e to do, and were
therefore glad to spend their time on fatigue duty; the officers
building shelters for themselves, while the men erected conical
huts, until the station was covered with them.

A day or two after their arrival a letter, written in French on a
scrap of paper, was brought down. It stated that the garrison could
hold out until the 20th, a date that was already past. Supplies
were urgently wanted. It also warned the relief column that there
was a big stockade within an hour of the fort. Colonel Willcocks
sent out a messenger at once, asking that every available man
should join him; but the man never reached the coast, and no help
came from there.

Sir Frederick Hodgson had then been out of Coomassie four days, and
was making his way down to the coast through a friendly country;
with an escort of six hundred soldiers, and all his officers but
one, who had remained in the fort with a hundred men.

On the morning of the 27th Colonel Burroughs, with five hundred
men, started on his journey north. Scouts flanked the advance
guard, thereby preventing the chance of an ambuscade; but greatly
delaying the column, as they had to cut their way through the
bushes. They halted that night at Sheramasi. A detachment was left
at a village at the foot of the hills. Just as the head of the
troops arrived at the top, they were fired into from behind a
fallen tree. A sharp fight took place for nearly an hour, until the
enemy were turned out of their position, and pursued through the
bush, by a company which had moved round their flank. Kwisa was
reached after dark, when it was found that the place had been
entirely destroyed by the enemy.

Next morning they moved forward with the greatest caution, fully
expecting that there would be another terrific fight at Dompoasi.
This place, though only four miles from Kwisa, was not reached till
nightfall. Darkness set in with heavy rain, and the officers
commanding the two leading companies held a council of war, and
decided to call in the scouts--who were useless in the dusk--to
make a dash for the village, and try to rush it before preparations
could be made for its defence.

The terrible downpour of rain was all in their favour. The enemy's
scouts, who had reported the advance upon Kwisa, had given up the
idea of watching, that night; and they and the whole war camp were
at their evening meal. The noise of the rain drowned the sounds of
feet, and the troops were in the villa