3-085-972 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

With the British Expedition from Accra to the Gold Coast Hinterland, 1898. 'Barbatu being told he must not raid Gurunsi (Barbatu is right-hand figure at bottom of tree). From Photographs by Lieutenant F. Henderson, D.S.O., in Command of the Mission...When Lieut. Henderson and his force reached Bualé, they found the place a smouldering ruin. In view of this Sofa outbreak, Wa was strongly garrisoned by the British force..., Lieut. Henderson, Mr. Ferguson, and forty-three Hausas only proceeding to Dawkita. There they were attacked by the Sofa army, but managed to keep the whole force at bay for four days, killing upwards of four hundred of the beleaguering forces. Eventually they had to fall back on Wa, which was in turn surrounded by Samory's followers. The odds seemed so overwhelming that Lieut. Henderson pluckily determined to go boldly into the Sofa camp alone and propose terms. Samory's son, who was in command of the raiders, received him with deference and gave him an escort to take him to see Samory himself. The famous chieftain treated his English visitor with courtesy and gave him an escort to the coast, but was not apparently much abashed to hear of his army's attack on British subjects'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.