Perhaps something may occur to improve
our position."
The next day the four German missionaries, who had so long been
kept captive, called upon them, and they obtained a full insight
into the position. This seemed more hopeful than the king's words
had given them to expect. The missionaries said that negotiations
were going on for their release, and that they expected very shortly
to be sent down to Cape Coast. So far as they knew everything was
being done by the English to satisfy the king, and they looked upon
the establishment of peace as certain. They described the horrible
rites and sacrifices which they had been compelled to witness, and
said that at least three thousand persons were slaughtered annually
in Coomassie.
"You noticed," one of them said, "the great tree in the marketplace
under which the king sat. That is the great fetish tree. A great
many victims are sacrificed in the palace itself, but the wholesale
slaughters take place there. The high brushwood comes up to within
twenty yards of it, and if you turn in there you will see thousands
of dead bodies or their remains putrefying together."
"I thought I felt a horribly offensive smell as I was talking to
the king," Frank said shuddering.
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