ASHANTEES. How far distant the time may be when this West African nation will be commercially important, will depend chiefly on the energy of English merchants, and on the lessening of the slave-trade.
The principal manufacture of the Ashantees is that of cotton cloth, which they weave on a loom worked by strings held between the toes, in webs of never more than four inches broad. Silk is sometimes interwoven with the cotton. The cloths which they produce are often of great fineness of texture, and their colouring of the highest brilliancy. They paint their patterns with a fowl's feather. Another of the arts in which they have attained considerable excellence, is the manufacture of earthen ware. They also tan leather, and work in iron, brass, and gold. Articles formed of gold abound in the houses of all the wealthier inhabitants; and in the king's palace those of most common use are described as being made of this precious material.
Gold is found in this country both in mines and in particles washed down by the rains.
According to Dupuis, the richest gold mines known to exist in any part of Africa are those in Gaman. Some of the richest of these mines are said to be esteemed sacred, and on that account are not worked. The wealthier inhabitants load their persons with lumps of native gold; some which Dupuis saw, he thinks, must have weighed fully four pounds. In Akira, and some other parts of the empire bordering on the Volta, from which much gold was formerly obtained, the mines are now either exhausted, or at least are no longer worked. There are many rich mines in the small district of Adoom, westward from Cape Coast and about three days' journey from the sea; and during the rainy season it is said that not fewer than eight or ten thou sand slaves are employed in washing for gold dust on the banks of the Bare, in Gaman.