti labourers I once had for 
 clients gave me to understand that they were the 
 subjects of Okra Kwa, King of Mankessim. And 
 well might they, for the King of Mankessim, before 
 the disintegrating influence of the Government upon 
 Native Institutions, was the premier paramount King 
 of the entire Fanti Union. 
 
 The authority of the King of the paramount State 
 is no mere shadowy matter. The Head of each pro- 
 vince pays him the highest deference. He is the 
 arbiter in cases of dispute between two provinces 
 within his State, and his ruling was always, and even 
 now is, generally obeyed. He never directly inter- 
 feres in the internal government of a province, but he 
 can bring external pressure to bear in suitable cases.
 
 24 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 Thus, with a strong central government, directed by 
 a strong personality, the Native State has all the 
 elements of progress, liberty, and enlightened good 
 government in its composition. 1 How light would 
 have been the task of Great Britain if she had learnt 
 this elementary truth when Governor Maclean sought 
 to press it home by the wise policy which he adopted. 2 
 
 But let me now, in further illustration of the 
 principles which govern the formation of the native 
 state, attempt a sketch of the Native State in Ashanti. 
 It is idle to suppose that the national spirit has been 
 crushed out of existence since the expedition of Sir 
 William Willcocks. You may destroy a nation, but it 
 is another thing to destroy the spirit, of nationality. 
 
 Without going into the vexed question as to the 
 original habitat of the Ashantis and Fantis, it is 
 enough, for practical purposes, to state that they, in 
 common with other tribes, once lived in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the Kong Mountains, and were pressed 
 southwards by external conflicts, and, subsequently, 
 by inter-tribal warfare. Nor is any ingenious argu- 
 ment necessary in proof of this. Nature supplies all 
 the argument necessary. They speak the sjimejan- 
 guage with only a difference of accent, such j|iffe_reruie 
 being a refinement upon whichever form of speech 
 
 1 See Appendix E (2) for a list of the principal Native States with the 
 names of the Paramount Kings, chiefly based upon information given 
 by Mr. Annaman in his book " The Gold Coast Guide." 
 
 2 For Governor Maclean's policy, see pp. 243, 244.
 
 CHAP. n. THE NATIVE STATE. 2j 
 
 was the original type. It is probable the Ashanti 
 type is the original, since it is reasonable to suppose 
 that the coast tribes were detached from the Ashantis, 
 and not -rice versa. There is no tradition showing 
 that the Fantis were ever a distinct and separate 
 people from the Ashantis. On the other hand, there 
 is historical evidence that, at the dawn of European 
 intercourse with the Gold Coast, the Ashanti Union 
 fully recognised the existence and independence of 
 the Fanti Union ; and the current of immigration 
 southwards from the north of tribes now dwelling 
 between Ashanti proper and Fanti proper, all of whom 
 have in common the same language with the Ashantis 
 and Fantis, lends weight to this striking fact. At the 
 present moment the guardian to the King Kwamina 
 Enimil, of Eastern Wassaw, in the protectorate, is 
 one Kojo Buaful, an Ashanti man, who is charged 
 with the training of the young and intelligent King. 
 In tracing, then, the Ashanti Native State I am but 
 tracing the Native State of the Gold Coast in its 
 highest development and applicability. 
 
 The reader must be prepared to disabuse his 
 mind of all prejudice in this matter. If you once 
 start with the premises that the Ashantis are a bar- 
 barous, bloodthirsty people, whose only lot is to 
 be gradually wiped off the face of the earth, you 
 naturally take a different standpoint from the 
 historian, whose object is the ascertainment of truth
 
 26 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 from facts as they are, and not as they are supposed 
 or wished to be for purposes of argument or invec- 
 tive. Sensible writers are beginning to think that 
 the Ashanti has been greatly misjudged. Let us be 
 fair to him for once, and follow me calmly, if you 
 please, while I attempt to examine his institutions. 
 
 The premier State of the Ashanti Union was, 
 before the expedition of Sir Francis Scott, the State 
 of Kumasi, where the King paramount of all Ashanti 
 sat upon the golden stool. In Kumasi proper there 
 were seventy-seven stools, representing seventy-seven 
 public functionaries, as, for example, the Bantuma 
 Chief, or the Chief of the Eoyal Burial Grove, the 
 Ateni Chief, or the Chief of the Lamplighters. 
 
 The King's household was controlled by a number 
 of captains. There were the Captain of the Sword- 
 bearers, the Captain of the Stool-bearers, the Captain 
 of the Elephant's Tail-bearers, the Captain of the 
 Court Criers, the Captain of the Koyal Butlers, the 
 Captain of the Eoyal Huntsmen, the Captain of 
 the Koyal Farmers, and the Captain of the Koyal 
 Physicians. 
 
 The local government of Kumasi was in the hands 
 of the Kwaintsirs, a body of men who were the keepers 
 of the golden stool. They formed the Department 
 of War, and the great General Amankwatsia was 
 formerly their Chief. The fact that the Department 
 of War held in its keeping the royal stool illustrates
 
 CHAP. ii. THE NATIVE STATE. 27 
 
 vividly the origin of the kingly office in the Native 
 State, which will be explained later on. 
 
 The Akwnamus were the aristocrats of Kumasi, 
 from which body a King was selected to sit upon the 
 stool. Not that the King was selected haphazardly, 
 but the family from which the selection was made 
 belonged, as a matter of course, to the best blood 
 in the land. The Akwuamus were consulted in all 
 internal matters. Assafubuaki was formerly at the 
 head of the Akwuamus. I write in the past tense, not 
 because the Native State idea has been destroyed 
 for that can never be while there are living any 
 Ashanti women to keep alive in the minds of their 
 sons the ancient traditions of the nation but 
 because the Native State itself has been disorganised 
 liv British aggression and interference. 
 
 The King's sons, although they do not succeed to 
 the stool, have a distinct rank in the nobility of 
 Ashanti. They are known by the title of " Sai " or 
 ' ' Osoo." Thus, Sai Bonso, a son of King Kweku Dua, 
 was the father of Osoo Ansah, the father of Prince 
 John Osoo Ansah and Prince Albert Osoo Ansah, 
 whom the Colonial Office, a few years back, attempted 
 to discredit in the eyes of the world, but, happily, 
 without success. The title "Sai" or "Osoo" 
 exactly corresponds to the title "prince." Much 
 ingenuity was used at one time to prove that the 
 Ansahs were not princes.
 
 28 . GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 The Inkidoms or Akempims were the King's 
 bodyguard. Their Chief was Subir. 
 
 There were other minor bodies, as the King's 
 scouts, -and keepers of the royal arsenals, who 
 properly came under the Department of War. 
 
 It is obvious why there should have been a 
 Department of War in the local government of 
 Kumasi, since the premier State of the Union must 
 have been strong in order to command the respect of, 
 and keep together, the several States of the Union. 
 
 Every fortieth day the Adayi custom fell. It was 
 a time of national festival and general rejoicing. 
 The King on this occasion distributed among his 
 several chiefs, according to their rank, large sums 
 of money. They were not supposed to use the 
 money for their own self-indulgence, but they were 
 expected, like the stewards in the parable, to trade 
 with the money of their master, so that he who had 
 received seven peregwans might add seven peregwans 
 thereto, and render a due account when called upon 
 to do so ; though, as a matter of fact, it was seldom 
 that an account was called for. In this way the 
 State naturally encouraged thrift, and in olden days 
 it was quite common to see thousands of Ashantis 
 coming down regularly to the coast and buying goods 
 for their masters, which in turn found their way into 
 the very heart of Africa. Kumasi then was the 
 centre of a state system which directly fostered the
 
 CHAP. ii. THE NATIVE STATE. 39 
 
 trade of the coast and connected it with the trade of 
 the hinterland. It is curious to note that most of 
 the early wars between the Fantis and Ashantis, 
 prior to British advent, were due to the Ashantis 
 wishing to trade directly with the coast, and the 
 Fantis wishing to act as middle-men, and, therefore, 
 sometimes ill-treating the Ashantis when they came 
 down to the coast. There were, besides, actual gifts 
 to different persons in the State by the Sovereign on 
 these State occasions. 
 
 Kumasi being the capital of the premier State of 
 the Union, it formed the central convict establish- 
 ment. Thither, month by month, were brought 
 from the tributary towns persons who had been 
 convicted of different offences and w r ere sentenced 
 to be executed. There was a chief of tne execu-~ 
 turners, and it was his duty to act as head-gaoler'. 
 But the criminals were not executed as soon as they 
 were brought to Kumasi. Some were never killed 
 at all, and, in course of time, were reprieved. On 
 state occasions, when all the people from the tribu- 
 tary provinces would flock to Kumasi, it was usual 
 to execute a large number oi tnose who had been 
 condemned to die. Such public execution s"wouffi; 
 of course, have a deterrent effect upon the people of 
 the State in general. And when we consider that 
 not only murder but offences like stealing from a 
 farm, rape, swearing an oath upon the King's life,
 
 30 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 selling a real-born Ashanti, kidnapping, immorality 
 of a certain kind, were all punished with death, it is 
 conceivable the large number of criminals that would 
 be in the convict settlement at a given time. Let 
 the enlightened reader, before moralising on the 
 depravity of the Ashanti, recall to mind the fact that 
 persons were hanged in England for sheep stealing, 
 and witches burnt at Smithneld, not so very long 
 ago. The Ashanti does not boast of being a civilised 
 man in the sense of the European. He is only yet 
 feeling his way out of darkness. But, surely, he is 
 not the savage that he is painted. 
 
 Nor is it true that the Ashantis waged war for 
 the sake of securing prisoners to immolate at the 
 fetish customs. They had a better eye to business. 
 They sold the prisoners of war, most of whom, until 
 Europe suddenly turned convert, found their way 
 to European forts and settlements on the coast, and 
 thence to the plantations of the New World. Could 
 not those who participated in the offences of the 
 Ashantis against humanity have had a little patience 
 with them, since they could not help thinking that 
 the work of regeneration in the European was too 
 sudden to be true ? 
 
 Let me clear this matter of all doubt. The 
 Ashantis waged war among themselves either to 
 preserve the integrity of the Union, or to ward off 
 external attack, where the conflict was with a power
 
 CHAP. ii. THE NATIVE STATE. 31 
 
 outside the Union. The heads of the enemy killed 
 in battle were considered a portion of the trophies of 
 war ; but yon may be sure that not all the heads 
 that were brought to Kumasi were the heads of 
 executed prisoners. The ghastly practice existed 
 of cutting off the head of a fallen foe, which was 
 brought up to the capital to swell the number of 
 skulls in the public arenas of Kumasi, over which 
 ill-informed writers have waxed eloquent. 
 
 Now, I have said that Kumasi was the premier 
 State of the Union. The other principal federal 
 States were Mampon, Beckwa, Insuta, Juabin, 
 Kokofu, Adansi, Akropong Manasu, Asanti Akim, 
 Awiku, and Mamponsu, who were all several thou- 
 sands strong, with internal governments similar to 
 that of Kumasi, which is, again, simply an elabora- 
 tion of the Fanti State System, but who were all 
 subject to and owed allegiance to the paramount 
 stool of the Union, namely, the golden stool of 
 Kumasi.
 
 32 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 2 (A). THE KING. 
 
 At the head of the Native State stands prominently 
 the Oldn (King), who is the Chief Magistrate and 
 Chief Military Leader of the State. He is first in the 
 councils of the country, and the first Executive 
 Officer . His influence is only measured by the 
 strength of his character. He it is who represents 
 the State in all its dealings with the outside world ; 
 and, so long as he keeps within constitutional 
 bounds, he is supreme in his own State. 
 
 The term " Ohin" is applied to the head of any con- 
 siderable community of Aborigines, but all kings are 
 not of the same degree. Hence the distinction which 
 is sometimes made of applying the term "king" to 
 the paramount ruler of a state, and the term " chief " 
 to subordinate rulers under the King paramount. 
 Thus the Head of the State of Ahanta is the King 
 Baidoe Bonso, whose capital is Busua, near Dixcove, 
 while the Head of the Province of Axim, in the State 
 of Ahanta, is also known as Ohin Atta among all 
 natives. Nor is this in any way strange, since each 
 native community, be it small or be it large, is a 
 composite whole, having its form and method of
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING. 
 
 government the same in all essentials. The 
 entire fabric in either case may be analysed into the 
 same elements. 
 
 The term " Calboceer" was at one time employed 
 to mark chiefs of first importance from minor chiefs, 
 but it has fallen into disuse. It will be good policy 
 to revive the title, and generally to enhance the 
 dignity of the native Chiefs, as their influence for 
 good in a well regulated system of government will 
 be simply incalculable. 
 
 The office of king is elective. No king, that is to 
 say, is born a king. There are a number of circum- 
 stances which may prevent the nearest to the stool 
 from ever sitting thereon. A junior heir to the 
 stool may be selected to sit upon the stool, if a 
 senior heir is a profligate, or otEerwise incapable of 
 maintaining the kingly_jlignity. Nor does a king 
 acquire an indefeasible title to the stool when once 
 he has sat upon it. It is the right of those who 
 placed him thereon to put him off the stool for any 
 just cause. But no other authority can rightly inter- 
 fere with his position, if his people are satisfied with 
 him. He holds such position for life, and, upon his 
 death, his younger uterine brother, cousin, or eldest 
 nephew, is selected to succeed him. During his life 
 the King often indicates who such successor shall be, 
 jrally, his wishes are respected. 1 
 
 1 Coffie Yammoah v. Abban Cooma, " Fanti Customary Laws," p. 83. 
 G.C. 3
 
 34 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 In the case of Hinui Diki v. Acjiman and others, 
 decided as recently as the 7th of February, 
 1901, by His Honour Mr. Justice Nicoll, in the 
 Divisional Court at Axim, Hima Diki, the King of 
 Dixcove, had been deposed by the people of Dixcove, 
 and replaced by Anansu Mensah, his uncle. The 
 ex-king sought to recover from the defendants, as 
 representing the Chiefs and Elders of Dixcove, the 
 stool and the paraphernalia thereof. Said His 
 Honour in giving judgment: "I find (1) that the 
 plaintiff was King of Dixcove and duly instooled ; 
 (2) that he was deposed according to native custom 
 about a year ago." 
 
 Nothing daunted, the ex-King next brought an 
 action to test the legality of his destoolment. It 
 came before the same learned judge on the 21st 
 day of October, 1901, when evidence of a highly im- 
 portant character as to the Customary Law thereto 
 appertaining was given. Kweku Atta, King of Axim, 
 was called as an expert witness. 
 
 "Question: In the case of a town chief would you 
 tell the procedure in taking him off the stool first 
 when the family complain ? 
 
 "Answer : The family complain to the townspeople, 
 who put me on the stool, and we meet, and I am 
 found to be in the wrong, I ask the townsmen to beg 
 my family. They beg my family to forgive me. I 
 satisfy them. If I do it again a second time, again
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING. 85 
 
 forgiveness. The third time, yon must go, yon ninst 
 have opportunity of defending yourself. 
 
 "Question: Now when the townspeople complain? 
 
 "Answer : Your family accompany you to the meet- 
 ing of the townsmen, and the townsmen put before 
 the family what you have done, and after you have 
 made your defence, and your family found that you 
 are in the wrong the family and yourself beg the 
 town to forgive you. They forgive you, and you 
 pacify them. If you repeat it four times, then, they 
 tell the family they don't want you any more, and 
 that ends it. That is the native law and practice." 
 
 The Court in giving judgment in this case said : 
 " I find that the plaintiff was Chief of Dixcove, and 
 that he has never been properly deposed, and is 
 now Chief of Dixcove, sitting on Dixcove stool ; and 
 I order the stool to be given up to plaintiff, or some 
 one for him." 
 
 The case of Kweku Inkruma, ex-King of Peppissa 
 District, is in point. In April, 1901, the King 
 Kwamina Enimil of Eastern Wassaw being in Axim, 
 the Councillors and Elders of the stool charged 
 Kweku Inkruma with divers acts unbecoming the 
 kingly office, and, the facts being proved to the satis- 
 faction of the King's Court, he was put off the stool. 
 
 From the foregoing cases the following principles 
 are clearly deducible as to the destoolment of a 
 king. 
 
 3-2
 
 36 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 Firstly : the authority which, in accordance with 
 the Customary Law, called the King to the stool, 
 is the only authority which can call for his destool- 
 ment. .- 
 
 Secondly : To render the destoolment of a king 
 valid, he. must have been properly destooled ; and 
 before he can be properly destooled, he must have 
 had full opportunity of showing cause why he should 
 not be destooled. 
 
 Thirdly : It is not for every petty act of mis- 
 conduct that a king's destoolment can be called for. 
 He must have been convicted of acts seriously detri- 
 mental to the State, or otherwise gravely unbecoming 
 the kingly dignity. The Customary Law herein 
 carries out the spirit of the direction to pardon your 
 brother, if he sins against you seventy times seven. 
 
 Fourthly : The proper tribunal, in accordance with 
 the Customary Law, must try the King, and the law 
 is jealous of the procedure on such occasions. 
 
 It is obvious why the Customary Law keeps a 
 wakeful eye over the proceedings affecting a king's 
 destoolment. The kingly office is, as we have seen, 
 of the highest importance in the State, and the 
 person of the King is, indeed, sacred. If it were 
 possible for every trifling cause to arraign the first 
 Magistrate of the State before his peers, or to deprive 
 him of power by the merest whim of his people, there 
 would be little or no stability in the State itself.. So
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING. 37 
 
 that, to some extent, it may be said that the people 
 are ever indulgent to their King, and cast around his 
 person a halo of dignity and prerogative which cannot 
 be lightly broken through. 
 
 Now, what does it mean when a native king is said 
 to be put on, or off, the stool ? What is the idea 
 conveyed by the stool in its concrete sense 
 upon which the King is said to sit ? I have 
 said that the King is the First Magistrate of the 
 State, essentially the fountain of justice, and the 
 allusion to him as sitting upon a stool bears out this 
 principle more than anything else. For, you see, 
 in a native state every matter is settled by the 
 "bringing together of stools." When there is a 
 big "palaver" coming on, the people say they 
 are going to bring together stools u-o ri bobo ingwu. 
 What actually takes place at the appointed hour of the 
 meeting is, that you observe a number of attendants 
 carrying to the public arena a number of native 
 stools of the pattern generally seen in public 
 pictorial prints after a military expedition in the 
 hinterland of the Gold Coast. Each of these stools 
 represents an ancient house in the community, and the 
 King's stool would, naturally, be the most important 
 and the most ancient stool present. They are now 
 going to hold a "palaver," and the owners of the 
 several stools will be the Councillors, and the occu- 
 pant of the kingly stool will be the President of the
 
 88 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 Council. It is the King's Linguist who will open 
 the proceedings. It is he who will announce to the 
 assembled people the decision of the Council, thus 
 clearly showing the King to be the first Magistrate 
 of the State. 
 
 But what is the origin of the native kingly office, 
 and what are the principles which govern the election 
 of a king ? The kingly office springs from a period 
 in native history when there was continual warfare 
 among the different tribes inhabiting the country. 
 The choice of a king was most probably determined 
 by the personal valour, intelligence, and capability of 
 the individual to lead the forces of the community in 
 time of war. Such individual was undoubtedly the 
 best man the community could produce. The suc- 
 cessful leader would in time of peace be the first 
 man of the community and naturally its head. He 
 would come in for a larger proportion of the lands 
 that had been acquired by the strength of his arms, 
 and when he died, in accordance with the Customary 
 Law, his nephew would succeed him. So also where 
 the community settled in a new country whose virgin 
 forest they cleared, pressed down, probably, after a 
 disastrous war. All the native communities on the 
 Gold Coast proper settled in the country in this way. 
 The old war chiefs came to unoccupied land and 
 X settled thereupon, first clearing the virgin forest. 
 The principle of partition would be the same as in
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING. . 39 
 
 the case of settlement after conquest. In all my 
 several years of active practice at the Bar, I have 
 not come across a case where title to land has been 
 based upon a right of conquest. It is perfectly safe 
 to say that it is more the exception than the rule. 
 It is a well-known fact that Kwantabissa, King of 
 Denkira, as late as 1901, claimed the right to lease, 
 and actually did lease, land on the other side of the 
 Offin Eiver from which his ancestors had been driven 
 by the Ashantis in ancient times. The usage of war 
 among the Aborigines would seem to be that after 
 the conclusion of peace the vanquished still retained 
 their lands. 1 
 
 So long as the nephew was a man of character and 
 capacity he would not be disturbed in his leadership 
 of the people, and, gradually, the kingly office would 
 become an institution, and remain in a given family. 
 But still the community would continue to possess the 
 power of veto in case a given member of the royal 
 family was found incapable of performing the kingly 
 functions. They would say, in effect, to the incom- 
 petent aspirant, " We appointed your ancestor to the 
 kingly office as a reward for uncommon abilities, and 
 we are prepared to honour his family by seeking 
 election to the kingly office from and by it ; but 
 
 1 Opposed Enquiries, Nos. 150 and 343, Axirn, July, 1902. Corarn 
 Xicoll, J. ; Williams for Aka Ayiina, Hayford for Yaniike Kweku and 
 Blay, Ribeiro and Addo for Vanderpuye.
 
 40 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 we must object to being ruled by any unfit person. 
 We will, through the family council, decide which 
 member of the family shall govern us, if we are 
 dissatisfied with the family's own selection." And 
 thus we arrive at the principles which govern the 
 election of a king. 
 
 Now, how comes it about that there are so many 
 kings in a given native state ? The reason is 
 obvious. Before the country was settled in a 
 peaceful way there were many independent chiefs, 
 each a king in his own province. Intertribal strife 
 then began, and, gradually, the weaker kings went 
 to the wall, and the fittest and strongest became 
 the paramount king of a number of provinces in a 
 given state. 
 
 Upon the demise of a king, the Councillors meet 
 and demand of the royal family a successor. The 
 royal family then nominates a successor, who may 
 be the uterine brother, the cousin, or nephew of 
 the deceased King. Descent being traced through 
 the female line, such a cousin would be the son of 
 the sister of the deceased King's mother ; and such 
 a nephew would be the son of the sister of the 
 late King. The person nominated is next presented 
 to the Councillors, and, upon being approved, is 
 placed by them upon the stool. This is the strict 
 theory of the law; but, as a matter of fact, during 
 the lifetime of the King, there is an heir apparent
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING. 41 
 
 upon whom both the Councillors and the royal family 
 cast an eye, so that the power 'of veto is seldom 
 exercised by the Councillors. But that such a power 
 exists is a clearly established principle. In the case 
 of Emma v. Pai l the plaintiff sought, inter alia, to 
 be declared the rightful successor to the Assankra 
 Breman or Kwinbontu's stool in the Wassaw district 
 to which the Werempims, or Councillors, of Assankra 
 Breman had elected Pai, and upon which they had 
 actually placed him. The plaintiff and the defendant 
 being cousins, the question was as to the right of 
 selection by the Wercmpims, which the Court had no 
 difficulty in upholding. 
 
 The King is the Chief Executive Officer of the 
 State, but not the Executive Council of the State. 
 Such a council exists, and any acts done by the King 
 without its concurrence are liable to be set aside. 
 
 In the case of The African (West) Exploitation and 
 Development Syndicate, Ltd., v. Sir Alfred Kirby ami the 
 Princes Ptirer Gold Mines, Ltd., 2 the Head-Chief of 
 Princes had granted a lease of the lands in dispute 
 to the plaintiff company without the concurrence 
 of his Chiefs, and his successor, Kofi Ainibah, had 
 granted the same lands to the defendants with such 
 
 1 Coram Morgan, J. ; Renner and Ribeiro for plaintiff, Sarbah and 
 Hayford for the defendants : Axim Records, April, 1900. 
 
 3 Coram Nicoll, J. ; Sarbah for plaintiff, Hayford for defendants : 
 Axim Records', July, 1898. Compare the case of Baijaidee v. Mensah, 
 " Fanti Customary Laws," p. 79.
 
 42 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 concurrence. After taking a deal of expert evidence, 
 the Court decided 'that the subsequent lease should 
 prevail, and judgment was entered for the defendants. 
 Upon appeal 1 the point as to the right of the 
 Councillors to concur in the lease was upheld. 
 
 The King is the President of the Legislative Board, 
 but he seldom, if ever, initiates any legislative act. 
 It is the province of the people through their repre- 
 sentatives, the Councillors, to introduce legislation, 
 and say what law shall direct their conduct. Hence, 
 when a law is to be promulgated, which is done by 
 the "beating of the gong-gong," the formula, in 
 
 the mouth of the Linguist is, " The King and his 
 ^f 
 
 Councillors and Elders say I must inform you " ; 
 
 then follows the particular command and the words, 
 "PAR HI," an emphatic exclamatory phrase, and a 
 loud rattle of the gong, by way of a general procla- 
 mation. Such a law, once thus promulgated, lives 
 from generation to generation, within the memory of 
 the community, and the command is never without 
 its sanction. Any other way of enacting laws for 
 the people is not in accordance with the Customary 
 Law of the people. 
 
 The King is the Chief Military Officer of his forces. 
 In time of war, he directs the operations ; and if he 
 
 1 Coram Griffith, C.J., Smith, J., and Richards, J. ; Sarbah for 
 appellants, and Hayford for respondents : Axim Appeal Records, 
 February, 1899. See also Sarbah's " Fanti Customary Laws," pp. 75, 
 96 and 253, where the principle is ably discussed.
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING. 43 
 
 is a man of capacity, he has the leading place in the 
 councils of war. There is generally a Tufu Hin, or 
 Captain-General, of the forces ; but his authority is 
 subordinate to that of the King, and he is, in every 
 essential, an officer of the King. 
 
 The King is also, as we have seen, the first 
 Magistrate of his people. In the Native State 
 System the people have not yet arrived at the stage 
 when the King is merely the fountain of justice and 
 appoints officers to dispense it merely in his name. 
 He himself presides over the hearing of all important 
 cases, supported by his principal Chiefs, Councillors, 
 and Linguists. There are other important Chiefs 
 in a state, who are empowered to decide cases ; 
 but the courts of such Chiefs are subsidiary to the 
 King's Court, and not independent of it.
 
 44 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 2 (B). THE KING'S PAKAMOUNTCY. 
 
 To the student of jurisprudence, fresh from the 
 law schools of Great Britain, the doctrines of Para- 
 mountcy in the Customary Law must be bewildering 
 and difficult of comprehension. Hence it is that 
 there is so much haziness of view upon the subject. 
 The principles involved are of supreme importance 
 alike to the Administrator and to the occupant of the 
 judicial bench. A mistake here may involve hard- 
 ships which to the European mind may seem 
 trifling, but which to the Aborigines may affect the 
 very core of Native Institutions. 
 
 Now, what are the rights of the King in 
 
 M / O V- J 
 
 respect of the lands of a community ? The King, 
 qua king, does not own all the lands of the State. 
 The limits of his proprietary rights are strictly 
 defined. 
 
 There are first of all lands which are the ancestral 
 property of the King. These he can deal with as 
 he pleases, but with the sanction of the members of 
 his family. 
 
 Secondly, there are lands attached to the stool
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING'S PARAMOUNTCY. 45 
 
 which the King can deal with only with the consent 
 of the Councillors. 1 
 
 Thirdly, there are the general lands of the State 
 over which the King exercises paramountcy. It is a 
 sort of sovereign oversight which does not carry 
 with it the ownership of any particular land. It is 
 not even ownership in a general way in respect of 
 which, per se, the King can have a locus standi in a 
 court of law. To him, indeed, belongs the power 
 of ratifying and confirming what the subject grants, 
 though he may not himself grant that which is given. 
 Such ratification is not even absolutely essential to 
 make the transaction valid, though as being evidence 
 of good faith, such ratification or confirmation is 
 resorted to and is, indeed, becoming quite common 
 in modern grants. Nor is it difficult to see the 
 reason of this. In the early stages of the Native 
 State System, upon the acquisition of lands by con- 
 quest or settlement by members of a given com- 
 munity, the lands so acquired or settled upon would 
 be apportioned among those worthy of them in the 
 order of merit. Upon that basis, the Chief Military 
 Commander, who subsequently becomes the King, 
 would have his requisite share, and so would every 
 member of the community down to the lowest ranks 
 of the fighting men. Thus, each man's land would be 
 
 1 The African (West) Exploitation and Development Syndicate, 
 Ltd., v. Sir Alfred Kirby and the Princes River Gold Mines, Ltd., 
 ante, pp. 41 and 42.
 
 46 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 his own special property and that of his family 
 though the King, as overlord of all, would, un- 
 doubtedly, exercise sovereignty over the whole land, 
 every inch of which, however, would have an 
 individual family owning it. 
 
 Bearing in mind the foregoing preliminary obser- 
 vations, we may now proceed to discuss the funda- 
 mental principles of Paramountcy. 
 
 At the outset we must rid our minds of mis- 
 conceptions. And here we must carefully distin- 
 guish between Paramountcy and Ownership. But 
 is Ownership in the Customary Law the same as 
 Ownership in Koman Law ? If we examine the 
 incidents thereof in the two systems, we shall find 
 that there is an important difference. 
 
 In the time of Justinian, at all events, Koman 
 society had advanced beyond the communistic stage. 
 It was possible even then to speak of the owner's 
 right to possess as a right against all the world, 
 a, right in reni. Indeed, so far had the notion of 
 exclusive possession gone, that a person, sui juris, 
 could pass his property by will. In the early stage 
 of testamentary disposition, it is true, the appoint- 
 ment of an heir to continue the legal personality of 
 the testator was the primary idea ; but later, we 
 come to find the Roman will making the heir a mere 
 trustee for the distribution of property. 
 
 But, in the Customary Law, we find no trace of
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING'S PARAMOUNTCY. 47 
 
 individual ownership. What the head of a family 
 acquires to-day in his own individual right will, in the 
 next generation, be quite indistinguishable from the 
 general ancestral property of which he was a trustee. 
 Even during his lifetime the person on the stool 
 scarcely makes a difference in his own mind between 
 what he received as family property and what he 
 adds thereto by his exertions. And the law of 
 succession furnishes the best reason for the pheno- 
 menon. Both what came to the head of the family 
 and what he has made pass, at his death, to his 
 uterine brother, cousin, or nephew, as the case may 
 be, who being the only possible and legitimate suc- 
 cessor to the stool-holder, the latter gladly regards as 
 the trustee in one sense, and one of the beneficiaries 
 in another sense, of all after his death. 
 
 With this important qualification, namely, that 
 the family in the Customary Law is the unit for 
 the purpose of ownership, we may now proceed to 
 distinguish Ownership from Paramountcy. 
 
 The notion is somewhat common that where a 
 chief pays tribute to another, the latter is necessarily 
 the paramount Chief of the former. But this is only 
 a loose way of applying the term " paramount." 
 Tribute is not only payable to a chief, but to any 
 person holding land in the country, say, as head of a 
 family, by whose leave another person works upon the 
 family lands. It would be absurd to call the licensor
 
 48 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 in such a case the paramount Chief of the licensee. 
 Take an extreme case, and the absurdity will appear 
 all the clearer. A. has a portion of the family lands 
 allotted her for the purpose of growing ground nuts 
 thereon. A. allows B., her friend, to till a portion 
 of the ground, on the understanding that B. will 
 give her one-third share of the ingathering crop. 
 In what possible sense is A. " paramount " to B. ? 
 
 It is clear, therefore, that the payment of abusa, 
 one-third share, is not the test of Paramountcy : it 
 merely indicates the person having the right to 
 possess. Indeed, the custom of the paramount 
 Chief to receive an occasional contribution, be it small 
 or be it large, is in respect of allegiance due to him 
 by a subordinate chief. Where a paramount chief 
 happens to receive abusa, that is, one-third share, of 
 the proceeds of land, then it is by reason of the fact 
 that the right to possess is ultimately traceable to 
 his stool. Thus, we have the case where a person 
 receives a portion, usually a third, abusa, of the pro- 
 ceeds of a sale of land by a licensee of that person ; 
 and the case where a paramount Chief receives a 
 customary present, the extent of it depending upon 
 circumstances, upon the happening of any event in 
 respect of which the subordinate may suitably mark 
 his allegiance to the superior Chief. The latter may 
 be called the custom of occasional contribution to the 
 superior Chief ; the former, the right of the owner,
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING'S PARAMOUNTCY. 49 
 
 or the person having the right to possess, to abusa, 
 one-third share. Much confusion of ideas would be 
 saved by confining the term "tribute" to the case 
 where a licensee is under obligation to make one- 
 third payment to a licensor, and "allegiance fee" 
 to the case where a vassal is expected to acknow- 
 ledge the sovereignty of a paramount chief by the 
 customary present. 
 
 In Ashanti, where a stranger kills big game on 
 another's land, the licensee takes to the licensor a 
 portion of the meat, the latter, in turn, taking to 
 the Head-Chief a leg of the animal killed. Again, 
 where a nugget is found in mining, the licensee 
 brings to the licensor a portion of the gold with 
 the nugget, the licensor sending the nugget to the 
 King. In the two cases, the licensor would be the 
 person having the right to possess, the Head-Chief 
 or King merely having a claim to the allegiance 
 of the licensor. Hence the importance of using 
 "tribute" to denote what is contributed to the 
 licensor, and the phrase " allegiance fee" to what 
 the licensee offers to the overlord. Tribute would 
 thus be an incident of Ownership, while allegiance 
 would be an incident of Paramountcy. 
 
 In the Impatassi case * expert evidence was given 
 
 1 Opposed Enquiries, Nos. 164 and 169, Axirn. Coram Morgan, J. ; 
 Eenner and "Williams for claimants, Hayford for grantors, Ribeiro 
 for opposer : Axim Records, February, 1902. 
 
 G.C. 4
 
 50 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 by Atta, King of Axim. The question was asked : 
 "Was tribute ever instituted in respect of the 
 sovereignty of one stool over the other ? " 
 
 Answer: "The person on whose land you have 
 settled, although his stool may be small, can claim 
 tribute. Tribute is paid in respect of ownership." 
 
 In giving judgment, the learned judge remarked : 
 " Now, from the evidence of the King of Axim, it 
 appears that the right to demand and receive tribute 
 on land is based on ownership, and I am of opinion 
 that on ownership also must be based the right to 
 give or withhold consent to dealings with land. It 
 may possibly be that by custom in some cases a chief 
 can claim tribute from his sub-chiefs in respect of 
 their lands apart from the question of ownership of 
 such land, but in such cases I do not think that 
 his consent would be necessary to render valid deal- 
 ings with land the right to hold and occupy which 
 was not derived from his family or town stool." 
 
 This case went up to the Court of Appeal which 
 sat at Cape Coast in October, 19O2, 1 which affirmed 
 the judgment of the Court below, declaring the con- 
 cessions, the subject of the enquiries, to be invalid 
 on the ground that the consent of the opposer had 
 neither been asked for nor obtained, the right of 
 
 1 Coram Sir Brandford Griffith, C.J., Smith, J., and Nicoll, J. ; 
 Hayford for grantors, Renner and Williams for claimants, Savage for 
 opposer : Cape Coast Appeal Records, October, 1902.
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING'S PAEAMOUNTCY. 51 
 
 the grantors of the concessions, the subject of the 
 enquiries, to hold and occupy the lands comprised 
 therein being derived through and from the stool 
 on which the opposer was now sitting, and that the 
 opposer's consent was necessary for the valid leasing 
 of the said lands. 
 
 On the 6th of .October, 1902, counsel for the 
 claimants moved ex parte " for leave to appeal from 
 judgment of the Full Court, dated 1st October, 1902, 
 refusing to grant special leave to appeal from the 
 judgment of the Divisional Court of 28th April, 
 1902, at Axim," and the Full Court, in ruling upon 
 the motion, took opportunity to emphasise the point 
 that in its opinion the judgment of the Court below 
 "is right," and "is supported by the evidence." 
 
 The Full Court, therefore, clearly supported the 
 proposition that " the right to demand and receive 
 tribute on land is based on ownership . . . and 
 that on ownership also must be based the right to 
 give or withhold consent to dealings with land." 
 
 Having shown that tribute pure and simple is 
 really an incident of Ownership in the Customary 
 Law, and that the obligation of a vassal to render 
 allegiance fee to his superior lord is erroneously 
 termed tribute, it will be interesting now to discuss 
 "allegiance" the bond which unites the superior 
 chief,, usually a king, to his vassal. 
 
 Allegiance, then, is that personal relationship 
 
 4 2
 
 52 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 between the occupants of two stools whereby the 
 inferior acknowledges the authority of the superior 
 over him. Such acknowledgment may take the 
 form of military or other service, and occasionally 
 an allegiance fee. Such relationship has nothing to 
 do with the lands of the vassal. It may happen 
 that the superior lord is at the same time the 
 licensor of the vassal in respect of his holding, but 
 that will be merely accidental. 
 
 That allegiance is personal and not territorial is 
 seen from a number of instances in the history of 
 certain communities of the country. Take for 
 example the case of the Akataki people, known as 
 the Commendas. Now, it is an historical fact 
 that the people of ATcataki originally came from 
 Akatakiiva in the Inkusukum district, the present 
 Head being the well-known King Essandor. Now, 
 if you trace the etymology of the two words Akataki 
 and Akatakiiva, you will find that the one is the 
 feminine form of the other. Whether it be that 
 Akataki, the masculine form of the word, was 
 chosen by the people of Commenda to indicate 
 their origin, or whether Akataki, the brother of 
 Akatakiiva, founded the present town of Commenda, 
 matters little ; but there can be no doubt about it 
 that the two branches of the Inkusukum people have 
 always recognised the same origin, the Akataki 
 people owning allegiance to the paramount King,.
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING'S PARAMOUNTCY. 53 
 
 Essandor. Such relation is personal, and has no 
 territorial significance ; but it is, nevertheless, as 
 vital in the conceptions of Native Institutions as 
 Succession is to property in the Customary Law. 
 
 The case of Apenquah 1 is in point. It came 
 before His Excellency Governor E. B. Andrews in 
 Council at Cape Coast, on the 7th of February, 
 1861. The main point in the case was whether 
 or not Apenquah, being a subject of the stool of 
 King Chibbo of Assin, could rid himself of his 
 allegiance to the 'Stool or transfer his allegiance 
 to another stool. Said the Court: "It has been 
 decided long since that Apenquah was not a private 
 slave to any person, but that he was a subject of 
 the stool of Assin Chibboo, and at this day is con- 
 sequently a subject of Amba Danquah, Kegent of 
 Southern Assin, and, according to strict law, he 
 cannot rid himself of the allegiance to the stool. 
 
 "The Court has taken into its serious considera- 
 tion the importance of this case. There are grave 
 questions involved ; the most important, and that 
 which in this peculiar country might be practised 
 with the most serious consequences to the well- 
 being and tranquillity of the protectorate, is a pro- 
 ceeding similar to that which the Court is now 
 called upon to decide as to its legality, it being 
 
 1 See Sarbah's " Fanti Customary Laws," p. 203 ; also, idem, the 
 case of Qiiamin Dansue v. Tchibu-Darcoon and Cancan, p. 130.
 
 54 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 whether a man occupying a considerable position, 
 as does Apenquah, can suddenly march off with a 
 number of his prince's lawful subjects, and deliver 
 himself, and them to a rival chief. 
 
 " The Court is of opinion that Apenquah does 
 not possess the right to leave his sovereign Amba 
 Danquah, with all his people, and place himself 
 under Inkee, and that he has not been able to show 
 any grounds on which he could complain of bad 
 treatment towards him by his sovereign. . . . 
 
 " For the future, it is to be distinctly laid down 
 that a headman, captain, or chief shall not be 
 suffered to transfer his allegiance with his followers 
 to the chief or prince of another country. Neither 
 shall he be allowed to domicile in another country 
 as a captain with his followers, though he may 
 not have removed his allegiance to his former 
 prince. 
 
 " To act thus shall be held to be treason, the 
 punishment being the loss of all property and 
 degradation of rank within the protectorate, such 
 headman, captain, or chief to be given up with his 
 followers, it being a high crime, the prince harbour- 
 ing them to be deposed from his stool. But where 
 a headman, captain, or chief is of full age, and 
 wishes to domicile in another country, and is a free 
 man, he shall be permitted to do so, taking with 
 him his one wife and children by that wife ; at the
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING'S PARAMOUNTCY. 55 
 
 same time he shall not transfer his allegiance to the 
 prince of his adopted country as a captain, but 
 retire to live under that prince as a private man, 
 leaving all his possessions, which become forfeited 
 to the sovereign whose country he has quitted." 
 
 Our early Administrators and the Judicial Asses- 
 sors somehow always managed to get to the core of 
 Native Institutions. It may be because they took 
 the precaution not to decide a given point without 
 collecting the opinions of native Councillors, compe- 
 tent to advise upon the point in issue. Thus, it 
 happens that Apenquah's case states the doctrines 
 of Allegiance in a form at once intelligible and 
 scientific. 
 
 We gather the essential features of. Allegiance, then, 
 to be : ' 
 
 1. That it is a personal relationship which has 
 nothing to do with property rights. 
 
 2. That a subject holding any public position in a 
 country cannot transfer his allegiance at will with- 
 out forfeiting his rank and "all his possessions 
 to the sovereign whose country he has quitted." 
 
 And the doctrines of Allegiance have the sanction 
 of sound common sense. 
 
 But what happens where the subjects of a native 
 king found a colony in another district with the 
 sanction of such king, as in the case of the Akatakiwa 
 colonists settling at Akataki, Commenda ? It would
 
 56 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 follow, as a matter of course, that they would carry 
 with them the protection of their King, and, conse- 
 quently, they would remain loyal to him and owe 
 him allegiance. Here they would pay tribute for 
 the land they have settled upon to the owner of 
 that land ; while they would repair occasionally to 
 their ancient and mother country with suitable 
 presents to the paramount King, and which we have 
 called " allegiance fee." If the paramount King went 
 to war, he would call for the services of his children 
 over sea or over country. Hence you have the 
 phenomenon in a given war of seeing the people of 
 even a small town dividing themselves under the 
 banners of contesting paramount Kings. 
 
 When the reason of things begins to dawn upon 
 one, one is moved to pity the helplessness of present- 
 day Administrators of the country, who are in the 
 dark as to why, for example, Essandor, King of all 
 the Inkusitkums, should tenaciously cling to the tie of 
 allegiance which unites Akataki with Akatakiwa ; or 
 why people in the far west end of the country should 
 wish to preserve their allegiance to one paramount 
 King instead of to another. 
 
 In further illustration of the principles we are 
 discussing, take the case of the community of Esiama, 
 in the state of Elmina, who, nevertheless, own 
 allegiance to the state of Anamaboe. In the Gold 
 Coast Leader of September 13, 1902, the Anamaboe
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING'S PARAMOUNTCY. 57 
 
 Correspondent, writing on the "stool festival " of King 
 Amonoo V., says : " The arrival of the Klanamonoos 
 and other vassals in full force from Amonoo Ekroful, 
 Eshroa, Mpredwi, Fomina, Abonu, and other villages 
 on the evening of the 1st announced the beginning 
 of the festival. . . . Chief Kofi Nyam, of Esiam 
 (Elmina district), whose distance was rather long, 
 arrived in the nick of time with his retinue to offer 
 presents and participate in the ceremony." 
 
 Now, note carefully the colonist, Chief Kofi Nyam, 
 of Esiama, 1 coming all the way from the state of 
 Elmina to "offer presents," but not to "pay 
 tribute" to his paramount King. If you enquire to 
 whom he pays tribute, the answer, of course, is to 
 the person who gave his ancestors leave to settle 
 upon Esiama lands in other words, the person 
 having the right to possess the colonial lands. 
 
 Other instances of colonists maintaining alle- 
 giance to the paramount stool are found in the 
 Imperegus of Abura, who acknowledge the stool of 
 Anamaboe, and the King of Agimaku's vassals in 
 the Akem country. 
 
 We may now usefully and satisfactorily address 
 ourselves to the question, whether the paramount 
 King's consent is necessary to the validity of a grant 
 of land ? If you confine the term " paramount " to 
 
 1 The name of the town is Esiama and not Esiam, and the dropping 
 of the final " a " was probably a typographical omission.
 
 58 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 its legitimate and appropriate use in the way I have 
 above explained, we can answer the question only in 
 the negative. It is clear that by no stretch of 
 imagination could Amonoo Y. claim tribute, qua 
 tribute, from his vassal at Esiama, the relation 
 between him and his vassal being purely personal 
 and not territorial. And it is equally certain that 
 Amonoo Y.'s consent would not be necessary before 
 Kofi Nyam could deal with Esiama lands. The 
 only authority whose consent is necessary is that of 
 the stool having the right to possess Esiama lands, 
 the stool, that is, whose occupant originally allowed 
 the Esiamas to live on Esiama lands. "I am of 
 opinion that on ownership also must be based the 
 rights to give or withhold consent to dealings with 
 land." 1 
 
 In the Esubankassa and Indumsuasu Opposed 
 Enquiries, 2 which raised the important issue of Para- 
 mountcy, expert evidence as to consent was given. 
 The Court examined Quamina Annobil, the principal 
 Linguist of the King of Lower Wassaw. Said he : 
 " The under chief can sell his land without the 
 head-chief's consent ; he only gives him a share of 
 the money." This evidence coming from the Lin- 
 guist of the King of Lower Wassaw, where almost 
 
 1 Per Morgan, J. Impatassi Opposed Enquiry, ante, p. 49. 
 
 2 Opposed Enquiries, Nos. 150 and 343. Coram Nicoll, J. ; Williams 
 for Aka Ayima, Hayford for Yamike Kweku and Blay ; Klbeiro and 
 Addo for Vanderpuye : Axiru Records, June, 1902.
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING'S PARAMOUNTCY. 59 
 
 every chief pays tribute to the King, or, in substitu- 
 tion thereof, has handed to the King a portion of his 
 lands, is remarkable. But it denotes clearly the 
 general rule of which the particular tenure of 
 lands in the Wassaw country is, perhaps, the sole 
 exception. 
 
 The Court, in its judgment, found " that the King 
 of Beyin is not the owner of any of these lands. 
 The owners of these lands must, however, report to 
 the King before they dispose thereof." The italics 
 are mine. This case also went up to the Court of 
 Appeal, 1 which sat at Cape Coast on the 6th October, 
 1902, the same Court which decided the Impatassi 
 case; and the judgment of the Court below was 
 upheld. Let us now recall the express words of the 
 judgment of the Court below in the Impatassi 2 case. 
 They are : "I am of opinion that on ownership also 
 must be based the right to give or withhold consent 
 to dealings with land," from which proposition the 
 Full Court did not dissent. Clearly, the two judg- 
 ments are in conflict with one another. Assuming 
 that the owner of land only has the right to give or 
 withhold consent, why must a person who is not such 
 owner be informed before the owner of land disposes 
 
 1 Opposed Enquiries, Nos. 150 and 343. Coram Sir Brandford 
 Griffith, C.J., Smith, J., and Nicoll, J. ; Hayford for appellants, 
 Yamike Kweku and Blay ; Benner and Williams for respondent, Aka 
 Ayirna : Cape Coast Appeal Records, October, 1902. 
 
 2 Ante, p. 49.
 
 60 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 thereof ? One can only come to the conclusion that 
 the Full Court failed to draw the distinction between 
 "tribute" payable to a landowner, and a customary 
 present, " allegiance fee" rendered to a paramount 
 chief after the owner, it may be, has disposed of his 
 land, and not necessarily in respect of such disposal. 
 The point is an important one, and it is to be hoped 
 that some day the Appeal Court will patiently hear it 
 argued out, and the full weight of its learning and 
 authority be brought to bear upon a vital point in 
 Native Institutions. 
 
 The learned author of " Fanti Customary Laws " 
 has remarked upon this matter thus : 
 
 " Where the concession is made by a subordinate 
 chief, enquiries should be made to find out whether 
 the concurrence of his paramount chief is necessary 
 or no, for whatever lawful grant or permission is so 
 given by a person de facto chief with the concurrence 
 of men de facto members of the village council or 
 stool, is good and valid according to Customary Law, 
 and the grantee by taking possession of the land 
 and working thereon becomes a tenant of the stool, 
 village council, or family, as the case may be, and 
 not of a specific individual." l 
 
 Here we find one of the best authorities on the 
 subject making it clear that the "concurrence" of 
 the paramount Chief may or may not be necessary. 
 
 1 P. 57.
 
 CHAP. ii. THE KING'S PABAMOUNTCY. 61 
 
 As I have before shown, the only possible case 
 in which the paramount Chief's "concurrence" 
 or consent will be necessary is where such para- 
 mount Chief's stool is the root of the licensee's 
 title, while, at the same time, the licensee owes 
 allegiance to the stool of the licensor. If care is 
 taken, as suggested, to use the terms " tribute " and 
 " allegiance fee" in their proper connections, there 
 need be no confusion of ideas. 
 
 Ownership, then, must be carefully distinguished 
 from Paramountcy. The principles involved in the 
 foregoing discussion may be embodied in a few 
 simple rules : 
 
 1. A. gives permission to B. to settle on Daman 
 Land. The permissee becomes a tenant at will, 
 who, so long as he does not claim adversely to the 
 permissor, will be supported by the permissor in his 
 holding. But the moment the permissee sets up 
 adverse title to the land, the permissor's ownership 
 or right to possess revives as against the permissee' s 
 right of possession. 
 
 2. While the permission subsists, the permissee 
 would be liable to contribute one-third, alusa, of the 
 proceeds of the land to the permissor, whose consent 
 would be absolutely necessary before the permissee 
 could validly deal with the land. 
 
 3. A. is B.'s paramount King. B. holds lands, 
 the title to which is not derived from A.'s stool.
 
 62 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 A. has only a right to B.'s allegiance; and the 
 customary present (which I have called " allegiance 
 fee") which B. brings to A. from time to time is 
 certainly not tribute in the sense that A. can exact 
 it as of right. Such personal relation between A. 
 and B. is Paramountcy pure and simple, which has 
 nothing to do with property rights. 
 
 4. The paramount King, as such, has no right to 
 exact tribute, nor is his consent necessary to make a 
 grant valid. 
 
 5. Tribute is an incident of Ownership, in other 
 words, of the relationship subsisting between land- 
 lord and tenant. 
 
 6. Allegiance is an incident of Paramountcy, 
 indicated sometimes by the rendering of "allegiance 
 fee."
 
 CHAP. ii. THE CHIEF. 63 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 3. THE CHIEF. 
 
 The term "chief" is in the present day used 
 indiscriminately to represent a king, a chief, or 
 even a headman of a village. It is a careless 
 use of the word. The foreigner, unable or lacking 
 the patience to discern between one native authority 
 and another, groups them all under the designation 
 " chief." Let me try to bring order out of chaos. 
 
 The Chief properly so called is that important 
 personage next to a king in the Native State. When 
 he is a principal chief of a king, he is properly called 
 a head-chief. 
 
 In a township, a province, or a state there may be 
 several chiefs, who will rank among themselves in 
 the order of their importance and influence. 
 
 Chieftainships in the country spring from the 
 same circumstances which originate the office of a 
 king. In early times, when the King led his men to 
 battle, the most valiant and intelligent among his 
 men would be selected to carry out his orders, and 
 to lead portions of the army. In times of peace, 
 naturally, the king's lieutenants in the field would
 
 64 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 be rewarded with portions of the lands of the van- 
 quished, and when internal civil disputes arose the 
 King would, of course, call in the war Chiefs to settle 
 them.- Hence it happens that we have the same 
 term sarfuhim, primarily meaning a war chief, used 
 as a designation for both a captain or a war chief 
 as well as for a civil chief. The term brempon is. 
 sometimes used to designate a civil chief, but it is 
 by no means general. It appears to be confined to 
 chiefs who have been so created by reason of their 
 immense wealth or civic services. 
 
 A chief is generally a captain of a company. In 
 fact, every male member of the community is liable 
 to military service in time of war, and during peace 
 he has to drill every year with his company. A 
 fortiori, a chief is the natural leader of the men of 
 his company. There are cases known, however,, 
 where civil chiefs hold no military command in 
 their companies. 
 
 It is the duty and privilege of a chief to hold 
 court and decide cases arising in the community 
 according to his influence, character, and import- 
 ance. Whether his court will be regularly resorted 
 to by the entire community, or only by his imme- 
 diate dependents and the people of his ward, is 
 purely a question as to what extent his court com- 
 mands respect in the community. In fact, it may 
 be stated generally and broadly that the judicial
 
 CHAP. ii. THE CHIEF. 65 
 
 function appertains to the head of every ward and 
 every family in the country. 
 
 But the Chief whose position entitles him beyond 
 all question or doubt to the full exercise of the 
 judicial function after the King is the Tufu Hin, 
 who is next in rank to the King. He holds regular 
 courts, and is entitled to receive court fees and 
 fines, which form to him a source of revenue. 
 There is a right of appeal from a minor chief's 
 court to the court of the Tufu Hin, and from the 
 latter to the King's Court, although there may be a 
 direct appeal from the court of a minor chief to the 
 King's Court. 
 
 The important position of the Tufu Hin, or the 
 Captain-General, in the community arises from the 
 same circumstances as I have described in the case 
 of a chief. Being the King's right-hand man in 
 time of war, it is only natural he should hold rank 
 next after the King when the community has settled 
 down to peaceful pursuits. 
 
 The Tufu Hin is at the head of the Military System 
 of the community. He it is who regulates the affairs 
 of the seven companies of the community. He is 
 present at their annual general drill to inspect the 
 men, and to satisfy himself how far the Head-Captains 
 of the several companies have done their work during 
 the year. In time of war he leads the van of the 
 army, the King in person bringing up the rear. He 
 G.C. 5
 
 66 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 is, in brief, the King's principal military Councillor 
 and executive officer. 
 
 The Tufu Hin is, ex ojfieio, also the principal civil 
 Councillor of the King. All the Chiefs of the com- 
 munity have a right to sit in the King's Council. 
 
 The same order of chiefs we shall find in a com- 
 munity whose head is a king or a head-chief. It is 
 only a matter of degree as to the importance of the 
 respective chiefs of the two communities. 
 
 Where the paramount King of a state summons 
 the Head-Chiefs of provinces and chiefs of minor 
 communities to attend a State Council, it is the 
 privilege of the Councillors of the several com- 
 munities composing the State, according to their 
 rank and importance, to accompany their several 
 Heads to the capital and to join in the " palaver," 
 or discussion, that will take place, the King in 
 person presiding over the deliberations, supported 
 by his own Councillors and principal Linguists. 
 This is the full Parliament of the people, who are 
 thus fully and duly represented in every way from 
 the highest to the lowest. The commands which go 
 forth from this assembly are binding upon every 
 individual family of the entire State, from the most 
 important province to the most insignificant hamlet, 
 and the sanction operates equally upon all. 
 
 In time of war, the Chiefs share in the delibera- 
 tions of the King as to the means of defence or
 
 CHAP. ii. THE CHIEF. 67 
 
 offence as the case may be, and the terms of peace 
 are discussed with them before being submitted to 
 the enemy. 
 
 To put it generally, the Chief is the right-hand 
 man of the King. By the oath of allegiance which 
 he swears to the King upon his enstoolment he 
 undertakes to be always loyal to the King, to attend 
 to the latter 's summons by night or by day, anafo-o, 
 au-ia-o, as the native expression runs; and, supported 
 by a religious sanction, it is remarkable how faithful 
 he is to the King, and how harmoniously the Native 
 State System works together in its different parts. 
 
 The succession to a chief's stool is regulated by 
 the same principles which govern the succession to 
 a king's stool, and the like statement is true in the 
 case of his destoolment. 
 
 52
 
 68 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP n. 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 4. THE LINGUIST. 
 
 The Linguist is a most important personage in the 
 Native State. He is in some cases more influential 
 than the Chief. But he must not be taken literally. 
 He is not a person skilled in the tongues of men ; 
 he generally speaks but one language. He was 
 called a linguist first by a half-educated native inter- 
 preter, tasked to explain his position to the white 
 man, and as "linguist" he has been known ever 
 since in the language of law and politics on the Grold 
 Coast. We might correct the term and substitute 
 "spokesman" for it, but it will be going dead 
 against all precedent, so I shall content myself with 
 the explanation that the so-called "linguist" is the 
 spokesman of his lord and master. But he is more 
 than a spokesman. He is by no means a mere figure- 
 head : he is one of the main props in the Native 
 State System. Both the King and the Head-chief 
 have their Linguists, and so have the Tufu Hin and 
 even subordinate Chiefs. He is a sort of confidential 
 officer, who is always about the person of the King 
 or Chief, and is his mouthpiece in every public
 
 CHAP. ii. THE LINGUIST. 69 
 
 function, as well as in judicial proceedings. He is, 
 generally speaking, an intelligent, bright, and witty 
 individual, skilled in the use of language, smoothing 
 down an angry word of his master, or putting a keen 
 edge to a retort, when the occasion demands it. If 
 he is a right down capable man, he often attains to 
 a position of great influence in the community. 
 
 The Linguist's place is not filled by his successor 
 to the ancestral stool. It is filled by his son if he 
 follows in the steps of his father, and has his capa- 
 bilities. The son, living in his father's house, and 
 often carrying his stool to the public meetings and 
 to the King's Court, would, if he were intelligent, 
 pick up the knowledge which would qualify him to 
 become a linguist after his father. 
 
 The Linguist is generally the repository, or, if 
 you like, a walking encyclopaedia, of all traditional 
 knowledge and information in connection with the 
 stool under which he serves. He is supposed to be 
 acquainted with the etiquette of the Court, and, in 
 case of a new succession, it will be his duty to 
 instruct the new monarch in the functions of the 
 Crown. As a reward for valuable services, he may 
 occasionally be promoted to the King's Council, in 
 which capacity he will practically be the ruling voice, 
 warranted by his great experience. 
 
 The Linguist, as we have seen, comes by his know- 
 ledge from his very early acquaintance with Court
 
 70 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 functions, history, and tradition, continuing his 
 education or training throughout the greater portion 
 of his life, and often extending the field of his 
 enquiries till his knowledge embraces the political 
 history of the whole State, as well as of sister 
 States. When he speaks, therefore, he does so as 
 one having authority, and is listened to with the 
 greatest respect. 
 
 When the Linguist rises up to speak in public, 
 he leans upon the King's gold cane, or a subordinate 
 linguist holds it in front of him. He is going to 
 make a speech now, and it is sure to be a happy 
 effort. It will sparkle with wit and humour. He 
 will make use freely of parables to illustrate 
 points in his speech. He will indulge in epigrams, 
 and all the while he will seem not to possess any 
 nerves so cool, so collected, so self-complacent 1 
 He comes of a stock used to public speaking and 
 public functions. 
 
 The art of "linguistic" oratory is at its best in 
 Ashanti, where, coupled with acuteness of a high 
 order, it makes the members of the linguistic body 
 about the most enlightened men of the kingdom. 
 Boatsin, the Linguist of the King of Ashanti, being 
 once pressed with questions about the indemnity in 
 a "palaver" between the Governor and some 
 Ashanti ambassadors, calmly said : " tie yen lo inkoro, 
 na sc ijaiisa na yen (hi k('i ascni <l.:in, inkc imi Im In.
 
 CHAP. n. THE LINGUIST. 71 
 
 Na iyi die icaba itiimi asem; " meaning, " If this 
 were a regular 'palaver,' and we were discussing 
 matters with wisdom, I could hold my own. But 
 this is a matter of might." 
 
 Moreover, the Linguist often represents his master 
 in matters where he cannot be present. Now and 
 again the rule of best evidence is relaxed, and 
 a linguist is allowed to give evidence on behalf 
 of his master where the former has been sent 
 down to represent the latter in an enquiry before 
 the Court. This is quite correct. For in strict 
 customary practice the King or Chief is not sup- 
 posed in public functions to speak save through 
 his Linguist. 
 
 In Enquiry number 136 (Essarman), 1 Kwarnina 
 Annobil, sworn, stated: "I am Linguist to King 
 Eniinil of Wassaw. The King is a minor and his 
 guardian is Chief Buaful, and as such guardian 
 he sent me and the other Linguists to this Court." 
 The distinguished Linguist then proceeded to give 
 expert evidence. 
 
 In the days of the Judicial Assessors, when Sir 
 David Chalmers of honoured memory was Chief 
 Magistrate of the Gold Coast, the Kings and Chiefs, 
 when required to assist the Court with points in the 
 Customary Law, sat on the Bench with the Magis- 
 trate, and the latter lost none of his dignity thereby. 
 
 1 Axim Concession Records : Coram Nicoll, J. ; October 30th, 1901.
 
 72 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 There will be no harm in going back to the old 
 practice, particularly now that the stools of the Gold 
 Coast are gradually being filled by men with English 
 education. It will inspire yet greater confidence in 
 the hearts of native litigants in purely native cases.
 
 THE COUNCILLORS. 73 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 5. THE COUNCILLORS. 
 
 The Councillors in a native community are those 
 intelligent men who, by reason of their experience 
 in matters political and judicial, are selected by the 
 Head of the community to assist him with their 
 counsel in the affairs of the community. 
 
 The Chiefs of the community are, ex qfi-cio, mem- 
 bers of the Council ; and the King may include such 
 other men, being captains, headmen, or otherwise, 
 who by general consent are competent to help in 
 the public deliberations of the community. 
 
 The Councillor holds his office for life. So long as 
 he behaves himself, it is not customary to remove 
 him. When he dies, in the case of an ex ojficio 
 member, his heir, if of mature age and experience, 
 succeeds him. If not, the infant's- guardian takes 
 his place in the Council until he becomes competent 
 to act for himself. Where the Councillor has been 
 selected by the King with the concurrence of the 
 other Councillors, the office does not go from uncle 
 to nephew, or from father to son, though it is not 
 unusual, as a matter of courtesy, if the nephew or
 
 74 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 son is a man of intelligence and experience, to 
 appoint him to take the place of the deceased 
 Councillor. 
 
 The Council, when duly constituted, is the ruling 
 voice in all matters political as well as judicial 
 in the community. The head of the community 
 can do no legal act affecting the interests of the 
 community without the knowledge, approval, and 
 concurrence of the Councillors. 1 They represent 
 the sovereignty of the people, the King heing their 
 Head and the embodiment of the sovereign idea. As 
 such, they pay him every homage and respect, but 
 he must in turn respect their time-honoured laws, 
 customs, traditions, and sentiments. If he goes 
 contrary to any of their well-cherished ideas of 
 proper government, they can call him to account, 
 and, in serious cases, may in due course demand his 
 deposition. But the Councillors cannot exercise 
 their right capriciously. Every step they take 
 must be legalised by tradition and custom. 2 As a 
 matter of fact, it is very rare that the Councillors 
 of a community have occasion to resort to extreme 
 measures with the Head thereof. For the person 
 of their King is as sacred to them as the person of 
 the High Priest of the community. 
 
