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CEZO. KlfSC OF DAH0K1EY

DAHOMEY

THE DAHOMANS:

THE JOURNALS OP
TAYO MISSIONS TO THE KING OF DAHOMEY,
AND RESIDENCE AT HIS CAPITAL,
IN THE TEAKS 1849 AND 1850.

BY FEEDEEICK E. FOEBES,
COMMANDER R. N. F.R.G.S.
AUTHOR OF
' FIVE YEARS IN CHINA,'' AND " SIX MONTHS IN THE AFRICAN
BLOCKADE ; "
DISCOVERER OF THE VAHIE PHONETIC, ETC.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON:
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.
1851.

London :
Spottiswoodes and Shaw,
New-street Square.

PREFACE.
While conversing one evening, on board
Her Majesty's ship Cyclops, with the Hon.
Captain Hastings, he remarked that great
benefit might accrue from the visit of a
naval officer to the King of Dahomey, at a
time when the death of that king's chief
agent and principal merchant, Da Souza,
left him more at liberty to exercise his
humanity, and to listen to the oft repeated
appeal to suppress the slave trade in his
dominions. Having long had a desire to
visit the interior kingdoms of Africa, and
to witness the effects of the slave trade in
the countries of its sources, I instantly
volunteered my services. But Captain
Hastings, although senior officer and him
self the proposer, did not feel justified in
despatching me without the permission of
A 2

IV PREFACE.

the Commander-in-chief, whose pendant he
was about to join.
The Commander-in-chief received the
offer of my services, and at the same time a
request from Mr. Duncan, the newly ap
pointed Vice-Consul, that a naval officer
should accompany him to the Court of
Dahomey, and was pleased to confer on me
the honour of the mission.
A great deal has been written on the state
of the slave trade on the coast and at sea,
together with the fate of the slaves in the
Brazils. It is the object of the author, in
giving publicity to the following Journals,
to illustrate the dreadful slave hunts and
ravages, the annihilations and extermina
tions, consequent on this trade ; and to
bring prominently before the British public
the sacred service they are rendering their
fellow-men, in prosecuting their increasing-
efforts to allay those fearful horrors.
I had been often a day or two journeying
into various parts of the interior of Africa,

PREFACE. V
and had seen the state of the slave trade in
its advanced systematic stage, and had con
sidered the horrors of that division of it
disgusting enough. I have visited bara-
coons, and seen men so fearfully attenu
ated, from want and over-exercise in the
march to the coast, as to render nature
unable to support the frame. I have seen
the hold of a slave ship, and the horrors
consequent on diseases arising from the
crowded state and want of wholesome food
to alleviate the cravings of hunger and
thirst. I have seen the slave toiling in South
America, and known that the labour of
these was a matter of calculation to the
master, whether, by continual toil and short
life, he would gain more money than by
light work and protracted miserable exist
ence. But what are all these to the tragic
scenes that introduce the slaves to slavery ?
A country living in peace with all around,
and pursuing trade in the endeavour to
become rich, is suddenly surrounded by
A 3

VI PREFACE.
a ruthless banditti ; and how changed the
scene ! The old would be rejected if brought
to market, they are sacrificed ; the whole
nation are transported, exterminated, their
name to be forgotten, except in the annual
festival of their conquerors, when syco
phants call the names of vanquished coun
tries to the remembrance of the victors.
This state of society will last as long as
the slave trade exists. The question that
should be asked is : Is it in the power of
this country to stop it ? I will not confine
myself to opinions, but relate facts.
For six months in the year 1848, between
the colony of Sierra Leone and Liberia, in
Her Majesty's ship Bonetta, under my com
mand, I captured six slavers. There were
then four cruisers on that station, and two
of which captured each two, and the third
one slave ship, in the same space of time.
This proved that the state of the slave
trade there must at that time have been
very brisk. Diogenes, in his search for an

PREFACE. Vll
honest man, had a better chance of success
than a cruiser has of a slaver there now.
The trade is destroyed, and the people have
receded from their evil habits and become
industrious. This portion completes a long
line of coast now open only to legal trade;
and, if joined by the part of which these
Journals treat, would embrace the whole
of the continent of Africa, to the northward
of the line. It is only a portion of the
coast to the southward that requires block
ading now ; and the effect of the squadron
at present employed, if the trade in the
Bights could be checked, would be four
fold on that portion of coast to be guarded.
Let the government fit out a decked boat
for each cruiser ; let her be a fast sailer,
manned, rigged, and in every way armed
and equipped by the cruisers, and the effect
of the squadron is again double. * Many
* This opinion was written before the author had
had an opportunity of hearing the purport of Captain
Dunlop's evidence before a committee of the House of
Lords.

Vlll PREFACE.
of the cruisers could well equip and man
two of these launches, and so line the coast
that no ingress or egress could take place
unknown. I do not blame those who think the
squadron increases the horrors. It is a
natural conclusion, and one I myself arrived
at, until I had witnessed the true source of
the evils complained of. Then I saw that
if the squadron were withdrawn, the slave
hunts and exterminations would be in
creased. The inhabitants of a vast extent
of coast have been led to give up the slave
trade, and why ? because they have been
taught the immense increase of the value
of the palm-oil trade over that in slaves.
In all the countries which have given up
the traffic in their fellow-men, the preach
ing of the Gospel and the spread of edu
cation have most materially assisted the
effects of the coercive measures of our
squadron. There are kings in the Cama-
roons and Bonny rivers, whose ledgers, kept

PREFACE. IX
by themselves, would grace any counting-
house in this country ; and whose minds,
expanded by education, have made them
bold enough to declare that the old super
stition of the Eboe should no longer exist,
setting the example of becoming Christians.
When the slave trade is checked, other
trade should be substituted, or it will soon
revive. To insure success, education should
be first planted, and then trade introduced :
thus, becoming enlightened, the African
would sicken at the horrors he has hitherto
encouraged. Dr. Johnson said it was possible, though
not probable, that amazons had existed.
The amazons spoken of in these Journals
are not deprived, like the ancient female
warriors, of their left breast, but are perfect
women. They live in chastity, nominally
as wives of the king's old soldiers; or, for
distinction in bravery, are given in mar
riage by the king to his favoured subjects.
In a barbarous country like Dahomey, it

X PREFACE.
is curious to find that the dynasty has lasted
two centuries. Many of their customs are
strangely at variance with the horrors of
others. The forms and ceremonies of polite
society contrast oddly with the sacrifices of
their unoffending prisoners of war. The
faithfulness of memory displayed by the
troubadours and the high officers proves the
Dahomans to be capable of receiving educa
tion. Let it be hoped that before long this
nation may be added to the many in Africa
that prefer the labour to the sacrifice and
sale of the subject : the former in the vain
attempt to propitiate an offended all power
ful, Being; the latter to enrich, at the ex
pense of their own, a foreign and distant,
and, alas ! Christian, land.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

INTRODUCTION. CHAP. I.
Dahomey and its Neighbours

Page 1

CHAP. II.
The Dahomans and their Manners - - 13

THE JOURNALS.
Journal of a Mission to the Court of Dahomey
in October and November, 1849.
PART I.
From Whydah to Abomey - - - 43
PART II.
Abomey, its Court and its People - - 67
PART III.
Journal during a Sojourn on Shore in Whydah,
from February 27th to March 31st, and a
Description of Whydah - - 96

Xll

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

Page

Reflections on the Slave Trade and the Means
for its Repression - 131
The Animal Kingdom - 156
Religion, &c. - - - 168

APPENDIX.
A. — Letter from Abomey in 1724 - 181
B. — The Discovery of the Vahie Language and
Vocabulary - 197
C. — Vocabulary of the Dahoman Language - 218

LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.

King

to face Title.

Amazon

p. 23

Gates of City

p. 69

Procession of Ambassadors — the ]

Queen's Mouths
p. 7o
Slave Gang
p. 100
Fetish Man and Governor of Whydah
p. 102
Vahie Language
p. 201
DAHOMEY AND THE DAHOMANS.

INTEODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.
DAHOMEY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS.
As the king of the slave trade and its mer
chants, the Dahoman monarch has become
a word of common use ; whilst the position
of his kingdom, and the habits, manners,
and customs of his people, equally with the
resources of its sovereign, are incorrectly,
if at all, known. Lying inland on the
Guinea coast, this great military kingdom
extends almost from the banks of the
Niger to those of the Volta, and domineers
B

2 DAHOMEY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS.
over, if it does not possess, the entire land
that lies between the coast thus cut off be
tween the mouths of these rivers and the
bases of the Kong Mountains. Until after
the commencement of the last century, the
very name of Dahomey was unknown in
Europe, and the earliest account that Ave
possess of its people and their power does
not date back beyond that era.
Early maps There have been some geographers who
mey. have persuaded themselves, that in the
Dauna of Leo Africanus was to be recog-
nised the Dahomey of our own clay. But
though the Venetian map of Sanutus as
early as 1588 placed that name with ap
parent certainty, and was followed by Dr.
Hailey in his edition of Sir Jonas Moore's
Mathematics nearly a century afterwards,
we now know for certain that the kingdom
thus marked on their maps is occupied by
nations differing in name, in race, and in
manners, from the Dahoman people. The
earliest intercourse between the Dahomans
and Europeans, as at present known, dates
from the year 1724, when the then king of

DAHOMEY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS.
Dahomey overrun the kingdom of Ardrah,
that lay between his capital and the sea-
coast, and seized in its chief town a Euro
pean factor. This European captive, and
agent for the English African Company,
Mr. Bulfinch Lamb, though carried cap
tive to Abomey, was well and kindly
treated by the dark monarch, and so far
allowed his liberty, as to be permitted to
correspond with his superior, the com
mandant of the English fort at Whydah.
It is in a letter from Mr. Lamb to the
English commandant that we obtain the
earliest sketch of this little known people ;
and so curious is this early description,
and yet so truthful to the present habits
and manners of the people, that it has been
deemed advisable to reprint it in the Ap
pendix. It is more than curious to note
how little this military despotism has
changed in two centuries and a half, not
withstanding all the progress that has been
made on the African coast by European
enterprise and intelligence.*
* Letter from Mr. Bulfinch Lamb to Mr. Tucker,
b -2

4 DAHOMEY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS.
Early his- The narrative commenced by Mr. Lamb
tory of
Dahomey, is carried on in separate works by Captains
Smith and Snelgrave until the time when
the imprudence of the English commandant
at Whydah brought on a second and third
invasion of the coast countries by the king,
and ended in the death of the governor,
and the temporary destruction of the
Dutch, English, French, and Portuguese
forts at the town of Jaquin. This was in
1732, the year in which the king, called
generally Guadja Trudo, died, and was
succeeded by his son, Bossa Ahadee. Of
this miserable tyrant, the history was
written by one who had been engaged for
eighteen years in the African trade, and
completed in the more perfect work of
Governor Dalziel, the governor of Cape
Coast Castle. The latter work, besides
including and continuing Mr. Norris's ac-
governor of the English fort at Whydah, at the end of
"New Voyage to Guinea," by William Smith, Esq.
London, 1745. Full Account of some Part of Guinea,
by Captain William Snelgrave. London, 1734. See
Appendix (A).

DAHOMEY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS.
count of Ahadee's reign, carried down the
Dahoman annals to the time of the son
and grandson of that detestable savage.*
From this period the history was briefly
sketched by Dr. M'Leod, and continued to
the reign of the younger son of Weenohoo,
the grandson of Ahadee, who had suc
ceeded to the throne in preference to his
elder brother, whose deformity in one foot
was deemed a sufficient, or at least was set
up as the, reason for his being rejected as
his father's successor to the throne. Thus
has the history of this important and
deeply interesting nation been brought
down to the commencement of the present
century, when it is found under a new
sovereign, but unchanged in manners and
habits, though greatly enlarged in its power
* Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahadee ; with an
Account of a Journey to Abomey in 1772, by Mr.
Robert Norris. London, 1789. History of Dahomey,
compiled from authentic sources, by Archibald Dal-
ziel, Esq., Governor of Cape Coast Castle. 4to. Lon
don, 1793. A Voyage to Africa ; with some Account
of the Manners and Customs of the Dahomian People,
by John M'Leod, M.D. London, 1820.
b 3

DAHOMEY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS.
and its territories, and in daily intercourse
with, and even dependant on, Europeans,
for its prosperity and its revenues. The
rise of the military kingdom of Dahomey
dates from the commencement of the seven
teenth century. At that period, when
Tah-coo-doo-noo, chief of Fohee, captured
the present capital, the united provinces of
Dahomey and Fohee formed a kingdom
scarcely more extensive than the county of
Rutland. From this central state, lying
equidistant from the banks of the Arolta
and the Niger, has extended the now mi
litary and most powerful monarchy in
"Western Africa. On every side, conquest has
increased its territories, as each successive
annual slave-hunt has annexed some one or
other of the neighbouring states, which it
depopulated in its merciless progress. Had
it not been for this system of depopulation,
the conquering nation could with difficulty
have governed the extensive territories
which each annual slave-hunt added to
their kingdom. Revenue from the sale of
prisoners is the primary object of these

DAHOMEY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS. i
expeditions, and the addition of wasted
countries the necessary, but far from
coveted, consequence.
Although, for two centuries at least, Dahomanconquests.
Dahomey has been a military nation, it
was not until the usurpation of the present
monarch, consequent on the unmilitary
character of his deposed brother, that she
rose to her present height, as the dreaded
oppressor of neighbouring nations. Indeed,
in the reigns of the later monarchs, the
border states of Eyeo, Anagoo, and Mahee
often defied the Dahomans with success ;
but now, should a neighbouring people
become rich, it is regarded as sufficient in
sult to call forth an immediate declaration
of war from the court of Dahomey. Thus
is it that, on the northern and north
eastern borders, the Eyeos and the Ana-
goos have been almost entirely subjugated,
and the country overrun to the foot of that
natural and impassable boundary offered
by the lofty summits of the Kong Moun
tains. On the western and north-western
side, the stream of the Volta alone sepa-
B 4

O DAHOMEY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS.
rates Dahomey from its great rival mon
archy of Western Africa, the kingdom of
Ashantee. Time alone can develope the
consequences to Africa of such powerful
and ambitious nations being divided by no
more difficult boundary than the far from
wide or impassable waters of the Volta.
Already on that side the Attahpahms and
Ahjabee have been defeatea although not
annexed to the rapidly increasing territory
of Dahomey.
Abeah- If -we turn to the East, we find the ex-
Keutah,
Lagos, and tensive provinces of Yorihbah looked upon
Benin. ...
with cupidity, and marked out for devas
tation, slavery, and murder ; whilst already
the populous city of Abeah-Keutah, the
abiding place of many hundreds of Chris
tians, and the seat of missionary enterprise
in the Bight of Benin, is marked out as
the scene of the approaching slave-hunt.
The fall of this noble and nearly Christian
city demands our deepest attention. Stand
ing on a river, which reaches the sea at
Lagos, through the Lagoons, it would, were
Lagos open to legal trade, soon become

DAHOMEY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS.
the central emporium of commerce from
Yorihbah, Bornou, and all the other coun
tries neighbouring on the banks of the
Niger. Lagos itself is a most important
position as a trading port from its connec
tion with all the countries of Guinea. It is
at present notorious as one of the greatest
slave depots in Africa, and for man}? reasons
likely to remain so. The king of Lagos
was a slave himself, and, as an usurper, is
entirely in the hands of his patrons, the
slave merchants who placed him on the
throne. On the west side the Lagoons may
be said to join the Volta, although in the
dry season, at a little distance from the
town of Godomey (fifteen miles from
Whydah), a sandy neck divides the Lagoons
of Lagos and Whydah. Emptying into these
Lagoons are several navigable rivers, as
yet but imperfectly known, except to slave
enterprise ; whilst, on the east, the Joh
creeks, navigated by a water population,
called the Joh pirates, connect Lagos with
the Benin, and the whole delta of the
Niger. The importance of putting a stop

10 DAHOMEY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS.
to the slave trade in Lagos cannot be ex
aggerated. A fort on the present position
occupied by the slave barracoons, would
prevent any transportation from the many
slave nations in the interior of Benin, the
king of which place now partially supplies
the Lagos trade, assisted by the Joh men.
On this question, together with family
jealousies, Benin is divided into two sepa
rate states, Benin and Warree ; and is
likely, from the increase of legal trade in
the Benin rivers and the quarrels of the
royal family, to be yet again divided. It
is long since the royal family of Benin,
becoming too numerous and burthensome
to the state, first divided ; and one portion,
crossing the river, settled at Warree, de
pendent and tributary to the parent state.
"When the Portuguese settled in the river,
great inconveniences were felt by duties
being levied by both governments. At their
instance the Warree family threw off the
yoke, and declared that state independent
of Benin, and masters of the river and
trade, which she now holds. The Warree

DAHOMEY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS. 11
family becoming numerous, one of the
younger branches founded a city on the
Jackwaw creek (connecting Lagos and the
Benin river) ; and the king of Warree
having died, and his throne being dis-
puted, the Jackwaw people, under their
chief, Jibuffu, held neutral, and will, if they
have not already, declare themselves inde
pendent of the new sovereign of Warree.
Notwithstanding the Benin river is os
tensibly open to legal trade, it is also traded
through by the slave-merchants of Lagos.
Should an attack be contemplated on Lagos,
small steamers might enter the Benin river
and reach Lagos by the Joh creeks.
To return to Dahomey. The only slave WhyJah.
port actually belonging to the kingdom is
Whydah : but the king claims the beach
and the right of embarkation, and enforces
tribute from the European traders at the
ports of Porto Novo and Badagry on the
east, and the Popoes on the west. Several
small nations have been conquered in open
ing a road from the interior kingdom of
Dahomey to the sea, the chief of which
VOL. 1. * B 6

12 DAHOMEY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS.
was Ardrah, whose capital Allahdah still
remains. It is difficult, if not impossible,
to decide what is the actual extent of the
kingdom of Dahomey. It may, however,
with safety be taken at about 180 miles
from east to west, and nearly 200 from
the sea coast at Whydah to its most north
ward boundary. Throughout its territories
the population is far from sufficient for an
advantageous occupation of more than one
third of the lands; utterly insufficient, there
fore, for the full development of the many
sources of Avealth which the rich soil and
mineral resources of the country afford.

