3-053-684 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Ashantee War: bombardment of the town of Elmina, 1873. The British in West Africa. '...general view...from the sea outside the mouth of the Beyah...to the mangrove swamps into which the fugitives escaped, with the boats in the river...throwing in plenty of shot, shell, and rockets. The three vessels anchored outside, behind and to the left, are the gun-boat Decoy, the Argus, and the Druid. The Castle of St. George of Elmina, an old Dutch fortress lately ceded to Great Britain, is seen with the Union Jack [flying]...A few fishermen's huts and canoes lie upon the beach...In the foreground, on a small piece of land joined to the castle and main town of Elmina by a causeway, are the houses of the commercial and friendly part of Elmina, which, of course, did not suffer by the bombardment. The so-called " King's'Quarter," or rebellious native town, whose chiefs, it was thought, had traitorously seceded to the King of Ashantee, covers the long strip of ground that extends across the middle...In the front foreground...are the tops of some trees belonging to a sacred fetish-grove. We have to thank Commander Luxmoore, of H.M.S. Argus, for the sketch he has sent us. It shows the commencement of the brief bombardment, at half-past twelve at noon'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.