the Governor of Honduras, Captain Gardner, Lieutenant Bale, and fifty
men of the regiment, embarked at Jamaica, on the 25th of September, in
H.M.S. _Fly_, as a reinforcement for Honduras.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 61: See Map.]

[Footnote 62: Privates Hoffer, Maxwell, S. Osborne, Murray, R.A. Morris,
and W. Tell.]

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE ASHANTI WAR, 1873-4.

On the 9th of December, 1872, the King of Ashanti despatched from
Coomassie an army of 40,000 men to invade the British Protectorate on
the Gold Coast. This army crossed the Prah in three divisions on January
29th, 1873, and spread itself slowly over the country, ravaging as it
advanced. In August, 1870, the garrisons on the West Coast of Africa had
been reduced to four companies, two at Sierra Leone, and two at Cape
Coast. This reduction, no doubt, was one of the principal causes which
led to the invasion, for at that time there were only 160 soldiers of
the 2nd West India Regiment to defend 160 miles of territory.

In June, 1873, the head-quarters of the 2nd West India Regiment being
ordered from Demerara to Cape Coast Castle, A Company of the 1st West
India Regiment embarked at Kingston, Jamaica, on the 10th of that month,
and proceeded to Demerara to garrison that place. In September, the
native levies that had been raised on the Gold Coast to resist the
Ashantis being found utterly worthless, it was decided to send three
battalions from England and the 1st West India Regiment from Jamaica, to
invade in turn the Ashanti territory and dictate terms of peace at
Coomassie.

On the 15th of November, the two companies (C and H) from Nassau, under
the command of Major Strachan, arrived at Jamaica, and, on the 3rd of
December, the head-quarters and five companies (B, C, E, G and H), under
the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Maxwell, embarked at Kingston on board
the hired transport _Manitoban_. Proceeding to Barbados, A Company, which
had been moved from Demerara, was embarked on the 9th of December, and the
same evening the regiment sailed for the Gold Coast, arriving at Cape Coast
Castle on the 27th, and disembarking on the 29th, 575 strong. The officers
serving with the expeditionary force were Lieutenant-Colonel Maxwell, Major
W.W.W. Johnston, Captains Sampson, Butler, Niven, J.A. Smith, Steward,
and Shearman, Lieutenants Allinson, C.J.L. Hill, Bale, Molony, Cole,
Bell, Clough, Elderton, Beale-Browne, and Barne, and Sub-Lieutenants
Harward, Spitta, Hughes