HARLECH CASTLE. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11917, 15 December 1900, Page 8

HARLECH CASTLE. TO THE EDITOR.

SlltJ—l am correctly reported as ontlorsmg the sentiments of flip spankers, who preceded mo, and who expressed the opinion 11 mt il wonVI he unwise to have, a public demonstration in the middle of the Christmas and New Year holiday?. The speaker* I referred to wer« Messrs Chisholm, Mills, and Kempthornc: but 1 wish to make it clear thai 1 have not the eli^hf^t sympathy with the sneaker who imivctliatclv iirceccleil me and who siK'"(>!-e'l llutl the K:irlec!i Castle s'lOukl liiaK-o Wellin K ion first purl of call. IT the Tlarlcc'i Cattle comes here, as originally arran"e<l, the troopers aboard !i;-r will receive the cordial welcome .•hararUiristio of the city of Hnnedin, and which is the riffht of every rnnn who has f<m?ht for the flas; in S.-mth Africa.—l am, etc

John V- M". Fhakki:

UNNECESSARY LOSS 01-' TIME.

Mr W. S. Wheuon, Cashier of the First National Bank of Winterset, lowa, in a recent letter gives some experience with a carpenter in his employ, that will be of value to other mechanics. 'He says: "I bad a carpenter work-ing for me who was obliged to stop work for several days on account of boinc troubled with di.irrluca. I mentioned to him that I had been similarly troubled and that Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera, and Diarrhoea Remedy hod cured inc. He bought a bottle of it from the druggist here and informed me that, one dose cured him. and ho is again at his work." For sale by all all dealers. . Price Is 6d and 3s.

SIR J. WILLCOCKS'S MAHCII TO KUMASSI. (The Times.) Supplementing the accounts already published by Router's Agency of the siege of Kumassi and of the experiences of the besieged garrison up to the date of Colonel Willcocks's arrival there, Renter's representative, in the course of an interview with Captain II C .!. Hiss, who was with Colonel Willcocks during the whole of his march to Kumassi, has obtained a detailed story of the terrible sufferings of the relief column and of the dramatic manner in which, on tho appointed date, the British force reached the fort in the capital. As will he seen, the mental, .if not tho bodily sufferings of Sir .lames Wilicocks and his officers were scarcely less than those of Captain Bishop and his heroic companions in Kumassi. " Tho night before we left Bekwai, en route for Kumassi," said Captain Biss, " Colonel Willcooks assembled all the European's and delivered a speech in which he made no secret of the fact that he expected very hard fighting. He added that, although the Governor and the majority of the garrison had left the ' fort, tho Ashantis were still determined to t takfi the place, and there, was no reason to ; doubt that the enemy were aware of the desperate plight of llio.m still holding the fort, ; Having p.iid this, the Colonel declared that it was needless to appeal to British officers in a time of emergency. He knew nil were only too glad to do their best. Iml he pointed out that the occasion was not an ordinary one. In impassioned tones he concluded by stating that we were engaged in a holy cause, and that tho rescue of our fellow countrymen was for Ihe. moment the sole object in view. -So keenly did all of us realise the. gravity or the situation that our commanding officer's thrilling speech was received in silence. Only a little before we had received a scrap of paper from Captain Bishop in Kumassi-*-got through by a messenger at tremendous risk— concluding with the words, ' Help us.' The scene in that Bokwai village as Colonel Willcoeks. standing outside a mud lint with the Union Jack on the flagstaff, solemnly addressed his officers was one never to be forgotten. Despite what we were, to go through on the morrow, all were busily occupied until after 11 at night, as every preparation hud to be made for our march, the direction and time of which was kept a dead secret. It was necessary io make the column a? short- as possible iind only two carriers could be allowed to each officer, and only half rations were available. All private, stores of provisions were handed in by tho officers to be left at. the fort for the, men who were to replace the beleaguered garrison. We snalehrd a few hours" sleep, and at 4 a.m. reveille was sounded, and in the dripping darkness tho shivering and wet troops fell in according Io the order of march. The fntk'no and discomfort of the day's march T shall never forget, and several officers who had seen considerable service, particularly on the Tndian frontier, told me that it was the worst they and the road was. with few exceptions, a prolonged swamp. Rivers of various sizes had to bo forded and the Ordali River, in flood, crossed by means of a felled tree. Tn order to reach Kmiinssi by the date apnninlod it was imneralivo Io make ■PeH-i - the last friendly village on the borders of the pn»my's country—that night, this route, although slightly longer, having been chosen for strategic reasons, Colonel Willcocks's feint, to Kokofu imuie-

