THE SEVENTH DAY-TO BARRACO.

233.

refinement of growth, had presented itself. But in other places it came by snatches. Here it was typical of nearly the whole day's march. Of course the villages do not mark precise points where change in a characteristic feature of this kind takes place, nor must I in any case be supposed to imply that there is a sharp point at which each of the varieties of forest scenery I have described on the march passes into the other. They shade off by slow degrees, but it is most striking how markedly distinct where all is forest are the broad features of the several portions through which one passes. With this reservation I shall endeavour to complete my description of the road to the Prah.

"Among this overcrowded forest land, the very product of over-nursing in Dame Nature's most luxurious and pampering mood, there appear at intervals, at no great distance off the road, large open spaces encircled by fine robust trees, that show out the bolder and the grander, for the mere trellis-work between them and us, as we travel on the road. These, according to all that one can learn, are the sites of old village clearingsof villages of which not a vestige remains; that have been swept away in some devastating raid of the Ashantees, perhaps a hundred, perhaps two hundred years ago. For during all that time horde upon horde of these reckless destroyers have poured over the land, sweeping it with a completeness of which we have present experience in the absolute abandonment of every village actually upon the road we have passed through. The extent of this desolation may perhaps be judged

from the fact that, according to the best evidence we now have, there were actually something like 60,000 Fantees assembled in the great fight of the spring against the Ashantees; while, according to the same evidence, the impossibility we now find in gathering them together is really due mainly to the loss of life during the intervening months; partly because of the actual slaughter, and partly because of the small-pox, dysentery, and famine which followed in its train. The land now is utterly depopulated, and it bears everywhere the signs of many such previous depopulations. The old clearings I have spoken of, as indicated now only by the more stately forest growth around them, are, perhaps, the most striking instance, of past devastations. In the villages which have lately been left without inhabitants, the creepers, that have decked with a strange and many-coloured beauty the crumbled walls or open wood-work of the ruins, show how soon nature will again cover over and profit by the present desolation.

"It must not be supposed that all here is strange and tropical; often among the houses homely vegetable marrows run riot over half a village; a mountain ash peers out among the forest trees; or, as if to greet us with memories of many a cosy English farmstead, the elder-berries hang their clusters over our heads. But these have, perhaps, been more common in the earlier part of our march, and I recall them now rather in thinking of the features that are general throughout than those that are special to this portion of the road. The roadway itself is no longer quite so bad as during the last stage, but it must be

THE SAILORS AND SIR GARNET AT BARRACO. 235

admitted that the first part beyond Yancoomassie (Assin) and the whole road from Sutah to it are the worst of the whole march. Still I have known many an English road deeper in mud. Soon, moreover, we leave the clay, and gain the sandy reach, which extends hence to the Prah, furnishing one excellent road throughout.

"At Barraco we came upon the detachment of English sailors, who had been there for three weeks, all cheery and healthy as men need be. When I first met them they were bathing in the river which flows near. But they were in their glory at night, when a huge camp fire, that would have paled every one that the natives had kindled during our whole march, was blazing; two or three great trunks being laid above it. Round this there gathered that night, the first of the New Year, on the one side the General and his staff, with the officers of the sailors and marines, and round all the others the blue-jackets and marines themselves, while one after another stepped out to sing the best songs they knew.

"The march from Barraco to Prahsu is about the shortest of all, little more than six miles, and its natural character has been much affected by the amount of clearing that has been made for the enormous quantity of palm leaves and split wood of all kinds that has been required for the great camp at Prahsu; the number needed for each hut being almost incredible. Perhaps it is because of this clearing-always, as it seems to me, an improvement to the beauty of nature in this countrythat one observes it, perhaps it is a natural fact, but here we seem to have entered into the very region of orchids.

At times they seem almost to form the covering and foliage of every second tree, and everywhere they give a wonderful variety to the tints of the landscape. The excellent road gave leisure to enjoy their beauty such as for some miles before we had hardly had.

"At length here is Prahsu, a place, as we well know, little more than a fortnight ago one dense mass of bush to the river's bank. Now, on the left or southern side, a trimly-hutted camp has arisen for about 3,000 men, with large open space in the middle, broken only by the filter-shed whence pure water can be obtained. The amount of work that had been done was the one thing which first impressed us all. The broad stream lay wide before us. All who had previously seen it admit that they had not realised its beauty till now when space was given from which to view it. But we are to be here for some time, and further opportunities will occur for describing this, our half-way house to Coomassie."

CHAPTER X.

THE CAMP AT PRAHSU-ENVOYS AND LETTERS FROM THE KING OF ASHANTEE-SIR GARNET'S REPLY-AN ASHANTEE MESSENGER SHOOTS HIMSELF-LORD GIFFORD SURPRISES ESSIAMAN-SIR GARNET'S RUSE ALARM OF THE ENVOYS-THE SAILORS AT WORK-THE GREAT DESERTION OF THE CARRIERS- THE WHOLE CASE CONSIDERED.

ON January 2nd, the day that Sir Garnet reached the banks of the Prah, the stream which it was supposed that no white man would ever be able to cross, envoys arrived from the King. They brought back an answer from Coomassie to the summons addressed to him from Cape Coast.

It consisted (C. 894, p. 56) of two letters from the King of Ashantee, which will serve as admirable specimens of the King's usual style of correspondence.

It should be noticed that the originals were written in English by Mr. Dawson, a Fantee who had been sent up to Coomassie by Colonel Harley in order to interpret a former message to the King, and who had ever since been forcibly detained in Coomassie in company with the other prisoners.