“Oh! very well. Don’t say anything if you don’t want to. I expect your son is having a nice time of it now. Pretty hot down where he is now, eh?”
Then the chief rose, and, majestically throwing his cloth around him, said to the Fanti:
“Why do the English allow idiots like this to be at large?” and went away to try and find some place where he could brood over his loss in peace.
One morning the whole camp was convulsed with horror by an accident, which, had it been followed by serious consequences, would have been too awful to contemplate. One of the retinue was playing in his hut with a new toy, to wit a loaded revolver, when he accidentally discharged it. Some malignant demon at once directed the bullet towards the exact spot where would have been the august head of His Excellency, had he been at breakfast; but fortunately he was not there, and the missile sped harmlessly on through a tent, scattering the four or five Fanti clerks who were writing inside. Everybody turned out in alarm and shuddered to think of what would have been the fate of the expedition and the Colony if the gigantic intellect which directed all these stupendous operations had suddenly ceased to be. For future security a guard was at once placed over the Governor’s hut, His Excellency held a levée to assure his well-wishers that he was unharmed, and a deputation of native Colonial officials waited upon him to read an address congratulating him upon his narrow escape, and pointing out, from the fate of the late Czar and the recent accident, that crowned heads, alike in Europe and Africa, were in these days menaced by insidious perils. I do not know what was done to the culprit, but the Queen’s Advocate said that an action for high treason would not lie, and so I believe he was only found guilty of culpable negligence.
Early on the morning of April 19th we thankfully bade adieu to Prahsu and started for the coast. The Ashantis and the Adansis were to leave on the same day, and the Governor, who was down with fever, and his retinue, in a few days’ time. Halting for a couple of hours at Inyaso, we reached Yancoomassie Assin about half-past one, where, as the Commissariat officer had an attack of fever, we stopped. Half-an-hour after our arrival a heavy tornado, accompanied by thunder and lightning, passed over the village, the violent gusts of wind tearing the thatch off the houses, limbs off trees, and levelling whole groves of bamboo, while the rain fell in continuous sheets. While the storm was still raging the Adansis came in, being met by the chief of the place with the usual drumming, dancing, shouting, and horn-blowing, while some of his ultra-loyal followers brandished union-jack pocket-handkerchiefs fastened to sticks. As the rain ceased the Ashantis appeared on the scene, and the Assin chief seated himself in his state-chair, supported by his retainers with the state-swords, while each Ashanti chief, or delegate, with his followers, filed before him shaking hands and then passing on. When this was over a tremendous drumming commenced, and the Assin potentate performed a grotesque pas seul in the centre of a circle of gaping admirers; being followed, when he had finished, by the king of Adansi, who threw in some complicated steps, to cut out his predecessor, which positively made the unsophisticated Assins gasp for breath. This mighty monarch at last sank back exhausted into a chair, and some of the Ashantis came out and skipped round; Buaki, however, seemed to be above this sort of thing, and, instead of cutting insane capers, contented himself with walking round the circle and waving his hand affably to the lookers-on.
I left this gay and festive scene, and was going back to the house which we had appropriated for our use, when I saw one of the masquerading costumes, which had at Prahsu made its wearer the cynosure of all eyes, hanging up wet and draggled on a tree. Alas! alas! what a wreck was there! The rain had soaked the garments through and through, and little puddles of brilliant dyes were forming on the ground underneath, while the glory of the lace and braid was destroyed for ever. I found the unhappy owner trying to dry himself in an adjoining house; he had come down in charge of the Ashanti embassy and had been caught in the tornado in the forest; everything he possessed had been saturated with water, and he had had two narrow escapes of being crushed by immense dead silk-cotton trees which had fallen across the road. I felt sorry to see him in such a pitiable condition, but somehow I could not help mentally comparing him, in his then garb, with a magnificent peacock that had lost its tail.
When the natives had finished their demonstration outside, Buaki came with two or three of his supporters to pay us a visit in our hut. He drank our sole remaining bottle of beer with much gusto, although it was his first experience of malt liquor; and we were getting along very nicely when a slight contretemps occurred which entirely destroyed the harmony of the meeting, and shows how necessary it is that everyone who has anything to do with natives should have some knowledge of their prejudices and modes of thought. Prince Ansah was interpreting, and Buaki had just affably said, in compliment to us, that he was very fond of soldiers, when some one asked:—
“Do you shoot much in Ashanti?”
This was duly interpreted, and Buaki drew himself up and said:—
“How? What do you mean?”