SIR GARNET'S PLANS BECOME CLEAR.

33

been therefore necessary to cut some of these down to a minimum.

"Sir Garnet's plan is becoming clear, and, as it is partially disclosed, it is abundantly evident that the difficulties suggested by the croakers have by no means been ignored. Your readers may remember that those who were engaged at the time when the expedition left England in the amiable occupation of throwing cold water upon it, had endeavoured to place Sir Garnet between the horns of a dilemma. None of the Fantees, it was said, were capable of facing the Ashantees, therefore none but white troops could be employed with any chance of success. But white troops, if kept on the Coast during all the unhealthy months which would be necessary to prepare the way for an advance up the country, would infallibly perish. No middle way seems to have suggested itself to the all-wise advisers of the public, who oddly enough happen to be, man for man, nearly the same as those who, on the strength of West African experience, predicted the failure of our Abyssinian expedition from the opposite shore of the vast continent.

"To the leader of the force a third plan has evidently approved itself, 'Let us,' he seems to have said, 'clear the way for the European force, set natives to make roads for them, have our officers on the

to organize the arrangements for them.

spot beforehand

Let us collect

on the Coast as many of the more hardy tribes as we can muster. Let us see to what extent we can trust to them when they see they have proper leaders, and when their

D

local jealousies are suppressed by union under Englishmen. Then at the last moment, when everything is ready, let us, if a hard fight becomes necessary, have out our Englishmen, use them for the actual fight, get them out of the country again at once, and we have no reason to anticipate serious loss.' I only give this as a general impression of what is obviously now intended. Many details can only be settled on the spot. But the opinion of every one here, who best knows the character of the people, seems to be that the moment a serious forward movement is made against them, the Ashantees will fall back, trusting to reinvade the country the moment their assailants withdraw. If that is so, the soundness of Sir Garnet's plan is evident. As long as the Ashantees continue to fall back, he will have no Europeans exposed to the climate, but will make good roads which shall render their advance rapid when they do come. Should it become apparent from minor skirmishes that he cannot trust the natives, then, and not till then, he will have out his English battalions. Should the Ashantees not offer serious resistance to the road making, it may be hoped that the English regiment or two which may be required will be able to go straight to comparatively healthy country, and not be a couple of months even in that. Captain Furse and Lieutenant Saunders are to go to the Gambia in order to collect men from a Mahommedan tribe called the Jolliffs. Lieutenant Gordon, of the 93rd, remains at Sierra Leone to enlist Mandingos, another Mahommedan tribe near here. As I send this off the proclamation has been published which invites the

CAPE COAST-'AT LAST!'

35

latter to enlist. Commissary O'Connor goes to Cape Palmas to enlist Croomen as labourers."

The next letter speaks for itself:

"OFF CAPE COAST, October 2nd.

'At

"At last!' cries every one on board what I cannot bring myself to call the good ship' Ambriz. last!' with a more than Kingsleyan gusto.

"Your readers can hardly conceive with what satisfaction every one on board trusts himself to the tender mercies of a West African climate rather than to those of the West African Steamship Company.

"So this is Cape Coast. Now, how is its first look to be brought before your readers ?

"First: among the many confusions of the past has been the mere name. Half of those who have written and talked about Cape Coast Castle,' have left one in considerable doubt what it was-a town-a village-a veritable castle, or what? Here, as it lies before us, the reason for all this is plain enough. There is a town —in a rambling sort of way, a considerable town. There is an appearance about the native huts, even at this distance-more than a mile-of squalor, irregularity, and dilapidation, such as seems more like that of village than of town poverty. But the feature, as one looks now for the first time upon the shore, is that grim old Castle that stands out white, grey, and almost ghastly between the green scrub-covered hills behind and the huge black boulder which in front guards the base from the roll of the mighty Atlantic swell. The waves are

now dashing over this rock and breaking upward against the Castle Esplanade itself, in a white cascade, that flashes for a moment or two in the too brilliant sun, and then leaves the grey castle, its lofty terrace wall, and the black base, in the glaring light, naked against the dull, chalky, monotonous sea below, and the molten canopy of sky and clouds above, so almost painfully forced on the eyes that one almost forgets the hills just seen behind.

No wonder that the Castle should have swallowed up the town, in the recollections and expressions of travellers. The dirty white and pale earthy red buildings that crowd on either side seem almost as if enslaved to that threatening and pretentious stronghold, that on the most prominent projection of the shore, claims possession of the ground. But what a sham it is! Imposing as the Castle looks, not one stone would be left upon another after a few hours' bombardment by any one of the ships that are now quietly riding at anchor here.

"But if the Castle, which seems to guard the shore, is no defence for its possessors, the waves which seem to threaten it supply the want. No boat could land at any point that the eye can reach, but at one little nook behind the guardian boulder, at the Castle's foot. Even there, as we hear, only boats of a special class-the long, flat-bottomed native canoes that are now crowding round the ship-can venture to face the surf. A few riflemen on shore, or even, as we have learnt to our cost elsewhere along this coast, a few ill-armed natives, may well make such a landing impossible. If we ever do

CAPE COAST-THE FIRST VIEW.

37

hand over this country to anyone else, it won't be a very easy matter to regain it from the sea against an unwilling

European power.

"But for the look of the rest of the town. There are, evidently, as one throws the glass up and down it, some spacious houses, chiefly government buildings as we learn. These for the most part run inland from the castle in an almost continuous line, separated only by the gardens full of tropical trees and plants which are attached to them. Round these are gathered many of the merchants' houses also ample and, at this distance, picturesque enough; all alike, government and private buildings, having that whity, stucco, almost pasteboard look which, oddly enough, impressed us as one of the most telling features of Sierra Leone. Though here wanting the setting given by the bright colouring of that lovely town, there is, to an English eye, something so unusual in this effect, that, dingy and unsubstantial as the appearance is, it yet seems suitable to the mysterious, unknown land which we are about to enter. Moreover, the general aspect of this part of the town, where each house, large as it usually is, seems slight in construction, and, separated from its neighbours, contrasts strikingly alike with the solid grimness of the castle and the crowded look of the native town, to right and left, where all the houses seem literally tumbled together. There is an appearance here for which yet I cannot fully account. I am told it has something to do with the effect of the rains on the red earth, of which the native houses are built. The effect, at this distance from shore, is as if a whole town of