¹ Bowdich, T. E., Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee (London, 1819)Google Scholar; Dupuis, J., Journal of a Residence in Ashantee (London, 1824).CrossRefGoogle Scholar Bowdich is followed by Hutton, W., A Voyage to Africa (London, 1841)Google Scholar; Dupuis by Beecham, J., Ashantee and the Gold Coast (London, 1841)Google Scholar, Ellis, A. B., A History of the Gold Coast of West Africa (London, 1893)Google Scholar, Claridge, W. W., A History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti (London, 1915), 2 vols.Google Scholar, and Ward, W. E. F., A History of Ghana (revised 2nd ed., London, 1958).Google Scholar For fuller details, see the table on p. 96 below. Both Bowdich and Dupuis claim to have used local Muslim records, no longer extant, for the purpose of their chronologies, see e.g. Bowdich, op. cit., 232Google Scholar, Dupuis, op. cit. 229.Google Scholar

² The records of the English Companies (T.70 classification) have been consulted in the Public Record Office, London. The relevant Dutch records fall into two main series, the Archives of the Second Dutch West Indies Company (W.I.C.), and the Archives of the Dutch Possessions on the Coast of Guinea (K.v.G.). Both series are in the General State Archives, The Hague, but the authors have used the extensive collection of photostats, notes and transcripts made by the late Mr J. T. Furley, and now in the Library of the University College of Ghana.Google Scholar

³ Bowdich, op. cit. 233Google Scholar; see also Dupuis, op. cit. 227–9.Google Scholar

⁴ Instructions to D. van Neyendaal for his journey into the interior, granted at Elmina 9 Oct. 1701, K.v.G. 233.Google Scholar

⁵ Bosman, W., A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea (London, 1705), 77; letters from Director-General J. van Sevenhuysen, Elmina, to the Assembly of the X, Amesterdam, dd 30 May and 16 Nov. 1701, W.I.C. 97.Google Scholar

⁶ Bosman, op. cit. 75–6.Google Scholar

⁷ Instructions to van Neyendaal, D. dd 9 Oct. 1701, K.v.G. 233.Google Scholar

⁸ Dupuis, op. cit. 233.Google Scholar

⁹ Reindorf, C. C., The History of the Gold Coast and Asante (Basel, 1895), App. D.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Dupuis, op. cit. 229. The first Dutch edition of Bosman is in fact that of 1704, and the first English 1705.Google Scholar

¹¹ It is often unascertainable from eighteenth-century sources whether a reference to Akim is to Abuakwa or Kotoku, or both, but in 1717 the position is clear. The Akim Kotokus under their chief Apenten had been preparing for war against Ashanti for two years, and in 1717 were joined by the Akim Abuakwas under Ofori. Apenten was killed during the war; letters from Dontreleau, Accra, dd 10 Oct. and Butler, Axim, dd 13 Dec. 1715, entered in Director-General Haring's Elmina Journal, K.v.G. 82Google Scholar; letter from van Alsen, Accra, dd 30 Oct. 1717, entered in Director-General Robbertz's Elmina Journal, K.v.G. 84. Apenten's skull is retained in Kumasi, see Rattray, R. S., Religion and Art in Ashanti (Oxford, 1927), 132.Google Scholar

¹² Letters from Hendrix, Bereku, dd 19 Sept., Raarda, Apam, n.d. but received Nov., van Alsen, Accra, dd 30 Oct., and Blenke, Axim, dd 10 Nov., 1717, entered in Director- General Robbertz's Elmina Journal, K.v.G. 84.Google Scholar

¹³ See for example Dupuis, op. cit. 231Google Scholar; Fuller, F., A Vanished Dynasty (London, 1921), 23.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Letters from Cape Coast Castle to the Royal African Company, dd 6 Feb., 25 Sept., 25 Oct. 1717 and 26 May 1718, T.70/6, f. 48, f. 53, f. 59 and f. 75.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Letter from Cape Coast Castle to the Royal African Company, dd 15 March 1711/12, T.70/5, f. 81.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Letter from Cape Coast Castle to the Royal African Company, dd 17 June 1707, T.70/5, f. 3 Davies, K. G., The Royal African Company (London, 1957), 288–9.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Letters from Cape Coast Castle to the Royal African Company, dd 22 Oct. 1708, 8 May 1709, and 12 Feb. 1710, T.70/26; Davies, op. cit. 288.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Letter from the Royal African Company to Cape Coast Castle, dd 11 Dec. 1712, T.70/52, f. 271.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Letter from the Royal African Company to Cape Coast Castle, dd 17 March 17 12/13, T.70/52, f. 292; letter from Cape Coast Castle to the Royal African Company, dd 16 July 1713, T.70/5, f. 91.Google Scholar

²⁰ Letters from Cape Coast Castle to the Royal African Company, dd 26 Jan., 27 May, 20 July and 2 Nov. 1713, T.70/5, f. 88, f. 90, f. 92 and f. 94; Davies, op. cit. 289Google Scholar; letter from Butler, Axim, dd 8 Oct. 1715, entered in Director-General Haring's Elmina Journal, K.v.G. 82.

