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FOR two years B.-P. was to follow the usual routine of home service with his regiment. He was first stationed for a brief period at Norwich, then at Colchester and later at Liverpool. As usual he carried out his duties to his full ability and was fertile in devising schemes for improving the conditions of his men and for their entertainment. But for a man of his active nature, routine life spelt boredom, and he found an outlet in his first essays as a spy. The fullest account of this side of his life is to be found in The Adventures of a Spy (originally published in 1915 as My Adventures as a Spy). He bluntly called himself a spy even in the midst of the 1914-1918 war when the term was by no means popular; but from his own experience he knew that the work was essential and meant taking considerable risks---therein lay, of course, the attraction for him, for he loved to pit his own wits against those of others. Spying to him was the peace-time form of war-time scouting.
In 1886 he went to Germany and Russia with his younger brother Baden, then an officer in the Scots Guards. Information had been received that the Russians had developed a new kind of searchlight and also an observation balloon of unusual design. Baden was already making himself an expert on balloon work and was carrying out those experiments in powerful kites which proved of use during the Boer War, so his presence with his brother was of special value.
The manoeuvres in which these devices were to be used were centred on a fort and the main problem was how two foreigners could get into such a closely guarded place. B.-P. did not go in for elaborate disguises; experience showed that these attracted attention, which is the last thing a spy wishes. He found that by attending to small but significant changes his purpose could be achieved. Thus by wearing boots, hats and neckties made in the country, he was less noticeable than if he wore English ones. A slight difference in gait was another safeguard, for he had learned that even if unrecognized from the front a man might betray himself by his walk seen from behind. Russia also made things easier by its over-elaborate police system where no one knew who was watching whom. From this latter fact B.-P. argued that a perfectly open manner would probably succeed best, and the one occasion during this investigation when he forgot this, nearly resulted in disaster.
The brothers stayed at an inn in the neighbourhood of Krasnoe Selo, and for some days took long walks to find out where troops were placed.
Then one day they saw a balloon; they got within sight of its station and waited until the soldiers had gone off for a meal, then they got into the car and secured all the information they needed about the instruments.
Next they put into practice their theory that a bold directness might. well prove the best policy. So they walked straight to the fort and entered as if by right, being careful to salute anyone saluted by others. The scheme worked without difficulty during daytime: dusk was a greater problem as the outposts were more alert and challenged at the slightest sound. Scouting skill now proved its value, for both brothers had their' senses well trained, and by using these, they were successful in creeping, through the lines. Inside the fort everyone was so interested in watching the effects of the new searchlights that the two strangers passed unnoticed, and after getting the information they wanted, they made their retreat without difficulty.
All would have been well if they had then decided to leave the country, but they heard that the Tsar was to attend the manoeuvres one evening and they thought that as everything possible would be demonstrated for his benefit, it might be worth while staying. They arranged that B.-P. should enter the fort again and his brother should watch operations outside. However, when B.-P. entered the fort, he found it so crowded with officers and police that he decided to withdraw. As he walked along the road back to the inn, he met the Tsar's carriage and escort; then he made his mistake. Instead of saluting the Tsar and walking straight on, he turned his head away from the lights of the carriage lamps. This at once roused suspicion. He was immediately arrested and sent back with an officer to be put into the charge of the police and taken to St. Petersburg for further examination. When they reached the station, there was some time to wait for the next train, so B.-P. asked if he might go to the inn and collect his belongings. Permission was granted and he contrived to leave a note for his brother.
At St. Petersburg he was taken to an hotel, his passport removed, and he was placed under open arrest. The position was unpleasant; the penalty for his offence could be five years' imprisonment without trial. His brother soon joined him and though not under arrest was regarded with suspicion. A waiter in the hotel who proved to be a German officer, warned them that a detective was watching them. With the connivance of 'a friend in power', a means of escape was devised. The captain of a. ship offered to give them a passage if they could get on board unobserved. One evening B.-P. informed the detective that he and his brother proposed to leave the country and they ostentatiously arranged for a cab to, take them to the station; they assumed that the detective would be content with instructing the stationmaster to arrange their arrest. As soon as the cab was out of sight of the hotel they ordered the driver to take them down to the quay. There a boat was waiting for them and soon they were on board the ship which was already under steam.
B.-P. also attended manoeuvres in Germany and Austria, and in 1887 visited the battlefields of the Franco-Prussian War, staying for part of the time with a regiment of Uhlans at Strassbourg. His regiment moved to Liverpool that year. He had resigned the Adjutancy in 1886 but had been engaged in a number of special activities such as acting as a judge at the Royal Military Tournament, and as Brigade-Major at the Jubilee Review. Towards the end of 1887 he received the following letter from the Commander-in-Chief.