 1 The African (West) Exploitation and Development Syndicate, 
 Ltd., v. Sir Alfred Kirby and others. Coram Nicoll, J. ; Sarbah for 
 plaintiffs, Hayford for defendants : Axini Reports, June, 1898. 
 
 ' 2 Hima Dicki v. Anansu Mensah : Axim Reports, October, 1901.
 
 CHAP. ii. THE COUNCILLORS. 75 
 
 The Councillors are entitled to a portion of the 
 public revenues of the community. What comes to 
 them they again subdivide among subordinate head- 
 men of their wards, and they in turn among their 
 dependents, until it becomes true to say that every 
 male adult member of each ward has at least 
 " drunk" his portion of the distribution. It is com- 
 munism of a very high type. Is it to be wondered at 
 that the average Native is so contented and satisfied 
 with his surroundings ? The careless foreign critic 
 puts down the nonchalance of the Native to in- 
 grained laziness. Whenever I come across such critics 
 I smile at their simplicity. As a matter of fact, the 
 "lazy Fanti " is capable -of putting forth effort 
 amidst his own surroundings which men of no other 
 race on earth can. Who, in truth, have been the 
 pioneers and developers of the mahogany, gold, and 
 rubber industries of the Gold Coast but the " lazy 
 Fanti " ? Moreover, I make bold to say that the 
 future work of the country will be done by him, but 
 not in the foreign critic's way.
 
 76 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP, n 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 6. THE HEADMAN. 
 
 The Headman, as his name implies, is the Head of 
 a village community, a ward in a township, or of a 
 family. His position is important, inasmuch as he 
 has directly to deal with the composite elements of 
 the general bulk of the people. 
 
 It is the duty of the Head of a family to bring 
 up the members thereof in the way they should go ; 
 and by "family" you must understand the entire 
 lineal descendants of a head materfamilias, if I may 
 coin a convenient phrase. It is expected of him 
 by the State to bring up his charge in the know- 
 ledge of matters political and traditional. It is 
 his work to train up his wards in the ways of 
 loyalty and obedience to the powers that be. He is 
 held responsible for the freaks of recalcitrant mem- 
 bers of his family, and he is looked to to keep them 
 within bounds, and to insist upon conformity on 
 their part with the customs, laws, and traditional 
 observances of the community. In early times he 
 could send off to exile by sale a troublesome relative 
 who would not observe the laws of the community.
 
 CHAP. ii. THE HEADMAN. 77 
 
 It is a difficult task that he is set to, but in this 
 matter he has all-powerful helpers in the female 
 members of the family, who will be either the 
 aunts, or the sisters, or the cousins, or the nieces 
 of the Headman ; and as their interests are identical 
 with his in every particular, the good women spon- 
 taneously train up their children to implicit obedience 
 to the Headman, whose rule in the family thus 
 becomes a simple and an easy matter. " The hand 
 that rocks the cradle rules the world." What a 
 power J;or good in the Native State System would 
 the mothers of the Gold Coast and Ashanti become 
 by judicious training upon native lines ! 
 
 The Headman is par excellence the judge of his 
 family or ward. Not only is he called upon to 
 settle domestic squabbles, but frequently he sits as 
 judge over more serious matters arising between 
 one member of the ward and another ; and where 
 he is a man of ability and influence, men from 
 other wards bring him their disputes to settle. 
 When he so settles disputes, he is entitled to a 
 hearing fee, which, however, is not so much as 
 would be payable in the regular Court of the King 
 or the Chief. 
 
 The Headman is naturally an important member 
 of his " company," and often is a captain thereof. 
 When he combines the two offices of Headman 
 and Captain, he renders to the community a very
 
 78 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 important service. For, in times of war, where 
 the members of the ward would not serve cordially 
 under a stranger, they would in all cases face any 
 danger with their own kinsman as their leader. 
 
 The Headman is always succeeded by his uterine 
 brother, cousin, or nephew the line of succession, 
 that is to say, following the Customary Law.
 
 CHAP. ii. . THE PEOPLE. 79 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 7. THE PEOPLE. 
 
 We now come to the general bulk of the people 
 whose system, representatives, and officers of state 
 I have discussed in the foregoing parts of this 
 chapter. They are, generally speaking, intelligent, 
 and take great interest in all political movements 
 around them. This is not to be wondered at since 
 every Gold Coast and Ashanti mother takes a pride 
 in educating her sons in the traditional history of 
 the country. If the son is intelligent, he will have 
 graphically portrayed to him in a way that a native 
 mother only can the causes of the political situation 
 of the day, and he will retain every scrap of informa- 
 tion thus imparted to his dying day such wonderful 
 memory the average native has. I have often been 
 surprised at the accuracy with which a Gold Coast 
 illiterate witness has described in Court his genea- 
 logical line from the remote matcrfamilias down to 
 himself. When he has exhausted the list and his 
 counsel can breathe more freely, to the question, 
 "Who told you your family history?" the answer 
 is often returned, " My grandmother told me," the
 
 80 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 probability being that he first learnt the story at 
 his mother's knees. 
 
 And they are a people with no mean history. 
 Driven southwards by their more powerful brothers, 
 the Ashantis, they have shown, in the struggle for 
 existence, some of the finest traits of manly 
 character. Cautious, slow, and diplomatic, the Gold 
 Coast man is sometimes by the ignorant foreigner 
 labelled ""stupid," but when this stupid piece of 
 human mechanism is examined with a calm and 
 impartial judgment, it is found to possess those 
 high qualities which make it easily, in the race 
 for existence amidst its own environment, the 
 survival of the fittest. 
 
 Moreover, they are conscious of their destiny, and 
 they are working steadily towards its attainment. 
 Where so-called stronger and more intelligent races 
 have gone under under British rule or protection, 
 losing all they hold dear of liberty and political 
 rights, these people have from the first held tena- 
 ciously to their ancient rights, political and other- 
 wise, with the force of a logic which no decent 
 British Cabinet can withstand ; and, to-day, their 
 position is unique in the history of British 
 Dependencies and of political conceptions, as far 
 as they relate to so-called subject races. And 
 yet certain wiseacres dub them " stupid," and 
 find no epithet strong enough to express their
 
 CHAP. ii. THE PEOPLE. 81 
 
 contempt of this coming people of the African 
 continent. 
 
 And they are a progressive people, but they add a 
 grain of salt to such progressive tendencies which 
 they affect in the way of a sort o natural con- 
 servatism. It is not quite thirty years since a High 
 School was opened at Cape Coast, which did not go 
 on regularly working for more than eight years. 
 With such meagre advantages the sons of the soil 
 have since competed successfully for the highest 
 honours in arts, law, medicine, and divinity. In 
 every industry and in the practice of every pro- 
 fession they are to the fore, and if they only had 
 a Government which went to work on scientific 
 lines, what could not these people do ? Whatever 
 the Gold Coast man becomes in the struggle for 
 existence, whatever position he attains, he generally 
 remains a Gold Coast man who loves his country 
 dearly. He may adopt European culture, European 
 tastes, European comforts and amenities ; but, take 
 him for all in all, he remains at heart a Gold Coast 
 man, ready to serve his country at any moment with 
 all the resourcefulness, tact, and practical common 
 sense of his nature. 
 
 Before the "Emancipation Ordinance " of 1874, the 
 people of the Gold Coast might be roughly divided 
 into two classes, freemen and slaves or pawns. 
 
 The freeman, or dilii, is he whose ancestors were 
 
 G.C. 6
 
 82 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 Aborigines of the country, and who can trace the 
 line of such ancestors up to a remote mateifamiliaa. 
 He is a free man in every sense of the word. He 
 is eligible for any important office in the body 
 politic, and he can always hold up his head among 
 his fellows, however poor his condition. So dearly 
 does the freeman prize his condition that, if by 
 any act of folly on your part you call him a slave, 
 he will bring you before a native tribunal, prove 
 that he is no slave, and get you mulcted in heavy 
 damages. The freemen formed the bulk of the 
 people. 
 
 There were next the class of people known as 
 slaves. But Gold Coast slavery was neither the 
 slavery of ancient Rome, nor that of Afro-American 
 history. The Gold Coast master was always humane 
 and considerate. He actually went so far as to 
 consider the slave a member of his family, and to 
 adopt him as such. When his line of descent failed, 
 he promptly named the slave his heir. There is no 
 form of slavery, ancient or modern, to compare with 
 what Gold Coast slavery was. But, for all that, the 
 dividing line between the two classes of people was 
 always clearly defined. The slave never forgot, 
 however highly he might rise in favour with his 
 master, that he was a slave. Hence arose the 
 saying : " Akioa onyi ni wura la rigura, na nakica oivo 
 ni tsirim; " meaning; " When a slave is playing with
 
 CHAP. ii. THE PEOPLE. 83 
 
 his master's son, he remembers his condition of 
 being a slave." It is remarkable, even in post- 
 emancipation clays, with educational and civilising 
 influences all around in the country, how true and 
 loyal the descendants of slaves remain to the ancient 
 houses which afforded their progenitors in times 
 past food, shelter, and protection. It speaks 
 volumes for the humanity of Gold Coast masters 
 in the days that are gone. 
 
 The system of pawns was a form of servitude 
 practised among persons of the same community 
 when they were sore pressed and wanted aid. 
 The uncle pledged his nephew, or his niece, for 
 a sum of money, with a proviso for redemption upon 
 the first opportunity. He invariably took steps to 
 redeem his kith and kin at the earliest moment, an 
 everlasting disgrace becoming attached to the family 
 if he, or any member thereof, did not perform this 
 sacred duty. 
 
 People generally pawned their relatives with 
 persons they knew well, and who, they felt sure, 
 would be kind and considerate to the pawns. In 
 some cases it took the form of a training for the boy 
 or girl, and instances are known where pawns have, 
 after redemption, elected to remain with their 
 guardians. 
 
 In an age when no member of the community 
 could read or write, it was found convenient by the 
 
 62
 
 84 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 system of pawns to register and evidence a loan. In 
 the hands of the pawnee, the pawn served as a charge 
 upon the loan advanced. Thus the system origin- 
 ated, nat in a barbarous spirit of enslaving people of 
 the same community, but as a guarantee of good 
 faith to return a quid pro quo for help rendered in 
 the hour of need.
 
 THE COMPANY SYSTEM. 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 8. THE COMPANY SYSTEM. 
 
 We have seen that every adult member of the 
 community belongs to a ward, and that each ward 
 constitutes a company, with its captains and 
 subordinate military officers. The Captain-General 
 of all the companies, usually seven in number, 
 is the Tiifu Hin. It is his duty to supervise 
 the military training of the different Companies, 
 and he is present once a year at the general 
 review, when all the Companies turn out with 
 their flags and banners and full accoutrements. 
 
 The annual review takes place about the time 
 of the yam festival, known as Aliuba in the Fanti 
 States, and as Kuntum in the Wassaw and Ahanta 
 countries. Almba Kakraba, or Small Ahuba, takes 
 place about May of each year. The crops are not 
 yet gathered in; they are even now maturing. So 
 this is not the yam festival proper. What is it, 
 then ? It is a season of mourning a time when 
 the deeply religious native mind remembers the 
 dead, and mourns them accordingly. At four in 
 the morning of the day Almba Kakraba falls, you
 
 86 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP, n, 
 
 would hear a general wailing all over the town, or 
 village, as if a great calamity had suddenly over- 
 taken the community. The whole State is similarly 
 in mourning. Here and there, in some ancient 
 ruins, you would see women weeping as if their hearts 
 would break, and the menfolk offering libations to 
 the spirits of the departed. It is a solemn act of 
 faith in the unseen world around us, which, renewed 
 every year, and from one generation unto another, 
 tends to deepen the highly religious sense of the 
 Aborigines. 
 
 Nine weeks after Ahuba Kakraba comes the festival 
 known as the " Stool Celebration." The King is now 
 about to remember his dead, in the same way that 
 his subjects had done nine weeks previously. But 
 that is only a part of the ceremonial. He is about 
 to inaugurate at the same time the harvest rejoicings, 
 for the crops are nearly matured by this time, and 
 the king will taste of the first fruits of the earth. 
 For the purpose of this ceremonial, he has caused to 
 be gathered into his capital all his vassals from the 
 four corners of the State, who have all arrived in 
 fine style, with their big drums, big silk umbrellas, 
 and sweet-sounding horns, the several Head-Chiefs 
 riding in their palanquins, and all assuming great 
 pomp, with the women in holiday attire, for this 
 great festival. Each Head-Chief has brought the 
 picked men of his Companies, who will range them-
 
 CHAP. ii. THE COMPANY SYSTEM. 87 
 
 selves in their respective regiments at the capital. 
 The Tuafus of each province will have joined the 
 Tuafus of the capital, and the Inkidoms will have 
 joined the Inkidoms, and all under the orders of the 
 King's Tufa Hin, before the great ceremonial takes 
 place. These regiments will take an important 
 part in the ceremonial that is about to take place. 
 And wherefore has the King gathered all his vassals 
 together on this special occasion ? It is but to 
 receive the allegiance of all, from the least even 
 unto the greatest. 
 
 But let us now come to the actual functions of the 
 day, in the course of which we shall perceive clearly 
 the working of the Company System. The King, if 
 he has any regard for his memory, will have caused to 
 be manufactured for him a stool by which to mark 
 his reign. This is not the stool upon which he sits. 
 It is only a symbol that he has come to the stool of 
 his ancestors, the great Stool of the State. The first 
 function of the day is a religious one. There will 
 be a procession of all the small stools of the State, 
 followed by the great Stool, and the King, in semi- 
 state, will mount his palanquin, with the horn- 
 blowers, sword-bearers, and other functionaries after 
 him. His praises, and the praises and glory of his 
 ancient house, will be proclaimed by the minstrels, 
 and slowly the procession will wend its way in a 
 particular direction, first through the town and
 
 88 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 then out of it. Whither is it bound ? you will 
 begin to wonder. Follow it, if you please, and 
 you will soon know. First through the plantain 
 farms of the capital ; then through the yam-fields, 
 whose vines are fast shedding off the leaves which 
 crowned them with virgin glory, a sign that Nature's 
 work for man is nearly done ; then an abrupt turn, 
 which leads first up a hill, and then down dale, till 
 gradually you come to where the primeval forests 
 unite their myriad foliage in one everlasting shade, 
 away from the warm embraces of the mid-day sun. 
 Here the procession suddenly halts, the music ceases, 
 and the King dismounts. The fact is, the people 
 have arrived at the sacred stream of the capital. 
 Its clear, pellucid water, through which you can 
 discern the white, clean sand, is very tempting, 
 and you would fain quench your thirst at this 
 nectar of the gods, but that the ceremony which 
 immediately follows the halt is one that is awe- 
 inspiring. This stream is probably the first from 
 which the hero-warriors of the ancient royal house 
 drank, when they settled in the neighbourhood, and 
 which has been made sacred since the little com- 
 munity grew and expanded into a state. The Priest 
 now proceeds to offer up a sacrifice, sprinkling the 
 royal stools with the blood of the slain. Next 
 follows an act of purification, which consists in 
 sprinkling the stools with the sacred water of the
 
 CHAP. ii. THE COMPANY SYSTEM. 89 
 
 stream, the Priest the while going through the 
 necessary incantations. The procession then re-files, 
 and returns to the capital. 
 
 And now begins the festive part of the functions 
 of this unique anniversary. After a short interval 
 of rest, the King, in full state, takes his seat at the 
 public open square of the capital, surrounded by 
 the court functionaries, the big horns and drums 
 playing the while. The several Head-Chiefs and 
 minor Chiefs from the provinces and districts have 
 also assembled, and the moment of rejoicing has 
 arrived. The women, adorned in rich silks and gold 
 ornaments, are dancing before the King, and palm 
 wine flows like water. It is a season that comes 
 once a year, and all are invited to help themselves 
 freely to the good things which the King has provided. 
 
 Meanwhile the different regiments, under their 
 several Head-Captains, and all commanded by the 
 Captain-General, are preparing to go through their 
 manoeuvres. To avoid disputes, the several regi- 
 ments parade through the town one after the other, 
 pouring forth thunderous volleys from their long 
 flint Dane guns. After the parade each regiment 
 presents to the King its flags and emblems, new and 
 old, as an act of homage, which the King returns 
 with suitable words. The several Head-Chiefs next 
 renew their allegiance to the King ; and, after more 
 dancing and popular rejoicing, the King retires to
 
 90 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 his " compound," where his vassals subsequently take 
 leave of him, each vassal receiving a suitable present. 
 The King has now sacrificed to his Stool Oliin iratn 
 nay-giva du all his people having turned out in their 
 best to pay their homage, and all hearts having 
 warmed to show attachment to the ancient royal house 
 of the State. The corresponding function in Ashanti 
 is iheApafram festival, when all the provincial Kings 
 and Head-Chiefs, such as the King of Mampon, the 
 King of Juabin, the King of Kokofu, and other 
 Kings, met at Kumassi to pay their homage to 
 the King paramount of all Ashanti. Three weeks 
 pass, and we come to the time for Alniba Kcsi, or 
 Great Ahuba, the real harvest festival of the year, 
 which is celebrated separately by each province. 
 
 It occasionally happened that at the annual turn- 
 out of the regiments, one regiment tried to outshine 
 the other in smartness and skilful manoeuvring, and 
 war songs in praise of past exploits were indulged in. 
 This at times led to friction between one regiment 
 and another, ending in a free fight. Deplorable as 
 these conflicts were before the display was regulated 
 by ordinance and practically put an end to, the 
 annual military review was a means of familiarising 
 the young men with the use of firearms and preparing 
 them for national defence in time of war. It was, 
 moreover, an important adjunct to an imposing 
 ceremonial. It ought to be possible to allow the
 
 CHAP. ii. THE COMPANY SYSTEM. 91 
 
 annual displays under suitable control and regula- 
 tions. In former times every male adult of the 
 community understood fully the use of a gun, and 
 made a point of possessing one with the first money 
 he earned, or could coax from his uncle or father. 
 Such are present governmental restrictions that 
 hardly ten per cent, of the young men of the country 
 either possess, or can use, a gun ; and as for powder 
 and shot it is extremely difficult for the Natives to 
 obtain any even for ordinary sport. 
 
 In time of war the King and Head-Chiefs supplied 
 the Companies with powder and shot. When they 
 marched to battle the Tufu Hin led the van and the 
 King the rear-guard. The King, Tufu Hin, Head- 
 Captains, and principal Chiefs formed themselves 
 into a council of war ; and the King held supreme 
 command throughout the struggle, though the 
 Tufu Hin would practically be the Commander- 
 in-Chief. 
 
 The flags of the Company are of immense impor- 
 tance to the Company, whose members guard them 
 as a sacred trust. They generally have worked in 
 them emblems with symbolical meanings. There is 
 a guard of honour attached to each company, whose 
 duty is to guard the flag. They are known as 
 Assikamba, being the picked men of the Company. 
 
 The women of the wards form a sort of commis- 
 sariat department to the Company. They may be
 
 92 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 seen at the front in time of active war, carrying 
 refreshments to their husbands, brothers, fathers, or 
 uncles. They are full of the praises of their Com- 
 pany, and to hear them chant their beautiful war- 
 songs is to nerve one for the severest struggle. It 
 is moreover the privilege of the women of the wards 
 to propitiate the gods, and ask for blessing upon the 
 arms of their country. They do this at home while 
 the Priests busy themselves at the front, attending 
 to the wounded among other things. The women- 
 folk may be seen in the interval between one supply 
 of victuals to the men in the field and the getting 
 ready of the next, bedaubed with white clay and 
 dressed in white calico, singing solemn dirges 
 through the streets of the town. So fervent is their 
 belief in spiritual forces influencing mundane affairs. 
 
 The military spirit is not dead in the people. It 
 deserves to be encouraged on scientific lines as an 
 element of strength in Gold Coast manhood. It is 
 absurd to practically destroy martial spirit in a 
 people, and then turn round and call them cowards 
 in a given emergency. 
 
 It is an historical fact worth placing on record 
 that the people of the Gold Coast steadily held their 
 own against Ashanti incursions, until by diplomatic 
 weakness and mistakes the British Government 
 forced inglorious war upon the people in the first 
 quarter of the nineteenth century.
 
 CHAP. ii. THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM. 93 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 9. THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 The King is the Chief Magistrate of the com- 
 munity, and, as I have shown, there are minor 
 courts exercising concurrent, but not co-ordinate, 
 jurisdiction with the King's Court. 
 
 You have first the Courts of Headmen, then Chiefs' 
 Courts, and, finally, the King's Court, which is both 
 a court of first instance and a court of appeal. In 
 suitable cases, the King's Court can require a matter 
 before a minor court to be brought up before it for 
 adjudication. 
 
 At a "palaver," which is the word for a suit 
 before the Court, the King sits with his Councillors ; 
 and the Court is an open one, which any member of 
 the community may attend. There is no secrecy 
 about the proceedings. 
 
 The complainant states his case as fully as he 
 can, and he is given a patient hearing. In the 
 course of his statement questions are freely asked 
 him by the Councillors, and doubtful points eluci- 
 dated. The same process is gone through with the 
 defendant, and with the witnesses called by either 
 party. The Council then retires to deliberate upon
 
 94 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. 11. 
 
 the facts, and its verdict is given by the King's 
 Linguist, leaning over the cane of state, or the same 
 being held before him by a sub-linguist, who cries 
 out " Wontsey, wontsey" meaning, "Hear, hear," 
 while the Linguist proceeds with his delivery. 
 
 Where there is a strong conflict of evidence, and 
 the Court is unable to arrive at a decision, the 
 ordeal is resorted to, which consists of drinking a 
 large quantity of a herbal preparation known as cdnm. 
 If the party drinking returns the stuff, he is declared 
 free, or not guilty. If he retains the ednni, he 
 is found guilty. In some parts of West Africa 
 the suspected person, in criminal matters, is made 
 to chew a handful of rice. If he is unable to do so, 
 he is declared guilty. I have heard this explained on 
 physiological grounds as being highly scientific, and 
 possibly there may be some physiological reason why 
 a guilty person attempts in vain to return the eduin. 
 
 The Gold Coast Ordinances recognise the juris- 
 diction of the Kings and Chiefs of the country in 
 matters judicial, such jurisdiction being regulated 
 by Ordinance No. 5, of 1883, and sanctioned by the 
 opinion of the Full Court, 1 consisting of Mr. Justice 
 Macleod, C.J., Mr. Justice Smallman Smith, J., and 
 Mr. Justice Francis Smith, J. an abler appellate 
 trio the most critical mind could not desire. 
 
 1 Oppon v. Ackinie: Cape Coast Appeals, October 24th, 1887; 
 reported in Sarbah's " Fanti Customary Laws," pp. 207 212.
 
 CHAP. ii. THE COMMERCIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 10. THE COMMERCIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 In the olden times a most active trade was carried 
 on between this country and the hinterland through 
 Ashanti. There were merchant princes in those 
 days, when such men as the Hon. Samuel Collins 
 Brew, the Hon. George Blankson,. the Hon. James 
 Bannerman, Samuel Ferguson, Esq., the Smiths, the 
 Hansens, and others flourished. Those were grand 
 times. The run of Europeans who came out to the 
 Gold Coast were quite a superior class of men. They 
 mixed freely with the intelligent sons of the soil, and 
 helped to lay the foundations of a new civilisation. 
 
 The King of Ashanti knew most of these merchant 
 princes, and His Majesty, at stated times in the 
 commercial year, sent some of his head tradesmen 
 with gold dust, ivory, and other products to the 
 coast to his merchant friends in exchange for 
 Manchester goods and other articles of European 
 manufacture. In one visit the caravan cleared off 
 several hundred bales of cotton goods, which found 
 their way into the uttermost parts of Soudan. 
 
 It was a part of the State System of Ashanti to
 
 96 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n.< 
 
 encourage trade. The King once in every forty 
 days, at the Adai custom, distributed among a 
 number of chiefs various sums of gold dust with a 
 charge to turn the same to good account. These 
 chiefs then sent down to the coast caravans of 
 tradesmen, some of whom would be their slaves, 
 sometimes some two to three hundred strong, to 
 barter ivory for European goods, or buy such goods 
 with gold dust, which the King obtained from the 
 royal alluvial workings. Down to 1873 a constant 
 stream of Ashanti traders might be seen daily 
 wending their way to the coast and back again, 
 yielding more certain wealth and prosperity to the 
 merchants of the Gold Coast and Great Britain than 
 may be expected for some time yet to come from 
 the mining industry and railway development put 
 together. The trade Chiefs would, in due course, 
 render a faithful account to the King's stewards, 
 being allowed to retain a fair portion of the profit. 
 In the King's household, too, he would have special 
 men who directly traded for him. Important Chiefs 
 carried on the same system of trading with the 
 coast as did the King. Thus every member of the 
 State, from the King downwards, took an active 
 interest in the promotion of trade and in the keeping 
 open of the trade routes into the interior. 
 
 Nor was the Fanti petty trader left in the lurch ; 
 for, while the merchant princes drove magnificent
 
 CHAP. ii. THE COMMERCIAL SYSTEM. 97 
 
 trade with the caravans from Ashanti, the native 
 petty trader hawked his goods to great advantage in 
 the intermediate towns and villages, his customers 
 being private speculators from the interior. 
 
 Often the men in the coast towns acted as middle- 
 men between men of the interior tribes coming down 
 to trade and the merchant houses, and gained an 
 honest means of livelihood in that way. 
 
 Some of the Chiefs in the intermediate districts 
 would sometimes prove obstreperous to the caravans 
 coming down, which became a cause of grievance to 
 His Majesty the King of Ashanti, whose ruffled 
 temper would often be smoothed down by diplomatic 
 messages and an exchange of presents. Thus all 
 went merrily, and the country prospered, until the 
 dawn of that evil day when its Protectors, instead 
 of letting well alone, began to meddle with un- 
 scientific hands in the working of its State 
 System. 
 
 The commercial prosperity of the Gold Coast 
 was affected by the "Emancipation Ordinance" of 
 1874. Soon after that enactment the traders who 
 came down with their men, some of whom were 
 slaves, found they could not take back the mer- 
 chandise they had bought, as some of these men 
 were induced to run away from their masters and 
 join themselves to the band of freedmen, in the 
 case of Cape Coast, at Freetown, most of whom 
 
 o.c. 7
 
 98 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 eventually perished from disease and want. As the 
 traders could not afford to hire men to go back with 
 them, they in most cases left their goods behind- 
 cursing the system which caused them such grievous 
 losses never to return again. After the first shock, 
 some of those traders generally made their way to 
 Assinee and to French and German ports, thus laying 
 the foundation for, and subsequently establishing, 
 the French and German trade on the Guinea Coast. 
 
 Let it be distinctly understood that the bulk of 
 the trade done at the present moment is but the 
 remnant of the great trade which sprang up in the 
 thirties, and was at its meridian in the sixties, 
 between Ashanti and the Gold Coast, the Gold Coast 
 then being the source of supply, and the Ashantis 
 the middlemen who distributed it among the most 
 distant peoples of the Great Desert and elsewhere. 
 
 It was a trade based on good-will and mutual 
 confidence between merchants on the Gold Coast 
 and their friends, the middlemen, in Ashanti. 
 
 That confidence, by slow degrees, has been com- 
 pletely shattered by British diplomacy and aggran- 
 disement ; and it is doubtful whether a system of 
 railways will materially affect the situation. The 
 fact is, that Downing Street policy has killed the 
 goose the Ashanti middleman, that is which laid 
 the golden egg ; and the man at the helm has not 
 even yet discovered the mistake. What a miserable
 
 CHAP. ii. THE COMMERCIAL SYSTEM. 99 
 
 counterfeit is the opening of Government stores in 
 the hinterland in the vain hope of inducing trade ! 
 Whoever heard of Government stores anywhere in 
 the land even as far back as the first half of the 
 old century ? As if the Aborigines of the Gold 
 Coast, Ashanti, and the hinterland were not born 
 traders, and accustomed to European goods, even 
 while the old century was young. The truth of the 
 matter is that the people must believe in and trust 
 the Administration before they will build towns and 
 villages along the railway route. You may lead a 
 horse to a brook, but you cannot compel it to 
 drink. What if, as fast as the Government extended 
 the line, the native village communities trekked 
 further north, east, or west, until they threw 
 themselves into the ready arms of the French or 
 Germans ? The matter requires neither argument, 
 figures, nor official assurances. It is one to be 
 approached with ordinary common sense, which 
 dictates that the open sore of Ashanti must be 
 healed as quickly as possible. The Ashantis will 
 remain restless while their institutions lie crumbling 
 in the dust ; and a state of restlessness in a people 
 is not one calculated to promote trade and the arts 
 of peace. It is important for British merchants and 
 tradesmen to open their eyes to the situation, if the 
 trade of the Gold Coast is not to be ruined. 
 
 The fact of the case is, when you strike at Native 
 
 72
 
 100 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 Institutions and those ideas that are dear to the 
 aboriginal mind, you strike at native trade and native 
 co-operation. The only way to remedy the past is 
 to under what wrong to the Ashanti middleman has 
 already been done ; and the way to do so is by restor- 
 ing his Native State System as nearly as may be, 
 and his exiled princes. I do not say you are wrong 
 in every particular of your policy, but this I do say, 
 that you will never be able to convince the native 
 mind that you are right from the historical facts as 
 he knows them, and how he is affected by them. 
 And, after all, you cannot do without the Native.
 
 THE FETISH SYSTEM. 101 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 11. THE FETISH SYSTEM. 
 
 Overs hading and permeating the political, judicial, 
 and social economy of the Aborigines is that 
 system of faith and worship known as Fetishism. In 
 no department of his life is the Gold Coast Native 
 more faithful to the traditions of his forefathers than 
 in matters of faith and worship. Here and there 
 you find so-called converts to Christianity, but it 
 seems difficult for an uncultured Native ever abso- 
 lutely to forsake the gods of his fathers. 
 
 And why should he ? When he comes to examine 
 the teaching of the missionary, he finds there is a 
 good deal in it that is unsuitable to his condition, 
 and that he is required to give up practices which 
 to the unscientific mind seem barbarous, but which, 
 when critically examined, cover a mine of truth and 
 inspiration. 
 
 The Native of the Gold Coast profoundly believes 
 in the world of spirits. He believes that the spirit 
 in man never dies. So vivid is his faith that he 
 holds open and direct communion with his dead 
 friends, not through a medium, but, as it were, face
 
 102 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 to face. You should watch him as he takes offerings 
 of food and drink to the grave-side. There he care- 
 fully sets a chair for the dear one gone hefore, then 
 places the meal in order, and pours out a libation, 
 addressing the spirit of the departed the while. He 
 earnestly believes that the spirit of the departed 
 relative hovers around him by day as well as by 
 night, and he has both the physical and the spiritual 
 sense to perceive its presence. He sees in the mam- 
 miferous bat, winging its flight from room to room at 
 night in the home once dear to the loved one, who 
 is supposed to dominate it, a kindly providence 
 which does not leave him all forlorn in his grief, but 
 sends the spirit of the departed back occasionally to 
 watch and to protect. He even speaks to it in 
 endearing terms at times, and would fain believe 
 that it understands and is in full sympathy with 
 him. You may sneer at the seeming simplicity of 
 the native mind, but the Aborigines believe that 
 there are mysteries in this world yet unrevealed to 
 man. He, the Native, implicitly believes in ghosts, 
 and has many an authentic story to tell of some 
 strange visitation which he has experienced. Nay, 
 more, his sense of smell detects the presence of a 
 ghost in a house. 
 
 If there is aught that is invigorating in absolute 
 faith in things beyond while man struggles here 
 below, surely you find it in its simplest and truest
 
 CHAP. ii. THE FETISH SYSTEM. 103 
 
 type in the heart of the Native of the Gold Coast. 
 Mark yon, he does not look to conimnnion with the 
 gross, material matter that lies mouldering in the 
 grave ; but he looks to that indefinable something 
 beyond which has defied the reason of mankind for 
 all time. He looks beyond his present squalid sur- 
 roundings to a world hereafter where he will meet 
 every member of his family, and particularly those 
 whom he has dearly loved, and where he will dwell 
 with them in joyous intercourse as he has done in 
 this world. It matters not what happens to-day, 
 since to-morrow may find him in the grave and at 
 rest with his forefathers. In this happy frame of 
 mind he goes through life contentedly, free from 
 carking care, and wonders sometimes at all the 
 excitement and ado of men of another race. And as 
 for a material hell, the scarecrow of the missionaries, 
 he merely smiles at such a suggestion. Is there not 
 trouble enough in this world ? God knows there is. 
 Why should God add trouble to trouble ? Thus he 
 reasons with philosophy. 
 
 I shall not soon forget a scene I witnessed in a 
 grave-yard on the Gold Coast not long ago. A widow- 
 had just lost her only son, whom I knew. He had 
 belonged to a friendly society, and at his burial the 
 " brethren " had brought flowers for the bier. A few 
 days afterwards I noticed this woman come to the 
 grave of her son, who had belonged to the Church,
 
 104 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 with the usual food and drink for the dead. But 
 she had brought something else a bunch of flowers. 
 Surely her son would want the flowers would like 
 them. I saw her a simple native woman, who, 
 probably, in all her life, had never loitered by the 
 wayside to wonder at God's simple daisy amidst her 
 tears, gently place the flowers upon her son's grave, 
 
 On another occasion I was lingering in the same 
 grave-yard by the side of a figure of "Hope," my 
 thoughts far away from the immediate surroundings. 
 Suddenly a woman's voice addressed me : "Ye u-ura 
 aliad : awurdba su ahao;" meaning, "Master, good 
 day; and you too, mistress, good day!" I was 
 startled at the strangeness of the salutation ; and, 
 before I could recover my senses, she had slowly 
 walked away. So fervent is their belief in the here- 
 after. To them man never dies. 
 
 Now, when the missionary comes along, simple 
 soul that he is, and gives the would-be converted 
 Native the comprehensive command to give up all 
 fetish as a thing abominable in the sight of God, his 
 reason reels, and the foundations of his faith are, 
 for the first time, shaken. But he soon finds him- 
 self on terra Jirma : and when he remembers the 
 lessons of his youth and considers that, after all, the 
 missionary may be wrong in a matter that affects the 
 vital interests of the life beyond, he remains for ever 
 afterwards only a Christian worshipper in form, if
 
 CHAP. ii. THE FETISH SYSTEM. 105 
 
 he does not openly revolt. Where he remains a 
 formal worshipper, it does not necessarily follow 
 that he is a hypocrite. The fact is that he likes 
 the music and the ceremonials of the Christian 
 Church, and would fain continue to enjoy them, 
 while at heart he remains true to the faith of 
 his fathers. 
 
 Yet, what a different state of things would prevail 
 if the missionary had first studied the Eeligious 
 System of the Native before trying to improve it, or, 
 which is worse, before introducing a new one ! Why, 
 for example, should not the native convert sing his 
 own native songs, and play his native airs in 
 church ? Why should he not attune his horns, his 
 adz lira, his yomeij, or for that matter, his adankum, to 
 the praise of God, much as the Israelites of old 
 praised Jehovah upon the cymbal and the harp ? 
 Again, why should not the native be invited to church 
 by the call of the big drum, as he is generally called to 
 any public meeting in the country ? Why, in the 
 name of reason and common sense, should not the 
 Native bear his own name and wear his own native 
 garments ? Why, indeed, except that the simple 
 missionary has, from the beginning, ruled that all 
 these things are against the letter, if not the spirit, 
 of the Gospel ? There will never be anything like 
 genuine Christianity on the Gold Coast and in the 
 hinterland till the missionaries have begun from the
 
 106 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 beginning to build up a national Church on scientific 
 lines a Church wherein the Spirit of Christ will be 
 all in all, and the letter a dead thing. 
 
 The King, in the Native State System, is the 
 Spiritual Head of his people. But the actual working 
 of the System is in the hands of the Priests, who com- 
 bine with their office the cure of disease. Some of 
 them are very good doctors and pull through cases 
 where European skill has failed. They are skilled in 
 the use of herbal remedies, and it might repay 
 European medical men to study native thera- 
 peutics in its application to the treatment of 
 diseases peculiar to the Gold Coast. 
 
 The Priest generally invests his practice with a 
 certain amount of secrecy. He pretends to hold 
 communion, not in a spiritual sense, but in a matter- 
 of-fact way, with the spirits of the dead, and he will 
 often bring you back a message from a dead friend, 
 if desired. When a priest is called in from a dis- 
 tance to attend a case, he will generally tell the 
 friends of the patient much about the family history, 
 and indicate that a deceased relative is troubling the 
 patient for some act of disobedience. The deceased 
 relative must accordingly be propitiated. How does 
 he come to know the history of the family to which 
 he is a stranger ? There is a Guild of Priests in the 
 country to which all Priests belong, whose members 
 are absolutely faithful to one another. Upon the
 
 CHAP. ii. THE FETISH SYSTEM. 107 
 
 arrival of the Priest in the town where his attend- 
 ance is required, he immediately goes to meet his 
 brother Priest, or some student of the Priest, if he is 
 out of town, who gives him all the information he 
 requires, and which he subsequently puts to such 
 effective use. The people understand the decep- 
 tion, but they never expose it ; for the Priest's 
 office is a sacred one, and they philosophically 
 look to the spiritual side of things and not to 
 the letter. 
 
 A Priest's training begins early in his life. He 
 is generally sent away to another district to a 
 seminary, where he serves out his apprenticeship, 
 which may cover a period of three years. During 
 that time he learns the use of herbs and their appli- 
 cation to the cure of disease, at which he becomes 
 very proficient in the course of after practice. 
 When he returns from his apprenticeship to his own 
 town, he generally gives a show, which takes place 
 when his "company" folk hold a "company" dance. 
 He, on this occasion, performs various feats in clever 
 dancing to the beating of his favourite airs on 
 the torn torn, and he generally succeeds in working 
 himself into a frenzy of excitement, when the 
 " fetish " is said to have come upon him " Suman 
 aba nu du." 
 
 In time of war the Priest goes forth with the 
 army, and he generally can tell, or is supposed to
 
 108 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 be able to tell, what the result of the conflict will 
 be. He is supposed to be bullet-proof, and he 
 generally gives such rude aid as he can to the 
 wounded. He would now and again be called in 
 consultation with the Council of War.
 
 THE MUNICIPAL SYSTEM. 109 
 
 NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 
 12. THE MUNICIPAL SYSTEM. 
 
 The principle of municipal government* in so far 
 as this country is concerned, is as old as the hills. 
 Without asserting that at any time in the history of 
 the country the genius of the people had developed 
 the idea to the same extent as may be found in 
 civilised countries at present ; yet the fact that the 
 Aborigines of this country have always in their 
 townships and districts had a system of municipal 
 government, independently of the central govern- 
 ment of a given province, may be distinctly traced 
 by the careful student of their history. 
 
 To note this the more clearly, the observer has 
 only to travel a few miles up country, and there he 
 will find that each important township has its 
 Sanitary Board, arrangements for the carrying out 
 of public works, and other necessary provisions for 
 the due and proper regulation of the internal govern- 
 ment of the little community. These arrangements 
 may not be on a grand scale, but the idea is dis- 
 tinctly there, and there cannot be the slightest doubt 
 that, in the hands of an intelligent civilised central
 
 110 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 government, the different embryo municipal corpora- 
 tions of the country may be developed and adapted 
 to the local peculiarities of the people without 
 coming into conflict with any of their cherished 
 ideas. 
 
 I have indicated in the preceding parts of this 
 chapter the functions of the Headman of the ward. 
 It is his duty also to supervise the sanitary 
 arrangements of the ward. He would ordinarily 
 cause the womenfolk at regular and stated periods 
 to sweep out the whole ward, the women of each 
 family doing the cleaning up of their portion of the 
 ward. This would include the brushing up of weeds 
 and all waste vegetable matter and other noxious 
 substances, which would be burnt. 
 
 The menfolk of the ward would be turned out in 
 a company to clean up certain portions of the main 
 road leading from the township to the next town- 
 ship up to such a point as the two townships would 
 agree upon. They would also provide places of 
 public convenience both for themselves and the 
 womenfolk. When such places of convenience were 
 out of repair, they would be burnt down and fresh 
 ones provided. In erecting places of convenience 
 and lavatories, care would be taken to place them 
 where the township would suffer least from bad 
 odours. 
 
 In advanced communities the head of the ward
 
 CHAP. ii. THE MUNICIPAL SYSTEM. Ill 
 
 would see to the regulation of the buildings of the 
 ward, so that when you arrived in a township, it 
 would present broad streets and avenues, hardly 
 to be expected in the heart of Africa. 
 
 The effect of intercourse with Europeans on the 
 part of the people of the coast towns has been to 
 disorganise their own former municipal arrange- 
 ments, and to throw them back upon such haphazard 
 provisions as the Government has felt inclined to 
 make. It is like the case of the dog in the manger. 
 The Government will do nothing effective, and 
 they neutralise the influence of the native Chiefs 
 who would otherwise carry out necessary sanitary 
 arrangements. 
 
 It is true that there is in existence a " Town 
 Councils Ordinance" on the Gold Coast which has 
 been applied to Accra. But it does not work, and 
 it is because it is not on a sound basis. The people 
 of Cape Coast have steadily refused to form a 
 corporation under the Ordinance, feeling as they 
 do that no system of municipal government on the 
 Gold Coast will succeed which is not based on 
 popular and representative lines. 
 
 The idea of rates and taxes without the people 
 having an effective voice in the expenditure 
 thereof is obnoxious to the average aboriginal 
 mind. The Native resents an imposition of this 
 kind upon the same principle involved in his
 
 112 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTION CHAP. n. 
 
 protest against the " Lands Bill" of 1897. He 
 considers that the land upon which stands his 
 family house is his own peculiar lot and portion, 
 much in the same way as he regards his gold, 
 rubber, and timber lands. He will spend his 
 uttermost farthing in defending his rights to the 
 one or the other when the occasion arises. There- 
 fore, when you ask him to pay rates and taxes upon 
 his house, giving him no adequate control over 
 the funds, he imagines you are simply introducing 
 the thin end of the wedge, and sees no difference in 
 the claim put forward and one which would oust 
 him altogether from his tenement. To him the 
 principle is the same. 
 
 Nor does the working of the Ordinance appeal 
 even to the sober sense of the average educated 
 native. The Government element prevails to an 
 alarming extent. There is too much eagerness 
 to collect every available penny, and there is 
 want of tact in the practical working of the 
 scheme. 
 
 Take at random a report of a meeting of the Accra 
 Town Council, held at the Municipal Offices on 
 Tuesday, the 12th day of April, 1898, at 4.50 p.m. 
 First, as to the personnel : of the five members present 
 two were Government officials, Mr. J. K. Holmes, 
 the District Commissioner of Accra, being the 
 President.
 
 CHAP. ii. THE MUNICIPAL SYSTEM. 113 
 
 Secondly, as to the business discussed. Inter alia, 
 under the heading Finance Committee, the following 
 resolution appears: "That notices for the issue of 
 summonses for non-payment of rates be placarded 
 throughout the municipal area, and that the Town 
 Clerk institute proceedings against KingTackie for the 
 recovery of the rates due by him on his two houses." 
 
 If you have a little imagination it will occur to 
 you how this resolution, put into action, would 
 appear to the King of Accra, referred to in the said 
 resolution. " Has it come to this," he would say to 
 his courtiers, " that I, to whose ancestors ground- 
 rent was paid for the very land upon which stands 
 the forts of Accra, must pay tolls for occupying my 
 own houses, about the only possession left to me 
 now ? " He will but see in the situation a travesty 
 upon human affairs. The irony of it all ! It is like 
 the Lord of the Manor being subjected to fines and 
 forfeitures because forsooth he would not pay rates 
 for the tenements, his own, standing upon his ancient 
 domains. Your matter-of-fact Englishman is too 
 prosaic for the average native intelligence. The French 
 do these things differently, and succeed where the 
 English fail. Common sense and tact are their forte. 
 They work through the native Chief wherever they 
 can, and generally effect what they seek in the end. 
 
 To restore, then, the original municipal institu- 
 tions of the people is the surest way to popularise 
 
 G.C. 8
 
 114 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. n. 
 
 the principle of municipal government on the Gold 
 Coast. And you cannot do this unless you give full 
 sway to the working of the Native State System 
 by candidly recognising the authority of the Kings 
 and Chiefs, strengthening their influence, and 
 working through them. Barring cases of gross 
 injustice, there should be as little interference as 
 possible in the internal native government of the 
 Provinces. When once you have adopted this policy, 
 under the direction of a well-informed central 
 government, firm but conciliatory, you have gone 
 a great way in solving the problem of Gold Coast 
 administration. For you will easily perceive that 
 in this question of municipal government, unless, 
 the native Authorities have the power to enforce 
 the necessary regulations, backed by their ancient 
 prestige, there can be no progress possible. 
 
 I believe that when once it has been impressed upon 
 intelligent native municipal councils that the destiny 
 of their towns is in their hands, free from unnecessary 
 interference on the part of the central government, 
 funds will be forthcoming to meet the requirements 
 of the municipalities. "Where works of public utility 
 for the township are being undertaken, there will be, 
 in my view, no difficulty in raising money from the 
 different wards in the customary way. 
 
 But before calling upon the people to contribute, 
 the Government must have redeemed their pledges
 
 CHAP. ii. THE MUNICIPAL SYSTEM. 115 
 
 in the past. When the ad valorem duties of ten per 
 cent, were imposed during the Administration of the 
 late Sir William Brandford Griffith, it was pro- 
 claimed from the housetops by the Government that 
 works of public utility would be undertaken ; but 
 the sums thus collected were spent largely in 
 fruitless expeditions, the same thing occurring in 
 subsequent Administrations. It is true a railway is 
 being built, the cost of which is being met by loans 
 upon the country's credit ; but where are the 
 wharves, the harbours, the pierheads, and the water- 
 works which have been promised over and over 
 again in the Budget speeches of succeeding Adminis- 
 trations ? They simply do not exist, and there is no 
 apparent hope of their ever doing so. Progressive 
 people in the country, European and otherwise, are 
 burning to transform the Gold Coast into a fairly 
 decent country ; but the Authorities do not seem to 
 be in touch with the times somehow. 
 
 Again, I suggest, get a well-informed central 
 government, with a Science Department, directing 
 but not interfering with internal native government 
 and institutions ; encourage foreign capital to open 
 up the country, licensing syndicates to light up the 
 towns and to introduce modern conveniences ; and 
 you have gone a great way in setting this country on 
 the path of progress, which will lead to the fulfilment 
 of her destiny. 
 
 82
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CONFLICT OF SYSTEMS,
 
 Where the power of legislation is so loosely conferred on 
 such a variety of persons, it is certain there will be great 
 confusion of laws, and there is also great danger of the worst 
 of all evils, namely, of doubts being raised as to whether the 
 legislative authority of some of the subordinate bodies has.not 
 been exceeded. 
 
 For the supreme sovereign authority is always obliged to 
 allow the authority of its subordinates to be questioned, in 
 some form or other, by judicial authority, in order to keep up 
 a check on their usurpation of power; though sometimes it 
 resorts to that highly unsatisfactory expedient for getting out 
 of the difficulty an ex post facto ratification of acts which are 
 admittedly illegal. MABKBY, Elements of Law, 
 
 ***** 
 
 With respect to the public opinion of the Crown Colonies, 
 it is undeniably a power which in recent times is making itself 
 more and more felt. The press in many of them has organs 
 conducted with ability, and in some of them with singular 
 power and conspicuous fairness ; the proprietors and editors are 
 not confined to any one race, and no one could proclaim from 
 internal evidence the nationality of a writer. But the wants 
 and rights of the majority of the people are not always repre- 
 sented in the columns of the public press in a Crown Colony, 
 and this makes it the more necessary for the people and 
 Parliament of the United Kingdom to pay some attention to 
 what is passing, for they are undoubtedly responsible for the 
 laws and systems upheld in such dependencies. C. S. SALMON, 
 Ex-Administrator of the Gold Coast, in " The Crown Colonies 
 of Great Britain, 1 " p. 5.
 
 CHAP. 111. THE CONFLICT OF SYSTEMS. 119 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CONFLICT OF SYSTEMS. 
 
 THE Gold Coast, whose institutions we have been 
 considering, is at present legislated for by the 
 Governor in Council. Such Council is composed of 
 Ave Heads of Departments, with the Governor as the 
 President thereof, namely, the Chief Justice, the 
 Colonial Secretary, the Attorney-General, the Trea- 
 surer, and the Officer Commanding the Troops, 
 formerly known as the Inspector-General. If, 
 therefore, you reckon the Governor's " original vote 
 in common with the other members of Council, as 
 also a casting vote, if upon any question the votes 
 shall be equal," 1 you have six distinct official votes 
 in the Council. 
 
 There are generally four unofficial members of 
 Council, who are Government nominees, and who 
 hold their appointments for five years, subject to 
 renewal for a further period of five years, upon the 
 recommendation of the Governor. They take their 
 leave of absence from the country in the same way, 
 and with the same sanction, as ordinary officials in 
 
 1 Standing rules and orders of the Legislative Council.
 
 120 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. in. 
 
 the Government service. They keep their seats 
 during the pleasure of the Government. A recalci- 
 trant member may never cross the threshold of the 
 Council chamber again after his first term of office. 
 It is a system altogether peculiar to Crown Colonies. 
 At the present moment, I believe, the number of 
 unofficial members has been increased to five, t 
 
 Of the five unofficial members of the Council, 
 three are Europeans, one of whom is a solicitor 1 In 
 local practice, the other two representing, as w? 
 may take it, the mining and the mercantile interests 
 respectively of the country. 
 
 The two native non-official members of the Council! 
 may be said to represent the Eastern and Western 
 Provinces of the Gold Coast. 
 
 The official members of the Council are bound to 
 vote with the Government. At a meeting of the 
 Legislative Council held at Government House, 
 Christianborg Castle, on Wednesday, the 26th day 
 of June, 1889, there were present : His Excellency 
 the Governor, Sir W. Brandford Griffith, K.C.M.G. ; 
 His Honour the Chief Justice, J. T. Hutchinson, 
 Esq. ; the Honourable the Colonial Secretary, 
 F. M. Hodgson, Esq. ; the Honourable the Queen's 
 Advocate, E. Bruce Hindle, Esq. ; the Honourable 
 the Treasurer, Charles Pike, Esq., C.M.G. ; the 
 
 1 This chapter was written before the Honourable Member was 
 made the Attorney-General of the Gold Coast.
 
 CHAP. in. THE CONFLICT OF SYSTEMS. 121 
 
 Honourable Major Bingham, 2nd Batt. W. I. 
 Regiment, Commanding the troops on the Gold 
 Coast ; and the Honourable Charles W. Burnett, 
 Esq., unofficial member. The Honourable John 
 Sarbah, Esq., unofficial member, was absent. 1 
 
 At this meeting, " Mr. Burnett asked the ques- 
 tion, of which he had given previous notice, as to 
 whether official members are bound to vote with the 
 Government." 
 
 " The Colonial Secretary replied that the officers 
 of the Government, being part and lot of the 
 Executive Government, are bound to obey the 
 Queen's commands, conveyed by the Secretary of 
 State, in their legislative as well as their executive 
 capacities, whether or not the course presented 
 accord with their personal views and opinions. In 
 questions of religion, and other questions of high 
 moral import in respect of which officers of the 
 Crown may happen to have conscientious scruples, 
 which, after being explained to the Governor, His 
 Excellency is unable to remove, they may reasonably 
 expect to be excused from taking part in measures 
 to which they object on these grounds. At the 
 same time an officer, whose seat in the legislature 
 is by law inseparable from his office, could not be 
 continued in his office and his seat if his conscience 
 
 1 See the report of the meeting published in the Gold Coast 
 Echo, August 15th, 1889, reproduced from the Government Gazette.
 
 122 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. HI. 
 
 should not permit him to give the Crown such a 
 measure of support as might be necessary to enable 
 the Governor to carry on the business of govern- 
 ment in the legislature -in accordance with the 
 Queen's instructions." 
 
 In whichever way you view this diplomatic answer 
 to a simple question, one must see how awkwardly a 
 Chief Justice, for instance, may find himself placed 
 in the Legislative Council. Being an officer of the 
 Government, he is " part and lot of the Govern- 
 ment," and, as such, bound to support the policy 
 of the Government, or, in plain English, take the 
 alternative of being sent about his business. If 
 he is a strong man, he will hold out occasionally, 
 and may even go so far as to sit a silent member in 
 the Council, holding that his function is not to 
 make, but to dispense, the law ; not to administer, 
 but to judge between person and person, if even one 
 of the parties should happen to be the Executive 
 branch of the Administration. In a country teeming 
 with political issues, where a judicial officer may at 
 any moment be called upon to decide upon the 
 legality of an administrative act, the Chief Justice 
 will perceive the incongruity of " supporting " a 
 governmental policy, and the possibility of afterwards 
 sitting as judge to decide issues arising out of such 
 a policy, and would, therefore, wish himself out of 
 an ambiguous position. But it is a peculiarity of
 
 CHAP. in. THE CONFLICT OF SYSTEMS. 128 
 
 the Crown Colony System that it insists upon this 
 unsatisfactory arrangement. A. way out of the 
 difficulty, while the System lasts, would be to place 
 the control of judicial appointments in the hands of 
 the Lord Chancellor of England, and remove a judge 
 of the Supreme Court from a seat in the Legis- 
 lative Council of the Gold Coast, substituting the 
 Solicitor-General. 
 
 But to come back to Mr. Burnett's question. 
 The honourable member, in a matter before the 
 Council, was hard pressed for support. The odds 
 were six to one, and he was obliged to put the ques- 
 tion point-blank. The difficulty which confronted 
 Mr. Burnett as to the permanent non-official minority 
 still confronts us. The non -official members are 
 men of business. Occasionally you have one or two 
 of them away on leave. If even they are in the 
 country, it is not always that they can be present in 
 their places ; and if they could all be present, still 
 their minority would be none the less a minority. 
 
 But all this is on the assumption that from the 
 non-official members is expected free criticism. 
 That is not so. They are supposed to support the 
 Government. Their province is not so much to 
 criticise as to advise. When they do advise, they 
 must do it in such a way as to fall in with the view 
 for the moment entertained by the Government. If 
 you want to know the truth of the matter, they are
 
 124 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. HI. 
 
 put there as an apology for the denial of proper 
 representation to the country. They never initiate 
 legislation. How can they ? It would be a presump- 
 tion on their part to attempt it. For that matter, 
 the Governor himself does not initiate legislation : 
 he merely suggests. Legislation proper comes from 
 Downing Street, and the Governor and his Council 
 are merely the obedient servants of the Colonial 
 Secretary. To see the matter in its proper light, 
 even after a given measure has passed the Legisla- 
 tive Council, it is subject to revision by the Authority 
 at Downing Street, who may or may not advise His 
 Majesty to exercise his power of veto. 
 
 If you want further light upon the matter, you 
 have it in the perfunctory way in which Bills are 
 passed into Ordinances in the Council. It is a 
 matter of course where a Bill has received the 
 official imprimatur. There cannot, in the circum- 
 stances, be any such thing as a regular debate when 
 raised by a recalcitrant member. 
 
 It so happens, therefore, that when the people 
 think themselves seriously affected by the provisions 
 of a given Bill, they resort to the expediency of 
 getting themselves represented by counsel in the 
 Council Chamber. For the rest, they allow legisla- 
 tion to pass over their heads by default. The right 
 of the people to present petitions is admitted in 
 theory, but in practice, if the petition is ever attended
 
 CHAP. in. THE CONFLICT OF SYSTEMS. 125 
 
 to by the Council, the attention is given after the evil 
 prayed against has become an accomplished fact. 
 If you want to have an idea as to how this sort of 
 thing works, let me refer you to an interesting corre- 
 spondence between the Axim branch of the local 
 Aborigines Society and the Government anent the 
 sale of lands at Sekondi, which, with the kind 
 permission of the Editor, I have reproduced from 
 West Africa of July 5th, 1902, in the appendix. 1 
 
 What system is this which places in the hands 
 of the Governor, as the obedient servant of the 
 Colonial Secretary, a power beyond that exercised 
 by the Sovereign, Emperor-King of the British 
 Dominions ? A curious arrangement this, surely, 
 by which the Governor is not responsible to the tax- 
 payers, who keep the machine going, and who do 
 really. k now what is good for them, but to an over- 
 tasked official, some 3,000 miles away, who may or 
 may not be a capable man, and who gleans his 
 information as to the local conditions from his 
 obedient servant, the Governor ! How long will 
 public opinion tolerate a system which makes against 
 true imperialism and the expansion of British influ- 
 ence and prestige in the dark corners of the earth 
 which throws a damper, in several directions, upon 
 British capital and enterprise ? 
 
 The laws passed by the Legislative Council are put 
 
 1 See Appendix, pp. 382396.
 
 126 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. in. 
 
 in force by the Executive Council, which consists of 
 the official members of the Legislative Council, save 
 one, with the Governor, again, as its president. 
 
 Sometimes the only information that an ignorant 
 Native has of the passing of a given law is when he 
 has to pay the penalty. A typical case is that of the 
 Criminal Code, which penalises a good many acts 
 which are not offences by the general principles of 
 the Criminal Law of England, or by the Customary 
 Law of the Gold Coast. 
 
 We have seen from the discussion of Native Insti- 
 tutions how widely diffused among the people is the 
 idea of representative government. It is the very 
 essence of the Native State System. In that System, 
 the right of every adult member of the community to 
 be represented in the State Councils is fully recognised 
 and guaranteed. What conflict of ideas must there 
 be in the mind of the Native when he contemplates 
 the farcical pretext in respect of the representation 
 of the country in the presence of the non-official 
 members of Council in the Council Chamber ! 
 
 The trend of progress the whole world over is 
 toward free institutions a state of society whose 
 members are free to govern and regulate their own 
 affairs. It is the keynote of healthy imperialism. 
 It is this very principle, recognised by Great Britain 
 in her relations with the Dominions over the Seas, 
 which is strengthening and consolidating Greater
 
 CHAP. in. THE CONFLICT OF SYSTEMS. 127 
 
 Britain. But I shall possibly be met with the criticism 
 that self-government is reserved by Great Britain 
 for those English-speaking Colonies whose popula- 
 tions are nearly or wholly white. That may be. 
 But what is the essence of the matter ? I am 
 inclined to think that it is not so much a question 
 of the particular people inhabiting a particular 
 Dependency, as a yielding to the logic of facts in the 
 given circumstances. Statesmen, in time, have come 
 to learn the hidden meaning of the bitter lesson 
 which cost Great Britain the, loss of the American 
 Colonies, and the world one of the greatest oppor- 
 tunities of conserving universal peace, progress, and 
 goodwill among men. In the case of the Gold 
 Coast we shall appeal to the logic of facts, and 
 shall not appeal in vain. 
 
 I believe, therefore, that whenever a strong case has 
 been made, showing the capability and the right of 
 any given community in free alliance and friendship 
 with Great Britain, call such connection by what 
 name soever you please, to manage its own internal 
 affairs, Great Britain will not be backward in extend- 
 ing to such a community the blessing of free 
 institutions, feeling certain that therein lies the 
 fastest bond with the Mother-Country. In the case 
 of the Gold Coast, we simply say, " Allow us to make 
 use of our own Native Institutions, which we under- 
 stand, and which from experience are adapted to-
 
 128 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. in. 
 
 us." We shall ask once, twice, and ask again, and, 
 if this generation is not listened to, we shall hand 
 on the legacy of legitimate and constitutional request 
 to the next generation. 
 
 But where are your facts, you will rightly ask, 
 making it logically proper to ask for the revival of 
 representative government, on native lines, on the 
 Gold Coast ? To a fair question allow me to return 
 a fair answer. I have endeavoured to show that, on 
 the Gold Coast, you are not dealing with a savage 
 people without a past, who are merely striving to 
 copy or imitate foreign Institutions. I can under- 
 stand why, for example, you will rightly or wrongly 
 refuse full representative government, say, to Jamaica 
 or Trinidad. There you are not dealing with an 
 indigenous people. You are face to face with the 
 problem of trying to train up a people who have 
 lost touch with their past, and whose immediate 
 past dates from the time when Europe went into 
 sackcloth and ashes over her grievous sin against 
 the African race. You may seriously or not assume 
 that they are not ripe for self-government, and post- 
 pone the time till the Greek calends. But here you 
 are confronted with no such difficulty. On the con- 
 trary, you are stimulated by the circumstances of 
 the case. If you are free to admit it, you will see 
 that you find here already a system of self-govern- 
 ment as perfect and efficient as the most forward
 
 CHAP. in. THE CONFLICT OF SYSTEMS. 129 
 
 nations of the earth to-day can possibly conceive. A 
 people who could, indigenously, and without a litera- 
 ture, evolve the orderly representative government 
 which obtained in Ashanti and the Gold Coast before 
 the advent of the foreign interloper, are a people 
 to be respected and shown consideration when they 
 proceed to discuss questions of self-government. 
 
 Nor in discussing this matter must we lose sight 
 of the fact that the position of the Gold Coast is 
 perfectly unique among all the other so-called 
 Dependencies of Great Britain. Without anticipat- 
 ing the discussion in the next chapter, I may broadly 
 state that the relations between Great Britain and 
 the Gold Coast originated in friendship, mutual trust, 
 and commercial alliance. It will be seen, therefore, 
 that the people have a right to mould their institu- 
 tions upon their own lines, Great Britain being 
 merely a Protecting Power, and only properly con- 
 cerned with their relations with the outside world. 
 It will be also seen that at no time have the people 
 divested themselves of their right to legislate for 
 themselves. Before the spread of education in 
 the land, they did these things for themselves, 
 sometimes in co-operation with their Friends and 
 Protectors. Why not now ? 
 
 It is sad to reflect in this connection that the 
 policy of the British Government has been retro- 
 gressive rather than progressive. It is as if the 
 
 G.C. 9
 
 130 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. in. 
 
 Colonial Office had resolutely set to work to discourage 
 national spirit, and to destroy every vestige of it, in 
 the breasts of the people. But this kind of thing will 
 not do. Hence the humble appeal to-day that Great 
 Britain should fully and seriously consider this ques- 
 tion of free institutions for the Gold Coast, upon 
 which so much of the future progress of the country 
 depends. 
 