13

CHAP. II.
THE DAHOJIANS AND THEIH MANNERS.
Most travellers are forcibly struck with
the rapid improvement in morality, which,
in barbarous equally with civilised coun
tries, characterises the interior of a country
as compared with its seaports. In the
latter and their nomadic inhabitants im
morality seems innate, and the habits of
seafaring men of all nations and classes in
the main tend to demoralise the society
into which for a time chance throws them.
They are birds of passage and of pleasure,
and are content to seek the full of that
licence which their temporary resting place
affords. In Africa this is most patent ; and
idolatrous though they be, and barbarous
in the extreme, the people of the interior
are generally far more moral than the semi-
civilised and nominally Christianised in
habitants of the sea coasts. At Whydah,

14 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
the Dahoman port, the personal depravity
of the slave merchants has destroyed the
inborn honesty and chastity of the natives,
and the meretricious gaze of the females, and
debauched and stealthy appearance of the
men, are strongly and painfully contrasted
with the modesty of the former and the
honesty and openness of the latter, as the
traveller nears the capital of the Dahoman
kingdom.
Population Although unaltered in manners and cus-
mey. toms, the kingdom of Dahomey is consider
ably increased, and now stands the greatest
military monarchy in Western Africa.
Ashantee sends tribute, and Yorihbah
trembles when Gezo proclaims his slave-
hunt. Owing to the ravages of its devas
tating wars, the population of the king
dom of Dahomey does not exceed 200,000
of both sexes ; and Abomey, the capital, has
not more than 30,000 inhabitants.. Of the
whole population not more than 20,000 are
free, the remainder slaves. The regular
army consists of about 12,000, and of these
5000 are amazons. When the king goes to

THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS. 15
war, he levies in all about 24,000 men, and
an equal number of commissariat followers.
Thus he moves on his war march with
nearly 50,000 of both sexes, or one fourth
the whole population of his kingdom. It
is scarcely necessary to state that Dahomey
is under a military rule and government,
and has no parallel in history. The time
is thus yearly divided in wrar and festival.
The subjects attend at the Great Festival,
the Se-que-ah-hee, with presents or tribute.
If unable to be present in person, each
must send a gift according to his rank and
pretensions. In the months of November or December Annual
wars and
the king commences his annual wars. For slave hunts.
three successive years his people have asked
him for war upon a particular place ; and
he marches forth, concealing until within a
day's march the name or the place against
which he has brought them. Against the
devoted city his troops inarch, whilst the
king, nobles, and royal family remain en
camped. Daylight is generally the time of onset,

16 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
and every cunning, secrecy, and ingenuity
is exercised to take the enemy by surprise.
Thus at Okeadon, in 1848, one chief turned
traitor, and introduced the Dahomans at
daylight. They had made a feint on Abeah-
Keutah, and in the night fell back upon
Okeadon. On the opposite side to that
attacked, ran a rapid river, and in crossing
this many were drowned, and but few saved.
Although there was no resistance, all the
aged were decapitated on the spot, to the
amount of thousands, and the strength and
youth of the city sold into slavery.
The attack The Attahpahms, in the early part of
on the
Attah- 1840, aware of the Dahoman march, sent
every article from their town with all the
aged, youths, and females. Unfortunately,
the preparations of the Dahomans struck
terror into the minds of the soldiers of
the Attahpams, who, knowing their fate, if
conquered, excepting about 400, fled from
the city. Yet these 400 resolute men
kept the Dahomans in check, killed many,
put the males to the rout, and had it
not been for a rally of the amazons, would

THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS. 17
have discomfited the Dahoman army. Had
the Attahpams stood, they would, with ease,
have conquered the merciless invaders.
After the destruction of a town, notice
is sent to all neighbouring cabooceers, or
chiefs, calling upon them to swear alle
giance to the conqueror. Many do so at
once, and receive their original rank, with
an equal, a Dahoman, to act as coadjutor :
the remainder are persecuted until subju
gated. On the return from war in January, the The annual
r\ -. . Customs.
king resides at Cannah, and what is termed
" makes a Fetish," i. e. sacrifices largely and
gives liberal presents to the Fetish people,
and, at the same time, purchases the pri
soners and heads from his soldiers : the
slaves are then sold to the slave mer
chants, and their blood-money wasted in
the ensuing Custom, Hwae-nooeewha, as the
great annual feast is entitled in Dahoman
parlance. Of these Customs, the most important is
that held in March, and called the See-
que-ah-hee, at which the king's wealth is
VOL. i. c

salute.

18 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
profusely displayed, and of which one of
the following Journals affords the first de
scription ever given to the world. That
which is held in May and June, is in
honour of Trade, with music, dancing, and
singing. A small schooner on wheels, laden
with gifts, is then drawn round the capital,
and the cargo afterwards scrambled for by
the Dahoman army.
The royal In July, on an appointed day, the soldiers
are planted along the road from Abomey
to the beach at Whydah, a distance of
ninety miles. At the moment when the
king drinks, its announcement, by the first
gun of a royal salute fired at Abomey,
is carried by the musketry to Allahdah,
whence the first of a salute there is con
veyed similarly by sound to the beach at
Whydah, intended as a salute to the Fetish
of the Great Waters, or God of Foreign
Trade. The boom of the first gun fired by
the foreign forts at AVhydah is echoed back
through Allahdah to Abomey, whence
another salute finishes this extraordinary
Custom. August and September are oc-

THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS. 19
cupied by preparations for war, serving
out powder, balls, or gun-stones (small
ironstones), and much palavar on war
subjects. Before going to war the king
makes a Custom to the memory of his
father, which generally lasts a month ; and
thus ends the year, keeping the nation in
a fever of excitement, dancing, singing,
haranguing, firing, and cutting off heads ;
thus demoralising more and more the na
tures of a people already among the most
barbarous of the African nations.
Strange and contradictory as it may The °"gin
sound, this great nation is no nation, but a Dahomans.
banditti, and there are few pure Dahomans.
Those who may claim to be of the race, are
the king's family and the nobles ; but even
these are not of pure descent, as the harems
of all are replenished with the fruits of war.
As a military nation, the officers are natives,
the soldiery foreigners, prisoners of war, or
purchased slaves. To the eastward of Abo
mey, all is waste to the Ahjahee country,
still unconquered, but threatened and
already asked far once, the cause of offence
c 2

20 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
being, that they harboured the Attahpams.
In the Attahpam, or north-east direction,
Dahomey has no territory. To the west,
Katoo is a possession, not by conquest, but
conciliation. The people wished and the
king agreed to war ; but the Fetish people
declared that, if war was made on Katoo,
the king would be killed : the king sent
large presents to the chiefs, and Katoo
voluntarily submitted.
On the north, the Anagoo provinces are
partly wastes, but still inhabited. On the
north-west, the Eyeos and Mahees are still
large nations under the Dahoman yoke.
South, several nations have been subjugated,
to open the road from the capital to the
Port of Whydah. Porto Novo belongs to
its own king of that ilk, and Badagry is
under the rule of a native chief: yet the
king of Dahomey claims the beach of both
those places, and has made warlike excur
sions as far as the latter.
War is annual, or rather an annual slave-
hunt is undertaken, to furnish funds for the
royal exchequer. The king professes never

THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS. 21
to make war on any country that has not
insulted him, or until asked for by his
people thrice, the mystic number. Okea
don is an exception. The cause of com
plaint against Abeah-Keutah now is, that,
in the Okeadon war, they made a sally
and took an amazon regiment, general ;
and umbrella. Greigwee or Whydah was
taken, nominally, for selling muskets to
the Dahomans, without locks, but, in reality,
because they required a port for foreign
trade. Eyeo, Attahpahm, Yorihbah, Ana-
goo, and Mahee, all more or less subjugated,
made war upon Dahomey.
Industry and agriculture, are not en- The slave
couraged. On the contrary, the king is
aware, that, if the enjoyments of home,
and the luxuries of health and domestic
happiness, were once obtained, he would
fail in volunteers for the annual slave-
hunts. The road to riches hitherto has
laid in the number of retainers the noble
or chief could send to war. They are fed
and partly clothed, but receive no pay,
except at the scramble at the Customs.
c 3

22 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
Prisoners and heads are purchased from
them, and, according to their bearing in
war, the officers are the recipients of the
royal bounty.
The king animates his chiefs, and creates
emulation even between the highest. Thus,
the miegan and the mayo will be called to
the sacrifice of a bullock to their people.
The mayo claims the head, the miegan
demands it by right of position ; the mayo
boasts that he provides more soldiers, who
do more execution in war ; and the king
allows him to retain it. If a soldier act as
a coward, or, which is considered tanta
mount, does not either take prisoner or
head, the king will offer him a present at
the Customs ; those who have acted well
accuse him, and, if their accusation is
proved, claim the present, while this charge
thus substantiated, is acted upon at once.
Themiegan The actual first man in the kinp-dom is
and the °
mayo. the miegan, who is the chief executioner ;
the second, the mayo or grand vizier:
there is a female miegan and a mayo, who
have corresponding duties in the harem.

^F^

ama
zons.

THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS. 23
Under the monarch, each rank has four
equivalents : thus the miegan and the mayo
hold a balance of power ; their coadj utors
in the harem are also equal to them in
rank. The people are divided into two
parties, — the miegan's and the mayo's, the
right and the left. In war, the miegan's
soldiers are joined by the miegan's amazons,
and thus form the right or advanced bat
talion .
The amazons are not supposed to marry, The
and, by their own statement, they have
changed their sex. " We are men," say
they, " not women." All dress alike, diet
alike, and male and female emulate each
other: what the males do, the amazons
will endeavour to surpass. They all take
great care of their arms, polish the bar
rels, and, except when on duty, keep them
in covers. There is no duty at the palace,
except when the king is in public, and
then a guard of amazons protect the royal
person, and, on review, he is guarded by
the males ; but outside the palace is always
a strong detachment of males ready for
c 4

24 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
service. The amazons are in barracks
within the palace enclosure, and under the
care of the eunuchs and the camboodee or
treasurer. In every action (with males
and females), there is some reference to
cutting off heads. In their dances — and it
is the duty of the soldier and the amazon
to be a proficient dancer — with eyes dilated,
the right hand is working in a sawlike
manner for some time, as if in the act of
cutting round the neck, when both hands
are used, and a twist is supposed to finish
the bloody deed.
Customs at In the royal presence no rank is free
from prostration, and the throwing dirt
on the head, except white men, and a cer
tain class of necromancers, who regulate
sacrifices to divert epidemics, and other
evils : these people wear hats, and only
bow to the throne. The liberated Africans
and returned slaves are considered as white
men ; and while the king's ministers are
prostrate in the dust they merely bow.
In the royal presence none may smoke
but white men ; and in the precincts of

court.

THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS. 25
the palace, or the grand Fetish houses,
none but whites may remain covered, and
none may be carried or ride, or be shaded
by an umbrella, unless by the king's per
mission. If the king's stick be shown, all
bow down and kiss the dust except the
bearer, who is exempt.
In entering a town or house the head comPu-
ments.
man presents the stranger with pure water,
which he first drinks himself; and this is
equivalent to a promise of safety. It is
customary each morning to exchange com
pliments with sticks or seals, or other
articles of virtu which may be known as
the individual's representative ; and each
stick-bearer receives a glass of rum !
The royal wives and their slaves, I pre- Royalwives
sume from the jealousy of their despotic
lord, are considered too sacred for man
to gaze upon ; and on meeting any of
these sable beauties on the road, a bell
warns the wayfarer to turn off, or stand
against a wall while they pass. The king
has thousands of wives, the nobles hun
dreds, others tens ; while the soldier is

26 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
unable to support one. If one of the
wives of the king, or a high officer's,
commits adultery, the culprits are sum
marily beheaded ; and the skull of one
of the Agaou's wives is at present exposed
in the square of the palace of Agrimgomeh,
in Abomey. But if adultery be committed
by parties of lower rank, they are sold
Marriages. ag siaves. If a man seduces a girl, the
law obliges marriage, and the payment
of eighty heads of cowries to the parent
or master, on pain of becoming himself
a slave. In marriage there is no cere
mony, except where the king confers the
wife, in which instance the maiden presents
her future lord with a glass of rum.
Laws and The laws are very strict : treason,
ments. murder, adultery, cowardice, and theft,
are punishable with death. Besides the
form of trial illustrated in a later portion
of this Journal, the cabooceers, headed
by the Eeavoogan, form a court, of which
the decision is subject to royal confirma
tion. If condemned to death, the convict
is removed to the miep-an's to await the

THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERb. 27
king's pleasure ; if to slavery, to the
mayo's, for the same purpose. Any head
man of a town or district can, by pros
trating and kissing the ground, declare
a king's court, and try a culprit ; but the
sentence must be put in force at Abomey,
and a public crier proclaims it in the
market. All rank is hereditary and pri-
mogenitive, provided the king concurs ;
if not, he nominates another member of
the family. The succession to the throne
is also primogenitive, with the concurrence
of the miegan and the mayo, who otherwise
discriminate between the several next heirs
of the reigning family.
The dress of the soldier and amazon is Dress and
ornaments.
a tunic, short trowsers, and skull-cap, all
in uniform. The general dress of the
Dahomans is a small cloth round the loins,
and a large country or foreign cloth, or
silk, &c, thrown over the left shoulder,
leaving the right arm and breast bare,
and reaching to the ancles. Hats are sel
dom worn, shoes never ; the king, how
ever, wears sandals. The women wear a

28 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
cloth reaching to the knee, fastened under
their breasts, and leaving them exposed;
as they advance in years their breasts hang
as much as two feet long, and are truly
disgusting to European eyes. According
to rank and wealth, anklets and armlets
of all metals, and necklaces of glass, coral,
and Popoe beads, are worn by both sexes.
The Popoe bead is of glass, about half an
inch long, and perforated. It is dug up in
a country inland of Popoe, and cannot be
imitated : all attempts hitherto have been
detected. Hence it is very expensive,
selling for half its weight in gold. It
seems to me most propable that where
they are found, formerly stood a large
town, destroyed by war, and that the dead
(as is usual in Dahomey and neigh
bouring parts in the present day) having
been buried with their ornaments, some
chemical property, that has destroyed the
remains of the inhumed, has hardened and
slightly changed the appearance of the
glass bead. The natives have a tradition
that they are the excrement of a large

THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS. 29
serpent, or dragon, which (to account for
its never being seen), if man beholds, he
dies. Dahoman houses, from the palace to Houses,
furniture,
the farm, all are similar. Walls, either of and food.
clay or palm branches, enclose, according
to the number of inmates, courts and
houses of all sizes, made of clay, and
thatched with grass.
A bamboo beadstead or a few mats,
some country pots and agricultural im
plements, and weapons, a loom of coarse
material, besides the insignia of office (if
a cabooceer or head man), are all the fur
niture. A store in each house is pro
vided with cloths, grain, foreign goods,
&c, according to the wealth of the owner.
Within the enclosure are all domestic ani
mals, and invariably a dog. The diet is
simple, consisting chiefly of messes of meat
and vegetable, mixed with palm oil and
pepper, with which is eaten a corn cake
called kankee, or dab-a-dab. There is
very little variety. A mixture of beans,
peppers, and palm oil, is made into a cake,

30 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
and sold to travellers ; yams and cassada
form the staples of food. Foreign liquors
are scarce and expensive ; and as palm
wine is forbidden by the king, the chief
drinks are a very palatable malt called
pitto, and a sort of burgoo called ah-
kah-sar. Drunkenness is not allowed ; nor
is there, except in Whydah, much opportu
nity for it. As a public example, the king
kept a drunkard and fed him on rum, and
exhibited him at the Customs, that his
emaciated and disgusting appearance might
shame his people from making beasts of
themselves : this terrible example is dead.
Agricui- In agricultural pursuits they are ad
vanced in knowledge, but extremely in
dolent, keeping but a tithe of the land
in cultivation. Corn and beans are inter
mixed ; and the land, although rich, highly
manured. Palm plantations are also planted
with corn, yams, and ground nuts. In
short, in the small portions that are under-
cultivation, they rival the Chinese. The
agricultural implements of both nations,
excepting the plough, are similar ; but

ture

THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS. 31
whilst the Dahomans, equally with the
industrious Chinese, lack the energy to
overturn a bad traditionary system, they
fall far short of them in industry and
application. In the neighbourhood of
Abomey, unlike the rest of Africa, men
labour in the fields, and the women are
only employed in carrying water.
An operation which, if carried out gene- Royal
,, . , , _ palm plant-
Tally, would soon put an end to foreign ation.
slavery has been already commenced. Near
Abomey is a royal plantation of palms,
corn, &c. called Leffle-foo. It is inhabited
by people from the province of Anagoo,
prisoners of war, and is under the direction
of a Dahoman cabooceer. The gifts of
nature are all bountifully bestowed, and
the soil rich and capable of producing
every vegetable prouction. Indigenous are
the palm, shea-butter, and cotton (the
latter perennial and uncultivated), much
fine timber, and many medical herbs and
fruits ; granite, iron, and sand-stones, con
glomerate, and chalk, are expossd.
The Dahoman language is harsh and Language.