Dear Captain Baden-Powell, ---
A recent inspection of the handling of the machine-guns attached to the several regiments of Cavalry at Aldershot was anything but a success, attributable apparently to the defective training of the detachments. 1 am anxious that this defect be remedied, and I wish you, as one of the few officers of the Army who have the requisite knowledge, to do so. It will be necessary for you to be at Aldershot for about a fortnight, and I want you to let me know when it will be convenient for you to go there. On hearing from you what will be a convenient date for yourself I will communicate officially through your Commanding Officer.
Yours truly,
WOLSELEY.
Immediately afterwards his uncle, General Henry Smyth, was appointed G.O.C., South Africa, and he invited his nephew to join his staff as A.D.C. and the offer was accepted. On leaving, the men of his squadron made him a presentation in defiance of regulations; he was always popular amongst his soldiers, not only for his persistent cheerfulness but for the trouble he took over their welfare. Once a group of sergeants was asked if B.-P. was liked by the men; one sergeant answered, 'Well, no, I shouldn't say they like him; why, they worship him!'
Life at the Cape as an A.D.C. was rather humdrum; B.-P. complained that it was. like having a rest-cure, 'which, at my time of life, seems hardly necessary'. General Smyth was a contrast to Baker Russell, but his nephew was grateful afterwards for the training he received under a man who 'looked at the question or plan from every point of view, in principle and in detail with an unbiased eye, and saved himself from falling into many a fatal error by his calm forethought and use of experience'.
Social events, concerts and gymkhanas were some relief to routine but a poor outlet for the energies of a man of thirty-one. Soon the opportunity came for active service. As a result of the war of 1879-1880, Zululand had been divided by Wolseley into a number of districts each ruled by a native chief --- except for one which was under John Dunn, the Scotsman who had lived in the country since boyhood. This scheme did not prove a success and in 1887 Britain annexed Zululand and placed it under a Commissioner. But trouble broke out again under Dinuzulu, son of the former chief Cetewayo. The tribes were divided; the Usutus and some others supported Dinuzulu, while Chief John Dunn and the rest brought their impis to the support of the British.
General Smyth embarked with his staff for Natal; B.-P. was appointed Acting Military Secretary as the officer appointed to that position had not yet arrived from England. The forces assembled at Eshowe. Their immediate task was to rescue the Assistant Commissioner, Pretorius, who was besieged in a small fort near Umsinduzi. A detachment under Major McKean, with B.-P. as his staff officer, set off accompanied by John Dunn's ikpi of 2,000 Zulus. They covered fifty miles in two days and were successful in reinforcing Pretorius and bringing away the women and children. It was during this march that B.-P. first heard the Zulu chant which he later used as the Een-gonyâma chorus for Boy Scouts. This is his description of the occasion:
I heard a sound in the distance which at first I thought was an organ playing in Church, and I thought for a moment that we must be approaching a mission station over the brow of the hill. But when we topped the rise we saw moving up towards us from the valley below three long lines of men marching in single file and singing a wonderful anthem as they marched.
On the return to Eshowe, B.-P. had one of many experiences in acting as an amateur doctor. Rain was pouring down and McKean and he managed to get a fire going before seeking what rest they could get for the night under a wagon. A Zulu arrived carrying his wounded niece; a bullet had gone right through her stomach and she was in considerable pain. Her only clothing was a bead girdle and a necklace. The two officers made her as comfortable as they could, dressing her in a mealy sack as some protection from cold and rain; then they left her in charge of her uncle. Later B.-P. woke from an uneasy sleep to discover that the uncle was wearing the sack himself., he escaped into the darkness at B.-P.'s angry attack. The girl died and they buried her the next morning, and the necklace of beads was kept by B.-P. as a memento. In his report on the relief expedition, McKean wrote of B.-P.'s work, 'This officer's unflagging energy, his forethought, and his thorough knowledge of all military details were of the greatest assistance to me', a sentence which is a true summary of certain characteristics.
B.-P. next organized Intelligence work at G.H.Q., and then took part in the final rounding up of Dinuzulu who had taken refuge in his stronghold in the Ceza Bush; this was a formidable place to attack as it was situated on a steep mountain slope with the natural protection of bush and huge boulders and its ramifications of caves. B.-P. did much of the preliminary scouting for information, and on one occasion narrowly escaped with his life. As he was scanning a valley from the cover of some rocks, his Basuto orderly suddenly called to him. He turned and found himself facing a Usutu warrior who had crept up from behind. In his note on the incident, B.-P. commented on the 'fine picture' the man made 'in all the glory of glistening brown skin, with his great shield of ox-hide and his bright assegai'. This quick appreciation of any outstanding quality was part of B.-P.'s nature. Few men would have been able to see anything more than imminent danger, but he had that mark of genius which Ruskin described as 'seeing with the eyes of children in perpetual wonder'. It made him a bad hater and there are in his records no bitter words about the enemy unless they were guilty of cruelty, but that always roused his anger wherever he found it.