 It is conceded, I believe, on all sides that the 
 Crown Colony System of administering the affairs of 
 the Gold Coast has failed, hopelessly failed. What 
 then ? Is the country to be left to go to rack and 
 ruin ? It may mean nothing to the Colonists, but 
 to the Aborigines it means everything that is dear to- 
 them of country, home, and fatherland. 
 
 If the Gold Coast were a country with free 
 institutions, free from the trammels of Downing 
 Street red-tapism, we should soon have good wharves 
 and harbours, gas works, water works, and railway 
 communication all over the country. Prosperous 
 cities would grow up, and knowledge would spread 
 among all classes of the people, producing a willing 
 and an efficient body of workmen for the material 
 development of the vast wealth and resources of 
 the country. 
 
 In a well-regulated system the whites would find 
 they could not do without the blacks, and vice versa, 
 and soon would grow up a spirit of forbearance,
 
 CHAP. in. THE CONFLICT OF SYSTEMS. 131 
 
 tolerance, and mutual respect, each race doing its 
 allotted work upon natural lines in a prosperous and 
 contented federal Gold Coast and Ashanti. 
 
 All this may be a dream. At least, so you may 
 think. But if a dream, it is one worth attempting 
 to realise, instead of sitting bound hand and foot in 
 the face of ugly facts. 
 
 92
 
 CHAPTER IF. 
 
 THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST,
 
 It is difficult for a civilised Government to deal justly with 
 primitive communities, because they have not the courage to 
 restrain their subjects frpm taking those unfair advantages 
 which even the commonest and dullest of civilised men have 
 over the shrewdest of savages. There are not wanting those 
 who look on the extermination of savage races, as a benefit. 
 But experience, scientific research, and history all prove, every 
 day more and more, that such conclusions are mistaken. 
 Civilised people know something, but not much, about their 
 own intelligence, and they know something of their own 
 history, but they know nothing whatever about those people 
 they condemn to extinction simply because they do not 
 understand them. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 It is to be hoped many races will survive in the world, 
 were it only to avoid too much monotony. C. S. SALMON, 
 Ex-Administrator of the Gold Coast, in " The Crown Colonies of 
 Great Britain," p. 85.
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 135 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 
 
 1. THE GOLD COAST SETTLEMENTS DEFINED: 
 THEIR NATURE AND EXTENT. 
 
 ALL writers are agreed that the British Settlements 
 on the Gold Coast consist of a number of forts, 
 studded along the coast, which, in one way or another, 
 have fallen into the hands of Great Britain since the 
 seventeenth century, with the exception of three or 
 four, which were actually built by the English. 
 
 In the " Gold Coast Guide," 18951896, the Rev. 
 Jacob B. Anaman, F.R.G.S., gives the forts in the 
 following order : 
 
 French fort at Elmina, built in 1383. 
 
 Fort St. George del Mina (Portuguese), built in 
 1481. 
 
 Fort Fredensborg, or Ningo Fort (Danes), built in 
 1620. 
 
 Fort Cabo Corsa, or Cape Coast Castle (Portuguese), 
 built in 1624. 
 
 Fort Nassau, or Mori Fort (Dutch), built in 1637. 
 
 Fort Conradsburg, or Fort St. Jago, at Elmina 
 (Dutch), built in 1640.
 
 136 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 Kramantine Fort (English), built in 1640. 
 
 James Fort, at Accra (English), built in 1662. 
 
 Fort Vanderpurgh, at Commenda, built in 1688. 
 
 Dixcove Fort (English), built in 1691. 
 
 Anamaboe Fort (English), built in 1753. 
 
 For further particulars, and an account of a few 
 unimportant forts not included in the list above given, 
 the reader is referred to the pages of Bosnian. 
 
 Now, the objects for which the several forts were 
 built are obvious. They were mostly built in the 
 seventeenth century, when the Portuguese, the 
 French, the English, the Dutch, and the Danes were 
 alike engaged in the abominable slave trade, and 
 they were, of course, intended to serve as barracoons, 
 or temporary depots, for the human cargo before 
 it was shipped to the plantations in the New 
 World. The different companies, incorporated by 
 the Governments of the several European nations, 
 were keen competitors in the slave market, and 
 jealous of one another; while the Aborigines, slowly 
 awakening to the horrors of the traffic in human 
 flesh, hated them all equally. Hence arose the 
 necessity of building these forts for protection. 
 
 It is also clear that ground-rents were paid to the 
 local Magnates, or Chiefs, for the grounds upon which 
 these forts stood and still stand, and for them only, 
 since the state of unrest in which was the country 
 in those unhappy times rendered it unsafe for the
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 137 
 
 European traders to acquire holdings outside their 
 forts, which were never free from the dangers of 
 outside attack. 
 
 Accordingly, when in later times we read in official 
 reports, despatches, and Blue Books of " Her 
 Majesty's Settlements on the Gold Coast," and " Her 
 Majesty's Forts and Possessions on the Gold Coast," 
 it must be understood that these self-same forts are 
 meant which served as temporary resting-places for 
 the kidnapped Aborigines, groaning in chains, and 
 subsequently exiled to foreign labour. 
 
 But by-and-by slavery was abolished, the day of 
 legitimate trade dawned upon the Gold Coast, and 
 the Aborigines began to have confidence in the white 
 man, and to recognise and appreciate the advantages 
 of having him in their country. Thenceforth, the 
 Englishman was the honoured guest, who must be 
 entertained and humoured ; and, so long as he knew 
 his place and did not assume airs or bully the people, 
 he was welcome to have his full share in the good 
 things of the land for all time, the Aborigines being 
 conciliatory above all things. 
 
 These are the main fundamental propositions of 
 British tenure on the Gold Coast: and it will be 
 interesting to mark the march of events in the course 
 of this work how the honoured guest gradually 
 worked his way into importance and influence, a 
 logical result scarcely contemplated by the Aborigines,
 
 138 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 when they offered their white visitor a place at their 
 hearth. 
 
 We have the propositions. Where are the proofs ? 
 We find them scattered here and there. Let us hasten 
 to collect and preserve them. 
 
 The first work I shall refer to is the work of Mr. 
 Lucas, of Balliol College, Oxford, and of the Colonial 
 Office, being the third volume of his "Historical 
 Geography of the British Colonies." I may premise 
 that Mr. Lucas, in his Preface, mentions the name 
 of the late Sir William Brandford Griffith, K.C.M.G., 
 then Governor of the Gold Coast, as having been 
 among many others who had given him assistance 
 in the preparation of his work. The information 
 we derive from him, therefore, may be taken as 
 distinctly bearing the official hall-mark. ' 
 
 On page 3 of his work Mr. Lucas refers to the 
 Gold Coast as a Settlement, dating from the year 
 1618 ; and when we come to page 199 he refers to it 
 in these words : 
 
 " To judge from the old maps a row of isolated forts and 
 factories lined the water's edge, but they had no territory or 
 territorial rights attached to them." 
 
 Referring to this same matter, Captains Bracken- 
 bury and Huyshe say, on page 3 of their work 1 : 
 
 " It appears that all the European companies on the Coast, 
 Dutch and Danish as well as English, had paid ground rent 
 to the Coast tribes for the land on which their forts were 
 built." 
 
 1 " Fanti and Ashanti."
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 139 
 
 Now, these writers must have gathered their 
 information from official documents extant, and it 
 will, therefore, be satisfactory to confirm them from 
 those official sources. 
 
 It appears that in the sixties Her Majesty's 
 Government was desirous of ascertaining the true 
 relation of the Gold Coast to Great Britain. For 
 this purpose a Select Committee was appointed, and 
 a deal of valuable evidence was taken. 
 
 On page 287 of the Eeport of the Committee 1 we 
 find that Richard Pine, Esquire, Governor of the 
 Gold Coast, was called in and examined. He was 
 asked : 
 
 " What did you consider your Governorship to be at the Gold 
 Coast ? Was it simply a number of military posts or forts without 
 any territory round each of them? " 
 
 To which he replied : 
 
 " I consider that I was technically the Governor of the forts 
 and settlements, but I also supposed myself to have jurisdiction 
 to a certain extent over what is called the Protectorate." 
 
 Colonel Orel, R.E., was also called and examined. 
 He was asked the specific question : - 
 
 " You are not prepared, are you, to recommend any exact 
 area of land whi&h ought to be declared British territory around 
 the forts at the Gold Coast? " 
 
 To which he replied : 
 
 " With regard to the Gold Coast, I would declare nothing 
 1 See preliminary chapter, p. x.
 
 140 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 British territory but the land on which the forts or buildings 
 which were occupied by our civil officers were situated." 
 
 Please note carefully the next question, which 
 follows, and the answer to the same : 
 
 " We have had evidence that there was some disadvantage 
 there (Gold Coast) from the uncertainty : one or two witnesses 
 seem to suppose that it was British land within a gun shot ; 
 do you not think that there is a disadvantage in the actual 
 British territory not being denned? " 
 
 "It is thought by some a disadvantage in the present state 
 of our relations with the people at the Gold Coast, but I think 
 it is somewhat advantageous that our exact position cannot be 
 too closely denned." 
 
 In the year 1865, William Hackett, Esq., was 
 Her Britannic Majesty's Lieutenant-Governor at 
 the Gold Coast. The indefinite position of Her 
 Majesty's Government in the country troubled him, 
 and he wished to give concessions of land in Cape 
 Coast in the name of the Queen, to be probably 
 followed by acquisitions in other parts of the 
 country. I have published the whole palaver, held 
 at Government House, Cape Coast, on the 10th of 
 May, 1865, in the Appendix. It is interesting 
 reading, but the substance is this : 
 
 The Governor wanted the illiterate Aborigines to 
 sign a paper, making the Queen a grant of land. 
 They respectfully declined to do so, remarking that 
 the signing of a paper was doubtful to them. 
 
 Eight long years passed away, and then followed 
 the Ashanti Expedition of 18731874. It is well
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 141 
 
 known that Lord Wolseley, then Sir Garnet, was 
 given the military command of the expedition, while 
 at the same time he acted as Civil Administrator of 
 the Gold Coast Settlements. Let us see how he 
 describes himself in his letter written at the camp 
 at Prahstie, on the 2nd of January, 1874, to His 
 Majesty Koffee Kalkalli, King of Ashanti. He 
 describes himself as "Administrator of Her Majesty's 
 Forts and Possessions on the Gold Coast, and Com- 
 mander of Her Majesty's Forces in the West African 
 Settlements." 
 
 Nor have the facts altered since 1874. In the 
 speech of His Excellency Governor Hodgson, in 
 introducing the estimates of revenue and expendi- 
 ture for the year 1899, reported in the Gold Coast 
 Government Gazette for October, 1898, at page 409, 
 occur these words : 
 
 " I do not, I may state, regard Ashanti as being in the same 
 position to the Government as other districts which together 
 form the colony and protected territories of the Gold Coast. 
 Ashanti is a conquered country a country upon which blood 
 and treasure have been spent and the kings and chiefs know 
 that in accordance with native custom they must pay tribute to 
 the paramount authority." 
 
 Sir F. M. Hodgson in these two sentences throws 
 the whole question of British relations with the 
 Aborigines of the Gold Coast into a nutshell, and 
 shows greater appreciation of historical facts than 
 did his late lamented predecessor, the brilliant
 
 142 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 and versatile Sir William Edward Maxwell, 
 K.C.M.G. 
 
 And we have already seen how these "Forts," 
 "Possessions," or "Settlements" were acquired, 
 and the local limits of them.
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 143 
 
 THE STATUS OF THE GOLD. COAST. 
 
 2. EARLY JURISDICTION OF THE KING: ITS NATURE 
 AND EXTENT. 
 
 We may now usefully direct our attention to the 
 enquiry as to the nature and extent of the early 
 jurisdiction of the King of England, consequent upon 
 the acquisition of certain Forts or Settlements on 
 the Gold Coast by Great Britain. 
 
 It is a matter of general history that, before the 
 close of the eighteenth century, the public con- 
 science of Great Britain had been fully aroused by 
 the efforts of the Abolitionists to the evils of the 
 slave trade. The philanthropic movement, which 
 began in much feebleness, had, as time went 
 on, increased in importance and influence, and 
 had, moreover, created in its favour a public senti- 
 ment of a highly moral character, destined not 
 merely to influence British policy for all time, but 
 likewise to form a bulwark for the liberties of the 
 race whom civilised Europe had so long wronged. 
 
 But how did this result come about ? It happened 
 this way. The reaction in public opinion against the 
 slave trade made the British conscience for a long
 
 144 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP, iv 
 
 time afterwards tender in pursuing any policy which 
 might happen to work injustice to the Aborigines of 
 this country. The Colonial Ministers kept a firm 
 hold on the Lieutenant-Governors of the Forts and 
 Settlements in those earlier times, and would not 
 countenance any unlawful extension of jurisdiction, 
 however convenient to the local government. 
 
 On the other hand, the Aborigines of the Gold 
 Coast were for ever wary. They knew fully well 
 that they had come in contact with powerful neigh- 
 bours, who might, at any moment, show themselves 
 inconveniently aggressive; and so, with remarkable 
 tact, they gave in where they could do so without 
 injury to the fundamental basis of the relationship 
 between them and their white visitors, mildly 
 remonstrating, but always with effect, where they 
 felt firmness was necessary. 
 
 There were, besides, operating in the country 
 other influences at the same time which had the 
 effect of bringing about a good understanding between 
 the Aborigines and the British Government. In 
 the year 1818, the principle of abolition had been 
 accepted by all the European Powers ; but it left 
 undisturbed the internal labour system of the 
 Aborigines, and the active trade which depended 
 upon it. It would not have been wise to attempt 
 any interference with domestic slavery as it then 
 existed, and, besides, Great Britain had only so
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OP THE GOLD COAST. 145 
 
 recently turned convert that she could not with any 
 grace preach at the very tribes some thousands 
 of whom she had kidnapped in the days of her 
 unregeneration. 
 
 It happened, therefore, that when the day of 
 legitimate trade dawned in these parts, the transport 
 service was in the hands of well-to-do Aborigines, 
 who kept slaves for the purpose. There was, thus, 
 immediate gain to the Aborigines, and gain indirectly 
 to the European trader in the new order of things. 
 And it is not possible to see how otherwise the 
 country could have been opened up to trade and 
 civilisation in those earlier times. 
 
 Trade, then, it is to be distinctly understood, was 
 the primary, though not the only object of Great 
 Britain in settling in the country, and whether in the 
 hands of the Directors of the African Company of 
 Merchants, or the Administrators of the United West 
 Africa Settlements, the primary purpose of the 
 Administration was the same, namely, the encourage- 
 ment and protection of trade. But, pray, remember 
 that it was only the primary purpose. For, as we 
 shall see in the course of this work, now and again 
 an aggressive policy asserted itself, giving way 
 almost immediately afterwards to the main and 
 primary policy. The intelligent reader, who gets a 
 nrm grasp of this central idea, has a key to the 
 whole political history of the Gold Coast people. 
 
 G.C. 10
 
 146 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 From this starting point, it becomes easy to form a 
 clear idea of the nature of British tenure, and the 
 extent of the jurisdiction in those earlier times. 
 
 On pa'ge 287 of the Eeport of the Select Committee, 
 the opinion of Governor Pine was asked upon this 
 question of British jurisdiction on the Gold Coast. 
 His reply was this : " I had heard so long that I can 
 recollect Africa that the question of jurisdiction was 
 a doubtful point." 
 
 The opinion of Colonel Orel, R.E., is given on 
 page 337. To the question, "You are not prepared, 
 are you, to recommend any exact area of land which 
 ought to be declared British territory around the 
 forts at the Gold Coast?" he replied: "With 
 regard to the Gold Coast, I would declare nothing 
 British territory but the land on which the forts or 
 buildings which were occupied by our civil officers 
 were situated." 
 
 In the year 1836, as Mr. Sarbah tells us on page 15 
 of the " Fanti Customary Laws," the President in 
 Cape Coast Castle assumed power and tried Adoasi 
 and Amman for wilful murder. Upon the report of 
 the trial reaching England, the Committee of the 
 African Merchants, then administering the Forts and 
 Settlements under the Crown, in a letter bearing 
 date the 20th of October, 1836, observed : 
 
 " Your proceedings in Council, April 6th, in reference to the 
 trials of Adoasi and Amman for wilful murder, we observe, were
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 147 
 
 conducted in the Public Hall of Cape Coast Castle in your 
 presence and that of Cabboceers and Peynins, and, found guilty 
 upon their own confession, these men were executed. It seems 
 from your information to us, that there has been a very 
 important departure from the proceedings of our Criminal 
 Courts, inasmuch as the confession of the prisoners was the 
 chief evidence against them, but of the justice of the sentence 
 there can be no doubt. These remarks lead us to remark to 
 you, which we feel bound to do, that we have been instructed 
 expressly by Lord Gleneg ' that the British Government pretends 
 neither to territorial possession, nor to jurisdiction over any 
 portion of the Gold Coast, excepting the actual site of the 
 several forts and castles.' It is, therefore, necessary that your 
 authority should be exercised with very great caution." 
 
 In the year 1865, Colonel Conran was the Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor of the Gold Coast. He believed in 
 an aggressive policy, as did his illustrious but ill- 
 starred predecessor, Sir Charles Macarthy. He 
 sought to prevail upon Her Majesty's then principal 
 Secretary of State, namely, the Eight Honourable 
 Edward Cardwell, to sanction the extension of the 
 Queen's jurisdiction on the Gold Coast. The Secre- 
 tary of State wrote from Downing Street, under 
 date the 23rd of November, 1865, as follows : 
 
 " SIB, I have to acknowledge your despatch No. 144 of 
 17th October, enclosing the copy of a notice which you have 
 issued, in which you define the limits of Her Majesty's posses- 
 sions on the Gold Coast. I am unable to approve the step 
 which you have taken in declaring the territory within five 
 miles of eight separate British forts to be British territory, and 
 I have to instruct you to recall the notices in which this is done. 
 Whatever influence you may be able to exert in discouraging or 
 repressing barbarous customs leading to loss of life will be very 
 
 102
 
 148 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 proper, and I shall be happy to approve your exercise of it, but 
 the extension of British territory is a different matter and 
 cannot receive my sanction." 
 
 Again -on the 22nd of December of the same year, 
 the Secretary writes to the Lieutenant-Governor 
 " to avoid introducing any expressions which bear 
 the appearance of extending jurisdiction over terri- 
 tory at the Gold Coast"; and on the 23rd of 
 December he once more urges upon him ' * to avoid 
 any new step which may have that appearance." 
 
 One can easily discover the underlying reason 
 which prompted the emphatic disavowal of the 
 Lieutenant-Governor's aggressive policy by the 
 Colonial Secretary. There was clearly no ground for 
 the assumption that Her Majesty owned any territory 
 in the country outside the forts, and the Colonial 
 Minister had the courage to tell Colonel Conran so. 
 
 Again, if we turn to " Fanti and Ashanti," page 
 17, we have it there stated that a Select Committee 
 of the House of Commons was appointed to consider 
 the state of the British possessions on the West 
 Coast of Africa. It reported in the year 1842, inter 
 alia, " that all jurisdiction over the native tribes 
 beyond the immediate radius of the forts should be 
 the subject of distinct agreement with them; not 
 the allegiance of subjects, but the deference of 
 weaker powers to a stronger and more enlightened 
 neighbour."
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 149 
 
 Another Select Committee sat, as we know, in the 
 sixties, and this question of jurisdiction was then 
 left indefinite. Colonel Ord in his report, quoted on 
 page 356, refers to this matter in the following terms : 
 
 " After enquiry it was admitted that although we 
 possess no legal jurisdiction in the country, it was 
 possible that we might exercise with a great 
 advantage to the people a species of irregular autho- 
 rity, partly tolerated from a conviction of its useful- 
 ness and partly compulsory from the nature of our 
 position." 
 
 As showing that there was no mistake at all 
 about the merely friendly relations between Great 
 Britain and this country in the minds of the Natives, 
 we find that, early in the seventies of the last 
 century, there was an attempt made by the people 
 to form a confederation of the various Fanti tribes, 
 and a constitution was actually drawn up, known 
 as the Mankessim Constitution. 
 
 To clinch the matter, once more, in 1887, 
 Mr. R. H. Meade, writing for Lord Knutsford, then 
 Sir H. Holland, to Mr. A. McArthy, M.P., respecting 
 the question of jurisdiction, said : " The term 
 annexation used by Mr. S. is also incorrect, inas- 
 much as the greater portion of the Gold Coast 
 Colony still remains a protectorate, the soil being in 
 the hands of the natives and under. the jurisdiction 
 of the chiefs."
 
 150 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 The intelligent reader, with these facts before 
 him, will rise from a perusal of the article, " Colony 
 or Protectorate," reproduced in the Appendix, 
 strengthened with the conviction that the position 
 therein taken is in every way warranted.
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 151 
 
 THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 
 
 3. BEARING OF ASHANTI AFFAIRS UPON THE BRITISH 
 POSITION ON THE GOLD COAST. 
 
 It is of importance to the student of history, 
 seeking to know the truth as to the status of the 
 Gold Coast in her relation to Great Britain, to have 
 clear ideas as to the bearing of Ashanti affairs with 
 respect to British position on the Gold Coast. 
 
 The impression seems to prevail in the minds of 
 those unacquainted with the facts that Great Britain, 
 having in the course of her intercourse with the 
 Gold Coast, come into conflict with Ashanti on 
 certain occasions, she has thereby acquired certain 
 prerogatives, rights, and jurisdiction in the Gold 
 Coast which she otherwise would not have. The 
 following passage in the late Governor Maxwell's 
 message to the Legislative Council on March 10th, 
 1897, shows how widespread is the misconception. 
 Said he : " The occupation of Kumasi, and the con- 
 clusion of treaties of protection with all the Ashanti 
 States, has enlarged the field within which traders 
 and miners may safely and profitably carry on 
 commerce and industry. These events have also
 
 152 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 contributed to the urgency which now exists for 
 some settled understanding in regard to rights 
 arising out of land, the manner in which rights of 
 various kinds may be created, the authority which is 
 necessary, and the terms and conditions upon which 
 such rights may be enjoyed. In the House of 
 Commons, on July, 1896, the Secretary of State 
 for the Colonies stated that he had sanctioned the 
 policy under which it would be made impossible for 
 native chiefs to make any concession of land without 
 the sanction of the Governor." It is worth noting 
 that in this message the Governor justifies the adop- 
 tion of the drastic policy proposed by events which 
 took place outside the Gold Coast. There is thus an 
 ever-present danger of the affairs of Ashanti being 
 confused with those of the Gold Coast even by those 
 who may be supposed to be able to differentiate them. 
 Hence arises the need for the examination of what 
 evidence there is in the matter, and for a clear state- 
 ment of the exact part which Ashanti affairs have 
 played in the political history of the Gold Coast. 
 
 I propose, therefore, briefly to refer to the causes 
 which brought about troubles with Ashanti, and the 
 exact part, if any, that the people of the Gold Coast 
 took in such troubles. For this purpose I must go 
 back to the work of Captains Brackenbury and 
 Huyshe, who, as military writers, were seeking to 
 instruct the troops engaged in the Ashanti campaign
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 153 
 
 of 1873 and 1874 on the real causes of the war. It 
 will be enough for my purpose to take the authors 
 from the year 1852. 
 
 Now, on page 20 of the book before us, it is made 
 clear that as far back as 1852 a certain Assin chief, to 
 wit, Cud joe Chibbo, had received bribes from the 
 King of Ashanti to bring his people under the 
 authority of that monarch, and, having defied the 
 authority of the Governor, he had been apprehended, 
 tried, convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment for 
 life. The gallant writers add immediately : " We 
 gain here from the Governor's despatch an insight 
 into the spring moving the Ashantees at this time 
 towards war." Accordingly we are told on page 22 
 of this work that on March 22nd, 1853, the Ashantis 
 crossed the frontier in force to take away Chibbo. 
 
 Now note, please, that from 1853 to 1863 there 
 was peace; but in December of 1862 the restoration 
 of a runaway slave boy was demanded by the King 
 of Ashanti, and rightly refused by Governor Pine. 
 There was at the same time a demand for the return 
 to Ashanti of an old chief who was charged with 
 appropriating gold belonging to the King. This 
 demand was also refused. 1 Accordingly, when our 
 authors came to summarise the causes of the war of 
 1873 and 1874, they warn us on page 45 that there 
 had been no peace with the Ashantis since 1863. 
 
 1 " Fauti and Ashanti," p. 26.
 
 154 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 Let us now study carefully some of the most direct 
 causes of the war of 1873 and 1874. 
 
 Early in the seventies of the old century, negotia- 
 tions were in progress between Her Majesty's 
 Government and the King of the Netherlands for the 
 transfer of certain forts on the Gold Coast. According 
 to the arrangement, "the boundary between the 
 possessions of Her Britannic Majesty and those of 
 His Majesty the King of the Netherlands was to 
 be a line drawn true north from the centre of the 
 mouth of the Sweet River as far as the boundary of 
 the present Ashanti kingdom." By this treaty Appo- 
 lonia, Dixcove, Sekondi, and Commenda were handed 
 to the Dutch, and there were many circumstances, 
 in the view of Captains Brackenbury and Huyshe, 
 leading them to the belief that it was effected with- 
 out any consultation with the tribes affected by the 
 treaty. As it was, the Commendas refused to accept 
 the Dutch protectorate, and were punished by the 
 Dutch. The Commendas being Fantis, the Fantis 
 retaliated upon Elmina, which was Dutch. 1 
 
 Now, the Elminas were friendly with the Ashantis, 
 and about this time there was an Ashanti force, 
 under Akempon, actually in Elmina, who claimed 
 a right to an annual tribute from the Dutch, 
 
 1 If the authorities took the trouble to study Gold Coast history, 
 they would see the incongruity of any attempt on the part of the 
 Commendas to throw off their allegiance to the King of Inkusukum.
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 155 
 
 and therefore objected to the transfer. The claim 
 was, of course, denied by the Dutch. In the result 
 the transfer took place, and it formed a standing 
 grievance on the part of His Majesty the King of 
 Ashanti, which is couched in these words in a letter 
 by the King to the Governor 1 : 
 
 " I beg to bring before your Excellency's kind consideration 
 regarding the Elmina, if it is included in the change. The fort 
 of that place have from time immemorial paid annual tribute to 
 my ancestors to the present time by right of arms, when we 
 conquered Tutim Gackidi, King of Denkara. Tutim Gackidi 
 having purchased goods to the amount of nine thousand pounds 
 (9,000) from the Dutch, and not paying for them before we 
 conquered Tutim Gackidi, the Dutch demanded of my father, 
 Osai Tutu I., for the payment, who (Osai Tutu) paid it full the 
 nine thousand pounds (9,000), and the Dutch delivered 
 Elmina to him as his own, and from that time tribute has 
 been paid to us to this present time. I hope, therefore, your 
 Excellency will not include Elmina in the change, for it is 
 mine by right." 
 
 Subsequently, the Dutch Government opened 
 negotiations with the King of Ashanti through an 
 agent, who succeeded in eliciting a letter of with- 
 drawal from the King from his former position. 
 
 Accordingly, we read on page 59 of this work : " On 
 the 1st of September, 1871, only a few days after 
 his positive renunciation of the claim to rights over 
 Elmina, as already stated, the King of Ashanti had 
 written making several complaints to Mr. Salmon, who 
 was now administering the Gold Coast Government." 
 
 1 " Fanti and Ashanti," p. 48.
 
 156 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 The King was informed that the affair as regards 
 the Elminas was a Dutch affair, and that until peace 
 was made, the King could not be allowed access to 
 Elmina 'through the Protectorate. Mr. Salmon then 
 proposed peace and arbitration, the preliminary 
 condition being that certain German and French 
 captives were to be sent back. 
 
 After some delay on the part of the King of 
 Ashanti, Mr. Salmon decided to close the road to 
 Ashanti traders. On this point the following obser- 
 vation occurs on page 62 : "I fear it cannot be 
 doubted that this step, however righteous the motive 
 which prompted it, would scarcely be viewed by the 
 King of Ashanti as another proof of friendship.'* 
 And on page 70 a letter written by the captive mis- 
 sionaries is quoted in which they state : " The 
 shutting of the roads they consider, as we yesterday 
 could understand, as a declaration of war." 
 
 In an official despatch, quoted on page 73, the 
 then Fanti King of Abra, in the Gold Coast, reported 
 on the causes of the invasion as follows : 
 
 " I respectfully beg leave to bring to your notice that the causes 
 and purposes of these inroads of the Ashantis are the cession of 
 the Elmina Fort, and the Elminas having become British 
 subjects ; because (from what we have repeatedly heard) the 
 King of Ashanti says, that from the time immemorial his 
 ancestors ate and drank at Elmina, i.e., he gets all his wants 
 from there, and that the fort is theirs ; therefore he will come 
 and take it by force of arms. The chief of Anamaboe also 
 agreed with me in this statement."
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 157 
 
 Now, it will have become abundantly clear that 
 from the year 1853 to 1873 the people of the Gold 
 Coast Protectorate, as snch, had in no way been 
 concerned in the transactions which brought about 
 friction with the Ashantis ; and that the immediate 
 cause of the war of 1873 and 1874 was the transfer 
 of territories between the English and the Dutch. 
 The expeditions of Sir Francis Scott and Sir James 
 Wilcocks are within recent memory, and require no 
 explanation as to their being entirely Government 
 affairs in pursuance of a given Government policy. 
 When we come, therefore, to determine the status of 
 the Gold Coast and the true nature of her relations 
 with Great Britain, it will be with the conviction 
 that, whatever the motives be which have prompted 
 British policy with respect to Ashanti in the past, 
 such policy can possibly have no bearing upon the 
 legal status of the Gold Coast.
 
 158 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 THE STATUS or THE GOLD COAST. 
 
 4. BEARING OF TREATY RELATIONS AND ACTS OF 
 PARLIAMENT UPON THE BRITISH POSITION ON THE 
 GOLD COAST. 
 
 The nature and limits of the King of England's 
 jurisdiction in the Gold Coast having been seen in the 
 foregoing examination of evidence, it may be asked 
 whether there are not in existence any treaties be- 
 tween His Majesty's Government and the Gold Coast, 
 denning the position of His Majesty's Government. 
 
 Captains Brackenbury and Huyshe in their able 
 work assure us that "the Treaty of 1831, con- 
 strued together with the unsigned treaty of 1827 
 and the Bond of 1844, formed, up to 1852, the only 
 documents which denned the position of the British 
 Government, Ashanti and the Fanti tribes." 1 Let 
 me, therefore, for a moment, collect together what 
 evidence there is regarding this treaty of 1831. 
 
 On page 42 of the Report of the Select Committee, 
 Colonel Ord is asked the question : " Can you state 
 to the Committee summarily the main points in the 
 Treaty of 1831, which is now the ruling treaty 
 
 1 " Fanti and Ashanti," p. 19.
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 159 
 
 between the British Government and the King of 
 Ashanti?" To which he replies: "It was agreed 
 between the King of England and the King of 
 Ashanti and the chiefs of what is now the protected 
 territory, that in order to prevent quarrels in future 
 and for the protection of lawful commerce, the ports 
 should be open to all persons engaged in lawful 
 traffic, and any person molesting them in any way 
 should be liable to punishment." 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that this was a tripartite 
 agreement in which the main object was the en- 
 couragement of lawful trade, and the protection of 
 traders. Later on Colonel Ord tells us that the 
 Treaty of 1831 and the " Terms " of 1827, being the 
 unsigned treaty before referred to, must be con- 
 strued as one document. I am, therefore, saved 
 the task of examining intimately the " Terms " 
 of 1827. 
 
 I must now deal with the Bond of 1844, which, 
 for convenience of reference, I have had printed in 
 the Appendix to this work. It refers to power and 
 jurisdiction having been exercised within divers 
 places and countries adjacent to Her Majesty's Forts 
 and Settlements, and acknowledges the same on the 
 part of the signatories ; declares human sacrifices 
 and other barbarous customs contrary to law ; and 
 provides for the trial of offences by the Queen's 
 judicial officers and the chiefs of the districts,
 
 160 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 " moulding the customs of the country to the general 
 principles of the English law." 
 
 Now, a careful reading of this Bond makes it 
 clearly evident that its main object was to enable 
 Her Majesty to exercise jurisdiction in suppressing 
 heinous offences committed within districts adjacent 
 to the forts. In the exercise of such jurisdiction, 
 the Queen's judicial officers were to act conjointly 
 with the Chiefs of the districts. 
 
 The Bond had no reference to territorial acquisi- 
 tion ; it did not extend the Queen's Possessions 
 beyond their former limits. In brief, such juris- 
 diction as it conferred was restricted to criminal 
 matters. 
 
 But Colonel Orel refers to a fresh engagement that 
 was entered into in 1852. I will quote his own 
 words. Says he: "In the year 1852 a fresh engage- 
 ment was entered into by the Governor of the Gold 
 Coast at a general meeting of the chiefs and headmen 
 of the towns and districts in the Gold Coast under 
 British protection ; and it was resolved that this 
 meeting constituted itself into a legislative assembly 
 with power to enact laws for the better government 
 of those countries. And in the third paragraph of 
 this document (the Poll Tax Ordnance) it is stated : 
 * The legislative assembly, having taken into con- 
 sideration the advantages which the chiefs and 
 natives derive from the protection afforded them by
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 161 
 
 Her Majesty's Government, consider it reasonable 
 that the natives should contribute to the support of 
 the Government.' "* 
 
 In the next paragraph he is asked the pregnant 
 question, " In what sense is this agreement a legal 
 Ordinance ? " To which he replies : "It was made 
 so probably to give it additional validity." 
 
 We have an idea as to how the Natives regarded 
 these several transactions in the answer of Colonel 
 Orel on page 43, where he says : " The support which 
 the tribes may be disposed to give to the British 
 Government will generally be found to depend on 
 the feelings they entertain for the local administra- 
 tion at the time." Further on, he is asked: "Is 
 the general understanding of the native tribes the 
 same now as that which I see was given in evidence 
 in 1842, namely, that they understand the forts to 
 belong to the English and the country to belong to 
 them?" To which he replies : " That is the general 
 understanding, although it appears at Cape Coast the 
 local government has exercised from time to time 
 within the last forty-five years a power of granting to 
 persons portions of unappropriated lands in the 
 town of Cape Coast, and this right is now acknow- 
 ledged by the chiefs ; but they object to its being 
 understood to carry with it any right to exercise 
 jurisdiction." As to this, on the authority of 
 
 1 See p. 52 of the Report. 
 G.C. 11
 
 162 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 Captains Brackenbury and Huyshe, we learn that in 
 1865 Aggery, the King of Cape Coast, claimed juris- 
 diction upon ground actually within a few yards of 
 the forts, and, upon Governor Pine resisting the 
 claim, the King became insolent and offensive, and 
 the Governor refused to recognise him as King. 1 
 Thus, the student of history will see that the practice 
 of refusing to recognise native Kings as Kings by an 
 authority practically deriving its existence from such 
 Kings is nothing new. The only question is what 
 effect such brutum fnlmen has upon the position of the 
 King not so recognised. 
 
 Next follows the pregnant questions : " Are there 
 towns around the forts?" Answer: " There are." 
 " And is the same right claimed by the British 
 Government over these towns?" Ansiver : "No! 
 nor has it been exercised." 
 
 On page 53 Colonel Ord is again asked: "You 
 have said that there is no definition of our boundaries 
 at all on the Gold Coast. I suppose that all those 
 protected states know perfectly well their own 
 boundaries ? " "I imagine," he replied, " that the 
 natives know their own boundaries perfectly, but we 
 have so little acquaintance with the interior that we 
 are in ignorance on these points." Again he is 
 asked : " But still the native tribes know distinctly 
 their own boundaries?" "No doubt they do, as 
 
 1 " Fanti and Ashanti," p. 34.
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 168 
 
 they attach considerable importance to that point." 
 He is then asked : " Is it not a fact that by certain 
 Colonial Office instructions it is understood that the 
 British territory reaches to the extent of a gun 
 range round all the forts?" Answer: " It has 
 been so said, but those instructions have not been 
 acted upon." Of course, it takes two to make a 
 bargain. 
 
 A reference has been made in the foregoing 
 examination of evidence on the question of treaty 
 relations between His Majesty's Government and 
 this country to the imposition of a poll tax, and it 
 may be said to carry with it an acknowledgment on 
 the part of this country of a distinct jurisdiction. 
 I will, therefore, go a little into the evidence on 
 this point. 
 
 The question is asked on page 44 : " The poll tax 
 which was the first attempt at direct taxation by 
 Lord Grey appears to have rapidly fallen off, and 
 I believe has finally ceased ? " " Yes, since 1861." 
 " Has not Governor Pine recently attempted the 
 imposition of a similar tax, though not a poll tax ? " 
 Answer: "An Ordinance has been recently passed 
 by the local government, which has not yet been 
 confirmed by the Government at home, prohibiting 
 the sale of wines or spirits, wholesale or retail, until 
 a license has been taken out." " Was the oppo- 
 sition to this license on the ground that the natives 
 
 112
 
 164 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 considered themselves, as not being subjects, free 
 from taxation?" Answer: "The natives at first 
 made great objections on the plea that its operation 
 extended to a distance of two miles inland from the 
 sea-board in fact, over a country in which we had 
 no right to impose taxation." The earnest student 
 will seek in vain for evidence that the right to tax 
 the people of the Protectorate has since been acquired 
 by His Majesty's Government. 
 
 On page 47 we have a further light thrown upon 
 the engagement of 1852. Colonel Ord is asked : 
 "Of course the imposition of such a tax tends, as far 
 as it goes, to convert our protectorate into a direct 
 dominion ? ' ' Answer : "As originally devised, it does 
 not appear that this was intended ; he [the Governor] 
 called the chiefs together, and constituted with them 
 a Legislative Assembly which should enact laws for 
 the government of the country. This was the origin 
 of the poll tax, and if any tax on the people be ever 
 carried out, I conceive that it can only be effected 
 in that manner, namely, with the consent and the 
 direct co-operation of the chiefs themselves." 
 
 You have the solution of the problem of the difficulty 
 of Gold Coast Administration indirectly in this important 
 answer. Legislation, to be effectual, must be with the 
 Chiefs in a representative legislative assembly. Any 
 important measure affecting the people must be jw.s.svv/ 
 with " the consent and the direct co-operation of the
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 165 
 
 Chiefs themselves." If the policy of the Government 
 had been based upon this sound principle, there ivould be 
 no need to-day for this ivork. What the country requires^ 
 and requires most urgently, to-day, is a national assembly 
 wherein all sections of the community will be adequately 
 represented. 'Hint is the fundamental element of progress 
 the reform at which all right-thinking men must 
 directly aim. 
 
 This important principle is fully recognised by 
 Lord Stanley, Colonial Secretary, in his letter to 
 Lieutenant-Governor Hill on the "Assessor's Juris- 
 diction," dated at Downing Street, November 22nd, 
 1844, which is published by Mr. Sarbah, with 
 other official documents, in the appendix to " Fanti 
 Customary Laws," and which, for convenience sake, 
 with his kind permission, I have reproduced in this 
 work. The particular letter runs thus : 
 
 " You will bear in mind that the power of the assessor in his 
 judicial capacity is not derived from either the Acts of Parlia- 
 ment above referred to or from the order in Council. ... It 
 must be founded on the assent and concurrence of the sovereign 
 power of the state within which it is exercised, either expressed, 
 as in the case of the Treaty transmitted by you in your private 
 and confidential despatch of the 6th of March last, or implied 
 from long usage, as in the case of the long and general acquies- 
 cence, which can be shown in many districts, in the authority 
 hitherto exercised by Mr. Maclean." 
 
 His lordship here fully recognises the sovereign 
 power inherent in each of the Native States which 
 must be invoked in sanction of the exercise of
 
 166 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. iv. 
 
 the power of the Judicial Assessor. It is interesting 
 to note how, in the course of years, the admitted 
 "sovereign power of the state" comes to dwindle 
 in the "eyes of the British Government. Con- 
 veniently, it is forgotten the necessity of " assent 
 and concurrence " on the part of the " sovereign 
 power of the state" even in legislative acts, affect- 
 ing such " sovereign power." Gradually, the 
 native Authorities come to be regarded as having 
 no recognised jurisdiction save such as is guaranteed 
 them by the British Government ; and you have 
 introduced a "Native Jurisdiction Ordinance" with 
 ambiguous clauses, which make it possible for the 
 British Authorities to remove a native sovereign 
 from his stool. Such are the sweets of British 
 protection ! Where this kind of thing will end, 
 surely, the Native can see for himself. He does not 
 require his " credulity to be played upon " ; for he 
 has long ago discovered that when the white man 
 puts in the thin end of the wedge, you never know 
 how far it may go " Brofn woijc amangaydua" 
 
 But, after all, what are the odds ? We have no 
 quarrel with the goal of British policy, but with 
 the methods adopted in attaining that goal. For 
 I take it that no British Minister would willingly 
 go against the spirit of fair play shown in much of 
 the evidence I have examined in this chapter. We 
 quarrel with the methods of British policy, because,
 
 CHAP. iv. THE STATUS OF THE GOLD COAST. 167 
 
 we know, they are conceived in feebleness, and 
 without reference to the facts. 
 
 From my long experience of the people of this 
 country, from my intimate acquaintance with their 
 grievances and wants, I can conscientiously say that 
 there is no Native of the country who would not 
 vote for the supremacy of British authority on the 
 Gold Coast, if put to the choice between Great 
 Britain and any other European power. But though 
 he would gladly see the consolidation of British 
 power in the country, he must emphatically protest 
 against the ignoring of his well-tried institutions, 
 and any attempt to deal with him as belonging to 
 a people of no past. 
 
 Whatever authority, by usage, Great Britain may 
 be able to exercise in these parts, we naturally 
 expect will be exercised with fairness, and in full 
 recognition of the historical facts relating to British 
 relations with the Gold Coast. Having come to 
 the people as Friends and Protectors, is it too much 
 to ask that they might be protected, not so much 
 from outside attack, as from those internal, insidious 
 assaults which leave their ramparts bare and their 
 institutions crumbling in the dust ?
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LANDMAKKS.
 
 " And it is our further will and pleasure that you do to the 
 utmost of your power promote religion and education among 
 the native inhabitants of our said forts and settlements and 
 their dependencies, and of the lands thereto adjoining, and 
 that you do especially take care to protect them in their 
 persons, and in the free enjoyment of their possessions, and 
 that you do by all lawful means prevent and restrain all 
 violence and injustice, which may in any manner be practised 
 or attempted against them, and that you take such measures 
 as may appear to you to be necessary for their conversion to 
 the Christian Faith, and for their advancement in civilisa- 
 tion." The Queen's Instructions to Governor Stephen John 
 Hill, 1857.
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 171 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LANDMARKS. 
 
 1. EARLY POLITICAL MOVEMENTS AND THE RISE AND 
 PROGRESS OF JOURNALISM. 
 
 A MORE splendid victory in the annals of Gold 
 Coast Constitutional History could not have been 
 scored than that which marked the labours of the 
 Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society 
 in the fall of 1898. Early in that year, the Society 
 had despatched to England a deputation consisting 
 of the President, the late Mr. Jacob Wilson Sey, and 
 Messrs. T. F. E. Jones and George Hughes, two other 
 prominent members of the executive committee of 
 the Society. The members of the Deputation were 
 received at Downing Street on Friday, the 5th day 
 of August, 1898, by the Right Hon. Joseph 
 Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary, when they were 
 introduced by Mr. E. F. Hunt (Messrs. Ashurst, 
 Morris, Crisp & Co.), Mr. Corrie Grant, barrister-at- 
 law, also being present to represent the Deputation. 
 Mr. Chamberlain was supported by Lord Selborne, 
 Mr. Wingfield, Mr. Atrobus, and the Hon. J. 
 Cochrane, M.P.
 
 172 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 At this historic meeting the discussion had par- 
 ticular reference to the land legislation of 1897. 
 In the "Lands Bill" of that year, the Gold Coast 
 legislature had practically enunciated the proposition 
 that Her Majesty's Government had the right to 
 administer the lands of the country as public lands. 
 The principle involved in the proposition, as might 
 naturally have been expected, was stoutly opposed 
 by the whole country, but particularly so by the 
 Kings and Chiefs of the Western Province thereof, 
 who sent their representatives to London to enter 
 a protest against it. In the result, the Colonial 
 Office withdrew from the position of having the 
 right to administer the lands of the Gold Coast as 
 public lands. As I have said elsewhere, the logic 
 of facts was too strong for the Colonial Office. 
 
 But how came this sudden outburst of patriotism 
 and political spirit on the part of the people of 
 the Western Province at a critical juncture in the 
 history of the country ? If you wish to understand 
 the political movement of 1897 and 1898, you must 
 at the least go back twenty-seven years in the 
 political history of the Gold Coast. 
 
 In the early seventies of the last century, and 
 before the expedition under Lord Wolseley (then Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley) against Calicali, King of Ashanti, 
 the policy of the Government in native affairs 
 was at times of a most vacillating nature. The
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 173 
 
 "solvent influence" of British administration was 
 already fast disorganising native rule and authority, 
 and making the people of the Gold Coast less able 
 to cope with external foes. The native Kings and 
 Chiefs were alive to what the dog-in-the-manger 
 policy pursued by the British Government would 
 mean to their institutions in the near future ; and, 
 stirred by a patriotic impulse, they formed them- 
 selves into a confederation, historically known as 
 the " Fanti Confederation," and drew up the 
 " Mankessim Constitution," which was intended to 
 form the basis of one general government for all 
 Fantiland in a States Union. King Ghartey of 
 Winnebah was chosen as the first President of the 
 Confederation ; but when His Excellency Charles 
 Spencer Salmon, the acting Administrator, had 
 knowledge of this movement, he promptly had some 
 of the prominent members arrested, among whom 
 were Prince Brew, J. D. Hayford, and the late 
 James F. Amissah, on a charge of " conspiracy to 
 subvert the rule of Her Majesty on the Gold Coast." 
 Considering the evidence given before the Parlia- 
 mentary Committee before referred to, it is difficult 
 to see the exact nature of the rule that Prince Brew, 
 and Messrs. Hayford, Amissah, and others were 
 charged with conspiring to subvert. However that 
 may be, it does not appear that these worthy sons 
 of the soil were ever put on their trial. They were
 
 174 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 soon released ; but the movement had received a 
 severe check. 
 
 Considering the well-known views of Mr. Charles 
 Spencer Salmon expressed in his able work, " The 
 Crown Colonies of Great Britain," a curious psycho- 
 logical question here arises. Did Mr. Salmon at the 
 time that he, in his official capacity, put a damper 
 upon the Confederation movement, feel in his 
 heart of hearts that British administration on the 
 Gold Coast was exercising a " solvent influence " 
 over native rule (which circumstance he reprobated), 
 and did he, nevertheless, because he was an official, 
 restrain the movement intended to counteract such 
 influence ? I prefer to believe that at the time of 
 the Confederation movement the matter had not 
 struck him as it did when he was penning " The 
 Crown Colonies of Great Britain." 1 If the reader 
 differs from me, then, he has a fair example of the 
 strange, and yet not strange, conflict of sentiments 
 in official circles in West Africa. 
 
 The late Mr. Fitzgerald of the African Times fame 
 warmly took up the matter of the policy of the 
 Government in suppressing the movement in the 
 able columns of his paper ; and the good seed sown 
 germinated in the following years in the free discus- 
 sion of Gold Coast political matters in local journals. 
 
 1 See " The Crown Colonies of Great Britain " (Cassell & Co., Ltd., 
 London), pp. 8992.
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMABKS. 175 
 
 One of the first newspapers of the country to 
 attract attention was the West African Herald, which 
 was edited by the gifted and lamented Charles 
 Bannerman, of Accra, lawyer, wit, and publicist. 
 It appears this remarkable man had no press, and 
 he took the extraordinary pains of first composing 
 his articles, and then making out several copies of 
 a given issue in his own handwriting. There are 
 some copies of the West African Herald in the 
 editor's handwriting extant. Other able writers, 
 hailing from the Eastern Province, of the period 
 and after, were Edmund Bannerman, younger 
 brother of Charles, and the late Kobert Hansen, 
 known among his friends in his day as the 
 " Hermit." I had the pleasure of meeting this 
 gentleman in 1893 when I was sub-editing the Gold 
 Coast Chronicle at Accra ; and seldom had I come 
 across a man with such ardent love for the welfare 
 of his fatherland. He was true as steel, and knew 
 no fear or favour when espousing the public cause. 
 
 To come back to the Western Province, young 
 Brew's political ardour was not quenched by the 
 hard knocks he had received in connection with the 
 Confederation movement. Receiving a liberal educa- 
 tion in early youth, and associating afterwards with 
 such brilliant men as George Blankson of Anamaboe, 
 (by far the cleverest man of his day from all accounts), 
 Charles Bannerman, Edmund Bannerman, and others,
 
 176 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 not to speak of a successful career at the Gold Coast 
 Bar, he developed, in the eighties of the last century, 
 into the most brilliant journalist the Gold Coast has 
 ever known. The columns of the Western Echo, 
 which he edited, were for a number of years a source 
 of inspiration to the rising youth of the country in 
 matters relating to the political enfranchisement 
 of the fatherland. I had just left school, and but 
 a youth, when I was offered the post of assistant- 
 editor on the Western Echo, with Mr. T. Laing 
 subsequently Town Clerk to the Town Council, Accra 
 as manager. They were glorious days, those days 
 of early inspiration in the offices of the Western Echo. 
 With all his ability, I never knew a humbler man 
 than Prince Brew. Never did he pass an article to 
 the head printer without first reading it aloud to us, 
 and inviting our free criticism. The "Owl" column 
 of the Western Echo is spoken of to this day. 
 Officials in high places dreaded from week to week 
 the literal vivisection carried on by the "Owl," 
 spectacled and sapient ; so cleverly and so neatly was 
 it done. Moreover, it was the Western Echo which 
 first mooted a Deputation to England to lay before 
 the British public the political evils from which the 
 Gold Coast was suffering. Under its auspices, the 
 seven companies of Cape Coast appointed educated 
 gentlemen of the community to represent them in 
 U matters between them and the Government, which
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 177 
 
 became the prototype of the Gold Coast Aborigines' )) 
 Eights Protection Society. 
 
 In 1888 the brilliant editor of the Western Echo left 
 for England, and the writer was charged with the 
 production of a new paper, the Gold Coast Echo, which 
 he edited for two years. It fell to the lot of the 
 Gold Coast Echo to expose the atrocities which were 
 perpetrated upon the Tavievies, a small tribe in the 
 Krepi district, in 1888, by the Colonial troops. 
 "No like instance," writes Mr. Fox Bourne, in 
 "Blacks and Whites in West Africa," on page 36, 
 "has since been recorded of what in a local news- 
 paper were spoken of as the ' beauties of English 
 civilisation as reflected in the Gold Coast,' " quoting 
 from the Gold Coast Echo of November 5th, 1888. 
 It was the privilege of the Gold Coast Echo to have ^ 
 espoused the right of the community of Cape Coast 
 to elect and enstool Cud jo Irnbrah as their King, with 
 or without official recognition, and to advocate a 
 scheme of municipal government for Cape Coast on 
 native lines. 
 
 The next paper which attracted public attention 
 was the Gold Coast People, which was owned and 
 edited by a native gentleman of sterling qualities, 
 who kept his identity unknown to the public, and 
 whose silence upon the matter I am bound to 
 respect. The quaint pages of Bosnian's great work 
 on the Gold Coast were reproduced in the pages of 
 
 G.C. 12
 
 178 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 the People; and it formed the medium of instruction 
 to the people in matters political for a considerable 
 length of time. 
 
 The efforts of the Eastern Province in the line 
 of journalism, meanwhile, had led to the produc- 
 C tion of the Gold Coast Chronicle and the Gold Coast 
 Independent, papers which, according to their light, 
 sought to excite interest, though in a spasmodic 
 way, in matters political in that part of the country. 
 
 I now come to the greatest effort in journalism 
 on the Gold Coast in recent times during the 
 closing years, that is to say, of the last decade of 
 the last century. I refer, of course, to the Gold 
 Coast Methodist Times, which was organised, edited, 
 and managed by that able young man, the Rev. 
 Attoh Ahuma, then in the active ministry of the 
 Wesleyan body on the Gold Coast. The paper was 
 the property of that body, and Attoh Ahuma was 
 but their servant. But the intrepid editor did not 
 think it right to confine the columns of the paper 
 to church news and religious controversy. He saw 
 no reason why the grievances of the people should 
 not be ventilated, and their temporal amelioration 
 enhanced in as far as it lay within the power of that 
 spiritual organ. 
 
 At the time the young editor thus made up his 
 mind, Governor Maxwell was preparing to bring 
 before the Legislative Council the now famous
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 179 
 
 "Lands Bill." The Gold Coast Methodist at once took 
 up the gauntlet, and fought like a veritable Achilles ; 
 and right loyally was it supported by the best intellect 
 of the land. It fought and won. It lived to report 
 the very able speeches of counsel in the Legislative 
 Council upon the second reading of the Bill. It 
 barely saw the despatch of the Deputation to Eng- 
 land ; for the Wesleyan Synod had suddenly 
 awakened to a sense of an alleged incongruity in c 
 the discussion of political issues in a spiritual 
 organ, and with the awakening Ahuma gave up 
 the editorship, and the paper died from sheer 
 inanition. 
 
 Closely connected, but in another way, with the 
 political movement from 1886 to 1898 were Messrs. 
 J. P. Brown and J. W. de Graft Johnson of Cape 
 Coast. In every upward movement in a given 
 community there are always one or two ardent 
 souls to whom it is given to lead or to inspire. It 
 was pre-eminently the work of these two gentlemen 
 to infuse life and vigour into the clustering units 
 of patriotic sons of the soil. Honour to whom 
 honour is due. It is only fair that I should hand 
 the names of Messrs. Brown and Johnson down 
 to posterity. Mr. Brown, as I write, has attained " 
 the proud position of President of the Gold Coast 
 Aborigines' Rights Protection Society, a mark of the 
 confidence reposed in him by his countrymen. 
 
 122
 
 180 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 I have given the above recital with the view of 
 placing down in a connected form for the benefit of 
 the rising generation a record of the political move- 
 ments of the most pregnant period of our national 
 history, and to impress upon our young men the 
 important part good, fearless journalism has played 
 in the political history of the country in the past, 
 and is yet likely to play in the future. 
 
 If I had not gone to the Bar, and were editing 
 a paper on the Gold Coast, I would strive to make 
 it as perfect as it could be as to literary matter, 
 get up, and finish. I would adopt a firm, bold, and 
 unswerving policy, courteous in tone and fearless in 
 criticism. In other words, that is, I should set before 
 myself a worthy objective, some material good of the 
 fatherland, and work steadily up to it. I would not 
 for support depend upon public contributions ; for 
 that would not be business. I would promote a 
 small syndicate of independent men of means with 
 i patriotic fire in their hearts, and would endeavour 
 to deserve the confidence and support of the com- 
 munity. I would assiduously inculcate the study 
 among Aborigines of vernacular literature with a 
 view to instructing them in matters political in their 
 mother tongue. I would, then, once a month, 
 ] bring out a vernacular edition of my paper in which 
 II would summarise for the bulk of the people the 
 leading thoughts in the weekly editions of the paper.
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 181 
 
 Above all things, I would study to make the people 
 feel that they had in the columns of the journal a 
 mouth-piece, and in the editor a ready friend, one 
 who sympathised with them in all their troubles and 
 who would give his very life's blood to ameliorate 
 their condition. In brief, I would say with that 
 distinguished journalist, Mr. W. T. Stead: "-Then 
 people are silent. I will be the advocate of this 
 silence. I will speak for the dumb. I will speak 
 of the small to the great, and of the feeble to the 
 strong. I will speak for all the despairing silent 
 ones. I will interpret the stammering, I will 
 interpret the grumbling, the mourning, the tumults 
 of crowds, the complaints ill-pronounced and these 
 cries of beasts that through ignorance and other -. . 
 suffering man is forced to utter. I will be the word 
 of the people. I will be the bleeding mouth whence ' 
 the gag is snatched out. I will say everything." 
 
 I venture to make a present of these thoughts to 
 enterprising journalists of the present day.
 
 182 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 LANDMARKS. 
 2. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FANTI CONFEDERATION. 
 
 The Constitution of the Fanti Confederation, 
 otherwise known as the "Mankessim Constitution," 
 deserves more than a passing notice in the political 
 annals of the Gold Coast. A careful study of the 
 provisions thereof leaves the impression upon the 
 mind how harmful, and yet how useless, it is at any 
 time for a Government to attempt to set back the 
 onward tide in the progress of a nation under its 
 protection. It is harmful, because it entails waste 
 of national energy ; it is useless, because you may 
 as well expect the spider not to weave anew its web 
 after a wanton child has destroyed it once, twice, 
 and yet again. 
 
 The preamble of the remarkable document before 
 us states that the signatory Kings and Chiefs, having 
 taken into consideration the deplorable state of 
 their peoples and subjects in the interior, and they 
 being of opinion that unity and concord among 
 themselves would conduce to their mutual well- 
 being, and promote and advance the social and 
 political condition of their peoples and subjects,
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 183 
 
 who were in a state of degradation, and without 
 the means of education and of carrying on proper 
 industry, they, the said kings and chiefs, had 
 unanimously resolved upon certain Articles following, 
 the same having been previously discussed and con- 
 sidered at meetings held at Mankessim on the 16th 
 day of October, 1871, and following days. 
 
 It will be only necessary for the purposes of this 
 sketch to deal with the leading Articles of importance 
 in the Constitution. 
 
 Articles 1, 2, and 3 deal with the due constitution 
 of the Confederation, stating that the " compact 
 body" thus formed shall be recognised under the 
 title and designation of the " Fanti Confederation." 
 
 Articles 4 7 merely deal with the election of 
 officers, and it is when we come to Article 8 that 
 we find the object of the Confederation to be : 
 
 FIRST OBJECT. " To promote friendly intercourse between 
 all the kings and chiefs of Fanti, and to unite them for offensive 
 and defensive purposes against their common enemy." 
 
 The history of this section is interesting. It 
 appears that in the Ashanti War of 1863 Her 
 Majesty's Government had suffered the full brunt 
 of the struggle to fall upon the Fantis, and Mr. 
 Richard Pine, the then Administrator, had let out 
 that he had received instructions from Her Majesty's 
 Government not to interfere with any disturbances 
 in the interior, nor in the quarrels of the King of
 
 184 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 Ashanti and the natives of the Protectorate. Subse- 
 quently Governor Ussher had also practically endorsed 
 Mr. Pine's statement. 
 
 As to this, Mr. Ussher, in a letter to the Adminis- 
 trator-in-chief on the situation, under date the 4th of 
 May, 1872, states, in paragraph 4 thereof : l 
 
 " There can be no doubt that since the termination of that 
 war, Her Majesty's Government has given the Fantis to under- 
 stand that they must in future in a great measure protect them- 
 selves under certain modifications. Doubtless Governor Pine 
 appreciated the difficulties of the future for the native tribes, 
 and was wishful to consolidate them, and put them in some kind 
 of united attitude for purposes of self-defence." 
 
 The allusion to Governor Pine in the above quota- 
 tion was intended for a commentary on a statement 
 appearing in an interesting document, being a 
 scheme 2 anent the Fanti Confederation, submitted 
 to His Excellency Mr. J. Pope Hennessy for the 
 approval of the home Government, which is in these 
 words: "Mr. Pine further informed them (the 
 kings and chiefs) that he had received instructions 
 to return to Europe, but that he was determined 
 to wait until he had formed a compact between 
 them (the kings and chiefs) before he would leave 
 Cape Coast." 
 
 It appears that, subsequently, such a compact 
 body, even before the so-called promulgation of the 
 
 1 Parliamentary Papers, 1873 (49), p. 59. 
 ' Idem, p. 5] .
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 185 
 
 famous Constitution, had come into existence, and 
 Governor Simpson had met the members thereof at 
 Mankessini, in 1869, and there recognised the Fanti 
 Confederation, the same being then designated the 
 " Fanti Confederacy." Moreover, Her Majesty's 
 Government had gone so far as to seek the assist- 
 ance of the Confederacy in the matter of the ransom 
 of certain Dutch naval officers captured by the 
 Commendas ; and King Ghartey, of Winnebah, 
 then Prince Ghartey, as President of the Confedera- 
 tion, had joined in ratifying the treaty or convention 
 entered into, by signing the same on behalf of the 
 Confederation, Governor Simpson signing for Her 
 Majesty's Government, and Governor Natglass 
 signing for the Netherlands Government. Yet 
 again, Governor Simpson had himself invited 
 Prince Ghartey and Mr. George Blank son, the 
 secretary of the Confederation, to Cape Coast, for 
 the purpose of deliberating "as to the form best 
 suited to the Confederation." 
 
 When, therefore, we come to examine the attitude 
 of the local administration upon the presentation 
 of the Constitution, it will be quite obvious that 
 section 1 of Article 8 thereof could form no ground 
 of objection. 
 
 SECOND OBJECT. " To direct the labours of the Confederation 
 towards the improvement of the country at large." 
 
 This section requires no comment.
 
 186 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 THIRD OBJECT. "To make good and substantial roads 
 throughout all the interior districts included in the Con- 
 federation." 
 
 Article 26, which, really, should be construed with 
 section 3 of Article 8, directs that the said roads 
 should be made " fifteen feet broad, with good 
 deep gutters on either side, and that the attention 
 of the Confederation be first directed to the main 
 road connecting Edgimacoe, Ayan, Ay an main, and 
 Mankessim, with the coast." 
 
 Fancy the Aborigines of the Gold Coast, thirty- 
 two years ago, thinking of the necessity of good 
 roads, fifteen feet wide, connecting the principal 
 producing districts with the sea coast ! But they 
 were not suffered by the local Administration to try 
 to open up their own country, and it so happens 
 that it is only now that, under an energetic Admini- 
 stration, there is anything like a serious attempt to 
 grapple with the question of good roads. Thus, waste, 
 absolute waste, of golden opportunity is the record of 
 a whole thirty-two years in the country's history. 
 One is inclined, therefore, to agree with Mr. Salmon, 
 speaking as a private British citizen, and not as the 
 Administrator of the Gold Coast, that progress is 
 not the keynote of the Crown Colony system. 1 
 
 FOURTH OBJECT. " To erect school-houses and establish 
 schools for the education of all children within the Confederation, 
 and to obtain the services of efficient schoolmasters." 
 1 Crown Colonies of Great Britain, p. 90.
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 187 
 
 Articles 21 to 25 must be read with section 4 of 
 Article 8, which directs the establishment of national 
 schools in Brofoo country, Abrah, Ayan, Goomowah, 
 Eckumfi, Edgimacoe, Denkira, and Assin ; the attach- 
 ment of normal schools to each national school for 
 technical instruction in carpentry, masonry, agri- 
 culture, architecture, etc. ; special provision for 
 female education, and provision for meeting the 
 expense of school building, and ensuring the 
 attendance at school of all children between the 
 ages of eight and fourteen. 
 
