Two days after the arrival of Sir Garnet, an ambassador came down
from the king with a letter, inquiring indignantly why the English
had attacked the Ashanti troops, and why they had advanced to the
Prah. An opportunity was taken to impress him with the nature of
the English arms. A Gatling gun was placed on the river bank, and
its fire directed upon the surface, and the fountain of water which
rose as the steady stream of bullets struck its surface astonished,
and evidently filled with awe, the Ashanti ambassador. On the
following day this emissary took his departure for Coomassie with
a letter to the king.
On the 12th the messengers returned with an unsatisfactory answer
to Sir Garnet's letter; they brought with them Mr. Kuhne, one of
the German missionaries. He said that it was reported in Coomassie
that twenty thousand out of the forty thousand Ashantis who had
crossed the Prah had died. It is probable that this was exaggerated,
but Mr. Kuhne had counted two hundred and seventy-six men carrying
boxes containing the bones of chiefs and leading men. As these would
have fared better than the common herd they would have suffered less
from famine and dysentery.
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