The Usutu warrior, seeing two men where he expected to find only one, fled. B.-P. followed him down and came to the uppermost entrance of a deep gully crammed with women and children and at the far end a group of warriors. B.-P. called to them to surrender, a summons which was quickly obeyed when a detachment of British soldiers came in sight. When he began to squeeze his way down, the women screamed with fright, but they were at once quietened when he picked up a small boy, perched him up on a rock and gave him something to play with.
Dinuzulu did not wait to be taken; he slipped out of the Ceza Bush with some of his warriors and crossed into the Transvaal; later he surrendered to the British. B.-P. became the possessor of the Zulu Chief's necklace. There had only been desultory fighting on a small scale during the campaign, but it had given B.-P. useful scouting practice under war conditions.
For his services his uncle decided to appoint him Assistant Military Secretary, but as he was still only a Captain, the War Office objected; General Smyth persisted, and B.-P. was promoted Brevet-Major to regularize the appointment.
In the spring of 1889 he planned to explore the Zambezi in a collapsible boat which he got Selous, the African hunter, to test. But although the trial was satisfactory, General Smyth could not grant the necessary leave, and as a poor substitute, B.-P. had a few days in the Knysna district hunting for elephants. This proved almost a case of the hunter being the hunted, for the expedition was an amateur affair; they got entangled in thick jungle 'but we found no elephants there: what we should have done had they been there I don't quite know, but I imagine it would have depended chiefly on the good feeling of the elephants themselves'. Later they saw a herd, but what chiefly interested B.-P. was the ability of an elephant to become invisible by freezing, and to move soundlessly.
During short leave in England that summer, B.-P. met Colonel Sir Francis de Winton who had just been appointed head of a Commission to inquire into the affairs of Swaziland. On his return to the Cape, B.-P. prepared a summary of what was known of Swaziland, and it was therefore not surprising that Sir Francis asked for his services as Secretary during the investigation.
The situation was stated in the instructions given to Sir Francis by the Colonial Secretary:
'The King, Umbandeen, is unable to control the conflicting interests of British and Boer settlers and concessionaires, and has appealed to both Her Majesty's Government and the Government of the South African Republic for protection.' The latter were quite willing to recognize the independence of Swaziland provided the British Government did likewise; indeed so eager was the Boer Republic to prevent the British from getting another foothold between the Transvaal and the coast that they offered to withdraw all opposition to British expansion in Bechuanaland and Matabeleland. A joint Commission was appointed; the leader of the Boer representatives was General Joubert.
On the way to Swaziland, the Commission were received by President Kruger at Pretoria. B.-P. described the meeting in his diary. 'On arrival at Pretoria, after changing and putting on our tall hats, the British Agent took us to see the President, Paul Kruger. We found him living in a long, low, single-storied villa in a quiet side street. A lounging sentry loafed about at the garden gate and. only saluted us with a steady stare as we passed in. We were presented to Paul Kruger in his drawing-room. He was a big, heavy man with flabby, heavy face, with big mouth and big nose, but small forehead'.
The combined Commissions were soon at work. One of the most difficult problems was that of the concessions made by the Swazi King. The Report notes, 'The history of the concessions of Swaziland is probably without parallel. There are many instances where native rulers have given large and important rights to individuals and to corporations, but in Swaziland the late King and his Council have parted not only with an their actual territory, but with rights which should only belong to the Government of a country, to a lot of adventurers whose sole object was to make money by them'. Ultimately full agreement was reached between the British and Boer Governments and the Swaziland King. but not without protests from some of the 'adventurers'.
This relatively minor experience was valuable. B.-P. gained a knowledge of the routine of careful inquiry; it gave him a closer acquaintanceship with the Boers --- for whom he always expressed a warm liking; he seized the opportunity to learn more of native customs --- a subject in which he maintained his interest; and he came into dose contact with the most sordid side of Imperial expansion --- the unscrupulous adventurer intent only on personal gain. While B.-P. firmly believed that the extension of British protection over native tribes was beneficial, he had nothing but contempt for those who exploited the native for purely selfish purposes. Perhaps not the least value of this Swaziland experience was that it showed him how two nations could meet together and settle a dispute round the table.
The year 1889 saw the publication of Pigsticking or Hoghunting by Captain R. S. S. Baden-Powell. This book quickly became a classic on the sport. It was in part based, as many of his books were, on articles he had contributed to such journals as Badminton; the illustrations were his own and they show a transition stage between the more detailed drawings of earlier years and the bolder style of his later work. The book also illustrates a characteristic which is to be found in most of his writings; he was never content until he had proved an activity to be worth while; there must be some justification for what he was doing even if, as with pigsticking, it was a sport which for most men was a sport only and as such needed no other reasons for its pursuit. This is not in any way to detract from the sincerity of such a passage as the following, but it serves to illustrate the horror he had, and retained through life, for aimlessness; in this he certainly showed the earnestness of the period in which he was trained.
