ASHANTEE. 



57 



Mountains. The country lying between, called 

 .ntee Assiu, in the northern portion of 

 .it this time but thinly peopled, 

 if tin- inhabitant* had mostly emigrated into 

 ru districts, which belong to the Eng- 

 lish dominions. As the Ashontees did not 

 consider their country invaded so long as the 

 AdaiiM Mountains were not occupied by the 

 . , tliey did not oppose the crossing of the 

 1'rah, and tin- English army marched the first 

 thirty inilus, or about one half of the distance 

 between the frontier and Coomassie, without 

 encountering any serious resistance. All the 

 villages had been abandoned by the inhabit- 

 ants. They were found to be better built 

 than those in the English dominions, and af- 

 forded good shelter to the troops. On the 

 ilih. Lord Gifford, who commanded the scouts, 

 was pushing on as far as the village of Essia- 

 man, twelve miles beyond the Prah. He saw 

 smoke in the village in front of him, let his 

 men load, and advanced hoping to surprise 

 those within ; but the men he had sent round 

 to intercept the rear of the few holding the 

 village were fired on, and he was obliged to 

 return the fire. Only eight Ashantee scouts 

 occupied the village. One was killed, the 

 rest escaped, leaving two women prisoners. 

 One of the English scouts was wounded, five 

 slugs being put into or through him. The 

 women said there were no Ashantees nearer 

 than Quisah. The Ashantee scouts .had, ac- 

 cording to their evidence, been down to the 

 Prah on the 2d of January. They had, in 

 fact, accompanied the envoys, who on that day 

 came to Sir Garnet Wolseley with letters from 

 the King of Ashantee, which were addressed 

 to Colonel Harley. The envoys were kept till 

 the 6th, on which day the bridge over the 

 Prah was completed. On the 4th they were 

 allowed to see the practice with the Gatling 

 guns. That night one of the Ashantee escort 

 shot himself. Afterward it appeared that he 

 had been so frightened by the Gatling shot 

 that he had said if white men had those weap- 

 ons resistance was useless. The other envoys 

 said they would report him to the King of 

 Ashantee, and the fear of death by torture 

 made him kill himself. He was buried on the 

 farther side of the river, to the great delight 

 of the envoys, who were most anxious to have 

 him buried in his own land. Each man threw 

 dust on the body, as in a Jewish funeral. 



At this time the difficulty about the carriers 

 had come to an end. Thanks almost entirely 

 to the vigorous steps taken by Colonel Oolley, 

 and to the admirable management of that offi- 

 cer, eight thousand carriers were now working 

 steadily upon the road. Here the concentration 

 of the troops was to take place. The troops 

 were moving by three stages, each about 

 eleven miles long, from Prahsu to Monsi, at 

 the southern foot of the Adansi Hills. First, 

 from Prahsu to Essiaman ; second, from Essia- 

 man to Acrowfumu ; third, from Acrowfuinu 

 to Monsi. The headquarters, with the Naval 



Brigade, and the First Battalion of the Rifle 

 Brigade, reached Monsi on the 20th. The oth- 

 er battalions followed in succession. The road 

 had been admirably made, and every stream 

 bridged completely to Fominanah, situated a 

 mile and a half on the farther side of the 

 Adansi Hills, by the engineers. The road, with 

 the exception of the three miles nearest the 

 Prah, was better than that between Cape Coast 

 and the Prah, along which the general's car- 

 riage, drawn by natives, moved the whole dis- 

 tance. Even the portion for three miles this 

 side of the Prah had been well covered with 

 a sort of bastard, but very bad, corduroy. It 

 was terribly swampy ajl along the line. At 

 Atobiasi, Essiaman, Acrowfumu, Monsi, Qui- 

 sah, Fommanah, and at two points between 

 Acrowfumu and Monsi, not marked on home 

 maps, intrenchments had been made to be held 

 by small forces and protect the stores. Store- 

 houses had been also made, and some huts. 

 Those who could not thus obtain shelter had 

 large tents, under which wattle-beds, keeping 

 the men well off the ground, were constructed. 

 The Adansi Hills fell into the hands of the Eng- 

 lish on the 16th. Lord Gifford pushing up with 

 his scouts found the Ashantees in possession, 

 but succeeded in frightening them into falling 

 back by surrounding them and threatening 

 an attaik. On the 8th Major Russell, finding 

 Quisah, half a mile on the farther side of the 

 Adansi Hills, unoccupied, entered it with his 

 regiment, and intrenched it. Wood's regiment 

 and Rait's artillery were pushed up together 

 on the 15th in support. Colonel Colley's vigor 

 and success with the native carriers elicited 

 universal praise. He undertook the task when 

 it had just become a serious difficulty, and by 

 a combination of energy and care for the men 

 succeeded in placing it on a proper footing. 

 The whole matter was put in his hands. He 

 redressed all grievances, chiefly due to the 

 carelessness of native guides, saw that the men 

 had proper food, and intervals of rest. Then 

 he surrounded with West Indian sentries the 

 villages to which deserters resorted, and thus 

 made escape impossible. After the return of 

 his embassadors the King secretly determined 

 to continue the war vigorously ; at the same 

 time, however, he sent the captive missionaries 

 to General Wolseley to assure him of his desire 

 to make peace. Missionary Kuhne arrived at 

 Prahsu on January 13th to deliver the message 

 of the King. General Wolseley replied that the 

 King must set free all the European captives, 

 pay an indemnity to the amount of 200,000, 

 and sign a treaty of peace in the presence of 

 the British army which would secure the pro- 

 tectorate and its allies against future attacks. 

 On January 24th, the general with the Naval 

 Brigade marched to Fommanah and established 

 his headquarters in the palace of the King of 

 Adansi. Now the King also liberated the mis- 

 sionary Ramseyer, his wife, and the French- 

 man Bonnat. Ramseyer delivered to General 

 Wolseley a letter from the King in which he 



