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The Basel Mission House was passed and, as they marched on without seeing any signs of life, it was believed that no opposition would be met with. They advanced, however, with great caution. Suddenly, news was sent back from the advance guard that the village of Bantama had been sighted, just ahead; and that the enemy were running out from it.
The late king went every quarter to pay his devotions to the shades of his ancestors at Bantama, and this demanded the deaths of twenty men over the great bowl on each occasion.
The companies under Lisle and Hallett formed part of the force under Major Melliss, which was to destroy the stockade on the Bantama road; while the other, under Major Cobbe, was to attack that near the Kimtampo road. After this had been done, arrangements were to be made for the attack on the other two stockades. The start was made at ten o'clock. At first everything went well.
The little force then gathered, and proceeded to Bantama, a sacred village at which human sacrifices had been perpetrated, for centuries. This place was razed to the ground. On the left, the sound of continuous firing told that Major Cobbe was still heavily engaged. There was, however, no means of moving through the bush to his assistance. The force therefore returned to the fort.
In their belts they carried several knives, while the musket and the little round cap of pangolin skin completed their equipment. At last we reached the grove at Bantama on the out-skirts of the town, one of the three execution places. Several thousand people had assembled around a great tree where a number of gorgeous umbrellas of every hue and material had been erected.
One evening we attended our master on one of his official visits to Bantama, the fetish priest's village where we so narrowly escaped execution, and were able to thoroughly inspect the gruesome place.
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