3-053-430 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The War on the Gold Coast: H.M.S. Druid destroying the village of Aguidah, 1873. '...our troubles on the Gold Coast are not confined to hostilities on the part of the Ashantees. All the towns and villages in the district purchased from the Dutch bear our supremacy with great ill-will...A marauding party...composed of the inhabitants of Aguidah, recently attacked and fired Atchowa, a small village [near] Dix Cove, and, redress being naturally enough expected, a scheme was organised for reprisal. Accordingly at daybreak...a body of black warriors, some 800 in number, marched [ten miles] from Dix Cove to Aguidah...H.M.S. Druid...opened fire on the town...the n*gro party from Dix Cove appeared on the beach, waving the English flag, as they were too impatient to wait for the appointed signal. The Druid then ceased firing, and the pinnace and two cutters were sent in, manned and armed, to meet any attack that might be made from the bush. Such good hands the natives proved themselves at firing houses that before the boats got ashore the whole place was in flames..Aguidah is a pretty little cove, with the village built at the mouth of a small stream called the Alligator, which only runs in the wet season. All the surrounding country is thick jungle'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.