32 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
guttural, poor and ill expressed in meta
phors and parables: there is no written
character.
FelLtes1' -^Iie relioi°n °f Dahomey is a mystery
only known to the initiated. There is no
daily worship, but periods at which the
Fetish men and women dance. They who
are initiated have great power, and exact
much in return. It is a proverb that the
poor are never initiated. The Fetish of
Abomey is the leopard, that of Whydah the
snake. The human sacrifices at the See-
que-ah-hee are neither to the invincible god
" Seh," nor to the Fetish " Voh-dong," but
to the vitiated appetites of the soldiery.
At the Cannah Customs there are sacrifices
to the Voh-dong; and at the See-que-ah-hee
there are sacrifices to the manes of their
ancestors ; the Dahomans, like the disciples
of Confucius, looking to their departed
ancestors for blessings in this life, and in
the world to come. There are private
sacrifices all the year round. If a rich man
dies, a boy and a girl are sacrificed to
attend him in the next world. Thus, when

THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS. 66
Da Souza died, a boy and a girl were deca
pitated and buried with him, besides three
men who were sacrificed on the beach at
Whydah. At all Customs there are human
sacrifices, yet much diminished in numbers.
This year (1849) at the Customs 32 were
sacrificed, last year 240. God grant they
may soon see the errors of their ways!
Religious toleration in Dahomey has as yet
been confined to the followers of Mahomet,
for whom there is a mosque in Abomey,
and another in Whydah, with several
mollahs from Haussah and Bornou.
The only act of grace becomes one of Liberated
J ° slaves.
slavery if examined. The liberated African
from Bahia or Sierra Leone is received at
Whydah on a footing with the white man,
but if he stirs he is fettered ; he dare not
leave the capital, even to return to the
place of his birth, nor even to attend the
Se-que-ah-hee, unless with a present accord
ing to his pretensions.
There are certain ancient rules which Ancient
rules.
must be conformed to on pain of imprison
ment, slavery, or death ; but the present
VOL. I. t>

34 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
king seldom puts his own subjects to death,
or allows them to be enslaved by foreigners.
By these rules no man must alter the con
struction of his house, sit upon a chair, be
carried on a hammock, or drink out of a
glass.
Extortion Travellers in Dahomey are often much
offices. ' imposed upon by the national custom of
making no charge for either a service or an
article, but of expecting a present in re
turn. It is not for some time that the value
of an article or a service can be determined,
and each servant has his peculiar ideas of
sufficiency. Always expecting more, he
will make no charge : and if the traveller
give less, he will not take it ; if enough, he
is not satisfied ; and if more, the stranger
has stamped the price for his sojourn —
it will never be reduced. No office under
government is paid, and the offices, al
though hereditary, are subject to much
espionage. In the house of each minister
lives a king's daughter and two officers :
these superintend the minister's trade, on
which he pays tribute according to their

THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS. 35
report; If a dispute arises in which the
king's interest is at stake, these officers
report direct ; and if the dispute is serious,
the minister is arrested or fined. The
whole system is one of espionage, cunning,
and intrigue ; and no man's head is safe on
his shoulders for twenty-four hours.
Taxes are heavy to all parties, and farmed Ta*es. and
their col-
to collectors. The holders of the Customs lectors.
have collectors stationed at all markets,
who receive cowries in number according
to the value of the goods carried for sale.
Besides these, there are collectors on all
public roads leading from one district to
another, and on the lagoon on each side of
Whydah ; in short, every thing is taxed,
and the tax goes to the king.
If a cock crows in the highway, it is
forfeited to the tax-gatherer, and, conse
quently, on the whole distance from Abo
mey to Whydah, the cocks are muzzled.
On the lagoon and public roads, there are
toll-gates, at which a custom duty is de
manded. These, with the annual presents
at the Customs, the tithe on palm oil of

36 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
one gallon out of eighteen, and the duties
on foreign trade, form the legal revenue of
his Dahoman majesty.
Money. The currency of the Dahoman kingdom
is the cowrie shell, of which 2,000 are
calculated to form one " head," to which a
nominal value of one dollar is attached.
Such, however, is the scarcity of a metallic
currency, that, in exchange, the silver dollar
is eagerly taken at 2,400 to 2,600 cowries ;
and other metals, as well the lower as the
higher, are freely taken in barter. This
scarcity of a metallic currency affords a
good opening for a trade in bullion at
Whydah, the effect of which could not but
be to materially arrest the progress of the
slave trade.
Life in Da- The every-day life of a Dahoman, it would
homey. J •* '
be a difficult matter to describe, depending
as it does on the whim of the sovereign.
Should a man inherit industrious habits,
he must be very cautious in developing
them, lest he fall under the suspicion of
the government. If he brings more soil
under cultivation, or in any manner ad-

THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS. 37
vances his family to riches, without the
license of the king, he not only endangers
his fortune, but his own life and the lives of
his family : instead of becoming a man of
property and head of [a family, he is con
demned to slavery ; and, serving his Majesty
or his ministers, assists unwillingly to up
hold the laws that have ruined him, his
only alternative being death.
The stopping the slave trade no doubt
would assist to alter such an unfortunate
state of affairs ; but the true destroyer of
such gross evils would be the advancement
of civilisation, — the instruction of the mind
by the enlightenment of a religious educa
tion. In their every-day life there is a great
similarity in all barbarous nations ; gene
rally the ruler is supreme, and the director
of the customs by which, under the so
vereign, savage nations are governed. All
black nations, in common with many less
barbarous, as for instance the Chinese
and Malays, in speaking of the organ of
man's understanding, imagine that we
D 3

38 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
derive reason and wisdom from the belly.
In this there is not so much cause for won
der as is generally considered : with a wild
man the day's pastime is regulated by
appetite, and by the state of his stomach
he is ruled. The uneducated black looks
upon eating and drinking as necessary evils
they are compelled to submit to ; and, while
satisfying the cravings of hunger and thirst,
only partake of a sufficiency to sustain
nature, and give the necessary strength to
enable them to pursue their course of duty.
These primitive habits suffer materially on
the common advance of civilisation and
intermixture with Europeans ; unless par
ticularly guarded against, the luxury of
intoxication completely prostrates the unfor
tunate barbarian, and, as with the Indians
of North America, might probabby exter
minate the aborigines of Africa contempo-
raneonsl}' with the advance of civilisation.
Measure of Although time is measured during the
day by the cravings of the stomach in a
great measure, I do not mean that a con
stant sense of the sun's regularity does not

time

THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS. 39
convince the negro that it marks the
period of day ; and in Africa its rising and
setting being generally regular, time would
require but little other measurement, were
it not that for six months of the year (the
rainy season) it is generally obscured for
the greater part of the day. They have an
odd method anion? the warlike tribes of
judging time by night, which is generally
managed very correctly. At each gate of
a stockaded town is posted a sentry, who
is provided with a pile of stones, the exact
number of which is previously ascertained.
The night is divided into four watches ;
during each watch, the sentry removes the
pile of stones, one by one, at a measured
pace from one gate to another, calling out
each tenth removal : when all are removed
the watch is relieved.
The walled towns are particularly vigi- Town
. . guards
lantly guarded, and besides sentries and
dogs, it is not uncommon to place a town
under the charge of the fetish or charm of
some particular kind and divinity. The
most useful of these I met with was in a
D 4

40 THE DAHOMANS AND THEIR MANNERS.
stockaded town called Iomiqui. In the
lighter portions of the bamboo stockade,
thousands of the small palm bird (a very
domestic little bird of the sparrow family,
particularly noisy) had built their nests.
The old chief with exultation told me war
dared not come ; for if it did it would be
proclaimed by thousands of these fetish,
and the whole town be on the instant in
arms for its defence. As their larger fea-
thered brethren the geese of Rome, saved
the Capitol, so might the palm birds save
Iomiqui by their shrill and discordant cries.

THE JOURNALS.

43

THE JOURNALS.

JOURXAL OF A MISSION TO THE COURT
OF DAHOMEY
In October and November, 1849.

PART I.
FROM WHTDAH TO ABOMEY.
Oct. 3. to 16.
In the autumn of 1849, the late Mr. Dun- APPoint-
.... ment to
can, the enterprising African traveller, ar- mission.
rived on that coast, with the appointment
of Vice-Consul to the kingdom of Dahomey,
and applied to the then commander-in-chief
of the blockading squadron, at the request
of the Dahoman king, for a naval officer to
accompany him in his mission to Abomey.
The instructions which I received on being

44 FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY.
appointed to this mission by the naval
commander, pointed out the strong hopes
that were entertained of the Dahoman king
being persuaded to consent to a treaty for
the effectual suppression of the slave trade
within his dominions. On my arrival off
Whydah in the Bonetta, on the 2d of Oc
tober, I had immediate proof that our
mission was looked forward to with no
little dread by the slave dealers, in the diffi
culty, which I learned, from Captain Her-
vey, the senior officer of the station, he
had experienced in communicating with my
colleague the vice-consul. Some days be
fore my arrival, Captain Hervey, anxious
to acquaint Mr. Duncan with my appoint
ment, had ordered Lieutenant Hamilton to
land with despatches. On nearing the
beach in a boat of her Majesty's ship
Kingfisher, that officer boarded a canoe,
when the crew declared to a man that if he
remained they would jump overboard and
swim on shore ; and the communication was
eventually made by veering a small cask

FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY. 45
through the surf. Proceeding to the back
of the surf, I sent three kroomen in my
kroo canoe on shore to ascertain its exact
state ; but, on returning, the canoe was
dashed to pieces, and the kroomen suc
ceeded in relanding.
Oct. Ath. — Having borrowed Captain Dangerous
landing at
Harvey's kroo canoe, I entered her at the Whydah.
back of the surf at daylight (though the
surf was still very high), but had no sooner
topped the first wave than we were capsized,
and, with the three canoe men, Jack Smart,
Tom Walker, and Ben Coffee, I immediately
swam off, and after a good deal of trouble
and clanger, landed safe on the beach. The
blacks, who had assembled in great num
bers to view this novel mode of landing,
rendered every assistance that was in their
power; and having wrapt myself in a coun
try cloth and taken a glass of raw rum, I
despatched a messenger to Whydah to
acquaint Mr. Duncan of my arrival.
In a short time the vice-consul arrived, Opposition
and explained that he had already visited gress.

46 EROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY.
the king. Owing, however, to the extra
ordinary oppositions evinced by the slave
dealers and others, and in order that every
request the king had made might be com
plied with, he could not but wish that
I should proceed on my mission, in which
he agreed to bear me company. On Mr.
Duncan's landing he had been well re
ceived, and at the court was honourably
treated ; but on his return, some unknown
cause had changed the aspect of affairs ; he
was viewed Avith suspicion, and every an
noyance practised that was in the power of
his persecutors.
Reception Hammocks being provided, we proceeded
at Whydah. & L \ \
to the town of Whydah, which lies about
a mile and a half from the beach, on which
last each large factor has a temporary store.
A sandy neck separates the sea from the
lagoon (about a quarter of a mile wide),
and passing that the road leads through a
swamp. Mons. Blancleley, agent for a
Marseilles house, invited Mr. Duncan and
myself to dinner. On arriving at the

FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY. 47
French fort, a salute was fired by order of
the agent.
Oct. 5th. — This morning on proceeding First visit
to the beach, I found my baggage landed by viceroy.
the canoes of the French agents. On my
return from this necessary preliminary, I
visited the viceroy, Avhom I found in a court
yard, in the centre of a large enclosure of
innumerable huts ; he was seated on a mat,
whilst in front of him were some old chairs
for ourselves ; accompanying, were the
French agent, and, by the viceroy's desire,
the agent of the British fort.
The Viceroy of Whydah, or Ee-a-voo-gan
(minister for white men), is a tall, over-fat
black, with a jovial heavy cast of coun
tenance. He wore a large English cotton
cloth round his loins, his only article of
dress ; round his neck were strings of coral
and other beads, and on his wrists bracelets
of iron.
Oct. Gth. — At 9 a.m., the viceroy sent Second
T , -. . . , . i ' i • v's't t0 t'ie
to request 1 would visit him and explain viceroy.
my wishes. On arriving, Mr. Duncan and

48 FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY.
myself were ushered into a small apart
ment, and this time took an efficient in
terpreter, "the Black Governor appointed
by the king to the English fort." The
viceroy was in a particularly good humour.
Having explained to him that I was the
bearer of a letter from the naval com
mander-in-chief to the king, he received a
signet ring and despatched a messenger
with it to Abomey, and offered clear water
and liqueurs ; after which the interview
came to an end in a complimentary con
versation. Oct. 1th. — This evening a little acting
was indulged in by a Brazilian slave dealer,
who came to explain to us that he was
charged with giving information to the
men-of-war ; finding nothing else would
answer, I peremptorily ordered him from
the fort.
The vice- Oct. 8th.— The viceroy called in state.
roy's state _ _ J
Preceding him were about forty soldiers
armed with muskets ; next came his stool of
office and two banners; then theee a-voo-gan
on horseback, supported by two attendants,

visit.

FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY. 49
followed by a band of discordant music.
Fie was dressed in a very fine country cloth,
and wore on his arms armlets of silver,
reaching from the wrist to the elbow, em
bossed with the lion of England and the
heads of George the Third and his queen.
He had no sooner entered the yard than he
ordered his soldiers to salute me, by keep
ing up an independent fire during the inter
view. The conversation was purely compli
mentary ; and, after drinking wine, liqueur,
and beer, he took leave. According to the
custom of the country, I accompanied my
visitor for a little distance on his road.
Although Da Souza died in May, the The r>a
customs to his memory are not yet closed, f0°^_a cus"
and the town is still in a state of ferment.
Three hundred of the amazons are daily
in the square, firing and dancing ; bands
of fetish people parade the streets, headed
by Guinea-fowls, fowls, ducks, goats, pi
geons, and pigs, on poles, alive for sacri
fice. Much rum is distributed, and all
night there is shouting, firing, and dancing.
VOL. I. E

slavers.

50 FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY.
Oct. 9th. — One of the slave merchants,
a native of Madeira, called. While in con
versation with him at the window of the
fort, some of the crew of a captured slaver
passed, and became extremely abusive ; their
attention was attracted by a Krooman, who
had climbed the flag-staff, to look out for
Her Majesty's ship Kingfisher.
Procession Oct. 10th. — The town Avas much dis-
to milt turbed, not only by the continuance of the
Da Souza custom, but also by the caboo
ceers' going forth to meet a supercargo of a
slave vessel, who has this day landed. The
procession Avas by no means unpicturesque.
First came the junior cabooceers, headed
by their armed retainers, and insignia and
flags, each followed by a band, mounted,
under a huge umbrella ; lastly, the viceroy.
This, excepting the richness of dresses and
ornament, and the convenience of sedan-
chairs, is precisely the etiquette of a
Chinese official procession. After much
firing, they proceeded to the grand fetish
tree ; and, having performed a ceremony,

FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY. 51
retired to their houses. In the evening Message
i n p a i i fr°m the
the messenger returned from Abomey, and king.
the viceroy's head man accompanied him.
On arriving in the hall, they prostrated
and kissed the ground, and then handed
to me a gold-headed Malacca cane, Avhich
Avas explained to be my protection, adding,
that his majesty commanded Mr. Duncan
and myself to repair to Abomey at our ear
liest convenience. Having rewarded the
messenger, he retired, whilst we began to
think OATer our preparations.
Oct. 11th. — Prepared for the journey, by prepara-
purchasing fifty heads of coAvries, valued at
fifty dollars. Each head contains, 2,000 coav-
ries, and ten heads form a load for a woman.
Thus, to carry fifty dollars, we had to hire
five Avomen ! We next purchased fifty
gallons of rum, Avhich Avere placed in twenty
kegs, and required ten women to carry them.
Two pieces of silk as a present for the king
and some cloths for his ministers, con
cluded our purchases. Hired twenty-six
hammock-men, and sixteen men and twenty

our jour
ney.

