Those who remained in camp had little to do, and were therefore glad to spend their time on fatigue duty; the officers building shelters for themselves, while the men erected conical huts, until the station was covered with them.
A day or two after their arrival a letter, written in French on a scrap of paper, was brought down.

It stated that the garrison could hold out until the 20th, a date that was already past.

Supplies were urgently wanted.

It also warned the relief column that there was a big stockade within an hour of the fort.

Colonel Willcocks sent out a messenger at once, asking that every available man should join him; but the man never reached the coast, and no help came from there.
Sir Frederick Hodgson had then been out of Coomassie four days, and was making his way down to the coast through a friendly country; with an escort of six hundred soldiers, and all his officers but one, who had remained in the fort with a hundred men.
On the morning of the 27th Colonel Burroughs, with five hundred men, started on his journey north.