Perhaps alone the Fantis would not fight, but they will
have the soldiers and sailors from on board ship with them, and
you saw at Elmina how they can fight."
The ship was the Ambriz, one of the African company's steamers,
bringing with it thirty-five officers, of whom ten belonged to
the Commissariat and Medical staff. Among the fighting men were
Sir Garnet Wolseley, Colonel M'Neil, chief of his staff, Major T.
D. Baker, 18th Regiment, Captain Huyshe, Rifle Brigade, Captain
Buller, 60th Rifles, all of the staff; Captain Brackenbury, military
secretary, and Lieutenant Maurice, R. A., private secretary, Major
Home, R. E., Lieutenant Saunders, R. A., and Lieutenant Wilmot,
R. A.. Lieutenant Colonel Evelyn Wood, 90th Regiment, and Major B.
C. Russell, 13th Hussars, were each to form and command a native
regiment, having the remainder of the officers as their assistants.
The Ambriz had left England on the 12th of September, and had touched
at Madeira and at the various towns on the coast on her way down,
and at the former place had received the news of the disaster to
the naval expedition up the Prah.
The English government had been loath to embark upon such an
expedition, but a petition which had been sent home by the English
and native traders at Sierra Leone and Elmina had shown how great
was the peril which threatened the colony, and it had been felt that
unless an effort was made the British would be driven altogether from
their hold of the coast.
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