2 
MISSIONARY LIFE IN ASHANTEE. 
had been our sole protector, and we firmly refused their 
unreasonable request. 
We scarcely believed anything we heard, and concluded 
that as there was still a mixed population of young and 
old left in the town, the danger could not be imminent. 
We also hoped that the apparent attachment of the Anums 
to us and our surroundings, and the kindness we had 
shown them on various occasions, would prove some 
security, and we suspected that the enemy desired us to 
forsake our station only that they might plunder it to 
their hearts' content. We therefore firmly resolved to 
stay and abide the consequences. No idea of imprison- 
ment or captivity in Coomassie ever occurred to us, believ- 
ing we had really less to fear from the Ashantees than 
from the people around us. The king, however, sug- 
gested our depositing our property in Ho, though he 
assured us there was no real danger; this we were 
willing to do, but how to accomplish it was the question, 
for most of our servants, and even our nurse, had already 
tied. Our brethren in Ho, who were equally anxious 
with ourselves to remain at their post, begged me to send 
my wife with the little one to them for protection, and I 
would gladly have accepted their kindness but for her 
determination to remain with me. 
The thing which caused our chief uneasiness was a 
cloud of smoke which we observed rising behind the chain 
of mountains near us, and which advanced continually in 
an easterly direction. Sometimes it was so dense that 
we thought it must arise from the burning of a village ; 
then it became so faint as scarcely to indicate camp fires ; 
and anon it faded into a thin blue mist. Our negroes 
could not explain it, yet it was obvious that our king was 
removing his camp into close proximity to us, so that it 
was now within an hour's walk of Anum, and there was 
no sign of breaking it up. By this time all business was 
