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Curiously enough, the men had no excuse for posing as warriors; for the Fantis were the only cowardly race on the coast, and had several times shown themselves worthless as fighters, when the Ashantis made their expeditions against them. A narrow valley ran up from the sea, in one part of the town, and terminated in a swamp behind it.
Hennessey, whose repeated blunders had in no slight degree contributed to the invasion, was relieved by Mr. Keate, who at once wholly alienated the Fantis by telling them that they must defend themselves, as the English had nothing more to do with the affair than to defend their forts.
In 1828 we aided the Fantis to defeat the Ashantis in a decisive battle, the consequence of which was the signature of a treaty, by which the King of Ashanti recognized the independence of all the Fanti tribes.
'Strike me, cries a Mandingo to his enemy, 'but revile not my mother!" And the Krus and Fantis say the same. The peoples on the Zambezi and the great lakes cry in sudden fear or joy: "O, my mother!" "As the mist in the swamps," cries the Angola Negro, "so lives the love of father and mother."
Considering that the English had taken the natives under their protection, and that the war was caused entirely by the taking over of Elmina by the English and by their breach of faith to the natives there, this treatment of the Fantis was as unjust as it was impolitic. Ammon Quatia, however, seemed to be impressed with a spirit of prudence as soon as he crossed the river.
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