Lieutenants J.A. Smith, Gavin, Roberts, Smithwick,
Lowry, Barlow, Allinson, and Ensign Alt.

On the arrival of the detachment of the 1st West India Regiment at Cape
Coast Castle, the strength of the expeditionary force was as follows:

Officers. Men.
1st West India Regiment 11 300
2nd West India Regiment 6 170
3rd West India Regiment 6 170
4th West India Regiment 30 850
5th West India Regiment 4 10
--- ---
57 1,500

The rainy season--the most unhealthy period of the year on the Gold
Coast--was then commencing, and the Government appear to have had some
idea of making an advance upon Coomassie at its close--about the month
of June or July. In order to have everything in readiness for the
forward movement, depots of stores and munitions of war had been
established at Mansu and Prahsu, and at Swaidroo in Akim, detachments of
troops being stationed at these places for their protection. These
detachments the Colonel commanding the troops on the Gold Coast
determined to maintain during the rainy season, and it fell to the lot
of B and G Companies of the 1st West India Regiment to be detailed for
the fatal duty of relieving the detachment then encamped at Prahsu.

Towards the end of the month of April these two companies, under
Captains Bravo and Hopewell Smith, started amidst continuous torrents
of rain on their march of seventy-four miles to the Prah. They had,
since their arrival, been encamped with E Company on the open space to
the west of the town known as the parade ground, there being no
accommodation for them in the Castle; and owing to the unsanitary
condition of the site and the want of proper shelter, had already begun
to suffer from the effects of the climate.

On arriving at the Prah they encamped at the ford of Prahsu, at a point
where the river, making a sudden bend, enclosed the encampment on three
sides. Here in the midst of a primeval forest, on the banks of a
pestilential stream, without proper shelter or proper food, they
remained for nearly three months. The sickness that ensued was almost
unparalleled. Before they had been a month encamped, four officers and
102 men were sick out of