Through Three Campaigns: A Story of Chitral, Tirah and Ashanti

by G. A. Henty

Their delight, when they emerged into the open and saw Coomassie ahead of them, was unbounded. Keeping regular step, though each man was yearning to press forward, they advanced steadily. The silence weighed upon them; and a dread, lest they had arrived too late, chilled the sense of triumph with which they had marched off. At last, the faint notes of a distant bugle sounded the general salute, and a wild burst of cheering greeted the sound. The bugles returned the call with joyous notes. Then the gate opened, and Captain Bishop, Mr. Ralph, and Dr. Hay came out, followed by such few of the brave little garrison as still had strength to walk.

Just at this moment, a great glow was seen in the distance. The flying enemy had fired the Basel Mission. A company therefore started at once, at the double, to drive them off.

The relieving force had, indeed, arrived only just in time. The means of resistance had all been exhausted, and another day would have seen the end. The garrison had held out desperately, in the hope that Colonel Willcocks would be able to fulfil the promise he had sent in, that he would arrive to relieve them on the 15th of July; and he had nobly kept his word to an hour, at the cost of an amount of hard work, privation, hardship, and suffering such as has fallen to the lot of but few expeditions of the kind.

The Ashanti rising was the result of long premeditation and preparation. On the 13th of March, the governor of the Gold Coast, accompanied by Lady Hodgson, left Accra to make a tour of inspection. On his way up country he was received with great friendliness at all the villages and, when he arrived at Coomassie on the 25th, he found a large number of Ashanti kings, who turned out in state to meet him. A triumphal arch had been erected, and a gorgeous procession of kings and chiefs marched past. There was no sign of a cloud in the horizon.

Several days passed quietly, and Sir Frederick Hodgson had several meetings with the chiefs about state matters. Gradually the eyes of the governor's followers, accustomed as they were to savage ways, saw that all was not right; and a wire was despatched, asking for reinforcements of two hundred men. These arrived on the 18th of April.

Captains Armitage and Leggatt, with a small party of soldiers, went out to the neighbouring village to bring in the golden stool. This was regarded by the natives with considerable veneration, and was always used as the throne of the king, as the sign of supreme authority. When they reached the village the party were fired upon, the two officers being wounded; and had to retire without having accomplished their purpose.

It was clear now that rebellion was intended. The native kings were all sounded, and several of them decided to side with us, among them five important leaders. On the 25th the Basel Mission servants were set upon, and several of them killed. The Ashantis then attacked and captured the villages in which the friendly natives and traders lived, and set fire to these and to the cantonment. The refugees, to the number of three thousand five hundred, with two hundred children, crowded round the fort, imploring the mission to allow them to enter.

It was wholly beyond the capacity of the fort to accommodate a tenth of their number. Troops were therefore ordered down from the barracks, and formed a cordon round the fugitives. The fort gate was closed, and a rope ladder led down one of the bastions. In this way, only one individual could enter at a time, and the danger of a rush was obviated.

Close round the walls, huts were erected to shelter the fugitives, who were exposed to all the inclemency of the weather. Thus passed some wretched days and worse nights, sleep being constantly interrupted by alarms, due to the fact that the rebels were in possession of all the buildings in the place, except the fort, many of which they loopholed.

On the 29th a determined attack was made, the enemy advancing boldly across the open, and fighting long and obstinately. Captain Marshall, however, with his two hundred and fifty native troops and friendly levies, taught them such a lesson that they never again tried fighting in the open. A hundred and thirty corpses were found and buried, and many more were carried off, while the fighting was going on.