THE JUDGMENT. 
295 
palace on condition of his accepting the terms of peace ; 
in the meanwhile, however, the Ashantees endeavoured 
to remove from the town as much powder and as many 
arms as possible. 
In the night a dreadful storm occurred, which threat- 
ened to make the rivers impassable ; the palace was there- 
fore undermined (Feb. 6th), notice having been given to 
the inhabitants, and the houses in Coomassie were fired ; 
no great spoil came to light, but many curious things were 
found in the stone palace, which were afterwards sold at 
high prices in London. 
The main army speedily retreated ; wading through the 
rivers, up to the chin in water (the Da bridge being flooded 
knee-deep), and reached the Prah without any great sacri- 
fice of health. The fact of the Mausoleum of Bantama 
("the Louvre and Tower of Ashantee") not being de- 
stroyed, was complained of by many Englishmen as a 
great mistake; but a delay of two days would have 
endangered many valuable lives, and the burning of 
Coomassie was sufiicient to announce the fall of Ashantee 
to the tribes of the gold coast. Everywhere the odour of 
blood predominated over every other ; and no European 
would have willingly encountered a longer stay in Coo- 
massie than was absolutely necessary. 
Meanwhile, Captain Sir John Glover, with a small 
detachment, had entered Ashantee from the Volta. He 
took the town of Obago (Agnago ?) January the 16th, just 
in time to save the lives of forty slaves who were to fall at 
a funeral festival. When Dwaben, the second capital of 
the kingdom, surrendered on February the 11th, Captain 
Sartorius, sent by Sir John, and accompanied by twenty 
mounted men, rode through the streets of burnt Coomassie 
without finding a single sign of life in the whole town. 
He was to inform the general that Glover was at a 
distance of eight hours from him. 
