of the empire, or queen over the females, and all are said to be placed under her control and direction:  but whatever may be the nature and object of the training to which she subjects them, it is certain that it is not intended to make the wife the rational companion and confidential friend of her husband; for if an Ashantee wife is detected in listening to a conversation of her husband, her curiosity is sure to cost her an ear; and if she betray a secret with which she has by any means become acquainted, her incensed husband punishes her by cutting off her upper lip.  The sight of women who have suffered such inflictions, is common even in the present day.’”

MR. BARRAUD.  “These are the cruelties of a barbarous people, but they are not horrified at deeds of blood; indeed, such is the union of barbarism and magnificence in this African country, that on a court day there is invariably in immediate attendance upon the king the royal chief executioner, a man of gigantic size, bearing a massive gold hatchet, and having exhibited before him the execution stool, clotted with human blood and partly covered with a caul of fat!”

MRS. WILTON.  “That is done, no doubt, from policy, to inure his courtiers to scenes of horror, in hopes of rendering them callous to human suffering and courageous in the field of battle.  Ah, well! we have heard enough of them:  let us now visit some other country.”

DORA.  “Liberia is the next station and much more desirable; for the climate is better than most other parts of the coast, the soil fruitful, and the inland population quiet and inoffensive, and more inclined to industry than their neighbors.”

GRANDY.  “There is a thriving missionary establishment at Liberia, which I hope will before long exert its benign influence over the Bowchee people, who are located some few miles distant.  They are a miserable race, entirely devoid of feeling; the gentle appeals of nature are unknown to them; parental tenderness dwells not in their bosoms, for they will sell their children as slaves to the greatest strangers in the world, with no more remorse of conscience than if they had been common articles of merchandise.  I will tell you a story of a Bowchee mother:—­’A travelling slave-dealer passing through the place had purchased several of their children of both sexes, from the inhabitants, and amongst others an old woman had an only daughter, whom she parted with for a necklace of beads.  The unhappy girl, who was about thirteen or fourteen years of age, on being dragged away from the threshold of her parent’s hut, clung distractedly around the knees of her unfeeling mother, and looking up wistfully in her face burst into a flood of tears, exclaiming with passionate vehemence:—­“O mother! do not sell me; what will become of me? what will become of yourself in your old age if you send me from you? who will fetch you corn and milk? who will pity you when you die?  Have I been unkind