brilliant conquests they
finally secured a territory of three hundred square miles. One of
their most renowned kings, Osai Tutu, during the last century, added
to Ashantee by conquest the kingdoms of Sarem, Buntuku, Warsaw,
Denkera, and Axim. Very little is known as to the origin of the
Ashantees. They were discovered in the early part of the eighteenth
century in the great valley between the Kong Mountains and the river
Niger, from whence they were driven by the Moors and Mohammedan
Negroes. They exchanged the bow for fire-arms, and soon became a
warlike people. Osai Tutu led in a desperate engagement against the
king of Denkera, in which the latter was slain, his army was put to
rout, and large quantities of booty fell into the hands of the
victorious Ashantees. The king of Axim unwittingly united his forces
to those of the discomforted Denkera, and, drawing the Ashantees into
battle again, sustained heavy losses, and was put to flight. He was
compelled to accept the most exacting conditions of peace, to pay the
king of the Ashantees four thousand ounces of gold to defray the
expenses of the war, and have his territory made tributary to the
conqueror. In a subsequent battle Osai Tutu was surprised and killed.
His courtiers and wives were made prisoners, with much goods. This
enraged the Ashantees, and they reeked vengeance on the heads of the
inhabitants of Kromanti, who laid the disastrous ambuscade. They
failed, however, to recover the body of their slain king; but many of
his attendants were retaken, and numerous enemies, whom they
sacrificed to the manes of their dead king at Kumasi.

After the death of the noble Osai Tutu, dissensions arose among his
followers. The tribes and kingdoms he had bound to his victorious
chariot-wheels began to assert their independence. His life-work began
to crumble. Disorder ran riot; and, after a few ambitious leaders were
convinced that the throne of Ashantee demanded brains and courage,
they cheerfully made way for the coronation of Osai Opoko, brother to
the late king. He was equal to the existing state of affairs. He
proved himself a statesman, a soldier, and a wise ruler. He organized
his army, and took the field in person against the revolting tribes.
He reconquered all the lost provinces. He defeated his most valorous
foe, the king of Gaman, after driving him into the Kong Mountains.
When his jealous underlings sought his overthrow by conspiracy, he
conquered them by an app