 What a far-reaching policy is foreshadowed in 
 the "object" under discussion! Why, it meant 
 the emergence of the country in two or three genera- 
 tions from a lower to a higher order of civilisation. It 
 meant providing the country with that incalculable 
 boon, good, intelligent mothers, to guide the growing 
 minds of their offspring. It meant well laid out towns 
 and sanitary arrangements, commensurate with an 
 advanced stage of society. It meant lastly, and most 
 important of all, the flooding of the country with 
 contented men, each sitting under his own vine and 
 fig-tree, close to Mother Earth, instead of a certain 
 class of concessionmongers and breathless specu- 
 lators on the Exchange. What a dream to be 
 frustrated by stupid officialism and red tape ! 
 
 Surely, whatever may be said against the 
 Constitution now before us, it will be admitted by all
 
 188 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 fair-minded men that its policy was an enlightened 
 one, and that it sought to do for the country what 
 His Majesty's Government have not yet showed any 
 visible signs of accomplishing. 
 
 Why, it looks like beginning afresh, does it not, 
 for the Aborigines of the Gold Coast, thirty-two 
 years after the Constitution, to inaugurate a scheme 
 of national education, somewhat after the model 
 foreshadowed in the said Constitution, which has 
 received the hearty support of the present enlightened 
 Administration ? Yes, we have to weave it all over 
 again, you see. What a waste of time, and the 
 energy of a past generation ! 
 
 FIFTH OBJECT. " To promote agricultural and industrial 
 pursuits, and to endeavour to introduce such new plants as 
 may hereafter become sources of profitable commerce to the 
 country." 
 
 It is conceivable that the Gold Coast might be a 
 cotton-producing country to-day if the Confederation 
 had been allowed to work out its constitution. 
 
 SIXTH OBJECT. " To develop and facilitate the working of 
 the mineral and other resources of the country." 
 
 The above are the modest objects of the Con- 
 federation. The remaining Articles, which the 
 reader can examine for himself in the Appendix, 
 deal mostly with the executive functions of the 
 office-bearers of the Confederation. Throughout 
 the Articles you trace in vain what could have been
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 189 
 
 the cause of offence to the local Administration 
 until you come to Article 44, where provision is 
 made for the purpose of carrying on the administra- 
 tion of the Federal Government, to pass laws, etc., 
 for the levying of such taxes as may be necessary. 
 In other words, the question as to whether any 
 native authority should be suffered to levy taxes in 
 the country was the crux of the contention between 
 the local Administration and the Confederators. 
 Innocently asked the leaders of the movement, 
 " How possibly are we to go to work at all without 
 money ? " They did not know then, as events proved 
 subsequently, that, notwithstanding all protestations 
 to the contrary, the intention of the British Govern- 
 ment was not to allow the people self-government 
 at all, but to govern the country as a Crown Colony. 
 And, of course, the Constitution went diametrically 
 against that policy. 
 
 Now, while Mr. Salmon disapproved of the move- 
 ment in toto, and cast the leaders thereof into prison, 
 it appears that his superior officers did not approve 
 of his attitude towards the Confederators. 
 
 The Administrator-in-Chief of the West African 
 Settlements, His Excellency J. Pope Hennessy, 
 under date the 15th of March, 1872, wrote to the 
 then Administrator of the Gold Coast thus : 
 
 " No doubt you will observe that Mr. Salmon's proclamation 
 disapproving, without any reservation, of the Confederacy, is
 
 190 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 in some passages at variance with the Secretary of State's 
 instructions. 
 
 " Should you find on your arrival at Cape Coast that the 
 Confederation is practically at an end, there will be no necessity 
 for doing anything further in the matter. If, however, the 
 agitation is still going on, it would be well to explain to any of 
 the leaders of the movement that you may meet, that as long 
 as they live under protection of Great Britain, the protecting 
 Government should be consulted about any new institutions 
 that may be proposed ; but, at the same time, that Her 
 Majesty's Government have no desire whatever to discourage 
 any legitimate efforts of the Fantees to establish for themselves 
 an improved form of government." 1 
 
 The instructions were based upon the directions of 
 the then Secretary of State for the Colonies, to wit, 
 Lord Kimberley, expressed in these words, in a 
 letter addressed to the Governor, Mr. Pope Hennessy r 
 bearing date the 16th of June, 1872 : 
 
 " Her Majesty's Government have no wish to discourage any 
 legitimate efforts on the part of the Fantee kings and chiefs 
 to establish for themselves an improved form of government 
 which, indeed, it is much to be desired that they should succeed 
 in doing ; but it is necessary that all parties concerned should 
 understand that as long as they live under the protection of 
 Great Britain, the protecting Government must be consulted as 
 to any new institutions which may be proposed." 2 
 
 A feature of the official correspondence herein 
 was an attempt on the part of the local Administra- 
 tion to throw suspicion on the leaders of the move- 
 ment, and to treat them more as conspirators than 
 as the natural representatives of the people. 
 
 1 Parliamentary Papers, 1873 (49), p. 43. 
 a Idem, p. 14.
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 191 
 
 His Excellency Mr. Pope Hennessy had to 
 examine matters for himself on the spot, and in his 
 despatch to the Secretary of State he remarked, 
 under date the 29th of October, 1872, as follows : 
 
 " As far as I could observe, every educated native at Cape 
 Coast sympathised with the Confederation. Mr. F. C. Grant, 
 a native gentleman, who is certainly not the inferior of any 
 European on the Gold Coast in character, ability, or mercantile 
 position, is a strong supporter of the Confederation. If Mr. 
 Ussher's judgment on their moral conduct and character were 
 sound, it would be a painful commentary on the so-called 
 Christianising and civilising effect of the Gold Coast Adminis- 
 tration. But on the contrary, my inquiries on the spot, and an 
 examination of the archives of the Local Government, convinced 
 me that the educated natives have contrasted favourably as a 
 body with the European residents. I was certainly impressed 
 favourably by their tone and manner in their several interviews 
 with me." * 
 
 There is a touch of humour in Mr. Hennessy's 
 commentary on Mr. Ussher's censure upon Mr. 
 Salmon, which reveals, in a striking manner, the 
 want of consistency in official conduct which some- 
 times prevails in local Administrations. 2 
 
 You see, Mr. Salmon had been acting as Adminis- 
 trator during Mr. Ussher's absence, and when the 
 latter gentleman returned, he had, to a certain 
 extent, followed the policy mapped out by his locum 
 tenens ; but when it subsequently transpired that 
 the Colonial Secretary disapproved of the said policy, 
 
 1 Parliamentary Papers, 1873 (49), p. 47. 
 
 2 Idem, p. 47.
 
 192 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHIP, v 
 
 he then proceeded to find fault with the same in his 
 report to Governor Pope Hennessy. Commenting 
 upon the arrest of the leaders of the Confederate's, 
 Mr. Ussher says : 
 
 " Here, however, Mr. Salmon committed errors, and grave 
 ones. He caused the messengers of the Confederation (who 
 should have been sacred) to be arrested, as well as others, on a 
 charge of treason and conspiracy. The legality of this course 
 was more than doubtful ; it was imprudent, and calculated to 
 give greater impetus to the movement. His further action in 
 the matter of the search warrants was unjustifiable and irritating ; 
 the prosecution of Fynn took a political colouring and added 
 fuel to the flame." 1 
 
 Mr. Hennessy remarks with calm judicial impar- 
 tiality upon this portion of Mr. Ussher's report 
 thus : 
 
 " As to Mr. Ussher's censure on Mr. Salmon, it is at variance 
 with the opinions he had expressed before he knew my views 
 on the subject, and it seems to be inconsistent with his own 
 proclamation and circular." 3 
 
 The reader gets here an inkling into how things 
 work sometimes in the inner circle of officialism in 
 the Crown Colony System. The man on the spot, 
 as I have shown elsewhere, often has merely to feel 
 his way in the dark, the chances being that he may 
 be censured or applauded in so far as his line of 
 conduct is successful or otherwise. 
 
 And herein lies the greatest danger of the Crown 
 
 1 Parliamentary Papers, 1873 (49), p. 59. 
 
 2 Idem, p. 47.
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 198 
 
 Colony System this groping in the dark and seeking 
 after effects inconsistent with political causes and 
 facts in the past. For ourselves, we never blame a 
 given official, or a given administration. How can 
 we ? It is the system that is at fault it is the 
 system that must be righted. But how ? Simply 
 by giving the merchants and the Aborigines of the 
 Gold Coast a voice, an effective voice, in the adminis- 
 tration of the Gold Coast and Ashanti. 
 
 G.C. 13
 
 194 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 LANDMAKKS. 
 
 3. THE DEBATE ON THE SECOND READING OF THE 
 LANDS BILL. 
 
 The "Lands Bill, 1897," was intituled "an 
 Ordinance to regulate the administration of public 
 land, and to define certain interests therein, and to 
 constitute a Concessions Court." 
 
 The able speeches delivered by counsel 1 in the 
 Legislative Council against the principle of the Bill 
 amounted to a negation of the proposition that there 
 were any public lands so-called on the Gold Coast, 
 whose administration awaited governmental regula- 
 tion. The point was emphasised, and that with 
 great clearness, that every inch of soil in the country 
 is owned by some person or other to whose stool it 
 is attached. The authorities on the matter are 
 simply overwhelming. Let me hasten to collect 
 together a few of leading importance, among others, 
 that were relied upon by learned counsel, for the 
 benefit of posterity : 
 
 His HONOUR MR. JUSTICE SMITH (acting Chief 
 Justice) : 
 
 " Land in tlie colony is distinguished under the following 
 heads stool land, private land, and family land. Under 
 1 Government Gazette, August 13th, 1897, pp. 296312.
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 195 
 
 these designations, all the land in the colony, save ivhat the 
 Government have from time to time taken for public purposes, 
 has, according to native law, an owner. 
 
 " Most carefully do the natives preserve and hand doivn all 
 traditions connected ivith the ownership of such lands, and no 
 matter hoiv small may be the plot of land, they are ahvays 
 keen in preventing any encroachment on their rights in respect 
 thereof." 
 
 THE HON. BRUCE HINDLE (Attorney-General, and 
 afterwards Chief Justice of Sierra Leone) : 
 
 "It is considered by the natives that all lands, ivhether 
 reclaimed or not, are attached to the Stools of the different Kings 
 and Chiefs, with the exception of the comparatively small por- 
 tions attached in manner hereinafter mentioned. There is no 
 land which is not or ivhich has not been so attached. In the 
 bush the boundaries are generally fixed by particular trees, by 
 natural features, such as rivers or streams." 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL SIR FRANCIS SCOTT (Inspector- 
 General of the Gold Coast Constabulary) : 
 
 " As a general rule among the real natives of the Gold Coast, 
 the tenure of land is perpetual, whether cultivated or other- 
 wise. All land on the Gold Coast is either the property of a 
 (1) tribe, (2) country, (3) town, (4) company, (5) family, or 
 (6) an individual." 
 
 W. H. ADAMS, B.A., Barrister-at-Law (District 
 Commissioner) : 
 
 " Every acre of land on the Gold Coast has an owner. 
 There is no unoccupied land. Though no boundaries may be 
 
 13-2
 
 196 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 visible to the European, they are perfectly clear to the eyes of 
 the various owners. It ivould seem as if in the remote past 
 the whole land had been vested in the various Kings each 
 stool, ivith its boundaries, forming a commomvealth." 
 
 See Government Gazette Extraordinary, dated 
 August 13, 1897, pages 298 and 299. 
 
 Other authorities are : 
 
 THE HON. J. MENSAH SARBAH, Barrister-at-Law, 
 (Member of the Legislative Council), in " Fanti 
 Customary Laws," pages 55 and 56 : 
 
 " The King, by the law of England, is the supreme lord of 
 the whole soil. Whoever, therefore, holds lands must hold 
 them mediately or immediately of him ; and while the subject 
 enjoys the usufructuary possession, the absolute and ultimate 
 dominion remains in the King (Co. Lit. 1 a). 
 
 " As far as the Gold Coast is concerned, this portion of the 
 English law does not apply, for it is a group of territories 
 under native rulers taken under British protection. It is 
 British territory, but not so by conquest or cession ; as a 
 matter of fact, the Colonial Office stated on the ll//i day of 
 March, 1887, as published in Parliamentary Blue Book of 
 that year, that it is inaccurate to state that after the successful 
 Ashanti expedition of 1874 the Protectorate ivas annexed by 
 Great Britain and became a colony, inasmuch as the greater 
 2)ortion of the Gold Coast Colony still remains a Protectorate, 
 the soil being in the hands of the natives, and under the 
 jurisdiction of the native chiefs. 
 
 " According to native ideas, there is no land without owners. 
 What is now a forest or unused land will, as years go 
 on, come under cultivation by the subjects of the stool or 
 members of the village community, or other members of the- 
 community."
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 197 
 
 His EXCELLENCY SIR WILLIAM MACGREGOR, M.D., 
 C.B., K.C.M.G. (Governor of Lagos) : 
 
 " In dealing with the natives one must never touch their 
 rights in lands, or compromise the authority of the chiefs. If 
 one wished to stir up trouble in West Africa, all one would 
 have to do would be to suggest that the land of the natives is 
 about to be taken away from them. Unfortunately, their 
 credulity in this respect is sometimes practised on." 
 
 I record the above pregnant paragraphs without 
 comment.
 
 198 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 LANDMARKS. 
 4. THE CONCESSIONS ORDINANCE. 
 
 From the foregoing authorities, and from the 
 evidence discussed, equally emphatic in law as in 
 fact, it was a foregone conclusion that the Colonial 
 Office could not upon any show of reason declare 
 the lands of the country public lands. A fortiori, 
 there could be no governmental administration of 
 the said lands. Accordingly, the mountain in labour 
 produced but the " Concessions Ordinance " of 1900. 
 
 The " Concessions Ordinance " of 1900 is the best 
 abused piece of legislation I have ever come across. 
 Capitalists and speculators alike join forces in heaping 
 invective upon it ; and some have even gone so far 
 as to charge those engaged in the arduous task of 
 dispensing the law as it stands with obstruction. 
 
 The fact of the case is, that the average European 
 knows nothing of the history of the law, and cannot 
 comprehend its underlying principles. But that the 
 facts are clear and just, and the principles in every 
 way scientific, there can be no doubt. It is idle, 
 therefore, to compare the mining laws of the Rand, 
 or the land laws of Australia, with those of the Gold
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 199 
 
 Coast. The conditions are not the same, and, there- 
 fore, yon cannot logically compare them. Gold, truly, 
 there is in the country, and plenty of it. If you 
 want to get it out, yon must accommodate yourself 
 to the situation, and go philosophically to work. 
 
 And, after all, it is not an impossible situation. 
 To get a ninety-nine years' lease, with your measure- 
 ments taken from a banket formation, is worth all the 
 trouble to which you may be put. Let us consider the 
 steps you have to take, and you will see that, after 
 all, you have been making mountains of mole-hills. 
 
 Let us assume you have dependable agents in the 
 country, who have made a proper selection of mining 
 areas for you, and you have had the same carefully 
 located, and favourably reported upon by a depend- 
 able mining expert, always remembering that 
 there are experts and experts. You ought in that 
 case, all things being equal, to be before the Con- 
 cessions Court within four months from the time 
 of obtaining execution of your leases. In taking 
 leases, you will have taken the precaution to consult 
 an experienced legal practitioner with a knowledge 
 of the country, and taken care to obtain the sanction 
 of the paramount King of the district. You may 
 note that this is strictly and technically not always 
 necessary ; for there is a difference between a sub- 
 chief having to report to his paramount King that 
 he has leased his lands, tendering the latter a portion
 
 200 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 of the proceeds as a token of his allegiance to him, 
 and the case where he must previously get the paia- 
 mount King's consent to make the transaction valid. 
 I have indicated elsewhere 1 the distinction between 
 Ownership and Pararnountcy in this connection. 
 The fine legal distinction is gradually becoming 
 accentuated, and soon the law upon the matter will 
 be settled ; but, as a working hypothesis, you may 
 take it that, for the present, it will be safe to have 
 had your leases confirmed by the paramount King. 
 
 Now you are before the Concessions Court. Pray 
 remember that it is a division of the Supreme Court, 
 and as regularly constituted as any division of the 
 High Court of Justice in England. As such, the 
 Court has rules and precedents to guide it. It does 
 not go to work haphazardly. You must not expect, 
 for example, that if in previous enquiries A. B. 
 and C. have had to pay, as a fair rent for 1,000 
 fathoms square of leasehold premises, 200 a year, 
 when you come before the Court, claiming property 
 one half larger than the last, you will escape with 
 the same rent. That will, of course, be absurd. 
 Yet, I have heard sensible men grumble at their 
 rents being raised in accordance with precedent. 
 
 Nor does it take long to get through a concession. 
 I have known able counsel get through four unopposed 
 concessions before lunch. But, remember, it is 
 
 1 See pp. 4462.
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 201 
 
 purely a matter of skill, gained by experience. It 
 is perfectly possible for an inexperienced man to 
 wreck the fortunes of a company before a morning 
 sitting is over by ill-advised questioning of witnesses. 
 
 Assuming your concession has been carefully 
 piloted through the Court, and you have a surveyor 
 ready at once to take the Court's instructions, and 
 the latter proceeds soon after to lay out the property, 
 whose area is, say, 1,000 fathoms square, you ought, 
 at the very outside, to get a certificate of validity 
 well within six months from the time of the execu- 
 tion of your lease. 
 
 But what are the leading principles of the " Con- 
 cessions Ordinance ? " In order that we may under- 
 stand one another clearly, please remember that I am 
 not writing a treatise upon the land laws of the Gold 
 Coast, or upon the " Concessions Ordinance." I am 
 only taking a flying survey of the principal parts of 
 the Ordinance, which, in my opinion, forms an 
 important landmark in the history of the institutions 
 of the country. 
 
 If you ask me, then, who may grant a concession 
 in the country, I will beg of you to remember the 
 following proposition: "All Natives, who are en- 
 titled by the Customary Law to rights in land, may 
 make valid grants." 
 
 But who are "Natives"? To answer this with 
 safety, you must go to Chief Justice Sir Brandford
 
 202 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 Griffith's criticism of the definition of the term 
 " native " upon the second reading of the Lands Bill. 1 
 
 Chief Justice: "Your Excellency, 'native' in 
 this definition does not include Mulattoes. I beg to 
 point out that many Mulattoes have equal rights 
 with the pure natives of this country, because they 
 intermarry, and their children have rights through 
 their mothers'." 
 
 In this criticism you have the whole matter in a 
 nutshell. Descent being traced through females by 
 the Customary Law, where once a person can trace 
 his or her line from a "pure native" materfamilia*, 
 he or she, no matter what his or her colour is, is a 
 native, who may make grants in land in the country. 
 In other words, that is to say, " Native " means all 
 persons of African birth who can by the Customary 
 Law make valid grants of land in the country. 
 
 What may be granted in a concession is " a right, 
 interest, or property in or over land with respect to 
 minerals, precious stones, timber, rubber or other 
 products of the soil." 
 
 Now, please remember that by a " concession " is 
 not meant the piece of ground in which you have an 
 interest : it means merely the paper writing by 
 which you acquire such right. 
 
 1 Government Gazette Extraordinary, August 18th, 1897, p. 313. 
 Compare the case of Hutton v. Kuta : " Fanti Customary Laws," 
 pp. 183 and 184. 
 
 * Concessions Ordinance, sect. 2.
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 20S 
 
 The Ordinance would seem not to be very par- 
 ticular as to the form of the concession, for the 
 interpretation clause says " any writing." Accord- 
 ingly, it was argued by counsel in the Chidda 
 Enquiry (the leading case in the Concessions Divi- 
 sion, which I reported, and which is reproduced in 
 this book by the kind courtesy of the editor of 
 West Africa l ) that it did not matter how informal 
 a document was, so long as the intention of 
 parties to grant and accept a leasehold tenure 
 appeared clearly on the face of the paper writing, it 
 would be a concession within the meaning of the 
 Ordinance. The point was not covered by the 
 judgment; but there is no doubt of an "option" 
 agreement being a concession since the law ex- 
 pressly makes it such ! ~ 
 
 However this may be, unless you are particularly 
 desirous of having the point settled at your ex- 
 pense for the benefit of posterity, you would be well 
 advised, in taking a concession, to have the same 
 drawn by an experienced man, who would be sure 
 to follow well-tested precedents. 
 
 The paper writing, whatever form it takes, must 
 be signed by the " grantor or some person duly 
 authorised bv him." 3 
 
 1 See Appendix, pp. 289310. 
 
 a Concession Ordinance, sect. 2. 
 
 3 Concession Ordinance, sect. 11, sub-sect. 1.
 
 204 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 Now, what amounts to signing under the Ordin- 
 ance ? If the grantor is an illiterate man, the 
 ordinary mark in the shape of a St. Andrew's cross 
 will do. . The name of the grantor must be written 
 by a person duly authorised thereunto in the 
 presence of the grantor, who must touch the pen 
 after his name has been written, whereupon the 
 writer makes his mark. The writer then, usually, 
 signs his name as a witness, and, as a guarantee of 
 good faith, states his address and the date of the 
 execution. 
 
 In case the grantor is unable to be present, what 
 is to be done ? He can in such a case be repre- 
 sented by some proper person, duly authorised by 
 him. The Chief will, generally, when he cannot 
 come to town for the execution of the deed, send 
 his Linguist, or Cane-bearer, with some relative or 
 other to represent him. 
 
 The next ground upon which your concession 
 may be lost is whether or not the proper persons 
 were parties to it. To find out who such proper 
 persons are requires an accurate knowledge of native 
 law. I have seen a good many concessions thrown 
 out on this score. To state the law with any clear- 
 ness would require a little book to itself. To avoid 
 confusion of ideas, the concessionaire would do well, 
 when the occasion arises, to consult an experienced 
 native practitioner.
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 205 
 
 You must see, in the next place, of course, that 
 every step taken by you in obtaining the concession 
 is above board, if you will allow me to suggest such 
 a thing. Kespectable men have before now had 
 doubts thrown upon their negotiations for leasehold 
 properties. Whatever you do, never "jump" a 
 property, whatever that means, for the chances are 
 that you will break your neck in the attempt. Pray 
 remember that in buying a concession, as in buying 
 a flock of sheep, honesty is the best policy. 
 
 Your next difficulty will be to find out what is 
 an " adequate valuable consideration." Here I can 
 enlighten you a little. You know it is a general 
 principle of the Common Law of England, as also of 
 the Customary Law of the Gold Coast, that parties to 
 a contract shall be free to settle inter se what is a 
 fair consideration, its adequacy being " for the 
 parties to consider at the time of making the agree- 
 ment, not for the Courts when it is sought to be 
 enforced." l So says the Customary Law. But the 
 " Concessions Ordinance/' says no : " There must be 
 adequate valuable consideration, regard being had to 
 the circumstances existing at the time of the conces- 
 sion." How is that ? you will ask. You will find 
 the why and the wherefore in that valuable reply 
 made to Mr. Grant in the memorable interview 
 anent the "Lands Bill" at Downing Street, when 
 
 1 Per Blackburn, J. : Bolton v. Madden, L. E. 9 Q. B. 55.
 
 206 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 the Colonial Secretary solemnly impressed the fact 
 that the Bill was an " entirely benevolent " one. 1 
 
 Yon see, in the good old days, when far-seeing 
 men were beginning to see, looming in the distance, 
 the rich mineral possibilities of the country, it was 
 nothing unusual for men having the fear of God in 
 their hearts to give as consideration to a chief for a 
 lease of a large tract of country a top hat. Now, as 
 only one man could wear this head gear, usually the 
 Chief, who kept it jealously to himself, sporting it 
 on high days and holidays, the rest of the " tribe " 
 went empty away. But the native law regards the 
 " tribe " ; and, so, a wise Government stepped in 
 and said, Henceforth there shall be " adequate valu- 
 able consideration." Therefore, you and I need not 
 chafe over the matter, or worry our heads over the 
 law's inconsistencies. 
 
 You will, of course, having taken the land, pay 
 the rents when due. Not to have done so before 
 appearing in the Concessions Court would, probably, 
 have the effect of throwing out your concession. 
 
 Then next the customary rights of the grantors to 
 the use of the demised premises as to shifting 
 cultivation, collection of firewood, etc., must have 
 been duly protected in the concession. 
 
 Lastly, you will do well to bear in mind the fact 
 that the Ordinance deals in "square miles" rather 
 
 1 See p. 224.
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 207 
 
 than in "miles square," and if yon would avoid 
 shoals and quick-sands, it would be as well if you 
 worked out the difference clearly in your own mind.. 
 I have seen deeds in which a good many intelligent 
 men have not shown an appreciation of the difference 
 here indicated. 
 
 The rest of the Ordinance deals with such matters 
 as " duties on profits," and other revenue considera- 
 tions, which are, of course, part of an " entirely 
 benevolent" paternal scheme. The scheme may or 
 may not be suggestive of the policy of killing the 
 goose which lays the golden egg. But that is not 
 my business : it may be yours, if you happen to be 
 the goose in the parable.
 
 208 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 LANDMARKS. 
 5. NATIVE JURISDICTION. 
 
 The decision in Oppon v. Ackinie forms an im- 
 portant landmark in Native Institutions. The facts 
 of the case may be briefly summarised here. 1 
 
 Ackinie, King of Akumfie, in Fanti country, had 
 brought before his Court one David Otchafoo, charged 
 with receiving bribes, the complainant being one 
 Ghartey. In accordance with custom, the accused 
 had to find a surety to guarantee his meeting the 
 award of the Court, and Oppon became the surety. 
 The accused was mulcted in costs, and his surety 
 called upon to pay. The surety refused, and the 
 King promptly had him arrested. Oppon then sued 
 the King in the District Commissioner's Court for 
 damages, judgment going against the King, with 
 costs. The King appealed from this judgment to 
 the Divisional Court, which confirmed the judgment 
 of the Court below. On the 24th of October, 1887, 
 the decision of the Divisional Court came before 
 the Full Court, consisting of their Honours Hector 
 
 1 See pp. 273 281 for a full report of the case, reproduced from 
 " Fanti Customary Laws " by the kind permission of the author.
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMAKKS. 209 
 
 Macleod, C.J., Smallman Smith, J., and Francis 
 Smith, J., when the memorable decision was given 
 affirming the judicial authority of the native Kings 
 and Chiefs. It is a judgment which will repay careful 
 perusal. It is remarkable for its breadth of view, 
 'its irresistible logic, and its freedom from outside 
 influence. 
 
 One or two paragraphs from the judgment will 
 show its scope. After discussing the bearing of 
 Quamin Fori's case upon the case before the Court, 
 the judgment proceeds : 
 
 " Without discussing whether a Governor has power to take 
 away inherent jurisdiction, and without pretending to under- 
 stand what the Full Court meant by the words ' unless those 
 powers are taken away by the Governor,' we cannot help 
 regarding the suggested line of criticism as unworthy of 
 comment. 
 
 "Had it not been for the opinion of Bailey, C.J., we would 
 have entertained no doubt upon the question which we have 
 discussed. Now that we have considered it from every possible 
 point of view, we are clear that the Supreme Court Ordinance, 
 1876, has in no way impaired the judicial powers of native 
 kings and chiefs, and, so far as we know, it has not been 
 suggested that any other Ordinance has taken them away." 
 
 Now, in the face of this important judgment of 
 the Full Court, it becomes interesting to consider 
 the effect of sect. 29 of Ordinance No. 5 of 1883, 
 being the "Native Jurisdiction Ordinance." It is 
 noteworthy that, whereas the Ordinance in ques- 
 tion merely claims "to facilitate and regulate the 
 
 G.C. 14
 
 210 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 exercise of certain powers and jurisdiction by native 
 authorities," yet, in sect. 29, it reserves to the 
 Governor in Council power to suspend or dismiss 
 Chiefs. The very words of the section are : 
 
 " The Governor in Council may suspend for a stated time, or 
 may dismiss, any chief who shall appear to him to have abused 
 his power, or be unworthy or incapable of exercising the same 
 justly, or for other sufficient reason, and thereupon such chief 
 shall be disqualified to exercise any power or jurisdiction, 
 unless and until he be expressly restored by the Governor in 
 Council." 
 
 If sect. 29 means merely that the Governor in 
 Council may suspend or dismiss a chief from 
 exercising the power "facilitated and regulated'* 
 by the Ordinance, and that upon such suspension or 
 dismissal he retains his " inherent jurisdiction,' * 
 there is no ground for controversy. But if the 
 words of the section, " shall be disqualified to 
 exercise any power or jurisdiction," can by any 
 possibility be construed to mean that upon the 
 suspension or dismissal of the chief by the Governor 
 in Council, he ceases, to all intents and purposes, to 
 be a chief, incapable of discharging the functions 
 of his stool, and practically destooled, then, indeed, 
 there is grave cause for apprehension. 
 
 This matter is so vital to Native Institutions that 
 I must ask the reader's indulgence to examine it 
 fully. For, you see, once it is conceded that the
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 211 
 
 Legislature, under the guise of " facilitating and 
 regulating" native jurisdiction not conferring it, 
 be it noted may strike at the "inherent jurisdic- 
 tion " of the native Chief, the whole fabric of native 
 government falls to pieces. 
 
 The intelligent reader who has mastered the 
 contents of the chapter on " The Status of the Gold 
 Coast" will have no difficulty in seeing that, from the 
 earliest times, the British Government have fully 
 understood that the native Chief, in his own country 
 and among his own people, has the undisputed 
 right of exercising his functions administratively 
 as well as judicially in accordance with the 
 Customary Law. 
 
 But let us see how sect. 29, construed adversely, 
 strikes at the root of this understanding. Let us 
 say the King of Akumfie has been brought under 
 the provisions of the Ordinance, and he has been 
 provided with a pair of handcuffs as a symbol of 
 authority under the Ordinance. Somehow the King 
 comes under administrative displeasure, and he is 
 adjudged to be unworthy of exercising his power, 
 " or for other sufficient reason," he is dismissed by 
 the Governor in Council, whereupon not merely does 
 he cease to be a judicial officer of Akumfie wider the 
 Ordinance, but he ceases, to all intents and purposes, 
 to be the King of Akumfie. The Administration 
 directs a new man to be enstooled. The people kick, 
 
 142
 
 212 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. v. 
 
 alleging that by the Customary Law they find no 
 fault in the King. Direction becomes insistence. 
 Through fear, the helpless people yield, and a new 
 King is enstooled. Important query : Does the dejnre 
 King lose his "inherent jurisdiction," affirmed by 
 the Full Court's decision of October 24th, 1887, and 
 does the Government nominee succeed to any juris- 
 diction other than such as is embodied in the " Native 
 Jurisdiction Ordinance " ? For, mark you, the said 
 Ordinance leaves untouched all other customary 
 rights of the native Chief. 
 
 Surely, the people of the country have the right, 
 in the election and destoolment of their Kings and 
 Chiefs, to be governed by their own Customary Laws. 
 So that, where the people see no infraction of the 
 Customary Law thereto appertaining, it would be 
 strange to say that a king ceases to be a king, if 
 "for other sufficient reason" the Governor chooses 
 to say he does not recognise him ; and stranger still 
 if the Government may obtrude upon an unwilling 
 . people its own nominee, and violate the sanctity of 
 the kingly office. 
 
 If you construe the section favourably to the 
 "inherent jurisdiction" of the native Kings and 
 Chiefs, then, of course, you remove the necessity 
 of urging upon the Legislature the importance 
 of removing from the statute-book an ambiguity 
 which is a danger and a snare to the "inherent
 
 CHAP. v. LANDMARKS. 213 
 
 jurisdiction " of the native Kings and Chiefs. 
 For, as the law now stands, a native king or chief 
 may unwarily bring himself under the Ordinance, 
 only to find afterwards that his ancient freedom and 
 "inherent jurisdiction " have been compromised.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CONFLICT OF SENTIMENTS.
 
 " The object of our policy should be to encourage in the natives the 
 exertion of those qualities which may render it possible for us more and 
 more to transfer to them the administration of all the Governments." 
 Parliamentary Committee, 1865. 
 
 " If you will not allow a nation to govern itself through its best passions,, 
 you can only govern it yourself through its worst passions." Speaker. 
 
 Of all the colonial possessions of the British Crown, the most disappointing 
 have undoubtedly been the territories and protectorates in West Africa- 
 Time out of mind great expectations have been formed of them, expeditions 
 after expeditions have been undertaken, numerous wars have been fought, 
 and all of them have been gloriously concluded, treaties have been made of 
 the most satisfactory and binding character, the despatches of Governors 
 have shown the most splendid results of an astute and far-seeing diplomacy, 
 territories have been annexed and settlements founded, and large sums have 
 been spent by the British Government in various ways ; and in the latter 
 half of the year 1885 the actual position, on the whole, looks wonderfully 
 like what it was at any previous time during the last twenty or fifty years, 
 or before. British administration in Western Africa has not been a 'success. 
 
 It must have been a failure ; the elements necessary for the most tem- 
 porary success have always been wanting. It is difficult at any time to rule 
 a country against the wish of its inhabitants ; but the West African system 
 has been, as much as possible, to rule the country as if there were no 
 inhabitants in it. They have been acknowledged to exist, it is true, in 
 treaties, in wars, and in expeditions, and they must have been supposed to 
 exist for taxing purposes ; for few, if any, other reasons have been given for 
 recent annexations except the necessities of the Custom-houses, or fear of 
 other nations placing rival Custom-houses too near them. 
 
 ******* 
 
 If British dominion in Africa should ever be of any real good to the people, 
 or of any lasting benefit to British commerce, it will only be by an entire 
 reversal of the policy so long pursued. The various settlements should be looked 
 upon only as stations or convenient outposts for opening np the interior por- 
 tions of the vast continent to the advantages of commerce and industry, 
 without which neither civilisation nor Christianity itself can make any head- 
 way in these lands. No attempt even should be made to govern the country 
 anywhere except through the selected chiefs of the people, who are open to the 
 best influences, and whom the people will implicitly obey. A noble career 
 lies before any European people whose Executive adopts this simple method of 
 dealing with a great and much-wronged race. British dominion in various 
 forms has been established in portions of this Western Coast for two centuries 
 and upwards, and there is more than enough experience to prove that white men. 
 can never inhabit it except in small numbers and at perpetual risk of life. 
 In fact the country must be ruled and governed by a native element, and 
 Great Britain can easily assist and guide it by laws and regulations the 
 fruit of ages of experience engrafted on to and merged with such existing 
 native systems and methods the people may desire to keep and to follow. 
 C. S. SALMON, Ex- Administrator of the Gold Coast, in the " Crown Colonies 
 of Great Britain," pp. 8992.
 
 CHAP. vi. THE CONFLICT OF SENTIMENTS. 217 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CONFLICT OF SENTIMENTS. 
 
 IT must strike the careful observer that the posi- 
 tion of a man in the public service of the Gold Coast 
 is often a difficult one. If such a man is honest 
 and intelligent, he cannot fail soon to discover the 
 peculiar conditions under which he is called upon to 
 discharge his duties. 
 
 The first thing that will occur to him will be the 
 dog-in-the-manger policy of the Administration, 
 whose servant he is. He will find that, theoretically, 
 the people are free, having their own laws and institu- 
 tions. He will see that the Government, apparently, 
 recognise this fact ; but that in practice he, the 
 public servant, is expected to interfere with the 
 institutions of the people as far as he dares. Neither 
 is he told to allow the natural development of the 
 institutions of the people, nor is he directed, in so 
 many words, to attempt to mould them. What he 
 does to-day, which is considered wrong by his 
 superiors, may be done to-morrow by another and 
 applauded. 
 
 It is as if the Government were not sure of their own
 
 218 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vi. 
 
 position, if the truth may be spoken. They feel the 
 force of the logic of facts against an aggressive policy, 
 and they are content to feel their way gradually, until 
 such time as such aggressive policy might boldly 
 be asserted. Hence the difficulty in which a public 
 servant finds himself. Being an honest man, if he 
 were free to follow the dictates of his conscience, he 
 would do so in the light of truth. Not being free, 
 expediency must be his guide. He must bend or break. 
 
 And the climate and the conditions of life and the 
 public service are largely responsible for this unsatis- 
 factory state of things. 
 
 In the first place, entrance into the West African 
 official life is not by competitive examination, as 
 is the case in the Indian Civil Service. Patronage 
 rules the day at Downing Street in official appoint- 
 ments to the West African Civil Service. You may 
 be a very capable man; indeed, the best qualified by 
 experience and natural ability for a particular 
 appointment. But, unless you have influence with 
 some one who has influence with the Colonial Office, 
 you are sure to be left out in the cold. That being 
 so, you naturally get a class of men who, as human 
 nature goes, would be the most obedient, humble 
 servants of the Colonial Office. That is clear. 
 
 Occasionally the service may, and does, show up 
 a strong man, who stands up for truth, regardless of 
 consequences ; but such occasions are rare, and far
 
 CHAP. vi. THE CONFLICT OF SENTIMENTS. 219 
 
 between. You may sometimes observe the phenome- 
 non of an independent man going to work on indepen- 
 dent lines. But he does so only so long as his work 
 has not attracted notice at head-quarters. It is sure 
 to do so before long, and then he must either break 
 of bend. The majority bend. The few very few 
 to their eternal honour, elect to break. And why ? 
 
 You see, when the average civil servant has suc- 
 cessfully made his way to West Africa, it does not 
 matter in what department, the present appointment 
 is regarded by him as a stepping-stone to another in 
 some better clime. It is not his fault. It is that 
 of the climate. He cannot keep a family here, and 
 so he takes the first opportunity of going away. To 
 get away to a congenial clime with a promotion, 
 or a C.M.G., is again a question of patronage. The 
 Governor has the last say in the matter. Therefore, 
 naturally, even strong men do bend in the end. It 
 is only policy a way, that is to say, to get on in life, 
 no matter whether the better part of man approves 
 or not. 
 
 If this is the case with the strong, what must it be 
 with the weak members of the West African Civil 
 Service ? They are, of course, like chaff before the 
 wind. Strangely enough, there are some Europeans 
 who regard men of the other races as necessarily 
 inferior to the European. Indeed, so weak-minded 
 are they, that they cannot, even under circumstances
 
 220 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vi. 
 
 where Nature proclaims the other man the master 
 of the situation, divest themselves of the idea of 
 superiority. On every possible occasion they try to 
 inspire a sense of this so-called superiority over their 
 coloured friends, the result being that they become 
 the freest tools in the hands of the powers that be, 
 in a policy which, in every way, conflicts with the 
 written code of official sentiment. 
 
 Are the weak in their weakness a source of strength 
 to the Government ? Indeed not. It would be revers- 
 ing the order of Nature, which makes for truth in 
 every direction, were it so. Strange as it may seem, 
 they serve Great Britain best who serve her in truth 
 and godly fear. Men like Sir David Chalmers, 
 Chief Justice Macleod, and others of like grit, who 
 looked not to promotion or official applause in the 
 manly discharge of their simple duty, are the ones 
 who dig deep the foundations of British supremacy 
 in West Africa. For, believe me, the Native of West 
 Africa has profound respect for the qualities of 
 justice and fair play. The careless observer may 
 think that the fear of British guns and Maxims has 
 hitherto kept the Gold Coast proper free from dis- 
 turbances. A greater mistake could not be made. 
 If you want to know what has hitherto been a tower 
 of strength to the British Government on the Gold 
 Coast, you will find it in the confidence which has 
 been inspired in the native mind by the Judges of the
 
 CHAP. vi. THE CONFLICT OF SENTIMENTS. 221 
 
 Supreme Court, who have been, taking them gene- 
 rally, men of singular uprightness, fairness and 
 ability, independent of bureaucratic influence. But 
 they have not worked alone. They have been sup- 
 ported by a strong and loyal Bar, a band of men in 
 whom the clients have the most implicit confidence, 
 and who generally succeed in throwing the oil of 
 peace upon the troubled waters of popular passion 
 and ferment. They help to make the administra- 
 tion of the country possible; "but the figure-heads 
 generally receive all the praise, and the lawyers all 
 the opprobrium . ' ' 
 
 You have only to suggest to a native chief, smart- 
 ing under a sense of wrong, real or imaginary, 
 that the Court will look into his case, and he will 
 patiently bide his time for months till the whole 
 matter has been thrashed out. If he is defeated, he 
 will retire with good grace from the scene of conflict, 
 and all because he has implicit confidence in both 
 Bench and Bar. What honest man is there, I ask 
 with all seriousness, who will dare to shake such 
 confidence ? It will be an evil day for the Gold 
 Coast when the native client begins to lose confi- 
 dence in either Bench or Bar. It will be but the 
 beginning of the end, with chaos and black ruin 
 attending it, of which, happily, I see no signs at 
 present. 
 
 But to consider the bane of the conflict of senti-
 
 222 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vi. 
 
 ments in West African administration in another 
 light, let me record the views of an experienced West 
 African civil servant, an ex-Colonial Secretary and 
 Administrator of the Gold Coast. He is none other 
 than Mr. Charles Spencer Salmon, who writes in 
 his able work, the "Crown Colonies of Great 
 Britain," thus : 
 
 " British intervention in Western Africa should be an unmixed 
 benefit to the people, and of immense value to British commerce ; 
 but in order to accomplish any good the presence of the people 
 must be acknowledged, and their co-operation enlisted in the work. 
 It is possible that the various settlements within the strict 
 limits of their legal boundaries may have been managed, on the 
 whole, as well as circumstances admitted, from the usual point 
 of view of Crown Colonies ; but British power and political 
 influence have never been confined to these limits in Western 
 Africa, nor have they ever pretended to be so. When a long 
 line of coast has been declared British territory by the usual 
 methods employed on such occasions, and Custom-houses and 
 revenue officials hold sway over it, all native rule is destroyed 
 for a considerable distance inland. Now it so happens that in 
 such cases a reign of murder, plunder, and general disorganisa- 
 tion ensues in these hapless lands, and no one is held respon- 
 sible. The British Administration adheres to its strict limits, or 
 to its supposed limits, under shelter of its forts and fleets, and 
 takes no heed of its solvent influence over native rule, which falls 
 to pieces by mere proximity. It is curious to note how little 
 heed is taken of the rights and claims of other and contiguous 
 people by local administrations ; and it is not too much to say 
 that almost all wars, disputes, heart-burnings and troubles on 
 the coast adjacent to the British settlements are entirely and 
 solely due to this selfish and unpardonable oversight and 
 deliberate in j ustice . " J 
 
 1 Pp. 90 and 91.
 
 CHAP. vi. THE CONFLICT OF SENTIMENTS. 223 
 
 I am responsible for the italics, but the sentiments 
 expressed in the above weighty words are wholly 
 those of ex-Administrator Mr. Charles Spencer 
 Salmon. He does not beat about the bush. The 
 meaning will be clear to all. From the list of 
 Governors supplied in Anaman's "Gold Coast Guide " 
 for 1892, it does not appear that this independent- 
 minded public servant retired from the Gold Coast 
 Civil Service with a K.C.M.G., or even a C.M.G.. 
 But that is neither here nor there. 
 
 There is only one point in the above abstract calling 
 for observation, and that is where Mr. Salmon says : 
 "But British power and political influence have 
 never been confined to these limits in Western Africa, 
 nor have they ever pretended to be so." It is just 
 possible that there has never been any doubt in the 
 mind of the British Government what the final aim 
 is in dealing with the native tribes ; but it is alto- 
 gether another question whether or no the British 
 Government have not " pretended " to the protected 
 tribes that they have no intention of interfering in 
 any way with their institutions, which, according to 
 Mr. Salmon, " fall to pieces by mere proximity" to 
 the " solvent influence " of British administration. 
 
 A typical instance of official disclaimer we find 
 in Mr. Chamberlain's reply to the "Lands Bill" 
 Deputation at Downing Street on the 5th of August, 
 1898.
 
 224 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vi. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain said : 
 
 " Now, Mr. Grant, I should like the chiefs to know what the 
 object of the Government at any rate has been in proposing any 
 legislation. The main object, almost the sole object, is to protect 
 the chiefs against the action of speculators, who in many cases 
 get hold of the land for insufficient consideration, and without 
 regard to the various interests in the land. For instance, a 
 chief sells his land for a perfectly insufficient consideration ; 
 the interests of the tribe are not considered at all in that case, 
 and the Government desires that the interests of the whole 
 population the whole of the tribe as well as of the chief and of 
 the Government should be taken into account ; that a specu- 
 lator from this country should not be able, trading upon the 
 weakness of a chief, to get his land for a mere nothing and to 
 oust from it those to whom really it in right belongs. So far, 
 therefore, the object is one entirely benevolent to the chiefs and 
 their people, and I hope that there will be no difficulty what- 
 ever in coming to an agreement as to the method by which this 
 object shall be secured." 
 
 The "Concessions Ordinance" has since been 
 passed, and the Supreme Court is busily engaged 
 casting the underlying principles thereof into 
 imperishable moulds in the way of decided cases. 
 
 But it is interesting to notice the way the " solvent 
 influence ' ' of the local Administration is operating, 
 or likely to operate, upon the revenues derived by the 
 Chiefs under the very provisions of this " entirely 
 benevolent" enactment. Section 23 of the Conces- 
 sions Ordinance (1900) as amended stands thus : 
 
 " Any rent or other periodical sum payable under any cer- 
 tified concession to any native shall be paid in the prescribed
 
 CHAP. vi. THE CONFLICT OF SENTIMENTS. 225 
 
 manner by the holder of such concession to the treasurer and 
 by the treasurer to such native, and such payment to the 
 treasurer shall be complete discharge to the person making 
 the same. Any such rent or periodical sum not paid within 
 the prescribed time may be sued for by the person entitled to 
 receive the same. In any such suit a certificate signed by the 
 treasurer as to the amount due and as to the non-payment of 
 any amount due shall be admitted without proof and shall be 
 primd facie evidence as to the amount due and as to such non- 
 payment. Any money recovered or paid in any such suit shall 
 be paid into Court and any receipt by the plaintiff shall not 
 discharge the defendant. The Court after refunding the plaintiff 
 any costs he may have been allowed shall order the residue to 
 be paid to the treasurer." 
 
 Pray, mark the last two sentences of section 23. 
 Why, in the name of all that is " entirely benevo- 
 lent," should not the native landlord under the 
 Ordinance, having recovered judgment for rents due 
 to him, be able to give a good discharge for the same ? 
 Why should he be made use of merely to pluck the 
 chestnuts out of the fire for the Colonial Treasurer ? 
 The truth is, the whole thing looks like the introduc- 
 tion of the thin end of the wedge. How far it may 
 go it is difficult to divine. 
 
 Even now it is making steady progress. Mark the 
 following winding up of a letter to the Gold Coast 
 Aborigines' Eights Protection Society, dated 18th 
 January, 1902, by the Colonial Secretary of the Gold 
 Coast : 
 
 " His Excellency considers that if the Aborigines' Bights 
 Protection Society could impress on chiefs that more profitable 
 G.C 15
 
 226 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vi. 
 
 ways of spending their money would be by the establishment 
 of schools, the promotion of agriculture, and the proper main- 
 tenance of their roads and bridges, they would be doing good 
 work for the colony and obviate the necessity for Government 
 action." 
 
 Sound advice, surely, this, if only you could calm 
 the fears of the people. You see, it might come to 
 this in plain English. The Government Treasurer 
 in an "entirely benevolent" way acts as treasurer 
 for the Chiefs of the country. The Treasurer alone 
 can give valid discharges for all revenue coming to 
 the Chiefs. The Government in an " entirely bene- 
 volent " way take " Government action," deciding 
 that in future the Chiefs shall maintain the roads 
 and bridges of the country, and, being trustees for 
 the Chiefs whose duty as wards is to obey, they 
 perforce will obey, and obey they must. It is simple 
 enough. It becomes simpler still when once you 
 emphasise the suggestion, in a plausible way, that 
 the Government have the right to depose any recal- 
 citrant Chief. It is but a specimen of the " solvent 
 influence " of British administration over native 
 rights. Unhappy Gold Coast, unless thy sons are 
 true to thee, the days of thy freedom are numbered ! 
 
 Eeally, it is time all sentiment were done away 
 with in such a practical matter as the moulding 
 of a people's destiny. It would be better for all 
 concerned to call a spade a spade, instead of this 
 nauseous play with fine words. But whether you
 
 CHAP. vi. THE CONFLICT OF SENTIMENTS. 227 
 
 openly go to work in breaking clown native Authority, 
 or you prefer to arrive at the same result by a back 
 door, mark this, that it is but an attempt to fight 
 against Nature, which has decreed that the Gold 
 Coast and Ashanti shall be only successfully adminis- 
 tered, fairly and righteously, through the sons of 
 the soil. 
 
 152
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 IMPERIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI,
 
 When politicians propose measures, the reasons they publicly 
 give for them are those only which are intended to meet 
 apprehended opposition ; the objects really aimed at are often 
 carefully hidden ; but there is no doubt it is intended that 
 Mauritius should enter the path of self-government. . . . The 
 new Constitution granted to the Mauritians is, however, evidently 
 inadequate, the bureaucratic Administration having complete 
 and practical control in all matters the very thing not 
 wanted. What the people in the Crown Colonies really want 
 is to be governed as little as possible by outsiders, to be able to 
 live on their own land without being too much worried and 
 meddled with by regulations and laws, to impose their own 
 taxes, to have good cheap food, and above all, to enjoy their 
 earnings themselves. C. S. SALMON, Ex-Administrator of the 
 Gold Coast in the Crown Colonies of Great Britain, p. 82. 
 
 Those who knew him best during his life and those who 
 have most carefully studied the voluminous records of that 
 life, one and all honestly declare themselves unable to detect 
 any flaws in a most beautiful, most noble nature. He never 
 could see that what was wrong for an individual to do was 
 right for a nation or a Government. SIB GEORGE ARTHUR 
 on " The Personality of Sir Bartle Frere " (Public Opinion, 
 October 10th, 1902). 
 
 The truth which needs recognition is that, while in Christian 
 countries the value of a private conscience is recognised as an 
 essential to individual honour, no high standard of public con- 
 science has ever yet been set up. The Christian Commonwealth, 
 April 2, 1903.
 
 CHAP. vii. IMPERIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHAXTI. 231 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IMPERIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 
 BUILDING THE EMPIRE. 
 
 WERE there such a thing as Political Ethics, or 
 a pretence or semblance thereof among Christian 
 nations, as there is a semblance of some sort of 
 Christianity in so-called Christian countries, it might 
 be permissible to enquire how far the conduct of 
 Christian nations in relation to aboriginal races, 
 sometimes charitably called subject races, conformed 
 to the Christian standard of morality. 
 
 That different principles prevail in the life of 
 nations is evident from the trend of modern history. 
 Men ask, with apparent seriousness, " Who is my 
 neighbour? " and when they receive the answer in 
 the words of the Gospel, they immediately retort, 
 " Am I my brother's keeper ? " 
 
 But since, in the nature of things, there should 
 be, if there is not, such a thing as Political Ethics, 
 let me examine some of the fundamental ideas
 
 232 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vn. 
 
 in this connection as they appear to an aboriginal 
 mind in the first instance. 
 
 Let me premise that almost the first elemeni 
 which confronts the aboriginal mind, as it emerges 
 from its primitive conceptions of things, and stands 
 face to face with the forces of European civilisation, 
 is the Christian propaganda. It is a favourite prac- 
 tice with European nations to precede the Flag with 
 the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The missionary points 
 to the present influence of the Christ life in mould- 
 ing the life and character of the individual. He 
 points to the cardinal lessons of truth, love, and 
 brotherhood as proclaimed by that Gospel, which 
 accord with the higher impulses of the Native, and 
 command his ready respect and obedience. More- 
 over, the missionary hopes to prepare the way for 
 civic life by specifically teaching the doctrines of 
 the Ten Commandments. He particularly lays stress 
 on the sixth, "Thou shalt not steal," which, in his 
 view, becomes the groundwork of after respect for pro- 
 perty rights on the part of the Native. What a deal 
 of trouble, he fancies, the Flag would have afterwards, 
 if this particular doctrine was not well rubbed in ! 
 
 And so, in course of time, the Flag makes its 
 appearance, and with it boldly the merchant and 
 the tradesman, who before were merely sneaking 
 round the corner. 
 
 Presently, the standard of truth held up to the
 
 CHAP. vii. IMPERIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 233 
 
 aboriginal mind receives a rude shock. The 
 methods of the merchant and the tradesman are 
 not always above board ; and when the Native begins 
 to adulterate his oil in retaliation for adulterated 
 spirits, the Flag promptly legislates against the 
 Native's dishonesty, which thing is not fair. Cun- 
 ning for cunning, dishonesty for dishonesty surely 
 that is fair play. But it sounds like striking below the 
 belt, where I may endure my neighbour's dishonesty, 
 but he not mine, which thing is not an allegory. 
 
 The early stage of the acquaintanceship between 
 the Flag and the Aborigines is in the nature of what 
 is euphemistically called a protectorate. Now, the 
 term "protectorate" connotes the dependence of a 
 weaker upon a stronger. And as the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ, which, we shall say, in the first instance, 
 was in good faith taught the Aborigines, insists upon 
 the full brotherhood of the human race and the 
 Native, you must grant, whether you like it or not, 
 is a member of that race a protectorate, surely, 
 must mean the dependence of a weaker upon a 
 stronger brother. But here, again, facts falsify 
 first impressions. The very missionary who preaches 
 the gospel of universal brotherhood seems to scout 
 the idea of the black man, cultured or uncultured, 
 being on the same plane of life as himself. He 
 beholds the Aborigines afar off, and believes in the 
 Native being kept in his place. He merely intends
 
 234 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vn. 
 
 to raise him a wee bit higher in order that he may 
 be useful to his white brother by more intelligently 
 hewing his wood and drawing his water, which the 
 latter is too good to do for himself. This is the 
 black man's burden. In all honesty, let the reader 
 ask himself the plain question, When, in history, 
 has the Caucasian approached the Negro, or the 
 Mongolian the black, the yellow, or the brown man 
 in the spirit of full brotherhood, in the spirit in 
 which the Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us one race 
 should approach another not because of its markets 
 and rich natural products, but simply to raise up 
 the race to the measure of true manhood and true 
 freedom enjoyed by the Caucasian ? 
 
 Talking of markets and rich natural products, 
 there is hardly a European Power which will not 
 fight its way to the possession of spheres of influ- 
 ence which are reputed rich in gold and diamonds, 
 particularly if the country belongs to an aboriginal 
 race that cannot work the maxim or the Long Tom. 
 The cry of gold calls up the spirit of strife. The 
 love of gold dissipates the love of man ; for is not 
 the love of gold the root of all evil ? Ah ! if it were 
 not for the something which the Aborigines have 
 which the white man wants, but cannot get other- 
 wise than, if need be, by breaking the sixth and 
 eighth Commandments at one spell, how dearly 
 would the white man love his brethren the Aborigines
 
 CHAP. vn. IMPEEIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 235 
 
 of the waste places of the earth ? Such surely 
 is a wrong feeling ! But Jesus Christ sought to 
 change all that, and you say you are His followers, 
 you Christian nations of the earth. 
 
 Really, it is about time in the earth's history 
 that the swords were heaten into ploughshares. 
 But, if strife there must he, then we beg of you, the 
 mighty ones of the earth, to turn your armaments 
 upon yourselves. Pray, give us peace ; save us from 
 internal dissensions and turmoil ; grant that we 
 may live under our own vine and fig trees in the 
 portion of the earth where Providence has placed us. 
 
 2. 
 
 Surely, we can look to England for a certain 
 amount of fair play. The history of your relations 
 with weaker races is not altogether such as to fill us 
 with despair, or to make us think that you will go 
 the way of all flesh. We believe and hope that 
 when the crooked has been made straight to your 
 moral line of vision, you will stand corrected. We 
 see and appreciate the huge efforts that you are 
 making to reconcile the forces which make for 
 national gain, as against the forces that make for the 
 pure advancement and progress of the Aborigines; 
 but we do not fail to notice at the same time your 
 shortcomings so far. We notice, with aching 
 hearts, for example, that, in your haste to fill the
 
 236 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vn. 
 
 colonial exchequer, little regard is paid to what will 
 work for the material advancement of the Aborigines, 
 whose mites help mostly to fill those coffers, forgetful 
 that the greatest good of the greatest number is the 
 keynote of a healthy administration. 
 
 Again, we see what efforts you are making in 
 constituting the country into districts, and consoli- 
 dating your authority and rule ; but we also see that 
 you must fail in the end ; for you have gone the 
 wrong way to work. We see, for instance, that in 
 Ashanti and elsewhere you are building upon the 
 sand and not upon the rock, and presently the rains 
 will descend and sweep the entire structure away. It 
 is bound to come, if I am right in thinking that the 
 destinies of nations are regulated with mathematical 
 exactitude by a Power unseen. 
 
 If you earnestly sought the material advancement 
 of the people, you would remove obstacles from their 
 line of progress. What part have they in the govern- 
 ment of their own country ? To whom do the big 
 appointments and the big salaries go ? To their 
 white brethren, of course. Why ? Because they 
 are competent, and the Natives are not ? Time 
 and again the Native does the hard work, and the 
 European draws the hard cash. When the European 
 does the work, it happens sometimes that he gains 
 experience from the Native. He comes to know the 
 work after a bit, and then there comes the rub. Of
 
 CHAP. vii. IMPEEIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 237 
 
 course, clown goes the ladder by which he had 
 climbed. This is brotherly love with a vengeance ! 
 We know we have only to point out these things 
 and England will remedy them. 
 
 Again, take the labour question. It is dear to the 
 heart of the European. Herein he shows his love 
 for his black brother beyond all question. The 
 black man fully understands that he has been 
 expressly created by kind Providence to provide 
 labour in the black man's country for the European. 
 And do it he must. There are no two ways about 
 it. If he does not obey the instincts of nature, he 
 will be driven, if needs be, into labour compounds, 
 and made to work, as the Israelites of old were 
 made to work for their masters. He understands 
 this so thoroughly, and it does not matter to the 
 task-master if, in the process, he, the Native, loses 
 all touch with the former habits of his ancestors, 
 which made them contented men and women, when 
 they stuck to the soil and caressingly coaxed from 
 it what Mother Earth gave up liberally in response. 
 It does not matter if, in the process, he exchanges 
 all the finer manly qualities, which agriculture 
 fosters, for the common-place dram-drinking, the 
 cursing and the devilment of the mining camp. 
 It does not matter to some that the best manhood 
 of the country is being drained for this sort of work, 
 while the ancient farms lie neglected and unattended
 
 238 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vn. 
 
 to, and food gets scarce, and yet more scarce, in some 
 districts. Gold ! gold ! gold! that is what the white 
 man wants ; and gold he must have at any price. 
 
 Then there are some charitable people who suggest 
 that if you cannot get the black man to work, and 
 if you may not drive him into labour compounds, 
 you must import the Chinaman. John Chinaman 
 is John Bull's last hope. But have you never heard 
 of the late Governor Maxwell's Chinaman, who 
 declared that the Gold Coast was neither " fit " for 
 a white man, nor a black man, nor a Chinaman, 
 nor yet for a dog ? He was a bit wrong though. 
 The Gold Coast is, and will always be, "fit" for the 
 Gold Coast man. So has God ordained it. Long 
 after the members of your mining companies, with 
 their huge speculations on the Stock Exchange, will 
 have ceased to speculate in things temporal, and 
 the cedar and the odum, the cotton and the didx'u 
 trees will have reared their majestic heights to 
 heaven where now stands the noisy mining camp, 
 the Gold Coast Native will still be quietly toiling 
 in the yam and corn-fields of his ancestors, grateful 
 at last to have the opportunity of working out his 
 own salvation. It may be that your very Govern- 
 ment may grow sick and weary of bearing the white 
 man's burden, when a just Providence indicates 
 what that burden really means, and may give up 
 the business in disgust.
 
 CHAP. vii. IMPEKIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 239 
 
 History may here, indeed, repeat itself. Have 
 you not heard of Roman Catholic monasteries, with 
 beautiful frescoes and paintings, crumbling to dust 
 in the heart of Africa ? Go along the coast, from 
 Assinee to the Volta River, and mark how many 
 are the castles and fortresses, emblems of European 
 greed, that are now the habitations of owls and bats, 
 as a native wit once put it. Instead of castles 
 to-day, you build bungalows, those structures which 
 take a few weeks to put up, and which, again, you 
 can pull down, take, and carry away at will. Yes, 
 we know fully well, our good Friends and Protectors, 
 that if, on the morrow, you found the game was not 
 worth the candle, you would close up business 
 altogether, no matter what became of the black man 
 or the black man's country. To you it may be a 
 light thing. To us it will be incalculable loss loss 
 in the sense that we shall have to begin it all over 
 again with, or without, your distorted version of the 
 Gospel of love, truth, and universal brotherhood. 
 
 3. 
 
 Therefore, we say to you, we have a right to be 
 heard in this matter, and we beg of you calmly to 
 hear us. We ask you to apply a little common 
 sense and practical statesmanship to the situation. 
 Take the case of your own national evolution. It is 
 a matter of history that, at the beginning of the
 
 240 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vn. 
 
 Christian era, you were worse, off than we are 
 to-day ; greater darkness brooded over your in- 
 tellectual horizon. By the absorption of Grecian 
 and Roman culture and the science of Eastern 
 worlds, you gradually emerged from darkness into 
 light, and were able to develop what was natural 
 and innate in you, and to, in time, contribute your 
 quota to the world's work. In a word, given the 
 conditions of development, you developed on your 
 own lines, until you became the great nation you 
 are to-day. 
 
