Sin Garnet Wolseley's rapid success has eminently justified his selection to conduct the expedition against Ashantee. It was only on the 27th September that he landed in Freetown, and exactly four months later, he is dictating terms of peace before Coomassie, The measure of his success must not be judged by the relative qualities of the combatants as soldiers. Although the Ashantees are described as a brave and robust race, and well drilled after their own fashion, no preponderance of numbers on their part could give them a chance in open battle, against the arms of precision and the superior tactics of the British, But the fighting did not take place in the open every battle was fought in the bush, where the native is at home and to which the English soldier is unaccustomed. The difficulty lay in the nature of the camipaign—in the climate, the jungle, the absence of roads, the difficulty of moving men and supplies, and the harassing style of warfare. Taking all into consideration, it would seem that Sir Garnet Wolseley had a task little less difficult, though on a smaller scale, than had Sir Robert Napier in Abyssinia. Coomassie
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almost as difficult to reach as Mag-We shall look with very great interest for the accounts that will now be made public, of the people and the country. 'A good deal of information has been disinterred by English newspapers, from books written after previous expeditions; but it is given necessarily in a condensed form, and serves to indicate that there is very much worthy of elaborate disquisition in the character and customs of our late opponents. The marshy jungle which offers so terrible an obstacle to Europeans is only a belt, between the coast and Ashantee, inhabited by the Fantee tribes who have been our nominal allies. The Ashantee territory is a plateau raised some 1,500 to 3,000 ft. above the sea level, and covering an arenas large as Great Britain and Ireland. Neither must the inhabitants be held the utter savages one is apt to consider all negroes in their native state. Savages they are in many of their habits, in their superstitions and their ferocity, But they seem to have a fairly organised government, and to have attained to some skill as artisans and builders. Coomassie is said to be by no means a heterogeneous collection of huts, but a well arranged town. The exaction of an indemnity of £200,000 implies the possession of some substance; and the King seems in fact to enjoy largo revenues—derived from tribute paid by his feudal dependencies, taxes levied in his own dominions, customs dues on trade, the produce of sundry goldfields, a tax on gold ornaments worn by his nobles, and, not least, from confiscation to his exchequer of all the gold belonging to any man or woman who dies in Ashantee.
We have often come into collision with the Ashantees, and have once, in 1817, sent a mission to Coomassie, but have never before advanced an army to the capital. In 1823 indeed the Ashantees defeated, captured and killed Sir Charles McCarthy, the then governor of Cape Coast Castle; but the disaster was retrieved in 1826, when they were utterly routed near Acra. Later on, in 1841, a Wesleyan mission was established in Coomassie, and it is evident from Reuter's telegram of the 4th instant, stating that the King had sent a German missionary to treat with the British—that there are still foreigners residing in the town. Successive mails, however, will now bring us detailed information on many of these points, and descriptions of the country and capital which our troops have at length reached. This expedition will probably put our relations with Ashantee on a different footing, and ensure more easy and constant intercourse than has ever yet been had. We may be sure that Stipulations for freedom of trade, and the personal security of traders, will be among the leading features of the treaty; and the Ashantees will probably be this time convinced that it will be wise to observe their obligations, News does travel even in Africa, and the recent expeditions in North, East, and West, will hardly fail to convince the Natives of the hopelessness of attempting to resist civilised power. The present war has not been a popular one in England; the necessity of inflicting chastisement was regretted while the necessity was recognised. Yet it is almost always by war that the first step towards intercourse with uncivilized peoples has to be gained and it may well be that the present war will prove for the good of Ashantee as well as of the British Settlements. A clearer understanding will be arrived at, and a clearer course of policy decided on. The danger of future collision will be infinitely lessened; and a degree of intercourse will probably be established that will let some light of civilisation into this dark corner of the earth,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.