diately prior to our start liavin<r drawn a large ; force of 1110 enemy away from the road. Tim distance from Bekwai was only IS milos. but, owing to the indescribable condition of the track, we were marching continuously fov 19$ I hours before we got in. the rearguard ar- i riving pome two hours later. Our enlimiu : must hnvp been nearly t.hree niilps lone, all in single file, and from the time we left Bek- ', wai until we returned to that place after relieving Kumassi the only hammocks used were those for tho sick and wounded. As we nenred PrH-i, utterly worn out, we hud to pl.mror n]on<*. holdim* on to each other in the pilch-dark forest. Nothing broke the death-like silence bul the dripnin? of water from the tree that met overhead and the squelch of the filthy mud as hundreds of feet, plo-ided through it. Soaked through, the whole column was in places up to the wnivt in water, and durimr a grcit part of the time a torrential rain fell. Our carriers, mmpletelv worn out. foil out by dozens at- a time. and the continued halts occasioned thorehy delayed us ;;reiitly. When the carriers dropped from sheer exhaustion (he native troops cheerfully picked up and shouldered the loads. Tl was the most terrible experience T have ever had. Often the white officers fell asleep whenever a brief halt was called to help the carrier- over a swamp, and vet. wonderful to relate, not a single load was lost. Tn the small homy. we sot to Pekki. and. too fattened to undress or to take food, we turned in to the native hu!= to get a few hours' seep. But sleen wnc nol for all. Sentries .had to be posted and pickets thrown out round th" village, and how the native troops told off for these dulie-. not. only on (his occasion, but during the whole march, stood the fatigue is marvellous. No other troops in the "world could surpass them. Yet, after a sleepless nn-ht. with wet clothes, without shelter, and with a necessarily totally inadequate food supply, the men never crumbled, and were as cheery in the morning as if they had been silting down in cantonments. ■ " Jt>. consequence of tho previous day's march, the column was not ordered to move until 3 a.m.. and no bugles were sounded. I These facts were (mite providential, for tho j next village--;! hip; fetish one—was completely i surprised. Had they heard of our -movei ments or had we arrived earlier in the day, iit was—would have been grouser, and we I should have .suffered heayy loss. At IVkki we had accomplished half our march from P.okwai. and were only 15 miles from the capital,'but through the thick of the enemy's country. Every yard of bush, had now to be I searched by scouts, and our progress was ! weli under two miles an hour. So slow were i our movements that we were more tired than lif wo had had to cover ten limes the distance |in ordinary marching. Added to this fact, the anxious strain on our nerves was never removed, but, if possible, now increased., as wo never knew where we might be ambushed or on which mirt of the column the enemy would open fire. The nearer, too, we got to Kuma-si the greater were our fears a? to what we should i'md in the fort. ■' Before the advance guard had got clcr.r .of Fekki the enemy's scouts were encountered. and long before the rearguard had filed out an action had been fought, and a village taken at the point of the bayonet by a brilliant charge conducted by tho Yorubus and the frontier Police. So close were the enemy that, one great Ashanti was seen to come out three times and fire point blank at one officer. During other officer rushing towards the enemy at the head of his company brandishing ;i native mate.bet. We only suffered some half a dozen casualties. In this place we caught 30 sheep, which were a great God-send and much appreciated for dinner that night; and among other things found was' one. of Lady Hodgson's boxes. The village was burnt by the rearguard ; but, after we had passed through, the natives returned and filliped us from the rear. From this point onwards we were fighting at intervals throughout the day. and this so delayed us that at 4- p.m., after n determined fight, it was decided to spend the night in the village then taken, in one of the huts of which we found a ("fold Coast Hausa uniform riddled with bullets. Yet another night the under tropical rain and without any shelter except a few leaves. Shortly after our occupation of this village we fired off our millimetre guns as a signal to Kumassi. but got no reply. 'That evening Colonel Willeooks. who. despite the lerible anxiety, maintained a most cheery demeanour, informed us of the plan he had formed for the final action at Kumassi. He told us of the stockades a few hundred yards from the fort, and also that on the morrow, after an hour and a-half's march, we should reach a great fetish village, where a desperate resistance might be looked for. He intended, he added, 'to fight the battle at the stockades without oncnmhrr.'ic". and ' with this end in view a halt would be called at the hist, village, which would he rapidly fortified info a sort of s-.nre.ha and defended by .•> number of troops. Tn this all possible nrriers and stores would be placed, while the fighting force would take the stockades, afterwards returning for the carriers, and thus enter Knmassi without- losing any of the precious loads of rice, ammunition.' and stores. However, owing to the enfore?d slowness of our marc, which brought us to Ihe Inst villaso before ihe stockades at fuch an hour that darkness wa« imminent, this very wise nhm could not be carried out. and we went into action in the old formation. During the next day so desperate became the position and so determined was Colonel Willcocks to reach the fort nt all costs that he o-ave orders that all soldier* or carriers would have to be left where they fell if neefssary. "At 4 o'clock next morning reveille was Bounded, and the column was under w.n-v with the strcKk of dawn. To our surprise the foti«h villaae wns not held. We had, ho"-. the way. and as we (rot. still nearer to the low love! of the capital for some miles we had to march tliroush one or two feet of water. At limes we pwsp'l putrefying and headless corpses in the bush, doubtless relics of the former garrison. "The final action was commenced about 4 o'clock by the enemy, before the scouts had located the stneWles. A heavy fire from the hush on our righl flank was 'directed upon the rearguard, and then n-radnally advanced along the column until the head of the attack '•ad reached tho stockades, where the eneniv

