White lilies, pink flowers of a bulbous
plant, clusters of yellow acacia blossoms, occasionally brightened
the roadside, and some of the old village clearings were covered
with a low bush bearing a yellow blossom, and convolvuli white,
buff, and pink. The second night the party slept at Accroful, and the
next day marched through Dunquah. This was a great store station,
but the white troops were not to halt there. It had been a large
town, but the Ashantis had entirely destroyed it, as well as every
other village between the Prah and the coast. Every fruit tree in
the clearing had also been destroyed, and at Dunquah they had even
cut down a great cotton tree which was looked upon as a fetish by
the Fantis. It had taken them seven days' incessant work to overthrow
this giant of the forest.
The next halting place was Yancoomassie. When approaching Mansue
the character of the forest changed. The undergrowth disappeared and
the high trees grew thick and close. The plantain, which furnishes
an abundant supply of fruit to the natives and had sustained the
Ashanti army during its stay south of the Prah, before abundant,
extended no further. Mansue stood, like other native villages, on
rising ground, but the heavy rains which still fell every day and
the deep swamps around rendered it a most unhealthy station.
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