The New York Herald Newspaper, December 15, 1873, Page 3

ASHANTEE. March of the British Army Expe- dition Into the Country. Herald Special Report from Sir Garnet Wolseley’s Headquarters. Pen-and-Ink Sketches of the Members of the Staff of the British Commander. The Sahara and Saddening Reminiscences of the In- hospitable Shore. THE SLAVE DRIVERS OF THE DESERT. Christian Propagandism Under British Missionary Influences. The Ivory and Gold Coast and the Kingdom of the Ashantees. THE HERALD NEWS STEAMER DAUNTLESS Causes of the War Between Victoria and King Coffee. Sir Garnet Wolseley Interviewed and Dinner at the Government House, of the Youthtul General. Sketch HIS DISLIKE OF PRESS MEN AND WHY Difficulties in the Fielé Which Impede a Sixth Effort in the Cause of Freedom, Care Coas? CASTLE, Oct. 31, 1873, We stood on the deck of the steamer Benin, of the African Steamship Company, a mixed lot of passengers, gazing on the murky loom which marked where Liverpool stood, growing more and more indistinctas the good Benin steamed bravely down the Mersey towards Ashantee land. As Liverpool receded from view and English land dis- appeared we turned to one another for novelty, and mutual questioning elicited the fact that we were mostly all bound for Ashantee. WHO THEY WERE AND WHY THEY WENT. ‘There were six doctors, five control officers, one Staff oficer, one volunteer and one correspondent of us who were bound to the war, but there were a few others destined for ports south of the Equa- tor. “here were two Germans of the West African expedition bound for the exploration of Central Africa, One of them was Dr, Falkenstein, a serious, earnest man, industrious, reflective and fearfully copious in note taking. The other, his companion, wasastudent. I was quite amused by the way in which the two evidently anticipated future delights in store for them when they should set foot on the shores of the classic Congo. If a fy buzzed about thelr ears a chase was made after him, and he was remorselessly prepared for the inspection of the savans of Germany. Two or three insignificant little shore birds were also added to the list of the slaughtered and stuifed. I have been through all this myself. I have shared in this boyish eagerness to grasp atonce the delights which the fancy has painted in the perspective, and I can sympathize with men of robust health and untamed energy ‘who, while they cannot at once stride into the en- chanted Jand, clutch at any thing, however trivial, which belongs to its outskirts, and regard it with wonder and undisguised admiration, whereas in a few weeks or So they will throw it away and wonder at their own simplicity. Our doctors, six in number, were all young men; one or two of them witha high idea of their mis- sion in the fever field, while the others seemed better adapted for anything rather than a hospi- tal. The control officers—though what in the world they do control 1 know not—were over- grown boys from Sandhurst College, airing their sub-heutenants’ uniforms for the first time. They had plenty of stamina in them, and I have no doubt Africa will demand a large share of it, if not all. The staffoficer was Captain Butler, the au- thor of the “Great Lone Land” and the “Wild North Lana,” who is going to join Sir Garnet Wolseley, and perhaps will be able to pick up notes for a book he may well call the ‘Great Black Land.” THE VOLUNTEER, Well, I will not mention his name, lest the HERALD might publish 1t to his shame; but each time I accompany an English expedition Iam fated to meet some oddity. in Abyssinia I met Captain Evilnose, of the W. 0., ex-Governor of L—, ex- Pacha of A——, ex-Bey of T—, who turned out to be an exceedingly amusing man, @ most outrage- ous —, but whom everybody admitted to be reaily wery interesting. One of his most interesting ftories was about how he killed 417 Yankees before breakfast off Yorktown. This story was not gen- erally believed, but everybody said the story was amusing. Evilnose was a volunteer for Abyssinia— ur odd friend on board the Benin is a volunteer for Ashantee. Our odd friend thinks it necessary to tell everybody he has paid his own passage; but then he did it on principle. “England expects every man to do his duty.” Our odd friend is going to Coomassie; he is going to give King Coffee, of Ashantee, a “reg’lar duster,” you know, by jingo, It was our odd friend who assisted Havelock at the