THE GOLD COAST, ASHANTI, AND KUMASSI 



11 



confederation of poAverful tribes, acknowledging as its only rival 

 the neighboring kingdom of Dahomey. From the beginning of 

 the seventeentli century down to the present time its history is 

 replete with bloody wars and mercenary incursions on weaker 

 tribes, and among the latter the Fantis have felt its merciless 

 heel only too often. Great Britain has during the present cen- 

 tury sent Ave expeditions against Ashanti, and, with tlie excep- 

 tion of the last one, witli but little success. In 1824 Sir Charles 

 McCarthy, governor-general of the British })ossessions on tlie 

 Gold coast, led a large force of loyal natives as far north as Mansu, 

 where the Ashantis gave battle. Sir Charles and liis officers were 

 captured and put to death, their bones being distributed among 

 the Ashanti cliiefs and sub-chiefs as talismans. Between 1824 and 

 1873 two other expeditions were dispatched against the Ashantis 

 by Great Britain, but both of them were driven back to the coast. 

 In 1874, however. Sir Garnet Wolseley marched straight into 

 Kumassi at the head of only 1,400 troops, among whom were the 

 42d Highlanders, the famous "Black Watch" of the Indian 

 mutiny; but, although Kumassi was sacked and burned, the 

 expedition accomplished little beyond inspiring the natives with 

 a high opinion of British valor. 



ASHANTI CHILDREN 



From a pliolograpli by GeoiX'' A'. French 