Apart from the fact that any hardy exercise conduces much to the training and formation of a soldier, pigsticking tends to give a man what is called a 'stalker's eye', but which, par excellence, is the soldier's eye. It teaches him to keep looking about him both near and far, so that by practice he gets to notice objects in the far distance almost before an ordinary man can distinguish them even when pointed out to him. In difficulties of ground he will learn to keep a look-out to the front and not only see his way over present obstacles but also the best line to take when these have been successfully disposed of. The habit of looking for and noticing the smallest sign of pig, teaches a man to note and carry in his mind those little marks by which he can often obtain important information, and will always get the country more or less mapped into his brain by a succession of insignificant signs and landmarks, the value of which can be duly appreciated when he has once had to perform a reconnaissance by night; or to work through an unknown country in time of hostilities.
At the end of 1889, General Sir Henry Smyth was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief at Malta, and he took his nephew with him as Military Secretary and A.D.C. The change from the life of South Africa to the rather formal round of duties at Malta must have been somewhat uncongenial; but B.-P. had a way of finding excitement wherever he went. Once more an outlet was provided by theatricals and other forms of entertainment. It was at Malta that he achieved success as a skirt-dancer --- an accomplishment which he said later proved invaluable when pursued by natives down rock-strewn hill-sides! Even official functions could be enlivened, as the following note from a relative of Lady Smyth shows:
B.-P. would sometimes appear to write a note during an official dinner party, and hand it to a footman to be given to her Ladyship. She would open it m anticipation that some social mishap had befallen, only to be confronted with a lively caricature of a guest sketched on the back of a menu --- a trick that proved almost too much for her very merry Ladyship's composure.
The welfare of the troops was not overlooked; he felt that there was need for a club for the men, so by means of a series of entertainments he raised enough money to found a Soldiers and Sailors Club. He not only rehearsed performers, but he stage-managed the shows and even painted sandwich-boards and posters to advertise them.
The life of routine made him restless. His uncle refused to let him go off to Uganda when Sir Francis de Winton invited him to join his staff on a mission to that country. Later B.-P. wrote to his mother, 'I thought once Sir Francis de Winton had gone I should be rid of the longing to be with him, but I feel more and more anxious to be there. I can't think of anything else. But you can't picture what I should call the camp sickness that gets hold of one --- a sort of hunger to be out in the wilds and away from all this easygoing mixture of office and drawing-room; clerk and butler'.
He found an outlet for his peculiar abilities when he was appointed Intelligence Officer for the Mediterranean; on holidays he had amused himself collecting information of military interest, and possibly his uncle thought it as well for him to have some official standing in case of trouble. His versatility enabled him on many occasions to escape from awkward situations. Thus in Dalmatia he was trying to locate the positions of some new batteries which had been constructed in the mountains. The guise of a butterfly-hunting Englishman allayed any suspicions and as he made his notes in the form of drawings of butterflies, there was nothing to betray him when his sketch-book was examined.
He studied the defences of the Dardanelles with the connivance of the Scotch captain of a grain ship. At places of importance, anchor was dropped while the skipper's 'nephew' went fishing and took the opportunity of taking the angles of embrasures and facets of the forts. When patrol boats came to inquire why the ship was anchored, the officials were deafened by the sound of hammering from the engine room and were told that the engines had broken down.
As an artist he was able to avoid arrest when he was investigating the organizing and equipment of Austrian Alpine troops. He found from a talkative soldier that manoeuvres were to be carried out on the slopes of a mountain known as the Wolf's Tooth. During the night he managed to slip through the sentries which had been posted to warn off strangers. As dawn broke he took up a concealed position which gave him a good view of the country, but unfortunately he was in the direct passage of a, group of officers, so he boldly began sketching and when questioned explained that he was making studies for a picture of 'Dawn Among the Mountains'. His skill was so patent, that the explanation was accepted. They shared their breakfast with him, and soon he was able to follow operations with the aid of their maps. By the end of the day he had learned all he wanted about the special methods devised for mountain warfare.
But exciting as such expeditions were, he had to think of the future and on the advice of Sir Baker Creed Russell he resigned from his appointment as Military Secretary in Malta and set off to rejoin the 13th Hussars, then stationed in Ireland. On the way he visited Algeria and Tunisia; from Souk-el-Abra in Tunisia he wrote home:
'Here I am getting homewards by very small degrees, for, having got as far as this, I find manoeuvres going on behind me, and am just off back again to Tunis and Kairouen.' He also seized the opportunity of collecting some most useful military information which he recorded once more. in the form of sketches of butterflies.
