eral kids had been
found buried in calabashes in the path pierced through and through with
stakes; while a short distance outside Queesa the dead body of a slave
killed and mutilated but a few hours before we entered it was hanging
from a tree. Other fetishes of a more common sort were to be met at
every step, lines of worsted and cotton stretched across the road, rags
hung upon bushes, and other negro trumperies of the same kind.

Five days later the Naval Brigade, with Wood's regiment and Rait's
battery, marched into Queesa, and the same afternoon the whole marched
forward to Fomana, the capital of Adansee, situated half a mile only
from Queesa. This was a large town capable of containing some seven
or eight thousand inhabitants. The architecture was similar to that
of Queesa, but the king's palace was a large structure covering a
considerable extent of ground. Here were the apartments of the king
himself, of his wives, the fetish room, and the room for execution,
still smelling horribly of the blood with which the floor and walls
were sprinkled. The first and largest court of the palace had really
an imposing effect. It was some thirty feet square with an apartment
or alcove on each side. The roofs of these alcoves were supported by
columns about twenty-five feet high. As in all the buildings the lower
parts were of red clay, the upper of white, all being covered with deep
arabesque patterns.

Fomana was one of the most pleasant stations which the troops had
reached since leaving the coast. It lay high above the sea, and the
temperature was considerably lower than that of the stations south of
the hills. A nice breeze sprung up each day about noon. The nights
were comparatively free from fog, and the town itself stood upon rising
ground resembling in form an inverted saucer. The streets were very
wide, with large trees at intervals every twenty or thirty yards along
the middle of the road.

CHAPTER XXII: THE BATTLE OF AMOAFUL

Two days after the arrival at Fomana the remaining members of the German
mission, two males, a female, and two children, were sent in by the king
with a letter containing many assurances of his desire for peace, but
making no mention of the stipulations which Sir Garnet Wolseley had laid
down. The advance was therefore to continue. The rest of the troops came
up, and on the 25th Russell's regiment advanced to Dompiassee, Wood's
regiment and Rait's battery joining him the next day. Tha