52 FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY.
women to carry our baggage. These people
are what is termed "subsisted" at two
strings of coAvries (eighty) a day, and, ac
cording to their Avork are rewarded with a
present Avhen it is concluded. My travelling
dress in Africa was always a flannel blouse
and trowsers, and straw hat. A small quan
tity of camphor in a bag, and a feAv pieces
in a goose-quill to put in the mouth in
crossing a swamp, unless already occupied
by one of an invariable supply of cigars,
completed my stores. The canteen con
tained all necessary articles for dinner and
tea for two ; and a liqueur-case was also
supplied Avith glass. The hammock, which
is carried on the heads of two men by
means of a pole, was stored with a pillow,
a change of clothes, a book, and some
lime-juice, a camp bed, and two camp
stools, and money in the native currency.
Isidore, the eldest son of the late Da Souza,
called.
Commence Oct. 12th. — Having made all our ar-
our jour- °
ney. rangements, and sent on the baggage, at

FROM AVHYDAH TO ABOMEY. 53
1 P. m. we started. According to etiquette,
we had to call upon the viceroy, Avho asked
for the king's stick. On receiving it, he
prostrated and kissed the dust, then re
turned it, and told me that the stick Avas
sufficient protection, but, as an additional
escort, he gave me his " hand and foot,"
his head man Narwhey (Avhom I have
since discovered to be the greatest rascal
I ever met, as future Journals Avill illus
trate). He then asked me if I Avas de
sirous of the black interpreter, Mr.  ,
mentioned before, to accompany me. I
told him, No ; that he was a Avell-knoAvn
spy of Domingo Martins, and a very unfit
companion ; that he had never asked me, but
when in my hammock, leaving the fort, he
had told me he was going to Abomey ; to
Avhich I replied, that he should not accom
pany me.
Besides Mr. Duncan and myself, the in- Madikithe
terpreter, Mark Lemon, rode in hammocks, ant.
Mark Lemon is the grandson of an English
corporal of the fort in Governor James's
E 3

54 FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY.
time, and noAv commandant for the king
of Dahomey. Time has changed his name ;
the Lemon is seldom heard, and the Mark
has become Dahomanised into Madiki: a
poor simple-minded man, holding the king
of Dahomey in the light of a god. Passing
through a flat country, overrun with grass
(but in the season burnt doAvn and planted
Avith corn), interspersed Avith a few palm-
oil plantations, at a distance of five miles
Ave halted during a thunder- storm at the
savee. toAvn of Savee. This town was formerly
the capital of the kingdom of Greigwei, and
the seat of trade ; one hundred and fifty
years since, the site of the foreign forts,
which were aftenvarcls removed to Whydah.
Let it not be supposed, in speaking of cities
and towns, that these are intersected by
streets or ornamented by public buildings.
Except a royal residence, all buildings are
similar ; and a cluster of enclosures forms,
according to the ground it occupies, a city,
a toAvn, or a village. Savee has one pecu
liarity: in Whydah all the houses are of

FROM AVHYDAH TO ABOMEY. 55
clay ; in Savee, of palm-branches, and very
low. So soon as the tornado had passed,
Ave journeyed on to Toree, five miles further, Toree.
passing through a well-Avooded country.
At Toree, a large fair is held on every
fourth day, Avhere goods are exchanged,
and passed into the interior. The town is
small and has no prominent feature. Nar
whey has a large farm there, at which we
slept for the night. What Avas my surprise
to find my black friend, Mr.  , arrived
before me, and now facetiously prominent
in assisting me from my hammock. Calling
Narwhey to me, I explained to him that I
should start on the morrow at six a. m., and
that Mr.  might go at five or seven, but
not with me, and that if he attempted to do
so, I should forcibly eject him from my
party. This man attended Mr. Cruikshanks
on his mission, and, as my interpreter (who
Avas there also) informs me, corresponded
nightly with Da Souza, the eminent slave
merchant. Oct. 16th. — Leaving Toree, the country Azohwee.
E 4

56 FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY.
is more open until, after a journey of about
five miles, you arrive at the village of
AzoliAvee, surrounded by a forest of gigantic
trees, filled Avith monkeys of all sizes. In
this forest the absence of all birds, by a
freak of nature, Avas supplied by thousands
of butterflies of every hue and most pleas
ing to the eye, whilst the air Avas redolent
of the perfume of a thousand flowers as
beautiful as they Avere fragrant. At noon
we entered Allahdah, a city twenty-four
Allahdah. miles distant from Whydah, holding a
palace, the wall of which, about a mile and
a half square, encloses many houses, one of
which, alone, standing over the gateway, is
two stories high. Here I felt I had entered
the kingdom of Dahomey. Looking over
the Avail of the palace, Avas the skull of one
Avho, too curious, had sought a taste of the
pleasures of the mysteries within, now a
ghastly warning to sensualists. In the
square of the palace stood some fine forest
trees, Avhile a row of small trees in the
centre bore each a human skull and jaAv-

TROAI WHYDAH TO ABOMEY. 57
bone ; three trees, standing apart from the
rest, bore the bleached remains of three
brothers, whose story is thus related : —
What is remarkable in Africa (Avhere there
is a multiplicity of Avives), the three
brothers Avere born by one father and one
mother. AVhen the king of Dahomey made
war upon Greigwei (years lang syne), one
of these brothers was found slightly
wounded on the road, and beheaded as an
example to others. This act of tyranny
so enraged the brothers, that they de
manded death or release from the ranks,
and received the former. As a military
example, their skulls bleach, Avhilst the
tale is told by every urchin. Each mi- The cam-
nister possesses a house in the toAvn, and house.6 S
we occupied that of the treasurer (Cam-
boodee). It Avas a mere shell, entirely
bare of furniture, and the Avails clamp and
green. With the shades of evening came
flights of vampire bats that almost dark
ened the sky, and swarms of Turkey
buzzards, so ravenous and daring that

58 FROM AVHYDAH TO ABOMEY.
they almost fought with our servants in
the court-yard for the entrails of the fowls.
During the day the bats may be seen
hanging in clusters on the tall cotton trees,
where the Turkey buzzards sit and sleep
away their repletion, to which their active
duties as the scavengers of town and
country subject them. Not a scrap of
animal remains escapes them, whether fresh
or swarming with insect life. In the even
ing the king's Avives sent us a present
of palm-oil soup and dab-a-dab ; in return
for which we sent the royal ladies some
rum.
The market The market of Allahdah is by no means
of Allah-
dah. large, but very cheap. Eggs are sold at
400 for a dollar ; oranges, Avhich grow in
great quantities, at 2,000 the dollar ; whilst
eight fowls can be bought for a similar
sum. Immediately in the vicinity of the
town, the ground is under high cultivation,
but is soon lost in forest and bush. On
entering Allahdah, is a large cleared square,
in Avhich are the fetish houses ; on leaving

FROM AVHYDAII TO ABOMEY. 59
it, is seen a battery of fifteen guns of all
sizes, lying uselessly on the ground, Avith-
out carriages.
Oct. lAth. — At 7 a.m. we proceeded on Park-like
our journey, and walked through a beautiful
undulating park-like country, studded with
magnificent trees — sycamores 130 feet high,
and the huge giant cotton with its enor
mous girt of root spreading over 40 square
feet. The A'ariety of flower Avas remark
able, and, together with the brilliant and
varied colours of the butterflies, rendered
the scene at once fragrant and beautiful.
No one that has not travelled in Dahomey
will believe the beauty of its scenery.
Africa is considered generally as " a wild
expanse of lifeless sand and sky," and not
supposed to offer so romantic and beautiful
a country, Avhere large clusters of grapes,
rough in skin, but palatable in taste, grow
on all sides. The first halt Avas at the
village of Doonoo, Avhich, though small,
supported a large blacksmith's shed, in
which the " cunning men " were indus-

60 FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY.
triously fashioning rude hoes. At Atoogoo,
another small village, we felled a tree, in
tending to have it removed to Whydah as
a flagstaff for the fort ; and thence, passing
the village of Assegwee on the right, ar
rived at the town of HaATee, boasting a
royal residence in a very dilapidated state,
and a grand fetish house, fancifully painted.
Passing the village of Togoh to the right,
we soon entered the town of Wybahgon or
Whygon, fifty miles from Whydah, and
took up our quarters in a fetish house.
Here each farm is supplied Avith a separate
granary, raised, as in England, on sup
porters ; and cultivation, as usual, extends
to a little distance round each toAvn or
village. Many clusters of wild pine-apple
and bananas ornament the road. From
this toAvn our course deviated from north
to north-east, in order to avoid a large
swamp which Avas impassable, and which
added a circuit of twenty miles to our jour
ney from the coast of Abomey.
Forest Oct. 15th — Started at 7 a.m., and passed
country. ' J-

FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY. 61
over an undulating forest country, present- Absence
° J ' _r of stone.
ing, for the first time on our journey,
stones. Not a pebble is to be found for
fifty miles inland of Whydah. The soil
o\Ter that extent of country is a stiff red
loam ; but even to the depth of Avells of 100
feet there are no pebbles ; and granite, for
grinding, and stones for pounding foo-foo,
are procured from the mountains of Kong,
and carried on men's heads to Whydah, a
distance of about 200 miles. EA^ery kind
of burden is carried on their heads, nor
have they much idea of the division of
labour in slinging a large article. On our
march we have passed thousands carrying
goods to and fro, and noticed hardly a
single instance of the use of slings for
heavy burdens.
As we advanced, ironstone, sandstone,
and conglomerate, increased, until lost in
the oozy soil of a deep vegetable swamp, in
a large forest, formerly the bed of a river,
and leaving very little doubt of its being passthe
(beloAv) a coal deposit. Such a country fwTmp.

62 FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY.
seems marked for railway enterprise. If
coal can be procured at will, there is timber
enough to make sleepers, for all the chemins
de fer in the world, and iron ore sufficient
for every kind of machinery. The land is
capable of producing any and every thing.
Gold is found in the neighbouring state of
Ashantee, and doubtless may be traced
here. Quartz is common in the Kong
Mountains ; diamonds and other precious
stones might repay enterprise. Although
Ave made a circuit, we did not altogether
clear the swamp, but passed several soft
patches, in the centre of which was a
market called Massee, providing for the
Avants of travellers. At the village of
Ilomee we halted an hour ; and arriving
at Sequeh, were met by a king's messenger,
who came to inquire how we had passed
the SAvamp. At 5 p. m. we halted in a
large market called Troo-boo-doo, twenty-
four miles from Abomey, and took up our
quarters in one of the stalls. As it was
not market-day, Mr. Duncan shot some

FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY. 63
doves, Avhich supplied the place of fowls.
Game is plentiful all along the road.
Guinea-fowl, bush-fowl, and partridges haA'e
been calling along our route. The forests
abound in deer, pigs, monkeys ; besides
Avild beasts, as leopards and wolves. The
patakoos, as the avoIvcs are called, are
heard howling all night long in Abomey,
Whydah, and all towns on our route ; but
the fear of the deadly cobras, Avhich are
extremely numerous, deters the native
from warring against the wolves in their
Avild haunts, and he is content to trap
them in large square traps, like gigantic
models of the ingenious little machines,
by which sparrows are caught by English
boys. Oct. 16th. — Started at 7 a. m. for Cannah Arrive at
, ™ x t-v • i • Cannah,
Mmah (Cannah). During the previous
part of the journey, I have remarked the
absence of the feathered tribe except the
police of Dahomey, the disgusting Turkey
buzzard. But now the plains of Cannah
are gay with birds of beautiful and

64 FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY.
magnificent plumage, of the most brilliant
scarlet. " Thick swarm the brighter birds ; for Nature's hand,
That with a sportive vanity has decked
The plumy nations, there her gayest hues
Profusely pours. But, if she bids them shine
Arrayed in all the beauteous beams of day,
Yet, frugal still, she humbles them in song."
Thomson.
Oh for a bird-stuffer ! What ought not
a traveller to be ? And what does he not
lose by not having studied these necessary
arts ? At half-past 8 we entered the
straggling beautiful city of Cannah by
passing a pretty brook, situated in a pic
turesque bosquet. Cannah covers about
six square miles of ground ; in it are four
palaces of large extent, and each house
has its piece of ground under cultivation
dividing it from its neighbours. Here
commences a broad clean road, as wide
as any high road in England, leading
to Abomey, with branch roads, equally
good, approaching the palaces. The
market is very extensive, occurring as,

FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY. 65
usual Avith all large markets in Dahomey,
once in four days. There is a sereneness
about this spot that leads the ideas far
from Africa. The views are beautiful ; the
dAvellings clean, neat, and quiet. Num
bers of aged of both sexes speak of peace ;
for Avhile the hordes of the monarch and
his nobles carry war and devastation into
all the neighbouring countries, Cannah
(formerly the capital of Fay, then called
Dawee), conquering Abomey, has retained
a peace of upwards of 200 years. The
cultivation in the neighbourhood rivals
that of the Chinese.
All visitors halt at Cannah, and report
their arrival by messengers. Having, in
pursuance of this custom, selected a mes
senger, NarAvhey prostrated himself, and
then received our sticks (three in number,
for the sable go\rernor sends his also), and,
presenting them to the messenger, charged
him Avith our greeting to the king. All our
party had arrived, to the number of one
hundred, and Ave now occupied the trea
surer's house. As at Allahdah, it Avas bare
VOL. I. F

66 FROM WHYDAH TO ABOMEY.
of furniture, and very damp. Soon after
our arrival we were presented Avith clean
water, and a present of about a hundred
weight of food from the royal wives. The
palaces at Cannah are vast enclosures, en
tered only and inhabited by the females,
Avives, amazons, and slaves of the king.
In the walls of each are covered entries or
gates, at which the monarch receives
visitors ; and a guard supervises the ingress
and egress of the inhabitants. In the
afternoon our messenger returned, com
manding us to rise early and proceed to
Abomey, and the mayo's stick soon after
followed, with compliments.

67

PART II.
ABOMEY, ITS COURT AND ITS PEOPLE.
Thus, in rather less than four clays, Ave had The road
from
completed our journey from the coast to Cannah to
within sight of the capital of Dahomey.
It Avas with not little eagerness that I rose
at the earliest dawn, and, after taking a
light breakfast, proceeded sloAvly along the
broad road that led to the gates of the great
city. On both sides of the way Avere se
veral small villages, and cultivation Avas
both abundant and good. Palm-oil trees,
corn, and beans abounded, and many a
noble tree of that strange kind Avhence the
Shea butter is made by the natives. Of
these trees one struck me in particular,
with its thick foliage like the evergreen
oak, and its profusion of butter-nuts, as
large as pigeons' eggs, coArered Avith a pala
table pulp. On either side of the highway,
roads branch off to the several palaces, in-

fences.

