military operations, we may recall the anxiety with which. every patriotic heart regarded the success of the expedition. at the time it was despatched from these shores. We may bring to mind the telegrams and despatches in which was recounted the story of how these obstacles were manfully met and overcome, how the invading host of savages was rolled back across the stream over which the foot of a white conqueror had never yet been set, and then how the final advance on Coomassie was made with a handful of men, battling ten to one against a fierce and cruel enemy, who knew every tree and track of the forests surrounding their capital. When we recall these achievements of that small and daily diminishing band, achievements which equal in disciplined valour the deeds of Pizarro and Cortez, who fought in open country against an effeminate foe, and in a comparatively healthy climate, we may congratulate ourselves on possessing such soldiers, and 'lay the flattering unction to our souls' that while British officers volunteer in hundreds to encounter the perils of battle and disease, and the army can provide such a General to lead them to victory, the country has no cause to lament the decay of the spirit that led our fathers to conquer India and colonize so large a portion of the globe.

CHAPTER VII.

THE ASHANTEE WAR.

Preparations for the War.-Arrival at Cape Coast.-Operations South of the Prah. The Action at Essaman.-Defence of Abrakrampa, and Retreat of the Ashantees.-Illness of Sir Garnet Wolseley.-Preparations for crossing the Prah.-The Advance into Ashantee.—Battle of Amoaful.Action at Ordahsu.-Capture of Coomassie.-Return to Cape Coast.The Treaty of Fommanah.-Sir Garnet Wolseley returns to England.— The Welcome Home.

*

THE Government of Mr. Gladstone, like others that had preceded it, was averse from entering upon an Ashantee War, owing to the unpopularity attaching to such expeditions in England, and the knowledge that, in the event of failure, it was morally certain an adverse vote in Parliament would place them on the Opposition benches. But, though long-suffering, it was impossible that any Government not utterly destitute of public spirit could tolerate the continued occupation of the Fantee Protectorate and the practical blockade of the British forts by the savage hordes of Koffee Kalkalli; and, at length, the receipt of the news of the action at Elmina on the 13th of June, when Colonel Festing repelled the enemy, induced the Ministry to resolve upon undertaking military operations. Sir Garnet Wolseley was named for the command, and the Government wisely resolved to centre in his hands the supreme direction of civil as well as military affairs. In

* A detailed account of the events preceding the war may be found in 'Fantee and Ashantee,' by Captains Huyshe and Henry Brackenbury, R. A., and in the History of the Ashantee War,' by the latter officer, to which we are greatly indebted in the preparation of the following pages.

accepting the honourable and arduous task of pacifying the Gold Coast, Sir Garnet stipulated that he should not be required to remain as Civil Governor after the close of military operations; but his only other request, that he should be given an adequate force of Europeans, was not then complied with.

The Colonial Office, having also decided upon organizing a subsidiary expedition to Coomassie from the Volta, under the general control of Sir Garnet Wolseley, Commander Glover, R.N.,* formerly Administrator at Lagos, was appointed to the command. The chief object sought to be attained was to cause a diversion in the rear of the Ashantee army, and thereby to draw them from the Protectorate; and sanguine people, who were ignorant of the resources of the Ashantee King, even hoped that it might obviate the necessity of the despatch of any European troops.

When it was known that the Government had resolved upon an expedition to Coomassie, the Press was filled, as at the time of the Abyssinian War, with dismal prognostications, and one 'experienced' gentleman, in answer to a letter from Sir Garnet Wolseley as to necessary articles of outfit, replied that he would 'strongly recommend that every officer should take out his coffin.' 'One who was there,' as usual at such times, also made his appearance in print, and advocated a certain course, which others, who had likewise passed 'half their lives on the Coast,' laughed to scorn; indeed, had the proposals suggested by this multiplicity of counsellors been followed, anything but wisdom would have been exhibited by the authorities, and

* It is a singular circumstance that this able and gallant officer, who was thus thrown into such close relations with Sir Garnet Wolseley, received a severe wound near Donabew, on the Irrawaddy, in the disastrous attack on Myat-toon's position by Captain Loch, R. N., which led to Sir John Cheape's successful expedition, when Ensign Wolseley was severely wounded leading the storming-party, as already detailed.

