WAR AT THE GOLD COAST.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 258, 13 February 1874, Page 4

WAR AT THE GOLD COAST.

. every steamer-from Australia brings oablfgratrts'relative to a war ; present being carried on'between England, tinrl th« * Ashantgos, on the Guinea coast of Africa. We shall not be fur wrong if we say that probably not one reader in ten, knows where the Gpld' Coast is. ,\Ve will endeavor, . within the short "limits an article affords,- to make these constantly-recur-ving ; cablegrams at the leist' intel- ' ligible. • The territory on the Gold Coast which is recognised as British consists of a large n utitber of forts and ports, many of 'the'm abandoned or in ruins, which have cottieinto our possession either-by settlement, capture, or pur-chase-during the last two hundred years, together with the line of the 9f»a coast adjacent .to them. These forts are situated along a;coast line of about 300 miles. This line of sea

. frontage is for a depth inland of about , eighty nvles, occupied by a numbed of native Iribas-'thc whole of these being included under a kind of Protectorate. To the eastward of these settlements is situated the powerful and .barbarous Kingdom of Dahomey, and to the iiorth extondrf, .the equally powerful - and ijbarbnrous Kingdom; of Ashantpp. . The protected tribes thus form a bftrrier between the Colony and .these.itwo;powerful bodies of savages. In 1800 the Ashantees had subdued the most of these tribes, and in 3807 were masters of the whole country, and had even attacked one of the "British settlements,' .Up to LBl7 they maintained' their hold of the country, and even threatened Capo whose •safety was only purchased by discreditable concessions. In 1822, Sir Chas. M'iJarthy, baying been sent out as (.J owrnor, ; saw' ;that the only way to build up a permanent peace was by an i uppeal to the sword. War was soon declared, and in 1821 the Governor and his force,were destroyed by the A s[h an tec invaders.'. [Wenoticed something in a ■ contemporary lately that this unfortunate Governor's skull was discovered, not long ago, used as a ceremonia l drinking ves«cl.j ■ Later in this same -year of 1-824, the whole strength of the settlement, with fresh nid from Home, drove the invaders back to'tlieir own territory. 'Jho motive, ~says' an 'Edinburgh Reviewer,' 1 which originally "induced- the Dutch, the English, the" French, rnd the Danes to erect forts on the Gold Coast nearly two centuries agio,, ,was no doubt the desire of facilitating and encouraging the slave trade, in whidr alf'those nations were then actively employed. The • motiveof suppressing this iniquitous, traffic is tho only one which has influenced England in re- i maining in the country, and obtaining the cession from Holland of the Dutch ports, so closely alternated with her own along, the :coast. .This cession was effected in 1872, and has been blamed as being the promoting cause of the present disturbance. The' Dutch were assumed to be more friendly to the Ashantees than the English, while the hitter were supposed to incline to the Fau toes', one of the tribes in the Protectorate which was most.inimical to the more powerful kingdom whose tyr- , ranous power had been, as- we ,have seen, in ] 800, oppressively felt by them, ■as, also by the English settlements and the tribes in the rear, A dispute arose in 1863 between the English and the King of Ashantee, in enhflequmico of a refusal to give up some slaves. Governor Pine wrote to the Duke of Newcastle "that a final blow, should bo struck at Ashantee power, and the question set afc rest for ever as to. whether an arbitrary, cruel, and sanguinary monarch shall ,be for ever permitted to insult the British flag and ourrage the laws of civilisation." This desirable object, he added,- . " can be nt't ained'.only by'the possession of such a force, as, I fear, the Governor of th«Hf».settlotnents can never hope to command, 'unlVss your Grace should be-pleased ; to<ur'g,e upon her Majesty's Government the policy, economy, and even the mercy of transporting to these shored an army of such strength os would, combined with the allied native forces, enable us to march on Cooitmssie, and there plant the British flag." He further undertakes, "with 2,000 disciplined soldiers,' followed by upwards of' 50,000 native forces,.to drive the hordes of Ashautees before him and'inarch'to Coomassie." The Duke replied that the proposal was too serious to be entertained—that he should .feel very much averse to its' adoption except in a case of-overruling necessity. ' Coomassie is distant from the coast about 150 miles, and is said to contain 15 000 inhabitants, four of the principal streets'being half a mile long, and 4 from fifty to a hundred yards'wide. The possessio'n of liirgo gold mines seems to be the'source of the country's wealth, gold dust and nuggets forming, "tn a great extent, the, currency. Tf"e King"of Ashantee is hv no mean* a poor monarch —"a poverty-stricken' xarage-living in a mud Ullage "—but he is said to be as wealthy as he is •powerful. The later disturbances >be•gan at Ejminn, and a massacre of British .seamen iiuprudt ntly engaged in a peaceful r^coßnuWn('#/\of' tho J-'rahe, 'river,followed, by the deMlruftion of, n native tWrf under the suns of f f.M » w . ''RattleMTuke/'/Hir Garnet was,'invested with toll . powersj , and'(jr&pVeJjed ' to the coast by 1 he Trnj'ferial Government. Out* -niKle;rrams liavej.»iriformed us that 20,000 troops'haVftfleft,as rein* forceirents for West A frica/'ati'd 1 thnt the march to

* \V>. /ire •indebted for, information ,lo Col; O/fl's report on the Gol.l Cumt 'sf'tllemerit?, lnifl before tlie floiieo iirut to an article in y ow 1 of Octobei, 187U '

rifled upon, after one or two minor skirmishes. - If the Ashantees bad not attacked the British settlpraent, "England would liardly have been justified in defending native tribes against stronger native forces at the -'expense of l:be British, tax payer, for the expedition is an immense direct commercial loss. The cost of the expedition, it is estimated, will be more than the revenue possible to be derived from the coast in a century. However, higher considerations have to be allowed weight, and now the honor of England is at stake, it will not be a matter of expense that will be taken intoaccount in the plan General Wolseloy will .adopt -for the permanent settlement, on a, satisfactory base, of these incessant small wars on the Gold Coast of Africa, ; in which England invariably loses prestige.