3-065-722 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Ashantee War: cutting and making a road to Coomassie [ie Kumasi], from a sketch by our special artist, 1874. Third Anglo-Ashanti War. The British Army in West Africa. 'The labour of cutting a road or path through the dense forest is much increased by the swampy ground in some places, and near Sutah the engineers found it needful to construct three miles and a half of "corduroy road." This work, performed by 150 natives, is the subject of our Artist's sketch. After cutting side channels or gutters for the water to run off, a number of trees were felled and divided into logs; these were laid side by side upon the marshy ground, and were covered with twigs and earth or sand, to make a road for the troops. The natives, however, found such a road very painful to their feet, and would prefer wading through mud or water up to their knees. It required constant vigilance and incessant commands or threats on the part of the engineer to keep the labourers at their task; if he turned aside for a moment they would all sit down and do nothing. But the work was finished in very good time'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.