The following letter was written to the two little girls of Lucknow who were now rapidly growing up.
AIN SEFRA
S. ALGERIA
21st May '93
Well, young ladies, I suppose you all thought (if you ever thought anything on the subject at all, which I don't flatter myself you did) --- that 'Charlie' was either dead, in prison, or a rude brute since he never wrote to say otherwise. Well, now he writes to say he is the rude brute, being neither dead, nor, for a wonder, in prison.
You see where I am? Well, I mean, look at the above address and then look it out in the atlas if you are so ignorant of geography as not to know (I didn't till I got here!).
Now I'm going to write with my left hand, and I'm in the train buzzing across the desert, so if you can't read this just write and say so and imagine in the meantime that I am telling you that this is a most delightful country to visit.
In appearance it is very like Afghanistan and the people are very like the Afghans in all ways, but it seems so odd when one arrives at a military station --- (and there are no civil ones here) --- you find French Troops instead of English ones, and you remember then that you are not in Afghanistan but in Algeria.
You will be glad, sorry, pleased, annoyed, I don't know which --- probably it will be 'don't care a bit' --- to hear that I am on my way back to England to rejoin the regt. So perhaps you may have the great pleasure of seeing me again one of these days --- if you're all very good.
In the meantime if you should like to show your goodness by writing me a line to say how you are all getting on, I should be very glad indeed to get it. The old address 8, St. George's Place, will always find me.
Now as you find it impossible to read my scrawl I will say au revoir, and please give my very best remembrances all round, especially to your Mama and the gallant Major.
Yours very sincerely,
R. S. S. CHARLES BADEN-POWELL.
He rejoined his regiment in Ireland in June 1893, and was soon immersed in the busy life of a keen officer. At the manoeuvres at the Curragh occurred an incident which brought him again to the notice of Wolseley with important consequences. B.-P.'s own account may be quoted:
I remember especially one occasion in Ireland, many years ago, when I happened to be in charge of a squadron at manoeuvres, that I saw an enemy's battery in action. We crept along by a hollow road till we got right in front of it, under a crest of the hill, unseen by either the battery or its escort --- which was doing its proper duty, as was laid down in those times, i.e., looking to its 'front. We came up to the battery at about ten yards distance, and walked into it and captured it. Well, the officer in command of the escort said that, being a dry, hot day, he naturally expected we should kick up some dust, and merely sat there looking around for any dust in the distance. As we did not happen to make much dust he had not noticed us.
Next day it happened, going across some hills, we found this same battery in action again, with the same escort looking out for dust. We thought it a pity not to oblige. A few soldiers, under an astute sergeant. armed with lassoes on their saddles, cut down a few branches of trees and rode along at a trot in a hollow road some little distance to the front of the escort. They towed these branches along behind them, thereby kicking up an enormous dust. Away went the cavalry after them and we merely then walked into the battery again, this time from the rear. We were just congratulating ourselves on having done a clever thing --- for us --- when an aide-de-camp came galloping down and said that the Commander-in-Chief wanted the officer in charge of the squadron.
Well, the feeling came to me as 1 suppose it has to many of you --- as if somebody had poured a quantity of cold oil down inside you. I rode off with the galloper, thinking of what my next profession in life would be after I had left the army! When I got to the Commander-in-Chief he said, 'Did you do this thing?' I said, 'Well, sir, my squadron did.' I dared not look at him as I said that, but, when I did look, I found he was laughing. He patted me on the back and said, 'That is the sort of thing I want to see, use of your common sense.' I felt myself blushing down to my toes. That General was Lord Wolseley.
A similar stratagem was used effectively by Allenby in the Battle of Megiddo in 1918.
At manoeuvres in Berkshire in the following year he acted as Brigade-Major to John French, later to be Earl of Ypres; Douglas Haig was also on the staff. Wolseley set great value on realistic manoeuvres; they not only kept the army in good training but they gave him unrivalled opportunities for assessing the capabilities of the officers. B.-P. thus became one of 'Wolseley's men' for he displayed just those qualities which the Commander-in-Chief most valued.
When trouble broke out in Ashanti in 1895, B.-P. was selected to command the native levy, a duty which Baker Russell himself had per formed for Wolseley in that country in 1873. It was not a cavalry job, but it demanded considerable resourcefulness and brought new experiences.
GREAT BRITAIN waged nine wars with Ashanti during the nineteenth and it was not until 1901 that the country was finally annexed as the only solution to an intractable problem. Few men with the knowledge of what has been achieved in that country during this century will doubt the wisdom of the annexation, but it only came after all other methods had failed.
