58 COCOA 



All of you, of course, have heard of the Ashanti wars, 

 the last of which was fought as recently as 1900. 

 Doubtless, too, you know something of the fame of the 

 Ashantis, in days not long gone by, as a savage race 

 of born warriors, who threatened to overrun a great 

 part of West Africa. In putting an end to the Ashanti 

 reign of terror, our old British Army the now revered 

 Contemptibles had to employ the pick of its troops. 

 During the long and fierce struggle, Coomassie and the 

 neighbouring country were the headquarters of the 

 Ashanti kings and their most powerful chiefs. In 

 1875, when the Black Watch made their famous entry 

 into Coomassie, the place was a primitive native 

 village. The first European building of any importance 

 to be erected there was the British Fort, which was 

 begun in 1896. In this little stronghold the Governor 

 of the Gold Coast, his wife, his staff, a few soldiers, 

 and some missionaries, endured one of the most terrible 

 sieges in the history of the British Empire. That siege 

 is a very modern history story, dating back only to 

 1900, and in 1900 the whole of Ashantiland was still 

 one of the most fearsome parts of Darkest Africa. 



The Coomassid of to-day is a garrison town, designed 

 on garden city lines and occupying an extensive clear- 

 ing. It is well planned, many large buildings of a per- 

 manent character have already been erected and others 

 are springing up rapidly, and there are numbers of 

 roads leading out in all directions to the surrounding 

 country. Special quarters, devoted to special purposes, 

 have their individual characteristics; thus, large 

 " factories,'' similar to the commercial premises known 

 by that name in the Gold Coast, are features of the 

 European business section; bazaars and market-places 

 are the pulse of the crowded native quarter; the Fort, 



