eleased; the huts dignified by the name of the Palace were fired; and
soon nothing remained of the royal town save blackened ashes. The
expedition then turned its face to the sea, which it reached just in
time. Had it been a few days later, the rains, which had already
commenced, would have filled the passes, and confined the troops
prisoners on the plateau land until their subsidence.

The result of this expedition gave great satisfaction at home, and a
peerage was conferred upon the able and fortunate commander, under the
title of Napier of Magdala.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

THE ASHANTI WAR--1874.

Seven years after the Abyssinian campaign another African war broke out,
this time upon the western coast.

Here, at a short distance above the line, lies the British colony of
Cape Coast. The town, known as Cape Coast Castle, had been in the
possession of the English for centuries, and a large tract of country
down the sea coast, and extending back 80 miles to the river Prah, was
under their protectorate.

North and west of the Prah were the Ashantis, a warlike race, who had
gradually conquered and absorbed all their neighbours. The rites and
ceremonies practised by the kings at Coomassie, their capital, were of
the most savage and bloodthirsty nature, rivalled in this respect only
by the neighbouring kingdom of Dahomey. At coronations, funerals, or
other state occasions, it was customary to immolate hundreds of victims,
and in order to supply this demand constant wars were undertaken. The
Ashantis had for the most part kept up their connection with the sea
through Elinina, a town situate some seven or eight miles from Cape
Coast Castle. This place belonged to the Dutch; but a short time
before, it had been handed by them to us in exchange for some positions
farther up the coast. This caused much offence to the Ashantis, who
maintained that Elmina was tributary to them, the Dutch having been in
the habit for very many years of sending an annual present, or, as the
Ashantis regarded it, tribute.

The Ashantis had some grounds for their belief that they could overcome
any force that the English could send against them, for in the year 1824
an expedition, headed by the governor, Sir Charles Macarthy, had crossed
the Prah against them, and had been surrounded and cut to pieces, only
three men escaping. As this defeat had never been avenged, the Ashantis
were justified in the belief that they were capable of overru