relations with Ashanti (which was also devastated by civil war) were unsatisfactory. At last, in 1895, another strong expedition marched on the capital without firing a shot, and took the king prisoner. But the Ashanti people bided their time; and when, in 1900, the British forces seemed fully occupied with the South African trouble, three tribes of the Ashanti confederation (40,000 fighting men) rose in rebellion just at the time when the Governor of the Gold Coast and his wife were visiting Kumasi Fort. The rebellion broke out on April 1, and the Governor and his wife remained shut up till June 23, only a slender relief of negro soldiers and British officers arriving. On June 23 the Governor and his wife (Sir F. Hodgson and Lady Hodgson) left Kumasi with an escort of 600 Hausa soldiers, cut their way through the Ashanti besiegers (with the loss of two British officers killed), and safely reached the Gold Coast Colony. A slender garrison of 100 Hausa soldiers and three white officers was left to defend Kumasi. Colonel (Sir) James Willcocks arriving from Nigeria with a few hundred Yoruba and Hausa troops marched through incredible difficulties of flooded lands, impenetrable forest and lack of transport to the relief of Kumasi. In the course of a few weeks he was reinforced by negro and Indian troops from British Central Africa and a number of British officers and non-commissioned officers, till at length he had a force of 3500 officers and men, besides the allied friendly tribes of Ashanti. Kumasi was effectually relieved on July 15 (the garrison was too weak to stand); and by the end of the year the whole of Ashanti had been effectually conquered and annexed. A railway from Kumasi to Sekondi on the coast, completed in 1903, sealed the pacification of the country. Ashanti now forms a large province (some 23,000 square miles) of the government of the Gold Coast. Beyond the forests of Ashanti, to the north, is the considerable area (33,000 square miles) known as the Northern Territories. This is separated from Ashanti mainly by the course of the Volta and of its great tributary the Black Volta. Unlike Ashanti, it contains no great area of dense forest, but is a grassy park-like country, dry and even treeless in the south-east. The negro population belongs mainly to the Dagomba-Moshi group, and is largely Muhammadan in religion. These northern territories were practically part of unknown Africa until the eighties of the last century. They were revealed to us by the journey of English, French, and educated negro explorers, and became a British protectorate between 1892 and 1899. The principal products are cattle and shea-butter (a vegetable oil).