At last the happy idea struck an officer
of the department that the children of the place might be utilized
for the purpose. No sooner was it known that boys and girls could
get half men's wages for carrying up light loads, than there was
a perfect rush of the juvenile population. Three hundred applied
the first morning, four hundred the next. The glee of the youngsters
was quite exuberant. All were accustomed to carry weights, such
as great jars of water and baskets of yams, far heavier than those
they were now called to take up the country; and the novel pleasure
of earning money and of enjoying an expedition up the country
delighted them immensely.
Bullocks were now arriving from other parts of the coast, and although
these would not live for any time at Cape Coast, it was thought
they would do so long enough to afford the expedition a certain
quantity of fresh meat; Australian meat, and salt pork, though
valuable in their way, being poor food to men whose appetites are
enfeebled by heat and exhaustion.
It was not till upwards of six weeks after the fight at Abra Crampa
that the last of the Ashanti army crossed the Prah. When arriving
within a short distance of that river they had been met by seven
thousand fresh troops, who had been sent by the king with orders
that they were not to return until they had driven the English
into the sea.
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