valanche. Sir Charles made an attempt to retreat
with his staff, but met instant death at the hands of the Ashantees.
His head was removed from the body and sent to Kumasi. His heart was
eaten by the chiefs of the army that they might imbibe his courage,
while his flesh was dried and issued in small rations among the
line-officers for the same purpose. His bones were kept at the capital
of the Ashantee kingdom as national fetiches.[62]

Major Chisholm and Capt. Laing, learning of the disaster that had
well-nigh swallowed up Sir Charles's army, retreated to Cape Coast.
There were about thirty thousand troops remaining, but they were so
terrified at the disaster of the day that they could not be induced to
make a stand against the gallant Ashantees. The king of Ashantee,
instead of following the routed army to the gates of Cape Coast, where
he could have dealt it a death-blow, offered the English conditions of
peace. Capt. Ricketts met the Ashantee messengers at Elmina, and heard
from them the friendly messages of the king. The Ashantees only wanted
the British to surrender Kudjoh Chibbu of the province of Denkera; but
this fugitive from the Ashantee king, while negotiations were pending,
resolved to rally the allied armies and make a bold stroke. He crossed
the Prah at the head of a considerable force, and fell upon the
Ashantee army in its camp. The English were charmed by this bold
stroke, and sent a reserve force; but the whole army was again
defeated by the Ashantees, and came back to Cape Coast in complete
confusion.

The Ashantee army were at the gates of the town. Col. Southerland
arrived with re-enforcements, but was beaten into the fort by the
unyielding courage of the attacking force. A new king, Osai Ockote,
arrived with fresh troops, and won the confidence of the army by
marching right under the British guns, and hissing defiance into the
face of the foe. The conflict that followed was severe, and
destructive to both life and property. All the native and British
forces were compelled to retire to the fort; while the Ashantee
troops, inspired by the dashing bearing of their new king, closed in
around them like tongues of steel. The invading army was not daunted
by the belching cannon that cut away battalion after battalion. On
they pressed for revenge and victory. The screams of fainting women
and terrified children, the groans of the dying, and the bitter
imprecations of desperate combatants,--a mingling me