reltef of Lucknow and staved off a fierce attack from somebody at Allum-bagh. But whenever our odd friend arrives at this stage of his thousand-times-told-tale, It has been noticed that the passengers turn their faces toward one another and wink compassionately, which we have learned to know Means “the poor fellow is arunk again.” POINT OF DESTINATION, Our destination in Africa is yet far. Many deys will transpire betore we shall see the Ethiop strand, and in the meantime we shall amuse our. selves as best we may, We began to tell exch other our varied experiences, puffing vigorousiy im each other's faces the while at our cigars or briarwoods; but the tales cannot last forever, so ‘we borrow each other's books and read listlessiy, By this process of borrowing I procured a little red book calied the “Soldier's Pocket Book,” edited, to my surprise, by sir Garnet Wolseley. SIR GARNET WOLSELEY ON “SPECIALS.” Amid very much valuable matter, purely mili- tary, [came to Sir Garnet's opinions concerning correspondents, If my memory serves me right Sir Garnet culls correspondents the curso to modern agmies, 8g ia other places he lag be fancy portrait—a primmish appearing man, of a NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1873.—TRIPLE SHEET. THE AFRICAN GOLD COAS Map Showing the Seat of War Between England and Ashantee; Also Outline of the Western Coast of the African Continent. fi A DANKXS Tatarum STamakasi Hy Inhabitants e. Eonui L,. Gy Lae afigosomane a ehh Omasuc*@ Anamputo Akimo# y pe, Ctooassit™e, . esp Se ote s Bi s a janea "%, LF es ‘on Soranassle ~ BY os? ANG wore e Mi Cape of Good Mork Kotropei o Kibbes hb ial) ROU pS mam ote Jay ee ne Leen ot Cdumuset 7) \ N Akin. Swaidroo 4a Accassic| Dobbin? / ° ° RNS Co \ Essecoont ey ae \ v Braqua osetind 4 9° ° ° 9 a British Poss’ns Pro.Jurisdiction of Brit. Protection 1871_-----_-___— Forts... eee e eee ee eee rece ee ‘The Danish Forts &c. were acquired by purchase 1851 The Dutch Forts & Territory Distance from Cape Coast Castle to Cooma: ——- K RY > Santibo « Senteyi) (58 2820 aw am, Pon, \i--7%,, / OPT, Loven mame odpolite a 4 Yasir 400,000 Inhabitants iy Odanté | op oN KO} jae Stavigart Kivadidomd J Akwame I ( A a Mt Bie oe Suita A Pie G e Asachari REFERENCE (Boundary) » » stowed opprobrious epithets upon the Press Corps, among which is the term camp loafers. THE GENERAL-IN-CHIEF AND HIS STAFF. Dropping the book on my knee, | picture to my- sell the kind of a man the military author must be, Ihave never seen him, and I have only this exces- sive animus to the Press Corps to guide mein my Spanish cast of face, very stiff, formal, sour, crusty, vain and afraid of criticism, conscious, perhaps, that he might commit fauits and would fear being reviewed. Iask a gentieman on board who are on Sir Gar- net’s staff. Iam answered :— “Captain Brackenbury, for one,” “Ah, yes! Brackenbury, ofcourse. The London Times man; a military correspondent; a fire-eating special! Nothing would ever stop him from writ- ing to the Times, Strange that Sir Garnet, with his unconcealed hatred to newspaper people, should choose such an indefatigable caterer to the press as Captain Brackenbury |’! “who else, pray ?’? “Captain Morris.”? “What, Morris the author of the Wellington Prize Essay. He is another press writer. I would bet anything he writes for one if not two news- papers. You need not name the others. I will take it for granted that they are mostly all news- paper writers in military clothes,’ Apart from his hatred of the gentiemen of the press, as he facetiously terms them, Sir Garnet shows himself in tis book as a man who wouid dare anything rather than brave defeat; he shows himself energetic and a master of all military de- tail, from the smallest minutiw of an officer's outfit to the most dificult tactics for an army. Were the book reviewed bit by bit there is many & place where Sir Garnet might be hit very strong on tender points. Taken as @ whole, it is @ good in- structor for officers, @ treasury of knowledge for engineers, doctors, mechanics, drillmasters, gen- erais, commissariats, tor anybody you please con- nected with an army; in short, itis the work of a thorough soldier, OFF MADEIRA. ‘This exciting theme being over, we are now ap- proaching Madeira, and the trade wind bowls us southward and eastward ata cheering rate, and the sixth morning, about the time for breaktast, the anchor was dropped IN THE HARBOR OP FUNCHAL, But we were-not permttted to land, The Span- ish Consul, with a malice I could not understand, had written in his own language across the Eng- lsh bill of health an account of the cholera case which had occurred at Liverpool on board a French brig, and we were at once, as the phrase is, “put in quarantine.’ If Thad only set my foot on Ma- deira, I had intended to have written you all about the island, from its first colonization to its present period, It would have been laborious, perhaps, a tle boi A KORG NATO GOR bly _ fe expects every man to do ms duty. Your readers have been saved a_ repe- tition of what old Cada Masto began first, and I have been spared much labor, One thing I regretted very much—viz., that the cable between Madeira and Lisbon was broken, for it would have been such a satisfaction for the HERALD to know that there was a cable. TACKING FOR TENERIFFE, Venting her spite upon the ill-mannered boors who refused us permission to land upon the beanti- ful “Isle of Woods,” the Benin turned her stern in- dignantly toward the port of Funchal and pointed her stem for Teneriffe, at which port we arrived in 24hours. Nor at Teneriffe were we permitted to land, The yellow flag was at our fore peak and we were a thing to be dreaded. For the discourtesy with which we were treated, shall I say anything good of these isles? Shall I when one cheek has been smitten desire the other to be smitten also ? Shall [fora curse give a blessing? I have my pri- vate opinion of these islands and their people. A CURIOUS FACT. Iwill tell you a story about them, Occapying the ladies’ cabin of the steamer Benin were three passengers of the family of Jacob Doegling, of Chicago, the husband, wife and daughter. The wife was in bad health and the husband, out of love for her, left far Chicago to give his wife and daughter the beneflt of the salubrious air of Ma- deira, Arriving at Madeira they were refused permission to land, and, as there was no place to receive passengers put in quarantine in the port, they were taken to Teneriffe in the hope that they could have accommodation there. When we came to Teneriffe the same refusal to land met them. They were compelled to journey on to Sierra Leone, on the West Coast of Africa, 1,400 miles further still. Sierra Leone is the last place in the world to banish delicate women to, unless they are to be got rid of, when, if such is the case, Sierra Leone offers special ad- vantages from {ts Well known insalubrious posi- tion. Fortunately, however, we met a steamer coming from the southward, and the sick woman, the daugnter and loving husband were put on board, either to be landed at Madeira or to be taken back to England, SIGHTING THE SAITARA, Three days alter leaving Madeira tne breezy trade wind died away, andthe browny-white Sa- hara desert hove in view. Fretlegrath’s apostrophe to Africa comes to the mind as we sight the burning shores :— O zone, so hot and glowing, Queen of the earth art thoa, Sand is thy mantle flowing, ‘The sun doth crown thy brow. Of gold, thou queenly woman, Are all the clasps and rims ‘That fasten with flery splendor The garment to thy burning limbs Tho sandy dunes and bile Along thy shores arg bleached and forbidding. Whatasad history has this shore! We ali know the story of poor Captain Riley. His story a thousand times told would not complete the history of misfortanes which the inhospitable strand could relate were it able to speak. Besides the many, many score of foreign vessels wrecked, with their crews plundered, stripped and hurried into the interior into a hellish slavery, how many a poor Canary fisherman has found a home far inland in galling servitude of which we know knothing! ‘The sea along the coast swarms with fish, for which the Canary fishermen have been bold enough to leave the neighborhood of their own snug little isles. Giad- dened at heart at the prospect of soon filling their vessels, they approach close to the shore and anchor, a storm rises, and the unlucky mariners are driven on the beach by the cruel waves, Where the Moors lie in wait to bind and take them into lifelong captivity. While looking at the serrated line of sandy shore we cannot help fan- cying ourselves trudging across that torrid extent with blistering feet and backs, with the remorse- less man-drivers behind us urging us to quicken pace with point of lance and senaky kurbash. But kind