Year: 1873

Tho Ashantoes Turning Thoir Backs


On tho Sea.


Our special cable despatch from London
containing the substance Of the dispatches
forwarded from the HERALD correspondent
attached to the English expedition moving
against the Ashantees will be found Of alb
sorbing interest this morning 1t seems that
the able General, Sir Garnet Wolseley, to
whom has been committed the important task
OF marching to Coomassie, has in every way,
thus far, justified the confidence of the Min
istry. He has selected his bases Of operation
at Cape Coast Castle, Accra and Addah. AT
first it was thought that a railway through
the dense and malarial jungle from Cape
Coast Castle o distance of thirty miles
towards Coomassie would be indispensable
to the proper conduct of the war; But
from our dispatches of yesterday and
this morning it appears that Sir Garnet has
abandoned the difficult enterprise. A portion
of the expedition only has therefore disem-
barked at Cape Coast Castle, consisting of
munitions, rice and huts. But few troops
are now on service at the castle, and
even these are colored. Hence we infer that
Accra will become the principal point Of de-
parture, although our correspondent states
that the white troops are expected over in
six weeks. The hardships of the expedition
will doubtless fill many o chapter of misery
and death when the chronicler sits down to
write resume Of its operations, since we are
informed at the outset that there will bs no
tents to keep of the bsies sauuags$, and that
each officer will have to content him
self with the service Of one domestic
Our correspondent calls attention to the
contrast between the Abyssinian expedi-
ton of Lord Napier and that OF Sir Garnet
Wolseley, and he evidently expresses the feel
ing of the present expedition when he simply
alludes to the frightful mortality TINT has
already taken place among the English troops.
We do not by any means believe that Coomas-
sic will fall as easily as Magdala. The Ash
antees are united and determined, well armed,
brave, warlike people, who take to them
selves the pride of having beaten the English
on several hard fought fields. Abyssinia at
the time that Theodore committed his supreme
folly of refusing to release the captives on
any terms, was in condition Of deplorable
civil war, and Theodore was as much despised
by his own subjects as he was threatened
by foreign retribution On the other
hand, the Ashantees appear to be
unit against their British invaders, and we
learn that forty thousand natives are already
retreating on the River Prah. But their
prowess seems little insignificant when we
read that Sir Garnet Wolseley, with only one
hundred marines, is harassing the rear of the
retreating army, probably commanded by the
King in person The traders, however, be-
ieve this movement of the Ashantees clever
ralse to draw the body of the expeditionary
army from Cape Coast Castle, while they fall
on the wing of Captain Glover, operating
from the banks of the Volta, and destroy the
right wing of the English expedition. However
this may be. the Ashantees have suffered
severe defeatat the hands of Sir Garnet and his
brave soldiers. Their villages have been
burned and their killed and wounded have
been SO numerous that they have retired pre-
cipitately on the Prah. Here our information
ends; but it is enough to indicate that the
operations have been entirely successful and
that the reduction Of Coomassie will hardly
be so difficult an undertaking as the tory
press has daily pictured since the disastrous |
affair Of Elmina.