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AN AFRICAN KING.

[From the "Morning Chronicle."

Since the "Romance of History" is beginning to pall upon the taste of the reading public, we recommend some euterprising bibliopole to try what can be made out of the " Romance of the Blue-books ;" and he cannot do better than commence with the " Papers relative to the Reduction of Lagos," which have just appeared.

Their contents are positively astounding; and when we read of an African Sovereign with 18,000 wives, and.with well-appointed regiments of female soldiers, we know not whether we can persist, as heretofore, in treating the ancient Amazons as a myth. There are, indeed, even in some of the business-like documents in this collection, symptoms of the tendency to exaggeration popularly attributed to travellers ; but after every due allowance has been made, they contain authenticated wonders sufficient to amuse and interest the most jaded lover of the marvellous. The first of the " Papers" is a despatch addressed by )Lord- Palmerston to Mr. Beecroft, conferring on that gentleman the appointment of Consul to a certain place on the African coast, and instructing him to use every possible influence to induce the native kings or chiefs to exchange the slave trade for a more humane and equally profitable description of traffic. His Lordship had already written to the King of Dahomey, to impress upon his Majesty "that agriculture and commerce are more useful and advantageous than the stealing and selling of men, women, and children." The Royal response is characteristic, and affords important materials for estimating the effect of his Lordship's praiseworthy exertions to enlighten the understandings of these swarthy Potentates :— " The King of Dahomey presents his best compliments to the Queen of England. The presents which she has sent him are very acceptable, and are good for his face. When Governor Winniett visited the King, the King told him he must consult his people before he could give a final answer about the slave trade. He cannot see that he and his people can do without it. It is from the slave trade that he derives his principal revenue. This he has explained in a long palaver to Mr. Cruickshank. He begs the Queen of England to put a stop to the slave trade everywhere else, aud allow him. to continue it" The concluding request sounds natural, if not altogether reasonable ; and the following intimation shows that his Majesty has instinctively divined one of the main sources of resistance to oppression :—" The King also begs the Queen to make a law that no ships be allowed to trade at any place near his dominions lower down the coast than Wlrydah, as by means of trading vessels the people are getting rich, and zvithstanding his a^Uhority. He hopes the Queen will send him some good Tower guns and blunderbusses, and plenty of them, to enable him to make war. He also uses much cowries, and wishes the Queen's subjects to bring plenty of them to Whydah, to make trade. He wishes to see plenty of Englishmen make trade at Whydah." The King having expressed a strong desire to communicate in his capital with a British naval officer, Lieut. Forbes was despatched to Dahomey ; and it is from his journal that we collect the most curious and instructive details concerning the Sovereign, the people, and the place. He thus describes his formal reception on approaching the metropolis : —" Started in full uniform for the capital, distant ten miles. Having entered the gate of the city, which is ornamented with human skulls, and in the vicinity of the Fetish-house, we halted, and taking position in chairs across the road, waited for the ceremony of being met by the Cabooceers. In a short time, an immense crowd advanced towards us, with banners flying among them. At some distance they halted, and the Governor of the city, at the head of a few soldiers, advanced. When arrived in front of our position, he coun-ter-marched, and made a circle from left to right three times round our seats, bowing each time when he came in front. On the last time he fired off a musket, and danced before-us ; then having shaken hands, he took a seat. The square in front of the palace, though extremely large, was densely crowded with armed men and women, squatted on their hams, their long Danish muskets standing up like a miniature forest. Banners abounded—those of the King being uniformly surmounted by a skull. The palaoe walls, of red clay, standing about 25 feet high, extending over more than a square mile, was one continued line of human skulls ; yet it might be remarked that, where decay had destroyed them, these ghastly ornaments were not replaced. On the thresholds and sides of the portals of the palace were also human skulls, but the practice of human sacrifice is fast vanishing from the kingdom of Dahomey." Some of his.subsequent revelations, however,'lead to an opposite conclusion. For instance, we are told that ten prisoners of rank, bound with ropes, were led round the