68 ABOMEY, ITS COURT
eluding that of Bah-dah-hoong the residence
of the heir-apparent to the Dahoman crown.
Of the villages, that of Leffle-foo is peopled
with captive Anagoos, the name of one of
whose provinces it bears, under the controul
of a Dahoman cabooceer, and is justly re
markable for the superiority of its cultiva
tion and the industry of its denizens.
The city of Within about a quarter of a mile of the
and its'de- city gates, on either side of the road, under
sheds, stand a couple of tAVO-and-thirty-
pounder carronades. From thence, to the
very gates, the road is lined by the Fetish
houses, numbering more than sixty. To
the left is seen, on the outskirts of a copse,
a palace, surrounded by a high red clay
Avail. No visitor can enter Abomey with
out a sensation of disappointment in the
Avant of grandeur, and disgust at the ghastly
ornaments of its gateway. The city is
about eight miles in circumference, sur
rounded by a ditch, about five feet deep,
filled Avith the prickly acacia, its only de
fence. It is entered by six gates, which are
simply clay walls crossing the road, Avith

'To face page oy yv,

THE G-ATES OF DAEOMEY

AND ITS PEOPLE. 69
two apertures, one reserved for the king,
the other a thoroughfare for his subjects.
In each aperture are two human skulls ;
and on the inside a pile of skulls, human,
and of all the beasts of the field, even to
the elephant's. Besides these six gates,
the ditch, Avhich is of an oval form,
branches off, at each side the north-west
gate, to the north and north-west, and over
each branch is a similar gateAvay, for one
only purpose — to mislead an enemy in a
night attack. In the centre of the city
are the palaces of Dange-lah-cordeh and
Agrim-gomeh, adjoining; on the north stands
the original palace of Dahomey ; about these,
and to the south gate, are houses, the most
conspicuous of which are those of the mi
nisters. In front of Agrim-gomeh is an ex
tensive square, in Avhich are the barracks and
a high shed or palaver house, a saluting
battery of fifteen guns, and a stagnant pond.
Just inside the south-east gate (the Can
nah) are a saluting battery and pond, and
numerous blacksmiths' shops. The roads or
streets are in good order ; and, though there
F 3

70 ABOMEY, ITS COURT
are not any shops, the want of them is
supplied by two large markets — Ah-jah-ee,
to the eastward of the central palace, at
once a market, parade, and sacrificial
ground ; and Hung-jooloh, just outside the
south gate. Besides these are several smaller
markets, the stalls of which are all owned, and
are generally attended, by women, the Avives
of all classes and orders, from the miegans to
the blacksmiths. The fetish houses are nu
merous, and ridiculously ornamented. Cloths
are manufactured within the palaces and
houses. The only other manufacture is in
a pottery, which, with a dye-house, is a royal
monopoly, inasmuch as the royal Avives
Avork them ; and none may approach the fac
tory. Within the city are large Avaste lands
and many cultivated farms. There are no
regular streets, and it is difficult for a Euro
pean to imagine himself in the capital of a
large country, as all the houses are sur
rounded by high red clay Avails, which en
close large forest trees, besides orange,
banana, and other fruit trees. All the
houses are low and thatched, and one only,

AND ITS PEOPLE. 71
in the palace of Dange-lah-cordeh, and one
in that of Cumassee, can boast of two stories.
Leaving the south gate, the traveller passes
through the toAvn of Beh-kon, occupied
principally by the palaces of Cumassee and
Ahgon-groo, and the houses of the ministers ;
Avhilst from the south-Avest gate the road
leads to another royal palace. The Daho
man capital is, in fact, entirely unprotected
by its walls and gates, and built in the most
ill-judged of positions for so large a city.
For a distance of five miles on every side
there is no water. Passing out of the north
gate, the traveller soon arrives at a most
beautiful point of view. Standing on an emi
nence of some hundred feet, a fertile Aralley
lies stretched at his feet, bounded in the ex
treme north-west by the lofty summits of the
Dab- a-Dab hills, tinged with blue, and loom
ing larger from the distant vieAV. Here and
there about this fertile plain are small oozy
reservoirs of Avater, from which the sole sup
ply of that necessary element is obtained for
the populous city. With so scanty and pre
carious a supply, it may be well supposed
F 4l

72 ABOMEY, ITS COURT
that fresh Avater is a luxury in Abomey,
and the cry of " Seedagbee" (good Avater)
as constant as the " Agua de Lisboa " of
the Gallegos in Portugal. On the north
eastern side of the capital the farms are
dependant solely on the rain-water collected
during the rainy season, and secured in deep
pits smeared on the inside Avith palm-oil,
whence it is draAvn off into earthen vessels,
and thus stored up Avithin the houses until
the return of the rainy period.
Prepar- Within a short distance of the royal re-
ation for
our first sidence we halted at the house of a friend
interview
with the of our interpreter's, where we dressed m
our full uniforms, and then moved fonvard
to some shady trees to aAvait the arrival of
the cabooceers who were to conduct us to
the royal presence. In our rear Avere ar
ranged our followers, hammockmen, and a
croAvd of Dahoman spectators. About/ a
quarter of a mile from us stood a vast
assembly of cabooceers and soldiers, with
umbrellas of state, flat-topped, and orna
mented like those of the Chinese, and ban
ners of every hue and most varied devices.

brother.

AND ITS PEOPLE. 73
Besides the Dahoman standards, each of
Avhich was ornamented by a human skull,
floated the national flags of France, Eng
land, Portugal, and Brazil, Avhilst every
cabooceer had his oavti particular pennon.
The first chief Avho advanced from this visits from
cabooceers
gay crowd of cabooceers was Boh-peh, the and king's
governor of the capital, dressed in a country
cloth Avrapped round his body, a slouched
hat, necklaces of coral and other beads, and
armed with a handsome sword. Behind
him came a retinue of soldiers, his standard,
his umbrella of state, and his stool of rank ;
and, lastly, a band of most discordant music.
Arrived in front of our position, he bowed,
and then marched, from right to left, round
our seats three times, completing each cir
cuit Avith a low obeisance. On his third
round he discharged three muskets and
danced a short measure, then advanced and
shook hands, and seated himself on his stool
of office, Avhich its bearer had placed on
my right hand. Ah-hoh-peh, the king's
brother, and Gaseh-doh, the chief of the
cabooceers of Abomey, followed Avith

74 ABOMEY, ITS COURT
similar attendants and ceremonies. When
the Avhole party was seated, a body of the
royal household, having half their heads
shaved, took position in front, and sang a
hymn of Avelcome to us. They were
shoAvily dressed in scarlet trimmed with
yelloAv beads and other ornaments, AATith
their heads covered by silver caps, some
of which were distinguished by a pair of
small silver horns, such as are commonly
worn in the northern parts of Africa, and
especially in Abyssinia. In his right hand
each carried a horse-tail whip, with which
he beat time to the air of the chant.
Next advanced Poh-veh-soo and his
party of blunderbuss-men, Avho, after pas
sing round us three times, fired a salute.
Poh-veh-soo, as Avill be seen in a future
journal, is at once a military officer, court-
fool, and headsman, — the latter office no
sinecure. So soon as Ave had completed
the usual ceremony of drinking healths, we
entered our hammocks, and, joining pro
cession after the cabooceers and their
levees, amid the firing of muskets, blunder-

*

H b

.it;

t .i l,A M'S?

¦ **- 1
V

THE RECEPTION OF THE "AH-HAUSSOO - INOH - BEH".
UR"QUt,LrJS M0uTH6"

AND ITS PEOPLE. 75
busses, and short brass guns, marched to
the palace square.
The Avails of the palace of Dange-lah- Present-
cordeh are surmounted, at a distance of ki'ng at the
twenty feet, Avith human skulls, many of Dange-iah.
which ghastly ornaments time has decayed,
and the Avind bloAvn clown. Happy omen !
they are not replaced. The square of the
palace was filled with armed people, seated
on their hams, the polished barrels of their
Danish muskets standing up like a forest.
Under a thatched gateway Avas the king,
surrounded by his immediate wives ; while
on each side sat the amazons, all in uniform,
armed, and accoutred ; and in the centre of
the square squatted the males. Hundreds
of banners =and umbrellas enlivened the
scene, and a constant firing from great
guns and small arms increased the excite
ment. When near the king's seat we came to a
halt, while the cabooceers bowed down and
kissed the dust. Passing before the throne,
we bowed and made the circuit of the
square three times, the cabooceers pros-

76 ABOMEY, ITS COURT
trating, and ourselves repeating our obei
sances each time that we passed the royal
seat. On the third time, the ministers and
cabooceers formed a line to the king's posi
tion ; and, as we stept from our hammocks,
the king, who had been reclining, rose,
and forty discordant bands struck up a
quick step, Avhilst guns Avere fired, and all
shouted except the ministers and cabooceers,
Avho prostrated themselves and threw dirt
on their heads as Ave advanced and shook
hands Avith the king. His Dahoman Majesty,
King Gezo, is about forty-eight years of
age, good-looking, with nothing of the
negro feature, his complexion wanting
several shades of being black ; his appear
ance commanding, and his countenance
intellectual, though stern in the extreme.
That he is proud there can be no doubt,
for he treads the earth as if it were
honoured by its burden. Were it not for
a slight cast in his eye, he Avould be a
handsome man. Contrasted Avith the gaudy
attire of his ministers, Avives, and caboo
ceers (of every hue, and laden Avith coral,

AND ITS PEOPLE. 77
gold, silver, and brass ornaments), the
king was plainly dressed, in a loose robe
of yellow silk slashed with satin stars and
half-moons, Mandingo sandals, and a
Spanish hat trimmed Avith gold lace ; the
only ornament being a small gold chain of
European manufacture.
Taking our seats on chairs facing the
royal mat, we entered into a complimen
tary conversation, the king asking many
questions about our sovereign and Eng
land, and afterwards of Messrs. Freeman,
Cruikshanks, and Wynniett, Avho had pre
ceded us at his court. The ministers were
then introduced by name, and Ave all drank
together. Next, about forty cabooceers Avere
similarly introduced.
The English mother was noAV pointed
out (for this arrangement see journal of
the customs), and we were placed under
her care.
His Majesty, having asked me if I Avould Review
/•i of the
wish to see a review of the amazons, to Amazons.
Avhich I acquiesced Avith delight, ordered
three regiments to be paraded. The

78 ABOMEY, ITS COURT
ground was changed, the men falling back,
and a square was marked out for the re
view. One regiment was distinguished by
a Avhite cap Avith tAVo devices (blue alliga
tors), another by a blue cross, Avhile the
third had a blue crown. The officers were
recognised by their coral necklaces and
superior dresses ; Avhile each carried a
small Avhip, Avhich they freely plied Avhen
required. After being inspected, they
commenced an independent firing, whilst
at intervals, rushing from their ranks, many
of them would advance to the foot of the
throne, address the king, hold aloft their
muskets, and then return and fire them.
Durinp; the review the ministers assembled
on the left of the king. On his right were
some high officers of the amazons in uni
form and neat accoutrements, performing
their offices about the king's person : one
held a silver spittoon, another the royal hat,
a third the club, — a handsome ebony
stick ornamented with silver; one pro
claimed the conquests of the Dahoman
army, Avhile two, as heralds, with long

AND ITS PEOPLE. 79
trumpets, blew a blast, and then blazoned
forth the numerous names of Gezo, the
king of kings. Immediately in rear of the
kins; sat the "Light of the Harem," under a
handsome crimson and gold parasol ; around
her many an envious maid, Avhose turn it
might be soon to be thus honoured. Their
dresses were more gaudy than rich, orna
mented Avith coral and glittering beads.
The king having asked us to drink, rose,
Avith his glass in hand, and tapped each of
ours ; then there thundered forth a salute
of guns, almost drowned by the shouts of
the multitude. The ministers and caboo
ceers danced, and the eunuchs and ladies
held cloths before the king. Men must
not see the king eat or drink.
When the firing was over, Ahpolpoo-nomeh
and Hie-tengah, the colonels, and many
amazon officers, were introduced, and drank
our health ; in return, I gave them two
kegs of rum. The chief of Dassa was then
introduced : he was a prisoner on parole,
the same chief that was uncivil to Mr. Dun
can on his travels. We now took leave ;

80 ABOA1EY, ITS COURT
the king, in compliment, seeing us on our
road. As he stept forth, the Avhole crowd
rose as a man, fired off their muskets, and
shouted ; the din and noise was conse
quently terrific. They then closed round
the king, whilst the bands played a quick
, step. When Ave had arrived at the end of
the square he took leaAre, shaking hands
and snapping alternate fingers and thumbs
thrice. The mayo's retinue continued firing,
shouting, dancing, and singing all the Avay
to our residence in the mayo's enclosure — a
small neat house in a retired part, having
tAvo orange-trees and a kitchen enclosed in
a yard, and hence private.
No king could have been more civil or
more condescending ; yet, in all it was
observable, that the visit of Avhite men, and
show of reception, amused his people and
enhanced his own greatness in their ideas.
In the journal of the customs the power
of this king will be illustrated : suffice it
here to say, as a military chief he is feared
by all his neighbours, and the terror of his
name is the strongest tie he has, and effects

AND ITS PEOPLE. 81
far more than the strength of his army ever
could. Africans haAre but a poor means of
counting ; and, although their memory is
retentive, cannot retain numbers, and be
yond a thousand they have but little
idea. These soldiers being yearly at war,
have gained a fame that, if fairly tried,
would soon be found wanting.
Oct. 18th. — Having made up my present Presents to
(Mr. Duncan had made his on a former
visit), I sent it to the king, Avith a message
to say, that I had landed unaAvares, but had
collected a small present at Whydah. It was
graciously received. I sent a small dona
tion also to the miegan, the prime minister,
mayo, grand vizier, camboodee, treasurer,
agaow, general-in-chief, e-a-wal, English
mother, Avith similar messages.
Daylight had scarcely broken when, one interview
after another, in came the sticks of the king.
king, and every man of note in the town,
even to Hee-tou-gee, the siloe's smith, in
quiring after our health. Each Avas carried
by tAvo or three men ; and as each man
VOL. I. G

82 ABOMEY, ITS COURT

required a glass of raw rum, and these in
quiries are repeated every morning, in a
long sojourn they become a great nuisance
and a great expense. After breakfasting
early by command, by 8 o'clock Ave were
in full uniform in the palace square, Avhich
was now clear. The mayo immediately
left us to be gazed upon by a collecting
crowd, and to report our arrival to the
king. In about half an hour, the great
gate Avas thrown open, and, passing through
an inner court, we were ushered into the
entree of a small room, ornamented with
military arms and accoutrements. On a
bed, covered Avith a very handsome mat,
reclined the king. In the room were the
female ministers squatted on the ground ;
while, as we advanced and the king rose,
the male ministers — the mayo, camboodee,
caoupeh, and Toonoonoo — prostrated and
kissed the dust. Having shaken hands,
Ave became seated, and the ministers rose
from their degrading and disgusting posi
tion to take their actual station, Avithout

AND ITS PEOPLE. 83
whose concurrence the king cannot act.
It is extraordinary that Avhile the miegan
and the mayo wallow in the mud in the
royal presence, they haAre, if united, actually
more power than their sodesque.
After many compliments, his Majesty Conversa
tion with
requested me to read the commander-in- the king.
chief's letter. Handing it to him, he broke
the seal and returned it. I then read its
contents piecemeal, so that the interpreters
might the better explain it. His Majesty
listened atteinxvely ; and then explained
that he was not accompanied by those
officers Avho should form members of so
serious a palaver, but if I would attend his
Customs, he Avould give an answer. He
then dictated a letter to the commander-in-
chief, in Avhich he promised to give me an
answer at the Customs. Asking if we in
tended to visit the market, he ordered ten
heads of coAvries to be sent with us to pur
chase articles with.
Mr. Duncan asked the king if he could The fate of
Dr. Dick-
acquaint him with the fate of Dr. Dickson, son.
a 2

84 ABOMEY, ITS COURT
the fellow-traveller of Clapperton. He in
formed us as follows:— Dr. Dickson ap
peared at my court, accompanied by the
late cha-cha, Da Souza, at whose instance I
furnished him with a guard of sixty men.
After a short stay, during which he had the
fever, and shaved his head, he set out.
Arrived on the frontier, all but four men
returned ; the remainder, under the officers
Ah-moo-soo, Ah-sok-bah, and Boogboo ac
companied Dr. Dickson, through Chah to
Noofee, on the road to Haussa. After
leaving Noofee, all trace was lost, and none
had e\Ter since been heard of. He then ex
plained that he was going, as soon as Ave
left, to Tengee, to make a Custom to the
memory of his mother.
Having drunk the healths of the king of
Dahomey and the queen of England in
champagne, we asked lea\*e to retire, much
pleased Avith the novelty of our intervieAv.
As Ave left the palace gate, hardly a soul
Avas to be seen in the square ; but no sooner
Avas the king outside, than thousands of

AND ITS PEOPLE. 85
armed men flew from all sides and assem
bled, firing and shouting round the mo
narch. On returning to our friend's house,
Ave changed our garments, and Avent to
market and purchased some pottery, dresses,
and country cloths.
Close to the market stands a monument Anagoo
tradition.
to commemorate the subjugation of Anagoo.
In Dahomey there are but few tracts in
Avhich stone is deposited : the Anagoos had
a tradition, which they steadily believed,
that when their enemies removed stones
the country would fall. The Dahomans
conquered them, and fulfilled the prophecy
by causing the Avhole army, each (soldier
and camp follower) to carry a large stone.
Nearly all are granite in different stages of
formation. Several of the royal family
called, not Avithout expecting and receiving
a present. Oct. 19tll.  At Six, a table WaS Set OUt- Presents
side our gate by the mayo, Avith wine and king.
refreshments ; and we were invited to listen
to a salute fired. Having drunk the health
G 3

86 ABOMEY, ITS COURT
of his Majesty, soldiers stationed along the
road hurraed, and a royal salute Avas fired ;
folloAved by two salutes of nine each, for
myself and Mr. Duncan. During the royal
salute, a party of the royal Avives passed,
and, headed by the aged minister, we had
to leave the gay and festive scene, and hide
our diminished heads — against a wall !
Immediately after we received his Majesty's
present, consisting of, to each, a bullock,
cloth, ten heads of coAvries, one keg of rum,
one jar of palm oil, one calabash of flour,
one of country soap, one of peppers.
To Madiki, the interpreter, tAvo heads of
cowries, tAvo bottles of rum, one goat, one
calabash of flour, one jar of palm oil. To
Narwhey, two heads of coAvries, one bottle
of rum. To Majelica, head of followers, one
head of cowries, one bottle of rum. To our
kroomen, two heads of cowries ; hammock-
men, two heads, and tAvo bottles of rum.
Besides the aboA^e, every day Ave received
about tAvo bushels of food, palm oil, soaps,
and dab-a-dab, &c. Mr. Duncan presented
the king's weaver Avith a spinning-wheel.