Heaven forbid the mischance and speed us on our way to more auspicious shores! SOUTHING TOWARDS SIERRA LEONE, However, imagination is assisted in the above doleful picture by the fervid atmosphere through which we move as we steer south towards Sierra Leone. We are impatient of the slightest vesture. ‘The cabin 18 suffocating, for the thermometer is 88 degrees Fahrenheit, On deck we have the cruel glare of the ocean, which lies ruffie- less all around, Sharks are frequently seen on either side of the vessel. I suppose their traditions have deluded them Into the belief that here, more than anywhere else, man meat is found, The Benin, however, disappoints them, and as we glide ahead their black fins are seen cutting the water at random, while they are iook- ing for that which we cannot afford them, INSALUBRITY OF THR POSITION, On the sixth day from Teneriffe, and the fifteenth day from Liverpool, the Benin enters by night the mouth of the river of Sierra Leone, andin the morning the Lion Range obtrades itself as the thick mist dissolves beiore the light of day, One giance at the position of the town reveals the cause of its insalubrity to the traveller, It is placed in an amphitaeatral terrace or shelf of ground, with an immense and lofty crescent of mountain at the back of it, rising to a height of 1,000 and 1,500 feet above it, Between the town and seaa few spires and outlying ridges prevent the full benefit of the pure sea breeze, and as the breeze does not always come trom seaward— when it comes from the interior—the town be- comes steamy, muggy and vaporous; a very hot- bed of sickness and fever, Nature has pointed man Wo the breeay upland above tig fama aa the ale whereon to build a home, yet the European has neglected the warning and, consequently, has sickened and died. Hence Sierra Leone's bad repu- tation, English Governors have endeavored to mitigate the evil by sanitary regulations, by mndus- triously circulating clear fresh water through every street, but it has not been enough. The evil lies in the air. It is the noxious exhalation from the leafy, umbrageous, close crescent. It is the want of that fresh air which bends the tall grass on the top of yonder mountain that has caused. the fragile constitution of the European to sicken and fade and die, THE TOWN AS IT TS. The first view of Sierra Leone is very deceptive. ‘The stranger, on seeing the apparently strong, sub- stantial, civilized looking houses, rich in their luxuriant tropical surroundings--velvet green palm fronds, rustling and waving over steeple and roof, papaw and bread fruit trees, oranges and limes“ and every tree that is delightful to the eye and taste growing thickly about—would be apt to say, “Ah, here is the fulfilment of my dream at last. ‘This 1s the initial footstep of civilization into Cen- tral Africa.’ He enters the town hopeful and san- guine, but the truth slowly penetrates into his brain that this town has been avout 100 years pro- gressing towards its present pitch of prosperity. Alter 100 years of occupation the English are build- inga wharf! After 100 years of occupation the Episcopal church is but half constructed, and I should fear to say how much precious money has been spent already on the rickety looking edifice, After 100 years of occupation the zealous English missionaries have not been able to inculcate in the negro’s mind that it is sinful to lie, to steal and to be lazy. And this is the resuit of Christian- izing Africa at Sierra Leone, If I were asked where I could find the most insolent, lying, thiev- ing negroes I should undoubtedly say at Sierra Leone, Through some strange caprice, evidently, the English have permitted a colony of semi-civi- lized Africans to grow up in order to experiment, perhaps, how wild and how rank a@ colony of ne- groes can become when leit to their own sinful ane wicked devices, unchecked and uncurbed py the hand of law, The English WILL PERHAPS PLEAD as an excise that the climate is against the exer- cise of strong will; tnat, no matter how valiant a man may be In his intenttons when he sets out to govern the blatant, woolly-headed rabble of this colony, he finds his nerve and will prostrated before the unconquerable lassitude which the climate quickly engenders in him as soon as he sets foot on its shores, To which I reply that it was 4 mistake to expect 4 European to live in that steamy hollow where the town hag been