 Surely, then, the first condition of the proper 
 development of the peoples of the Gold Coast and 
 Ashanti is the possession of knowledge in its fullest 
 sense, that educational element which will draw out 
 all the best qualities innate in the Gold Coast and 
 Ashanti Native, preparing and making him ready to 
 contribute to life's work. Remember, after all, that 
 the Aborigines of the Gold Coast and of Ashanti, as 
 Tennyson has it, are "the heirs of all the ages"; 
 and who knows but that there may be higher things 
 destined for their achievement than you can conceive 
 of ? But the responsibility rests primarily with you, 
 and if you do not discharge it, Providence will raise 
 others up to do the work. Assuming, then, that 
 you have stretched out your hands in true brotherly 
 fashion to the Native of the Gold Coast and Ashanti, 
 not over a palm-oil cask, or a piece of elephant's
 
 CHAP. vii. IMPERIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 241 
 
 tusk, but over the heart of Jesus Christ, thrilling 
 your very being with true brotherly love and 
 sympathy, and filled the land with schools and 
 colleges, seminaries and seats of learning and 
 culture, what is your next duty in the building up of 
 the Empire ? 
 
 It is plain and simple ; but before grappling with 
 it, you will take care that the spirit of pettiness 
 does not creep in. You are now going to allow the 
 free development of Native Institutions in a healthy 
 atmosphere. You have before you the task of 
 building up Imperial Gold Coast and Ashanti, as a 
 basis for Imperial West Africa. 
 
 Your first stumbling-block will be the treatment 
 of Ashanti. Shall the Ashantis be treated as a 
 conquered people, or as friends and allies ? This 
 will be the question of questions, the test of true 
 statesmanship. To answer this question, you must 
 find out what you want to do. Now, you aim at 
 nothing less than the fusion of the Fantis and 
 the Ashantis into one people. Remember that by 
 language, traditions, customs, and laws, they are 
 practically one people. Remember that they are 
 cousins, and that in remote times they lived together 
 in brotherly unity and concord at Takiman, until one 
 day they quarrelled and split. Remember, too, that 
 the present difference in the characters of the two 
 peoples, really one, is due to your own unwholesome 
 
 G.C. 16
 
 242 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vn. 
 
 influence over the Fantis. Therefore, it is the most 
 natural suggestion that the two peoples should be 
 merged into one ; and it will be easier for you to 
 entertain this suggestion, when you consider that 
 the chastisement of Ashanti was really due to a 
 mistake. 
 
 Surely, this is a sound proposition. You will find 
 it so if you turn to history. For a century and 
 a quarter, at the least, Nature has been preparing 
 the way for this very consummation. The Fantis 
 having settled on the littoral and established trade 
 relations with the Europeans, the Ashantis did not 
 see why they should be precluded from participating 
 in the gains. Gradually the Ashantis worked their 
 way to the coast, and diplomatic quarrels ensued, 
 with the result that the King of Ashanti was, in 
 the end, able to claim a right to the "notes" for 
 rents in respect of some of the forts on the coast, 
 thus establishing direct trade relations with Europe. 
 That was his only ambition, his only sin. Said he 
 in substance : " Elmina is my factory ; I acquired it 
 by force of arms, and established trade relations with 
 the Dutch. Now, the Dutch are going to give up my 
 factory to the English, and my people must hence- 
 forth deal through Fanti middlemen, which thing 
 must not be." Hence the Calcalli war of 1873 and 
 1874, and the sequence of events culminating in the 
 ruining of Ashanti trade with the Gold Coast. Soon
 
 CHAP. viz. IMPERIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 243 
 
 after the war, the Ashantis began to trade directly 
 with Assinee ; and it is a question of time whether 
 the English, or the French and German, will 
 ultimately capture the hinterland trade. 
 
 The obtuseness in certain respects of the British 
 Administration, since Governor Maclean's death, has 
 been something amazing. That far-seeing man saw 
 through it all, and framed his policy accordingly. 
 He understood that the business of the Administra- 
 tion was not that of unduly interfering with the 
 internal affairs of the protected people, and, there- 
 fore, sought to consolidate and strengthen Native 
 Authority. What is more, he perceived that Eng- 
 land's true interest in the Gold Coast was to make 
 it an open market through which the trade of the 
 hinterland might pass freely. Therefore, without over- 
 estimating his authority or his strength, by concilia- 
 tion and moral persuasion he encouraged the Ashantis 
 to come down freely to the open market of the Gold 
 Coast, guaranteeing them safety by prevailing on 
 the Fantis to be on their good behaviour. 
 
 In his mental vista, he beheld a prosperous Gold 
 Coast, with Ashanti, as a great emporium of trade, 
 interchanging with and pouring into the lap of the 
 Gold Coast the rich resources and products of that 
 now blasted land. He encouraged and was in- 
 strumental in the training in England of the Princes 
 Quantamissa and Osoo Ansah to be the medium of 
 
 162
 
 244 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vir. 
 
 intelligent influence in the hinterland ; and who, 
 having the slightest acquaintance with Gold Coast 
 history, can say that the late Prince Osoo Ansah did 
 not do -his best to bring about a permanent friendly 
 understanding, in his day, between Ashanti and the 
 Gold Coast ? It was a policy full of common sense 
 and practical statesmanship. It was the work of 
 the Colonial Office, in recent years, to have struck 
 at Governor Maclean's work, root and branch, by 
 attempting to discredit, but without success, the 
 sons of the late Prince Ansah in the eyes of their 
 countrymen and the British public, 
 
 A different policy was that of Sir Charles Macarthy, 
 another British Governor, who flourished, as far as 
 the Gold Coast is concerned, in the first quarter of 
 the nineteenth century. He also saw in the distance, 
 but saw differently. He was deeply conscious of the 
 power of England a power which, he considered, 
 no subject race could withstand ; and he was im- 
 patient of what seemed an impediment in the way 
 of England's aggrandisement in these parts. If he 
 / could only pierce into the interior, what untold 
 treasures would not be open to England to gather 
 in ? In this spirit, he, the faithful servant of the 
 Crown, went forth with the drawn sword breaking 
 down the power of the Chiefs, and subduing all 
 before it. Impatient of obstacles, he was also im- 
 patient of counsel as to the best way to overcome
 
 CHAP. vii. IMPERIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 245 
 
 such obstacles. Accordingly, he went forth in the 
 faith and in the strength of the conqueror, seeking 
 new territories which should own allegiance to Great 
 Britain through his prowess. He considered the 
 kingdom of Ashanti a barrier to British commerce 
 and enterprise piercing the interior, and he fondly 
 wished to see that barrier down. He tried to break 
 through, and died in the attempt. To-day, a first- 
 rate Colonial Minister, persistently pursuing that 
 policy, has brought down that barrier, only to behold 
 beyond, if the truth may be told, a land of dreams 
 and disappointments. 
 
 4. 
 
 It is about time to pause and think. And the 
 thinking must be done by the British nation. The 
 matter must be reasoned out calmly and deliberately ; 
 and if there be fifty men in Israel who have the 
 interest of the Aborigines at heart, the right course 
 will certainly be taken, and the right thing done. 
 Which is it to be ? Will the British nation sanction 
 a policy which will tend more and more to alienate 
 the Ashantis, and drive them into the bosom of the 
 French or German, or will it pursue a conciliatory 
 policy ? Will the nation consent to the utter 
 destruction of all national spirit from the life of the 
 Ashantis, or will it foster the spirit of self-respect 
 and national development on natural lines ? Will
 
 246 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vn. 
 
 Great Britain forget that Ashanti is a conquered 
 country, and will the conqueror be benevolent and 
 reckon the Ashantis, as their cousins the Fantis 
 are reckoned, as the friends and allies of His Majesty 
 King Edward VII. ? 
 
 Will the nation quietly look on while an agrarian 
 grievance is engendered in the breast of the Ashantis, 
 or will the lands be restored to their legitimate 
 owners, gradually assimilating the land laws of the 
 Gold Coast and of Ashanti ? Please note that you 
 are deciding the fate of a nation, a people with grit 
 and backbone, of men and women richly endowed 
 by nature with intellects and instincts which make 
 for organised government of a high order. You are 
 deciding also, let me entreat you to remember, the fate 
 of Imperial West Africa. Yes, Imperial West Africa 
 that shall be. Nature has decreed that it shall be, 
 but not in your way not with the sword, or the 
 Maxim, or by coercion in any shape or form. The 
 thing will be done with the free will and consent of 
 all the peoples of West Africa upon native lines ; 
 and in all this the Gold Coast and Ashanti will 
 lead the way, because their sons are richly endowed by 
 Nature with the qualities for leadership and guidance. 
 
 If you believe me that the Gold Coast and Ashanti 
 will lead the way in what will prove the grandest 
 conception of the twentieth century grandest 
 because Ethiopia will have at length raised up her
 
 CHAP. vii. IMPERIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 247 
 
 hand unto God, allow me to indicate what sort of 
 an empire this shall be, and on what lines it shall 
 work. You will allow, as a working hypothesis, 
 that all the other races of mankind have had their 
 day, and that the black man is about to have his 
 day. The common Father of the human race is 
 bringing it about that the white man shall warmly 
 shake the hand of his fellow black man in true 
 brotherly grip. There will be fraternity without 
 hypocrisy, intercourse without compunction, and the 
 question of colour will be a trifle, because there will be 
 equality of intellect and oneness in aim and purpose. 
 
 The black man, you know, has had no chance in 
 America. How could he ? The environment has 
 been dead against him, and, though emancipated, 
 he remains in many respects a bondman. The 
 American white would like to get rid of the American 
 black, but he cannot. It is the law of compensation. 
 It is like the law-breaker trying to shake off from 
 his memory the image of his victim, and the circum- 
 stances attending his wrong act. How can he ? 
 No more can white America. This is Nemesis 
 indeed the sins of the fathers upon the third and 
 fourth generation. Nor is it much different in the 
 case of Hayti, or Liberia, or even Sierra Leone. 
 The nightmare lingers, only in a different form. 
 
 But out here, in the primeval forests of the Gold 
 Coast and of Ashanti, with a simple faith in God, the
 
 248 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vn. 
 
 Aborigines may be trusted to work out for them- 
 selves a civilisation whose fruits shall abide and 
 influence sister communities, because they will be 
 the fruite of peace and good- will among men. 
 
 How do I know that ? I know this, that out here 
 we shall not have the cry of the working-man for 
 the comforts of life which his next-door neighbour 
 enjoys. We shall have no question of the housing 
 of the poor, or an eight hours a day labour trouble. 
 Whoever heard on the Gold Coast or in Ashanti of 
 a native who had no home, or not enough to eat, or 
 more work to do than was physically good for him ? 
 Why, such cannot happen in the nature of things 
 out there. The founders of the African State System 
 were men of wisdom and forethought. They cut 
 the Gordian knot of social unrest in the distant 
 future at a stroke. They ordained that the interests 
 of the members of a family should be identical. 
 They evenly balanced the interests of the peoples of 
 a given community, so that, when swords should 
 have been beaten into plough-shares in the new 
 civilisation, there would be truly peace and good- 
 will among men. 
 
 Therefore do I hold that, while the social systems 
 of the old civilisation will be torn asunder by com- 
 munism and socialism, the new civilisation will 
 enjoy rest and quietness, for the foundations of 
 society are here based upon a rock, and that rock
 
 CHAP. vn. IMPERIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 249 
 
 is the native law of Inheritance. We have no poor 
 laws out here. Every man or woman you meet 
 claims connection with some family or other. And 
 the members of a family share the fortunes or mis- 
 fortunes of each other. Hence it is that we have 
 no excessively rich men or the excessively poor. Talk 
 of the dead upheaval of the lower classes ! Here all 
 members of a family are equal, and yet there is 
 one above all, namely, the head of the family. To 
 him the members of the family pay patriarchal 
 honours. While there prevails this equality, there 
 is yet scope for individual effort, success, and dis- 
 tinction. We have, in the family system of the 
 Fantis and Ashantis, the panacea for all the ills of 
 the socialism of the present day. 
 
 5. 
 
 To return to the argument : when you have two 
 peoples so nearly related as to be, in fact, one 
 people, welded together by a common language, 
 by common customs, common laws, common aims, 
 hopes, and aspirations, it is madness to try and 
 keep them separate. It is like trying to keep away 
 the sun from kissing the sea on an African summer 
 day. The only question is, who will work this 
 fusion and bring about this long-wished-for union ? 
 It is obvious that the foreign intermeddler is an 
 utterly hopeless individual for this task. He has
 
 250 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vn. 
 
 neither the requisite knowledge, nor the patience 
 and coolness necessary for the great consummation. 
 It must be the work of the educated Native, if the 
 British Government will trust him to do it. On 
 what lines will he proceed ? He will take the 
 Native State System as he finds it, and develop and 
 improve it on aboriginal lines, and on scientific 
 principles. 
 
 Let me indicate how harmoniously this System 
 works, how free from internal strifes and heart- 
 burnings. We have seen, in the earlier chapters of 
 this book, that every individual of a given community 
 is, by distinct stages in the working of the body 
 politic, connected with the central State, and, in a 
 measure, shares in the government thereof. To 
 accentuate the proposition, let me summarise here 
 briefly how the System works. 
 
 Every Native of the Gold Coast or Ashanti is a 
 member of a family. He sinks or swims by the 
 fortunes of the family. There is a community of 
 interest among the members of such family, who, 
 as a rule, trace their ancestry from a common mater - 
 familias. The male members of such family regard 
 the children of their sisters with peculiar feelings 
 of kinship. In former times, in a case of pecuniary 
 difficulties, the nephew or niece would willingly go 
 into servitude to relieve the uncle, who invariably 
 redeemed his kith and kin at the first opportunity.
 
 CHAP. vii. IMPEEIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 251 
 
 The relationship existing between an uncle and a 
 nephew or a niece is tersely expressed by the phrase, 
 na dzi yinati, meaning, "he is his all in all." You 
 have here the bed rock basis of the Native State 
 System. Let us proceed a step higher in the order 
 of development. 
 
 Now, a given community, it may be a village 
 community or a township, consists of individual 
 families, whose heads represent such individual 
 families in the Village or Town Council. So that 
 you have here an elective system which is at once 
 natural, and commands the confidence of the 
 electors. In large townships you will have the 
 different wards (being, for convenience sake, the 
 different sections into which the community is 
 divided), consisting of a given number of families, 
 such wards having the right to elect their most 
 intelligent and influential members into the Town 
 Council. The heads of the families are known as 
 Panins, or Elders, and the head of the ward is the 
 Head Panin, or Chief Elder. To him all the members 
 of the ward pay the greatest homage and respect. 
 
 But how came families to be congregated together 
 thus into wards, or into given sections, of the town- 
 ship ? If you examine the matter carefully, you 
 will find that the original members of the ward are 
 members of the same tribe ; for it is a thing 
 practised to this day that when a stranger enters a
 
 252 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vii. 
 
 village or a township, and desires to become a 
 member of the community, he finds out where the 
 members of his tribe live, and would invariably live 
 among them, rather than dwell with a different tribe. 
 
 Now, since a man belongs to his father's Com- 
 pany, and his father generally lives with the mem- 
 bers of his family, it does, indeed, happen that the 
 sons of the male members of a given ward join 
 themselves to such ward. We have thus the 
 beginnings of the Arsafu, or Company System, the 
 word Arsafu being a corruption of Insefu, meaning 
 friends, and by extension friends in arms. A son, 
 in early life, lives with his father, and, naturally, 
 the friends of his youth would be the youth of 
 his father's ward, and he would, therefore, as he 
 grew to manhood, associate himself in arms with 
 the friends of his father's ward, who together would 
 form an Arsafu, or Company. The principal Pan ins 
 of the ward and the principal Captains of the Arsafu 
 would be entitled to represent the ward at the 
 Council meetings of the township. 
 
 We come next to the Civil Chiefs who form part of 
 the Town Council. These generally represent the 
 aristocracy of the township, in most cases their 
 ancestors having first settled in the country with 
 the ancestor of the King or Head-Chief. Then 
 comes the Linguist, who, as I have shown in an 
 earlier chapter, is the Spokesman of the King.
 
 CHAP. vii. IMPERIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 253 
 
 We have thus in the Council of an aboriginal 
 township, analytically, first the King, then the 
 Tufuhin, then the Civil Chiefs in their order of 
 importance, then the Captains according to their 
 rank, then the Linguists, then the Panins of the 
 several wards. 
 
 We have seen that a Village Council is . only a 
 miniature Town Council. Even so is the Town 
 Council but a miniature District Council, the latter 
 being but a miniature of a Provincial Council, which 
 again is a miniature of a State Council, the great 
 Parliament of the people. 
 
 Now, to elucidate the foregoing, take for example 
 the township of Agambra, whose stool is under that 
 of the district of Princes, whose stool is under that 
 of the province of Axim, whose stool is under that 
 of the State of Ahanta. Imagine for a moment, 
 then, that there is a big political issue affecting the 
 whole State of Ahanta to be discussed. Notice by 
 gong-gong would be given in every village community 
 and township throughout the entire State. The 
 Panins and Captains of the wards of a township, who 
 would be joined by the Panins of the village com- 
 munities, would discuss the matter and arrive at a 
 conclusion among themselves. They would next 
 appoint the most intelligent of their number with 
 a Linguist to represent them at the Council of the 
 district, where also the matter would be discussed a
 
 254 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vn. 
 
 second time, and a decision come to. Next, each 
 district would send its representatives with the Head 
 Linguists to the Provincial Council. Lastly, the 
 several Head-Chiefs of the provinces would attend 
 the State Council in great state, with their several 
 principal Councillors and Linguists, where the King 
 paramount would sit in solemn conclave with his 
 vassals, and finally dispose of the matter, such 
 plebiscite, of course, binding the entire State. It is 
 a beautiful system, this wheel within wheel, which 
 brings satisfaction to the minds of the adult 
 members of the entire State, when any matter 
 affecting their vital interests happens to be under 
 discussion. When you add to this the further 
 consideration of the almost communistic method of 
 holding property, you have a perfect system, which, 
 properly developed and worked, would usher in a 
 new civilisation, the like of which the world has 
 probably never seen. 
 
 Now imagine, if you can, the Gold Coast and 
 Ashanti flooded with knowledge and culture of the 
 best order, and the several States of the two 
 countries federated together in one Union with the 
 same laws, the same customs, the same hopes, and 
 the same aspirations; working under conditions 
 and amid environments peculiar to themselves as 
 unto a peculiar people. Imagine, if you can, all 
 flying the Union Jack, not by coercion in any shape
 
 CHAP. vii. IMPERIAL GOLD COAST AND ASHANTI. 255 
 
 or form, but by free choice, as becomes a free 
 people. Think of them developing the natural 
 resources of the land a rich legacy bequeathed 
 unto them by kind Providence and pouring into 
 the lap of Britannia gold, myrrh, and frankincense, 
 the swords for ever beaten into plough -shares as 
 far as the Gold Coast and Ashanti are concerned. 
 Imagine what all this would mean ! You may call 
 it a picture of Utopia. I call it a picture of the 
 new civilisation that is to be, when a portion of 
 down-trodden Ethiopia will have at length raised 
 up her hand unto God. 
 
 It is bound to come. The world is moving fast, 
 and the Gold Coast and Ashanti with it. Will 
 British capital, energy, and intelligence do it, or 
 will the millionaire from the other side of the 
 Atlantic, in these days of combines, come along 
 and sweep the stakes ? In any event, the country 
 must move with the times, and we do not intend 
 to stand still.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 WRECKING THE EMPIRE. 
 
 G.C. 
 
 17
 
 ... In one breath Europe declares that African customs, all 
 based on the assumption of slavery, are so wicked as to justify 
 all wars of aggression upon the natives. In another, Europe 
 declares that the African cannot be left free. ... It is hard to 
 resist the conclusion that in Sierra Leone, in Ashanti, and now 
 in Hausaland, war has been brought on by pursuing a high- 
 handed policy of very doubtful justice, and the result of these 
 wars is not merely to confiscate the independence of a people, 
 but to abolish the institutions, the customs, the laws and the 
 rights which the people has created for itself. What is common 
 to our notions and to theirs, the principle that a bargain must 
 be adhered to, that a friend should not hurt a friend, we dis- 
 regard. What we do not understand in their rules of life we 
 abolish, and we lay upon them rules of life that they do not 
 understand. STEPHEN GWYNN, Fortnightly Eevieiv, March, 
 1903, p. 457.
 
 CHAP. viii. WRECKING THE EMPIRE. 259 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 WRECKING THE EMPIRE. 
 1. 
 
 WE have seen the true way in which it is sug- 
 gested Imperial West Africa, with federal Fanti and 
 Ashanti as a basis, may be solidly built up. Let us 
 now see how the powers that be set to work steadily 
 to make this ideal impossible of realisation. 
 
 We have seen also that at the Head of the Native 
 State stands prominently the King, who represents 
 to his people what a civilised monarch does to his 
 subjects. His person is sacred to them, and so is 
 his stool. Any affront to the majesty of the King 
 is an affront to the sovereignty of the people. Any 
 attempt to break up the kingly office and the tradi- 
 tions surrounding it, is an attempt to destroy the 
 nationality of the people. Any restraint upon the 
 liberty of the King is a restraint, for the time being, 
 upon the freedom of the nation. The King means 
 this and much more to the State System of Fanti 
 and Ashanti. Moreover, every successful attempt 
 on the part of the Authorities, in ignorance possibly, 
 to set a minor chief against the authority of his 
 
 172
 
 260 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vm. 
 
 paramount King, or, again, to partition a native 
 state, is a deadly blow struck at the very root of 
 the fundamental idea of the Native State System. 
 
 But our rulers do not appear to trouble much, if 
 at all, to study Native Institutions ; and so we find 
 that in the year 1896 Cudjoe Imbrah, King of Cape 
 Coast, was actually put in prison, his hair clipped, 
 and made to don prison clothes, in connection with 
 the " Compulsory Labour Ordinance, 1895." This 
 imprisonment and the gross indignity consequent 
 thereupon were preliminary to his paying a fine of 
 one hundred pounds. I appeared subsequently for 
 the King in the Appeal Court, and succeeded in 
 getting the conviction quashed and the fine re- 
 mitted. 1 But what of the indignity ? I am not 
 aware that Her Majesty's Government even offered 
 the King an apology upon the reversal of the 
 judgment of the Court below. 
 
 Now, who is Cudjoe Imbrah, and what sort of a 
 community is that of Cape Coast ? By common 
 consent, Cape Coast is the leading town of the Gold 
 Coast. It contains within its walls the best intelli- 
 gence of the country. It is the political centre of 
 all the interior provinces. Thither the native Kings 
 are wont to send their big Linguists on important 
 occasions to consult with their intelligent "sons" and 
 
 1 Begina on the prosecution of D. A. Donovan v. Cudjoe 
 on appeal. Coram Eedwar, J. 17th Feb., 1897. See pp. 281288.
 
 CHAP. vin. WRECKING THE EMPIRE. 261 
 
 chosen representatives, to wit, the members of the 
 Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society. 
 It is, moreover, a commercial centre of no mean 
 order. Before the Ashanti trade was practically 
 ruined by unnecessary expeditions, Cape Coast was 
 the great port for all the interior trade. Here 
 stands Gothic House, as representing the glory of 
 private mercantile enterprise, and here stands Cape 
 Coast Castle, the harbour of the foreign kidnapper 
 in pre-abolition days. As such, the King of Cape 
 Coast must be a comparatively important person. 
 
 See, for a moment, how Cudjoe Irnbrah was chosen 
 King of Cape Coast. At the time I was editing the 
 Gold Coast Echo, and I remember the facts so clearly. 
 Kweku Atta, the immediate predecessor of Cudjoe 
 Imbrah, had died, and for some time there had been 
 no King of Cape Coast. When a Deputation of 
 the representatives of the Companies and the com- 
 munity generally, including the educated people, 
 waited upon the future King, he said : "I am not 
 anxious to be your King. I am satisfied with my 
 present position of a ' gold taker.' Leave me alone 
 in peace." But the Deputation insisted upon his 
 accepting the office. They said, " We must have 
 a King, and you being the rightful heir, you cannot 
 well refuse." They pressed him and gave him no 
 rest until he consented to be their King. The 
 Administration of the late Governor Griffith
 
 262 GOLD -COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vnr. 
 
 attempted to interfere in -his election, but the 
 people simply ignored Governmental interference, 
 and Cudjoe Imbrah was put upon the stool of his 
 ancestors, to reign King of Cape Coast. 
 
 It may seem to you, decent civilised reader, that 
 this was a retrograde step. You may even have 
 on your lips the enquiry : " Can the leopard change 
 its spots?" Here was a set of educated Natives 
 clamouring with their illiterate brethren for an 
 illiterate King, when they had the good White Queen 
 for their Queen, and the good Governor as her 
 representative ! Can anything be done with such a 
 people ? No, I grant you nothing can be done with 
 these people, unless and until you condescend to 
 study Nature. The people yearned for a King as an 
 orphan child yearns for a lost parent. It was the 
 sentiment of nationality which prevailed. They are 
 a people yet. They could breathe freely when once 
 they had Cudjoe Imbrah upon his ancestral stool. 
 
 But the wreckers of empire come along, and this 
 self-same Cudjoe Imbrah, over whose enstoolment 
 sensible men had shown such enthusiasm and such 
 national spirit, and they coolly clap him in gaol. 
 Nay, worse, the King is treated as a common felon ! 
 Heavens ! What was there to have prevented the 
 people rising up as one man to avenge the insult to 
 a crowned head ? But this that wise counsel 
 prevailed, the same wise counsel which is steadily
 
 CHAP. vin. WRECKING THE EMPIRE. 263 
 
 carving the happy destiny of the Fanti as the 
 predominant partner in the coming Imperial West 
 Africa. 
 
 But what had Cud joe Imbrah to do with the 
 " Compulsory Labour Ordinance " ? Nothing at all, 
 if you please. The Government having objected to 
 his enstoolment, and having done all they could 
 to place obstacles in the way, and to weaken his 
 influence, suddenly woke up to the fact, after his 
 enstoolment, that there was a King in Cape Coast, 
 who could find labour for the Government, while 
 the Government could not find labour for them- 
 selves. And, so, they approached him. Said he, 
 in substance, "By your own act, I have not that 
 control over my people now that my ancestors had ; 
 give me time, and I will try and find you the 
 labourers that you want." But, no, the Authorities 
 must have the men on a certain day, and by a 
 certain hour. He fails ; a writ issues ; he is 
 tried, convicted, and imprisoned. Worse still, he 
 suffers ignominy unparalleled in the history of the 
 country, and he is saved from a heavy pecuniary 
 loss by technical points raised by his counsel. Such 
 is British statesmanship. Such is British common- 
 sense. This is the way Great Britain wrecks the 
 chances of Imperialism in West Africa.
 
 264 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vm. 
 
 2. 
 
 Or, again, take the case of King Prempeh of 
 Ashanti, now pining away his days in exile. I will 
 take tKe Times for my guidance as to what policy 
 should have guided Downing Street in the matter of 
 war with Ashanti. It is true that policy is some 
 thirty-nine years old. But still it was the policy of 
 the Times all the same, and the Times is a very great 
 authority as you know. I will indulge in a quota- 
 tion. Mr. Fox Bourne, of the Aborigines' Protection 
 Society, has made the matter easy by placing that 
 policy on record on page 22 of his pamphlet, Blacks 
 and Whites in West Africa. Referring to Governor 
 Pine's threatened war with Ashanti in 1864, which 
 did not come off, the Times asked, "What good can 
 come out of that ? If we capture Kumasi, a couple 
 of English regiments will be needed to hold it. If 
 we destroy it, we destroy at once the commercial 
 value of Cape Coast. It would likewise be the 
 grossest political blunder to undermine the power 
 and authority of the King of Ashanti. . . . Instead 
 of harbouring culprits against his Crown, instead 
 of disregarding the treaties between himself and 
 us, instead of trying to sap the foundations of his 
 throne, we should strive to cultivate acquaintance 
 with him by the tranquil arts of peace." Wiser 
 words were never penned. I wonder if the Editor
 
 CHAP. vm. WRECKING THE EMPIRE. 265 
 
 of the Times ever looks up his back files ? Perhaps 
 he does. But I am not sure whether there was the 
 same statesmanlike appeal to British common-sense 
 in subsequent mischievous expeditions as was the 
 case in 1864. 
 
 Now, I have pointed out before that the war 
 of 1873 1874 was mainly due to the transfer of 
 Elmina by the Dutch to the English, and the 
 latter failing to treat with respect and consideration 
 the claims of the King of Ashanti to suzerainty. 
 In the result, Lord Wolseley succeeded in capturing 
 Kumasi,whereupon the Authorities promptly inflicted 
 an indemnity of 50,000 ounces of gold upon the 
 Ashantis. Then Mensa succeeded to the stool; and 
 when he was followed by Prempeh, the Authorities 
 stoutly maintained that he was only King of Kumasi, 
 and not of all Ashanti. That was true only in so 
 far as there were at the time internal disturbances 
 in the kingdom. But mark official perversity. In 
 the expedition of Major-General Scott, the non- 
 payment of the war indemnity was made a cause 
 of Prempeh 's degradation and transportation. The 
 Authorities, that is to say, saddled the sins of 
 omission of all Ashanti upon Prempeh, whose claim 
 to the sovereignty of all Ashanti they had previously 
 denied. It may be British justice ; but it certainly 
 does not appeal to the sense of justice of the 
 untutored Ashanti now roaming in the wilds of the
 
 266 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vm. 
 
 back country, an outcast from his former home. 
 This is, again, another way in which is wrecked the 
 hope of empire in West Africa. 
 
 Let us take up another theme altogether. Now 
 it is not a matter of policy, but the way in which is 
 carried on the business of government. You know 
 when Governor Hodgson was unfortunately locked 
 up with Lady Hodgson in Kumasi fort, and popular 
 imagination was active in that, if the good lady 
 came out, the Governor never would alive, both 
 civilians and officials were loud in their condem- 
 nation of the good Governor. He was freely charged 
 with folly, and a member of Council eased his 
 conscience by the simple remark: " You know he 
 never asked any of us if it was safe to go." The 
 circumstance revealed in the clearest light how 
 very badly the Gold Coast is governed. 
 
 We have seen how beautifully arranged is the 
 system of aboriginal representative government, 
 which practically gives the franchise to every adult 
 member of the community in the National Assembly, 
 presided over by the paramount King. When the 
 Native recalls to mind his own System, the way he 
 is at present governed, and the suggestion on the 
 part of the British Government that they are train- 
 ing him up for self-government, he knows that such 
 a suggestion is not sincere, and that his national 
 spirit and independence are being dwarfed the
 
 CHAP. vni. WRECKING THE EMPIEE. 267 
 
 whole time, which, surely, is another way of 
 wrecking the empire. 
 
 But the Native is sure of his destiny, and, there- 
 fore, calls loudly for reform. He did so in 1898 in 
 the humble petition of the Kings and Chiefs of the 
 Western Province of the Gold Coast Protectorate to 
 Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen in Council, 
 and will do so again and again, until his prayer is 
 heard. Thus ran the prayer : 
 
 " Your petitioners respectfully suggest as a first step that 
 the Letters Patent whereby the Executive and Legislative 
 Council was created should be altered so as to enable the 
 Kings and Chiefs of the colony and the protectorate to 
 elect to the Legislative Council eight additional members, 
 of whom three shall also be members of the Executive 
 Council. 
 
 "Your petitioners respectfully suggest that for the purpose of 
 the election of such members of the Legislative and Executive 
 Councils, the Gold Coast Colony and Protectorate be divided 
 into four provinces, viz. : 
 
 " A. From the Eiver Volta to the Eiver Secum. 
 
 " B. From the Secum to the Sweet Eiver. 
 
 " C. From the Sweet Eiver to Dixcove. 
 
 " D. From Dixcove to Half Assinee. 
 
 " And that each province have the right of electing two 
 members of the Legislative Council, the members thus elected 
 themselves electing from amongst themselves the three members 
 of the Executive Council. 
 
 " Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray your Majesty to 
 grant an amendment of the existing Letters Patent for the 
 Gold Coast Colony and the Protectorate whereby the present 
 system of government and protection may be altered so as 
 to provide that the natives of the colony and the protectorate
 
 268 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vm. 
 
 may elect members to the Legislative Council and Executive 
 Council and thus take part in the work of legislation for their 
 native land. 
 
 " And your petitioners will ever pray." ] 
 
 This was a modest prayer. Why it was not 
 granted one is at a loss to know. The petition was 
 in 1898. The ill-advised hunt for the golden stool 
 by Governor Hodgson was in 1900. A member of 
 Council then said the Legislative Council had not 
 been consulted. See what a waste of money and 
 blood would have been saved if this simple prayer 
 had been granted. Had the representatives of the 
 people from the Volta to the Assinee Eiver been 
 sitting at Victoriaburg, with eight votes in the 
 Legislative Council and a controlling voice in the 
 Executive Council of three votes, the greatest 
 blunder of the last decade in Gold Coast and 
 Ashanti affairs could never have been committed. 
 For every Native knows, as a fundamental prin- 
 ciple, that to ask for a king's stool is to ask for 
 the surrender of the national integrity, which is the 
 one thing, as an abstract idea, that a native will 
 keep hold on to after he has lost all. 
 
 Moreover, an honourable member could have 
 urged that the policy of the Gold Coast Govern- 
 ment should be the gradual healing up of the 
 wounds so grievously inflicted upon the sense of 
 
 1 " The Keport of the Proceedings of the Deputation from the Kings 
 and Chiefs of the Western Provinces of the Gold Coast (1898)," page 2.
 
 CHAP. vin. WRECKING THE EMPIRE. 269 
 
 justice and fair-play of the people of Ashanti, rather 
 than to keep them open. For, mark you, the talk 
 about human sacrifices and barbarous customs and 
 slave-raiding is all cant. What lies behind it all is 
 the desire for the good things of Ashanti that would 
 come into the pockets of the British capitalist. 
 How many thousands are mowed down by the 
 Maxim in a single expedition ? And in times of 
 peace are not " rebel chiefs" freely hanged ? The 
 Ashanti loathes the hangman's noose, but gladly 
 lays his neck upon the execution block. The latter 
 he accounts honourable death, if death he has 
 deserved ; the former he regards as a disgraceful 
 exit which his soul abhors. I do not personally ap- 
 prove of executions and slave-raiding, or of slavery 
 in any shape or form. But what calls for loud pro- 
 test is, that these should be made a cloak for cant 
 an apology for the use of the Maxim gun when 
 all the time all the world knows that you are simply 
 taking part in the scramble for the black man's 
 country. It is unpalatable, I know; but it is true 
 all the same. 
 
 I dearly love this ideal of Imperial West Africa, 
 and I sincerely desire that the golden hope may not 
 be wrecked. The country is flooded even now with 
 intelligence. With hardly sixty years' educational 
 advantages, we have a remarkable band of able men 
 in all walks of life, a sign of the coming greatness
 
 270 GOLD COAST NATIVE INSTITUTIONS. CHAP. vm. 
 
 of the people in the new century and in the new 
 civilisation. We only ask for opportunity, that 
 opportunity being fundamentally the prayer that 
 the Aborigines may now be allowed to take part in 
 the work of legislation for their native land. 
 
 Will Great Britain do her duty to the Gold Coast 
 and to Ashanti, or will she turn away from the prayer 
 in scorn ?
 
 APPENDICES.
 
 273 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 DECIDED CASES. 
 
 OPPON r. ACKINIE. 
 October 24th, 1887. 
 
 ''Before HECTOR MACLEOD, C.J., SMALMAN SMITH, J., 
 FRANCIS SMITH, J. 
 
 THIS is an appeal against a judgment of the 
 Divisional Court of Cape Coast, dated February 
 14th, 1887, confirming a judgment of the District 
 Commissioner, Saltpond, ordering defendant Ackinie 
 to pay damages to Oppon in the amount of 5, with 
 11s. costs. 
 
 Mr. Eminsang, Mr. Williams, and Mr. Eenner for 
 appellant (Ackinie). 
 
 Oppon in person. 
 
 Judgment, October 24th, 1887 :- 
 
 This is an appeal by the defendant Ackinie against 
 a judgment of the Divisional Court of the Western 
 Province, dated February 14th, 1887, affirming a 
 judgment of the District Commissioner of Salt- 
 pond, dated February 25th, 1886, by which the 
 o.c. 18
 
 274 APPENDIX A. 
 
 defendant was ordered to pay to the plaintiff the 
 sum of 5 as damages, with 11s. costs. 
 
 The facts of the case are practically not in dis- 
 pute. -A person named Ghartey (formerly one of the 
 defendants in this action) charged another person, 
 named David Otchafoo, before the defendant Ackinie, 
 who is the King of Aikunfie, with receiving bribes. 
 According to the custom in such matters a surety 
 had to be found, and the plaintiff Oppon, one of 
 Ackinie 's own subjects, became surety for the pay- 
 ment of any costs to be found due by Otchafoo, in 
 the matter of that complaint. Otchafoo was found 
 liable to costs. 
 
 If Oppon was dissatisfied with the decision, his 
 remedy, according to one of the witnesses called on 
 February 14th last, was to pay the costs and cause 
 an appeal to be brought to the British Courts ; but 
 Oppon refused to pay the costs, alleging that he was 
 not satisfied with the decision of King Ackinie. 
 Thereupon Ackinie caused Oppon to be arrested 
 and imprisoned in respect of the refusal to pay the 
 costs. 
 
 The power of arrest and imprisonment under such 
 circumstances has been exercised by the defendant 
 and his predecessors as far back as the memory of 
 living witnesses can carry us, as one of the royal 
 prerogatives. 
 
 Upon these facts there arises a short but very
 
 APPENDIX A. 275 
 
 important point in law important, because it 
 affects the whole judicial powers of kings and 
 chiefs throughout the Protected Territories. Short, 
 because it is all summed up in this question : 'Has 
 the Supreme Court Ordinance, 1876, swept away the 
 previously existing judicial powers of native kings 
 and chiefs I ' 
 
 Before we proceed to discuss this question, we 
 desire to make one preliminary observation, and it 
 is so important that we shall direct it to be recorded 
 in red ink. 
 
 We are not here engaged in any inquiry as to the 
 extent of Her Majesty's power and jurisdiction in 
 and over the Protected Territories. We are only 
 inquiring whether, through the medium of the 
 Colonial Legislature, she has, in virtue of the 
 power and jurisdiction vested in her, yet chosen to 
 say that the judicial powers of native kings and 
 chiefs shall no longer exist. 
 
 King Ackinie has, in the course of this case, had 
 the benefit of nearly all the local legal talent. Oppon 
 has had no such aid. Nevertheless, had Bailey, C.J., 
 still been alive, he would doubtless have given judg- 
 ment in Oppon's favour. That is evident, from 
 several cases decided by him in the Divisional 
 Court of the Central Province. In none of these 
 cases did the learned Chief Justice enter into 
 any discussion upon the point, which one must 
 
 182
 
 276 APPENDIX A. 
 
 suppose appeared to him so clear as to require 
 no consideration. 
 
 We know, however, the reasons upon which he 
 founded his judgments, and we think it only right 
 that we should state them. He founded his opinion 
 upon sects. 11 and 12 of the Supreme Court 
 Ordinance, 1876. Regarding sect. 11, he would 
 in substance say, if he were here to-day, ' The 
 Supreme Court Ordinance, sect. 11, vests all the 
 jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice in England 
 (Admiralty excepted) in the Supreme Court of the 
 colony. That being so, whatever jurisdiction the 
 native chiefs formerly possessed was from the date 
 of the passing of that Ordinance extinguished.' 
 
 Regarding sect. 12 he would doubtless say, ' What 
 jurisdiction, civil or criminal, was, or is not, exer- 
 cisable by Her Majesty in these territories ? Abso- 
 lutely none. All, then, is vested in the Supreme 
 Court, and, according to the concluding words of 
 the section, shall be exercised under and according 
 to the provisions of the Ordinance and not otherwise.' 
 If Oppon had all the legal talent in the world to 
 plead for him, we do not see how his case could be 
 more powerfully stated. 
 
 But we think Bailey, C.J., failed to apprehend 
 the object and scope of this Ordinance. First, how- 
 ever, let us consider sects. 11 and 12 by themselves. 
 While these sections contain words affirmative of the
 
 APPENDIX A. 277 
 
 Supreme Court, we find in them no negative words, 
 no words of conclusion, nothing to indicate that 
 jurisdiction, other than Her Majesty's, is to cease. 
 We see no words that lead us to think it would 
 be inconsistent with the object of the Legislature 
 that Her Majesty's jurisdiction and the jurisdiction 
 of the kings and chiefs should be co-existent. The 
 civil and criminal jurisdiction of Her Majesty exer- 
 cisable in the Protected Territories at the commence- 
 ment of the Ordinance was one, to a great extent, 
 occurrent [concurrent ?] with the jurisdiction exer- 
 cisable by the native kings and chiefs ; and that is, 
 to our minds, a conclusive answer to the arguments 
 which we have put into the mouth of Bailey, C.J. 
 
 But we must not confine our attention to sects. 
 11 and 12 of this Ordinance. It is not by any 
 means the only Ordinance that created a Supreme 
 Court of the Gold Coast, and regulated its procedure. 
 Various such Ordinances were passed from 1853 
 downwards, and we think we are right when we 
 say that not one of such previous Ordinances 
 referred to the Local Native Courts, yet these 
 Native Courts exercised jurisdiction side by side 
 with the Supreme Court so created. 
 
 The key to the successful interpretation of sects. 
 11 and 12 already mentioned is, we think, to be 
 found in sect. 20 of the same Ordinance ; from 
 .which it appears that, prior to this Ordinance of
 
 278 APPENDIX A. 
 
 1876, Her Majesty had been exercising her jurisdic- 
 tion by the help of a very confusing arrangement of 
 Courts and magistrates. All these were to cease, 
 and the one Supreme Court, whose powers and 
 jurisdiction are described in sects. 11 and 12, took 
 their place. 
 
 Two years later the Colonial Legislature passed an 
 Ordinance (No. 8 of 1878) ' to facilitate and regulate 
 the exercise, in the protected territories, of certain 
 powers and jurisdiction by native authorities.' Can 
 anyone read that Ordinance, and particularly sects. 
 3, 4, 10, and 30 thereof, without coming to the con- 
 clusion that the jurisdiction of the kings and chiefs 
 is there treated as existing, but requiring regulation ? 
 That Ordinance was confirmed by Her Majesty, 
 though it was not thought expedient to proclaim any 
 head chief's division under it. 
 
 In 1888 it was repealed, not because it did not 
 speak the truth, but that an Ordinance more in 
 harmony with the views of the Legislature for the 
 time being might take its place ; and that successor 
 is No. 5 of 1883. It also treats native tribunals as 
 existing, but requiring regulation. 
 
 It might be observed of these two native jurisdic- 
 tion Ordinances that, by mere recital, they could not 
 restore what was taken away by the Supreme Court 
 Ordinance of 1876. Perfectly true ; but, when con- 
 sidering whether the Supreme Court Ordinance of
 
 APPENDIX A. 279 
 
 1876 did or did not take away jurisdiction from 
 native tribunals, do not these native jurisdiction 
 Ordinances give us considerable light ? 
 
 Again, the point seems covered by authority. In 
 the end of 1880, or beginning of 1881, the Divisional 
 Court of the Central Province ordered Quamin Fori, 
 King of Aquapim, to pay damages to one Bruce, as 
 compensation for illegal arrest. 
 
 Bruce was charged with violating a girl in the 
 bush, and Quamin Fori ordered his arrest. The Divi- 
 sional Court was of opinion that Quamin Fori had 
 used such violence in having Bruce brought before 
 him that he must pay ,30 damages and costs. 
 
 Upon the 1st of April, 1881, this judgment was 
 reversed by the Full Court (Marshall, C.J., and 
 J. W. Smith, Ag. Judge), whose judgment says: 
 ' We are of opinion that the king, in all that was 
 done, acted within the powers which have always 
 been recognised and allowed to the Native Courts 
 unless those powers are taken away by the Governor ; 
 and that if he was in fault, it was in not proceeding 
 further with the case, and inquiring more fully into 
 the charge against Bruce.' 
 
 As a criticism upon that judgment, it might be 
 observed that it only recognised powers in kings and 
 chiefs which can be taken away by the Governor ; 
 and that, as the Governor has no power to take away 
 inherent jurisdiction from a king, that cannot have
 
 280 APPENDIX A. 
 
 been the jurisdiction recognised in Quamin Fori's 
 case, and therefore his case cannot apply to the 
 present one. 
 
 Without discussing whether a Governor has power 
 to take away inherent jurisdiction, and without pre- 
 tending to understand what the Full Court meant by 
 the words ' unless those powers are taken away by 
 the Governor,' we cannot help regarding the sug- 
 gested line of criticism as unworthy of comment. 
 
 Had it not been for the opinion of Bailey, C.J., 
 we would have entertained no doubt upon the ques- 
 tion which we have discussed. Now that we have 
 considered it from every possible point of view, we 
 are clear that the Supreme Court Ordinance, 1876, 
 has in no way impaired the judicial powers of native 
 kings and chiefs, and, so far as we know, it has 
 not been suggested that any other Ordinance has 
 taken them away. 
 
 The defendant (appellant) in the present case has 
 exercised a very ordinary judicial power, and there- 
 fore we think the judgment of the Court below ought 
 to be reversed and judgment entered for the defendant 
 Ackinie. 
 
 We are not inclined to give him costs, for the 
 impression made upon our minds is that he has 
 brought this action upon himself. It must be dis- 
 tinctly understood that there is to be no imprison- 
 ment without an adequate and regular supply of food,
 
 APPENDIX A. 281 
 
 means of washing daily, and ample opportunities 
 for obeying the calls of nature, being given to every 
 prisoner." 
 
 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE GOLD COAST 
 COLONY, WESTERN PROVINCE. 
 
 17th February, 1897. 
 Before His HONOUR HAYES REDWAR, Puisne Judge. 
 
 EEGINA, ON THE PROSECUTION OF D. A. DONOVAN v. 
 KUDJOE IMBRA. 
 
 Case stated by the District Commissioner of Cape 
 Coast, Mr. J. A. McCarthy, under sect. 157 of the 
 Criminal Procedure Ordinance, 1876, upon a con- 
 viction by the District Commissioner of Cape Coast, 
 Dr. D. K. McDowell, under the Compulsory Labour 
 Ordinance, 1895, on the 30th November, 1896. 
 
 The case, dated llth February, 1897, upon an 
 application made on the date of the conviction by 
 defendant's counsel to the District Commissioner, 
 who heard and determined the charge, was laid 
 before the Court by the Registrar, as also the notes 
 of evidence taken before the District Commissioner 
 and accompanying the case. 
 
 Hayford, for appellant, states that he is holding 
 Mill's brief in this case, and is instructed to press on 
 this appeal.
 
 282 APPENDIX A. 
 
 The officer on whose prosecution the conviction was 
 made (sub-Assistant Commissioner D. A. Donovan, of 
 the police) does not appear, but the Eegistrar reports 
 that in the absence of Mr. Donovan notice had been 
 served on the present Senior Officer of Police at Cape 
 Coast. Superintendent Penny now appears and states 
 that he has been served with notice to attend on the 
 argument upon this case, but has received no instruc- 
 tions in the matter from Mr. Donovan, who is absent 
 at Accra ; he further states that in the absence of Mr. 
 Donovan, the District Commissioner, Cape Coast, is 
 the officer in command of the police in the district. 
 
 The Court refers to the Police Ordinance, 1894, 
 and discovers that by sect. 6 the Superintendent is in 
 command of the police in any district where there is 
 no police officer of higher grade. The Court then 
 directs the argument to proceed. 
 
 Mr. Penny states that he has not been instructed 
 and has no argument to offer. 
 
 Hayford, for appellant, is heard against the con- 
 viction. He refers to the Ordinance under which 
 this conviction was made and to the evidence upon 
 which it was founded. 
 
 He contends. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 By the Court : 
 
 It is to be regretted that no steps have been taken 
 to ensure the prosecution being represented on this
 
 APPENDIX A. 283 
 
 appeal. There can, however, be no difficulty in deal- 
 ing with it, as the facts of the case are as simple as 
 the law governing them, and argument is scarcely 
 necessary upon so obviously simple a matter, and, 
 indeed, in the view which I have taken of the law, 
 the case is not arguable, as it depends upon the 
 meaning to be placed upon a clearly expressed 
 enactment of the Legislature of a penal character, 
 which must, of course, be construed strictly, accord- 
 ing to the established principle of interpreting Statutes 
 which operate in restriction of common right and 
 the liberty of the subject. 
 
 The case shortly stated is this : the charge in 
 the summons stated verbatim is, " Being a head 
 chief, neglecting to call out carriers for public 
 purpose, when ordered to do so by District Com- 
 missioner, Cape Coast, on the 19th November, 1896, 
 contrary to sects. 2 and 4 of Ordinance No. 9 of 
 1895." 
 
 In the first place it is necessary to consider the 
 question whether a District Commissioner other 
 than the District Commissioner who made the 
 conviction has power to state a case of this kind 
 under sect. 157 of the Criminal Procedure Ordi- 
 nance, 1876. As to this I hold that the Court 
 referred to in that section must for necessary 
 reasons of convenience in a colony so subject to 
 changes of officials as this be extended so as to
 
 284 APPENDIX A. 
 
 include a District Commissioner other than the one 
 convicting, if application be made for a case within 
 the four clays limited in the section. 
 
 I am of opinion that the word " Court " wherever 
 it appears in the Criminal Procedure Ordinance must, 
 unless the context contains something repugnant to 
 the definition, be deemed to be the " Court " as 
 denned in the Interpretation clause (sect. 2) of the 
 Supreme Court Ordinance, 1876, and must there- 
 fore include a "District Commissioner" engaged 
 in any judicial act or proceeding. There being 
 nothing repugnant to this definition in the context, 
 I hold that the District Commissioner according to 
 sect. 157 of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance, even 
 although not the District Commissioner convicting 
 the defendant, may state a case, especially when, as 
 here, application was made on the day of the con- 
 viction to the District Commissioner who heard and 
 determined the charge. The present District Com- 
 missioner of Cape Coast has, therefore, acted correctly 
 in stating this case. 
 
 It is matter for surprise, however, that the District 
 Commissioner convicting this defendant did not adopt 
 the course indicated by sect. 159 of the Criminal 
 Procedure Ordinance, 1876, and respite execution of 
 the judgment, when application was made to him 
 for stay of execution pending this appeal according 
 to the notes of the case taken by himself.
 
 APPENDIX A. 285 
 
 Evidence was given for the prosecution, and upon 
 this evidence the District Commissioner convicted 
 the defendant, and the two questions for this Court 
 to decide are : 
 
 First, whether the conviction was or was not 
 wrong on the ground of misreception of 
 evidence. 
 
 Secondly, whether the facts proved did or did 
 not warrant a conviction. 
 
 First. As regards the question whether the con- 
 viction was or was not wrong on the ground of misre- 
 ception of evidence, I am of opinion that if it were 
 deemed necessary to give in evidence the document 
 referred to in the proceedings as a " notice to supply 
 carriers," the original should have been produced, 
 or upon proof of service of notice to produce it on 
 defendant, then, and then only, should a copy have 
 been received in evidence. 
 
 The document was not a step to initiate proceed- 
 ings, like a summons, and should have been proved 
 as all documents are proved before reception in 
 evidence. If, however, the original notice had been 
 produced, it would not have been evidence of such 
 an order or requisition for carriers as the Ordinance 
 requires. As regards the telegram referred to in 
 the proceedings, it is extremely doubtful from the 
 District Commissioner's notes of evidence whether 
 it was ever formally put in, nor does it appear that
 
 286 APPENDIX A 
 
 sufficient foundation was laid for its admission in 
 evidence. There is only one " exhibit " accompany- 
 ing the notes, and that is the copy of the " notice 
 to supply carriers," and this exhibit bears no dis- 
 tinguishing letter or serial number indicating that 
 it is one of a series of exhibits. 
 
 Second. As regards the question whether the facts 
 proved did or did not warrant a conviction, I am 
 of opinion that no satisfactory evidence was given 
 of the status of the defendant, whether as head 
 chief, or inferior chief, Mr. Donovan's evidence 
 amounting in reality to a mere expression of his 
 opinion on this point. Beet. 2 of the Compulsory 
 Labour Ordinance, 1895, provides (in its latter 
 portion, upon which these proceedings must be 
 founded) that " it shall be lawful for any head chief, 
 captain, or headman to order any inferior chief, 
 officer, captain, or headman, subject to his authority, 
 to co-operate in calling out the labourers of his 
 towns or villages for service as carriers for any 
 public purpose, and such inferior chief, officer, 
 captain, or headman shall be legally bound to 
 comply with such order." Now, the only punish- 
 ment in connection with chiefs under this Ordinance 
 is provided for by sect. 4, which says that "who- 
 ever being legally bound under sect. 2 to comply 
 with any order refuses or neglects to comply there- 
 with, shall be liable on conviction to fine or imprison-
 
 APPENDIX A. 287 
 
 ment." It is to be observed that this punishment 
 can only be inflicted on an inferior chief ordered to 
 co-operate with a superior chief, and refusing or 
 neglecting to comply with such order. What 
 evidence is there that defendant was ever ordered 
 by a superior chief to co-operate with him in calling 
 out carriers ? There is absolutely no such evidence 
 on the Commissioner's "Notes." Assuming the 
 most in favour of the District Commissioner's 
 " Notice," he is not a head chief within the 
 meaning of this Ordinance, and only refusal or 
 neglect to comply with a head chief's order by an 
 inferior chief is made an offence under sects. 2 and 4 
 of the Ordinance, the sections under which this 
 summons is expressed on its face to have been 
 issued. Nor is there on the record the evidence 
 required by sect. 9, viz., a certificate under the 
 hand of the Colonial Secretary that any head chief, 
 chief, headman, or captain has been required by the 
 Government to call out carriers for service under 
 the Ordinance. Neither was any evidence given for 
 a general or special order being issued under sect. 7, 
 nor that defendant or anybody else had prior to 
 the passing of the Ordinance been required by the 
 Governor to furnish carriers, so as to bring the case 
 within the provisions of sect. 8. 
 
 Under these circumstances I am of opinion that 
 the facts proved did not warrant a conviction. The
 
 288 APPENDIX A. 
 
 conviction must therefore be set aside, and I order 
 that an entry be made in the minutes of the Court 
 below that, in the judgment of this Court, the defen- 
 dant in this case ought not to have been convicted, 
 and that the fine be repaid to the defendant. 
 
 Hayford asked for the costs of the appeal, and 
 urged that, as the proceedings against defendant 
 had been most negligently conducted, and he had 
 been put to much inconvenience and expense, he 
 was entitled to costs as a sort of compensation for 
 the inconvenience and expense entailed upon him 
 by this prosecution. 
 
 The Court refused to allow costs on the ground 
 that most probably the police officer who conducted 
 the prosecution deemed it to be his duty to take the 
 proceedings, although he had acted erroneously. 
 
 (Signed) HAYES EEDWAR, J. 
 
 Certified true copy. 
 
 (Signed] P. W. BERNASKO, Registrar, 
 Cape Coast, 
 
 20 . 2 . 97.
 
 APPENDIX A. 289 
 
 THE CHIDDA CONCESSION. l 
 
 Enquiry No. 5 (Cape Coast), March 1st, 1901. 
 
 Before His HONOUR MR. JUSTICE NICOLL. 
 
 The claimants were the Gold Coast Amalgamated 
 Mines, Limited. The opposers were (1) Chiefs 
 Cudjoe Buaful, guardian to the King Quamina 
 Enimil, Cudjoe Enimil Koomah II., Quasie Ankuma, 
 Cudjoe Ammoo, and Quamina Innuama ; (2) the 
 Sekondi and Tarkwa Company, Limited. The 
 grounds of opposition for the first opposers were 
 (1) fraud, (2) misrepresentation ; for second op- 
 posers (1) deceit, (2) fraud, (3) misrepresentation, 
 (4) prior lease. This was the first enquiry under the 
 Concessions Ordinance, 1900. In the course of the 
 enquiry so many important points as to the con- 
 struction and the working of the substantive law 
 and the rules thereunder were raised and discussed, 
 as to make this enquiry the leading case of the 
 Concessions Division of the Supreme Court. The 
 enquiry had been transferred from the Concessions 
 Division, Cape Coast, to the Concessions Division, 
 Axim, on February llth, 1901 ; and the latter Divi- 
 sion had fixed it for hearing on March 1st. On 
 that day there appeared for the claimants Mr. J. 
 Mensah Sarbah, barrister-at-law, leading counsel, 
 
 1 Eeproduced from West Africa of May 25, 1901, pp. 665667. 
 G.C. 19
 
 290 APPENDIX A. 
 
 supported by Mr. Casely Hayford, barrister-at-law, 
 and Mr. A. W. Osborne, solicitor, Mr. P. A. Renner, 
 barrister-at-law, who was leading for the claimants 
 when the enquiry was first called at Cape Coast, 
 subsequently joining the counsel for the claimants. 
 The counsel for the opposers were Mr. J. Renner 
 Maxwell, barrister-at-law, leader ; with him Mr. G. 
 H. Savage, barrister-at-law, Mr. Charles J. Banner- 
 man, barrister-at-law, and Mr. R. Alade, barrister- 
 at-law. The actual hearing of the enquiry up to 
 the date of judgment occupied twenty-two days. 
 
 The Case for the First Opposers. 
 
 The first opposers, in their statement of particulars 
 of grounds of opposition, filed on March 2nd, alleged, 
 inter alia : 
 
 1. That on August 28th, 1896, an indenture of lease 
 had been executed by Enimil Koomah II. and Quasie 
 Ankuma, chiefs of Busumchie Abosso, granting to 
 William Edward Sam, acting for Messrs. F. and A. 
 Swanzy, of No. 147, Cannon Street, London, the 
 concession of all that piece or parcel of land known 
 as Cinnamon Bippo Range, bounded on the north by 
 the village of Chidda, on the south by the northern 
 boundary of Swanzy Estate and Gold Mining 
 Company's Cinnamon Bippo Concession, and ex- 
 tending half a mile beyond the western bank of 
 Huni River, as it runs on the east by a line one
 
 APPENDIX A. 291 
 
 mile from the centre line of the range, and running 
 parallel with the said range, on the west by a line half a 
 mile distant from the western bank of the Huni River. 
 
 2. That upon the said concession of August 28th, 
 1896, being repudiated by Chief Cud joe Buaful, 
 guardian to the King Quamina Enimil, on the 
 ground that he had not been made a party thereto, 
 it was agreed in or about the month of September, 
 1896, between Sam, Buaful, and the Chiefs of 
 Busumchie that a new concession of the same land 
 should be granted to Sam for his principals, which 
 should include Buaful' s name for the King as one of 
 the grantors. 
 
 3. That upon April 24th, 1897, Sam invited Buaful 
 and the Chiefs of Busumchie to Tarkwa, to execute 
 the new lease before mentioned. 
 
 4. That when the chiefs were assembled at Sam's 
 house at Tarkwa, the interpreter, Aggrey, Sam's 
 clerk, interpreted to them that the land leased ex- 
 tended from the end of Cinnamon Bippo Concession 
 of Swanzy's Concession to the Chidda Creek; whereas, 
 in truth and in fact, the lease, then executed, 
 granted that piece or parcel of land in the district of 
 Busumchie Abosso, and situate on the range of hills 
 commencing from the village of Chidda to the village 
 of Busumchie, known as Busumchie Cinnamon Bippo 
 Range, divided into six concessions of 1,000 fathoms 
 square. 
 
 192
 
 292 APPENDIX A. 
 
 5. That, relying upon the truthfulness of the said 
 interpretation, they had executed the lease of April 
 24th, 1896 (thereby hanging the allegations of fraud 
 and misrepresentation). 
 
 6. That upon discovering the fraud, they had 
 repudiated the said lease. 
 
 Ansivers by the Claimants. 
 
 The reply of the claimants was substantially 
 this : 
 
 1. Denial that the lease of April 24th, 1897, was 
 a substitution for that of August 28th, 1896, or that 
 it was in any way connected with or had reference 
 to the six Chidda concessions, the subject-matter of 
 the present enquiry. 
 
 2. That before the execution of the lease of April 
 24th, 1897, samples had been sent for by Buaful and 
 EnimilKoomah II., the Chief of Busumchie, for Sam 
 from the land in dispute ; and, upon notice by Sam, 
 Buaful, and other grantors of the lease of April 24th, 
 1897, had come to Tarkwa and executed the same 
 after it had been correctly interpreted to them by 
 Villars, the King's Secretary, in the presence of 
 Lemaire, the clerk of the Chief of Busumchie, and 
 others. 
 
 3. That after such correct interpretation, and 
 with full knowledge that the concession referred to 
 the land mentioned by Sam in his letter of April
 
 APPENDIX A. 293 
 
 16th, 1897, which was acknowledged on April 19th, 
 the chiefs executed the lease of April 24th, 1897. 
 
 4. That in August, 1897, after the grant of the 
 concession under enquiry, Sam, with Go wans, a 
 mining engineer, had surveyed and measured the 
 land granted by the concession, and that the work 
 and movements of Sam and Gowans were not 
 unknown to the chiefs. 
 
 5. That previously to the execution of the lease 
 in dispute, the Chiefs had received in advance the 
 sum of J250 towards rents. 
 
 6. That the Chiefs had received rents under the 
 said concession, and that, as recently as February 
 15th last, Quasie Ankuma, the present Busumchie 
 Chief, had applied to Sam for his share of the rents. 
 
 The con'cessiori under enquiry had been duly 
 registered under Ordinance No. 1 of 1895. 
 
 Upon application by counsel, the names of Cudjoe 
 Enimil Koomah II., and Cudjoe Ammoo were struck 
 out from the names of the opposing chiefs. 
 
 The Court upon hearing counsel for the claimants 
 and the opposers respectively, ruled that the onus 
 was with the claimants. 
 
 Correspondence with the Chiefs. 
 
 Mr. Sarbah opened for the claimants, accentuat- 
 ing the allegation that the concession of August 
 28th, 1896, related to land to the south-west of
 
 294 APPENDIX A. 
 
 Chidda village, whereas the concession under enquiry 
 related to land to the north-east of Chidda. 
 
 For the claimants Sam affirmed that Villars read 
 and interpreted the lease to the chiefs, and that he 
 did so correctly, specifying the land given by the con- 
 cession, namely, from Chidda village to Busumchie 
 village. Before the execution of the deed in ques- 
 tion, he had, on December 16th, 1896, paid to the 
 chiefs the sum of ,250 for six concessions on the 
 Cinnamon Bippo Range, and produced correspondence 
 relating to the transaction. In a letter dated March 
 '25th, 1897, he wrote to Buaful, inter alia, the 
 following : 
 
 " I beg also to inform you that, if you do not come and give 
 me the six concessions or mines, for which you have received 
 250 on account, within one week from now, I shall call upon 
 you to return the money, with interest agreed upon." 
 
