Ashanti War, Ghana, 1874: African bearers carrying wounded British soldiers on litters across a river. Wood engraving after Melton Prior, 1874.

"The illustrations of the late campaign, furnished by the sketches of our Special Artist, Mr. Melton Prior, whose arrival home was mentioned last week, are continued in this number. In one instance--that of an actual fighting scene, in which the British soldiers are shown in the attitude of combat in the bush--we have preferred to give a mere facsimile of Mr. Prior's sketch, as then and there drawn by him, instead of the more finished work usually prepared from such sketches for the engraver on wood. There is a painful interest of reality, too, in the illustration of a convoy of sick and wounded carried down the road from Coomassie to the Prah. The number of hammock-bearers available at this time was so much reduced that each hammock,.with the suffering or helpless invalid lying beneath a scanty canopy, was borne upon the heads of four men instead of six, as at first, along a rough and often flooded path. It required the energetic persuasive exertions of the British officers in charge of these convoys to get them over the ground, as many of the natives were inclined, but for fear of instant punishment, to lay down their load. Nearly half the troops of white race that went up to Coomassie were obliged to be carried back in hammocks; of the 42nd Highlanders only 350 were in marching condition ; nor were the Rifle Brigade, Welsh Fusiliers, and Naval Brigade in a much better plight, when the excitement of the conflict was passed, and they felt the immense fatigue, as well as the unwholesome effects of climate, to which they had been exposed."—Illustrated London news, op. cit., p. 290