planted; that though Africans, able to bear up against the strength-sapping damp heat, might through natural inertia be dis- | the | veasions along the coast. ASELGA on SELAG: i | Said to contain ij 3 - — Nills above, yet it was a Vital mecessity Jor Euros peans to do s0. SNIFFING THE SCENT OF COMING STRIFE. The rumor of war with Ashantee had penetrated even here, One would nave thought that Great Britain, after careful nurture of such a settlement as this, it would have prepared a nursery of disciplined negroes as auxiliaries in time of need. Nothing of the kind. The only efficient force of Sierra Leone natives I have been able to see is’ composed of the few constables who perambulate’ town, baton in hand, to crack © the’ heads of the unruly, What ske has been able’ to effect in the way ofa constabulary force ought! to have suggested to her the ralsing of a faithful’ | cohort of military natives. It has not been done,’ | however, and she has been obliged to despaten some of her West India legions to protect her pos-- sessions here, and not only here, but her posses- Her West India negroes: are fine, tall fellows, marvels of discipline, showing what might be done with the raw material of Sierra Leone, Perhaps Great Britain, good nurs-’ ing mother as she is, has failed in this instance by proceeding too tenderly with her black children of Sierra’ Leone. It seems to me she has aimed at) too high a standard of excellence in her mode of dealing with thes> people, Mostly all of us om board the Benin destined for the war wished to pro-! cure servants, out we found servants scarce, while: applicants for cierksiips far exceeded the de mand, Indeed, I no not know that any of us were so effeminate or so luxurious as to demand acierk: to write our letters from the palace of King Coffee, at Coomassie, while we really needed black sere | Vants, who could stand the climate, to carry our baggage to Coomassie. The applicants of Sierra Leone satd they could do anything from reading: the Bible to making long prayers for our success in the fleld; but wnen we asked them if they could carry a few pounds of canned meat for us at a shile | lng a day they mostly all demurred at the ignoble task. In almost every street in Sierra Leone E heard the voices of praise and vocal prayer fromy the numerous aspirants to clerkships, and, per- haps, civil service employ; but Iam compelled to deny that I heard the sound of mallet and chisel, of mortar, pestle and trowel, the ringing soun@® of hammer on anvil or roar of forge, which to MR practical mind would have been far sweeter. There. is virgin land in the neighborhood of Sierra Leone yet untilled; there are buildings in the town yet unfinisied; there are roads for com+ merce yet to be made, The wealth of the African interior yet waits to be admitted into the capa<- | cious harbor of Sierra Leone for the enrichment of, the fond nursing mother of races, who sits dreamily” teaching her children how to cackle instead of how to work. OUT OF THE RIVER. After a halt of 12 hours the Benin turn¢ from Sierra Leone, and at the mouth of the river passes the wreck of the steamer Nigritia—, three-fourths of which spiendid steamer are above wWater—and which was lately sold tor the sum of $2,000 in gold, when, I should say, the sum of $50,000 would have been cheap for it, Ib is not too late yet for, some enterprising American to charter a couple og ships to purchase the wreck of the Nigritia at- Sierra Leone and that of the Monrovia, which lesa, quarter of a mile 60 Cape Palmas. The upper parts, of both vessels are uninjured, Clever people set- | ting out with all the appliances might make an ims, | mense sum outoithe venture, The latter vesseb was almost a new vessel, and cost $300,000, Strik- ingareef off Palmas Point, she was at once rum futl speed on the beach, where she now lies, SALUTING THE SHORE OF A SABLE REPUBLIC. We steamed by Liberia’s low wooded shores without giving usa chance to observe how the | sable republic fourishes through a personal view: | of things. Report speaks evilly of her—of her pride und her vanity, of the disinclination| of her children for work and their pretension to high sounding tities and high places. Those on board the Benin who have stopped at = Liberia say that mostly every other man is styled an honorable; that tne people are fonder of standing in groups in the streets to dis- cuss politics than of bringing