European trading settlements on the Gold Coast go back to the fifteenth century, and more by influence than force British control gradually became predominant. But the Ashanti hinterland was a constant source of disturbance. The loose confederation of warlike tribes under a king chosen by tribal leaders was constantly menacing the peace of the Gold Coast; a medley of causes led to the series of wars. The Ashantis practised human sacrifice on a considerable scale, refused all peaceful intercourse, and tried by every means to extend their influence over the tribes of the coastal regions.
In the campaign of 1873-1874 Sir Garnet Wolseley had defeated the Ashantis, and King Koffee Kalkali had promised to stop the human sacrifices, to keep the roads open to trade, and to pay an indemnity. Prempeh succeeded to the 'golden stool' of Ashanti in 1888, and he ignored the conditions of the treaty and was active in stirring up the tribes, some of whose leaders were quite willing to live at peace with the British and to profit from regular trade. For several years Prempeh was left to his own devices in the vague hope that time would bring discretion; he was then reminded of the conditions of the treaty, notably of the clause which stipulated that a good road should be maintained between Kumassi, his capital, and Prahsu, the frontier village. He refused to discuss the problems with the Governor of Cape Coast Castle or to receive a Resident; he himself sent envoys direct to England, but they were refused recognition.
Unrest among the tribes increased as it seemed to them that Prempeh could defy the British with impunity. At length it was decided to send an expedition to Kumassi to overawe the Ashanti King and if necessary defeat him in the field.
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Wolseley was Commander-in-Chief, and having had first-hand experience
of fighting in Ashanti he based his selection of men and his general plans on
what he knew were the practical conditions. The success of what proved a
bloodless expedition was in great part due to the thoroughness of the
preliminary preparations. The command was given to Lt.-Colonel Sir Francis
Scott, Inspector-General of the Gold Coast Constabulary, who had served as a
Captain in the 1874 war. B.-P. was selected to take command of the native levy
whose duties would be to scout ahead of the main force and prepare the way for
the advance.
MAP OF ASHANTI
He left England on the 13th November 1895 and one month later landed at Cape Coast Castle. The objective of the expedition was Kumassi, a distance of 145 miles north-west from Cape Coast Castle. The first half of the route as far as the frontier at Prahsu on the River Prah was in fair condition; the road ran through dense forest and had to be kept clear; but the second half had deteriorated into a track over swamps through heavy jungle country, over the Adansi Hills, rising to 1500 feet and thence through forest again to Kumassi. This second part would have to be pioneered, and the danger of hostile tribes would be constantly present; a long column of soldiers toiling through sunless tropical forests was an easy mark for guerrilla forces. The first task was to collect and organize the levy. In this wearisome business B.-P. learned the full meaning of a West Coast saying which became part of his own method.
If it were not for the depressing heat, and the urgency of the work, one could sit down and laugh to tears at the absurdity of the thing, but under the circumstances it is a little 'wearing'. But our motto is the old West Coast proverb, 'Softly, softly, catchee monkey'; in other words, 'Don't flurry; patience gains the day'. It was in joke suggested as a maxim for our levy of softly-sneaking scouts, but we came to adopt it as our guiding principle, and I do not believe that a man acting on any other principle could organize a native levy on the West Coast --- and live.
Gradually out of chaos order comes. Kings and chiefs are installed as officers, and the men are roughly divided into companies under their orders.
Then the uniform is issued. This consists of nothing more than a red fez for each man, but it gives as much satisfaction to the naked warrior as does his first tunic to the young hussar.
B.-P. himself usually wore the cowboy hat so closely associated with him; this led to his being known among the Ashantis as 'Kantankye', which means 'he of the Big Hat'. The hat was not adopted merely as being picturesque --- though B.-P. had a keen eye for that --- but because of its practical nature when working in the bush; the broad brim shielded the face from low branches and, in the open, kept the sun off the eyes and neck.
The levy consisted of 861 natives drawn from six tribes each under its own chief.
The ultimate organization that was found to be best adapted for all purposes, whether for pioneer work, drill, reconnaissance, or outposts, was the division of each tribe into small companies of from twenty to. thirty men each.
Each tribe was under the orders of its chief, and he, or his orderly, understood English, and acted as the adjutant of his detachment, taking all his instructions from the white officer. Each company was under a 'captain', assisted by an under-captain.
No specific duties beyond those of acting as scouts had been assigned to the levy; but as we made our way up country, it became evident that much pioneering work would be necessary, in order to make the road passable for troops through the dense bush, and to prepare clearings and huts for rest-camps. Therefore, whenever we saw a chance of obtaining tools of any description, we did not fail to avail ourselves of it; but in the end, the quantity and quality of our equipment did not amount to anything very considerable, and it was greatly due to the further system applied to our organization that the levy was able successfully to carry out the pioneering work which it eventually: accomplished. Our tools consisted mainly of matchets (long, heavy knives), naval cutlasses, spades, picks, and a few hatchets and felling-axes.