 Buaful and Enimil Koomah having ordered samples 
 for him (Sam) from the land in dispute, Buaful wrote 
 to him (Sam) on the 13th of April, 1897, thus : 
 
 " Please kindly let me know, per the return of this bearer, if 
 Chief Enimil Koomah has presented to you the samples of 
 quartz as we arranged, and, if so, are they good or what ? You 
 will inform me if the documents have arrived from Cape Coast. 
 " I am always ready to go over when you send for me. 
 " I am, dearly yours, 
 
 " KING KWAMINA ENIMIL, 
 
 " Writer, his 
 
 " JACOB PA VILLARS, " Per Kudjoe x Buaful. 
 
 "Bensu." mark.
 
 APPENDIX A. 295 
 
 On April 16th, 1897, he (Sam) wrote to Buaful: 
 
 " Being very busy yesterday, and your messenger, like a 
 madman, hurrying me on to send him away, I forgot to reply 
 to your other letter of the 13th, asking if the samples from the 
 new property (concession) have been sent to me, and if so, 
 they are good. 
 
 "In reply, I beg to inform you that conglomerate samples 
 have been sent to me from a range of hills between Chidda and 
 Busumchie. I have made a deed to take the whole of the six 
 concessions on this range that is, if we get more than six 
 concessions I will pay extra retaining fee for the odd piece. If, 
 on the other hand, I find less than the six concessions you 
 offered to me on the aforesaid range, I can take the balance any- 
 where you and your chiefs may direct me, provided always that 
 I have the option of selecting what land within your district. 
 
 "I shall go to Tarkwa on Monday next to sign the deed, and 
 I ask you particularly to be present in order that you may make 
 your mark with your chiefs, and at the same time to settle 
 other matters. I send this letter by special messenger, and 
 expect to meet you in Tarkwa on the day above mentioned. 
 
 " Trusting you are well, and with kind regards, 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 " W. E. SAK, 
 
 "Manager." 
 
 On April 19th Buaful replied to him as follows : 
 
 "Your favour of the 16th instant received. I am going to 
 Amantsin to leave the King there and come over to Tarkwa. 
 I have been ill these few days, and as you want me I shall go 
 to Tarkwa as requested. With due regards Villars joins, 
 " I am, your, 
 
 " KING KWAMINA ENIMIL, 
 his 
 
 " Writer, " Per Kudjoe x Buaful. 
 
 "JACOB PA VILLARS, mark. 
 
 " Bensu."
 
 296 APPENDIX A. 
 
 After this correspondence the chiefs met him at 
 Tarkwa, and executed the lease of April 24th, 1897. 
 Surveys were subsequently made of the land in 
 dispute, and the chiefs, or some of them, knew of 
 same. 
 
 Aggrey corroborated Sam as to what transpired 
 upon the execution of the lease of April 24th, 1897, 
 and witnesses were called who supported the fact 
 of samples having been sent for by the chiefs for 
 Sam from the land in dispute, and as to the survey 
 of the land. 
 
 The Custom of Giving Earnest Money. 
 
 At the close of the claimants' case, Mr. Savage, 
 for the opposers, submitted that there was no case to 
 answer, having regard to sect. 11 of the Ordinance. 
 His grounds were : 
 
 1. That the receipts of claimants for rents had not 
 been put in evidence. 
 
 2. Sam did not give chiefs copy of lease until 
 February 1st, 1900. 
 
 3. That there was no consideration for the lease 
 in dispute, consideration being synonymous with 
 earnest money. 
 
 By the Court : Do you argue that the consideration 
 under sect. 11 must be earnest money ? 
 
 Mr. Savage : The consideration must be earnest 
 money, plus rent.
 
 APPENDIX A. 297 
 
 By the Court : Is the native practice of giving 
 earnest money binding where the bargain is between 
 a European and a native ? 
 
 (Refers counsel to sect. 19 of Ordinance No. 4 of 
 1876.) 
 
 Mr. Savage, proceeding, urged : 
 
 4. That the rents had not been paid. 
 
 The Court pointed out that there was oral evidence 
 that the rents had partly been paid. 
 
 Mr. Savage opened the case for the opposers, 
 dwelling upon the main issues raised by the 
 pleadings. 
 
 For the opposers Buaful flatly denied the correct 
 interpretation of the lease in dispute, and stated that 
 the interpretation by Aggrey as to the land granted 
 did not correspond with the land covered by the 
 lease in dispute. He denied that he had ever sent 
 for samples for Sam, or that he had ever caused the 
 letter of April 13th to Sam to be written. He 
 affirmed that Sam had steadily avoided supplying 
 him with a copy of the lease in dispute, and that, 
 upon the same being supplied, he at once repudiated 
 the lease. Previously to the execution of the lease in 
 dispute there had been a meeting with Sam relative 
 to the lease agreed to be substituted for that of 
 August 28th, 1896. 
 
 Villars generally supported the evidence of Buaful. 
 He admitted, in cross-examination by Mr. Hayford,
 
 298 APPENDIX A. 
 
 that all letters written for Buaful by him were 
 first read over to him before he touched the pen, 
 his mark thereto made, and forwarded ; and that 
 letters read to the chief were correctly read by him 
 to the chief, and his instructions taken before reply- 
 ing thereto. In answer to the Court, after being 
 severely pressed, he said he remembered the corre- 
 spondence above quoted. He affirmed that Sam 
 knew before the 24th day of April, 1897, that 
 the land in dispute had previously been given to 
 Bridges. 
 
 The other chiefs and some of their headmen also 
 supported Buaful generally in his evidence. 
 
 The Case for the Second Opposers. 
 
 The particulars of the grounds of opposition of 
 the second opposers were as follows : 
 
 1. That on January 7th, 1897, Cud joe Buaful, for 
 and on behalf of Quamina Enimil, King of Tarkwa 
 and Lower Wassaw, granted to George John Bridges 
 an option to select and acquire twenty gold con- 
 cessions of not less than 1,000 fathoms square each, 
 five of which said concessions were to be situated on 
 the north of the village of Chidda, in consideration 
 of the advance of a loan of ,2,000 by the said George 
 John Bridges to the said Quamina Enimil. 
 
 2. Eenewal of the said option, firstly on March 
 31st, 1898, secondly on November 29th, 1898.
 
 APPENDIX A. 299 
 
 3. Fraud and misrepresentation in connection 
 with lease of April 24th, 1897. 
 
 It may be noted that the option agreement had 
 not been registered under Ordinance No. 1 of 1895. 
 
 The Claimants' Refill/. 
 
 The claimants replied : 
 
 1. That they had no notice of the said option of 
 Bridges until Bridges entered upon the land in dispute 
 in June, 1900, whereupon an action of ejectment had 
 been brought against the second opposers. 
 
 2. Denial of allegation of fraud and misrepre- 
 sentation. 
 
 Upon Mr. Savage opening on above allegation 
 
 The Court to Counsel : Assuming the chief had 
 given the lease to Sam, can Bridges' option stand ? 
 
 The Court said this question went to the root of 
 the matter, and suggested Counsel considering it. 
 
 On resumption, the Court, addressing Counsel, 
 said : Supposing Bridges filed his option and the 
 Amalgamated Mines filed their lease subsequently, 
 do you contend that the option will stand in the 
 face of the lease, or will Bridges merely have a right 
 to an action for damages ? A. sells to B. and gets 
 purchase-money, but does not get title-deeds exe- 
 cuted and delivered. Meanwhile, A. sells to C., who 
 pays purchase-money, and gets title-deeds executed 
 and delivered ; will C. or B.'s title stand ?
 
 300 APPENDIX A. 
 
 Counsel replied that his strongest point was the 
 definition of a concession sect. 2 of No. 14, of 
 1900. 
 
 The - Court : What would be the position if a 
 certificate of validity were granted for an option, 
 and a lease subsequently granted for the same 
 premises ? (The Court drew attention to sect. 21 
 of the Ordinance.) 
 
 Counsel : The Ordinance overrides the common- 
 law principles herein, and a certificate of validity by 
 sect. 21 will be good against all adversaries. 
 
 Bridges gave evidence in support of the option as 
 to execution and the agreements renewing them. 
 
 Counsel informed the Court that there had been 
 an assignment of the option to the Sekondi and 
 Tarkwa Company, Limited. 
 
 The witness stated the deed was in his despatch- 
 box in his house, but it was not subsequently 
 produced. 
 
 Villars supported the evidence of Bridges. 
 
 Mr. Bridges, on application of Counsel, was made 
 a party to the suit. 
 
 Priority Claimed for the Option. 
 
 Mr. Bannerman, in closing for second opposers, 
 submitted : 
 
 1. That the option of January 7th, 1897, took 
 priority over the lease of April 24th, 1897. He
 
 APPENDIX A. 301 
 
 discussed sect. 2 of the Ordinance to show that an 
 option was of equal degree with a lease. 
 
 2. That registration did not give priority in this 
 case, sects. 19 and 20 of No. 1 of 1895 not affecting 
 agreements. 
 
 3. That Sam had notice of Bridges' option. He 
 quoted the case of Le Neve v. Le Neve, White & 
 Tudor 's Leading Cases; Punchard v. Tomkins, 31 
 Weekly Eeports, 286 ; Yates Brothers and Shattuck 
 v. Garshong, Gold Coast Appeal Cases. 
 
 The Court : Section 11, sub-sect. 1, of the Con- 
 cessions Ordinance merely says, before a concession 
 can be entertained there must at least be a writing, 
 but it does not say one kind of writing or instrument 
 shall be necessarily as good as another ; that is a 
 matter of general law. 
 
 Mr. Sarbah, in reply, submitted : 
 
 1. That the so-called option of Bridges was not 
 really an option. Before the payment of the <2,000 
 mentioned therein as consideration for the option 
 Bridges could not go upon the land. He had no 
 choice of exercising option at all until he had paid 
 the X'2,000 within twelve months. 
 
 2. That the area of the lands comprised in the 
 option was not denned. 
 
 3. Non-registration of the option. 
 
 4. That a lease is of a higher nature than an 
 option.
 
 302 APPENDIX A. 
 
 5. The lease made during subsistence of option 
 comes into operation upon the expiration of the 
 option, but it is not void during subsistence of 
 option. 
 
 6. Application of Eegistration Ordinance to 
 Options. Assuming there was notice to Sam, what 
 effect would it have upon the claimants ? None, 
 there being no evidence of fraud on their part. A 
 bond fide purchaser for value is not affected by the 
 fraud of his assignor. 
 
 The Court : Does sub-sect. 3 of sect. 11 not apply 
 to third parties claiming under fraudulent leases ? 
 It goes to the root of the whole Ordinance. 
 
 Counsel, resuming, urged : 
 
 7. Laches on the part of the chiefs. 
 
 8. Knowledge of second opposers as to possession 
 of Sam. 
 
 The Judgment. 
 
 The Court reviewed in the clearest manner the 
 voluminous evidence adduced for and against the 
 case for the claimants. Referring to the incident of 
 sending for the samples, the Court pointed out that 
 Sam's evidence therein was corroborated by several 
 witnesses. Buaful denied the incident absolutely. 
 But letter of April 13th showed that Buaful knew of 
 the sample being given to Sam, and Sam's reply 
 thereto, dated April 16th, 1897, was of the greatest
 
 APPENDIX A. 303 
 
 importance. His Honour, continuing, said : " The 
 letter clearly brings home to Buaf ill's mind that 
 Sam had made a paper to take six concessions from 
 Chidda to Busumchie, and that he and his chiefs 
 were to go to Tarkwa to execute the same. Buaful 
 replied on April 19th. Buaf id's evidence respect- 
 ing the letters of April 13th, 16th, and 19th is 
 most unsatisfactory. He admits getting letter of 
 April 16th, but did not go to Tarkwa for a year 
 after." The Court, having considered the whole 
 evidence re the execution of the concession under 
 inquiry and the subsequent conduct of the parties, 
 had no hesitation in coming to the following con- 
 clusions : 
 
 1. That the evidence of the first opposers was 
 untrustworthy. 
 
 2. That the grantors of the concession knew they 
 had been summoned to execute a document re land 
 from Chidda to Busumchie. 
 
 3. That they went there to execute such a 
 document. 
 
 4. That the interpreter accurately interpreted to 
 them the contents of the lease. 
 
 5. That the chief signed the lease, knowing they 
 were giving land from Chidda to Busumchie. 
 
 6. That they knew the terms of the lease before 
 signing it, and that they were not induced by 
 fraud.
 
 304 APPENDIX A. 
 
 The Court, therefore, declared the first opposition 
 bad. 
 
 The Court next dealt with the case for the second 
 opposers, observing that Bridges, on or about Sep- 
 tember 28th, 1897, had not deposited the 2,000 
 under the option agreement, and that it was clearly 
 of opinion that Bridges had no right to Sam's con- 
 cession by the agreement of January 7th, 1897. That 
 the concession of April 24th, 1897, having been 
 registered, and the option of January 7th not having 
 been registered, even though Bridges had the right 
 under his option, Sam's lease would have priority. 
 His Honour continued : "It has been argued for 
 second opposers that the Eegistration Ordinance 
 does not apply to the Concessions Ordinance. I am 
 not aware of any grounds for such an argument. 
 The Kegistration Ordinance should be looked upon 
 as having special reference to concessions. It 
 has great bearing on the Concessions Ordinance." 
 Eeferring to the question of notice to Sam of 
 Bridges' option, the Court said it did not believe the 
 evidence of Villars, and observed that whether an 
 option of a concession took precedence of a lease 
 subsequently granted did not arise for discussion in 
 the present case. 
 
 The Court declared the second opposition also to 
 have failed, and found as follows : 
 
 That the claimants were entitled to the benefit of
 
 APPENDIX A. 805 
 
 the concession of April 24th, 1897, and that the 
 conditions laid down in section 11 of the Ordinance 
 had been fulfilled. That- 
 
 1. Concession was in writing, duly signed by 
 grantors. 
 
 2. Proper persons, parties to it, who understood 
 the nature and terms thereof. 
 
 3. Concessions not obtained by fraudulent or other 
 improper means. 
 
 4. Adequate valuable consideration paid therefor. 
 
 5. All the terms and conditions thereof reasonably 
 and satisfactorily performed. 
 
 6. Customary rights of natives reasonably pro- 
 tected. 
 
 Declared, however: 
 
 (a) That so much of the concession as exceeds 
 five square miles was invalid. 
 
 (&) Limit of concession ninety-nine years. 
 
 Mr. Sam having delayed in giving the chiefs copy 
 of the concession under enquiry, which circumstance 
 probably led to the opposition, the Court ordered 
 the several parties to pay their own costs. 
 
 COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE, 
 ACCRA, 
 
 16th November, 1901. 
 
 The following Certificate of Validity issued at 
 Axim by His Honour Mr. Justice William Nicoll 
 G.C. 20
 
 306 APPENDIX A. 
 
 for No. 5 (Cape Coast) Chidda Concession, is 
 published for general information. 
 
 By His Excellency's Command, 
 C. H. HUNTEE, 
 
 Acting Colonial Secretary. 
 
 Wednesday the 16th October, 1901. 
 
 Before His HONOUR WILLIAM NICOLL, JUDGE. 
 
 Certificate of Validity. 
 
 In the Supreme Court of the Gold Coast Colony, 
 Western Province. (Concessions Division.) 
 
 No. 5 (Cape Coast). Chidda. 
 
 Subject as below the Concession of Chief Cud joe 
 Buaful, guardian to the King Quamina Enimil, 
 Chief Cudjoe Enimil Koomah II., Quasie Ankuma, 
 Cud joe Ammoo and Quamina Innuama, Chiefs of 
 Busumchie Abosso, Wassaw, to William Edward 
 Sam of Adja Bippo, acting for Messrs. F. & A. 
 Swanzy of 147, Cannon Street, London, dated the 
 24th day of April, 1897, registered at Cape Coast 
 Registry Office to which this Certificate is attached, 
 is hereby declared to be valid.
 
 APPENDIX A. 807 
 
 Boundaries, Extent, and Situation of Land in respect 
 of which this Certificate is given. 
 
 The lands are situate between the village of 
 Chidda and the village of Busumchie. The boun- 
 daries thereof are shown on the plan attached hereto 
 and signed as relative hereto. The said lands 
 measure two thousand seven hundred and eighteen 
 (2,718) fathoms in length, extending from the village 
 of Chidda to the village of Busumchie, and one 
 thousand (1,000) fathoms in breath, and the extent 
 or area of these said lands is 3' 5098140 square miles. 
 
 Nature of Concession. 
 Mining with timber rights. 
 
 Limitations imposed by the Court. 
 
 1. The Concession shall no't be construed so as 
 to deprive any native of his customary rights as to 
 shifting cultivation, the collection of firewood, and 
 hunting and snaring game on the land. 
 
 2. The Concession shall be construed to include 
 only such timber as is necessary in connection with 
 mining operations. 
 
 3. The Concession shall extend for a period of 
 ninety-nine years only from the 24th day of April, 
 1897, and no longer. 
 
 4. The Concession shall not be construed to 
 confer any right to have it renewed. 
 
 202
 
 808 APPENDIX A. 
 
 5. The Concession shall be read and construed as 
 if the following clause were omitted from the 
 Concession : " It is mutually agreed and understood 
 between the lessors and the lessees, their heirs, 
 successors, executors, administrators, and assigns 
 that in the event of cessation of crushing operations 
 through want of funds or other lawful causes, the 
 yearly rent of two hundred pounds for that particular 
 mine shall be reduced to one hundred pounds 
 per annum during such cessation provided it 
 does not exceed three years from the date of such 
 cessation." 
 
 6. The Concession shall be read and construed as 
 if the word " three " in the clause " This lease may 
 be determined at any time by the lessees, their 
 heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns on their 
 giving three months' notice in writing to the lessors, 
 their heirs, successors, and assigns" were deleted 
 therefrom, and the word "twelve" inserted in lieu 
 thereof. 
 
 7. The Concession shall be read and construed 
 as if the following clause were inserted therein : 
 "Provided always that if the lessees or their successors 
 in title shall make default in payment of any rent 
 reserved under the Concession for three calendar 
 months after the same shall become due, it shall be 
 lawful for the lessors, their successors, or assigns by 
 writing under their hand to give three months' notice
 
 APPENDIX A. 309 
 
 to the lessees or their successors in title of their 
 intention to determine the Concession, and in the 
 event of the rent in arrears at the time of giving 
 such notice not being paid before expiration of three 
 months, the rights, privileges, and powers granted 
 by the Concession shall cease and be at an end, and 
 the lessors, their successors, and assigns, shall be 
 at liberty to re-enter upon the said lands and take 
 possession of the same. 
 
 8. Notice of intention to terminate the Concession 
 shall be given on a rent day only. 
 
 Rent. 
 
 (i.) The retaining rent payable in respect of the 
 Concession shall be sixty pounds per annum, and 
 shall continue to be payable until the working rent, 
 as hereinafter mentioned, becomes payable. 
 
 (ii.) The working rent shall be seven hundred 
 pounds per annum. 
 
 (iii.) The working rent of seven hundred pounds 
 per annum shall be payable as from the 15th day of 
 October, 1904, whether mining operations have then 
 been commenced or not. In the event of mining 
 operations being commenced before the aforesaid 
 date, the said rent of seven hundred pounds per 
 annum shall be payable as from the date of the 
 commencement of such mining operations. 
 
 (iv.) The rents under the Concession shall be
 
 310 APPENDIX A. 
 
 paid quarterly on first January, first April, first 
 July, and first October in each year. 
 
 Maintenance of Boundaries. 
 
 The holders of the Concession having under- 
 taken : 
 
 (a) To keep the boundary road clean ; 
 
 (b) To keep the pillars marking the boundaries in 
 good condition and repair ; 
 
 (c) To keep the name of the Concession (Chidda) 
 legible on each pillar ; 
 
 (d) To lay down the said lands with reference to 
 the Government Datum point when such Govern- 
 ment Datum point has been fixed in the district of 
 Tarkwa ; 
 
 The Concession shall be read and construed as if 
 the lessees had bound themselves accordingly. 
 
 Date of Final Order for issue of Certificate of Validity. 
 15th October, 1901. 
 
 Given under my hand and the seal of the Court 
 at Axim this 16th day of October, 1901. 
 
 (L.S.) W. NICOLL, Judge.
 
 311 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 THE following extract appeared in an article in 
 the Gold Coast Methodist Times of April 30th, 1897, 
 the contributor being the Rev. Attoh Ahuma, who 
 was then editing that paper : 
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT DISCONTENT. 
 
 Addressed to the Gold Coast Aborigines' Eights 
 Protection Society, Cape Coast Castle. 
 
 COLONY OR PROTECTORATE ? 
 
 Colony or Protectorate which ? 
 
 Some one may say this is a purely technical 
 point, and that it is solely for purposes of con- 
 venience that the Gold Coast is called a colony at 
 all. But it must never be forgotten that technical 
 points have before to-day been the means of saving 
 many a wretch from the hangman's noose, and 
 technical points have consigned an innocent victim 
 to perdition. We cannot, in these circumstances, 
 afford to minimise the importance and effect of 
 such points. If by doing away with them, once
 
 312 APPENDIX B. 
 
 and for all, there is shown a possibility of ensuring 
 the safety, honour, and welfare of the body politic, 
 we shall have accomplished more than enough. 
 The comparative study of Her Majesty's foreign 
 possessions accentuates the fact that our country 
 holds a unique position upon the world-wide map 
 of the British Empire. We know of no other 
 place similarly situated. We labour in vain to find 
 one spot where the people possess in their own 
 right such a rich and unhampered legacy of liberty, 
 freedom, and enfranchisement as we should enjoy 
 on the Gold Coast. If the sovereignty of the 
 people is entitled to recognition and respect, we, 
 also, have undisputed claim to such political dis- 
 tinction. This undeniable status is not unknown 
 at the Colonial Office, Downing Street, London ; 
 and, therefore, from facts which are happily 
 historic, he wins golden opinions whoever man- 
 fully strives to bring the country in line with 
 others ; and it is just here that, as a society, we 
 must, at all costs, maintain our individuality, come 
 what may. 
 
 There is nothing new under the sun ; but the old, 
 old story must be rehearsed. 
 
 From Stormouth's English Dictionary a book 
 that has found its way to the Gold Coast through 
 the Government we learn that a " colony means a 
 body of persons sent out from their native country
 
 APPENDIX B. 313 
 
 to a distant district or a new country, in order to 
 settle and cultivate it ; the country thus settled or 
 planted." 
 
 From Webster's International Dictionary we 
 read : 
 
 "Colony: (1) A company of people transplanted 
 from their Mother-Country to a remote province 
 or country, and remaining subject to the jurisdic- 
 tion of the parent State, as the British Colonies in 
 America. 
 
 (2) " The district or colony colonised; a settlement. 
 
 (3) "A company of persons from the same country 
 sojourning in a foreign city or land; as the American 
 Colony in Paris. 
 
 (4) " (Natural history) a number of animals or 
 plants living or growing together beyond their usual 
 range." 
 
 Settlement: "The act of peopling or state of being 
 peopled ; act of planting as a colony ; colonization ; 
 occupation by settlers, as the settlement of a new 
 country." 
 
 Settler : (1) " One who settles, becomes fixed, 
 established ; (2) especially, one who establishes 
 himself in a new region or a colony." 
 
 Our contention is this : If, as Aboriginals of the 
 country, we have allowed and still do allow ourselves 
 to be described as a colony, without transplantation 
 or emigration, we should not resent, we cannot
 
 814 APPENDIX B. 
 
 legitimately and reasonably resent, when we are 
 called settlers, and the only rights sought to be 
 conceded to us settlers' rights ! 
 
 But a colony, as you are aware, is not only so 
 called by transplantation from the Mother-Country 
 or by emigration alone ; it is often so by treaty cession, 
 or conquest, or transfer, or by annexation. In the 
 archives of the Government we are supposed to 
 be a colony by treaty cession. But there are 
 treaty cessions and treaty cessions. Gibraltar, for 
 example, was acquired by treaty cession in 1713 ; 
 but the student of English history knows this much, 
 that that rocky promontory was captured by the 
 combined forces of England and Holland during the 
 war of the Spanish Succession in 1704, under Sir 
 George Rooke, and that it was after that insan- 
 guinary war that Gibraltar was ceded by the Treaty 
 of Utrecht in 1713. It cannot, therefore, be urged 
 that we should be treated in every respect as all 
 countries obtained by the British Government by 
 treaty cession. It is the incumbent duty of the 
 members of the " Gold Coast Aborigines' Eights 
 Protection Society " to inwardly digest the precise 
 terms of the treaty by which the Gold Coast became 
 part and parcel of the British Empire. 
 
 These necessary informations are set forth in the 
 plainest possible language, as shall be seen in the 
 Bond of Fantee Chiefs, dated March 6th, 1844;
 
 APPENDIX B. 315 
 
 Lord Stanley's letter to Governor Hill (November 
 22nd, 1844) ; draft of an order of the Queen in 
 Council determining the mode of exerting her 
 acquired power and jurisdiction within the Gold 
 Coast Colony (Osborne House, 6th day of August, 
 1874) ; the Earl of Carnarvon's letter to Governor 
 Strahan (August 20th, 1874) ; " the proclamation 
 denning the nature and extent of the Queen's juris- 
 diction on the Gold Coast;" British Letters Patent 
 constituting the office of Governor and Commander- 
 in-Chief of the Gold Coast Colony, and providing for 
 the government thereof (January 13th, 1886) a 
 welcome collection of which Mr. Mensah Sarbah, 
 Barrister-at-law, has most timeously embodied in his 
 invaluable work "Fanti Customary Laws." A careful, 
 diligent, and intelligent perusal of these highly 
 important documents, which form the exclusive bases 
 of whatever powers, authority, and jurisdiction Her 
 Majesty exercises in the Gold Coast, will not only 
 disclose the extent and limit of such powers, authority, 
 and jurisdiction, but will likewise incidentally bring 
 to the light of day in how many instances the local 
 Government have, from time to time, infringed the 
 law, and trespassed upon our sacred rights and privi- 
 leges, thereby breaking with impunity the contract or 
 bond betwixt us, made and provided before our 
 alliance with the Queen, and to which Her Most 
 Gracious Majesty most solemnly plighted her troth.
 
 316 APPENDIX B. 
 
 The very names or titles of King 1 Tackie of Accra, 
 King Ghartey IV. of Winnebah, King Amonoo IV. of 
 Anamabu, and King Dawuna of Christiansborg are 
 proofs, positive, irrefragable and final, if proofs were 
 needed, that the Gold Coast could not be thought or 
 spoken of in the same sense as Australia, the Straits 
 Settlements, Jamaica, or, to come nearer home, 
 Sierra Leone. The natural concession of kingship 
 to us while Her Majesty remains the Queen of England 
 and the Colonies is in itself significant of much. 
 Mention anywhere else but in West Africa where 
 kings reign concurrently with Victoria Alexandrina ; 
 and the logical inference is that Her Majesty's 
 Government simply exists " by usage, and by the 
 sufferance and tacit assent " of the natives of the soil. 
 
 Our rulers are our friends and nothing more- 
 valuable acquisitions, friends in need and in deed, 
 true friends, good friends to use Governor Griffith's 
 time-honoured formula, but still friends ; and being 
 friends, and nothing but friends, to seek insidiously to 
 enslave us, to brand us with the hall-mark of conquered 
 subjects, is to outrage good faith and commit a breach 
 of confidence. But Punic faith is impossible to the 
 genius of the British Constitution, and our budding 
 ideas of British jurisprudence are fraught with peace, 
 
 1 There has been of late years a curious tendency of describing our 
 provincial or district Kings as Chiefs or Recognised Chiefs. This is 
 very much to be regretted. The erroneous appellation is obviously a 
 disturbing element in the native economy of concentric government.
 
 APPENDIX B. 317 
 
 fair play, and justice especially justice. From 
 sources of information available, we learn that 
 Elmina is the only place that may be rightly called 
 a settlement or colony, having been founded by the 
 Portuguese in 1481, l under the auspices of King 
 John II. We can have no objection to this statement 
 so far as Elmina is concerned. The Portuguese may 
 have founded St. George delta Mina, but certainly not 
 Dina, so that even this point can only be conceded 
 with a very large grain of salt. 
 
 How then did we come into contact with Her 
 Majesty's Government ? 
 
 Three hundred and sixty-one years ago, in the 
 reign of Edward IV., certain English adventurers 
 made their first appearance on the coast in competi- 
 tion with the Portuguese traders already in posses- 
 sion. It was not until eighty-eight years after, 
 however, when James I. was King of England, that 
 the successors of those English enterprising mer- 
 chants obtained a firm footing in the country. 
 They found their way to Grand Cormantine, where in 
 course of time they established friendly relations 
 with the people and built a fort, in 1624. Not being 
 molested by the natives, they extended their borders. 
 In process of time Europe scrambled for places on 
 the coast where she might be permitted to trade, 
 
 1 Some writers make out that Elmina was founded by a French 
 Company of Dieppe and Rouen, who built the first Gold Coast fort 
 in 1383.
 
 318 APPENDIX B. 
 
 and so it came to pass that not only Portuguese 
 and English, but Dutch, Danish, Swedish, French, 
 and German merchants arrived in our midst and 
 established forts and factories. But they proved to 
 be treacherous specimens of European civilisation. 
 These colonists, or settlers, who will ever merit the 
 severest censure and the utmost reprobation, repaid 
 the kindness and hospitality of our ancestors by 
 making human traffic a most lucrative industry, and 
 by deporting thousands of the people as slaves for 
 their cotton-fields in the West Indies and America. 
 In 1662 a charter was granted to an English company 
 for the purpose of trading with the Gold Coast. 
 Ten years subsequently the Royal African Company 
 appeared on the scene, and after making some 
 extensions and improvements on the Castle at Cape 
 Coast Castle, proceeded to build other fortifications, 
 such as Fort James (Accra, 1662), Commenda (1681), 
 Sekundi (1685), Dixcove (1691), Winnebah (1694), 
 and Anamabu (1753). Seventy-eight years after- 
 wards "the African Company of Merchants" was 
 constituted by Act of Parliament, " with liberty to 
 trade and form establishments on the West Coast of 
 Africa, between 20 degrees N. and 20 degrees S. Lat." 
 These places, known as settlements from the point 
 of view of the natives, by reason of the Europeans 
 who had settled in the country, were transferred 
 seventy-one years afterwards, rightly or wrongly, to
 
 APPENDIX B. 319 
 
 the Crown and placed under the Government of Sierra 
 Leone, from which they were finally separated in 1874 
 under the ill-starred title of the Gold Coast Colony. 
 
 In 1872 the Dutch Government exchanged their 
 forts (fifteen in number), and only their forts, with 
 Great Britain (which had prior to that taken over by 
 purchase all the Danish forts) , an action the clumsi- 
 ness of which brought about the Ashanti War of 
 187374. 
 
 So, then, history establishes the fact that the term 
 Gold Coast Colony, or Settlement, has no reference to 
 us whatsoever as natives of the soil, but is exclusively 
 applicable to those European merchants and followers 
 who came to settle in the country for the purposes 
 of trade, in years gone by. British possessions on 
 the Gold Coast, therefore, are the actual forts dotted 
 here and there on the littoral, many of which arc to- 
 day inhabited by colonies or settlements of bats and moles. 
 We somehow, either through lack of intelligent 
 appreciation of the fact, or through the peculiar 
 conditions of scattered interests in political matters 
 in the country, acquiesced in a sense to be called a 
 colony, where we should have made a firm stand 
 against the applicability of the misnomer; and 
 thereby hangs our tale of woe. But if not a colony 
 or settlement as natives, what then is our relation- 
 ship to the British Empire ? How should we be 
 designated ? There is happily another word with
 
 320 APPENDIX B. 
 
 which we are all familiar, and which accurately 
 explains on the face of it the position of affairs, 
 and that is the term ''protectorate." Up to the time 
 of His Excellency Sir William Brandford Griffith, 
 K.C.M.G., and until quite recently, the country 
 was officially known as the " Gold Coast Colony 
 and Protectorate," to distinguish, let us suppose, 
 the people inhabiting the littoral and those in the 
 far interior. And what is a Protectorate ? We refer 
 to Webster's International Dictionary again : " The 
 authority assumed by a superior power over an inferior 
 or a dependent one, whereby the former protects the 
 latter from invasion and shares in the management 
 of its affairs." 
 
 The description portrayed in this definition suits 
 the country and its inhabitants most admirably, and 
 the Government should, therefore, be known as the 
 Gold Coast Protectorate and not a colonial Govern- 
 ment pure and simple. If we had insisted on this 
 ancient but correct title, such anomalous Ordinances 
 as the Native Jurisdiction Bill, the Land Bill, 1897, 
 the Compulsory Labour Ordinance, and others after 
 their kind, could never have had in this country a 
 local habitation and a name. 
 
 Hitherto our successive Governors have been lead- 
 ing us on a down-grade tendency in respect of our 
 inalienable aboriginal rights ; it was left, however, 
 for the present Administration to give the stroke of
 
 APPENDIX B. 321 
 
 policy, hence the vigorous attack of the Legislative 
 Council to make null and void the immemorial titles 
 of the natives to the land of their ancestors. Yet in 
 our heart of hearts we cannot in strict justice or in 
 reason blame our present Governor. 
 
 Sir William Maxwell hails from the Straits Settle- 
 ments, or Colony for the terms are interchangeable 
 on the West Coast of the Malay Peninsula to the 
 Gold Coast Settlements, or Colony, on the West Coast 
 of Africa. He arrives with preconceived notions 
 and ideas. He conies fully au courant of those ele- 
 ments that constitute a colony. If he leaves one 
 colony to administer the affairs of another colony 
 under the same authority and power, he cannot be 
 held as having committed an unpardonable offence 
 if he proceeds to carry out conscientiously and faith- 
 fully the regime that obtains in the colony from 
 whence he comes. He shows himself more con- 
 sistent than most of his predecessors, and for taking 
 such a bold attitude he should be worthy of our 
 admiration and respect ; for until he learns more 
 of the peculiar history of the Gold Coast, until 
 he is forced to admit that there must have been a 
 reason, an irrefutable reason, why those he succeeds 
 could not promulgate such a law as the Land Bill 
 without detriment to the ethical code of civilised 
 Governments, we should be charitable enough to 
 put the very best possible construction upon all 
 
 G.C. 21
 
 322 APPENDIX B. 
 
 measures he may innocently introduce against our 
 interests. 
 
 Just a word or two touching the locus standiot the 
 Straits Settlements from a political standpoint. We 
 have all the more reason to do this since His Excel- 
 lency the Governor appears to be fond of making, 
 in season and out of season, invidious comparisons 
 between West Africans and Asiatics without any appre- 
 ciable regard being paid to the number of years the 
 formative and civilised influences that raise up one 
 nation above another had been in active operation 
 in the Orient before the tide broke its maiden spray 
 over this part of the world. Our usual catalogue of 
 sins of omission as they appear to Europeans with 
 centuries of schooling, discipline, and advantages of 
 time behind them might indeed be tolerable if due 
 consideration were given to such indispensable factors 
 as time and tide. But enough of this, and perhaps 
 more than enough. The Straits Settlements are 
 
 (1) Singapore first occupied in 1819, and finally 
 ceded to the British Government by the Sultan of 
 Jahore in 1824. 
 
 (2) Penang ceded to H.M. Government of India 
 in 1786 by the Eajah of Kedah. 
 
 (3) The Province of Wellesley also ceded by 
 the Rajah of Kedah, in 1800. 
 
 (4) The Bindings included in the Settlements for 
 administrative purposes under a Resident Councillor.
 
 APPENDIX B. 828 
 
 (5) Malacca captured by the English in 1795 
 and retained until 1818, when it was given back 
 to the Dutch ; but in pursuance of the treaty in 
 Holland in 1824, it became a British possession, 
 the place having been exchanged for British settle- 
 ments in Sumatra. We need hardly point out 
 that there are other States, such as Perak, Selangor, 
 Nigri Semblia, and Pahang, which by reason of 
 the fact that they have never been conquered or 
 ceded, are called the Protected Malay States, 
 administered under the advice of the British Kesi- 
 dent-General, and subject to the paramount autho- 
 rity of the Governor of the Straits Colony ; and 
 we take leave to submit that the case of the Gold 
 Coast is analogous to that of the Protected Malay 
 States, governed by native rulers as chiefs under 
 British control. 
 
 The Legislative Court, therefore, fails to under- 
 stand the pertinence of our claims to respect, and 
 the reasons which compel a hostile attitude against 
 any drastic Bill wherein the liberty, property, and 
 other rights of the subject are seriously threatened. 
 
 We urge then that the Gold Coast Aborigines' 
 Eights Protection Society, with or without the 
 co-operation of other organisations for the protection 
 of aboriginal races in the British Empire, must begin 
 by claiming the rightful name of " Protectorate " for 
 this country, and all other things will follow in time 
 
 212
 
 824 APPENDIX B. 
 
 as a matter of course. Sublata causa, tollitur effectus 
 " Remove the cause and the effect is destroyed." 
 
 Such a change of front might at once secure 
 authority for our kings and chiefs, and all coercive 
 measures be done away with for ever. Once get 
 England to acknowledge and baptise the colony 
 with the old name, and their sense of the moral 
 fitness of things would naturally induce Englishmen 
 to afford us such protection as is consistent with 
 our dignity and place in the Empire. 
 
 If the society omits to regard and labour this 
 initial step, and we still continue to vegetate under 
 the blighting name of Colony or Settlement, we may 
 clamour, clamouring never so loudly, but nothing 
 good will come out of the effort ; the society will 
 be, in that case, but another mountain in labour, 
 and then this splendid organisation, which we feel 
 sure is divinely inspired, will only exist to make 
 confusion worse confounded ; but the consummation 
 devoutly to be wished will still elude our grasp when 
 so near to it. 
 
 We implore the society first and foremost to clear 
 the ground by casting away the rock of offence to 
 which we allude, lest, with mighty protestations in 
 other directions and a loud fanfare of trumpets, the 
 Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society 
 parades a great name and pretensions which, on 
 being subjected to the test of exact logical deductions,
 
 APPENDIX B. 825 
 
 may be found wanting ; lest its precious promises 
 of something exceedingly great may be inevitably 
 accompanied by a performance ridiculously dispro- 
 portionate. 
 
 One word of assurance. The patriotic members 
 of the society have no need to furnish or secure 
 arguments in justification of their name and title. 
 We are the lineal descendants of the Aborigines of 
 the land known as the Gold Coast. We scorn to 
 descend into puerilities in refutation of those ill- 
 advised deliverances which regard the natives of 
 this country as foreigners because forsooth our for- 
 bears were immigrants from Timbuctoo or Takieman, 
 through Mohammedan aggressions and consequent 
 expatriation. First principles should teach us all 
 that the Garden of Eden is the only battle-ground 
 for rival claimants to acres of land in their absolute 
 right. Such are the consolations of the exhaustive 
 process on the last analysis. As human beings we 
 are not sufficiently developed to create by successive 
 fiats islands and capes, mountains and plains, &c. 
 But the English law provides sufficient data in 
 support of those who by long possession lay claim 
 to any portion or portions of our planet as their very 
 own. We do not base our indefeasible rights on the 
 fact that as natives we originally sprang from the 
 soil like the products of the teeth of the dragon 
 Cadmus slew in Bceotia. We do maintain with the
 
 326 APPENDIX B. 
 
 emphasis of simplicity that we are cib oriyines, and 
 that, therefore, every inch of ground is ours and 
 ours irrevocably, to have and to hold and to 
 administer, and all because our ancestors were the 
 first and earliest inhabitants of the protectorate, 
 thousands of years ago, even before the traditional 
 voyage of Hanno the Carthaginian to the Gold 
 Coast. The Latins, first settling in the Apennines 
 and afterwards in the Lower Tiber, have always 
 been acknowledged in the history of pre-Roman 
 Italy as Aborigines, and we might go on ad infinitum 
 and show in what respects England, France, 
 Germany, and other European countries could be 
 said to be the bona Jitle possessions of the English, 
 the French, the Germans, &c. But to what end ? 
 We are the undisputed masters of the soil, and that 
 should suffice. Stand then, my countrymen, shoulder 
 to shoulder. Let unity of thought and unanimity 
 of purpose prevail, and your love for the Motherland, 
 its institutions and traditions, be without dissimula- 
 tion. Above all, strain every nerve to remain loyal 
 to the Queen, our Protector. Quit you like men, 
 standing square to the great work before you, and 
 with a pull, a long pull, and a pull altogether, 
 depend upon it there is nothing that will ever be 
 impossible to our beloved country, the Gold Coast 
 Protectorate.
 
 327 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 l. 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE NEW FANTEE CONFEDERACY. 
 
 To all whom it may concern. 
 
 Whereas we, the undersigned kings and chiefs of 
 Fanti, have taken into consideration the deplorable 
 state of our peoples and subjects in the interior of 
 the Gold Coast, and whereas we are of opinion that 
 unity and concord among ourselves would conduce 
 to our mutual well-being, and promote and advance 
 the social and political condition of our peoples and 
 subjects, who are in a state of degradation, without 
 the means of education and of carrying on proper 
 industry, we, the said kings and chiefs, after having 
 duly discussed and considered the subject at meetings 
 held at Mankessim on the 16th day of October last 
 and following days, have unanimously resolved and 
 agreed upon the articles hereinafter named. 
 
 ARTICLE 1. That we, the kings and chiefs of 
 Fanti here present, form ourselves into a committee
 
 828 APPENDIX C. 
 
 with the view of effecting unity of purpose and of 
 action between the kings and chiefs of the Fanti 
 territory. 
 
 ARTICLE 2. That we, the kings and chiefs here 
 assembled, now form ourselves into a compact body 
 for the purpose of more effectually bringing about 
 certain improvements (hereafter to be considered) in 
 the country. 
 
 ARTICLE 8. That this compact body shall be 
 recognised under the title and designation of the 
 " Fanti Confederation." 
 
 ARTICLE 4. That there shall be elected a president, 
 vice-president, secretary, under-secretary, treasurer, 
 and assistant treasurer. 
 
 ARTICLE 5. That the president be elected from 
 the body of kings, arid be proclaimed king-president 
 of the Fanti Confederation. 
 
 ARTICLE 6. That the vice-president, secretary and 
 under-secretary, treasurer, and assistant treasurer, 
 who shall constitute the ministry, be men of educa- 
 tion and position. 
 
 ARTICLE 7. That it be competent to the Fanti 
 Confederation thus constituted to receive into its 
 body politic any other king or kings, chief or chiefs, 
 who may not now be present. 
 
 ARTICLE 8. That it be the object of the Con- 
 federation 
 
 Section 1 . To promote friendly intercourse between
 
 APPENDIX C. 829 
 
 all the kings and chiefs of Fanti, and to unite them 
 for offensive and defensive purposes against their 
 common enemy. 
 
 Section 2. To direct the labours of the Con- 
 federation towards the improvement of the country 
 at large. 
 
 Section 3. To make good and substantial roads 
 throughout all the interior districts included in the 
 Confederation. 
 
 Section 4. To erect school-houses and establish 
 schools for the education of all children within the 
 Confederation, and to obtain the service of efficient 
 schoolmasters. 
 
 Section 5. To promote agricultural and industrial 
 pursuits, and to endeavour to introduce such new 
 plants as may hereafter become sources of profitable 
 commerce to the country. 
 
 Section 6. To develop and facilitate the working 
 of the mineral and other resources of the country. 
 
 ARTICLE 9. That an executive council be formed, 
 composed of the vice-president, secretary, under- 
 secretary, treasurer, and assistant treasurer, who 
 shall be ex-ojficio members thereof, together with 
 such others as may be hereafter from time to time 
 appointed. 
 
 ARTICLE 10. That in order that the business of 
 the Confederation be properly carried on during the 
 course of the year, each king and principal chief
 
 330 APPENDIX C. 
 
 shall appoint two representatives, one educated, the 
 other a chief or headman of the district of such king 
 and principal chief, who shall attend the meetings 
 which the secretary may deem necessary to convene 
 for the deliberation of State matters. 
 
 ARTICLE 11. That the representatives of the kings 
 and chiefs assembled in council shall be known 
 under the designation of the " Kepresentative 
 Assembly of the Fanti Confederation," and that this 
 assembly be called together by the secretary as State 
 exigency may require. 
 
 ARTICLE 12. That this representative assembly 
 shall have the power of preparing laws, ordinances, 
 bills, &c , of using proper means for effectually 
 carrying out the resolutions, &c., of the Government, 
 of examining any questions laid before it by the 
 ministry and by any of the kings and chiefs, and, 
 in fact, of exercising all the functions of a legis- 
 lative body. 
 
 ARTICLE 13. That the representative of each king 
 and chief be responsible to the nation for the 
 effectual carrying out of the bills, resolutions, &c., 
 passed at such meetings, and approved of by the 
 king-president. 
 
 ARTICLE 14. That the appointment of the repre- 
 sentatives nominated by the kings and principal chiefs 
 be notified to the secretary, who shall make it known 
 to all the members of the national Government.
 
 APPENDIX C. 331 
 
 ARTICLE 15. That the National Assembly shall 
 appoint an educated man to represent the king- 
 president, and act as vice-president of the Confedera- 
 tion ; and that the vice-president shall preside over 
 all meetings convened by the secretary. 
 
 ARTICLE 16. That there shall be in the month of 
 October of each year a gathering of the kings, 
 principal chiefs, and others within the Confederation, 
 when a recapitulation of the business done by the 
 Representative Assembly shall be read, and the 
 programme of the ensuing year discussed. 
 
 ARTICLE 17. That at such meetings the king- 
 president shall preside, and that it be the duty of 
 the king-president to sanction all laws, ordinances, 
 &c., passed by the Representative Assembly, so far 
 as they are compatible with the interests of the 
 country. 
 
 ARTICLE 18. That the king-president shall not 
 have the power to pass any, or originate any, laws, 
 resolutions, ordinances, bills, &c., nor create any 
 office or appointment, excepting by, and under the 
 advice of, the ministry. 
 
 ARTICLE 19. That the representatives of the 
 kings and principal chiefs hold office as members of 
 the Representative Assembly for three years, at the 
 expiration of which it shall be competent for the 
 kings and chiefs to re-elect the same or appoint 
 other representatives.
 
 332 APPENDIX C. 
 
 ARTICLE 20. That the members of the ministry 
 and Executive Council hold office for three years, 
 and that it is competent to the National Assembly 
 to re-elect all or any of them and appoint 
 others. 
 
 ARTICLE 21. That national schools be established 
 at as early a period as possible in the following 
 districts : Braffoo Country, Abrah, Ayan, Gomowah, 
 Eckunifi, Edgimacoe, Denhia and Assin. 
 
 ARTICLE 22. That normal schools be attached to 
 each national school for the express purpose of 
 educating and instructing the scholars as carpenters, 
 masons, sawyers, joiners, agriculturists, smiths, 
 architects, builders, &c. 
 
 ARTICLE 23. That schools be also established, 
 and schoolmistresses procured to train and teach 
 the female sex, and to instruct them in the necessary 
 requisites. 
 
 ARTICLE 24. That the expense of erecting each 
 school be defrayed from the national purse, but that 
 each king and chief be requested to render all possible 
 aid to facilitate the movement by supplying men 
 and materials. 
 
 ARTICLE 25. That in districts where there are 
 Wesleyan Schools at present established the kings 
 and chiefs be requested to insist on the daily attend- 
 ance of all children between the ages of eight and 
 fourteen.
 
 APPENDIX C. 333 
 
 ARTICLE 26. That main roads be made, con- 
 necting various provinces or districts with one 
 another, and with the sea coast ; that the roads be 
 made after the following standard, viz., fifteen feet 
 broad, with good deep gutters on either side, and 
 that the attention of the Confederation be first 
 directed to the main road connecting Edgimacoe, 
 Ayan, Ayanmain, and Mankessim, with the sea coast. 
 
 ARTICLE 27. That the kings and principal chiefs 
 be allowed a stipulated sum for the express purpose 
 of maintaining the roads in proper order. 
 
 ARTICLE 28. That a site or town, unanimously 
 agreed upon, be chosen as the nominal capital of the 
 Confederation, where the principal business of the 
 State should be conducted. 
 
 ARTICLE 29. That provincial assessors be 
 appointed in each province or district, who shall 
 perform certain judicial functions, and attend to 
 the internal management thereof. 
 
 ARTICLE 30. That it shall be the duty of the 
 secretary of the Confederation 
 
 Section 1. To convene meetings of the Represen- 
 tative Assembly, for the purpose of considering 
 State matters, as may appear to the ministry 
 necessary. 
 
 Section 2. To forward the decision of the Execu- 
 tive Council to the representatives of the various 
 provinces or districts, with instructions thereon.
 
 334 APPENDIX C. 
 
 Section 3. To be the medium through which all 
 important State matters be conducted. 
 
 Section 4. To inform the king-president of the 
 decision of the Representative Assembly on any reso- 
 lutions, &c., and to explain to him the nature of 
 whatever resolutions, &c., are passed, as well as to 
 carry to the Representative Assembly his sanction 
 thereof. 
 
 Section 5. To promulgate in each province, either 
 through the provincial representatives or otherwise, 
 whatever resolutions, laws, &c., have been passed 
 and have received the sanction of the king-president. 
 
 Section 6. To appoint, under the advice of the 
 Executive Council, subject to the sanction of the 
 king-president, but countersigned by the vice-presi- 
 dent, all subordinate officers in the provinces. 
 
 Section 7. To receive the revenue of the country, 
 keeping a strict account thereof, and to transmit 
 monthly to the treasurer all moneys in his posses- 
 sion, stating the sums obtained from the different 
 sources of revenue. 
 
 Section 8. To sign all vouchers for the treasurer's 
 guidance in the payment of moneys. 
 
 ARTICLE 31. That it be the duty of the trea- 
 surer 
 
 Section 1. To receive monthly from the secretary 
 all moneys in his possession, keeping accounts 
 thereof and giving him a receipt for the same.
 
 APPENDIX C. 335 
 
 Section 2. To make no disbursements excepting 
 under instructions, accompanied with approved 
 vouchers from the secretary authorising the pay- 
 ments. 
 
 Section 3. To furnish quarterly to the secretary, 
 for the information of the Representative Assembly, 
 an account showing the receipts during the quarter 
 and the disbursements. 
 
 ARTICLE 32. That at the end of each quarter a 
 board of officers, consisting of the vice-president, 
 secretary, treasurer, and one of the kings, to 
 be held for the purpose of verifying the cash in 
 hand. 
 
 ARTICLE 33. That in case the cash in hand in the 
 possession of the treasurer should exceed a sum 
 hereafter to be considered, the surplus should be 
 placed in a depot chest, furnished with three keys, 
 one of which shall be in the possession of the vice- 
 president, another in that of the treasurer, and the 
 third shall be retained by one of the kings. 
 
 ARTICLE 34. That it be the duty of the under- 
 secretary 
 
 Section 1. To aid the secretary generally. 
 
 Section 2. To hear and determine, with an assis- 
 tant appointed by the secretary, cases which may be 
 brought from the provincial courts. 
 
 Section 3. To arrange important appeal cases for 
 the hearing of the Executive Council, which shall
 
 836 APPENDIX C. 
 
 constitute the final court of appeal of the Con- 
 federation. 
 
 Section 4. To draw up a report from accounts 
 received from the provinces of the state of the roads, 
 schools, &c., for the guidance of the Executive 
 Council. 
 
 ARTICLE 35. That it be the duty of the assistant 
 treasurer 
 
 Section 1. To receive all moneys from the pro- 
 vincial courts, receipt the vouchers thereof, and hand 
 sa'me to the secretary. 
 
 Section 2. To keep an account of the various 
 sources of revenue, and to receive the moneys 
 accruing therefrom, and pay the same over to the 
 secretary every fortnight. 
 
 ARTICLE 36. That it be the duty of the provincial 
 assessors 
 
 Section 1. To hold courts in the districts to which 
 they are appointed, with the assistance of the king 
 or principal chief. 
 
 Section 2. To transmit to the secretary a state- 
 ment of all cases tried during each month, showing 
 the decisions arrived at thereon according to a form 
 hereafter to be prescribed by the Executive Council. 
 
 Section 3. To keep an account of the summonses, 
 writs, &c., issued during the month, showing the 
 costs and fees thereon, as well as all fines imposed 
 by them.
 
 APPENDIX C. 337 
 
 Section 4. To transmit weekly to the assistant 
 treasurer all moneys received by them as court fees 
 or fines, with an accompanying voucher. 
 
 Section 5. To see that the roads are made accord- 
 ing to the approved standard, and that they are 
 kept in proper condition. 
 
 Section 6. To see that the national schools are 
 attended by all children between the ages of eight 
 and fourteen, and report thereon to the secretary. 
 
 Section 7. To see that summonses, writs, &c., 
 issuing from the British courts on the sea coast 
 to any of the provincial towns are carried into effect 
 with as little delay as possible, and to aid in the 
 apprehension of criminals. 
 
 AKTICLE 37. That in each province or district 
 provincial courts be established, to be presided over 
 by the provincial assessors. 
 
 ARTICLE 38. That it be the duty of the Ministry 
 and Executive Council 
 
 Section 1. TO advise the king-president in all 
 State matters. 
 
 Section 2. To see that all laws, bills, ordinances, 
 resolutions, &c., passed by the Kepresentative 
 Assembly, after receiving the sanction of the king- 
 president, are carried into effect with as little delay 
 as possible. 
 
 Section 3. To examine carefully the financial 
 condition of the Confederation. 
 G.C. 22
 
 338 APPENDIX C. 
 
 Section 4. To hear, try, and determine all impor- 
 tant appeal cases brought before it by the under- 
 secretary, option being allowed any party or parties 
 dissatisfied with the decision thereof to appeal to 
 the British Courts, on application from which the 
 minutes of the proceedings therewith will be 
 forwarded. 
 
 Section 5. To hear, presided over by the king- 
 president, and assisted by any king or chief whom 
 it may deem necessary to summon for that pur- 
 pose, all disputes between any of the kings and 
 chiefs or their peoples. 
 
 Section 6. To determine, according to the 
 majority of votes of the people, the succession to 
 the stool of any king or chief. 
 
 Section 1. To prepare laws, bills, ordinances, &c., 
 for the consideration of the representative body. 
 
 Section 8. To issue notices to the kings and 
 chiefs appointing time for their annual meeting, 
 and frame out the programme of such meeting. 
 
 Section 9. To consider all applications of alli- 
 ances from surrounding tribes, to present them for 
 the consideration of the Representative Assembly, 
 and to frame a reply thereto. 
 
 ARTICLE 39. That three of the ex officio members 
 of the Executive Council, or two ex officio and two 
 non-official members, shall form a quorum of said 
 council, and be competent to deliberate on all matters
 
 APPENDIX C. 339 
 
 laid before it for the consideration by the secretary 
 or nnder-secretary, or any other member thereof. 
 
 ARTICLE 40. That one-third of the members com- 
 posing the Representative Assembly shall form a 
 quorum to discuss and deliberate on all questions 
 brought before said Assembly. 
 
 ARTICLE 41. That all laws, bills, regulations, 
 ordinances, &c., be carried by the majority of votes 
 in the Representative Assembly or Executive 
 Council, in the latter the vice-president possessing 
 a casting vote. 
 
 ARTICLE 42. That it be the duty of the National 
 Assembly, held in October of each year 
 
 Section 1. To elect from the body of kings the 
 president for the ensuing year, and to re-elect, as 
 often as may appear to it fit and proper, the outgoing 
 president. 
 
 Section 2. To consider all programmes laid before 
 it by the executive council. 
 
 Section 3. To place on the stool, in cases of 
 disputed succession thereto, the person elected by 
 the executive council, with the concurrence of the 
 principal inhabitants of the town, croom, or district. 
 
 ARTICLE 43. That the officers of the Confedera- 
 tion shall render assistance as directed by the 
 executive in carrying out the wishes of the British 
 Government. 
 
 ARTICLE 44. That it be competent to the 
 
 22-2
 
 340 APPENDIX C. 
 
 Kepresentative Assembly, for the purpose of carry- 
 ing on the administration of the Government, to 
 pass laws, &c., for the levying of such taxes as it 
 may s.eem necessary. 
 
 ARTICLE 45. That all the articles herein above 
 passed be designated " The Constitution of the 
 Fanti Confederation." 
 
 ARTICLE 46. That oaths of allegiance to the Fanti 
 Confederation be taken by the kings and principal 
 chiefs, which shall be held binding on their subjects 
 and peoples, as well as by the principal officers of 
 the Confederation and others joining it. 
 
 ARTICLE 47. That the following oaths, in con- 
 junction with that peculiar to each province, be 
 administered as soon as the " Constitution " becomes 
 law, to all the kings and chiefs present, to their 
 captains and headmen, to the educated persons who 
 express a wish to join the Confederation, and to all 
 the office-bearers. 1 
 
 2. 
 THE FANTI NATIONAL EDUCATION SCHEME. 
 
 To all to whom these presents shall come Kobena 
 Entiree, Chief of Bamianko, and the undersigned 
 headmen, elders and councillors, hereinafter called 
 the grantors, we send greeting. 
 
 1 Parliamentary Papers, 1873 (49), p. 3 7.
 
 APPENDIX C. 341 
 
 Whereas we desire to provide for the proper educa- 
 tion and technical training of the people still under 
 our stool, and to aid and promote sound learning 
 and religious education in the Gold Coast by raising 
 a fund hereinafter to be called Mfantsi National 
 Education Fund, and to appoint trustees to administer 
 such fund. Now these presents witness : 
 
 1. That the said grantors do hereby of our own 
 free will authorise and fully empower the treasurer 
 of the Gold Coast Colony, or other officer or person 
 empowered by the Concessions Ordinance, 1900, to 
 receive the rents due to us or any of us for any 
 concessions granted by ourselves individually or 
 collectively or our predecessors in title, to deduct 
 10 per cent, out of and from all rents and monies 
 so received from time to time, which shall be a first 
 charge on such rents, and the same to set aside and 
 pay into the Bank of British West Africa, Limited, 
 at Cape Coast* Castle, or some other bank, to the 
 credit of the trustees of the said Mfantsi National 
 Education Fund ; and we declare that the receipt 
 of the said sum by the Bank of British West Africa, 
 Limited, or any person duly authorised by the said 
 trustees to receive the same, shall discharge the said 
 treasurer or other officer or person from seeing to 
 the application thereof. 
 
 2. We do hereby appoint His Excellency the 
 Governor of the Gold Coast Colony, the senior
 
 342 APPENDIX C. 
 
 native unofficial member of the Legislative Council 
 of the Gold Coast, the President of the Gold Coast 
 Aborigines' Eights Protection Society, the Rev. 
 Andrew William Parker, of Cape Coast Castle 
 (Wesleyan Minister), William Edward Sam, of Adja 
 Bippo in Tarkwa, and Joseph Ephraim Casely Hay- 
 ford, of Axim, barrister-at-law, to be the trustees of 
 this fund. 
 
 3. The said trustees shall have full power to 
 nominate and add to their number not more than 
 four persons, and on any of them ceasing to be a 
 trustee the remaining trustees shall by vote fill up 
 such vacancy. 
 
 4. The said trustees shall stand possessed of and 
 interested in the said money hereinbefore charged 
 and made payable upon trust 
 
 (i.) To establish and maintain a school or schools 
 in the district of or other parts of the Gold 
 
 Coast, in which children shall receive religious 
 training, and be taught 
 
 (a) To read and write the Fanti language ; 
 
 (b) The history and geography of the Gold Coast, 
 
 having special reference to the local institu- 
 tions, customs, and usages; 
 
 (e) Industrial and technical training ; 
 
 (d) English 'education. 
 
 (ii.) To establish secondary or higher-grade 
 schools.
 
 APPENDIX C. 343 
 
 (iii.) To found scholarships, to be called Queen 
 Victoria scholarships, in aid of a liberal and pro- 
 fessional education, and to encourage local literature. 
 
 5. In the event of other chiefs, headmen, and 
 persons in like manner contributing or providing to 
 the aforesaid objects, power is given to the said 
 trustees to add the monies hereby granted, and the 
 same to administer together. 
 
 6. Power is given to the said trustees and their 
 successors to make such rules and regulations and 
 to apply to the legislature of the Gold Coast Colony 
 for such further powers and authorities as they may 
 consider fit and proper for more perfectly and com- 
 pletely carrying out the objects of these presents, 
 and it is hereby declared that in every case of 
 difference the decision of the majority shall prevail, 
 subject to any rules and regulations then in force. 
 
 7. And each and every one of us for himself and 
 his successors in title, doth and do hereby covenant 
 with each of the said trustees and their respective 
 successors, that the aforesaid authority to deduct, 
 set aside and pay the said ten per cent, shall not at 
 any time hereafter be cancelled or recalled, and it 
 is hereby declared to be irrevocable, and that each 
 and all of us will from time to time and at any time 
 hereinafter at the request of any of the trustees or 
 their successors, do, execute and perform or cause to 
 be done, executed and performed all things that may
 
 344 APPENDIX C. 
 
 be requisite and necessary for fully and effectually 
 vesting the said money in the said trustees and their 
 successors, so as to secure and promote among the 
 aboriginal inhabitants of the Gold Coast from hence- 
 forth for all future generations, sound learning and 
 religious education. 
 
 As witness our hands, marks and seals, this 
 day of 
 
 The contents of this document were fully explained 
 and interpreted to the said grantors in their own 
 language, and it was executed after each of them 
 had stated he perfectly understood the same, in the 
 presence of
 
 345 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE AND OTHER INFORMATION. 
 
 1. 
 
 DRAFT of an order of the Queen in Council for 
 determining the mode of exercising the power and 
 jurisdiction acquired by Her Majesty within divers 
 countries on the West Coast of Africa, near or 
 adjacent to Her Majesty's Gold Coast Colony. 
 , At the Court at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, 
 the 6th day of August, 1874. 
 
 Present : The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, 
 Lord President, Mr. Secretary Cross, Mr. Disraeli. 
 
