border to raid our villages, and it is the fetish that
has delivered you, her son, into our hands. The fetish has not sent you
hither as a sacrifice, but as a hostage. Therefore your life shall be
spared together with that of your white friend, but you shall both be
given as slaves to our trusted Ocra Betea. Let the sacrifice proceed.
Prempeh, King of all the Ashantis, has spoken."

Next second a poor black wretch was dragged along in Omar's place and the
sword fell heavily upon him, while we were both hurried away in charge of
a caboocer to the residence of the man who was, according to Omar, one of
his mother's bitterest foes. Glad were we to escape with our lives from
that awful scene of inhuman butchery, but it seemed that as slaves of
this court favourite to whom we had been given, there would be but little
brightness in our lives.

As day succeeded day our gloomy forebodings were only too truly
realized. Betea, the most powerful of the King's Ocras, seemed to delight
in making our lives a burden to us, for amid luxurious surroundings we
were beaten, starved, and ill-treated, until even death under the
executioner's knife seemed a preferable fate.

Six months passed; six weary months of slavery and wretchedness. Our
position seemed absolutely hopeless, and I began to fear that we should
never escape from the City of Blood. The scenes we witnessed there were
so revolting, that I cannot now reflect upon them without a shudder. The
ghastly "customs," the absence of all protection for life and property,
the grinding oppression, the nameless horrors of all kinds, were
terrible. Blood was continually flowing, for every anniversary demanded
fresh holocausts, and the "Golgotha" presented a sight of indescribable
horror. The unwritten code of laws were of such a sanguinary nature, that
the public executioners formed a numerous section of the community and
were constantly employed collecting their victims, leading them for
exhibition through the capital and then hacking them to pieces in
presence of the king. Soldiers, slaves, retainers of the nobles and
conquered tribes possessed no defined rights, and their lives and
property were practically in the hands of the royal and governing
classes.

Close to the house of our inhuman master was the fetish grove, a horrible
place, surrounded by rank grass, dirt, and reeking with odours
pestilential. Once or twice I wandered in that grove, treading upon human
bones at every step