By Sheer Pluck
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G. A. Henty >> By Sheer Pluck
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"There," he said, "the English soldiers are coming out of the fort.
Now you will see."
The little body of marines and the blue jackets of the Barraconta
deployed in line as they sallied from the fort. The Ashantis opened
fire upon them, but they were out of range of the slugs. As soon
as the line was formed the English opened fire, and the Ashantis
were perfectly astonished at the incessant rattle of musketry from
so small a body of men. But it was not all noise, for the Snider
bullets swept among the crowded body of blacks, mowing them down in
considerable numbers. In two minutes the Ashantis turned and ran.
The general's bearers, in spite of his shouts, hurried away with
him with the others, and Frank would have taken this opportunity to
escape had not two of his guards seized him by the arms and hauled
him along, while the other two kept close behind.
As soon as they had passed over the crest of the rise, and the
British fire had ceased, Ammon Quatia leaped from his chair and
threw himself among his flying troops, striking them right and left
with his staff, and hurling imprecations upon them.
"If you do not stop and return against the whites," he said, "I
will send every one of you back to Coomassie, and there you will
be put to death as cowards."
The threat sufficed. The fugitives rallied, and in a few minutes
were ready to march back again. It was the surprise created by the
wonderful sustained fire of the breech loaders, rather than the
actual loss they inflicted, which caused the panic.
In the meantime, believing that the Ashantis had retired, the naval
contingent went back to their boats, when the Dutch vice consul,
having ascended a hill to look round, saw that Ammon Quatia had
made a detour with his troops, and was marching against the town
from the east, where he would not be exposed to the fire of the
fort. He instantly ran back with the news.
The marines and the thirty West Indian soldiers in the fort at
once marched out, and met the Ashantis just as they were entering
the town. The fight was a severe one, and for a time neither side
appeared to have the advantage, and Frank, who, under the care of
his guards, was a few hundred yards in the rear, was filled with
dismay at observing that the Ashantis, in spite of the heavy loss
they were suffering, were gaining ground and pressing forward bravely.
Suddenly he gave a shout of joy, for on a rise on the flank of the
Ashantis appeared the sailors of the Barraconta, who had been led
round from the boats by Lieutenant Wells, R. N., who was in command.
The instant these took up their position they opened a heavy fire
upon the flank of the Ashantis, who, dismayed by this attack by fresh
foes, lost heart and at once fled hastily. In the two engagements
they had lost nearly four hundred men. Frank, of course, retired
with the beaten Ashantis, and that evening Ammon Quatia told him
that the arms of the white men were too good, and that he should
not attack them again in the open.
"Their guns shoot farther, as well as quicker, than ours," he said.
"Our slugs are no use against the heavy bullets, at a distance;
but in the woods, where you cannot see twenty feet among the trees,
it will be different. If I do not attack them they must attack me,
or their trade will be starved out. When they come into the woods
you will see that we shall eat them up."
Several weeks now passed quietly. There was news that there was
great sickness among the white soldiers, and, indeed, with scarce
an exception, the marines first sent out were invalided home; but
a hundred and fifty more arrived to take their place. Some detachments
of the 2d West Indian regiment came down to join their comrades
from Sierra Leone, and the situation remained unchanged.
One night towards the end of August a messenger arrived and there
was an immediate stir.
"Now," the general said to Frank, "you are going to see us fight
the white men. Some of the big ships have gone to the mouth of the
Prah, and we believe that they are going to land in boats. You will
see. The Elmina tribes are going to attack, but I shall take some
of my men to help."
Taking fifty picked warriors Ammon Quatia started at once. They
marched all night towards the west, and at daybreak joined the
Elminas. These took post in the brushwood lining the river. The
general with a dozen men, taking Frank, went down near the mouth
of the river to reconnoiter. The ships lay more than a mile off
the shore. Presently a half dozen boats were lowered, filled with
men, and taken in tow by a steam launch. It was seen that they were
making for the mouth of the river.
"Now let us go back," Ammon Quatia said. "You will see what we
shall do."
Frank felt full of excitement. He saw the English running into an
ambuscade, and he determined, even if it should cost him his life,
to warn them. Presently they heard the sharp puffs of the steam
launch. The boats were within three hundred yards.