 Whereas, . by an Act made and passed in the 
 session of Parliament, holden in the sixth and 
 seventh years of Her Majesty's reign, intituled " An 
 Act to remove doubts as to the exercise of power 
 and jurisdiction by Her Majesty within divers 
 countries and places out of Her Majesty's dominions, 
 and to render the same more effectual," it was, 
 amongst other things, enacted that it should be
 
 346 APPENDIX D. 
 
 lawful for Her Majesty to hold, exercise, and enjoy 
 any power or jurisdiction which Her Majesty then 
 had, or might at any time thereafter have, within 
 any country or place out of Her Majesty's dominions 
 in the same and as ample a manner as if Her 
 Majesty had acquired such power or jurisdiction by 
 the cession or conquest of territory. And whereas 
 by certain letters patent, under the great seal of the 
 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 bearing date at Westminster the 24th day of July, 
 1874, in the thirty-eighth year of Her Majesty's 
 reign, Her Majesty's settlements on the Gold Coast 
 and of Lagos were constituted and erected into one 
 colony, under the title of the Gold Coast Colony, 
 and a Legislative Council was appointed for the 
 same colony, with certain powers and authority to 
 legislate for the said colony, as by the said Letters 
 Patent, reference being had thereto will more fully 
 appear. And whereas Her Majesty hath acquired 
 power and jurisdiction within divers countries on 
 the West Coast of Africa, near or adjacent to Her 
 Majesty's said Gold Coast Colony, and it is expedient 
 to determine the mode of exercising such power and 
 jurisdiction. Now, therefore, it is hereby ordered, 
 with the advice and consent of her Privy Council, 
 as follows : 
 
 1. It shall be lawful for the Legislative Council 
 for the time being of the said Gold Coast Colony,
 
 APPENDIX D. 347 
 
 by ordinance or ordinances, to exercise and provide 
 for giving effect to all such powers and jurisdiction 
 as Her Majesty may at any time, before or after the 
 passing of this order in council, have acquired in 
 the said territories adjacent to the Gold Coast 
 Colony. 
 
 2. The Governor for the time being of the said 
 colony has a negative voice in the passing of all 
 such ordinances as aforesaid. And the right is 
 hereby reserved to Her Majesty, her heirs and 
 successors, to disallow any such ordinances as afore- 
 said, in whole or in part, such disallowance being 
 signified to the Governor through one of Her 
 Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, and also to 
 make and establish from time to time, with the 
 advice and consent of Parliament, or with the advice 
 of her or their Privy Council, all such laws or 
 ordinances as may to her or them appear necessary 
 for the exercise of such powers and jurisdiction as 
 aforesaid, as fully as if this order in council had not 
 been made. 
 
 3. In the making and establishing all such 
 ordinances, the said Legislative Council shall con- 
 form to and observe all such rules and regulations 
 as may from time to time be appointed by any 
 instruction or instructions issued by Her Majesty 
 with the advice of her Privy Council, and, until 
 further directed, the instructions in force for the time
 
 348 APPENDIX D. 
 
 being as to ordinances passed by the said Legislative 
 Council for the peace, order, and good government 
 of the said Gold Coast Colony shall, so far as they 
 may be applicable, be taken and deemed to be in 
 force in respect of ordinances passed by the said 
 council by virtue of this order in council. 
 
 4. In the construction of this order in council, 
 the term "Governor" shall include the officer for 
 the time being administering the Government of 
 the Gold Coast Colony. 
 
 And the Eight Honourable the Earl of Carnarvon, 
 one of Her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, 
 is to give the necessary directions herein accordingly. 
 
 (Signed) AKTHUE HELPS. 
 
 2. 
 
 LORD STANLEY TO LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR HILL. 
 Assessors ' Jurisdiction. 
 
 DOWNING STREET, 
 
 November 22nd, 1844, 
 
 SIR, I have had under my consideration the 
 correspondence noted in the accompanying schedule 
 and of which papers and copies are herewith enclosed, 
 and I have to acquaint you that upon the report of 
 the law officers of the Crown, Her Majesty has been
 
 APPENDIX D. 349 
 
 pleased to pass an order in council, herewith enclosed, 
 under the Acts 6 & 7 Viet., cc. 13 and 94, appointing 
 Her Majesty's settlement of Cape Coast Castle as a 
 place to which persons coming within the operation 
 of the last mentioned of those Acts may be sent for 
 trial or punishment. 
 
 The order, you will perceive, provides for two 
 distinct classes of cases. The one, that of persons 
 whom it may be deemed expedient to send from 
 the neighbouring countries to be tried within Her 
 Majesty's settlement; the other, that of persons 
 who may have been tried in the neighbouring 
 countries, but whom it is considered advisable to send 
 into Her Majesty's settlement for the purpose of 
 undergoing their sentences. 
 
 As regards the first class of cases, you will of 
 course bear in mind that in any trial which takes 
 place the provisions of the 6 & 7 Viet., c. 94 applic- 
 able to that event must be strictly observed ; and 
 also, that as the jurisdiction for the trial of offenders 
 sent under the provisions of the Act is given to the 
 Supreme Court of the Colony only to which they are 
 sent, that in the present state of the judicial insti- 
 tutions on the Gold Coast, such offenders would 
 require to be forwarded thence to Sierra Leone for 
 trial. 
 
 For practical purposes, therefore, as yet at all 
 events, his power is not likely to be of any general
 
 350 APPENDIX D. 
 
 utility. The powers, however, given under the 
 second head will, I apprehend, greatly facilitate the 
 working of the system which has grown up in our 
 relations with the tribes surrounding the forts under 
 your government. 
 
 It being necessary to provide for the appointment 
 of persons to be specially empowered to exercise the 
 powers conferred by the different sections of the 
 6 & 7 Viet., c. 94, 1 send you additional instructions, 
 under the sign manual, giving you the requisite 
 authority, both to act yourself and to nominate 
 others for the same purpose ; and I have, as you 
 will perceive, taken the opportunity of providing for 
 Mr. Maclean's absence or inability to discharge the 
 duties of assessor to the sovereigns and chiefs of the 
 neighbouring tribes by making a fresh appointment 
 to the office, including yourself and others with him, 
 as such assessors having power to act either jointly 
 or severally. 
 
 Should Mr. Cloustun, the gentleman whom you 
 have appointed as reported in your despatch, No. 27 
 of June 16th last, to officiate for Mr. Maclean, not 
 be already in the commission of the peace, or his 
 name not stand first or second upon it, it will of 
 course be necessary that a new commission should 
 be issued. 
 
 I presume that the magistrates and gaoler at the 
 gaol at Cape Coast Castle are already the persons to
 
 APPENDIX D. 351 
 
 whom it appertains to carry into effect there any 
 sentences which may have been passed by the 
 Supreme Court at Sierra Leone. 
 
 Should that, however, be not the case, appoint- 
 ments to that effect ought forthwith to be made, 
 and I have instructed the Governor of Sierra Leone 
 accordingly, it being necessary, under the 5th 
 section of the 6 & 7 Viet., c. 94, that the persons 
 to give effect within any colony to sentences passed 
 out of it should be " magistrates, gaolers, or other 
 officers to whom it may appertain to give effect 
 to any sentence passed by the Supreme Court 
 exercising criminal jurisdiction within such colony." 
 
 The royal instructions, you will perceive, also 
 provide for the appointment of persons having the 
 authority to exercise the powers given by the 6th 
 section of the 6 & 7 Viet., c. 94, relative to the 
 transportation of convicts ; but you will clearly 
 understand that, although it has been considered 
 expedient to provide by the instrument the machinery 
 necessary for bringing into operation all the powers 
 conferred by the Act, yet that you are not to con- 
 sider yourself at liberty, in any case, to exercise or 
 permit the exercise of that relative to transportation 
 without special instructions from the Secretary of 
 State. 
 
 Although likewise the instructions, as before 
 observed, provide for the exercise of the office of
 
 352 APPENDIX D. 
 
 assessor by several persons jointly, as well as by one 
 person, you will not on that account make any altera- 
 tion in the practice which has hitherto prevailed of 
 leaving the duties to be executed by one person. 
 
 You will bear in mind that the power of the 
 assessor, in his judicial capacity, is not derived 
 from either the Acts of Parliament above referred 
 to, or from the order in council ; and further, that 
 it cannot be exercised by him as such within Her 
 Majesty's dominions. It must be founded on the 
 assent and concurrence of the sovereign power of 
 the State within which it is exercised, either express, 
 as in the case of the treaty transmitted by you in 
 your private and confidential despatch of the 6th of 
 March last, or implied from long usage, as in the 
 case of the long and general acquiescence, which 
 can be shown in many districts, in the authority 
 hitherto exercised by Mr. Maclean. 
 
 You will understand that the system upon which 
 Mr. Maclean has proceeded, in the exercise of 
 judicial powers over the natives, is to be taken as 
 the guide for the exercise of the powers of assessor 
 for the future. 
 
 It consists, in fact, in combining with an 
 impartial investigation of the cases brought before 
 him, a mitigation of the severity of the sentences 
 which in such cases would be awarded by native 
 judges in the event of conviction. I need not
 
 APPENDIX D. 353 
 
 therefore instruct you to caution the asaessor of 
 the necessity for a lenient exercise of the discretion 
 entrusted to him ; but in the event of his deeming 
 capital punishment in any case inevitable, you will 
 instruct him that the execution must be carried into 
 effect by the native authorities, and take place in 
 the country in which the offender is tried. 
 
 Having thus, as far as possible, brought the very' 
 peculiar case of the jurisdiction exercised among 
 the tribes in the neighbourhood of the forts on the 
 Gold Coast within the operation of the Acts of 
 Parliament referred to in the commencement of 
 this despatch, it only remains for me further to 
 observe that I am not to be understood as affirming 
 that the exercise of that jurisdiction is not capable 
 of being justified and maintained independently of 
 any such express sanction of the Legislature. 
 
 It is a jurisdiction which had its origin in a 
 desire to mitigate, by the influence of Christianity 
 and civilisation, the effect of cruel and barbarous 
 customs ; it has been brought into operation upon 
 a state of society, and under relation to savage 
 tribes, necessitating a neglect of all technical rules 
 and observances. In its effects, it has undeniably 
 been the means of insuring justice, preventing 
 cruelty, and promoting civilisation ; and I must 
 guard myself against being supposed, because I 
 endeavour to give it the aid of the forms I have 
 
 G.C. 23
 
 354 APPENDIX D. 
 
 averted to, to assume that the general principles 
 of the law of England are not comprehensive enough 
 to allow for the necessities which such a state of 
 circumstances as exist on the Gold Coast unavoid- 
 ably "creates, and to justify those measures by 
 which such necessities, when created, can alone be 
 adequately provided for. 
 
 I have, &c., 
 
 (Signed) STANLEY. 
 Lieut. -Governor Hill, &c. 
 
 3. 
 
 THE EARL OF CARNARVON TO GOVERNOR STRAHAN. 
 
 DOWNING STREET, 
 
 August 10th, 1874. 
 
 SIR, In my despatch of the 20th instant, I had 
 the honour to forward to you an order made by 
 Her Majesty in Council, which delegates to the 
 Legislature of the Gold Coast the exercise by 
 ordinance or ordinances of such power and juris- 
 diction as Her Majesty has or may at any time have 
 acquired in the territories adjacent to the Gold 
 Coast Colony. 
 
 2. The Legislature of the Gold Coast settlements 
 has from time to time enacted ordinances which 
 were intended to take effect beyond the local limits
 
 APPENDIX D. 355 
 
 of the British settlements of the Gold Coast. 
 Doubts, however, have been entertained as to the 
 validity and force of such legislation, and in 1855 
 the law officers reported that such assumption of 
 authority was not justified. 
 
 3. Her Majesty's Government having decided to 
 establish a new colony and legislative council for 
 the settlements of the Gold Coast and Lagos, 
 vesting in that council the power to legislate for the 
 protected territories on the Gold Coast, the law 
 officers were requested to report upon the subject ; 
 and in accordance with their opinion, of which I 
 annex a copy for your private information, the order 
 in council already transmitted to you was passed. 
 By this order the local Legislature is (subject to 
 the conditions and reservations therein specified) 
 clothed with whatever legislative authority Her 
 Majesty has or may hereafter claim to exercise on 
 the Gold Coast. 
 
 4. This having been done, it becomes advisable 
 to define as clearly as may be the extent of Her 
 Majesty's power and jurisdiction, so as to prevent 
 misunderstandings in future, and to enable the 
 colonial Legislature to know on what subjects it 
 may properly legislate. 
 
 5. I need not here examine in detail the origin 
 and history of the peculiar jurisdiction exercised 
 by this country in the protected territories of the 
 
 232
 
 356 APPENDIX D. 
 
 Gold Coast. Carried to its highest development 
 under Governor Maclean, its existence is first 
 authoritatively recorded and recognised in the 
 report of the House of Commons committee of 
 1842,- which, in recommending the continuance of 
 the system, suggested that it should be made the 
 subject of distinct agreement with the native chiefs. 
 That recommendation resulted in the negotiation 
 with the native chiefs of the document called the 
 " Bond " of the 6th of March, 1844, which is the only 
 document purporting to define the extent of the 
 Queen's jurisdiction on the Gold Coast in other 
 than strictly political matters. But that definition, 
 either from being an inadequate representation of 
 the facts as they then existed, or from change of 
 circumstances, no longer truly expresses what Her 
 Majesty's Government believe to be the extent and 
 scope of Her Majesty's power. 
 
 6. The Bond grants to Her Majesty's officers the 
 right to try and punish crimes and offences and to 
 repress human sacrifices, panyarring, and other 
 unlawful acts and barbarous customs. It is silent 
 as to the Queen's right by her officers and delegates, 
 to collect customs, to administer civil justice, to 
 legislate for the public health, or erect municipalities, 
 to provide for education, to construct roads and 
 regulate the industrial and social economy of the 
 protectorate. On all these matters the Legislature
 
 APPENDIX D. 357 
 
 or Government of the settlement has, with or without 
 the co-operation of the native rulers, exercised 
 authority to an extent which, strictly speaking, 
 could only be justified on the assumption (the 
 justice of which I am satisfied is not open to 
 question) that these matters have by usage and 
 by the sufferance and tacit assent of the natives 
 fallen within the province of the Queen's authority. 
 
 7. The necessity of some more adequate defini- 
 tion of the Queen's authority than the obsolete 
 Bond of 1844 being thus apparent, it remains to be 
 considered whether that definition should take the 
 form of a bond to be negotiated with the chiefs, as 
 in 1844, or a proclamation emanating from the sole 
 authority of the Queen. 
 
 8. In 1844 the method of proceeding by negotia- 
 tion was recommended by obvious considerations of 
 prudence. But in the thirty years which have since 
 elapsed the power and resources of the British 
 Government have been gradually increasing, until, 
 by the recent victories of the British forces, they 
 have been so strengthened and consolidated as to 
 render an act of sovereign power, such as a 
 proclamation of the Queen, the only appropriate 
 mode of proceeding for the attainment of the desired 
 object. It may be added that there are many 
 objections of policy to proceeding by way of negotia- 
 tion. It is not for Her Majesty to take as a grant
 
 358 APPENDIX D. 
 
 what is already claimed and held as a right ; whilst, 
 looking to the number of petty chiefs on the coast, 
 and the obscurity in which their relations with one 
 another are involved, there would be some danger 
 of not inviting the concurrence of chiefs who might 
 afterwards allege; and with a certain show of reason, 
 that their consent was as requisite as that of others 
 whose co-operation had been asked and given. 
 Besides this, the Government would be placed in a 
 position of much embarrassment if any considerable 
 body of chiefs refused their consent in part or in 
 whole to the proposed treaty. 
 
 9. On the other hand, I should be anxious to 
 avoid the risk, if any, attendant upon this manner 
 of proceeding of alienating the feelings of the 
 natives ; and I am fully alive to the importance of 
 their willing co-operation in the work of promoting 
 the civilisation and prosperity of the protectorate. 
 The nature of the proposed terms are such as, if not 
 fully and clearly explained, might excite the alarm 
 and aversion of the less intelligent rulers, whilst a 
 too hasty assumption of authority might create a 
 feeling of discontent, and possibly lead them to seek 
 alliances beyond the protectorate with tribes hostile 
 to our power. 
 
 10. Before coming to any conclusion as to the 
 best mode of procedure, I desire to know your 
 opinion on a question which is, perhaps, as difficult
 
 .APPENDIX D. 359 
 
 as any that you may be called on to deal with, and 
 one that demands the exercise of the most delicate 
 tact and judgment. I enclose a draft of a pro- 
 clamation which I have caused to be prepared for 
 consideration. 
 
 11. In denning the nature of the Queen's pro- 
 tectorate on the Gold Coast, it may be well also to 
 define and limit the local extent of that protectorate. 
 
 12. What may be termed the natural boundaries 
 of the protectorate to the north and east are to a 
 great extent marked out by a course of the Prah and 
 the Volta, and the lagoon dividing Quittah from the 
 sea ; but considerations connected with the protec- 
 tion of trade and the collection of revenue may 
 compel your Government to plant establishments or 
 exercise jurisdiction in parts of the Ahoonah country 
 lying to the east of the Volta and behind the lagoon. 
 The question of the northern limit of the protec- 
 torate towards the Croboe and Aquamoo country will 
 also call for careful examination in connection with 
 the request of the Aquamoo people to be included in 
 the protectorate, recently reported by Dr. Goulds- 
 bury ; and it may be worthy of consideration whether 
 some limitation should not be put on what are 
 usually regarded as the boundaries of British juris- 
 diction in the little known regions of the north-west. 
 
 13. Up to this point I have confined my obser- 
 vations to the protectorate adjacent to the Gold
 
 360 APPENDIX D. 
 
 Coast settlement ; but a further question of grave 
 importance presses for consideration, with reference 
 to the boundaries of British territory and the British 
 protectorate at Lagos, for it will not have escaped 
 your notice that the language of the order in council 
 in effect delegates to the local Legislature Her 
 Majesty's rights over the protectorates. As bearing 
 upon this point, I may refer you to Lord Kimberley's 
 despatch of April 5th, 1873, to Governor Keate. 
 
 14. You are well aware that the effect of including, 
 under the same provisions and procedure, the area 
 of country which has been called the Protectorate of 
 Lagos, would have to be seriously considered as 
 possibly involving us in difficulties with the neigh- 
 bouring nations, which might prove deeply injurious 
 to the prosperity of that settlement. The history of 
 our relations with the protected territories of Lagos 
 differs entirely from that of our relations with the 
 protected territories on the Gold Coast. Her 
 Majesty's Government have not assumed to so great 
 an extent at Lagos as at the Gold Coast the direction 
 of political and other affairs, and the Queen's forces 
 have not at Lagos, as on the Gold Coast, been 
 associated with the native powers in hostile alliances 
 against a powerful common foe. For these reasons 
 I am inclined to think that the Queen's authority as 
 a protecting power need not, under present circum- 
 stances, be declared to extend to the Protectorate of
 
 APPENDIX D. 361 
 
 Lagos, as proposed to be defined in the draft pro- 
 clamation ; although, of course, under our treaty 
 engagements, we must continue to exercise a control 
 over the affairs of that part of the coast, and in some 
 sense to discharge the functions of a protecting 
 power. 
 
 15. I have to request your opinion and criticisms, 
 together with those of Mr. Chalmers, on the draft 
 proclamation, as well as on the form it should 
 assume, and the territories to which it should be 
 declared to extend. I shall be glad to receive your 
 answer as soon as you feel yourself able to come to 
 a conclusion on the various questions contained in 
 this despatch. 
 
 16. If, contrary to my expectations, it should 
 seem desirable to proceed by treaty engagements 
 with the native chiefs, the draft proclamation, with 
 due alterations of phrase, will probably suffice as a 
 draft of the bond which those chiefs would be required 
 to sign. But I have to request that you will apply 
 to me confidentially for further instructions before 
 taking any open action in the matter. 
 
 17. I need hardly add that, in the meantime, it 
 will not be desirable for the Legislative Council, 
 unless some very special emergency should arise, to 
 attempt to exercise the powers vested in them by the 
 recent order in council. 
 
 18. There remains the question of the existence
 
 362 APPENDIX D. 
 
 of slavery within the range of the Queen's influence 
 and authority. It is one surrounded by many and 
 serious difficulties, but it is also one which affects, 
 by its existence, not only the honour and traditional 
 policy of this country, but the welfare and good 
 government of the Gold Coast. It has ever since I 
 received the seals of this office engaged my anxious 
 attention ; and though Her Majesty's Government 
 could not consent to have the decision of it forced 
 upon them and to be pledged to some precipitate 
 and probably ill-considered course of action, they 
 have at no time abandoned the hope and intention 
 of extinguishing an evil which they have been 
 compelled to tolerate, but in which they have never 
 acquiesced. The time has now, in my opinion, 
 arrived when at least the possibility of dealing with 
 this important question may receive a careful and 
 dispassionate consideration ; and I propose to address 
 you in another despatch on this subject. 
 I have, etc., 
 
 (Signed) CARNARVON.
 
 APPENDIX D. 363 
 
 4. 
 
 DRAFT OF A PROCLAMATION DEFINING THE NATURE AND 
 EXTENT OF THE QUEEN'S JURISDICTION ON THE 
 GOLD COAST. 
 
 Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United 
 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, 
 Defender of the Faith, to all to whom these presents 
 shall come, greeting : 
 
 Whereas, by an Act of Parliament made and 
 passed in the session of Parliament holden in the 
 sixth and seventh years of our reign, intituled, 
 " An Act to remove Doubts as to the Exercise of 
 Power and Jurisdiction by Her Majesty within 
 divers Countries and Places out of Her Majesty's 
 Dominions, and to render the same more effectual," 
 it is, amongst other things, enacted that it is 
 and shall be lawful for us to hold, exercise, and 
 enjoy any power or jurisdiction which we now 
 have, or may at any time hereafter have, within 
 any country or place out of our dominions, in the 
 same and as ample a manner as if we had acquired 
 such power or jurisdiction by the cession or conquest 
 of territory : 
 
 And whereas we have by grant, treaty, usage, 
 sufferance, and other lawful means acquired, and do 
 hold, exercise, and enjoy power and jurisdiction in
 
 364 APPENDIX D. 
 
 divers countries on the West Coast of Africa, near or 
 adjacent to our Gold Coast Colony : 
 
 And whereas by an Order made by us in Council, 
 bearing date at Osborne House, on the 6th day of 
 August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
 hundred and seventy-four, it was, amongst other 
 things, ordered that it should be lawful for the 
 Legislative Council of our said Gold Coast Colony 
 for the time being, by ordinance or ordinances, to 
 exercise and provide for giving effect to all such 
 power and jurisdiction as we might at any time, 
 either before or after the passing of the said Order 
 in Council, have acquired in the said territories 
 adjacent to the Gold Coast Colony : 
 
 And whereas the extent and nature of our power 
 and jurisdiction, as now actually holden, exercised 
 and employed by us in the said territories, have not 
 been anywhere by us fully declared : 
 
 And whereas it is expedient, for the guidance 
 and information, as well as of the Legislature of 
 our said Gold Coast Colony as for that of the 
 native chiefs and rulers living under our protec- 
 tion in the said territories, that the nature of em- 
 power and jurisdiction, as well as their local limits, 
 be declared by us. Therefore we do declare as 
 follows : 
 
 Our power and jurisdiction which we have acquired 
 as aforesaid extend, amongst other things, to
 
 APPENDIX D. 365 
 
 I. The preservation of the public peace and the 
 protection of individuals and property. 
 
 II. The administration of civil and criminal 
 justice, including : 
 
 (1) The constitution and regulation of a superior 
 court of justice, such as that which has been 
 hitherto known as the Judicial Assessor's Court, 
 of district magistrates' courts, native courts, and 
 such other courts as it may from time to time 
 be deemed expedient to create. 
 
 (2) The enactment of laws relating to crimes, 
 wrongs, personal rights, contracts, property 
 rights, and fiduciary relations similar to those 
 prevailing in our Gold Coast Colony, but framed 
 with due regard to native law and customs where 
 they are not repugnant to justice, equity, and 
 good conscience. 
 
 (3) The determination of appeals from native 
 tribunals to magistrates or to some superior 
 Court. 
 
 (4) The apprehension and trial of criminals and 
 offenders of all kinds in any part of the said 
 territories. 
 
 (5) The supervision and regulation of native 
 prisons. 
 
 III. The extinction of human sacrifices, panyar- 
 ring, judicial torture, and other immoral, barbarous, 
 and cruel customs.
 
 366 APPENDIX D. 
 
 IV. The abolition of slave trading. 
 
 V. Measures with regard to domestic slavery and 
 pawning. 
 
 VI. The protection and encouragement of trade 
 and traders, including the construction, maintenance, 
 and improvement of roads, paths, bridges, harbour 
 works, waterways, telegraphs, and other public works 
 which benefit trade and promote civilisation. 
 
 VII. The maintenance of an armed police force 
 for the preservation of internal order and the pre- 
 vention of foreign aggression, and the organisation 
 of the military forces of the native rulers in alliance 
 with her Majesty. 
 
 VIII. The settling by the authority of the 
 Governor of our Gold Coast Colony of disputes 
 arising between different chiefs and rulers in the 
 said territories. 
 
 IX. The promotion of the public health, including 
 the imposition, with the assent of the native chiefs, 
 of sanitary rates in towns and villages. 
 
 X. The establishment of municipalities. 
 
 XI. Public education, including industrial and 
 religious training. 
 
 XII. The raising of a revenue by licences and 
 customs, and by such direct imposts as the native 
 chiefs and rulers, or a major part of them, may 
 agree to. 
 
 And further, we declare that the undermentioned
 
 APPENDIX D. 367 
 
 territories are those within which at the present time 
 we have power and jurisdiction as aforesaid. 
 
 (List of territories to be inserted by the local 
 authorities in the first instance.) 
 
 5. 
 
 FANTEE CHIEFS. 
 (Bond, 6th March, 1844.) 
 
 1. Whereas power and jurisdiction have been 
 exercised for and on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen 
 of Great Britain and Ireland, within divers countries 
 and places adjacent to Her Majesty's forts and settle- 
 ments on the Gold Coast, we, chiefs of countries and 
 places so referred to, adjacent to the said forts and 
 settlements, do hereby acknowledge that power and 
 jurisdiction, and declare that the first objects of law 
 are the protection of individuals and of property. 
 
 2. Human sacrifices and other barbarous customs, 
 such as panyarring, are abominations, and contrary 
 to law. 
 
 3. Murders, robberies, and other crimes and 
 offences, will be tried and inquired of before the 
 Queen's judicial officers and the chiefs of the district, 
 moulding the customs of the country to the general 
 principles of British law. 
 
 Done at Cape Coast Castle, before His Excellency
 
 368 APPENDIX D. 
 
 the Lieutenant-Governor, on this 6th day of March, 
 in the year of our Lord 1844. 
 Their 
 
 x CUDJOE CHIBBOE, King of Denkera. 
 
 x QUASHIE OTTOO, Chief of Abrah. 
 
 x CHIBBOE COOMAH, Chief of Assin. 
 
 x GEBRE, Second Chief of Assin. 
 
 x QUASHIE ANKAH, Chief of Donadie. 
 
 x AWOOSSIE, Chief of Dominassie. 
 (Signed) QUASHIE ANKAH. 
 
 x AMONOO, Chief of Annamaboe. 
 
 x JOE AGGREY, Chief of Cape Coast. 
 
 Witness my seal on the 6th day of March, 1844, 
 and the 7th year of Her Majesty's reign. 
 (Signed) H. W. HILL, 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor (L.S.) 
 
 Witnesses, and done in the presence of 
 
 (Signed) GEORGE MACLEAN, J.P. and Assessor (s.) . 
 F. POGSON, 1st W.I. Eegiment (s.), 
 
 Commanding H.M. Troops. 
 S. BANNERMAN, Adjutant of Militia and 
 
 Police (s.). 
 
 Blue Book: "Africa, Western Coast," p. 419.
 
 APPENDIX D. 869 
 
 6. 
 
 BRITISH CHARTER, PROVIDING FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF 
 HER MAJESTY'S SETTLEMENTS ON THE GOLD COAST 
 AND OF LAGOS, AND CONSTITUTING THOSE SETTLE- 
 MENTS INTO A SEPARATE COLONY TO BE CALLED THE 
 GOLD COAST COLONY, AND PROVIDING FOR THE 
 GOVERNMENT THEREOF. Westminster, July 24//J, 
 1874. 
 
 Victoria, by the Grace of God of the United King- 
 dom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of 
 the Faith, to all to whom these presents shall come, 
 greeting. 
 
 1. Whereas, by certain Letters Patent under the 
 Great Seal of our United Kingdom of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster the 19th 
 day of February, 1866, in the 29th year of our reign, 
 provision was made for the government of our 
 settlements on the West Coast of Africa, as therein 
 is more particularly described ; 
 
 And whereas, by a supplementary commission 
 under the Great Seal aforesaid, and bearing date at 
 Westminster the 8th day of November, 1872, in the 
 36th year of our reign, we did empower our Governor 
 and Commander-in-Chief of our West Africa settle- 
 ments to grant pardons to offenders in the manner 
 and upon the terms therein mentioned ; 
 
 And whereas, by our commission under the Great 
 
 G.C. 24
 
 370 APPENDIX D. 
 
 Seal aforesaid, bearing date the 25th day of July, 
 1873, in the 37th year of our reign, we did constitute 
 and appoint our trusty and well-beloved George 
 Berkeley, Esquire (now Companion of our Most 
 Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George), 
 to be, during our will and pleasure, our Governor 
 and Commander-in-Chief in and over our said West 
 Africa settlements ; and whereas it is expedient that 
 provision should be made for the government of our 
 settlements on the Gold Coast and of Lagos, apart 
 and separate from the government of our other 
 settlements in the West Coast of Africa ; 
 
 And whereas, by an Act made and passed in the 
 sixth year of our reign (cap. 13), intituled " An 
 Act to enable Her Majesty to provide for the Govern- 
 ment of her Settlements upon the Coast of Africa 
 and in the Falkland Islands," it was enacted that 
 it should be lawful for us, by any commission 
 under the Great Seal of our United Kingdom, or by 
 any instructions under our sign-manual and signet 
 accompanying and referred to in any such com- 
 mission to delegate to any three or more persons 
 within any of the settlements aforesaid, either in 
 whole or in part, and subject to all such conditions, 
 provisions, and limitations, as might be prescribed 
 by any such commission or instructions, the power 
 and authority to make and establish all such laws, 
 institutions, and ordinances, and to constitute such
 
 APPENDIX D. 371 
 
 courts and officers, and to make such provisions and 
 regulations for the proceedings in such courts, and 
 for the administration of justice as might be 
 necessary for the peace, order, and good government 
 of our subjects and others within our then present 
 or future settlements on the said coast 
 
 Now know ye that we do by these, our Letters 
 Patent, under the Gre'at Seal aforesaid, declare our 
 pleasure to be that our said Letters Patent of the 
 19th day of February, 1866, our said supplementary 
 commission of the 8th of November, 1872, and our 
 said commission of the 25th day of July, 1873, 
 shall be, and they are hereby revoked so far as 
 regards our said settlements on the Gold Coast and 
 of Lagos, or any part or parts thereof; and we do 
 further declare our pleasure to be that those settle- 
 ments shall constitute, and they are hereby erected 
 into a separate colony under the title of the Gold 
 Coast Colony. 
 
 2. And we do further declare our pleasure to be 
 that our settlements on the Gold Coast shall, as 
 heretofore, and until otherwise provided by us, com- 
 prise all places, settlements, and territories which 
 may at any time belong to us in Western Africa, 
 between the 5th degree of west longitude and the 
 2nd degree of east longitude. And our settlement 
 of Lagos shall, as heretofore and until otherwise 
 provided by us, comprise all places, settlements, 
 
 242
 
 372 APPENDIX D. 
 
 and territories, which may at any time belong to 
 us in Western Africa between the 2nd and 5th 
 degrees of east longitude. 
 
 3. And we do further declare and appoint that the 
 government of the said colony shall be administered by 
 a Governor duly commissioned by us on that behalf. 
 
 4. And we do further declare our pleasure to be 
 that there shall be within our* said colony a Legis- 
 lative Council, which shall consist of our said 
 Governor for the time being, and of such other 
 persons or officers, not being less than two in 
 number, from each of our said settlements, as shall 
 be named or designated by or by virtue of any 
 instruction or instructions or by any warrant or 
 warrants to be by us for that purpose issued under 
 our sign-manual and signet, and with the advice of 
 our Privy Council, all of which persons or officers 
 shall hold their places in the said council during our 
 pleasure. 
 
 5. And we do further, by this our commission 
 under the Great Seal of our United Kingdom afore- 
 said, delegate to the persons who within our said 
 colony shall compose the Legislative Council thereof, 
 full power and authority, subject always to such 
 conditions, provisions, and limitations as may be 
 presented by any commission or instructions, to 
 establish such ordinances not being repugnant to 
 the law of England, or to any order made or to be
 
 APPENDIX D. 373 
 
 made by us with the advice of our Privy Council, 
 and to establish such courts and officers, and to 
 make such provisions and regulations for the pro- 
 ceedings in such courts, and for the administration 
 of justice, as may be necessary for the peace, order, 
 ' and good government of such colony. 
 
 6. And we do further declare our pleasure to be 
 that our said Governor shall have a negative voice in 
 the passing of all such ordinances aforesaid : and 
 we do also hereby reserve to ourselves, our heirs 
 and successors, our and their right and authority to 
 disallow any such ordinances as aforesaid, in the 
 whole or in part, such allowance being from time to 
 time signified to him through one of our principal 
 Secretaries of State, and also to make and establish 
 from time to time, with the advice and consent of 
 Parliament, or with the advice of our and their 
 Privy Council, all such laws or ordinances as may 
 to us or them appear necessary for the order, peace, 
 and good government of our said colony as fully as 
 if these presents had not been made. 
 
 And we do further declare our pleasure to be that 
 in the making and establishing of all such ordin- 
 ances, the said Legislative Council shall conform to 
 and observe all such rules as may from time to time 
 be directed or appointed by any instruction or 
 instructions issued by us with the advice of our 
 Privy Council.
 
 374 APPENDIX D. 
 
 7. And we do further declare and establish that 
 the laws now in force in our said colony shall con- 
 tinue in force as long and as far only as they are 
 not repugnant to or repealed by any ordinance 
 passed by the Legislature of our said colony. 
 
 8. And we do further declare our pleasure to be 
 that, for the purpose of advising our said Governor, 
 there shall be for our said colony an Executive 
 Council, which shall be composed of such persons 
 and constituted in such manner as may be directed 
 by any instructions which may from time to time 
 be addressed to our said Governor by us under our 
 sign-manual and signet, and all such persons shall 
 hold their places in the said council at our pleasure. 
 
 9. And we do further authorise and empower our 
 said Governor to keep and use the public seal of our 
 said colony for sealing all things whatsoever that 
 shall pass the said seal, and we do direct that until 
 a public seal shall be provided for our said colony 
 the public seal of our settlement on the Gold Coast 
 shall be used as the public seal of our said colony 
 for sealing all things whatsoever that shall pass the 
 said seal. 
 
 10. And we do authorise and empower our said 
 Governor to make and execute in our name and on 
 our behalf, under the said public seal, grants and 
 dispositions of any lands which may be lawfully 
 granted or disposed of by us within our said colony
 
 APPENDIX D. 375 
 
 either in conformity with instructions under our 
 sign-manual and signet, or in conformity with such 
 regulations as are now in force, or may be made by 
 him in that behalf, with the advice of our said 
 Executive Council, and duly published in our said 
 colony. 
 
 11. And we do further authorise and empower 
 our said Governor to constitute and appoint all such 
 Judges, Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, 
 Judges of the Peace, and other necessary officers 
 and ministers as may lawfully be appointed by us, 
 all of whom shall hold their offices during our 
 pleasure. 
 
 12. And we do further authorise and empower our 
 said Governor as he shall see occasion, in our name 
 and on our behalf, when any crime has been com- 
 mitted within our said colony, or for which the 
 offender may be tried therein, to grant a pardon to 
 any accomplice, not being the actual perpetrator of 
 such crime, who shall give such information and 
 evidence as shall lead to the apprehension and con- 
 viction of the principal offender, and further to 
 grant to any offender convicted of any crime in any 
 court, or before any judge, justice, or magistrate 
 within our said colony, a pardon either full or subject 
 to lawful conditions or any respite of the execution 
 of the sentence of any such offender, of such period 
 as to him may seem fit, and to remit any fines,
 
 376 APPENDIX D. 
 
 penalties, or forfeitures which may become clue and 
 payable to us. 
 
 13. And we do further authorise and empower 
 our said Governor, upon sufficient cause to him 
 appearing, to suspend from the exercise of his office 
 within our said colony any person exercising the 
 same under or by virtue of any commission or 
 warrant, granted or to be granted by us in our name 
 or under our authority, which suspension shall con- 
 tinue and have effect only until our pleasure therein 
 shall be known and signified to him. And we do 
 hereby strictly require and enjoin him, in proceeding 
 to any such suspension, to observe the directions in 
 that behalf given to him by any instructions under 
 our sign-manual and signet as may be hereafter 
 addressed to our said Governor for the time being. 
 
 14. Our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby 
 direct that, in the execution of this our commission, 
 and in the exercise of the command hereby vested 
 in our Governor for the time being, he be resident in 
 our settlement on the Gold Coast, or at such place 
 or places in the territories adjacent thereto as may 
 from time to time be appointed for the residence of 
 our said Governor, except when the interests of our 
 service may render his presence desirable in our 
 settlement of Lagos. 
 
 15. And whereas it is necessary that provision be 
 made for the execution of this our commission in
 
 APPENDIX D. 377 
 
 the event of the death or incapacity of our said 
 Governor, or of his removal from his command, or 
 of his absence from the limits of his said govern- 
 ment : Now, therefore, we do further declare our 
 pleasure to be that, in any such event as aforesaid, 
 all and every the powers and authorities hereby 
 vested in him shall be, and the same are hereby 
 vested in such person as may be appointed by us 
 and our sign-manual and signet, to be our Lieutenant- 
 Governor of our said colony, or if there be no such 
 Lieutenant-Governor therein, such person or persons 
 as may be appointed by us under our sign -manual 
 and signet to administer the government of our said 
 colony, and in case there shall be no such person or 
 persons within our said colony so appointed by us, 
 then is the person for the time being administering 
 the government of our said settlement of Lagos, 
 who shall for such time as he administers the 
 government of our said colony, be called the adminis- 
 trator of the Gold Coast Colony. Provided always, 
 and we do further declare our pleasure to be, that 
 our Governor for the time being during the period of 
 his passage by sea from either of the settlements 
 aforesaid to the other of the said settlements, or 
 while visiting or residing at any place in any of the 
 territories adjacent thereto, shall not, for any of the 
 purposes aforesaid, be considered as being absent 
 from the limits of his said command.
 
 378 APPENDIX D. 
 
 16. And we do further declare and direct that, 
 during his absence from our said settlement on the 
 Gold Coast, but while he is within the limits of his 
 said command as aforesaid, our Governor may, if he 
 think 'fit, appoint some person to act as his deputy 
 in administering the government of our said Gold 
 Coast settlement, upon such terms and conditions, 
 and for such time, as he may think desirable for the 
 good government of our said settlement ; and all or 
 such of the powers and authorities aforesaid as our 
 said Governor in his discretion shall from time to 
 time think it necessary or expedient to assign to such 
 deputy shall, as far as the same shall be exercisable 
 within such settlement, be vested in such deputy. 
 
 17. And we do further declare that so long as our 
 said Governor, or (as the case may be) Lieutenant- 
 Governor, or administrator of the Gold Coast Colony, 
 shall be absent from our settlement of Lagos, all 
 and every the powers and authorities, except the 
 powers of suspension and pardon, hereby vested in 
 our said Governor, and so far as the same shall be 
 exercisable within such settlement, shall be vested in 
 such person within the same as may be appointed by 
 us by warrant under our sign-manual and signet to 
 administer the government thereof ; and in case 
 there shall not be within such settlement any such 
 administrator, then we declare that the said powers 
 and authorities shall, in our said settlement of
 
 APPENDIX D. 379 
 
 Lagos, be vested in such person, and upon such 
 terms and conditions, and for such time, as our said 
 Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, or administrator of 
 our Gold Coast Colony, as the case may be, shall 
 provisionally from time to time appoint, subject to 
 our approval. And we do further declare and provide 
 that the officer for the time being administering the 
 government of our said settlement of Lagos shall, in 
 the discharge of such his office, conform to and 
 observe such instructions as shall, for that purpose, 
 be addressed to him by our said Governor in the 
 execution of this our commission ; subject, never- 
 theless, to all such rules and regulations in that 
 behalf as may from time to time be contained in any 
 instructions under our sign-manual and signet, 
 addressed to our Governor for the time being of our 
 said Gold Coast Colony. 
 
 18. And we do further direct and enjoin that this 
 our commission shall be read and proclaimed within 
 our said respective settlements on the Gold Coast 
 and of Lagos, and that a transcript thereof shall be 
 deposited and duly recorded in our said settlements, 
 this our original commission being preserved within 
 our settlement on the Gold Coast. 
 
 19. And we do hereby require and command all 
 officers, civil and military, and all others the 
 inhabitants of our said colony, to be obedient, aiding 
 and assisting unto our said Governor for the time
 
 380 APPENDIX D. 
 
 being, and to the officer appointed to administer the 
 government of our settlement of Lagos, in the 
 execution of this our commission, and of the powers 
 and authorities herein contained. 
 
 20. And we do hereby reserve to ourselves, our 
 heirs and successors, full power and authority from 
 time to time to revoke, alter, or amend this our 
 commission as to us or them shall seem meet. 
 
 In witness whereof we have caused these our letters 
 to be made patent. 
 
 7. 
 
 AT A PALAVER HELD AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CAPE 
 COAST, MAY 10th, 1865. 1 
 
 Present : 
 
 His Excellency^Wm. Hackett, Lieutenant-Governor ; 
 the Hon. M. K. Barry, Acting Chief Justice. 
 
 Chiefs of Cape Coast : J. K. Thompson, Isaac 
 Robertson, Quamina Mayan, Quamina Acquah, 
 Quacoe Gapee. 
 
 Quamina Acquah states, on behalf of himself and 
 chiefs, that, with reference to the request of the 
 Lieutenant-Governor that they should sign a paper 
 ceding a portion of the town of Cape Coast to the 
 
 1 Parliamentary Papers, 1867 (198), xlix. 45.
 
 APPENDIX D. 881 
 
 Government, after consultation they had arrived at 
 the following decision, which they desired should be 
 interpreted to His Excellency : 
 
 That they, the chiefs and people, knew that the 
 lands in Cape Coast belong to the Queen ; that they 
 themselves are under the Queen, and are protected 
 by her ; that wherever the Governor resides in Cape 
 Coast they considered as the Castle. That, knowing 
 these things, the people think it unnecessary for the 
 Governor to make such a request, viz., that they 
 should sign a document giving land to the Queen, 
 when the Queen had for a series of years given and 
 granted the said lands without any question on their 
 part. The Governor having previously explained to 
 them that he had discovered in the records of the 
 Government that lands were granted by the Govern- 
 ment during fifty years past, the chiefs replied that 
 the signing of a paper is what is doubtful to them 
 and people, but they wished to remain under the 
 Queen, as they were under the late King, and that 
 the signing of a paper had never been required by 
 any of the Lieutenant-Governor's predecessors ; that 
 every one knew the land to be the Queen's, and that 
 therefore they begged the Governor to let them 
 remain in the same position. 
 
 (Signed) W. THOMPSON, 
 
 Interpreter.
 
 382 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 
 OTHER MATTEE. 
 
 1. 
 THE SALE OF LAND AT SEKONDI. 
 
 The Aborigines' Rights Protection Society Petition 
 the Governor. 
 
 Important Corresponded ce . l 
 
 AXIM, 
 
 September 23rd, 1901. 
 
 MAY it please your Excellency and the members 
 of the Legislative Council, 
 
 The humble petition of the Axim Branch of the 
 Aborigines' Rights Protection Society showeth : 
 
 1. That the attention of your Excellency's peti- 
 tioners, has been drawn to Government Notification 
 No. 355, published in the Government Gazette for 
 July 27th, 1901, in regard to the sale of land by 
 public auction at Sekondi, in the Gold Coast. 
 
 1 Reproduced from West Africa of July 5th, 1902, p. 702.
 
 APPENDIX E. 383 
 
 2. Your Excellency's petitioners take it that the 
 said sale of land by public auction at Sekondi by the 
 Colonial Government is authorised by the Towns 
 (Amendment) Ordinance of 1901, under which the 
 Colonial Secretary may acquire any land within the 
 area of a town under the Public Lands Ordinance, 
 1876, as though it were land required for the service 
 of the Colony. The said Ordinance incorporates sec- 
 tions 1 and 2 of clause 16 of the Towns Ordinance 
 of 1892, which relates, among other things, to the 
 declaring of open spaces by the Government with a 
 view to the promotion of the public health. 
 
 3. The Towns (Amendment) Ordinance of 1901, 
 therefore, would seem merely to contemplate the 
 acquisition of land for the public service and the 
 regulation of open spaces. 
 
 4. While your Excellency's petitioners are in full 
 sympathy with the Colonial Government as regards 
 the proper laying out of the several towns of the 
 Gold Coast, and the promotion of the public health in 
 general, they cannot shut their eyes to the course 
 taken by the Government in disposing of lands so 
 acquired for the use of the public at a profit to per- 
 sons who may simply happen to have more means 
 than the original owners. 
 
 5. It is obvious, your Excellency's petitioners 
 would humbly point out, that if the intention of the 
 Government be merely the promotion of the public
 
 384 APPENDIX E. 
 
 health, the same end might be secured by either 
 directing the owners of the freehold areas in a given 
 town to build substantial houses thereupon under 
 proper regulations, failing which they might be 
 directed to grant the same on lease to others able to 
 raise such substantial buildings on suitable terms as 
 to consideration and annual rental. Thus, the original 
 owners would, as they are entitled to, be allowed 
 to reap the benefit of their ancient heritage, which, 
 under the working of the present Ordinance, they 
 cannot do. As it is, the public, under the impres- 
 sion that they are giving up their lands for the public 
 service, simply alienate them to third persons at 
 nominal rates, the whole advantage or profit of the 
 bargain going to the Government. 
 
 6. It may also be respectfully submitted that 
 your Excellency's humble petitioners have always 
 understood that one of the main principles guiding 
 the administration of the Gold Coast is the protection 
 of the rights of the people to their ancestral lands. 
 It is clear that the operation of the Ordinance under 
 discussion absolutely violates that principle. 
 
 7. In support of the foregoing submission, your 
 Excellency may be respectfully referred to the 
 Keport of the Proceedings of the Deputation of the 
 Kings and Chiefs of the Western Province to the 
 Colonial Secretary re the Lands Bill of 1897. At 
 page 3 of the report of the interview, Mr. Chamberlain
 
 APPENDIX E. 385 
 
 is reported to have said, in answer to Mr. Grant : 
 " I should like the chiefs to know what the object 
 of the Government at any rate has been in pro- 
 posing any legislation. The main object, almost 
 the sole object, is to protect the chiefs against the 
 action of speculators, who, in many cases, get hold 
 of their land for insufficient consideration and with- 
 out regard to the various interests in the land. For 
 instance, a chief sells his land for a perfectly insuffi- 
 cient consideration : the interests of the tribe are 
 not considered at all in that case, and the Govern- 
 ment desires that the interests of the. whole population 
 the whole of the tribe as well as of the chief and 
 of the Government should be taken into account 
 whenever a concession is arranged ; that a speculator 
 from this country should not be able, trading upon 
 the weakness of a chief, to get his land for a mere 
 nothing, and to oust from it those to whom really it 
 in right belongs." 
 
 8. TW T O or three reflections occur to your 
 Excellency's humble petitioners upon reading the 
 above extracts from Mr. Chamberlain's reply to Mr. 
 Grant : 
 
 (a) It is obvious that in the acquisition of land by 
 the Government under any Ordinances, past 
 or present, the native chief or, for that matter, 
 any other native from whom land is sought 
 to be acquired, deals with the Government 
 G.C. 25
 
 386 APPENDIX E. 
 
 at a disadvantage. As a matter of general 
 experience, under the Public Lands Ordinance, 
 the Government has practically the right of 
 saying how much it would give as consideration 
 for the land in question. Therefore, it is clear 
 that the Government, consciously or uncon- 
 sciously, takes advantage of the weakness of 
 the native with whom it deals, thus going 
 diametrically against the principle enunciated 
 by Mr. Chamberlain in his answer just 
 quoted. 
 
 (b) It is equally obvious that the native who 
 thus deals with the Government sells his lands 
 for a perfectly insufficient consideration, and it 
 is a well-known fact that few natives would ever 
 part with their lands to the Government were 
 it not for the fear that the same might be 
 forfeited if they held out. Thus, again, it is 
 clear that the interests of the natives are not at 
 all considered in such a case, and, therefore, 
 the colonial Government directly goes against 
 the desire of Mr. Chamberlain expressed in the 
 foregoing answer. 
 
 9.- Your Excellency's petitioners may be per- 
 mitted humbly to enquire in what way the native is 
 supposed to be protected in his rights under the 
 Ordinance, when it is quite clear that, if he were 
 allowed to make a fair bargain in granting leaseholds
 
 APPENDIX E. 387 
 
 of lands he may hold in a town area, the "tribe," 
 or the successors of such grantor, would draw sub- 
 stantial rents for, say, a period of fifty years, the 
 tenement raised upon his land falling to the reversion 
 after the lapse of the lease. 
 
 10. It occurs, therefore, to the Aborigines of the 
 country, whom we have the honour of representing, 
 that while they in good faith, and with all due 
 loyalty to the Government, freely give up their land 
 for a nominal consideration for the use of the public, 
 the protectors of the Aborigines directly turn such 
 lands to uses which were not contemplated by the 
 Aborigines in so parting with their lands. This, 
 your Excellency's humble petitioners would point 
 out, is a great hardship. 
 
 11. Your Excellency's attention may respectfully 
 be drawn to the fact that the operation of the Towns 
 (Amendment) Ordinance of 1901 practically intro- 
 duces the principle of vesting the lands of the country 
 in the Crown, which your Excellency's petitioners 
 were made to understand in the case of the pro- 
 posed Lands Bill was not the intention of the 
 Government. As such, your Excellency's peti- 
 tioners view with grave apprehension the existence 
 of the said Ordinance upon the Statute Book of the 
 country. 
 
 12. Therefore, your Excellency's petitioners pray 
 that the Governor in Council may be pleased to 
 
 252
 
 388 APPENDIX E. 
 
 repeal the Towns (Amendment) Ordinance of 1901, 
 or amend it in such a way as to give the native 
 landowner the opportunity and the right of granting 
 leaseholds for the purpose of erecting houses or 
 buildings thereupon, and, as in duty bound, your 
 Excellency's humble petitioners will ever pray. 
 
 We have the honour to be, 
 Your Excellency's most obedient humble Servants, 
 
 (Signed] S. SACOOM, President. 
 ,, A. BISSOE, Secretary. 
 
 To His EXCELLENCY, 
 
 THE GOVERNOR IN COUNCIL, ACCRA. 
 
 SEKONDI, 
 
 October 9th, 1901. 
 
 SIR, The communication dated September 23rd, 
 signed by yourself and Mr. Bissoe, purporting to be 
 a petition on behalf of the Axim branch of the 
 Aborigines' Rights Protection Society in connection 
 with the acquisition of certain lands at Sekondi by 
 the Government of the Gold Coast, was received by 
 the Governor at Tarkwa this morning. Before 
 replying to it, His Excellency would be obliged by 
 your informing him as to when this body you state 
 that you represent was formed, who are its members, 
 the dates on which they joined the body, and the
 
 APPENDIX E. 389 
 
 authority under which they claim to represent the 
 Aborigines of this country. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 STUART M. VINES, 
 
 Private Secretary. 
 S. SACOOM, ESQ., 
 AXIM. 
 
 AXIM, 
 
 October Utli, 1901. 
 
 May it please your Excellency, We beg leave 
 respectfully to acknowledge the receipt of your 
 Excellency's letter, bearing date October 9th, 1901, 
 written at Sekondi, and signed by Stuart M. Vines, 
 Private Secretary, and addressed to S. Sacoom, Esq., 
 in reply to the communication dated September 23rd, 
 1901, signed by us on behalf of the Executive Com- 
 mittee of the Axim Branch of the Gold Coast 
 Aborigines' Rights Protection Society, which said 
 communication was humbly addressed to your 
 Excellency and the honourable members of the 
 Legislative Council. We unfortunately omitted to 
 send a copy of the letter of September 23rd, 1901, to 
 the Clerk of the Legislative Council. We have 
 supplied that omission by transmitting to that 
 officer a duplicate original of the said letter, with 
 copies of the present correspondence.
 
 390 APPENDIX E. 
 
 2. We note that your Excellency, before consider- 
 ing the various vital questions raised in our said 
 communication of September 23rd last, with the 
 honourable members of the Legislative Council, is- 
 desirous of being informed upon the following 
 points : 
 
 1. When the body we represent was formed. 
 
 2. Who are its members. 
 
 3. The dates on which they joined the body. 
 
 4. The authority under which they claim to 
 
 represent the Aborigines of the country. 
 
 3. Dealing first with the last matter upon which 
 your Excellency seeks information, we may state 
 that the Aborigines' Eights Protection Society of the 
 Gold Coast had its birth in the stirring events of 
 the year 1897, in connection with, the Lands Bill of 
 the late Governor Maxwell, which resulted in the 
 Concessions Bill, now in force in the country. 
 
 4. In the constitution of the body all the native 
 kings and chiefs had a voice, in accordance with 
 native custom, in the election of the different mem- 
 bers of which it is composed.- 
 
 5. It was the Aborigines' Eights Protection Society 
 whose senior President, Mr. J. W. Sey, of Cape 
 Coast, with other two prominent members, formed 
 the deputation which waited upon the Secretary of 
 State for the Colonies in the year 1898. 
 
 6. Your Excellency cannot be unaware of the
 
 APPENDIX E. 391 
 
 fact that Mr. Chamberlain, the present Secretary 
 for the Colonies, fully recognised the deputation, 
 discussing matters with it through counsel, with the 
 happy result referred to in paragraph three of this 
 communication. 
 
 7. Since the return of the deputation from England, 
 your Excellency's predecessor, Sir F. M. Hodgson, 
 over and over again granted members of the 
 Executive Committee of the Society interviews, 
 whereat important issues affecting the welfare of the 
 country were discussed. Your Excellency will no 
 doubt find the minutes of the proceedings at such 
 interviews in the Government archives at Accra. 
 
 8. Moreover, on various occasions correspondence 
 has passed between the Society and the colonial 
 Government upon different matters of public 
 importance. 
 
 9. These things being so, we have only now to 
 inform your Excellency that the Axim branch of 
 the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society of the 
 Gold Coast is a duly recognised section of the parent 
 Society, which has its headquarters at Cape Coast, 
 the said section being duly constituted in accordance 
 with native custom, and we would respectfully ask 
 that paragraph ten of our letter of September 23rd, 
 1901, be read with that qualification. 
 
 10. This section has, since the year 1897, regu- 
 larly corresponded with the Colonial Government
 
 392 APPENDIX E. 
 
 upon matters of public importance. To illustrate 
 this we may refer your Excellency to a communica- 
 tion of Acting Colonial Secretary the Honourable 
 G. B. Hadding-Smith, dated June 10th, 1897, 
 numbered Conf. 135/97, and addressed to A. Bissoe, 
 Axim, which ran thus : " Mr. A. Bissoe is informed 
 by the direction of the Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies, with reference to the telegrams transmitted 
 to England by him on behalf of the kings, chiefs, and 
 people of Axim and Appolonia, that all representations 
 of this kind must be forwarded through the Governor 
 of the Gold Coast Colony, and not otherwise." 
 
 11. The foregoing returns an answer to the first 
 point upon which your Excellency asks to be 
 informed ; and as to who are the members com- 
 prising this section, and the dates upon which they 
 joined the body, these are matters regulated entirely 
 by native custom. 
 
 12. At the same time we hope that your Excel- 
 lency does not lose sight of the fact that, apart from 
 the Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society 
 having the right to address your Excellency in 
 Council upon matters of public importance, and of 
 criticising any Government measure calculated to 
 be detrimental to the interests of the community or 
 any portion of it, or any member or members thereof, 
 that same right is inherent in every individual 
 member of the community being an Aborigine.
 
 APPENDIX E. 393 
 
 13. While dealing with the various points raised 
 in your Excellency's communication, we may be 
 allowed, on behalf of the Aborigines of the Gold 
 Coast, to point out respectfully that there is, as the 
 Colonial Government is at present constituted, no 
 means for the people to express their sentiments 
 and opinions in relation to any course pursued by 
 the Government that may be detrimental to their 
 inherent rights ; and to express the hope that during 
 your Excellency's administration the ventilation of 
 native opinion through recognised channels will be 
 encouraged than otherwise. 
 
 14. To return to the subject-matter of our letter 
 of September 23rd last, we need hardly urge that 
 it is a matter affecting the vital interest of the 
 Aborigines of this country, and that your Excellency 
 in Council may be pleased to give it full and careful 
 consideration, and thereby restore the confidence of 
 the people in the intention of the Government in 
 this connection. 
 
 We have the honour to be, 
 
 Your Excellency's humble Servants, 
 S. S ACCOM, President. 
 A. BISSOE, Secretary. 
 On behalf of the Executive 
 
 Committee of the Axim Branch. 
 
 To His EXCELLENCY, THE GOVERNOR.
 
 394 APPENDIX E. 
 
 GOVERNMENT HOUSE, 
 
 ACCRA, 
 
 November 15th, 1901. 
 No. 230. 
 
 SIR, I have the honour to acknowledge the 
 receipt of the letter dated Octoher 15th, 1901, 
 signed by Mr. A. Bissoe and yourself, enclosing a 
 petition which you desire should be placed before 
 the Legislative Council at their next meeting, and 
 to suggest that you should take the steps for its 
 presentation laid down in No. 8 of the Standing 
 Rules and Orders of the Legislative Council, which 
 is as follows : 
 
 "Petitions shall be presented and laid on the 
 table by some member of the Council, whose 
 duty it will be to inform the Council, if required, 
 that in his opinion the petition is properly and 
 respectfully worded." 
 
 2. I return the petition in order to enable you to 
 act on the above suggestion. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 STUART M. VINES. 
 Clerk of tl\e Legislative C 01111 ciL 
 
 S. SACOOM, ESQ., 
 AXIM.
 
 APPENDIX E. 395 
 
 AXIM, 
 
 October 15th, 1901. 
 
 DEAR SIR, We have the honour to transmit 
 herewith, to be placed before His Excellency 
 the Governor and the Honourable Members of 
 the Legislative Council, at the next meeting 
 of the Legislative Council, the following docu- 
 ments : 
 
 1. Duplicate original petition of the Axim Branch 
 of the Gold Coast Aborigines' Eights Protection 
 Society, dated September 23rd, 1901, signed by 
 S. Sacoom, as President and A. Bissoe, as Secretary, 
 relating to the sale of lands by the Government at 
 Sekondi, addressed to His Excellency the Governor 
 in Council. 
 
 2. His Excellency's letter acknowledging the 
 receipt of such petition, dated October 9th, 1901, 
 signed by Stuart M. Vines, Private Secretary, and 
 addressed to S. Sacoom, Esq., Axim. 
 
 3. The reply of the Axim branch of the Gold 
 Coast Aborigines' Eights Protection Society to His 
 Excellency's letter above referred to, dated October 
 14th, 1901, and signed by S. Sacoom, as President, 
 and A. Bissoe, as Secretary, on behalf of the 
 Executive Committee. 
 
 In transmitting the original petition we omitted 
 to forward the same through you. We now supply
 
 396 APPENDIX E. 
 
 that omission by transmitting the duplicate original 
 of the petition referred to above. 
 
 We have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 Your obedient, humble Servants, 
 S. SACOOM, President. 
 A. BISSOE, Secretary. 
 
 To the Clerk of the Legislative Council, Accra. 
 
 GOVERNMENT HOUSE, 
 ACCRA, 
 
 November 15tli, 1901. 
 No. 229. 
 
 SIR, I am directed by the Governor to acknow- 
 ledge the receipt of your letter dated October 14th, 
 1901, signed by Mr. A. Bissoe and yourself, and 
 written in reply to mine dated at Sekondi on 
 October 9th. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 STUART M. VINES, 
 
 Private Secretary. 
 S. SACOOM, ESQ., 
 AXIM.
 
 APPENDIX E. 397 
 
 2. 
 
 SOME PRINCIPAL NATIVE STATES OF THE GOLD COAST, 
 WITH THE NAMES OF THE PARAMOUNT KINGS. 
 
 State. Paramount King. 
 
 Mankessim .... .... Okra Kwa (Regent). 
 
 Gromua .... .... .... Kojo Inkum. 
 
 Egimaku .... .... .... Kwamin Hama. 
 
 Ekumfi Kofi Akini. 
 
 Anamaboe.... .... .... Amonoo V. 
 
 Abura Otu V. 
 
 Cape Coast .... .... Kojo Imbra. 
 
 Denkera .... .... .... Inkwantabisa. 
 
 Western Akim .... '.... Kofi Ahinkura. 
 
 Eastern Akim Akwasi Duma. 
 
 Aknapim .... .... .... Kwami Fori. 
 
 Lower Wassaw .... .... Kwamina Enimil. 
 
 Upper Wassaw .... .... Kwesi Wereku. 1 
 
 1 The above list is based upon information principally to be found 
 in Anaman's " Gold Coast Guide " for 1902, pp. 29-31.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 A 
 
 BONU, 57. 
 
 Aborigines, query, whether benefited 
 by the presence of the British, 4. 
 
 Abrah, 187. 
 
 Abura, Fanti King of, 156. Native 
 state of Gold Coast, 397. King 
 of, = 0tu V., 397. 
 
 Abusa = a one-third share, 48. When 
 and in respect of what payable, 
 48, 49. 
 
 Accra, ordinance applied, 111. Fort 
 James at, 136. English fort at, 
 136. 
 
 Ackinie, King of Akurnfie, 208, 273. 
 Arrested Oppon, for default in 
 payment of award, 208. Sued by 
 Oppon, 208. Judgment against, 
 208. Appealed, successfully, 209. 
 
 Acquah, Quarnina, present at 
 palaver, 380. 
 
 Adai, a custom, 96. 
 
 Adankum, 105. 
 
