Previous to the departure of the General the following general order was published:
"HEAD-QUARTERS, CAPE COAST CASTLE, "_3rd March, 1874_.
"Before leaving for England the Major-General commanding wishes to convey to the soldiers of the 1st and 2nd West India Regiments his appreciation of their soldierlike qualities, and of the manner in which they have performed their duties during the recent campaign. Portions of the 2nd West India Regiment have been in every affair in the war, and the regiment generally has undergone fatigue and exposure in a most creditable manner.
"When, owing to the desertion of carriers, the transport difficulties became serious, the men of both these regiments responded most cheerfully to the call made upon them, and, by daily carrying loads, helped to relieve the force from its most pressing difficulties.
"In saying 'good-bye,' the Major-General assures them he will always remember with pride and pleasure that he had the honour of commanding men whose loyalty to their Queen, and whose soldierlike qualities, have been so well proved in the war now happily at an end."
The rains having set in at the Prah, and much sickness prevailing, it was decided to relieve the posts between that river and the coast. In fact, the mortality that had occurred at Prahsu in 1864 showed that West India troops should not be encamped there without urgent necessity; and no such necessity now existed, as the King of Ashanti had agreed to the treaty, which had been left unsettled up to Sir Garnet Wolseley's departure. Captain J.A. Smith, with fifty men of the regiment, escorted the Ashanti chiefs sent down by the king, and arrived at Cape Coast on the 12th of March. On the 18th, H Company marched in from Prahsu, and embarked on the 20th for Sierra Leone in the transport _Nebraska_, which vessel also conveyed the 2nd West India Regiment to the West Indies. C Company was the last withdrawn from the Prah, arriving at Cape Coast on April 2nd.
It had been most disappointing to the two West India regiments to have been prevented from entering Coomassie, within some twenty-five miles from which their head-quarters were halted. West India regiments rarely have opportunities of seeing active service elsewhere than on the West Coast of Africa; and, although the duties assigned to them in the second phase of the war were most important, holding, as they did, the detached posts from the Prah up to the front, keeping open the communications, protecting the convoys, sick and wounded, and constantly furnishing patrols and escorts, yet they felt it rather hard to have been deprived, in their solitary field for distinguishing themselves, of the honours of fighting beside their European comrades at Amoaful and Ordahsu.