Frank stepped forward and was about to give a warning shout when
Ammon Quatia's eye fell upon him. The expression of his face revealed
his intention to the Ashanti, who in an instant sprang upon him and
hurled him to the ground. Instantly a dozen hands seized him, and,
in obedience to the general's order, fastened a bandage tightly
across his mouth, and then bound him, standing against a tree, where
he could observe what was going on. The incident had occupied but
a minute, and Frank heard the pant of the steam launch coming nearer
and nearer. Presently through the bushes he caught a glimpse of
it, and then, as it came along, of the boats towing behind. The
Elminas and Ashantis were lying upon the ground with their guns in
front of them.
The boats were but fifteen yards from the bank. When they were
abreast Ammon Quatia shouted the word of command, and a stream
of fire shot out from the bushes. In the boats all was confusion.
Several were killed and many wounded by the deadly volley, among
the latter Commodore Commerell himself, and two or three of his
officers. The launch now attempted to turn round, and the marines
in the boats opened fire upon their invisible foes, who replied
steadily. In five minutes from the first shot being fired all was
over, the launch was steaming down with the boats in tow towards
the mouth of the river, the exulting shouts of the natives ringing
in the ears of those on board.
The position of Frank had not been a pleasant one while the fight
had lasted, for the English rifle bullets sang close to him in
quick succession, one striking the tree only a few inches above
his head. He was doubtful, too, as to what his fate would be at
the termination of the fight.
Fortunately Ammon Quatia was in the highest spirits at his victory.
He ordered Frank to be at once unbound.
"There, you see," he said, "the whites are of no use. They cannot
fight. They run with their eyes shut into danger. So it will be if
they attack us on the land. You were foolish. Why did you wish to
call out? Are you not well treated? Are you not the king's guest?
Am I not your friend?"
"I am well treated, and you are my friend," Frank said, "but the
English are my countrymen. I am sure that were you in the hands of
the English, and you saw a party of your countrymen marching into
danger, you would call out and warn them, even if you knew that
you would be killed for doing so."
"I do not know," the Ashanti said candidly. "I cannot say what I
should do, but you were brave to run the risk, and I'm not angry
with you. Only, in future when we go to attack the English, I must
gag you to prevent your giving the alarm."
"That is fair enough," Frank said, pleased that the matter had passed
off so well, "only another time do not stick me upright against a
tree where I may be killed by English bullets. I had a narrow escape
of it this time, you see," and he pointed to the hole in the trunk
of the tree.
"I am sorry," the Ashanti general said, with an air of real concern.
"I did not think of your being in danger, I only wished you to have
a good sight of the battle; next time I will put you in a safer
place."
They then returned to the camp.
The next day a distant cannonade was heard, and at nightfall the
news came that the English fleet had bombarded and burnt several
Elmina villages at the mouth of the Prah.
"Ah," the general said, "the English have great ships and great
guns. They can fight on the seaside and round their forts, but they
cannot drag their guns through the forests and swamps."
"No," Frank agreed. "It would not be possible to drag heavy
artillery."
"No," Ammon Quatia repeated exultingly. "When they are beyond the
shelter of their ships they are no good whatever. We will kill them
all."
The wet season had now set in, in earnest, and the suffering of the
Ashantis were very great. Accustomed as many of them were to high
lying lands free of trees, the miasma from the swamps was well nigh
as fatal to them as it would be to Europeans. Thousands died, and
many of the rest were worn by fever to mere shadows.
"Do you think," Ammon Quatia said to Frank one day, "that it is
possible to blow up a whole town with powder?"
"It would be possible if there were powder enough," Frank said,
wondering what could be the motive of the question.
"They say that the English have put powder in holes all over Cape
Coast, and my people are afraid to go. The guns of the fort could
not shoot over the whole town, and there are few white soldiers
there; but my men fear to be blown up in the air."
"Yes," Frank said gravely. "The danger might be great. It is better
that the Ashantis should keep away from the town. But if the fever
goes on as at present the army will melt away."
"Ten thousand more men are coming down when the rains are over.
The king says that something must be done. There is talk in the
English forts that more white troops are coming out from England.
If this is so I shall not attack the towns, but shall wait for them
to come into the woods for me. Then you will see."
"Do they say there are many troops?" Frank asked anxiously.
