In March 1900, Frederick Hodgson, the British Governor of the Gold Coast, demanded to sit on the Golden Stool of the Ashanti people in Ghana. The Golden Stool had great historical and symbolic significance for the Ashanti people and the Governor's demand was perceived as nothing short of a declaration of war: they responded by besieging the garrison in the city of Kumasi. British troops were sent in and recaptured the city in September 1900. C. H. Armitage (1869–1933), private secretary to Hodgson (and later himself to serve as Governor of Gambia) and A. F. Montanaro (1862–1914) were in the British retaliatory force, and as such perfectly positioned to give a first-hand account of the episode. The book was originally published in 1901 and is divided into two parts. The first part, by Armitage, describes the Ashanti siege of Kumasi, and in the second part Montanaro relates the British response.