latter called the attention of the authorities at the Cape to the conduct of the Fantis, but no official action was taken.  In the mean while Mr. Dupuis was not allowed to proceed on his mission to the capital of the Ashantees.  Affairs began to assume a very threatening attitude; and only after the most earnest request was he permitted to proceed to the palace of the king of Ashantee.  He received a hearty welcome at the court, and was entertained with the most lavish kindness.  After long and painstaking consideration, a treaty was decided upon that was mutually agreeable; but the self-conceited and swaggering insolence of the British authorities on the coast put it into the waste-basket.  The commander of the British squadron put himself in harmony with the local authorities, and refused to give Consul Dupuis transportation to England for the commissioners of the Ashantee government, whom he had brought to the coast with the intention of taking to London with him.

A war-cloud was gathering.  Dupuis saw it.  He sent word to the king of Ashantee to remember his oath, and refrain from hostilities until he could communicate with the British government.  The treaty stipulated for the recognition, by the British authorities, of the authority of the Ashantee king over the Fantis.  Only those immediately around the fort were subject to English law, and then not to an extent to exempt them from tax imposed by the Ashantee authorities.

In the midst of these complications, Parliament, by a special act, abolished the charter of the African Company.  This put all its forts, arsenals, and stations under the direct control of the crown.  Sir Charles McCarthy was made governor-general of the British possessions on the Gold Coast, and took up his head-quarters at Cape Coast in March, 1822.  Two months had passed now since Dupuis had sailed for England; and not a syllable had reached the king’s messenger, who, all this time, had waited to hear from England.  The country was in an unsettled state.  Gov, McCarthy was not equal to the situation.  He fell an easy prey to the fawning and lying Fantis.  They received him as the champion of their declining fortunes, and did every thing in their power to give him an unfriendly opinion of the Ashantees.  The king of the Ashantees began to lose faith in the British.  His faithful messenger returned from the coast bearing no friendly tidings.  The king withdrew his troops from the seacoast, and began to put his army upon a good war-footing.  When all was in readiness a Negro sergeant in the British service was seized, and put to a torturous death.  This was a signal for the grand opening.  Of course the British were bound to demand redress.  Sir Charles McCarthy was informed by some Fantis scouts that the king of Ashantee, at the head of his army, was marching for Cape Coast.  Sir Charles rallied his forces, and went forth to give him battle.  His object was to fight the king at a distance from the cape, and