"No; they say only some white officers, but this is foolishness.
What could white officers do without soldiers? As for the Fantis
they are cowards, they are only good to carry burdens and to hoe
the ground. They are women and not men."
During this time, when the damp rose so thick and steaming that
everything was saturated with it, Frank had a very sharp attack of
fever, and was for a fortnight, just after the repulse of the attack
on Elmina, completely prostrated. Such an attack would at his first
landing have carried him off, but he was now getting acclimatized,
and his supply of quinine was abundant. With its aid he saved a
great many lives among the Ashantis, and many little presents in
the way of fruit and birds did he receive from his patients.
"I wish I could let you go," the general said to him one day. "You
are a good white man, and my soldiers love you for the pains you
take going amongst them when they are sick, and giving them the
medicine of the whites. But I dare not do it. As you know when the
king is wroth the greatest tremble, and I dare not tell the king
that I have let you go. Were it otherwise I would gladly do so. I
have written to the king telling him that you have saved the lives
of many here. It may be that he will order you to be released."
CHAPTER XIX: THE TIDE TURNED
From many of the points in the forest held by the Ashantis the sea
could be seen, and on the morning of the 2d of October a steamer
which had not been there on the previous evening was perceived lying
off the town. The Ashantis were soon informed by spies in Elmina
and Cape Coast that the ship had brought an English general with
about thirty officers. The news that thirty men had come out to
help to drive back twenty thousand was received with derision by
the Ashantis.
"They will do more than you think," Frank said when Ammon Quatia
was scoffing over the new arrival. "You will see a change in the
tactics of the whites. Hitherto they have done nothing. They have
simply waited. Now you will see they will begin to move. The officers
will drill the natives, and even a Fanti, drilled and commanded by
white officers, will learn how to fight. You acknowledge that the
black troops in red coats can fight. What are these? Some of them
are Fantis, some of them are black men from the West Indian Islands,
where they are even more peaceful than the Fantis, for they have no
enemies. Perhaps alone the Fantis would not fight, but they will
have the soldiers and sailors from on board ship with them, and
you saw at Elmina how they can fight."
The ship was the Ambriz, one of the African company's steamers,
bringing with it thirty-five officers, of whom ten belonged to
the Commissariat and Medical staff. Among the fighting men were
Sir Garnet Wolseley, Colonel M'Neil, chief of his staff, Major T.
D. Baker, 18th Regiment, Captain Huyshe, Rifle Brigade, Captain
Buller, 60th Rifles, all of the staff; Captain Brackenbury, military
secretary, and Lieutenant Maurice, R. A., private secretary, Major
Home, R. E., Lieutenant Saunders, R. A., and Lieutenant Wilmot,
R. A.. Lieutenant Colonel Evelyn Wood, 90th Regiment, and Major B.
C. Russell, 13th Hussars, were each to form and command a native
regiment, having the remainder of the officers as their assistants.
The Ambriz had left England on the 12th of September, and had touched
at Madeira and at the various towns on the coast on her way down,
and at the former place had received the news of the disaster to
the naval expedition up the Prah.
The English government had been loath to embark upon such an
expedition, but a petition which had been sent home by the English
and native traders at Sierra Leone and Elmina had shown how great
was the peril which threatened the colony, and it had been felt that
unless an effort was made the British would be driven altogether from
their hold of the coast. When the expedition was at last determined
upon, the military authorities were flooded with recommendations and
warnings of all kinds from persons who knew the coast. Unfortunately
these gentlemen differed so widely from each other, that but little
good was gained from their counsels. Some pronounced the climate
to be deadly. Others said that it was really not bad. Some warmly
advocated a moderate use of spirits. Others declared that stimulants
were poison. One advised that all exercise should be taken between
five and seven in the morning. Another insisted that on no account
should anyone stir out until the sun had been up for an hour, which
meant that no one should go out till half past seven. One said take
exercise and excite perspiration. Another urged that any bodily
exercise should be avoided. One consistent gentleman, after having
written some letters to the papers strongly advocating the use of
white troops upon the coast instead of West Indian regiments, when
written to by Sir Garnet Wolseley for his advice as to articles
of outfit, replied that the only article which he could strongly
commend would be that each officer should take out his coffin.
