, and whose
whereabouts was doubtful.

Other qualifications apart, however, West India troops have proved
themselves of the very greatest value on active service in tropical
climates from the very fact that, being natives of the tropics, they can
undergo fatigue and exposure that would be fatal to European soldiers.
In campaigns in which both the West India and the European soldier are
employed, all the hard and unpleasant work is thrown upon the former,
and the publication in general orders of the thanks of the officer in
command of the force is the only acknowledgment he receives; for
newspaper correspondents, naturally anxious to swell the circulation of
the journals they represent, while giving the most minute details of the
doings of the white soldier, leave out in the cold his black comrade,
who has few friends among the reading public of Great Britain.
Occasionally, facts are even misrepresented. For instance, the defence
of Fommanah, on the 2nd of February, 1874, which was really effected by
a detachment of the 1st West India Regiment, was, in an account
telegraphed to one London daily paper, attributed to the 23rd Regiment,
of which corps there were only six or seven men in the place, and those
in hospital.

On the last occasion on which West India troops served with Line
battalions, namely in the Ashanti War of 1873-74, West India soldiers
daily marched twice and even three times the distance traversed by the
white troops; and, south of the Prah, searched the country for miles on
both sides of the line of advance, in search of carriers. It is not too
much to say, that if the two West India regiments had not been on the
Gold Coast, no advance on Coomassie would, that year, have been
possible. In December, 1873, the transport broke down; there was a
deadlock along the road; each half-battalion of the European troops was
detained in the camp it occupied, and the 23rd Regiment had to be
re-embarked for want of carriers. The fate of the expedition was
trembling in the balance, and the control officers were unanimous in
declaring that a further advance was impossible, and that the troops in
front would have to return by forced marches. Prior to this, the want of
transport had been felt to such an extent that the West India soldiers
had been placed on half rations; a step, however, which was not followed
by any diminution of work, which remained as hard as ever. In this
emergency the two West India regiments, with