 Adansi, federal state of Kuraasi, 31. 
 
 Adansis,the, subordinate community 
 of Ashanti, 19. 
 
 Adayi, a custom occurring every 
 fortieth day, 28. National festi- 
 val, 28. When king distributed 
 money to chiefs, etc., in trust for 
 trading, 28. 
 
 Administrator, appointment of, 377. 
 
 Aduasi tried for wilful murder, 146. 
 
 Adziwa, 105. 
 
 " African Company of Merchants," 
 
 318. 
 African (West) Exploitation and 
 
 Development Syndicate, Ltd. v. 
 
 Sir Alfred Kirby and others cittd, 
 
 41. 
 Agambra, township of, referred to, 
 
 253. 
 Aggery, King of Cape Coast, 162. 
 
 Claimed jurisdiction over ground 
 
 within a few yards of British 
 
 forts, 162. Resisted by Governor ; 
 
 Governor refused to recognise 
 
 him, 162. 
 
 Aggrey, an interpreter, 291. 
 Aggrey, Joe, signed Bond, 1844, 
 
 368. 
 
 Agimaku, King of, 57. 
 Akuapim, King of, = Quamin Fori, 
 
 279. 
 Ahanta, a native state of Gold 
 
 Coast, 21, 253. King of, = Baidoe 
 
 Bonso, 32. 
 Ahuba = y&w. festival in Fanti States, 
 
 85. 
 
 Aliuba Kakraba, 85. 
 A huba Kesi = great festival, 90. Real 
 
 harvest festival, 90. Celebrated 
 
 separately by each province, 90. 
 Ahuma, Rev. Attoh, 178. Editor of 
 
 Gold Coast Methodist Times, 178, 
 
 311.
 
 400 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Aikunfie, King of, = Ackinie, 274. 
 Ajiman, King of Jaman, 13. Desire 
 
 to recover gold stool, 13. 
 Akataki people = the Commendas, 52. 
 Originally came from Akatakiwa, 
 52. A kataki= masculine form, 52. 
 Akatakiwa = feminine form, 52. 
 Query exact order of descent, 52. 
 Branches of Inkusukum people, 52. 
 Own allegiance to Essandor, 53. 
 Akem country, 57. 
 Akempims. See Inkidoms. 
 Akempon, 154. 
 
 Akim, Eastern. See Eastern Akim. 
 Akim, Western. See Western 
 
 Akim. 
 Akropong Manasu, federal state of 
 
 Kumasi, 31. 
 
 Akuapim, native state of Gold 
 Coast, 397. King of, = K \vami 
 Fori, 397. 
 Akwasi Duma, King of Eastern 
 
 Akim, 397. 
 
 Akwuamus = the aristocrats of Ku- 
 masi, 27. Furnished the king, 
 27. Consulted in all internal 
 matters, 27. Assafubuaki, their 
 head, 27. 
 
 Allegiance, shown by payment of 
 occasional contribution by sub- 
 ordinate chief to a paramount 
 chief, 48. Fee, 49. An incident 
 of paramountcy, 49. = Personal 
 relationship between occupants of 
 stools, 51, 52. Acknowledged by 
 military or other service, or fee, 
 52. Has nothing to do with 
 lands, 52. Essential features of, 
 55. Penalty and result of transfer 
 of, 55. Received at stool celebra- 
 tions, 87. 
 
 Amankwatsia, General, referred to, 
 26. Chief of the Kwaintsirs, 26. 
 
 ASH 
 
 Amba Danquah, Regent of Southern 
 
 Assin, 53. 
 
 Amissah, Mr. J. F., 173. 
 Ammah tried for wilful murder, 
 
 146. 
 Amonoo IV., King Anamabu, 316 r 
 
 397. Signed Bond, 1844... 368. 
 Amonoo Ekroful, 57. 
 Anamaboe, referred to, 56, 57, 156. 
 Native state of Gold Coast, 397. 
 King of, = Amonoo V., 397. 
 Anaman, " Gold Coast Guide," re- 
 ferred to, 223, 397. 
 Anansu Mensah, 34. 
 Ankraku, a village, 22. Chief 
 
 town of, = Ayenasi, 23. 
 Ansah. See Osoo Ansah. 
 Antrobm, Mr., 171. 
 Apafram, festival of stool celebra- 
 tion in Ashanti, 90. 
 Apenquah, his case cited, 53. Sub- 
 ject of the stool of King Chibbo, 
 53. 
 
 Appeals, provided for by draft pro- 
 clamation, 365. 
 Appolonia, State of, referred to, 23. 
 
 Handed to Dutch, 154. 
 Aquamoo country, referred to, 359. 
 Arrest, power of, exerciseable by 
 native kings, 274. Illegal, dam- 
 ages as compensation for, 279. 
 Arsafu, or Company System, 252. 
 A corruption of Insefu, = friends, 
 i.e., friends in arms, 252. 
 Arthur, Sir Geo., 230. 
 Asanti Akim, federal state of 
 
 Kumasi, 31. 
 
 Ashanti, rising in, referred to, 11. 
 Communities owned allegiance to 
 the paramount stool of, 19. Sub- 
 ordinate communities of, were 
 Manpons, Juabins, Kokofus, 
 Beck was, Adansis, etc., 19. Stool
 
 INDEX. 
 
 401 
 
 ASH 
 
 of Kumasi paramount stool of, 
 19. Attained zenith of power 
 rirst quarter of 19th century, 20. 
 Occupation of, 21. War and ex- 
 pedition, 21, 140 ; burden of, 
 placed on the Fantis, 183. Union, 
 premier state of, was Kumasi, 
 26. 
 
 Ashantis, speak same language as 
 Fantis, 24. Probably the original 
 type, 25. Not a barbarous, blood- 
 thirsty people, 25. Fought with 
 Fantis over coast-trading, 29. To 
 sell real-born Ashantis, punished 
 by death, 30. Did not war in 
 order to immolate captives, 30. 
 Desired to act as middlemen for 
 distributing goods to hinterland, 
 98. Query, should they be treated 
 as a conquered people, or as allies ? 
 241. Fusion of, with Fantis 
 desirable, 241. King of, claimed 
 right to direct trade relations witli 
 Europe, 242. Began to trade 
 directly with Assinee after the 
 war, 243. 
 
 A*sankra Breman, 41. 
 
 Assembly, representative legislative, 
 advocated, 164. And greatly re- 
 quired, 165. 
 
 Assessors, judicial. See also Jurisdic- 
 tion. Kings and chiefs sat with, 
 71. Their jurisdiction explained, 
 etc., 165, 349. How powers to be 
 exercised when assessors away, 
 350. Powers not derived from 
 statute, 352. Founded on assent 
 and concurrence of sovereign 
 power of state, and long and 
 general acquiescence, and treaty, 
 352. 
 
 Assikamla = picked men of com- 
 pany to guard its flag, 91. 
 
 G.C. 
 
 BLA 
 
 Assin, referred to, 98, 187, 239. 
 Chief of, referred to, 153. 
 
 Ateni chief = chief of the lamp- 
 lighters, 26. 
 
 Atta, head of Province of Axim, 32. 
 
 Attuabu, capital of a province, 23. 
 
 Awiku, federal state of Kumasi, 31. 
 
 Awoossie, signed the Bond, 1844, 
 368. 
 
 Axim, province of, in State of 
 Ahanta, 32, 253. Head of, is 
 Atta, 32. 
 
 Ayan, 186, 187. 
 
 Ayanmain, 186. 
 
 Ayenasi, district of, referred to, 23. 
 
 BAIDOE BONSO, King of 
 Ahanta, 32. 
 
 Bailey, Chief Justice, 275. 
 
 Bannerman, Mr. Ch., of Accra, 
 lawyer, wit, and publicist, 175. 
 
 Bannerman, Mr. Edmund, 17"). 
 
 Baunerman, Hon. Jas., 95. 
 
 Bannerman, Mr. S., signed Bond 
 1844... 368 
 
 Bantuma Chief = chief of the Royal 
 Burial Grove, 26. 
 
 Barracoons, formerly forts served 
 as, 136. 
 
 Bat, mauuuiferous, representative of 
 the departed spirit, 102. 
 
 Beckwa, federal state of Kumasi, 31. 
 
 Beckwas, the, subordinate com- 
 munity of Ashanti, 19. 
 
 Beyin, King of, referred to, 59. 
 
 Bingham, Hon. Major, 121. 
 
 Bissoe, Mr. A., secretary of Abori- 
 gines' Society, 388. 
 
 Blacks, the, have had no chance in 
 America Hayti, Liberia, or 
 Sierra Leone, 247. But may and 
 can have in Gold Coast, 248, 
 26
 
 402 
 
 INDEX 
 
 "Blacks and Whites" quoted, 21, 
 177, 264. 
 
 Blankson, Hon. G., mentioned, 
 95. 
 
 Blankson, George, 175, 185. 
 
 Blyden, Dr., -quoted, 3. 
 
 Boatsin, linguist of King of Ashanti, 
 70. 
 
 Bond, the, 1844, referred to, 159, 
 314, 356. No longer truly 
 expresses extent, etc., of Great 
 Britain's power, 356. The only 
 document purporting to define 
 extent of Queen's jurisdiction, 
 356. Grants rights to try and 
 punish crimes, 356 ; to repress 
 human sacrifices, 356 ; to repress 
 panyarring, etc., 356. Silent as 
 to collection of customs, 356 ; 
 administration of civil justice, 
 356 ; legislation for public 
 health, 356 ; provision for edu- 
 cation, 356 ; construction of 
 roads, etc., 356 : which matters 
 are only justified on assump- 
 tion of usage, sufferance, and 
 tacit assent, 357. Eeferred to 
 as obsolete, 357. Printed in full, 
 367. 
 
 Bonso. See Sai Bonso. 
 
 Bosnian, referred to, 136. His 
 great work reproduced in modern 
 journals, 177. 
 
 Boundaries. British, in Gold Coast, 
 none, 162. Of land, naturally 
 fixed by trees, rivers Prah 
 and Volta, lagoon at Quittah, 
 etc., 195, 359. Maintenance of, 
 310. 
 
 Bourne, Mr. Fox : his book, " Blacks 
 and Whites," referred to, 20, 21, 
 177, etc. 
 
 Brackenbury, Capt., 138. " Fanti 
 
 CAP 
 
 and Ashanti" quoted, 138, 158, 
 etc. 
 
 Hrempon = civil chief, 64. 
 
 Brew, Prince, arrested, 173. 
 
 Brew, Hon. S. C., mentioned, 
 95. 
 
 British Charter, constituting Gold 
 Coast and Lagos Settlements into 
 a separate colony, 369. Constitu- 
 tion of Legislative Council, its 
 powers and jurisdiction, 372. 
 Establishment of courts and 
 officers, 373. 
 
 | British possessions on Gold Coast 
 = actually only forts, 319. 
 
 Brofoo, 187. 
 
 Brown, Mr. J. P., 179. 
 
 Bruce, query, illegally arrested, 279. 
 
 Burnett, Hon. Ch. W., 121. His 
 question, 123. 
 
 Busua (near Dixcove), capital of 
 Ahanta, 32. 
 
 Busumchie Abosso, Enimil 
 Koomah II. and Quasie Ankuma, 
 chiefs of, 290. 
 
 Butlers. See Royal Butlers. 
 
 "/^ABBOCEER," term once used 
 \J to distinguish chiefs of first 
 importance, 33, 147. 
 
 Calicali, King of Ashanti, 172. 
 
 Cane-bearer of King, 204. 
 
 Cape Coast, native state of Gold 
 Coast, 397. King of, = Kojo 
 Imbra, 397. Leading town of 
 Gold Coast, 260. Castle, formerly 
 harbour of foreign kidnappers, 
 261. 
 
 Capital Punishment, how to be 
 carried out, 353. 
 
 Captains in King's household of 
 the swordbearers, stoolbearer*,
 
 INDEX. 
 
 403 
 
 CAR 
 
 elephant's tail bearers, court- 
 criers ; of the Royal butlers, 
 huntsmen, farmers, physicians, 
 26, etc. 
 
 Cardwell, Rt. Hon. Edw., 147. 
 
 Carnarvon, Earl of, letter to Gover- 
 nor Strahan, 315, 354. 
 
 Carnegie, Mr. Andrew, quoted, 4. 
 
 Cases cited African (IVest) Ex- 
 ploitation and Development Syndi- 
 cate, Ltd. v. Sir Alfred Kirby and 
 others, 41. Chidda Concession, 
 289. Le Neve v. Le Neve, 301. 
 Puncliardv. Tomkins, 301. Yates 
 and Shattuck v. Garshong, 301. 
 Oppon v. Ackinie, 208, 273. Re- 
 gina, on the prosecution of Donovan, 
 v. Kudjoe Imbrah, 281. Donovan 
 v. Cudjoe Imbrah, 260. Enima v. 
 Pai, 41. Hima Diki \. Agiman 
 and others, 34. Homia v. Huma, 
 22. Hutton v. Kuta, 202. Im- 
 patassi, 49. Quamina Furi's Case, 
 209. 
 
 Cedar, 238. 
 
 Certificate of validity, 305. Form 
 and substance of, 306 et seq. 
 
 Chalmers, Mr., opinion etc. on 
 proclamation, to be obtained, 361. 
 
 Chalmers, Sir David, Chief Magis- 
 trate of Gold Coast, 71. 
 
 Chamberlain, Mr., 171. Speech of, 
 11. Reply to Aborigines' Society, 
 385. 
 
 Charter. See British Charter. 
 
 Chibbo, King of Assin, 53. 
 
 Chibboe Coomah, signed Bond, 1844, 
 368. 
 
 Chidda, village of, 290. 
 
 Chidda Concession, 289, etc. 
 
 Chief = strictly, subordinate ruler 
 under the paramount king, 32. 
 Used indiscriminately for king, j 
 
 COM 
 
 chief, or headman, 63. Ten- 
 dency to describe kings as, 316. 
 Properly so-called is person next 
 to a king in a native state, 63. 
 Head chief = principal chief of a 
 king, 63. Vary in rank according 
 to local importance, 63. Origi- 
 nally selected by king for valour, 
 intelligence, etc., 63. War chief 
 = sarfuhim, 64. Civil chief = 
 brepmon, 64. Generally captain 
 of a company, 64. Duty to hold 
 judicial Court and decide dis- 
 putes, 66. Tufu Hin (which see). 
 Minor chiefs accompany their 
 head chiefs to palaver, 66. Shares 
 in palaver, 66. Deliberates with 
 king in time of war, 66. Takes 
 oath of allegiance to king on king's 
 enstoolment, 67. Succession to 
 his stool regulated by same prin- 
 ciples as those governing succes- 
 sion to king's stool, 67. Judicial 
 power of, 274. 
 
 Christian Commonwealth, The, quoted, 
 230. 
 
 Cinnamon Bippo Range, 290. 
 
 Classes, 81. Freemen, 81. Slaves, 
 81. Pawns, 81. 
 
 Cochrane, Hon. J., 171. 
 
 Colonial Minister, course of con- 
 duct, 10. 
 
 Colonial Office, its policy, 9. Dis- 
 courages national spirit, 130. 
 Effect of influence with, 218. 
 
 Colonial Secretary of Gold Coast, 225. 
 
 Colonial Treasurer, 225. 
 
 Colony or Protectorate ? 311. 
 Definitions of, 312. 
 
 Commenda, handed to the Dutch, 
 154. 
 
 Committee, Select, 139. To ascer- 
 tain relation between Gold Coast 
 262
 
 404 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 COM 
 
 and Great Britain, 139. Report 
 of, 139. 
 
 Community. See Native Com- 
 munity. 
 
 Company, system = arsafu or in- 
 sefu (which see), constituted in 
 ward, 85. With captains and 
 subordinate officers, 85. Captain- 
 general = Tufii Hin, 85. Had 
 its own flags and banners, 85. 
 Annual review before king, 85. 
 Its system described, 85 et seq. 
 
 Compulsory Labour Ordinance, 260. 
 See also Ordinance. 
 
 Concessions Ordinance, 198 et seq. 
 Greatly abused by those ignorant 
 of facts, 198. Analysed and ex- 
 plained, 199 et seq. Concessions 
 Court, 200. Has its rules and 
 precedents, 200. Who may grant 
 a concession? 201. All natives 
 legally entitled by customary 
 law to make valid grants, 201. 
 Concession means not land, but 
 the " writing " by which the right 
 is acquired, 202. Must be signed 
 by " grantor, or some person duly 
 authorised by him," 203. Pro- 
 cedure of, described, 203 et seq. 
 Customary rights of grantors to 
 be considered, 206. See also 
 Ordinance. 
 
 Confederation of Fanti tribes,149,173 
 
 Conran, Col., 147. 
 
 Consideration, must be earnest 
 money plus rent (I), 296. Must be 
 adequate and valuable, 305. 
 
 Conspiracy, charge of, against 
 members of Mankessim Constitu- 
 tion, 173. 
 
 Constitution of Fantee Confederacy, 
 327 to 344. Objects of to pro- 
 mote friendly intercourse between 
 
 cox 
 
 kings, chiefs, etc., 328 ; to 
 improve the country, 329 ; to 
 make good roads, 329 ; to erect 
 school-houses, etc., 329 ; to pro- 
 mote agricultural and industrial 
 pursuits, 329 ; to develop, etc.,' 
 working of minerals, etc., 329. 
 Formation of executive council, 
 329. Conduct of its business, 329. 
 Exercise by, of all legislative 
 functions, 330. Its national 
 assembly, 331. Its annual 
 gatherings, 331. Establishment 
 of national and normal schools, 
 332. Training of female students, 
 332. How expenses to be borne, 
 332, 333. Provincial assessors, 
 how appointed, their judicial 
 functions, 333. Management of 
 provinces, 333. Secretary, his 
 duties denned, 333, 334. 
 Treasurer, his duties defined, 334, 
 335. Under-Secretary, his duties 
 defined, 335, 336. Assistant 
 treasurer, his duties defined, 336. 
 Provincial assessors, their duties 
 denned, 336, 337. Executive 
 Council and Ministry, duties of, 
 
 337 ; to advise king-president, 
 to see laws, etc., carried out ; to 
 examine financial condition of 
 confederacy, 337 ; to try appeals, 
 
 338 ; to try all disputes between 
 native kings, chiefs, etc., 338 ; to- 
 determine by votes the succession 
 to stools, 338 ; to consider all 
 applications for alliances by 
 tribes, 338. National Assembly, 
 duties of to elect president 
 for year, to consider all pro- 
 grammes, to place on stool 
 elected person, 339. Its educa- 
 tion scheme set forth, 340 344 ;
 
 INDEX. 
 
 405 
 
 CON 
 
 subjects to be taught, 342 ; 
 kinds of schools, 342 ; scholar- 
 ships, 343. 
 
 Contribution, an occasional when, 
 and in respect of what, payable, 
 48 et seq. 
 
 Correspondence. See Official Corre- 
 spondence. 
 
 Cotton Trees, 238. 
 
 Council, the, is ruling voice in all 
 matters political and judicial, 74. 
 Right to approve or disapprove 
 all acts done by a chief or head- 
 man affecting interests of com- 
 munity, 74. 
 
 Councillors, introduce legislation, 
 42. = Intelligent men selected by 
 head of community to assist in 
 affairs of community, 73. Chiefs 
 are ex-qfficio, 73. Hold office for 
 life, 73 ; or during good behaviour, 
 
 73. Succeeded by heir of mature 
 age and experience, 73 ; or by 
 heir's guardian during immaturity 
 and inexperience, 73. Represent 
 sovereignty of the people, 74. 
 Pay homage to king as their head, 
 
 74. Must legalise every step by 
 tradition and custom, 74. En- 
 titled to a portion of public 
 revenues, 75 ; which they in turn 
 sub-divide among their depen- 
 dents, 75. Cannot exercise rights 
 capriciously, 74. 
 
 Court-criers, captain of, 26. 
 
 Court, full, 279, Judgment of, 279. 
 
 Crimes, etc., to be tried by British 
 
 Government, 367. 
 Croboe country, referred to, 359. 
 " Crown Colonies of Great Britain " 
 
 quoted, 118, etc. 
 Cudjoe Ammoo, opposed Chidda 
 
 Concession, 289. 
 
 DIX 
 
 Cudjoe Buaful, 289. Opposed 
 Chidda Concession, 289. 
 
 Cudjoe Chibboe, signed the Bond 
 1844.. .368 
 
 Cudjoe Chibbo, an Assin chief, 153. 
 
 Cudjoe Imbrah, 260. His people 
 desired to enstool him as king, 
 177. Had nothing to do with 
 Compulsory Labour Ordinance, 
 260. Treated as felon, 262. 
 
 Cultivation, shifting, 307. 
 
 Customary rights, 307. Shifting 
 cultivation, 307. Collecting fire- 
 wood, 307. Hunting, snaring 
 game, 307. 
 
 AMAGES, action for, 299. 
 
 Datum point to be observed, 310. 
 Dawuna, King of Christiansborg, 
 
 316. 
 
 Death, offences punished by, in- 
 cluded murder, stealing, rape, 
 
 treason, kidnapping, etc., 29, 30. 
 Decided Cases. See Cases Cited. 
 Denkara, King of, = Tutim Gackidi, 
 
 ' 155. Referred to, 187. 
 Denkera, native state of Gold Coast, 
 
 397. King of, Inkwantabisa, 
 
 397. 
 Department of War, formed at 
 
 Kumasi, of Kwaintsirs, 26. To. 
 
 command respect of federal 
 
 states, 28. 
 Deportation of natives as slaves to 
 
 West Indies and America, 318. 
 District Commissioner, 273. 
 District Commissioner of Cape 
 
 Coast, 281. Case stated by, 281. 
 Divisional Court, Cape Coast, 273. 
 Dixcove (near Busua), 32. King of, 
 . was Hima Diki, 34. English fort
 
 406 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 DON 
 
 at, 136. Handed over to Dutch, 
 
 154. 
 
 Donovan Regina v., 281. 
 Donovan v. Cudjoe Imbrah, referred 
 
 to, 260. - 
 
 Downing Street patronage, 218. 
 Duben trees, 238. 
 Dutch naval officers captured by 
 
 Coramendas, 185. 
 
 T71ARNEST MONEY, custom of 
 J_J giving, 296. Query, synony- 
 mous with consideration, 296. 
 Eastern Akim, native state of Gold 
 
 Coast, 397. King of, = Akwasi 
 
 Duma, 397. 
 Eckumfi, 187. 
 Edgimacoe, 186, 187. 
 Education, Governor to promote, 
 
 170. Of all children, 186. Of 
 
 females, 187. To be provided 
 
 for, 366. 
 Edum, a herbal preparation, drunk 
 
 in ordeal, 94. 
 Egimaku, native state of Gold 
 
 Coast, 397. King of, = Kwamin 
 
 Kama, 397. 
 
 Ejectment, action of, 299. 
 Ekumfi, native state of Gold Coast. 
 
 King of, = Koa Akini, 397. 
 " Elements of Law," 118. 
 Elephant's tail-bearers, captain of, 
 
 26. 
 Elmina, French fort at, 135. Dutch 
 
 fort at, 135. Founded by French 
 
 Company at Dieppe and Rouen, 
 
 317. 
 
 Emancipation Ordinance, 81. 
 Enima v. Pai cited, 41. 
 Enimil. See Kwamina. 
 Eshroa, 57. 
 Esiama, referred to, 56. In the 
 
 FLA 
 
 State of Elmina, 56. Own alle- 
 giance to State of Anamaboe, 56. 
 
 Essandor, King of the Inkusukums, 
 56. 
 
 EsubanJoassa, 58. 
 
 Evidence, mis-reception of, 285. 
 Satisfactory, as to status of a party, 
 286. 
 
 Execution, stay of, pending appeal, 
 284. 
 
 FAMILY, the : the unit for the 
 purpose of ownership, 47. =The 
 entire lineal descendants of a head 
 materfamilias, 76. 
 
 Fanti, natives of native states of 
 Gold Coast, 21. Petty traders, 
 96. Probably an offshoot from 
 Ashantis, 25. Fought with Ash- 
 antis over coast - trading, 29. 
 Pioneers and developers of the 
 mahogany, gold, and nibber in- 
 dustries of Gold Coast, 75. Con- 
 federation of, 149, 182 ; its 
 constitution, 327 ; meetings at 
 Mankessirn, 327. 
 
 "Fanti Customary Laws" quoted, 
 60, 165, 315. 
 
 "Fanti and Ashanti" quoted, 138, 
 148, 158, 162. 
 
 Farmers. See Royal Farmers. 
 
 Farms, ancient, lie neglected and 
 unattended, 237. 
 
 Fetishism, system of faith and wor- 
 ship described, 101 et seq. 
 
 Firewood, collection of, a customary 
 right, 307. 
 
 Fitzgerald, Mr., of African Times, 
 174. Supported the "Confedera- 
 tion" movement, 174. 
 
 Flags of a company held as sacred 
 trust, 91. Guard of honour at- 
 tached to each company to guard
 
 INDEX. 
 
 407 
 
 FOM 
 
 its flag, 91. This guard called 
 Assikamba, 91 ; and are picked 
 men of the company, 91. 
 
 Foinina, 57. 
 
 Fortnightly Revieiv quoted, 258. 
 
 Forts, = British settlements, 135 ; 
 governed by Governor, 350. 
 French, at Elmina, 135. English, 
 at Elmina, cession of, 156. St. 
 George del Mina, 135. Fredens- 
 berg, or Ningo, 135. Cabo Corsa, 
 or Cape Coast Castle, 135. Nas- 
 sau, or Mori, 135. Conradsburg, 
 or St. Jago, at Elmina, 135. 
 Kramantine, 136. James at Accra, 
 136. Vanderpurgh at Commenda, 
 136. Dixcove, 136. Anamaboe, 
 136. Formerly served as barra- 
 coons for human cargo, 136. 
 Practically the sole British pos- 
 sessions in Gold Coast, 137 et seq. 
 
 Fraud, charge of, against claimants 
 of Chidda Concession, 289. 
 
 Freeman, Dr., " Travels and Life in 
 Ashanti and Jaman " quoted, 13, 
 14. 
 
 Freemen = dihi, 81. Long an- 
 cestry, 82. Eligible for office, 82. 
 
 Freetown, 97. 
 
 Fynn, prosecution of, 192. 
 
 GA, native state of Gold Coast, 
 21. 
 Gapee, Quacoe, present at palaver, 
 
 380. 
 
 Gebre, signed Bond, 1844... 368. 
 Ghartey, King of Winnebah, 173, 
 
 185, 316. Ratified treaty with 
 
 British Government, 185. 
 Ghartey, charged Otchafoo with 
 
 bribery, 274. 
 Gibraltar, referred to, 314. 
 
 GON 
 
 Gold Coast, contains native states 
 of Fauti, Ahanta, Insima, Ga, 
 "Wassa, etc., 21. Legislated for 
 by Governor in Council, 119. 
 
 Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Pro- 
 tection Society, 171. Deputation 
 of, received by Mr. Chamber- 
 lain, 171. Correspondence with 
 Governor, 382396. 
 
 Gold Coast Amalgamated Mines, 
 Ltd., 289. 
 
 Gold Coast Chronicle, 175, 178. 
 
 Gold Coast Colony, or Settlement : 
 history establishes that this has 
 no reference to natives of soil, but 
 exclusively to European mer- 
 chants, 319. British possessions 
 in = forts only, 319. Proposal and 
 petition to divide into four pro- 
 vinces, 267. 
 
 Gold Coast Echo, 121, 177. Advo- 
 cated cause of Cudjo Imbrah, 177, 
 and a scheme of municipal govern- 
 ment on native lines, 177. 
 
 Gold Coast Government Gazette quoted, 
 141. 
 
 "Gold Coast Guide" quoted, 135, 
 223, 397. 
 
 Gold Coast Independent, 178. 
 
 Gold Coast Methodist Times, 178, 311. 
 
 Gold Coast People, 177. 
 
 Golden stool, debate on, in House of 
 Common- , 11. "Moral and in- 
 tellectual value," 11. "Gives 
 supremacy," 12. "Emblem of 
 possession," 13. Ill-advised hunt 
 for, 268. 
 
 Gomey, 105. 
 
 Gomua, native state of Gold Coast, 
 397, King of, = Kojo Inkum, 
 397. 
 
 Goomowah, 187. 
 
 Gong-gong, for what used, 42, 253.
 
 408 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 GOT 
 
 Gothic House at Cape Coast, 261. 
 
 Gowans, a mining engineer, 293. 
 
 Government, support of British, 
 dependent on feelings entertained 
 for local" administration, 161. 
 Municipal, 109 et seq. Represent- 
 ative, idea of, among the people, 
 126 ; perfect and efficient, 128. 
 
 Governor to have a negative voice 
 in passing of all ordinances, 373 ; 
 power to suspend any person from 
 exercising powers, 376. To be 
 resident in Settlement, 376. Ap- 
 pointment of Lieutenant-Gover- 
 nor, 377. May appoint a deputy, 
 378. Tenure of office uncertain, 
 11. Not generally well acquainted 
 with Native Institutions, 11 
 
 Grant, Mr. Corrie, represented 
 Aborigines' Society before Colonial 
 Secretary, 171, 385. 
 
 Grant, Mr. F. C., 191. 
 
 Grey, Lord, first attempted to im- 
 pose poll tax, 163. 
 
 Griffith, Sir W. B., Governor of 
 Gold Coast, 115, 120, 138, 258, 
 261, 320. 
 
 H 
 
 ACKETT, Mr. Wm., 140. 
 
 Hanno, the Carthaginian, of the 
 Gold Coast, 326. 
 
 Hansen, Mr. Robert, 175. 
 
 Hansens, the, 95. 
 
 Hayford, Mr. J. D., arrested, 173. 
 
 Headman = head of a village com- 
 munity, or ward in a township, or 
 of a family, 76. Must properly 
 train members of family, 76 ; in 
 matters political and traditional, 
 76. Responsible for general con- 
 duct of those in his charge, 76. 
 
 HUY 
 
 Must insist on their conforming 
 with customs, laws, etc., 76. 
 Formerly could exile by sale a 
 troublesome relative, 76. Assisted 
 by female members, 77. Judge 
 of family or ward, 77. Entitled 
 to hearing fee, 77. Important 
 member of his " company," 77 ; 
 often its captain, 77. Always suc- 
 ceeded by uterine brother, cousin, 
 or nephew, 78. 
 
 Head Panin, or Chief Elder, = head 
 of the ward, 251. 
 
 Hennessy, Mr Pope, 184, 189, 191. 
 
 Hill, H. \V., Lieut -Governor, signed 
 Bond, 1844... 368. 
 
 Hill, S. J., Governor, 170. 
 
 Hima Diki, King of Dixcove, 34. 
 Deposed by the people, 34. Re- 
 placed by Anansu Mensah, his 
 uncle, 34. Sought to recover 
 stool, etc., 34. Brought action to 
 test legality of his destoolment, 
 34. 
 
 Hima Diki v. Ayiman and others 
 cited, 34. 
 
 Hindle, Hon. E. Bruce, Queen's 
 Advocate, 120. 
 
 Hodgson, Sir F. M., despatches of, 
 etc., 12, 120, 141. 
 
 Holmes, Mr. J. K, 112. 
 
 Homia v. Huma cited, 22, 23. 
 
 Hughes, Mr. Geo., 171. 
 
 Human sacrifices to be abolished, 
 365. 
 
 Huni River, 290. 
 
 Hunt, Mr. E. F., 171. 
 
 Huntsmen. Sec Royal Huntsmen. 
 
 Hutchinson, J. T., Chief Justice, 
 120. 
 
 Hutton v. Kuta quoted, 202. 
 
 Huyshe, Captain, 138. " Fanti and 
 Ashanti" quoted, 138, 158.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 409 
 
 IMM 
 
 IMMORALITY punished by 
 death, 30. 
 
 Impatassi case cited, 49, 50. 
 
 Imperegus, 57. Of Abura, 57. Ack- 
 nowledge stool of Anamaboe, 57. 
 
 Imperial West Africa, how to be 
 achieved, and built up, 259. 
 
 Imprisonment, power of, exercise- 
 able by native kings, 274. 
 
 Indemnity, war, 50,000 ozs. of gold, 
 265. 
 
 Indumsuasu, 58. 
 
 Inheritance, native law of, 249. 
 
 Inkee, referred to, 54. 
 
 Inkertsia, a huntsman, 22. Founded 
 Inkertsia Krom, 22. 
 
 Inkidoms, or Akempins, were king's 
 bodyguard, 28, 87. Chief of, = 
 Subir, 28. 
 
 Inkwanlabisa, King of Denkera, 397. 
 
 I nsima,' native state of Gold Coast, 
 21. 
 
 Insuta, federal state of Kumasi, 31. 
 
 TAMAN, Ajiinan, King of, 13. 
 
 Johnson, Mr. J. W. de, 179. 
 
 Jones, Mr. T. F. E., 171. 
 
 Juabins, the, subordinate community 
 of Ashanti, 19. Federal state of 
 Ashanti, 31. 
 
 Judges, power to constitute and 
 appoint, 375. 
 
 Judicial powers of, native chiefs, etc., 
 275 ; in no way impaired, 209. 
 Of assessors. See Assessors 'and 
 Jurisdiction. 
 
 Jurisdiction of Great Britain : origi- 
 nated in a desire to mitigate the 
 effect of cruel and barbarous cus- 
 toms by influence of Christianity 
 and civilisation, 353 ; attempt 
 
 KIN 
 
 to define, 355 et seq.; should be 
 made subject to distinct agree- 
 ment with native chiefs, 356 ; 
 fully defined by draft proclama- 
 tion, 364 367 ; acknowledged 
 by the Bond, 1844... 367. Query 
 extent of British, in Gold Coast, 
 149. Assessors', 165, 166. Na- 
 tives', 166. Civil and criminal, 
 exerciseable by Great Britain, 
 concurrent with that of native 
 kings and chiefs, 277. " In- 
 herent," query meaning, and 
 whether Governor has power to 
 take away, 280. 
 
 TT^IDNAPPIXG punished by 
 
 JL\_ death, 30. 
 
 Kimberley, Lord, 190. Despatch 
 to Governor Keate, 360. 
 
 King, the, is paramount, 19. Arbi- 
 ter in disputes between provinces 
 within his state, 23. Does not 
 interfere in internal government 
 of a province, 23. Is chief magis- 
 trate, 32. Is chief military leader, 
 32. Is first executive officer of 
 the state, 32 ; but not of the 
 executive council of the state, 41. 
 Influence measured by character, 
 32. Office of, elective, 33. Does 
 not accpiire indefeasible title to 
 the stool, 33. May be removed 
 for just cause, 33. Generally 
 holds position for life, 33. Gene- 
 rally succeeded by uterine brother, 
 cousin, or nephew, 33. Often 
 indicates his own successor, 33. 
 Fountain of justice, 37. His 
 linguist opens all proceedings, 38. 
 Probably chosen originally for 
 personal valour, intelligence, and
 
 410 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 KLA 
 
 warlike capability, 38. Mode of 
 choosing, 40, 41. Acts done by, 
 without concurrence of executive 
 council of state, liable to be set 
 aside, 41: Is President of Legis- 
 lative Board, 42. Seldom initiates 
 legislation, 42. Presides over 
 judicial proceedings, 43. Qua 
 King, does not own land, 44. 
 Owns ancestral lands, 44. Ratines 
 subjects' grant of land, 45. Spiri- 
 tual Head of his people, 106. 
 Early jurisdiction of, 143 et seq. 
 His person and stool are sacred, 
 259. Judicial powers of, 275. 
 Of Ashanti, his household con- 
 trolled by captains, e.g., of the 
 sword-bearers, etc., 26 ; his sons 
 have distinct rank in the nobility, 
 and known by title of " Sai " or 
 " Osoo," 27 ; his bodyguard were 
 Inkidoms, 28 ; minor bodies, 
 e.g., scouts, and keepers of royal 
 arsenals, 28. 
 
 Klanamonoos, the, referred to, 57. 
 
 Knowledge, pleaded, as to possession 
 of another, 302. 
 
 Knutsford, Lord, 149. 
 
 Koffee Kalkalli, King of Ashanti, 
 141. 
 
 Kofi Ainibah, referred to, 41. 
 
 Kofi Ahinkura, King of Western 
 Akim, 397. 
 
 Kofi Akini, King of Ekumfi, 397. 
 
 Kofi Nyam, 57. 
 
 Kojo Buaful, guardian of King 
 Kwatnina Enimil of Eastern 
 Wassaw, 25. An Ashanti, 25. 
 
 Kojo Inkum, King of Gomua, 397. 
 
 Kokofu, federal state of Kuinasi, 
 31. 
 
 Kokofus, the, subordinate com- 
 munity of Ashanti, 19. 
 
 KWE 
 
 Kong Mountains, former habitat of 
 Ashantis and Fantis, 24. 
 
 Kudjoe Enimil Kooma II. opposed 
 Chidda Concession, 289. 
 
 Kumasi, stool of, paramount stool 
 of Ashanti, 19. Seat of golden 
 stool, 20. State of, was premier 
 state of Ashanti, 26. Seventy- 
 seven stools in, 26. Local govern- 
 ment of, in hands of Kwaintsirs, 
 keepers of the golden stool, 26. 
 Centre of state system of trade 
 between the coast and hinterland, 
 28. Centre of convict establish- 
 ment, 29. Federal states of, 
 were Mampon, Beckwa, etc., 31. 
 Occupation of, 151 ; alleged to 
 have enlarged the field of com- 
 merce and industry, 151. 
 
 Kuntum = yam festival in Wassaw 
 and Ahanta, 85. 
 
 Kwaintsirs, controlled local govern- 
 ment of Kumasi, 26. Keepers of 
 the golden stool, 26. 
 
 Kwami Fori, King of Akuapim, 
 397. 
 
 Kwamina Enimil, King of Eastern 
 Wassaw, 25, 397. Guardian of, is 
 Kojo Buaful, 25. Charge against 
 Kweku Inkruma, with acts un- 
 becoming kingly oifice, brought 
 before him, 35. Opposed Chidda 
 Concession, 289. 
 
 Kwamin Hauia, King of Egimaku, 
 397. 
 
 Kwantabissa, King of Denkira, 39. 
 Claimed right to lease certain 
 land, 39. 
 
 Kweku Atta, 261. King of Axim, 
 34. Called as expert witness, 
 34, 5U. 
 
 Kweku Dua, King, father of Sai 
 Bonso, 27.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 411 
 
 KWE 
 
 Kweku Iiikruma, ex- King of Pep- 
 pissa district, 35. Destooled by 
 King Kwamina Enimil's Court, 
 35. 
 
 K \vesi Wereku, King of Upper 
 Wassaw, 397. 
 
 Kwinbontu, 41. 
 
 Kwofi Kara Kari, King, dominion 
 of, broken down, 21. 
 
 T ACHES, pleaded, 302. 
 lj 
 
 Lagos. See Protectorate of. 
 
 Land, king's ancestral, 44. General, 
 over which king exercises para- 
 mountcy, 45. Nature of king's 
 parainountcy over, 45. How 
 originally acquired and appor- 
 tioned, 45. Acquired by in- 
 dividual becomes practically 
 ancestral, 47. Natives asked to 
 make grant of, to Great Britain, 
 140. Legislation, 172. No right 
 by British to administer, 172. 
 Public no such thing in Gold 
 Coast, 194. All either stool 
 land, private land, or family land, 
 
 194. Tribe, country, town, 
 company, family or individual, 
 
 195. Ownership of, carefully 
 preserved by natives, 195. 
 Boundaries of, fixed by natural 
 features, 195. None " un- 
 occupied," 195. Of Cape Coast 
 apparently acknowledged by some 
 native chiefs and people to belong 
 to Great Britain, 381. Power to 
 dispose of, 374. 
 
 "Lands Bill," 112, 194, 223, 320. 
 Law, how promulgated, 42. To be 
 
 enacted with due regard to native 
 
 law and custom, 365. 
 
 MAC 
 
 Legislation, to be effectual must be 
 result of native representation, 
 164. 
 
 Legislative Council, laws passed 
 by, 125. Not consulted when 
 Governor Hodgson went to 
 Kumasi for the golden stool, 268. 
 
 Lemaire, clerk of Chief of Busum- 
 chie, 292. 
 
 Libations offered to departed spirits, 
 86. 
 
 Linguist, king's, 38. Opens all 
 proceedings, 38. Announces 
 decision of Council to the people, 
 38. Promulgates laws, 42. Not 
 a person skilled in tongues, 68. 
 = "Spokesman," 68. Allsuperiors 
 have their linguist, 68. Is a 
 confidential officer, 68. = King's 
 or chiefs moiithpiece in every 
 public function, 69. His place 
 not filled by the successor to his 
 ancestral stool, 69. But probably 
 by his son, 69. Generally a 
 walking encyclopaedia, 69. 
 Acquainted with court etiquette, 
 69 ; functions, history, and tradi- 
 tions, 69 70. When speaking 
 leans on king's gold cane, 70. 
 Represents master where latter 
 cannot be present, 71. Re- 
 presents master at public en- 
 quiries, 71. 
 
 Lucas, Mr., 138. " Historical 
 Geography of British Colonies," 
 quoted, 138. 
 
 MACARTHY, Sir Ch., 147. His 
 aggressive policy, 244. 
 MacGregor, Sir Win., 197. 
 Maclean, Governor, referred to, 24. 
 His policy of " open market," etc.,
 
 412 
 
 .INDEX. 
 
 MAC 
 
 between coast and hinterland, 
 
 243. 
 Maclean, Mr. Geo., 165. Signed 
 
 Bond, 1844... 368. 
 Macleod, Mr. Justice, 94, 209. 
 Manpon, federal state of Kumasi, 
 
 31. 
 
 Manpons, the, subordinate com- 
 munity of Ashanti, 19. 
 Mamponsu, federal state of Kumasi, 
 
 31. 
 Mankessim, 186. Native state of 
 
 Gold Coast, 397. King of, = Okra 
 
 Kwa, 23, 397. 
 Mankessim Constitution, 149 ; its 
 
 members arrested, 173 ; its pro- 
 visions studied, 182 et seq. 
 
 Objects of, set out in Article 8, 
 
 185 et seq. 
 Markby's " Elements of Law " 
 
 quoted, 118. 
 Maxwell, Sir Win. E., 142, 151, 178. 
 
 His preconceived notions, etc., 321. 
 Mayan, Quumina, present at palaver, 
 
 380. 
 
 McCarthy, M.P., Mr. A., 149. 
 McDowell, Dr. D. K., District 
 
 Commissioner of Cape Coast, 281. 
 Meade, Mr. R. H., 149. 
 Members of Council, non-official, 
 
 not to criticise but advise, 123. 
 Mensa, King, succeeded to stool, 
 
 265. 
 Military forces of native rulers in 
 
 alliance with Queen, to be 
 
 organised, 366. 
 Minstrels proclaim glory of king 
 
 and his house, 87. 
 Misrepresentation, charge of, against 
 
 Chidda Concession, 289. 
 Missionary, his mistakes, 104 et seq. 
 
 Ignorance of local customs, beliefs, 
 
 worship, etc., 105. 
 
 NAT 
 
 Monasteries, Roman Catholic, in 
 Africa, have crumbled to dust, 
 239. 
 
 Mpredwi, 57. 
 
 Mulattoes, included in " natives," 
 202. If able to trace a clear 
 descent through or from a pure 
 native mater familias, 202. 
 
 Municipal government, 109. Each 
 township has Sanitary Board 
 arrangements for public works, 
 and other necessary provisions for 
 local government, 109. Super- 
 vised by headman, 110. 
 
 Municipalities, to be established, 
 366. 
 
 Murder, punished by death, 29. 
 
 NATGLASS, Governor, 185. 
 Represented Netherlands 
 Government, 185. 
 
 Native, the, consent and co-opera- 
 tion necessary for progress and 
 development in right direction, 
 222. His confidence in Bench 
 and Bar, 221. Of Gold Coast, 
 may have been immigrant from 
 Timbuctoo, 325. 
 
 Native Community, is a composite 
 whole, 32. Each lias form and 
 method of government the same 
 in all essentials, 33. 
 
 Native Courts, full powers and 
 authority of, always been fully 
 recognised by Great Britain, 
 274 280. Recognised and pro- 
 vided for, by draft proclamation, 
 365. 
 
 Native Jurisdiction Bill, 320. 
 
 Native Jurisdiction Ordinance, 166. 
 Making it possible for British 
 authorities to remove a native
 
 INDEX. 
 
 413 
 
 
 
 BUM, the, 238. 
 
 NAT 
 
 sovereign from his stool, cited 
 and explained, 209 et seq. 
 
 Native prisons to be super vised, 365. 
 
 Native State found where many 
 communities combine and own 
 allegiance to paramount authority, 
 19. Federated under same laws, 
 customs, faith and worship, and 
 language, 19. Disorganised by 
 British aggression, 27. Ito system 
 summarised, 250 et seq. Principal 
 states of Gold Coast enumerated, 
 together with their kings, 397. 
 
 Nephew, succession of king's nephew 
 gradually became an institution, 
 39. 
 
 Netherlands, King of, 154. 
 
 Nineteenth Century Magazine re- 
 ferred to, 4. 
 
 Offerings of food and drink to 
 departed spirits, 102. 
 
 Office, of Governor, 315. Of Com- 
 mander-in-chief, 315 ; constituted 
 by letters patent, 315. 
 
 Official Correspondence, 345 et seq. 
 Lord Stanley to Lieut.-Governor 
 Hill on Assessors' Jurisdiction, 
 348 et seq. Earl of Carnarvon to 
 Governor Strahan on Great 
 Britain's power and jurisdiction 
 in Gold Coast, 354 et seq. Abori- 
 gines' Rights Protection Society 
 to the Governor, 382 et seq. The 
 Governor to Aborigines, etc., 
 Society, 388. The Society to the 
 Governor, 389 et seq. The Governor 
 to the Society, 394. The Society 
 to the Governor, 395. The 
 Governor to the Society, 396. 
 
 ORD 
 
 Offin River, 39. 
 
 Ohin = the king, 32. = Head of 
 any considerable community of 
 aborigines, 32. 
 
 Okra Kwa, King of Mankessim, 23, 
 397. 
 
 Oppon, became surety, 208. Refused 
 to meet award, 208. Arrested by 
 King of Akumfie, 208. Sued king 
 for damages, succeeded, 208. Lest 
 upon appeal to full court, 209. 
 Referred to, 273. 
 
 Oppon v. Ackinie cited, 208. 
 
 Option, 298. Granted to Bridges, 
 298. Assignment of, 300. Priority 
 of, 300, 301, 304. Registration 
 of, 301. Lease higher than, 
 301. 
 
 Ord, Colonel, 139, 146, 149. 
 
 Ordeal, practised and described, 94. 
 Consists of drinking edum, a 
 herbal preparation, 94 ; practice 
 of eating a handful of rice in 
 other parts of West Africa, 94. 
 
 Order of Queen in Council, 1874, 
 set forth, 345. 
 
 Ordinance : Supreme Court, 1876, 
 276 ; how to be construed, 276 
 et seq. ; does not say that jurisdic- 
 tion other than Her Majesty's is 
 to cease, 277 ; on contrary, im- 
 plies jurisdiction of native kings, 
 etc., to be co-existent, 277 ; has 
 in no way impaired the judicial 
 powers of native kings, etc., 280. 
 Compulsory Labour, 1895. ..281, 
 283, 286, 320 ; case stated under, 
 281 ; effect and construction of 
 explained, 283 et seq., 287 et seq. 
 Criminal Procedure, 1876, re- 
 ferred to, 283. Emancipation, 81 ; 
 recognises jurisdiction of kings and 
 chiefs in judicial rites, 94 ; and
 
 414 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 OSA 
 
 treats native tribunals as existing, 
 
 276. Native Jurisdiction Ordi- 
 nance cited, 166 ; and explained, 
 209 ; made it possible for British 
 authorities to remove native 
 sovereigns- from their stools, 166. 
 Assessors, 165, 166. Public Lands, 
 1876... 383. Towns (Amendment), 
 1901. ..383; introduces principle 
 of vesting lands of the country in 
 the Crown, 387. Poll Tax, 160, 
 163. Local Native Courts, 
 
 277. " To facilitate and regulate 
 exercise of powers, etc., by native 
 authorities," 1878. ..278. 
 
 Osai Tutu I., 155. 
 
 Osoo Ansab, 27, 243. Father of 
 
 Prince John Osoo Ansah, and 
 
 Prince Albert Osoo Ansah, 27. 
 Otchafoo, David, charged with 
 
 bribery, 274. 
 " Owl " column in Western Echo, 
 
 176. 
 
 PALAVER " = a suit before 
 the court in which king 
 and councillors sit, 93. Described, 
 93 et seq. Record of, 380. Some 
 chiefs and people assembled at, 
 apparently acknowledge lands in 
 Cape Coast belong to the Queen, 
 381. 
 
 Panins, or Elders, = heads of the 
 families, 251. 
 
 Panyarring to be abolished, 365. 
 
 Paramountcy of king, 46. Dis- 
 tinguished from ownership, 47 
 62. 
 
 Paramount Kings of Gold Coast, 
 names and states of, enumerated, 
 397. 
 
 PHI 
 
 PAR HI, 42. 
 
 Pawns, 81. =-- A human pledge as 
 security for an advance, 83. Pro- 
 viso for redemption, 83. Disgrace 
 of not redeeming, 83. Uncle 
 pledged nephew, 83. Generally 
 to persons well known, 83. 
 Pledgee trained the pawn, 83. 
 
 People, the, take interest in politics, 
 79. Mothers educate their sons 
 in traditional history, 79. Their 
 characteristics, 80. 
 
 Peregwans, 28. 
 
 Peynins, 147. 
 
 Physicians. See Royal Physicians. 
 
 Pike, Mr. Chas., 120. 
 
 Pine, Governor, 139, 146, 153. Re- 
 fused to restore runaway slave 
 boy, 153. 
 
 Plebiscite, how obtained, 254. Bind- 
 ing on all the people, 254. 
 
 Pogson, Mr. R, signed Bond, 1844, 
 368. 
 
 Police force, armed, to be organised 
 for internal order, etc., 366. 
 
 Political ethics animadverted upon, 
 231 et seq. 
 
 Poll Tax Ordinance, 160. Imposi- 
 tion of, 163. Rapidly fell off, 
 163. 
 
 Poor Law, none in Gold Coast, 
 249. 
 
 Ports, French and German, 98. 
 
 Prah, river = natural boundary, 
 359. 
 
 Prempeh, King, 265. His degrada- 
 tion, 265. 
 
 Priests work the spiritual system, 
 106. Cure disease, 106. Are good 
 doctors, skilled in herb remedies, 
 106. Invest their practice with 
 secrecy, 106. Training begins in 
 early life, 107. Sent to seminary
 
 INDEX. 
 
 415 
 
 PRO 
 
 in another district, 107. Appren- 
 ticeship for three years, 107. 
 Clever-in dancing, 107. In frenzy 
 of excitement the " fetish " conies 
 upon them, 107. In time of war 
 go forth with army, 107. Sup- 
 posed to be bullet proof, 108. 
 Give aid in dressing the wounded, 
 108. 
 
 Proclamation, draft of, 363. De- 
 fining nature and extent of Queen's 
 jurisdiction on Gold Coast, 363. 
 
 Province, is the district of a head 
 chief, 22. Consists of a number 
 of towns and villages, 22. Con- 
 stitution of, same as that of federal 
 state, 22. 
 
 Protected Malay States analogous 
 to Gold Coast, 323. 
 
 Protectorate, definitions of, 320. 
 Rightful name for Gold Coast, 
 323. Of Lagos, 360. 
 
 Public, Health, to be promoted with 
 assent of natives, 366. 
 
 QUAMINA ANNOBIL, prin- 
 cipal linguist of King of 
 
 Lower Wassaw, 58. 
 Quamin Fori, 279. King of Agna- 
 
 pim, 279. His case cited, 209. 
 Quamina Imnuama opposed Chidda 
 
 Concession, 289. 
 Quamina Mayan present at palaver, 
 
 380. 
 
 Quantamissa, Prince, 243. 
 Quashie Ankah signed Bond, 1844, 
 
 368. 
 Quashie Ottoo signed Bond 1844, 
 
 368. 
 Quasie Ankuma opposed Chidda 
 
 Concession, 289. 
 
 SAL 
 ~D APE punished by death, 29. 
 
 Eailways, doubtful whether they 
 
 affect the position of native trade, 
 
 98. 
 
 Reyina v. Kudjoe Imbra, 281. 
 Religion, Governor to promote, 1 70. 
 Rents, importance of paying, in 
 
 respect of, and before applying 
 
 for, concession, 297. Kinds of 
 
 retaining, 309 ; working, 309. 
 Revenue to be raised by licences 
 
 and customs, with assent of native 
 
 rulers, etc., 366. 
 
 Rice, eaten in trial by ordeal, 94. 
 Rights, of aborigines, inalienable, 
 
 320. Customary, 307. 
 Roads, width of, to be fifteen feet, 
 
 186. 
 Robertson, Mr. Isaac, present at 
 
 palaver, 380. 
 Rooke, Sir G., 314. 
 Royal African Company, 318. 
 Royal Butlers, captain of, 26. 
 Royal Farmers, captain of, 26. 
 Royal Huntsmen, captain of, 26. 
 Royal Physicians, captain of, 26. 
 
 S ACCOM, Mr. S., President of 
 Aborigines' Society, 388. 
 
 Sacrifice offered, 88. 
 
 Sacrifices, human, contrary to law 
 159. 
 
 " Sai " = " Osoo " = prince, 27. 
 
 Sai Bonso, son of King Kweku Dua, 
 27. Father of Osoo Ansah, 27. 
 
 Salmon, C. S., ex-Administrator of 
 the Gold Coast, wrote " Crown 
 Colonies of Great Britain," 118, 
 134, 155, 216, 230. Quoted, 2 et 
 passim. Disapproved of Fauti 
 Confederation, 189. Arrested its
 
 416 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 members, 173. His inconsistent 
 attitude criticised, 174. 
 
 Saltpond, 273. 
 
 Sam, Mr. W. E., 290. 
 
 Sarbah, Hon. John M., 121. Wrote 
 " Fanti Customary Laws," quoted, 
 146, 165, 196, etc. 
 
 Sarfuhim = war chief, 64. 
 
 School, High, 81. 
 
 School-houses, to be erected, 186. 
 
 Scott, Sir Francis, expedition of, 
 26. 
 
 Seal, public, to be provided, 374. 
 
 Sekondi, lands at, 125 ; sale of, 382. 
 Handed to Dutch, 154. 
 
 Sekondi and Tarkwa Company 
 opposed Chidda Concession, 289. 
 
 Selborne, Lord, 171. 
 
 Selling real-born Ashanti punished 
 by death, 30. 
 
 Service of notice, 282. 
 
 Settlement, definitions of, 313 et seq. 
 
 Settlements, British, comprise num- 
 ber of forts, enumerated and 
 located, 135 et seq. 
 
 Settler, definition of, 312. 
 
 Sey, Mr. J. W., 171. 
 
 Shifting cultivation, 307. A cus- 
 tomary right, 307. 
 
 Simpson, Governor, 185. 
 
 Slaves, 81. Masters of, humane, 82. 
 Members of master's family, 82. 
 Adopted by masters, 82. Some- 
 times named heir, 82. Never 
 forgot position, 82. Trading in, 
 to be abolished, 366. 
 
 Slavery, 362. Existence of, 362. 
 Domestic, 366. Pawning, 366. 
 
 Smith, Mr. Justice Francis, 94, 
 209. 
 
 Smith, Mr. Justice Smallman, 94, 
 209. 
 
 Smiths, the, 95. 
 
 sue 
 
 Society, Aborigines' Rights Protec- 
 tion, etc. See Gold Coast Abori- 
 gines, etc. 
 
 Spanish Succession War, 314. 
 
 "Solvent influence" of British Ad- 
 ministration, is curtailing the 
 freedom of the natives, 226. 
 
 Spirits, sale of, prohibited without 
 licence, 163. Departed, 86. Liba- 
 tions offered to, 86. 
 
 St. Andrew's cross, 204. 
 
 Stanley, Lord, letter to Governor 
 Hill, 315. 
 
 State, native,, See Native State. 
 Principal, or premier, 22. Federal 
 takes rank in order of import- 
 ance, 22. 
 
 Stead, Mr. W. T., 181. 
 
 Stealing, punished by death, 29. 
 
 Stool. See also Golden Stool. 
 Sprinkled with sacred water, 88. 
 Celebration described, 86. Bearers, 
 captain of, 26. Procedure of 
 destoolment, 34 36. Bringing 
 together of stools at a "palaver," 
 37. Represents an ancient house 
 in the community, 37. Lands 
 attached to, 44. Whether a sub- 
 ject chief can rid himself of 
 allegiance to a superior stool, 53, 
 54. Is sacred, 259. 
 
 Stormonth's English Dictionary 
 quoted, 312. 
 
 Straits Settlements, comprise Singa- 
 pore, Penang, Province of Welles- 
 ley, the Dindings, Malacca, Malay, 
 etc., 322 et seq. 
 
 Stream, sacred, 88. Waters of, 
 sprinkled on stools, 88. 
 
 Subir, Chief of Inkidoms, 28. 
 
 Succession, to kingly office, 40 ; 
 sought through female line, 40. 
 To land, 47, 48.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 417 
 
 SUR 
 
 Surety, custom of finding in certain 
 
 suits, 274. 
 Swanzy, Messrs., 290. Estate and 
 
 Company, 290. 
 Swearing an oath on king's life 
 
 punished by death, 29. 
 Swordbearers, captain of, 26. 
 System of administration, at fault, 
 
 193. How to be righted, 193. 
 
 m ACKIE, King of Accra, 113, 316. 
 
 Takieman, immigrants from, 241, 
 325. 
 
 Tarkwa, where Chidda lease signed, 
 291. 
 
 Tarkwa and Sekondi Company 
 opposed Chidda Concession, 289. 
 
 Tavievies, small tribe in Krepi 
 district, 177. Atrocities upon, 
 177. 
 
 Tax, poll, 160. Right to, never 
 been acquired by British Govern- 
 ment, 164. Right to, can only be 
 by consent and co-operation of 
 the people, 164. Query, whether 
 native authority to be allowed to 
 levy, = crux of contention be- 
 tween " confederators " and local 
 administration, 189. 
 
 Technical instruction, 187. To be 
 given in schools, 187. 
 
 Territory, British, whether forts are, 
 147. Protected, 275. 
 
 Thompson, Mr. J. R., present at 
 palaver, 380. 
 
 Timber, rights as to, in connection 
 with mining, 307. 
 
 Timbuctoo, immigrants from, 325. 
 
 Times newspaper quoted, 12, 13, 
 264. 
 G.C. 
 
 TUT 
 
 Tolstoy, Count, quoted, 18. 
 
 Trade encouraged by state system 
 of Ashanti, 96. King took active 
 part in promotion of, 96. Dis- 
 organised by British diplomacy 
 and aggrandisement, 98. Primary 
 object of Great Britain in settling 
 in the country, 145. 
 
 Traditions, natives carefully preserve 
 and hand down, 195. 
 
 Transportation of convicts, 351. Not 
 without special instructions of 
 Secretary of State, 351. 
 
 Treason, transferring allegiance 
 from one chief, prince, or king to 
 another is, 54. 
 
 Treaty, relations between Great 
 Britain and Gold Coast, 163. 
 
 Treaty of Utrecht, 314. 
 
 Tribute, payment of, made to a 
 superior chief, 47. Payable to 
 the licensor of land, 47. Dis- 
 tinguished from " allegiance fee," 
 49. An incident of ownership, 
 49. 
 
 Tuafus, referred to, 87. 
 
 Tufu Hin = captain-general of 
 forces, 43. An officer of the king, 
 43. Exercises judicial functions, 
 65. Next in rank to the king, 65. 
 Holds regular courts, 65. Re- 
 ceives court fees and fines, 65. 
 Hears appeals from minor chiefs 
 court, 65. Head of military 
 system of the community, 65. 
 Regulates the seven companies of 
 the community, 65. Present at 
 annual general drill, 65. Leads 
 van of army in time of war, 65. 
 Is ex officio principal civil coun- 
 cillor of the king, 66. 
 
 Tutim Gackidi, King of Denkara, 
 155. 
 
 27
 
 418 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 uss 
 
 
 TTSSHER, Governor, 184, 191. 
 Utrecht, Treaty of, 314. 
 
 VASSAL, obligation of, to render 
 allegiance fee, 51. 
 Victoriaburg, 268. 
 Villars, a native king's secretary, 
 
 292. 
 Vines, Mr. S. M., secretary to 
 
 Governor, 389. 
 Volta, river, 239, 359. 
 
 WARD : every adult = member 
 of ward, 85. Ward consti- 
 tutes a company, 85. 
 Wassaw, Eastern, or Lower : Kwa- 
 
 mina Enimil = King of, 25, 397. 
 
 Native state of Gold Coast, 21, 
 * 397. 
 Wassaw, Upper, native state of 
 
 Gold Coast, 397. King of, 
 
 = Kwesi Wereku, 397. 
 Webster's International Dictionary 
 
 quoted, 313, 320. 
 Werempims = councillors, 41. Right 
 
 of selecting king, 41. 
 West Africa quoted, 125, 203. 
 Western Akiiu, native state of Gold 
 
 YAM 
 
 Coast, 397. King of, = Kofi 
 Ahinkura, 397. 
 
 Western Echo, 176. Edited by 
 Prince Brew, 176. 
 
 West African 'Herald, 175. Edited 
 by C. Bannerman, 175. 
 
 Willcocks, Sir James, expedition 
 of, 24. 
 
 Wines, sale of, prohibited, without 
 licence, 163. 
 
 Wingfield, Mr., 171. 
 
 Women, as mothers, teach children 
 traditions and customs of the 
 district, etc., 77. Dance before 
 king at " stool celebrations," 89. 
 Propitiate the gods in time of 
 war, 92 ; and act as commissariat 
 department to their own company, 
 92. Chant war-songs, 92. Are 
 bedaubed with white clay and 
 dressed in white calico in time of 
 war, singing dirges, 92. Sweep 
 out whole ward in townships, 110. 
 Brush up and burn all waste 
 vegetable matter, 110. 
 
 Wolseley, Lord, 141. At Prahsue, 
 141, 172. 
 
 " Wontsey, wontsey " = " hear hear," 
 94. 
 
 AM, its festival, 85, 238. 
 
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