d by mud walls, fifteen feet
high, and about twelve feet thick at the base. Inside the walls were
ditches about six feet wide and eight feet deep. In some of the towns,
machicoulis galleries had been constructed over the gates, and the
entrances further protected by semicircular mud bastions.

In March, 1877, the 1st West India Regiment was relieved on the West
Coast of Africa by the 2nd West India Regiment, E and G Companies
embarking in H.M.S. _Simoom_, at Cape Coast Castle, on the 24th of
February, and the head-quarters, with A, B, C, and H Companies, at
Sierra Leone on the 3rd of March. On arriving at the West Indies the
regiment was thus distributed: Head-quarters, with A, D, E, and I
Companies, at Jamaica, C and F at Honduras, G and H at Barbados, and B
at Nassau.

During its three years' tour of West African service the regiment had
suffered very heavy loss amongst the officers. In addition to the eight
deaths that occurred in 1874, directly after the Ashanti war, Captain W.
Cole died in Ireland of fever contracted on the Gold Coast;
Lieutenant-Colonel Strachan and Sub-Lieutenant Turner in England; and
Sub-Lieutenants S.B. Orr and G.V. Harrison at Sierra Leone in 1876.

The regiment remained without change in the West Indies until December,
1879, when the head-quarters and six companies embarked in H.M.S.
_Tamar_ for West Africa, leaving D, E, and I Companies at the depot at
Demerara. The head-quarters and four companies disembarked at Sierra
Leone on the 17th of January, 1880, and the two remaining companies
proceeded to Cape Coast Castle.

In February, 1880, there being some slight disturbance in the
neighbourhood of the Ribbie River, a small party of the 1st West India
Regiment proceeded thither as an escort to the Governor, with
Lieutenants Madden and Tipping. The whole returned to Sierra Leone
without any casualty, after an absence of a few weeks.

On the 28th of January, 1881, news was received at Sierra Leone that the
Ashanti king, Mensah, had threatened an invasion of the Gold Coast
Colony, and a reinforcement was urgently demanded. In consequence,
Captain H.W. Pollard, 1st West India Regiment, commanding the troops on
the West Coast of Africa, despatched to Cape Coast Castle next day in
the mail steamer _Cameroon_ letter B Company, under Captain Ellis, and
letter H Company, under Lieutenant Garland. These two companies arrived
at their destination on the 2nd of February, and on the 9th the former
p