Ten days passed after the landing. It was known in the Ashanti
camp that the Fanti kings had been ordered to raise contingents,
and that a white officer had been alloted to each to assist him
in this work. The Ashantis, however, had no fear whatever on this
score. The twenty thousand natives who occupied the country south
of the Prah had all been driven from their homes by the invaders,
and had scattered among the towns and villages on the seacoast,
where vast numbers had died from the ravages of smallpox. The kings
had little or no authority over them, and it was certain that no
native force, capable in any way of competing with the army of the
assailants, could be raised.
The small number of men of the 2d West Indian regiment at Elmina
had been reinforced by a hundred and twenty Houssas brought down
the coast. The Ashanti advanced parties remained close up to Elmina.
On the 13th of October Frank accompanied the Ashanti general to the
neighborhood of this town. The Ashanti force here was not a large
one, the main body being nearly twenty miles away in the neighborhood
of Dunquah, which was held by a small body of Houssas and natives
under Captain Gordon. At six in the morning a messenger ran in
with the news that two of the English war steamers from Cape Coast
were lying off Elmina, and that a number of troops had been landed
in boats. The Ashanti general was furious, and poured out threats
against his spies in Cape Coast for not having warned him of the
movement, but in fact these were not to blame. So quietly had the
arrangements been made that, until late in the previous afternoon,
no one, with the exception of three or four of the principal
officers, knew that an expedition was intended. Even then it was
given out that the expedition was going down the coast, and it was
not until the ships anchored off Elmina at three in the morning
that the officers and troops were aware of their destination. All
the West Indian troops at Cape Coast had been taken, Captain Peel
of the Simoon landing fifty sailors to hold the fort in case the
Ashantis should attack it in their absence. The expedition consisted
of the Houssas, two hundred men of the 2d West India regiment,
fifty sailors, and two companies of marines and marine artillery,
each fifty strong, and a large number of natives carrying a small
Armstrong gun, two rocket tubes, rockets, spare ammunition, and
hammocks for wounded.
The few Ashantis in the village next to Elmina retired at once
when the column was seen marching from the castle. Ammon Quatia had
taken up his quarters at the village of Essarman, and now advanced
with his troops and took post in the bush behind a small village
about three miles from the town. The Houssas were skirmishing
in front of the column. These entered the village which had been
deserted by the Ashantis, and set it on fire, blowing up several
kegs of powder which had been left there in the hurry of the flight.
Then as they advanced farther the Ashantis opened fire. To their
surprise the British, instead of falling back, opened fire in
return, the Houssas, West Indians, and natives discharging their
rifles at random in all directions. Captain Freemantle with the
sailors, the gun, and rockets made for the upper corner of the wood
facing them to their left. Captain Crease with a company of marine
artillery took the wood on the right. The Houssas and a company of
West Indians moved along the path in the center. The remainder of
the force remained with the baggage in reserve. The Ashantis kept
up a tremendous fire, but the marines and sailors pushed their
way steadily through the wood on either side. Captain Freemantle
at length gained a point where his gun and rockets could play on
Essarman, which lay in the heart of the wood, and opened fire, but
not until he had been struck by a slug which passed through his arm.
Colonel M'Neil, who was with the Houssas, also received a severe
wound in the arm, and thirty-two marines and Houssas were wounded.
The Ashantis were gradually driven out of the village and wood, a
great many being killed by the English fire.
Having accomplished this, the British force rested for an hour and
then moved on, first setting fire to Essarman, which was a very
large village. A great quantity of the Ashanti powder was stored
there, and each explosion excited yells of rage among the Ashantis.
Their general was especially angry that two large war drums had
been lost. So great was the effect produced upon the Ashantis by
the tremendous fire which the British had poured into every bush and
thicket as they advanced, that their general thought it expedient
to draw them off in the direction of his main body instead of
further disputing the way.
The English now turned off towards the coast, marching part of the
way through open country, part through a bush so dense that it was
impossible to make a flank attack upon them here. In such cases
as this, when the Ashantis know that an enemy is going to approach
through a dense and impassable forest, they cut paths through
it parallel to that by which he must advance and at a few yards'
distance. Then, lying in ambush there, they suddenly open fire upon
him as he comes along. As no idea of the coming of the English had
been entertained they passed through the dense thickets in single
file unmolested. These native paths are very difficult and unpleasant
walking. The natives always walk in single file, and the action of
their feet, aided by that of the rain, often wears the paths into
a deep V-shaped rut, two feet in depth. Burning two or three villages
by the way the column reached the coast at a spot five miles from
Elmina, having marched nine miles.