The companies were permanently detailed to certain kinds of work; thus, one was charged with the work of building bridges, another with making huts, another with digging the road and draining it where necessary, another with felling timber and log-cutting, and so on; so that every man knew his proper work, and with a few days' practice became proficient in it. But at first much instruction had to be given in the method of using felling-axes, spades, levers, and in knotting ropes --- or rather the substitute for rope, the kind of creeper known as 'monkey-rope'.
Each 'captain' was made responsible for tools used by his company (and these had to be checked daily, both before and after work), and also for the presence of all his men during working hours, which, with the exception of two hours' rest for the midday meal, generally lasted from daylight to dusk. It was some time before this idea of responsibility for the working of their men could be instilled into the captains, but once it had been grasped by them, and the system had got into working order, all went smoothly and efficiently, so long as a white officer was at hand to keep the rate of progress up to the mark.
The practical outcome of the pioneer work of the levy was the cutting. of over fifty miles of road beyond the Prah through the bush to Kumassi, the bridging of numberless streams, the corduroying of swamps, and the ramping of numerous giant tree-trunks that lay across the path; and also in the clearance of camp-grounds, erection of huts, and the building of three forts; and, lastly, in a piece of work that was comparatively light and yet of paramount importance, namely, in the clearing of the bush round the palace at Kumassi, which enabled that place to be surrounded, and so prevented Prempeh's intended escape when he was 'wanted'.
Much of the pioneering work involved was new to B.-P. A party of 65 Royal Engineers was his mainstay, but most of the work had to be done by the natives, and persuading them to overcome their easygoing habits was a constant strain. His saying that 'a smile and a stick will carry you through any difficulty in the world' proved a useful guide; the smile was nearly always there but at times the stick had to be used.
It was in Ashanti too that he learnt another saying which was frequently quoted with approval. The words of the refrain of the Ashanti war-song appealed to him as a soldier:
If I go forward, I die,
If I go backward, I die,
Better go forward and die.
The pioneering was only part of the task set the native levy; scouting for any signs of the enemy was even more important. It was hoped that Prempeh would not fight, but there could be no certainty of this; reports of the assembling of a large body of warriors near Kumassi, and of smaller groups at other Points, made, constant vigilance a necessity. This work was chiefly entrusted to the Adansi contingent. Of their work B.-P. wrote:
They were a wild, uncivilized crew, living entirely in the bush, and therefore well adapted for this particular duty.
It was only necessary to show them a system to work upon, and they readily grasped it. Briefly, the plan for outpost duties was this: each company formed a piquet, and during the day it had sentries out for all paths leading to it. These sentries were concealed in the bush close by the path, and within reach of recall by the horn sounding at the piquet. Patrols of two or three men went out for the whole day on every path. No individual work could be got out of natives at night --- the bush was too full of fairies and fetish devils for that. Therefore, after dark, instead of the day sentries and patrols, small detached posts of half a dozen men each were bivouacked on every path, at a distance of about a mile from the piquet.
In addition to their watchfulness, the Adansis, and also the Bekwais and Abodoms (who were afterwards added to them for detached duties), distinguished themselves by their quickness in detecting the presence of an enemy, and by the rapidity with which they conveyed the news not only to their commander, but also to neighbouring piquets and parties.
Their faculty, too, for finding their way in the forest, whether by day or by night, was surprising. They could not explain it themselves. but, like the forest tribes of South-Eastern Africa, they were m no way guided by sun or stars --- some natural instinct brought them through.
Bennet Burleigh, the war correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, accompanied the expedition; his account is rather pedestrian but lie supplements B.-P.'s own account which was published in 1896 under the title The Downfall of Prempeh. Burleigh commented adversely on the length of the column.
By measurements taken on the marches within. the Ashanti country, nine to twelve miles was often found to be the 'interval' between the head and the rear of Scott's column; and as frequently there were times when from twenty minutes to half an hour would elapse without a soldier or a carrier being in sight at parts of the road. It was a very loosely articulated force, and had the Ashantis gone upon the warpath, such a system of leadership would surely have been disastrous.
Burleigh, however, was suffering from a grievance. Amongst the officers of the expedition there were six who were acting as newspaper correspondents, and this he not unjustifiably felt was undesirable since their inside knowledge gave them an advantage over regular correspondents, while their official positions fettered their judgement. B.-P. was one of these, and his skill as an artist added to his usefulness. He even scored a scoop by telegraphing the news of the occupation of Kumassi to the coast from whence it was sent to London; the breaking down of the telegraph line in a storm immediately afterwards prevented anyone else from sending the news for two days. He was correspondent for the Daily Chronicle and Graphic.
However reasonable Burleigh's criticism was, he failed to recognize the root cause: owing to the vicious system of basing an officer's salary on the assumption that he had private means, many dependent on their army pay had to supplement it in the way in which B.-P. did, but few had his versatility as writer and artist.
