ASHANTEE. 



re; 



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manded hostages ID the persona of the King's 



mother and In-other, and, in the event of their 

 nut l>.-iii:; *ent that day, announced that on 

 tlu- 4tli of 1-Vhruary he would march on Ooo- 

 massie. They were not sent ; and that even- 

 ing tin.- British force halted on the hanks of the 

 A heavy rain tell during the night, 

 uinl dreiieln-d the troops in their hivouac; and 

 early the next morning they crossed the Ordah 

 fur their final advance. Here, however, the 

 enemy made their last stand. They did not, 

 ling to Sir Garnet, tight with the same 

 courage as at Amoafnl. Their fire was wild, 

 unil they did not venture to attack the English 

 at such close quarters. But their resistance 

 was none the less most determined, and they 

 maintained a general action for six hours. 

 The village of Ordahsu was soon carried; the 

 Ashantees, nevertheless, maintained the attack 

 all around ; but the baggage and ammunition 

 were passed through the troops into the vil- 

 lage, and then the force was massed there. At 

 length, after some hours' incessant fighting, a 

 panic seems to have seized the enemy, and 

 they fled to Ooomassie in complete rout, leav- 

 ing behind them the umbrellas and other sym- 

 bols of their chief's authority. Sir Garnet 

 then called on 'his troops to make their final 

 effort; and, notwithstanding their two days' 

 work, and their lack of rest the night before, 

 they pushed on upon the very heels of their 

 i ting foe, and, at six o'clock in the even- 

 in^, they formed up hi the main stree't of Ooo- 

 massie, and gave three cheers for the Queen. 

 Sir Garnet Wolseley soon found that the King 

 was adopting the same policy of gaining time 

 by promises of nego'tiating. If Sir Garnet had 

 been able to wait, he would, no doubt, have 

 tried further measures to induce the King to 

 come to terms ; but this, he found, would be 

 impossible. The rain which had fallen on the 

 eve t)f the battle of Ordahsu was but the com- 

 mencement of a succession of tornadoes, and 

 he knew that with every day's delay the 

 streams would become dangerously swollen, 

 and the swamps more impassable. It was im- 

 perative that he should return at once, wheth- 

 er with or without a treaty. In these circum- 

 stances Sir Garnet determined, by burning the 

 city, " to leave such a mark of our power as 

 shall deter from future aggression a nation 

 whom treaties do not bind." He accordingly 

 prepared for the return-march with the same 

 skill which had marked his advance. In the 

 morning of the 5th he had sent off, nnder 

 escort, all the wounded who were unable to 

 march, and he gave orders to be ready for the 

 return of his army on the morning of the 6th. 

 Early on that day the town was set on fire, 

 and the mines in the palace exploded, and as a 

 rearguard of the Forty-second Highlanders left 

 " e capital its destruction was complete. 



A writer who was present at the entry of 

 the troops into Coomassie gives a description 

 of the interior of the King's palace. He says 

 there was a court-yard of some ten yards 



square in the inner yard and twenty yards ex- 

 terior. The court-yard was open. Upon one 

 side was a staircase leading to the upper story, 

 upon the other were open store-rooms, in which 

 the royal umbrellas, the canes used in proces- 

 sions, etc., were kept. The upper rooms were 

 used as store-rooms. Here was an infinite 

 variety of articles, for the most part more rub- 

 bish, but many interesting and valuable. Sil- 

 ver plate, gold masks, gold caps, clocks, glass, 

 china, pillows, guns, cloth, caskets, an olla-jio- 

 drida, which resembled the contents of a sale- 

 room. The rest of the palace was built in the 

 native manner, and exactly resemblod that of 

 the King of Fommanah, but multiplied, not mag- 

 nified, many times. In one were the war-drums, 

 all ornamented either with human skulls, or 

 thigh-bones; others were quite empty, while 

 in two or three was simply a royal chair, npon 

 which his Majesty used to sit to administer 

 justice or decree vengeance. Signs of the lat- 

 ter were not wanting. Several stools were 

 found covered with thick coatings of recently- 

 shed blood, and a horrible smell of gore per- 

 vaded the whole palace, and indeed the whole 

 town. That ghastly odor was everywhere 

 perceptible, indeed, we could never get rid of 

 it ; occasionally it might have been fancy, but 

 every one was of opinion that a sickly smell 

 of blood was ever present. Part of this was 

 no doubt due to a charnel-place, some twenty 

 yards from one of the fetich-trees, hidden from 

 sight of all who walked, by a fringe of rushes. 

 Here were the bodies of some of the victims 

 of fetich. Five or six were only two or three 

 days old, while of others nothing but the skulls 

 remained, and there were scores of others in 

 various stages of putrefaction. The palace was 

 full of fetich-objects. The King's private sit- 

 ting-room was, like the rest, an open court, with 

 a tree growing in it. This tree was covered 

 with fetich-objects, and hung with spiders'- 

 webs. At each end was a small, but deep 

 alcove, with a royal chair, so that the monarch 

 could always sit upon the shady side. Along 

 each side of the little court ran a sort of veran- 

 da, beneath which was an immense assortment 

 of little idols and fetiches of all kinds. From 

 one of these a door opened into the King's 

 bedroom, a room about ten feet by eight. At 

 one end was the royal couch, a raised bedstead 

 with curtains, and upon a ledge by the near 

 side that is to say, the King had to step over 

 the ledge to get into bed were a variety of 

 weapons, together with an English general's 

 sword, bearing the inscription, " From Queen 

 Victoria to the King of Ashantee." Upon the 

 floor, at the end opposite the bed, was a conch 

 upon which the King could sit and talk with 

 his wives. The room was very dark, being 

 lighted only by a small window, about a foot 

 square, opening into the women's apartments. 

 In this part of the palace all sorts of stuffs, 

 some of European, some of native manufacture, 

 were found scattered about in wild confusion. 

 General Wolseley, after burning Coomassie 