the produce of the rich back country into the markets for sale, which, if true, is very disheartening. AN HONORABLE NATIVE, Of Cape Palmas [ ad the pleasure of seeing one of the Liberian honorables, who introduced him- self to me as the Hon. Jobn Marshall, named after the Hon, John Marsnall, Chief Justice, of old Vir- ginia. Said he, “I was born in old Virginny, sir;a good, | old State, sir, I was named after old John Mar- | shall, sir. You may have heard of him, sir—the | Cnief Justice, sir, 1 have been here seventeen | years, sir, how, and we are improving @ little by little, sir. Liberia is an infant State, sir; but | there’s life and a certain amount of promising fu- | ture in her, sir, On, yes, sir. I do not feel diss | couraged at all, sir; rather have I, have we all, sir,, | cause to regard the prospects of Liberla as being | very hopeful, sir. Good afternoon, sir! If. ‘you were to stop here a week, sir, I should feel honored by your making my poor house your home, sir. Good day, sir. A pleasant voyage to you, sir.’ and the pleasant faced, simple hearted old gentleman vanished into his canve, in which he was rowed. ashore by a parcel of naked Kru boys. CAPE PALMAS is said to be the healthiest part on the West Coast, of Africa, and, looking at its position, exposed to the healthy winds of the Atlantic, it does not re- quire much stretch of reason to be informed of its salubrity. The highest point on the cape is 75 feet above the sca, and fine, substantial houses occupy the commanding sites, a graceful clump or two of palms adding beauty and life to the little rocky peninsula. ‘The little colony, who have called their town Harper as a tribute te Mr. R, G. Harper, of Baltimore, who has distinguished him. sel{as a sincere philanthropist im the cause of the poor African, have erected @ capital light- | house, but, as the Monrovia struck a reef or a rock 500 fathoms off the extremity of the cape, the pas- sage by this point on a dark night is not without its dangers. ERUMEN, One of the most singular tribes, according to all accounts, on the West Coast of Africa is the Kru, or Kroo, tribe, who are commonly culled Krumen, They hire themselves out at a shilling a day per capita to every steamer and man-of-war destined for the Southern ports, and by this means the white crews are saved much danger. They are the most athletic people I ever saw. The masses of corded muscle one sees on the arms of some of these people are absolutely astounding. The largest I have scen seemed as large as the half of a 82pound cannon ball clapped on a human arm, while the amorphous muscles of the hips and hams and calves give many of them a most ungainly gait in walking. The Krus are remarkable for their good nature, and, like all tribes in Eastern, Central and Western Africa, lighten their labor in the field, in the canoe or aboard ship with a rousing song, which, though monotonous, after a while is not disagreeably 80, the tones having somewhat the effect of a sedative on a white mi While they are certainly an industrious people and valuable for the extension of commerce in the torrid regions, they are rightly considered tha most cowardly. They are, in many respects, the very counterpart of the Wanyamwezi, of Centrak Africa, with whose aid the Arab caravans on the East Coast are able to penetrate to the unknown regions north and south of the equator in search of the precious tvory. The Arabs never dream of arming the Wanyamwezi as escorts, as they are utterly unreliable. A Mgogo boy, with a spear im his hand, would be sufficient to make a legion of Wanyamwezi tremble. The British General, Sir Garnet Wolseley, in his search for dusky allies to drive back the tnsolent Ashantees from the protec. torate of Cape Coast Castie, has long by this time been informed that, though the Krumen are in- valuable aids on board British cruisers and mer cantile steamers along the coast, they are aseless as allies In war. The very name of battle Is % terror tor them, and they earnestly stipulate with all new-comers just now that they shail not be ex- pected to go to the war, HOW THEY HAVE BEEN BAPTIZED. The Kramen rejoice under names which prove who their sponsors have been, The British Jack Tar, whose genius is well known for the invention of marine nicknames, has excelled himse!f tn the | tuauned so brave the steep slopes of the hrceny | varied multiorm aud mixtiform comnomens he Dag