Tue "little war" which has sprung up on the West Coast of Africa is assuming more serious proportions, and threatens to cost much trouble, money and life before it is brought to a successful issue. Of course the Ashantees will be beaten in the end; but the state of affairs in our Settlements, in the meantime, seems to be horrible. Elmina and Cape Coast Castle are crowded with refugees from the Fanteo tribes who were overpowered in the advance of the Ashantees; the summer rains are falling with excessive violence and sickness, as might be expected under such circumstances, is the rule rather than the exception among the foreign troops. Yet this is only an exchange of evils. Previous letters complained that the rains were so late there was hardly any drinking water left in the tanks, and the officers were unable to obtain water for bathing—in itself a great privation in such a climate, Now, the rains have set in with such violence that they have undermined and destroyed a battery at Cape Coast Castle; houses are daily falling in on their occupants, and the smallpox hospital, which contained 194 patients, has also given way, leaving the unhappy occupants without. protection feom the downpour. Add to this the fearful overcrowding described in a letter which we reprint from the Times, and we can conceive the rest of the picture: "A great deal of sickness prevails, dysentery of a most malignant type being very rife. The medical stof are dreadfully overworked, and several of them are on the sick list."
From a military point of view, also, matters seem to be approaching that worst point at which they proverbially mend. We learnt some weeks ago, that the Ashantees were surrounding Elmina and Cape Coast Castle, but were held at bay by a handful of British marines and sailors, with the help of a small force of Houssas or armed native police. The troopship Himalaya arrived, with Colonel Wise and some 360 men of the West India regiment, on the 5th July; and the fear of our small force being overpowered was by so much lessened. But what was a gain in strength seems to have been in other respects an inconvenience; a letter from Cape Coast Castle says: before the arrival of the reinforcements "we were packed as close as herrings in a barrel now, Iam at a loss for any illustration that would give an idea of our position." It is aot surprising that Colonel Wise succumbed almost immediately to the climate, leaving the command anew
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.