joined tlioir comrades in their last resistance. At a point 50 yards from the stockades the oncmy had cut a fresh nath, which was the first intimation to the guide that something unusual existed. It wnts now getting «> lato and tlie scouts were so worn out that it was a question whether they might not have to lio called in; but the enemy anticipated us, and opened a terrific volloy from their Blockades. Our leading men immediately rushed to take shelter behind a fallen tree across the road. All this time the stockades were in visible, nor were we aware of their exact ■ number, winch subsequently turned out to be four. Again we wem quite ignorant as to how close to the big stockade on'the, main road were the ones we were then attacking. In the final charge which carried these, the, big stockade on the Cape Coast road was taken as well as the war camp of the Ashanti comiiKinder-in-cliicf. Tho bush was so dense that in order to charge the men 'had to cut their way through with matehots. Prior to the lust charge, of course, Colonel Willeocks brought up the guns, which were massed in semi-circular shape a short distance in the rear of tho fallen tree, and himself took up his position by them, from whence he directed the fight. We. were unknowingly so clone to the stockades that tho extremely heavy fire of the enemy mostly passed over our heads at this point. Notwithstanding the Im-rifio fire from our guns we could not see the effect upon the enemy, and for this reason, and in view of the approaching darkness, the Colonel decided after the action had been an hour and a-liaH in progress to rash the position with the bayonet. This charge was carried out by the whole of the advanced guard, Colonel Willcock's own escort joining with them. When the stockades wore reached tho enemy in front was seen to be running out of them, and some very gruesome fights awaited us in the stockade immediately across tlie I'ckki road. Our guns had done terrible work, and tin; walls of the stockade were bespattered with blood and shreds of human flesh. In one place a. shell had just penetrated the stockade and burst among its defenders. The sight was positively loathsome. Limbs -had been carried yards away into the bush beyond, and corpses lay all around, some disembowelled, and one with the whole face blown off. Hefore further promts was possible, tho stockade in front had to be pulled down in order to enable the column to proceed, and nothing was more providential than the hour at which the action closed, for, as it was, the rearguard did not reach the fort until after dark. "It is impossible to express our feelings when, the last stockade taken, we emerged into the open and saw the fort half a mile ahead of us. Colonel Willcocks collected the officers and troops immediately around him and advanced at their head into Kumassi. The closing scene will never be forgotten by any of us. The fort, in a large cleared space, standing out in conspicuous relief against the sunset with the Union Jack (loafing from the mast. The poor, starved garrison was in too deplorable n condition to make any great military display, but the joy shown by all, white and block alike, seemed ample recompense for what we liad gone through. The terrible strain of anxiety which ever vests with the man in command, together with the fatigue and short rations, had so overwrought Colonel Willcocks that the Mieers for the Queen and tho greetings between rescuers and rescued were scorcc over before he fainted, and had to be carried into the fort which he had relieved on the very day that he had promised."