One of the sketches he made has a special interest: it shows Captain R. S. Curtis, R.E., supervising the laying of the field telegraph in the bush. In the drawing, Captain Curtis is shown in the foreground with a long staff in his hand. As he sketched the scene, B.-P. asked him why he carried such a heavy staff with him in a tropical forest. Curtis explained that he found it useful in pole-jumping streams, and in testing footings in swampy ground. To a further inquiry as to why it was marked in feet and inches, he said that this gave him a quick means of making measurements for giving instructions to his men. Later Captain Curtis became B.-P.'s Chief Engineer in the South African Constabulary, and was to be the last commander of that force. It occurred to him that there might be some connexion between his Ashanti staff and that carried by Boy Scouts; B.-P. admitted that he had remembered that staff when he was devising the best equipment for the boys.
The details of the Ashanti expedition are of little importance now. There were occasional alarms; the friendly chief of a tribe at Bekwai, for instance, sent an urgent message for assistance as he feared that Prempeh would attack him. B.-P. took a party of his levy by a detour to that town and succeeded in reassuring the Chief. There were night alarms when captives were brought in to be questioned, but there were no signs of active resistance being contemplated.
B.-P.'s levy entered Kumassi on the 16th January 1896, and immediately proceeded to ensure that Prempeh would not escape.
The palace had been reconnoitred soon after the arrival of the troops, and we had then found that its garden adjoined the bush at the back, and that a small postern existed in the fence, and led by a footpath through this bush, across the swamp and into the forest beyond.
The levy therefore went to work with matchets, and in a few hours had cut away a broad, open space all round the palace enclosure; and thus, when the time came, it was found possible to draw a cordon of men rapidly round the place, to prevent not only the escape of its inmates, but also looting parties from gaining an entrance.
On the night be ore the arrest the piquets on all the roads were reinforced, and an extra patrol was stationed to watch what went on at the palace. Messengers from the palace and others were caught trying all the roads, and during the night one of the Ansahs was captured by the piquet on the so-called 'secret' path.
The Ansahs were the brothers who had been the evil geniuses of Prempeh: this capture was made by B.-P. himself.
Prempeh made his submission after some palavering. Burleigh describes the King in these words:
Prempeh was a stolid, stout, well-fed, coffee-coloured negro, of about thirty years of age. He wore a small leather helmet-shaped crown partly covered with chased gold, from which ornaments of the same metal stood out like a fringe ... In the King's mouth was a big nut-shaped charm, which he never removed in case he would utter the 'wrong word'.
The King and his mother with some of his Council were removed to Cape Coast Castle and thence to exile in the Seychelles. After they had left Kumassi, the sacred grove where blood-sacrifices had been carried out was burnt. Burleigh describes the place as 'knee deep with skeletons --- a veritable Golgotha'. The blood-bowl into which the blood of thousands of victims had dripped was removed and is now in the Royal United Service Institution in London. .
This bloodless expedition had not been without loss of life. Fever had taken its toll, including Prince Henry of Battenberg who was Military Secretary to Sir Francis Scott. In spite of the best precautions medical knowledge of the day could devise fifty per cent of the men and eighty per cent of the officers went down with fever. B.-P. himself escaped and he attributed his immunity in part to the habit of carrying a spare shirt hung over his back so that as soon as the one he was wearing got wet he could change it.
The levy did the return march to Kumassi in seven days: they arrived early in the morning, and B.-P. went aboard the hospital ship Coromandel to get some breakfast. He sat down and immediately fell asleep; when he woke twenty-four hours later it was to find himself comfortably put to bed.
On the voyage home he busied himself as usual writing up an account of his experiences, and getting his correspondence up to date. To one of the Lucknow 'girls' he wrote, on 15th February:
Three long weary months ago to-day you sent me a most kind letter which I received all right and most gladly --but I have never had the grace to write and acknowledge it. Now that I am homeward bound again, my conscience pricks me sorely and I send just a line to say so.
I drank your healths at Xmas at Toliassi beyond the Prah instead of at Clapham, and I hope it had an equally good effect on all your healths. wealths and prosperities. At any rate it had a good effect on mine for I was very fit and well during the whole of my time in that (well, if you don't like the word, don't read it --- skip it --- but nevertheless it's the only one that will describe it) BEASTLY country.
There was an amusing blunder when the ship arrived at the home port. Another vessel was drawing up at the next quay where the red carpet was down with a group of dignitaries in waiting and a band playing martial airs. Abruptly the music ceased, and band officials were seen to be scurrying round to the landing-stage where the Coromandel was making fast. Just too late it had been discovered that the first ship did not bring the Ashanti army but the leader and men of the Jameson Raid --- a catastrophe which was not indirectly connected with the next stages of B.-P.'s career.