AND ITS PEOPLE. 87
He has the foot of a giant, and is extraor
dinarily clumsy. He has seldom been ab
sent an hour, breaking the threads, leathers,
&c, and drinks an awful quantity of rum.
Many people called ; some bringing one
or two yams as a present, all requiring a
present in return. These presents are a
terrible nuisance : the Avhole system is in
donations, expecting more, at least an equi
valent, and never satisfied. Mr. Duncan is
a proficient on the JeAvs harp ; and several
old friends have called, bringing their in
struments, and asked for new lessons. How
quickly the black ear catches a tune ! One
man, Attah, plays all the old Scotch airs
well. Strange as it may sound, in a barba
rous African country, Avomen are passing
our door, like the gallegos of Lisbon, crying
" See-dag-hee See" (sweet water, Avater).
Close to the mayo's house are the city
shambles. A good supply of meat is killed,
considering the black races do not generally
eat much animal food, " unless when they
have not to pay for it." G 4

88 ABOMEY, ITS COURT
The ease of Qcf_ 20th. — Rose at daylight and packed
the kroo- •* °
men. Our Up, A krooman entered our yard the day
departure. before yesterday, and, giving him in charge
of my head krooman, I sent for the mayo.
By some neglect the man was missed. He
stated, in good English, that he and another
Avere left of the crew of an English mer
chant vessel wrecked on the Popoe coast,
and had been sold into slaArery. No doubt
remained in my mind but that he belonged
to the mayo : Avho as stoutly denied all
knowledge of him, and promised to search
for him. This morning, being ready, the
mayo sent to say we might go. I, knowing
it to be his duty to see us aAvay, sent to
say we were aAvaiting his visit. In answer,
he stated that he was attendant on the
king, and that if Ave wanted to see him
about the kroomen they should be sent
to the Vice- Consulate when discovered.
Fearing lest these men should not be con
sidered as British subjects, I thought it
best to leave the matter for the opinion of
the government, and we left. Mr. Duncan

AND ITS PEOPLE. 89
has been poorly for some days, but to-day
evinced symptoms of suffering from dysen
tery. I walked to Cannah, a very pleasant
Avalk, and there Ave halted to collect our
baggage, and give Mr. Duncan rest. It
was market-day ; at the roads leading to
the market stood tax-gatherers, demanding
from five to ten coAvries from all who car
ried goods to sell. Round one of the palace
walls, called Allah whey, was a rope of grass :
this is a fetish against fire.
Oct. 21st. — Arrived at Allahbah, fourteen a ki
miles from Cannah, and near the swamps.
Mr. Duncan very unwell. In the afternoon
a terrible noise dreAv my attention, Avhen,
on examination, I found some of our ham-
mockmen and the townspeople at a Avar of
words. Presently the head of the town
rushed in amongst them, prostrated, kissed
the dust, and, taking his seat on his hams,
all squatted doAvn peaceably, scarcely a
moment after. NarAvhey arrived too late ;
and in a terrible passion he rushed on one
of the hammockmen, and fairly pummelled

ings
court.

90 ABOMEY, ITS COURT
him ; while the head man called to him to
desist, and that his conduct was contempt
of court. He fell back among the crowd,
a quiet but enraged spectator. The cause
was this : my kroomen had given one ham-
mockman twelve strings of coAvries to buy
a large fowl, and the hammockman had paid
eight. The woman, hearing that twelve
had been given, after the fowl was killed
demanded restitution or the money. A
squabble ensued ; and, lest the narwhey
should take up the case, the head man of
the town proclaimed a king's court, over
Avhich he alone, in his district, is judge.
Several of the villagers made speeches, and
condemned Narwhey's conduct. After fully
proving the charge, in consideration of the
prisoner being the servant of a Avhite man,
he was let off Avith paying the whole sum
to the woman. The judge again kissed
the dust, the hammock-men knelt and
clapped hands in token of submission, then
all kissed the dust and separated, and the
king's court was thus dissolved.

AND ITS PEOPLE. 91
Oct. 22nd. — Reached Whyboo, having A"1™1 at
J ° Whyboo.
crossed the swamp. Passed a man Avrapt
from head to foot in a cloth, and guarded.
His guards told me he Avas " sick." At the
sight of him the hammockmcn ran into
the bush, and beckoned me to do the same,
and I was warned off in the king's name.
This was either a culprit sent for commit
ment to Abomey, or a captured slave ; I
should infer the former.
Oct. 26rd. — Reached Allahdah; where
upon the governor sent me a present of two
fowls, tAvelve eggs, six yams, and some
clean water.
Oct. 2Ath. — Reached Torree. Mr. Dun
can very ill. Sent to the British agent to
beg he would not salute when we arrived.
Visited the cabooceer, who was engaged
with fetish men making a chair.
Oct. 25th. — Arrived at Whydah, the
British fort. Mr. Duncan immediately
Avent to bed Avith, what we thought and
treated him for, dysentery.
Visited the viceroy, who prostrated be
fore the king's stick. Having hired a house

92 ABOMEY, ITS COURT
in the town, I had scarcely retired to it
Avhen I was astonished to hear twenty-one
guns fired from the British fort ; and for
what, forsooth ? In honour of a present
given by Domingo Jose" Martins to the king,
of thirty puncheons of rum : a distribution
in all to the value of 5,000$, to the king,
cabooceers, the late Da Souza's family, and
people. Three pipes were run in the public
square for the mob to wallow in.
Oct. 26th. — Domingo Jose Martins sent
Mr.  , the " black " before alluded to,
with his compliments, to offer me anything
his house afforded. Signor Tacinta de
Rodriguez, the Madeira merchant, was very
kind in assisting me to make up medicines
for Mr. Duncan.
Jose Mar- Oct. 27 th.— Called to thank Martins. His
tins house. house is well furnished, but a mere shoAv-
house, he living in a small place adjoining.
He has a large European garden and fine
orange groAre. He kindly placed his canoe-
men at my disposal, Avhich, as the British
factory have none, I per force gladly ac
cepted.

AND ITS PEOPLE.
Oct. 28th. — Visited the viceroy to take
leave, intending to embark on the arrival
of the first man-of-war. After many de
mands for small articles, on my return I
took leave ; he explaining to me he Avould
acquaint the king with Mr. Duncan's ill
ness, and offering native doctors and medi
cine, if required ; adding, all you white men
are doctors, and the worst of you better
than the best of blacks. On passing from
his house (the grass very high) I observed,
within an inch of my leg, a small lizard
with its eyes fixed. It did not move on
my approach. At the same moment a cobra
darted at it, and before I could raise my
stick, bore it away ; rather a narrow escape
from death.
The peal from the bells of the Portu
guese Catholic church are ringing merrily.
What a pity they are not responded to by
the chimes of the more simple — a Pro
testant — place of worship ! Kingfisher
anchored. Oct. 29th. — Having communicated with
Captain Haiberg, he came on shore accom-

94 ABOMEY, ITS COURT
panied by his surgeon, who decided on
taking Mr. Duncan off at once. Having
procured canoes, we all embarked, not sorry
to be again afloat. Poor Mr. Duncan, Avith
so many old friends (he had taken a pas
sage in the Kingfisher) to Avelcome him,
brightened and appeared for the remainder
of the day almost recovered.
Sail from jj^g Kingfisher fired a royal salute in
Whydah. ° J
Death of bonour of the king of Dahomey, and in
Mr. Dun- ° .
return for the one fired at Abomey in
honour of her Majesty. Mr. Duncan dan
gerously ill. On the arrival this day of her
Majesty's ship Bonetta, I sailed for Sierra
Leone ; where, shortly after, I heard, by the
arrival of a prize taken by her Majesty's
ship Kingfisher, that three clays after em
barkation Mr. Duncan had fallen a victim
to his attack. He died of a liver com
plaint ; the disease aggravated by poison
inhaled in opening the horse of Da Souza.
He Avas a most enterprising man, and
Avorthy of the remembrance of his country
men. By this very prize, the prize crew em-

AND ITS PEOPLE. 95
barking on board, the Bonetta's crew Return to
° ' Whydah.
suffered severely from small-pox; and, after
a trip across the trade Avinds to Ascension,
arrived off Whydah at the time named by
the king for his Customs, the description of
which Avill form the subject of my future
Journals.

96

PART III.
JOURNAL DURING A SOJOURN ON SHORE IN AVHTDAH,
FROM FEBRUARY 27TH TO MARCH 31 ST, AND A DE
SCRIPTION OF WHYDAH.

Return to
AVhydah,
and hire a
house in
the town.

Feb. 21th. — Landed and visited the viceroy.
Was informed that his Majesty was still
at Avar, and the time of his return uncer
tain. That about the time for the march,
several high officers had died, and, paying
respect to their memory, had detained the
army until the latter end of January. When
the king went to war, no one kneAv aught
about his proceedings until he announced
his return, which announcement Avould
come from Cannah ; and as he had been
detained, the probability was the Customs
Avould be put off.
Having explained to the viceroy that, at
the king's desire, I had landed at the time
appointed, to visit him at his Customs, and

SOJOURN AT AVHYDAH. 97
that I bore a suitable present, in the name
of her Majesty, Avhich I had purchased at
Sierra Leone, I told him I should not re-
embark until I had heard of his Majesty's
return, and received the announcement of
some definite period to return on shore.
The viceroy told me his Majesty regretted
much the death of her Majesty's vice-con
sul Duncan, and that immediately he heard
it, he had sent his command to him, order
ing him to proceed to the British fort,
where he had sat a Avhole day while his
retainers fired to Mr. Duncan's memory.
That his Majesty had also sent a large
country cloth, a piece of blue baft, a piece
of Avhite baft, and a piece of handkerchief,
as burial clothes, and six heads of coAvries
to set a table, i. e. a Avake, which articles
had been given to Mr. Aberdeen.
Desiring quiet, and determined to live
regularly, I hired a house in the town in
preference to taking up my quarters at the
fort ; and while my kroomen were getting
it in order, embarked on board her Ma
jesty's ship Kingfisher.
VOL. I. H

98

SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.

Excursion
to Little
Popoe.

The la
goon.

March 2nd. — Landed at Little Popoe,
an extensive slave port, but one in which
the trade might be easily stopped by erect
ing a fort on a tongue of land Avhich
commands at once the lagoon communi
cation and the sea beach. I need only
refer the reader to the chart to see that
Little Popoe and Quittah are but a light
march apart, and adjoined by lagoons.
The state is a republic, or rather the
province of a republic. The chief or presi
dent lives at a large town at a little dis
tance ; Avhile the town of Little Popoe is
divided by the lagoon into Ajado, the
slave toAvn, under Portuguese directors,
and New London, under a president (Mr.
Lawson), Avhence palm oil is shipped.
March 6rd. — Pulled a little distance up
the lagoon — a perfect labyrinth, filled Avith
trade canoes. Indeed there appears to be
a Arery brisk trade carried on here ; and at
the chief's town is one of those large
markets common to Central Africa. On
the banks basked several large alligators,
and flocks of Avild clucks passed within shot.

SOJOURN AT WHYDAH. 99
There is much fish in these lagoons, and
beds of fine oysters, and shoals of shrimps ;
although during the last half of the dry
season there is a great deal of water but
slightly brackish.
March Ath. — There is one terrible draAv-
back to Popoe, it is the most filthy of
towns. The stench is fearfully strong, and
must render it unhealthy. The houses are
badly built ; that in which I am living forms
the four sides of a square, and for some
" Avise " reason, doubtless, all the apertures
open on the inside, so that the air breathed
is close and confined. One side is so old
they are unroofing it, rendering the habi
tation of the other dangerous from the
unhoused snakes, centipedes, scorpions,
and all other delightful tropical household
companions ; another side is occupied by
Mr. George Lawson, Avho, as agent for
Messrs.  , carries on a palm-oil trade —
I believe the dirtiest of all trades — and the
aroma from his side is not the most pre
ferable ; while the fourth is a stable and
H 2

100 SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.
sleeping-house for the blacks, many of
Avhom have the small-pox !
March 5th. — The shallowness of the
water in these lagoons precludes the proba
bility of any boat being constructed light
enough to navigate them during the dry
season. During the rainy period the pre
valence of fevers and small-pox materially
lessens the probability of any constitution
enduring these pestilential lakes.
Mr. Law- March 6th. — Visited Mr. LaAvson, Avho
son and his . .
history. was got up for the occasion. He is a little
old black, Avith a most astonishing me
mory, suffering under a seArere hernia.
He Avas a native of Popoe, but educated in
England, and became steward of a slaver
in the time of its legal trade. Besides his
pay, he had a shilling a head for each
slave, as interpreter to the doctor. Seven
months made the voyage to and from the
port of Liverpool, landing the slaves at
Jamaica. The captain died. The mate, on the re
turn, married the widoAV, Avith a fortune of
forty thousand pounds and two daughters.

THE SLAVE CHAIN

SOJOURN AT WHYDAH. 101
Charlotte had ten thousand pounds, and
Mary nine.
In those clays the same care was taken
of the slaA^es on the passage as of any other
cargo, at least in Mr. Lawson's ship, and
there was no delay. In 1812 he returned
to Popoe. He has a large family, some
nwing as Portuguese, others as Englishmen.
On the eighth of February last a schooner
shipped here.
Up to noon the pinnace of her Majesty's Slf>ve
1 L J J branding.
ship Ranger had been in sight, Avhen she
ran clown to Argwei. At four, the schooner
anchored close into the surf, laid out a
kedge, and by a rope to the shore hauled the
canoes to and fro : all Avas excitement and
drinking. As her cargo was not the pro
perty of one merchant, the slaves had to be
branded, and a Dutch tobacco-pipe was
called in and ingeniously used in branding
them Avith different marks, intended to re
present the letters C, 0, E, and X (the
whole, the half, or the two halves of the
boAvl of the pipe). In one hour and a half
she was on her return voyage.
H 3

SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.

March 1th. — Went by lagoon in Mr.
rgwe1' Lawson's canoe to Argwei. At this slave-
port, almost a monopoly of Jose Almeida,
a vessel was expected, and the natives un-
disguisedly exposed their uneasiness at our
appearance. Argwei is a republic, and as
far as I could ascertain, ruled by a senate,
Avith no direct head. Mr.  's agent was
most civil, and kindly lent me a covered
canoe to proceed in to Whydah.
An extraordinary instance of the power
and pertinacity of the fetish people was
illustrated here last month. In a heavy
tornado, the flag-staff of the English factory
was struck by lightning, in a curved line,
nearly to the ground. In the immediate
vicinity was a store of powder, to remove
which was the first care. In the mean
time, the fetish people assembled round
the factory and loudly demanded admit
tance, Avhich being refused, they paraded
the streets of the toAvn, declaring that
they had caused the fetish to destroy the
flagstaff as they Avere "hungry;" meaning
that the agent did not fee them ; and that

Extraor
dinary in
stance of
powers of
the fetish
priests.

"icc r t^*. ioj. \ oi. i.

