Soon after the battle, some of the Annamaboe people brought several heads of Ashantees whom they had slain to Captain Hutchison, as a proof of their personal courage, and individual prowess.  Some of these heads were recognised by Captain Hutchison as belonging to natives who had been known to him.  Amongst the spoils one head was found by the Aquapim chief, which excited curiosity, by the care with which it was enclosed in wrappers, and Captain Hutchison desired that the covering should be removed.  On taking off the first wrapper, they found the second to be a fine parchment, inscribed with Arabic characters; beneath this was a final envelope of tiger’s skin, the well known emblem of royalty among the Ashantees.  The evident pains which had been taken in the preservation of this head, satisfied all the by-standers that it was the head of Sir Charles McCarthy, to which it was generally understood regal honours had been paid by the natives.  The gratification which this discovery gave to our countrymen may be easily conceived, and they lost no time in sending the head to England, together with the first account of the battle of Dodowah.  The head, however, had scarcely been forwarded to its destination, when some prisoners who had been taken in the action, made the disagreeable disclosure that the head belonged, not to Sir Charles McCarthy, but to the late King, Osay Tootoo Quamina, and that it had been taken into the battle in conformity with the prevailing usage of the people.  The effects of this information though painful were ludicrous enough.  The head of the Ashantee King had found its way to England as an accredited relique of the lamented Sir Charles McCarthy, and was the first remains of an Ashantee that had ever, perhaps, received the solemn rite of Christian burial; while, on the other hand, the head of Sir Charles McCarthy, had been deposited with all the rude pomp of their heathen ceremonials in a Pagan cemetery.  However disappointed the friends and countrymen of Sir Charles McCarthy must feel at the discovery of this strange interchange of reliques, the Ashantees are still more mortified at a circumstance which has robbed their royal catacombs of one of its mementos, and broken the line of death’s heads by which the chronology of the throne is perpetuated.  They are quite ashamed of the occurrence, and greatly annoyed whenever it is alluded to; more particularly as the Fantees, their immediate enemies, take every opportunity of reproaching them with a loss which they consider to be a disgrace.

Connected with this subject is the Ashantee mode of fighting, a description of which will serve to illustrate the previous details.  In the first place, we must suppose them to be encamped, with the intention of advancing to attack their enemy.  They commence their operations by cutting a number of footpaths for a single person only to make his way through the bush; these paths are cut parallel, equi-distant, and just within hearing.  By these numerous paths