The latest news from Ashanti is a little better. On
Friday a Colonial Office telegram was published in which Colonel Willcocks stated that he had received a letter sent by Governor Hodgson announcing that he, with six hundred native soldiers under the command of Major Morris, departed from Coomassie on June 23rd by way of Patiasa and Terra- bum. Two British officers and a hundred native soldiers had been left behind at Coomassie with rations up to July 15th. Colonel Willcocks continues :—" I will personally relieve Coomassie by that date under any circumstances. Hodgson states that he intended to go over River Ofin by way of Mampong to Cape Coast, but I have applied to him by urgent special messengers to leave behind as many men as possible in order to give assistance to me enter into Coomassie." Renter's agent, telegraphing from Fumsu on July 5th, states that Colonel Willcocks was to leave on Friday and is expected to relieve Coomassie by July 12th or 13th. Colonel Willcocks is a most capable officer, and we do not doubt that, if it is humanly possible, he will keep his word.
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