ASHANTEE. 



ASIA. 



41 



munition, he set fire to the town, on June 14th, 

 and burned it to the ground. Previously, all 

 peaceable inhabitants who were willing to 

 take the oath of loyalty to the English, were 

 offered a refuge in Cape Coast Castle. Thus a 

 town of about 10,000 inhabitants, which Eng- 

 land expected to make the centre of its com- 

 merce and its power on the Gold Coast, was 

 turned into a heap of ruins. Cape Coast was 

 soon flooded with Fantees, the number ot' n-I- 

 ngei-H amounting to over 80,000, who greatly 

 suffered from scarcity of food and water. 



The whole of the surrounding country was 

 occupied by the Ashantees, the king, Calcalli, 

 establishing his headquarters in the village 

 Afutu, 13 miles from Cape Coast. For several 

 months no change took place in the situation, 

 the English having only control of the forts 

 on the coast, and the Ashantees of all the sur- 

 rounding country. On October 2d the new 

 commander-in-chief, Sir Garnet Wolseley, ar- 

 rived from England at Cape Coast, and on the 

 next day he had an interview with the friend- 

 ly chiefs of the Fantees, whom he promised 



H / A IN 1V~E 



WTSV&. ~""'*\ 



v*v- 



MAP 



ASHANTEE 

 BRITISH" POSSESSIONS 



ON THE GOLD COAST, 



10 a month for every 10,000 men whom they 

 cmild bring into the field. The construction 

 of a railrond from Cape Coast to Coomassie, 

 th capital of the Ashnntees, was begnn. As 

 it wns found out that several chiefs who pro- 

 feswed to be friendly to the English were 

 secretly sympathizing with and aiding the 

 Ashantees, four villages, Essaman, Anpnana, 

 Aikimfoo, and Ampnine, were on October 21st 

 burned by the English. On October 24th, Sir 

 Garnet WolneW issued a proclamation "to all 

 the tribes nnd iiilm!. Hants of the Gold Coast," 

 in which he notified thorn that certain chief- 

 tains had harbored Ashantors and other ene- 

 rniot of the British allies, and when summoned 

 to appear before him had refused to corne, bnt 

 linil taken cimnxol with the hostile Ashnntees 

 who were stationed in Mampon; that there- 



fore their villages had been destroyed by fire, 

 and that a similar fate would befall all who 

 may prove faithless to their obligations toward 

 her British majesty. Among the works which 

 contain a full account of the country of the 

 Ashantees, we mention, hesides those of Bow- 

 ditch and Dupnis, already referred to, Mc- 

 Queen, "Geographical Survey of Africa" 

 (London, 1840) ; Cruikshank, " Eighteen Years 

 on the Gold Coast" (London, 1853); Wilson, 

 "Western Africa" (London, 1856). 



ASIA. The territorial division of Asia un- 

 derwent, in 1873, another change, in conse- 

 quence of the successful campaign of Russia 

 against Khiva. The treaty of peace consider- 

 ably increased the area of the Russian terri- 

 tory, and, at the same time, so strengthened 

 the influence of Russia in Central Asia, that 