SIR GARNET WOLSELEY'S INFORMANTS. 243

one of the few follies in the military preparations, undertaken on the advice of old habitués of the Coast, was the supply of rails to be laid from Cape Coast to the Prah. Among other doleful prophecies, Sir Garnet was assured by an officer who professed himself intimate with the country, that 'every soldier would require a hammock, and every hammock would require six men to carry it; and he was even given to understand that after crossing the Prah, he would find a fine open country, though, as a matter of fact, the whole route to Coomassie north of that river lies through a dense forest.

The intelligence of the appointment of Sir Garnet Wolseley to the command of the projected expedition was received by the country with approval, and he speedily gave tokens of the wisdom of the selection in the infinite care and patience he took in organizing the details of the undertaking, as far as was possible at this early stage, and in gaining information on all points from anyone who had it to impart. He listened to all the gloomy vaticinations of his numberless correspondents and visitors, and answered the former with courteous rejoinders of thanks, or dismissed the latter with the assured smile of one who had visited many climes and encountered too many difficulties to be overcome with the terrors of travellers' stories. Though fully alive to the extreme difficulties of the undertaking upon which he was embarked, his confidence in his own resources and in his ability to triumph over them never deserted him. Before leaving this country, he informed his friends that he would be back in England, if he returned at all, by the 1st of April, and he was even more than usually punctual, for he landed at Portsmouth on the 21st of March.

Sir Garnet Wolseley was inundated with hundreds of applications from officers desirous of serving on the pesti

lential West Coast, and many distinguished by their scientific attainments resigned important and lucrative staff appointments to accompany him. In these days of competitive examinations, when an officer cannot be promoted from the junior regimental grades without 'passing,' the language of Ensign Northerton, or the Captain, in Swift's 'Hamilton Bawn,' does not represent the views of the profession :

'A scholard, when just from his college broke loose,
Can hardly tell how to cry bo to a goose;

Your Noveds, and Blutarchs, and Omers, and stuff,
'Fore George, they don't signify this pinch of snuff.
To give a young gentleman right education,
The army's the only good school in the nation;
My schoolmaster called me a dunce and a fool,
But at cuffs I was always the cock of the school.'

The difficulty with Sir Garnet Wolseley was to select from so many suitable candidates; but he quickly succeeded in gathering round him an efficient staff of young, active, and able officers.*

Having digested all the information he could gather-the most reliable being that culled from the pages of Bowdich and Dupuis, who had visited Coomassie half a century before, and from whose itineraries a map was prepared at the Topographical Department of the War Office, which was afterwards found to be curiously inaccurate-Sir Garnet Wolseley laid before Her Majesty's Ministers a memorandum embodying his views of the objects to be attained, and the means necessary for their accomplishment. In this memorandum he proposed that two battalions of European troops,

* These were: Colonel J. C. McNeill, V. C., C. M.G., Chief of the Staff; Major T. D. Baker, 18th Royal Irish, Assistant Adjutant-General; Captain G. L. Huyshe, Rifle Brigade, Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General; Captain R. H. Buller, 60th Rifles, Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General ; Deputy Controller M. B. Irvine, C. M.G., in charge of the Control Department; Captain H. Brackenbury, R.A., Assistant Military Secretary; Captain Hugh McCalmont, 7th Hussars, and Lieutenant Hon. A. Charteris, Coldstream Guards, Aides-de-Camp; Lieutenant J. F. Maurice, R.A., Private Secretary. Of the preceding, Colonel McNeill, Captains Huyshe, Buller, and McCalmont, and Mr. Irvine, had served in the Red River Expedition.