INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
xiii 
whence they returned in 1841 as baptized Christians, and 
accompanied a Wesleyan mission to Coomassie. 
In 1580 the English territory was made more compact 
"by the purchase of the Danish settlements, and by an ex- 
change with the Dutch in 1867, when a tax of a shilling a 
head was imposed on the inhabitants of the protectorate ; 
but very little was done for the improvement of the people. 
The Wesle3^ans established a mission in the west, the 
Basel Society did the same in the east, and these were the 
chief efforts made for the elevation of the negro popula- 
tion. In 1863 a fresh war broke out between the English 
colonial government and the king of Ashantee, which led 
to a disastrous campaign, the British troops falling 
victims to the climate rather than to the enemy. Captain 
Pine pleaded for means to make a vigorous attack upon 
Coomassie; but he obtained only a few West Indian 
troops who were encamped in the bush during the rainy 
season, where numbers of them died. King Kwakoo 
Dooah said truly, " The white men bring many cannon 
to the bush, but the bush is stronger than the cannon." 
In May 1864, an order was sent to discontinue the 
war ; in consequence of which unfortunate proceeding the 
Ashantees lost all respect for the British power; and 
Parliament found it necessary to appoint a commission to 
investigate thoroughly the condition of the British terri- 
tory on the Gold Coast. Many strongly recommended 
the abandonment of such an unhealthy, profitless colony, 
while others as strongly advocated a more energetic 
management of it ; between these two extremes of opinion 
the commission thought it desirable to adopt a middle 
course. 
It recommended that the government should be left 
more and more in the hands of the natives, and that the 
British should carefully avoid enlarging their territory or 
making any fresh treaties with the tribes on the Coast, in 
order that the protecting power might, as soon as it was 
