the Ashantees were too much for the invading armies.  If King Akwasi had simply maintained his defensive position, his victory would have been lasting; but, overjoyed at his success, he unwittingly pursued the enemy beyond the Volta, and carried war into the kingdom of Dahomey.  Troops fight with great desperation in their own country.  The Ashantee army was struck on its exposed flanks, its splendid companies of Caboceers went down before the intrepid Amazons.  Back to the Volta, the boundary line between the two empires, fled the routed Ashantees.  Akwasi received a mortal wound, from which he died in 1752, when his nephew, Osai Kudjoh, succeeded to the throne.

Three brothers had held the sceptre over this empire, but now it passed to another generation.  The new king was worthy of his illustrious family.  After the days of mourning for his royal uncle were ended, before he ascended the throne, several provinces revolted.  He at once took the field, subdued his recalcitrant subjects, and made them pay a heavy tribute.  He won other provinces by conquest, and awed the neighboring tribes until an unobstructed way was open to his invincible army across the country to Cape Palmas.  His fame grew with each military manoeuvre, and each passing year witnessed new triumphs.  Fawning followed envy in the heart of the king of Dahomey; and a large embassy was despatched to the powerful Kudjoh, congratulating him upon his military achievements, and seeking a friendly alliance between the two governments.  Peace was now restored; and the armies of Ashantee very largely melted into agricultural communities, and great prosperity came.  But King Kudjoh was growing old in the service of his people; and, as he could no longer give his personal attention to public affairs, dissensions arose in some of the remote provinces.  With impaired vision and feeble health he, nevertheless, put an army into the field to punish the insubordinate tribes; but before operations began he died.  His grandson, Osai Kwamina, was designated as legal successor to the throne in 1781.  He took a solemn vow that he would not enter the palace until he secured the heads of Akombroh and Afosee, whom he knew had excited and incited the people to rebellion against his grandfather.  His vengeance was swift and complete.  The heads of the rebel leaders were long kept at Juntas as highly prized relics of the reign of King Kwamina.  His reign was brief, however.  He was deposed for attempting to introduce the Mohammedan religion into the kingdom.  Osai Apoko was crowned as his successor in 1797.  The Gaman and Kongo armies attached themselves to the declining fortunes of the deposed king, and gave battle for his lost crown.  It was a lost cause.  The new king could wield his sword as well as wear a crown.  He died of a painful sickness, and was succeeded by his son, Osai Tutu Kwamina, in 1800.