town, compelled to dance, and then ceremoniously decapitated with large knives, before his eyes, and in spite of his remonstrances. The King is described as about forty-eight years of age and good-looking, with nothing of the negro cast of his countenance, and of stern and commanding presence. He has a Cabinet as complete as Lord Derby's. " The King introduced me to his ministers: Mayo, Prime Minister ; Meigau, of Police ; Cambodee, Treasurer ; Muehaepah, Justice ; Toonoonoo, Eunuch-in-Chief; then to an elderly lady called the English Mother, named ' Yawae,'one of the matrons of the harem, who provides food for the English visitors. Next all the Cabooceers were introduced. The King then expressed a wish I should witness a review of female troops, and two regiments were at once paraded, but not before the ground was shifted and marked out for the manoeuvring. The officers (female) were distinguished by armlets of silver reaching from the wrist to the elbow, and carrying each a small whip. The whole were uniformly dressed in tunics of blue and white, armed with a musket, club, and short sword, carried car-touch-boxes, and went through several evolutions, skirmishing, firing volleys, &c, with much precision." After the review, the officers were introduced and complimented, and the King proposed the Queen of England's health, which, he said, he knew the English would prefer to drink in champagne. They assented, and the champagne was produced ; " but as the King drank it, several screens were held before him, as mortal may not gaze on his Majesty either in the act of eating or drinking." In the article of wives, or concubines, the African autocrat must be allowed to exceed any monarch recorded in history, sacred or profane. "After drinking her Majesty's health, the troops hurrahed, and the salute commenced; but before it was half over, we were all obliged to scamper after the Prime Minister and hide our faces against the wall, as a portion of the 18,000 royal wives were passing, ringing a small bell, as these sable ladies are all over the town at all times, and no male may gaze at them unpunished." The writer however,, subsequently expresses an opinion that this number is an exaggerated estimate, unless indeed, the whole of the soldiers . are enumerated amongst the king's wives. They are described as remarkable for their military prowess. Wlienever the Royal Civil List runs low, or money is required for an extraordinary emergency, war is declared against one or other of the neighbouring nations, and what is termed, in the African language, a " slave hunt" is proclaimed. "These hunts, the King always superintends-, and in order to excite emulation, gives the female soldiers a different portion to overrun from the [male; in the performance of which duty the females almost always excel." When Mr. Forbes's journal was written (November, 1849,) his Majesty was preparing for a slave hunt; but he was uncertain in what direction to let loose his (female) dogs of war, as almost all his neighbours were already subjected to his rule, and his usual preserves were exhausted. At length he gave the preference to the Amagoos, on the ground that they had injured the Dahomians during the reign of his grandfather, and had not as yet been sufficiently punished. The scale of his operations may be estimated when we state that, in one expedition, he captured no fewer than 19,000 men, women, and children,. After sacrificing 500, he sold the rest for exportation. His annual revenue from the sale of slaves is estimated at about £60,000 a-year. According to the latest accounts, he had thrown off the mask, laughing at the credulity of the English, who had fancied that he would degrade himself by employing his Amazonian bodyguard in the cultivation of cotton, or in any other peaceable pursuit. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that his trade in human beings is just now on the decline, and that the destruction of Lagos has, for the moment deprived him and his competitors of their principal mart and outlet for their forbidden merchandise. But in the very despatch in which Commodore Bruce expatiates on_ the beneficial results of his late gallant exploit, it is stated "that the slave trade requires no organized system for its support; it might cease for a century, and be renewed in a week. Remove the blockading squadron, and to-morrow, if the Spaniards or Brazilians are willing to buy slaves, the chiefs would be ready to sell^notwithstanding their pledges to the contrary."

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT18521016.2.8

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 93, 16 October 1852, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,583

AN AFRICAN KING. Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 93, 16 October 1852, Page 4

AN AFRICAN KING. Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 93, 16 October 1852, Page 4

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