Colonel Wood and Major Russell were by this time on the Prah with
their native regiments. These were formed principally of Houssas,
Cossoos, and men of other fighting Mahomedan tribes who had been
brought down the coast, together with companies from Bonny and some
of the best of the Fantis. The rest of the Fanti forces had been
disbanded, as being utterly useless for fighting purposes, and had
been turned into carriers.
On the 26th of December Frank started with the General's staff for
the front. The journey to the Prah was a pleasant one. The stations
had been arranged at easy marches from each other. At each of these,
six huts for the troops, each capable of holding seventy men, had
been built, together with some smaller huts for officers. Great
filters formed of iron tanks with sand and charcoal at the bottom,
the invention of Captain Crease, R.M.A., stood before the huts,
with tubs at which the native bearers could quench their thirst.
Along by the side of the road a single telegraph wire was supported
on bamboos fifteen feet long.
Passing through Assaiboo they entered the thick bush. The giant
cotton trees had now shed their light feathery foliage, resembling
that of an acacia, and the straight, round, even trunks looked like
the skeletons of some giant or primeval vegetation rising above
the sea of foliage below.
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