To Kumassi with Scott. By George C. Musgrave. (Wightman and
Co.)—This is a very lively, entertaining, and not rosin- structive account of the last Ashantee Expedition. We have not found elsewhere so vivid a description of the final scene when King Prempeh had to undergo the last humiliation in the sight of his chiefs and subjects. Even after Kumassi had been occupied by the British troops, the Ashantees continued to proclaim the invincible greatness of their King. But there could be no more self-deception when the King and the Queen-mother (who seems to have been more responsible than he for his misdeeds) had to kneel before the Governor and embrace his feet. An even greater effect followed when, the indemnity not being forth- coming, the Royal family was seized and deported to the Coast.
All the details that Mr. Musgrave gives go to prove the righteous- ness, and even the necessity, of the Expedition. Not less evident is the good management which brought it to so successful an end. As for the Ansah Princes, their English friends must feel not a little ashamed of their proteges. A more complete fraud than their embassy could not have been. That they should have found a legal gentleman to act for them is not surprising. It is doubtless for the general advantage that assistance of this kind should be at the service of any one who can pay for it. The deplorable thing was that responsible persons, Members of Parlia- ment and so forth, should have taken up their cause. One good thing the Ansahs certainly did. Their reports, it may be said, their exaggerated reports, of the strength of the British expedi- tion, deterred the King and his advisers from offering any re- sistance. That such resistance would have been successful in the end is not likely, but it might have caused a very serious and costly delay.
Previous page