As the Ashantis were known to be in force at the villages of Akimfoo
and Ampene, four miles farther, a party was taken on to this point.
Akimfoo was occupied without resistance, but the Ashantis fought
hard in Ampene, but were driven out of the town into the bush, from
which the British force was too small to drive them, and therefore
returned to Elmina, having marched twenty-two miles, a prodigious
journey in such a climate for heavily armed Europeans. The effect
produced among the Ashantis by the day's fighting was immense. All
their theories that the white men could not fight in the bush were
roughly upset, and they found that his superiority was as great
there as it had been in the open. His heavy bullets, even at the
distance of some hundred yards, crashed through the brush wood with
deadly effect, while the slugs of the Ashantis would not penetrate
at a distance much exceeding fifty yards.
Ammon Quatia was profoundly depressed in spirits that evening.
"The white men who come to fight us," he said, "are not like those
who come to trade. Who ever heard of their making long marches?
Why, if they go the shortest distances they are carried in hammocks.
These men march as well as my warriors. They have guns which shoot
ten times as far as ours, and never stop firing. They carry cannon
with them, and have things which fly through the air and scream,
and set villages on fire and kill men. I have never heard of such
things before. What do you call them?"
"They are called rockets," Frank said.
"What are they made of?"
"They are made of coarse powder mixed with other things, and rammed
into an iron case."
"Could we not make some too?" the Ashanti general asked.
"No," Frank replied. "At least, not without a knowledge of the
things you should mix with the powder, and of that I am ignorant.
Besides, the rockets require great skill in firing, otherwise they
will sometimes come back and kill the men who fire them."
"Why did you not tell me that the white men could fight in the
bush?"
"I told you that there would be a change when the new general came,
and that they would not any longer remain in their forts, but would
come out and attack you."
A few days after this fight the Ashantis broke up their camp at
Mampon, twelve miles from Elmina, and moved eastward to join the
body who were encamped in the forest near Dunquah.
"I am going," Ammon Quatia said to Frank, "to eat up Dunquah and
Abra Crampa. We shall do better this time. We know what the English
guns can do and shall not be surprised."
With ten thousand men Ammon Quatia halted at the little village
of Asianchi, where there was a large clearing, which was speedily
covered with the little leafy bowers which the Ashantis run up at
each halting place.
Two days later Sir Garnet Wolseley with a strong force marched out
from Cape Coast to Abra Crampa, halting on the way for a night at
Assaiboo, ten miles from the town. On the same day the general sent
orders to Colonel Festing of the Marine Artillery, who commanded at
Dunquah, to make a reconnaissance into the forest from that place.
In accordance with this order Colonel Festing marched out with a gun
and rocket apparatus under Captain Rait, the Annamaboe contingent
of a hundred and twenty men under their king, directed by Captain
Godwin, four hundred other Fantis under Captain Broomhead, and
a hundred men of the 2d West India regiment. After a three mile
march in perfect silence they came upon an Ashanti cutting wood,
and compelled him to act as guide. The path divided into three,
and the Annamaboes, who led the advance, when within a few yards
of the camp, gave a sudden cheer and rushed in.
The Ashantis, panic stricken at the sudden attack, fled instantly
from the camp into the bush. Sudden as was the scare Frank's
guards did not forget their duty, but seizing him dragged him off
with them in their flight, by the side of Ammon Quatia. The latter
ordered the war drums to begin to beat, and Frank was surprised at
the quickness with which the Ashantis recovered from their panic.
In five minutes a tremendous fire was opened from the whole circle
of bush upon the camp. This stood on rising ground, and the British
force returned the fire with great rapidity and effect. The Annamaboe
men stood their ground gallantly, and the West Indians fought with
great coolness, keeping up a constant and heavy fire with their
Sniders. The Houssas, who had been trained as artillerymen, worked
their gun and rocket tube with great energy, yelling and whooping
as each round of grape or canister was fired into the bush, or each
rocket whizzed out.
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