1HE PETISH -,,,.N *ND THE G0VEHN0E c? whtdak

SOJOURN AT AVHYDAH. 103
if he did not they Avould kill him : that this
Avas the third warning.
The first warning was Avhen the present
agent landed at Badagry for provisions,
and while on shore his ship blew up ; the
second, the loss of the Medora, lately
wrecked on the Volta river. With regard
to the latter, the fetish people of Volta and
Accra had had some dispute, Avhen the
former Avarned the other, and told them
that in revenge they Avould have an Accra
trade-ship. If it can be believed, one of the agents
to the oldest established house on the gold
coast is initiated into the mysteries, and is
a fetish man ! This man Avas formerly
master of a trader ; and on the master of the
Medora taking leave of him at Accra, speak
ing with regard to the change of tide con
sequent on the Harmattous, that Avere then
bloAving, he remarked, " you must hang to
the soutlrward or you will chance to be on
shore on the Volta." His Avorcls Avere pro
phetic, and as such claimed by the devils
incarnate, his brother fetish men.
H 4

104 SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.
The next day they resumed their threats,
and demanded the injured mast. Having
entered the factory-yard, one of the party
ascended to strike the heel of the topmast ;
Avhich he did by the run. The " holy " men
iioav became afraid, and left, declaring that
if they were not fed, they Avould certainly
destroy the factory. By the advice of the
chiefs, the agent compromised the matter
at a loss of about 200 dollars' worth of
goods. Argwei is a small, not over clean
town, although an extensive trading port.
It has one peculiarity — the streets, like those
of Passagos, in Biscay, are passages under
the houses, or rather through them.
Left at 5 p. m., and poled clown the
lagoon all night.
pescrip- March 8 th. — At 9 A. m. arrived at Why-
tion of J
AVhydah. jab. Since daylight to 7 I Avalked along
the lagoon Avithout shoes or stockings, the
Avater just above the ancles ; and although
Ave poled in the middle and in the deepest
Avater, the canoe, which dreAV about a foot
and a half water, was constantly aground
in the night. My kroomen Avhom I left be-

SOJOURN AT WHYDAH. 105
hind tell me that 500 sla\res were marched
this week to Argwei.
Whydah is a most extensive city, con
sisting of seven or eight separately governed
towns, although the viceroy of Whydah is
the chief of all cabooceers.
The first of these is
French town, governed by Dagbah, the Viceroy.
2. English town „ Hie-chee-lee, Cabooceer.
3. Portuguese town ,, Boognon, Ditto.
4. Cha-cha town
(Ajudah) „ Gnodefereb, Ditto.
5. Market town „ Ah-poo-dehnoo, Ditto.
Besides these, there are free towns for the
liberated Africans, and a new town lately
built to the eastward.
One of the benefits of these divisions is
that, for instance, all the people in English
town are servants " to hire," but out of
respect to English visitors any number that
is required is sent, and the head men of
the toAvn procure the labour.
The principal building is the cha-cha's The house
.,.,.. „ ofthecha-
house, a large ill- built erection of no par- cha.
ticular form, occupying one side of the

106 SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.
principal square ; and, as nothing can be
cleanly in Africa, opposite, occupying a
side of the square, is a corral for cattle, sel
dom cleaned, except by the animalcula of
the exuviae that decay breeds. The cha-
cha's house I had imagined Avas a palace, in
which a prince in Avealth rolled in luxury,
such it has been represented ; and if dirt
and filth constitute luxury, it is an ely-
sium. Every article of table or bed-room
furniture Avas of solid silver ; but the state
of the finances at his death pro\Ted the
exaggerations of his flatterers, as he died
The late enormously in debt. Isidore Da Souza, the
Da souza. present cha-cha, is ordered by his royal
master to pay the " legal " debts of his
father, but not his debts to slave-dealers.
Strange command from the king of Da
homey ! illustrative of the cunning of the
king, Avho foresaAV in the payment of exten
sive debts a probable decrease of tribute.
The late Da Souza arriA*cd a poor man.
He left Rio from some political crime, in
Avhich he had the choice of incarceration

SOJOURN AT WHYDAH. 107
or desertion of his fatherland. Although
an extensive slave-dealer, he was not Avith-
out good points ; and one was, his excessive
kindness to all English visitors, either go
vernment officers or others. He intro
duced Dr. Dickson to the king, and gave
Mr. Duncan the AvhereAvithal to purchase
a welcome (being at the time too ill to ac
company him), and was attenti\re to Mr.
Cruikshanks. The best trait in his character was in
his discountenancing human sacrifice, Avhich
he is said ne\rer to haAre witnessed, and in
abolishing death as the punishment for
killing (by accident or otherwise) a fetish
snake. Now, the unfortunate criminal has
to enter a house of straw covered Avith
palm oil, to which a light is set, and thence
to run the gauntlet through the fetish
priests, who belabour him without mercy ;
and he is not free until he reaches Avater
in Avhich he washes out the sin. On these
occasions the late cha-cha is said to have
attended with his personal slaves, who, Avith

108 SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.
pretended zeal, mixed with the crowd and
hustled round the offender, and saved him
many blows.
Houses of The best building in the town is the
the great .',
men. residence of Domingo Jose Martins, a well
furnished house, standing in an orange-
groATe. Antonio Da Souza has a Chinese-
built house, more ornamental than useful,
in which he receives visitors. The forts,
three in number, are all old and dilapi
dated. In the British fort is a fetish
house of some antiquity, — strangely placed !
About the forts are cleared areas, and, if
in repair, they would be Avell capable of
defence from an African army. So long as
they remain in merchants' hands they are
virtually a disgrace to the flags that fly from
their Avails. The viceroy's house is a mere
enclosure of huts and one spacious court,
shaded by several giant cotton-trees, in
which his Excellency receives visitors Avhen
not immediately on business, lying at full
length on the damp ground.
Fetish The lions of Whydah are the snake
temp e. fetish house and the market. The former

SOJOURN AT WHYDAH. 109
is a temple built round a huge cotton tree,
in Avhich are at all times many snakes of
the boa species. These are allowed to roam
about at pleasure ; but if found in a house
or at a distance, a fetish man or woman is
sought, Avhose duty it is to induce the rep
tile to return, and to reconduct it to its
sacred abode, Avhilst all that meet it must
bow down and kiss the dust. Morning and
evening, many are to be seen prostrated
before the door, Avhether Avorshipping the
snakes directly, or an invisible god, which is
known under the name of " Seh," through
these, his representatives, I am not learned
enough to determine. In different parts
are smaller temples covering deities, in
shape, rude clay figures of men.
The market is the finest I have seen in ,The mar'
ket.
Africa; well supplied Avith every luxury
and many useful articles. As there are
no shops, all trade is carried on here ; and
the market is divided into appropriate pro
portions for each description of article. The
meat, fish, corn, flour, vegetable, fruit, and
foreign goods have all separate markets.

110

SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.

It may not be uninteresting to know the
prices of the various articles :

£

s.

d.

:

Cowries.

Turkey

-

-

0

7

0

=

4,000

Guinea-fowl

-

-

0

1

9

=

1,000

Fowl

-

-

0

0

7

=

280

Pigeon

-

-

0

0

5

=

200

Chicken

-

-

0

0

5

=

200

Duck

-

0
1
3
=
600
Bullock
-
2
0
0
=
25,000
Sheep
-
0
8
0
=
5,000
Goat
-
-
0
6
0
=
2,500
Beef, a pound
-
-
0
0
3
=
120
Pork, ditto
-
-
0
0
2
=
80
Mutton, ditto
-
0
0
91
~2
=
100
Egg
-
-
0
0
o*
=
10
Orange
-
-
0
0
oTV
=
3
Yam
-
-
0
0
2
=
80
Crabs
-
-
0
0
"i
=
10
Fish, a pound
-
-
0
0
5
=
200
Vegetables, green
,a
pound
0
0
0^
=
2
Drinkables.
Rum, a bottle
-
-
0
0
6
=
240
Pitto (country beer),
a gallon
0
0
1
=
40
Palm wine,
ditto -
0
0
1
=
40
The house of a rich native differs in
nothing from those of the commonalty,
SOJOURN AT WHYDAH. Ill
except that the wall encloses a larger
number of huts.
The cha-cha is the principal agent to The <**-
. "ha and
the king in all matters of trade ; and to him ting's agent
. for trade.
must be subjected all commerce, whether
in slaves or palm-oil, that he may have
the refusal. The price is laid down by
laAv, subject to his alteration if concurred
in by the viceroy and six traders or super-
intendants of trade appointed by the king.
These are: 1. Ah-boo-veh-mah, 2. Goo-vah-
moh, 3. Oh-klah-foh-toh, 4. Toh-poo, 5.
Ah-ha-doo-moo-toh, and 6. Boh-ee-ah. One
or the other of these must be present at
all sales to take the royal duty, which in
palm-oil is about a gallon in a measure of
eighteen. These men are not paid, but
ha\Te the advantage of trading at the royal
price, or ten per cent, under the market.
They are besides political spies on the
A'iceroy, and attend all conferences, report
ing directly to the king any infringement
on the royal prerogative. These are not
the only spies of the viceroy ; his hours of
recreation are supervised by ladies of the

112 SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.
blood royal, presented by the king, whose
reception is obligatory, and who also
make private reports to the king or his
ministers.
The vice- March 10th. — Called on the viceroy, and
roy and the
Fetish. had a long conversation Avith him about
trade. Coming events cast their shadoAvs
before them. The viceroy of Whydah is
not likely to be a friend at court, although
he very politely asked me to be his fellow
traveller when I went to Abomey. On
leaving, a fetish man was passing the gate,
with two large snakes. State officers in
most barbarous countries find it more con
venient to remain at home, except when
duty calls them abroad. The burly officer
Avas, according to custom, seeing me beyond
his gate — and this was an opportunity not
to be lost, — the fetish man addressed him
at great length, in praise of his extraor
dinary liberality to the fetish, for Avhich
he had no doubt to pay handsomely.
Native jn 'Whyclah there are five native mer-
slave mer- J
chants. chant s, Avho may be termed very rich.
These are, according to their wealth, — 1.

SOJOURN AT AVHYDAH. 113
Ahjohvee, 2. Narwhey, 3. Quenung, and
tAvo others, Avhose names I have lost.
Neither in their dress, nor in any outAvard
appearance could they be judged wealthy.
Such show Avould expose them to the cu
pidity of the government. They oavh
thousands of slaves, and have to supply
Avhole regiments to the annual hunt. Ah
johvee has a large fetish house east of
Whydah, situated in a pretty bosquet, in
tersected by pleasant Avalks, and fragrant
in the dry season Avith the floAvers of the
cashew-nut tree, — by far the most pleasant
place to Avalk in near Whydah.
March 11th. — All the toAvn Avas gay, Return of
and all Avere firing off muskets, dancing, and from the
shouting. A messenger has arrived to re
port that his Majesty has reached Cannah
in safety. Namvliey came Avith the royal
stick, to inform me, and with a message
from the viceroy, that I might noAV send to
his Majesty for information. I, therefore,
despatched a messenger with a present of
two brass musketoons to the king, reporting
VOL. I. I

war.

114 SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.
my arrival, and requesting he would ac
quaint me Avhen the customs would meet.
Don jose March 12th  Visited the premises of
tos. ""' Don Jos^ Dos Santos, who, although a slave-
dealer, is also a palm-oil purchaser to a
great extent. He arrived here without a
shilling, and now has an immense esta
blishment, though I believe little capital ;
indeed, he is said to be in debt, owing to the
uncertainty of his trade. Having once
embarked in the slave trade, he is still a
gambler, and his speculations often bring
him in a loser. Don Jose has a plantation
on which he manufactures oil. His yard
was filled Avith traders, — some with only
a gallon, others having slaves loaded with
large calabashes of oil ; while dozens of
his own slaves were counting out coAvries
to pay for the produce.
March 13th. — Arrived her Majesty's
Ship Bonetta. Went on board for a feAv
hours. This was market-day at the four-
day market at Forree ; and all Whydah was
on the road, carrying foreign cloths, salt,
saltfish, rum, and tobacco, to exchange for

SOJOURN AT AVHYDAH. 115
corn, palm-oil, peppers, live stock, fruits,
vegetables, and country cloths.
March 14th. — The foreign trade here is The trade
° . ofWhydth
much confined. The slave trade consists in
gin, rum, tobacco, romauls and other
cloths, muskets, poAvder, flints, cowries,
handkerchiefs, hardware, and glass, in
large quantities ; a less quantity of Avine,
sugar, and iron-bars ; and a few silks and
superior articles. The oil trade comprises
many of the above-named articles, besides
smaller articles, such as perfumery, inferior
jewellery, and ornaments. The exports from
Whydah are slaves and palm-oil. Coun
try cloths, peppers, corn, ivory, and shea-
butter can be procured in small quantities.
Visited a very extensive palm-oil plant- Manufac
ture of
ation belonging to Ahjohvee. It lies to paim-oii.
the eastAvard of Whydah ; and very little
labour is added to the gifts of God in pro
curing this valuable and lucrative article
of trade. On the estate are many establish
ments, slave villages, for the manufacture,
which is very simple. The nut is first
boiled, then, thrown into a large recess, and
I 2

116

SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.

Dialogue
with the
viceroy.

The king
answer.

trodden out : then boiled again, and the
oil is collected. The nut within is a very
nutritious article of food, tasting like the
cocoa-nut. March 15th. — Visited the viceroy, and
found him reclining at full length in his
shaded court-yard. In the course of con
versation I endeavoured to impress upon
his mind the advantage that Avould accrue
to the king, if, instead of sacrificing or
selling his prisoners of war, he retained the
labour in his oavh country, and he would
soon see his advantage in this, and the
folly of enriching a foreign and distant
land at the expense of his oavu natural
resources. I explained to the ee-a-voo-gan
that each had the interest of his oavii
sovereign doubtless at heart, and that Ave
had better leave the question open until
avc appeared in the royal presence.
March 16th. — My messenger returned,
and Avas brought to me by the viceroy in
state, Avhose retainers saluted me by keep
ing up a continued fire of musketry in the
yard. After the usual prostration, he gave

SOJOURN AT AVHYDAH. 117
me the king's thanks for the present, and
my congratulations, saying —
" That I had better take a walk and
come back, i. e. go to sea. ' This moon must
die, next moon die, then five days come on
shore,' or on the 15th of May."
This morning, in my walk in the street
called " Zoh-mahee," " Fire-cannot-enter,"
I met a chain-gang belonging to Jose Al
meida, ready for marching to Popoe. I un
derstood, as soon as they saw me coming,
the drivers marched them in.
Marcli 11th. — Sunday, but little differ- Neglected
ing from any other day, except in the gay religion at
attire of the liberated Africans, who, as a y a '
mark of civilisation, keep the sabbath day
by dressing out in all their finery. It is
the great pride of a black to be of the Avhite
man's religion ; and all, either from Bahia
or Sierra Leone, call themselves Christians,
and, no doubt, in the common acceptation
of the term, are so. If one might so decide,
they, at least, are in a happier position than
when following the religion of the land,
Avorshipping the snake, or the leopard, the
i 3

118 SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.
fetish of Abomey. Though but nominal
Christians, Ave will not insult them by call
ing them pagans. The safety of their
souls demands immediate and strenuous
exertions on the part of true Christians.
A very trifling sum from the general stock
would support a chapel ; and then the
derision of the Bahias would not fall on
their Sierra Leone neighbours, avIio, having
a Roman Catholic church in the Portuguese
fort, deride the soi-disant Protestants as
being without the pale of their church. Nor
is this the worst part of their position. The
half-educated black returns in pride to his
country, a savant, a monkey that has seen
the Avorld, to be a useful or a mischicArous
one as fate may decide. Those landing at
Badagry meet pastors and masters, and, in
all the pride of " the title of white men,"
would not miss the chance of attendance
on prayers : those landing at AVhydah — " it
is but one step from the sublime to the
ridiculous " — have no head, no church. A
Sierra Leone African is always looked upon
as a spy ; and — " the last state of that man

SOJOURN AT AVHYDAH. 119
is Avorse than the first" — he cohabits Avith
Avomen of the country, and returns in time
to their and his natal idolatry.
Hoav inconsistent it appears, that in posi- Absence of
missionary
tions where the slave trade rules, there labour.
is no missionary labour. Such places
ought to be the points of honour. The
" Black" priests from the island of St. Tho
mas preach to large flocks, and converts are
frequently made. The slave trade does not
interfere Avith them, nor do I think it
Avould materially Avith a Protestant mis
sion ; and the more " Black " priests are
ordained and employed in Africa, the
further religion Avill extend. Whydah
never, even in the palmy days of trade,
had a Protestant place of Avorship. Besides
the Roman church in the Portuguese fort,
there are the ruins of a chapel in the
French fort, iioav converted into a poAvder-
magazine. I trust ere long those Africans,
Avhom the amor patriae leads to return to
AVhydah, may not have to give up the fruits
of the labour of the good pastors of Sierra
I 4

120 SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.
Leone to vitiated appetites, re-acquired for
want of one to guide them.
The system March 18th. — The viceroy sent his eldest
o presents gQn ^.-^ ^jg u frienci>s stick," and a present
of some palm-oil and beans-cake, a sort of
compliment cake only cooked for the official
people. These little compliments are never
properly understood until they are ten
times paid for. In Dahomey all prelimi
naries are settled by presents, and no mat
ter can be arranged unless commenced by
a gift. It is the worst country a poor man
ever travelled in, for the sprat is baited so
often that the mackerel is clearly purchased
— if obtained. In all semi-barbarous coun
tries it is the same, and, in other Avords,
visitors cheat themselves to rob the rulers
of the land, Avho otherwise would impose
upon them. " Poverty is no crime:" — a
Dahoman would soon give that the lie, if
applied to a foreigner.
Thedis- March 19th. — Disease in Whydah is a
eases of _ . -iiii t • n -i
AVhydah. despotic tyrant, and holds a divided SAvay,
at one time tyrannising over the whites,

SOJOURN AT AVHYDAH. 121
at another over the blacks. Just now
he is chastening the blacks, among Avhom
much sickness prevails, while, except from
a bilious fever, not dangerous, the Avhites
are free. In June and July, he changes
colour, and the Avhites stagger under the
effects of the poAver of the sun or the
miasma from stagnant pools of recently
fallen rain. The atmosphere is pregnant
with foul smells, and the very air is tainted.
March 20th. — I have been clearing my ^™^»
yard, and paying labourers and servants. Talk andtheir
of India ! the Indian is a happy man Avith his
servants. Here not only Avill one not clean
your shoes that cleans your knives, but the
master, if he Avould have his Avork done,
must keep on the Avatch and see that his
orders are executed. Yet when the rates
of pay are considered, Reader, you will
not be astonished that they do so little.
As I cannot suppose in any endroit in the
known world labour is cheaper, I give the
folloAving list as much as a curiosity as a
guide to future visitors.