²¹ Letter from Cape Coast Castle to the Royal African Company, dd 9 Oct. 1714, T. 70/5, f. 105.Google Scholar

²² Davies, op. cit. 288–9.Google Scholar

²³ In Dutch sources from 1707 to 1717 the authors noted thirty-one uses of Zaay, fourteen times as a personal name and seventeen as a title. All fourteen former uses occurred before 1712, and all seventeen latter after 1712. The name Osei in fact seems to be accurately described as ‘the family name of the present race of kings, some of their relatives bearing it as well’, Bowdich, op. cit. 234.Google Scholar

²⁴ Letter from Landman, Axim, dd 28 Oct. and reply from President Nuyts, Elmina, dd 4 Nov. 1706, entered in Nuyts's Diary, General State Archives, The Hague, acquisitions 1902, XXVI, 115.Google Scholar

²⁵ Rattray, op. cit. 68Google Scholar; Busia, K. A., The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti (London, 1951), 91.Google Scholar A later Kontihene in 1820, also named Amankwatia, was described as ‘a man whose rank was second only to that of the king, and who governed the country as lieutenant or viceroy’, Dupuis, op. cit. 99. A third Kontihene of the same name commanded the main Ashanti armies against the British in 1872–4. It is still customary in the absence of the Asantehene for the Kontihene to assume the presidency of the Kumasi State Council.Google Scholar

²⁶ Letter from Director-General Haring, Elmina, to Butler, Axim, dd 16 Dec. 1715, K.v.G. 82; letter from van Alsen, Accra, dd 30 Oct. 1717, and dispatch from Director-General Robbertz's and Council to Directors, W.I.C. dd 4 March 1718, entered in Robbertz's Elmina Journal, K.v.G. 84; letter from Director-General Butler, Elmina, to van Naarssen, Accra, dd 3 Nov. 1718, K.v.G. 85.Google Scholar

²⁷ Bowdich, op. cit. 233.Google Scholar He states that the king was killed by the ‘Atoas’, which would appear to mean the Akim Kotokus, see Reindorf, op. cit. 68.Google Scholar

²⁸ Dupuis, op. cit. 231–3.Google Scholar

²⁹ Bowdich, op. cit. 289Google Scholar; Ramseyer, F. A. and Kuhne, J., Four Years in Ashantee (London, 1875), 117 and 135–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gros, J., Voyages, Aventures et Captivité de J. Bonnat chez les Achantis (Paris, 1884), 213–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rattray, op. cit. ch. xii and especially 139–43.Google Scholar

³⁰ Dupuis, op. cit. 238n.Google Scholar

³¹ Rattray, op. cit. 232.Google Scholar

³² The Akim Abuakwas claim to possess the skull of the Ashanti king slain at the Pra. This would appear strange if the Akim Kotokus led the attack, see footnote 27, but was perhaps due to the death of the king of Kotoku in the same campaign, see footnote 11.Google Scholar

³³ When they were thought to have lost the skull of a later king, it was remarked of the Ashantis that they ‘are still more mortified at a circumstance which has robbed their royal catacombs of one of its mementoes, and broken the line of death's heads by which the chronology of the throne is perpetuated’. Holman, J., Travels in Madeira, Sierra Leone, Teneriffe, St. Jago, Cape Coast, Fernando Po, Princes Island, etc., etc. 2nd ed. (London, 1840), 227.Google Scholar

³⁴ Dupuis, op. cit. 232–3.Google Scholar

³⁵ Compare Dupuis, op. cit. 231 and 233Google Scholar with Reindorf, op. cit. 68–9.Google Scholar

³⁶ Reindorf, op. cit. 69Google Scholar; Fuller, op. cit. 23. See also p. 92, footnote 41 below.Google Scholar

³⁷ Reindorf, op. cit. 68–9.Google Scholar

³⁸ Rattray, op. cit. 213.Google Scholar

³⁹ Bowdich, op. cit. 233.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Dupuis, op. cit. 233 and 235.Google Scholar

