3-065-652 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches of the Ashantee War, by our special artist: Ashantee ambassadors crossing the Prah, 1874. The British Army in West Africa. 'King Koffee Calcalli...dictated to an educated native, who could write English, a long letter to Sir Garnet Wolseley. He sent this down to Prah-su, where Sir Garnet's head-quarters then were, by a party of Ashantee messengers, whose arrival in the British camp, at the end of December, has been mentioned. Our Special Artist, in one of his sketches engraved for this week's paper, shows the crossing of the river Prah by these ambassadors on a pontoon raft, accompanied by Lieutenant Grant and another English officer, who had gone across to meet them. Four of the most important members of the Ashantee embassy are conveyed on the first raft; their chief is distinguished by a coloured handkerchief tied round his head, and a square gold plate on his chest. The raft seen in the distance bears seven other Ashantee messengers or attendants, with one British officer. Sir Garnet Wolseley received the letter they brought, but declined to see them'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.