152 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
land and partly by water. Ten days later the boats 
were brought to a final stand by an impassable fall. 
The explorers therefore landed, and continued their 
journey on foot; but the difficulties increased every 
day, the Europeans falling ill, and the negroes refusing 
to carry the baggage. At last, when he was some 
280 miles from the sea, Tuckey was compelled to retrace 
his steps. The rainy season had set in, the number of 
sick increased, and the commander, miserable at the 
lamentable result of the trip, himself succumbed to 
fever, and only got back to his vessel to die on the 4th 
October, 1816. 
An exact survey of the mouth of the Congo, and 
the rectification of the coast-line, in which there had 
previously been a considerable error, were the only 
results of this unlucky expedition. 
In 1807, not far from the scene of Clapperton’s land¬ 
ing a few years later, a brave but fierce people appeared 
on the Gold Coast. The Ashantees, coming none knew 
exactly whence, Hung themselves upon the Fantees, 
and, after horrible massacres, in 1811 and 1816, estab¬ 
lished themselves in the whole of the country between 
the Kong mountains and the sea. 
As a necessary result, this led to a disturbance in 
the relations between the Fantees and the English, who 
owned some factories and counting-houses on the coast. 
In 1816 the Ashantee kino; ravaged the Fantee terri- 
tories in which the English had settled, reducing the 
latter to famine. The Governor of Cape Coast Castle 
therefore sent a petition home for aid against the fierce 
and savage conqueror. The bearer of the governor’s 
despatches was Thomas Edward Bowditch, a young man 
who, actuated by a passion for travelling, had left the 
parental roof, thrown up his business, and having married 
against the wishes of his family, had finally accepted a 
humble post at Cape Coast Castle, where his uncle was 
second in command. 
The English minister at once acceded to the gover¬ 
nor’s request, and sent Bowditch back in command of 
an expedition ; but the authorities at Cape Coast con- 