⁴¹ In 1715 the Dutch factor at Axim reported a rumour, which he considered credible, that the Zaay had died, but because the succession had not been decided the event had been kept secret. Claimants to the throne were said to be making war upon Aowin with the intention of putting the heir to the Zaay in possession of it, and of then dividing Ashanti between them before announcing the king's death; letter from Butler, Axim, dd 8 Oct. 1715, entered in Director-General Haring's Elmina Journal, K.v.G. 82. This report, although difficult to understand, is important in that it may contain a further reference to the death of Osei Tutu, see pp. 85–6 above. It is also interesting to note that a century later, during the Gaman war of 1818–19, the opinion was held at Cape Coast Castle that the Ashantis had sustained such a serious defeat in that war ‘as to have produced the election of another king, who, from state policy, negotiated in the name of his predecessor’; Dupuis, op.cit. xix.Google Scholar

⁴² Letters from van Naarssen, Axim, dd 9 and 30 Oct. 1718, entered in Director- General Butler's Elmina Journal, K.v.G. 85.Google Scholar

⁴³ Entry for 3 Feb. 1722 in Director-General Butler's Journal, K.v.G. 89.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Bowdich, op. cit. 234.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Letter from van Goch, Axim, n.d., entered in Director-General Valkenier's Elmina Journal, 22 Feb. 1724, K.v.G. 91.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Rømer, L. F., Tilforladelig Efterretning om Kysten Guinea (Copenhagen, 1760), 110 and 226.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Letters from Brumner, Accra, dd 3 and 29 May 1750, entered in Director-General van Voorst's Elmina Journal, K.v.G. 111.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ MS. Chronicle of Imam Imoru Konandi and Al Hajj Mahama, reproduced in translation in Goody, J., The Ethnography of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, West of the White Volta (Colonial Office, London, 1954), App. IV. The Ashanti king recorded as dying in 1750 is curiously described as ‘Ayi son of Ayi’ but since this is not in any case an Ashanti name it is probably the result of a copyist's error. It seems likely that ben ayi (son of Ayi) is a corruption of the Twi penyin (the elder). Opoku may have been known as Osei Penyin in contrast with his younger contemporary Osei Kuma, ‘the younger Osei’, who subsequently became enthroned as Osei Kojo, dispatch from Director-General Ulsen to the Assembly of the X, dd 20 Nov. 1758, W.I.C. 114. The context of the entry in the Chronicle, however, leaves no doubt that the reference is to Opoku Ware.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Letter from Governor John Hippisley, Cape Coast Castle, to the Committee of the Company of Merchants trading to Africa dd 13 July 1766, T.70/31, ff. 201–2; letter from Director-General Huydecooper, Elmina, to the Assembly of the X, Amsterdam, dd 15 Oct. 1764, W.I.C. 115.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Rømer, op. cit. 218–27; Chronicle of Imoru and Mahama, in Goody, op. cit. App. IV.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Dispatch from Director-General van Voorst to the Presidial Chamber, Amsterdam, dd 30 Sept. 1748, W.I.C. 490; Dupuis, op. cit. 235.Google Scholar

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⁵³ Fuller, op. cit. 31.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Dispatch from Director-General Ulsen to the Assembly of the X, dd 20 Nov. 1758, W.I.C. 114 dispatch from Director-General Huydecooper to the Assembly of X, dd 1 May, 1760, W.I.C. 114 letter from Fiscal Erasmi, Elmina, to the Presidial Chamber, Zeeland, dd 3 Aug. 1760, W.I.C. 114.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Letter from Director-General Huydecooper to the Assembly of the X, dd 15 Oct. 1764, W.I.C. 115 letter from Governor William Mutter, Cape Coast Castle, to the Committee of the Company of Merchants trading to Africa, dd 21 Jan. 1765, T.70/31, f. 114.Google Scholar

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⁵⁸ See Priestley, M. A., ‘The Ashanti Question and the British: Eighteenth-century Origins’ which will appear in a subsequent number of the Journal of African History.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Letter from Director-General Huydecooper, Elmina, to the Assembly of the X, dd 15 Oct. 1764, W.I.C. 115; letter from Governor John Hippisley, Cape Coast Castle, to the Committee of the Company of Merchants trading to Africa, dd 13 July 1766, T.70/31, f. 199 and ff. 201–2.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Letter from Governor Richard Miles, Cape Coast Castle, to the Committee of the Company of Merchants trading to Africa, dd 25 June 1778 and from Governor John Roberts, Cape Coast Castle, to the same, dd 8 Oct. 1780, T.70/3a, f. 76 and f. 161.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Bowdich, op. cit. 239.Google Scholar

⁶² Bowdich, op. cit. 239Google Scholar; Dupuis, op. cit. 245; letter from Linthorst, Accra, dd 19 Feb. 1804, entered in Governor-General Bartels' Elmina Journal, K.v.G. 192.Google Scholar

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⁶⁵ See p. 94 above.