At ten paces
distant a volley of slugs is as effective as a Snider bullet, and
the whole of the native troops would have bolted the instant such
a charge was made. In the open such tactics might not be possible,
as the Sniders could be discharged twenty times before the English
line was reached, but in the woods, where the two lines were not
more than forty or fifty yards apart, the Sniders could be fired
but once or at the utmost twice, while the assailants rushed across
the short intervening space.
Had the Ashantis adopted these tactics they could have crushed
with ease the little bands with which the English attacked them.
But it is characteristic of all savages that they can never be got
to rush down upon a foe who is prepared and well armed. A half dozen
white men have been known to keep a whole tribe of Red Indians at
a distance on the prairie. This, however, can be accounted for by
the fact that the power of the chiefs is limited, and that each
Indian values his own life highly and does not care to throw it
away on a desperate enterprise. Among the Ashantis, however, where
the power of the chiefs is very great and where human life is held
of little account, it is singular that such tactics should not have
been adopted.
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