Baden-Powell of MafekingFletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
History
Baden-Powell of Mafeking
Fletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
Baden-Powell of Gilwell, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, Baron, 1857-1941; Generals -- Great Britain -- Biography
It is just because he is a boyish man that Baden-Powell is what he is.
Who could doubt that a man so light-hearted, so full of bright good
humour, so sunny of disposition, could fail to uphold the honour of
his country, considering that to these desirable qualities he adds
the strength, skill, sagacity, and indomitable bravery of the born
soldier? I have always thought that the most characteristic thing which
Baden-Powell has ever said was when he replied to Cronje's demand
for a surrender: "Tell General Cronje that I will let him know when
we have had enough." Enough?--it may well be doubted if the man whom
the Matabele aptly termed "The Wolf that never Sleeps" will ever have
enough until he sleeps for ever.
PART II.
AN EXPEDITION AND A CAMPAIGN
I.
THE ASHANTI EXPEDITION, 1895-6
Amongst the vast collection of relics, trophies, and curiosities which
Baden-Powell has housed at his mother's residence in London there is
one object at sight of which those who know its history may be forgiven
for feeling some slight qualms. It is a large brass basin, about five
feet in diameter, ornamented with four lions and with a number of round
knobs all round its rim. If the spirits of blood-lust, of unholiness,
and cruelty abide anywhere on earth, they ought to be found in this
bowl, which Baden-Powell found at Bantama when he went out with the
Ashanti Expedition of 1895-6, and which in its time had received the
blood of countless victims to the inordinate love of human sacrifice
which has distinguished the kings of the Ashanti empire for centuries.
It looks, that bowl, as innocent as an ordinary kitchen utensil as
it hangs in its place on the wall, surrounded by trophies of a more
fearsome nature, but not even the guillotine of the Reign of Terror
had seen and smelt more blood than had run over its rim to putrefy
in its depths and to be eventually turned, mixed with certain herbs,
into fetish medicines. To Baden-Powell, whenever he sees it--he has
had small chance of seeing it since he brought it back to England,
though!--it must needs recall many things in connection with that foul
corner of the earth into which he journeyed some five years ago in
order to assist in bringing a reign of bloodshed and violence to an
end.
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP of the MARCH TO KUMASSI _showing the Camping
Places_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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