Heads.

Cowries

-,

6 or

12,000

=

22s.

4 or

8,000

=

13s.

280

=

Id.

280

=

Id.

100
=
2\d.
120
=
Zd.
120
=
3d. .
id receive
iberal al-
20
¥¦
122 SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.
Head man of under 20, or a man who
measures oil, per month
Tf more than 20 in a gang, 2 head men,
— 2nd, at per month
House servant, per day
Cooper, ditto
House builder, ditto
Hammock-man Carrier of goods, if not per job
Slaves are subsisted by their masters, and receive
no pay ; their subsistence costs, at a liberal al
lowance comparatively
Canoe-men are of a different class, being
Accras. If hired by Portuguese, and enter
for two years' service, — Heads. Cowries-
On taking service they receive 1 roll of tobacco *= 8 = 16,000
On leaving service, 10 pieces of cloth = 10 — 20,000
10 dollars = 12 = 24,000
and weekly for subsistence 560
or 2d, a day and 1 bottle of rum.
Canoe men hired by Englishmen : —
Heads. Cowries.
Head man, per month, 4 pieces of cloth = 4 = 8,000
Canoe-raen, per month, 2 ditto = 2 = 4,000
Besides, each, 560 cowries, 1 bottle of rum a week.
Cowries, the currency of Dahomey, are
passed in fifty strings of forty each to the
head or nominal dollar. It is remarkable
that in all barbarous nations where money
is known, the currency is decimal ! Iron
SOJOURN AT WHYDAH. 123
bars four to the head, rum half-a-head a
gallon, and cloth form a currency depen
dent on the market. All gold and silver
is current at a valuation, but scarce.
March 21st. — The Souza family having Pic-nic
. with the
invited me to a pic-nic, and promised to Da Souzas.
sIioav me a European plantation, — started
at noon in hammocks, and, at a distance
of three miles to the Avestward, found they
had not exaggerated their description. A
splendid palm-oil plantation Avas before me,
thickly set with palm trees, intermixed
with corn, cotton, yams, and cassada, ac
cording to the soil ; the ground being
undulating, — sometimes high and dry, at
other places oozing and Ioav. The pro
prietor was a liberated African from Bahia,
originally a Mahee ; and the plantation in
the highest order. Arrived on the ground,
Ave smoked a cigar under the shade of a
cluster of palm trees, Avhile the lord of the
soil brought specimens of the palm nuts
for our inspection. In about an hour the
Da Souzas AArere all fast asleep on mats ;
presently awaking, a canteen was produced,

124 SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.
and I Avas asked to partake of some Bra
zilian rum (casash), which good breeding
even Avould not allow me to accept. Un
derstanding but slightly Portuguese, I
began to think I must have mistaken the
invitation, and felt satisfied there was
some misunderstanding Avhen the contents
of another box were exhibited — some meat
cooked in rancid oil, biscuit, and yams. I,
with pretended goiit, joined in the repast,
and, after another cigar, gladly took a
walk round the grounds, not in the best
of humours, imagining that I had rather
grievously mistaken the meaning of the
invitation, or been Avell paid for accepting
one from a slave-dealer. By a circuitous
path, avc again came to the palm copse, now
like the oasis of the desert, a Avelcome spot.
The charm of Aladdin's lamp could not
have wrought a greater change : a milk-
white cloth Avas spread on mats, and was
now covered Avith every delicacy — wines of
France, Spain, Portugal, and Germany ;
whilst every article, even to the coffee cups
and saucers, was of solid silver.

SOJOURN AT WHYDAH. 125
March 22 d. — The king's messenger The choice
arrived to-day, to summon the Da bouza cha.
family to Abomey. The ee-a-voo-gan goes
also. Domingo Martins declines the invit
ation. The object is to choose a cha-cha
from among them. Isidore has the money ;
Ignatio is backed by Domingo Martins,
Avho has great power Avith the king ; and
Antonio is the king's favourite : thus the
king has to choose between wealth, poAver,
and friendship. What will the black Na
poleon, the destroyer and maker of king
doms, do in this emergency ?
March 23 d. — Having become ac
quainted Avith, I Avas going to say, every
stone — but there are none! — in the Whydah
roads, — Avith every tree (the finest of which,
by the b}^, is a noble structure of nature,
the fetish tree, a huge cotton giant of the
forest, on the Abomey road), — I threw my
self into my hammock, and, falling asleep,
aAVoke at Savee, from Avhence I took a long
Avalk, and returned in the evening.
March 2Ath. — In describing the two Agricui-
palm-oil plantations, I think I have gone glressm°~

126

SOJOURN AT AVHYDAH.

Customs
duties at
AVhydah.

AVhydah — to the extremes : but the Whydah people
burning of . .
the grass, are justly famed for their agricultural pur
suits. Just now all the country is in a
blaze — the dried, high, grass is burned,
and the ashes left for manure ; Avhile, at
the same time, the burning element destroys
the overgrown animal and reptile king
doms, and rarefies the atmosphere. When
the land is under cultivation, it has the
garden appearance of Chinese agriculture.
March 25th. — .Why I know not, but it
is a fact, that all appear ashamed of the
custom duties they pay his Majesty of
Dahomey. Ask the British agent ! — as well
have asked Ananias for truth. Ask a Por
tuguese, and you touch his risible faculties
— you fairly make him laugh. A return,
therefore, it Avould be impossible to give.
I do not think the duties on legal trade
sufficient. March 26th. — Presents in Dahomey are
looked upon with a jealous eye. At this
time, to embark my present for the king
Avould be suspicious. There AAras only one
course. Feeling certain in my OAAm mind

Prepara
tions for
departure.

SOJOURN AT AVHYDAH. 127
that I ought to return, I resolved to leave
the " present " with the viceroy. Accord
ingly I received a receipt from Dagbah,
the viceroy (Aru/l/ce Calabash, the most
useful of vegetable African productions),
and prepared for embarkation.
March 21th. — Even Whydah has its at
traction. I am almost imagining myself
sorry to leave it. The English toAvn-people
are my sworn admirers, and yet I have
employed only a few of them. 'Tis pleasant
to live beloved, even in outward show ;
and there appears a good deal of that with
these Whydah people. I tell them I am
going : they only hope some government
officer (could it not be yourself?) Avould
be sent to govern the fort. They have re
membrances of happier days when they
had a definite master : iioav they are every
body's servant. Well, be it as it may,
liking or disliking, I shall be sadly disap
pointed if I do not return.
March 28th. — The great drawback to The beach
trade in Whydah is the frequent inacces- atWhydah-
sible state of the beach, at all times unap-

128 SOJOURN AT WHYDAH.
proachable except in the Accra canoe for
trade goods, or the Kroo canoe for messages.
Sometimes for weeks the beach is closed.
All goods shipped for Whydah should be
hermetically sealed, if possible. The other
difficulty is the distance of the town from
the beach and the intervening lagoon.
I experienced much difficulty in the
want of a canoe, and generally overcame
it, Avhen I wanted to forward a letter, by
one of the boats of Her Majesty's ships
coming to the edge of the surf, and a
Krooman swimming to and fro with the
despatch. March 29th. — Visited the viceroy, Avho
begged I would not be far aAvay, in case the
king should send for me. Told him that I
intended going to the Island of Ascension,
and would be back at the time appointed ;
which he begged I Avould, as the king might
imagine some mistake had arisen, and hold
him responsible for my reappearance.
My house March 60th. — Received presents of
lord. fowls and goats, &c, from a number of
blacks who had become acquainted, and

SOJOURN AT WHYDAH. 129
had been in the habit of calling on me.
Sent all my traps to the beach. My house
deserves a remark. As usual, Madiki,
considering himself a rich man, has a
large enclosure, Avhile, on the other hand,
as an " ee-ah-voo," he could not do less than
have a white man's house. He owns ten
slaves, and has a large plantation. From
the estate he cut timber, and the slaves
fashioned it ; they next dug the clay, and
made what is called the " SAvish," AAdiich
is mixing the red clay with Avater and
straw to make it more adhesive : and of
this all houses are built in Whydah. Then
they set to Avork and built a house, thirty
feet high, eighty long, and forty broad ;
having in it three principal and four small
rooms, besides tAvo verandahs. They next
cut the dry grass, and thatched it ; then
procured the oysters from the lagoon (pro
bably subsisted themselves on the natives),
and Avith the shells whiteAvashed the build
ing. The whole Avas clone in a year, and is
well worth the value of the slaves (who all
the time were subsisted from the plantation);
VOL. I. K

130 SOJOURN AT AVHYDAH.
not costing the proprietor a halfpenny. My
argument with him Avas (and as my in
terpreter he might have made good use of
it), Do you not see the value of labour ?
Had you sold those slaves the money Avould
probably now be gone ; noAv you have the
slaves and the money too — all in one year,
and every year you might so increase them
in value. He saw it, but did not think
the king could, as, how was he to com
mence ? It is the commencement that is
wanted. This house is of no personal use to
the owner, so he is glad to have a tenant.
Embark- March 6lst. — Embarked on board Her
departure. Majesty's Ship Bonetta, and proceeded to
the Island of Ascension, to join the com
mander-in-chief, and receive instructions
for my future guidance.

REFLECTIONS

THE SLAVE TRADE

AND THE

ilEANS FOR ITS REPRESSION.

Sir John Malcolm, in his Embassy to
Persia, comments with approval on a re
mark by an old naval master, Avhen speak
ing of the subjects of the Imaun of Muscat.
" Manners," said the master, " they have
none, and their habits Avere disgusting."
The reader will a1^ eady have been able to
judge, would this not form a concise ac
count of the manners and customs of the
Dahomans. I account myself as fortunate
in not being the pioneer in depicting the
extraordinary court of the most warlike of
African slave-hunters, — a monarch Avhose
K 2

man ama.
zons.

132 REFLECTIONS ON
whole existence depends upon the slave
trade, whose every exertion is to supply a
larger number to the market of the pre
ceding year, — a monarch whose power is
almost absolute, directly and yet indirectly
so extraordinarily balanced that, to use a
common expression, his head is not safe
for a twenty-four hours' insurance.
The Daho- It is rarely that Europeans are called
upon to believe in the existence of amazons,
— fighting women prepared to do battle
on all around, the terror of the neighbour
ing tribes, dressed in the attire of male
soldiers, armed Avith muskets and swords.
These sable ladies perform prodigies of
valour, and not unfrequently, by a for
tunate charge, save the honour of the male
soldiers, by bearing down all before them,
discovering themselves to the astonished
and abashed prisoners to be women, ex
ceeding their male coadjutors in cruelty
and all the stronger passions.
Excited by the hopes of reward, the evil
passions of man are fearfully developed in
Dahomey. Blood-money is the sure reward

THE SLAVE TRADE, ETC. 133
of valour, the price of blood the only fee ;
and it matters not if the prisoner is brought
alive to the monarch, as his reeking head is
almost equally valuable. Without a trophy,
such as a prisoner or a head, the soldier
had better have been killed ; disgrace, and
often condign punishment, follow to the
defaulters of either sex.
There is not a more extraordinary army
in the known Avorld than that of the mili
tary nation of Dahomey. The nucleus of
the national power, the throne, is occupied
at the pleasure of the militant people, Avho
claim an annual war as a birthright. If,
from want of courage, or any other in
sufficient reason, the monarch dares to dis
pute the Avill of his people, he, Avho could
by serving the vitiated appetites of his
soldiers have taken the lives of any, high
or Ioav, is as surely dethroned and mur
dered. In speaking of the tAvo armies, let not the
sensualist imagine that a Dahoman cam
paign is disgraced by a freedom it Avould
VOL.J. *K 3

134 REFLECTIONS ON
almost be natural to suppose to belong to
so curiously disposed an army, half male
half female. On the contrary, the latter
are in charge of eunuchs, officered by their
OAvn sex, and scorn the softer allurements
of their nature. To use their own A\Tords,
" they are men, not women ! their nature
is changed ! they will conquer or die ! "
Such expressions could not be openly used,
even as mere boasts, by Avomen standing
in a jealous position, emulating the most
daring acts and achievements of man, un
less fundamentally true ; and Avith the
certainty of being openly contradicted, and
brought to shame, by their fellow-soldiers
of the opposite sex. Such then are the
amazons, in Avhose chastity we may believe,
when Ave bear in mind that the extreme
exercise of one passion will generally ob
literate the very sense of the others. The
amazons, Avhile indulging in the excite
ment of the most fearful cruelties, forget
the other desires of our fallen nature.
Superstition assists in the preservation
of the chastity of this most singular army.

THE SLAVE TRADE, ETC. 135
The amazons are accommodated within the
precincts of the harem Avails, and when
abroad share the honour of royal wives.
The bell announces to the traveller that
he must not gaze on them ; and thus they
have not much opportunity of joining in
conversation Avith the opposite sex. On
the thresholds of the royal portals a charm
is set of so determined a nature as to render
enceinte the offender religiously belieA'ing
its existence. The frail amazon not infre
quently sickens, and confesses the seducer's
name, though fully aAvare that the decapi
tation of herself and her loATer is the im
mediate result.
Rank, to a certain height, in the army,
is obtainable by merit ; but beyond that
there is no means of rising except as a
speculation, keeping a regiment and volun
teering their services at the annual hunt ;
all the higher ranks being hereditary.
The great bearing aimed at in giving
these Journals publicity, is to offer to the
reader an opportunity of judging for him
self of the fearful state to which the slave
K 4

136 REFLECTIONS ON
trade has arrived in that portion of Africa
of Avhich Dahomey is a kingdom, and of the
extraordinary innate civilisation which ex
ists among the blacks, and Avhich, if worked
upon, would considerably ameliorate the
condition of the African. It is a country
of remarkable contrasts in its customs and
manners. For the price of one dollar the
grand vizier will decapitate an unoffending
prisoner of war, whilst the more civilised
viceroy of Whydah, AAdio from commercial
intercourse proves the power of example,
will pay one fourth of that sum to public
functionaries to undertake the fearful office.
And yet the same high officer studies and
understands an etiquette that would do
honour to the most civilised courts in
Europe, and renders the courtier himself
(if divested of the disgusting ancestral
habits) a gentleman of nature's mould. It
may seem singular to the general reader,
that the prime minister's office should be
that of headsman, but such is only con
sistent Avith the early histories of many
European nations, and, together with many

THE SLAVE TRADE, ETC. 137
of the appointments about the court, proves
that the court of Dahomey is much upon
the same standing that those of northern
Europe were before the light of civilisa
tion shone upon them, and discovered their
evils and nakedness.
How many schemes are and have been The slave
offered as infallible destroyers of this fear- the means
ful evil, many in the main correct, yet dif- stmction.
fering sufficiently as to render them ap
parently opposed ! All men of education
must be moral haters of the iniquitous
traffic ; but it is not always that education
can carry a man's ideas above the advan
tage of his own interest ; and no doubt
the interests of this country — I mean the
monied interest of the manufacturing por
tion — are for the time better ansAvered by
the existence of the slave trade than they
would be by its repression. Such, how
ever, would not be the case on the con
sequence of its failure, and the rise of
legal trade, the extension of commercial in
tercourse, the civilization of Africa. The
multiplicity of wives enjoyed by the king

138 REFLECTIONS ON
and his officers, and the selection and
separation of thousands of virgins as ama
zons, leave but few females Avherewith to
increase the population ; Avhilst the hun
dreds of thousands of skulls that ornament
the palaces, the annual introduction of
60,000 slaves into Brazil, at an exportation
of at least 180,000 from Africa, unite in
tending to decrease the numbers of the
people rapidly, and thus render the de
mand for manufactured goods, or, in other
words, for trade, less than it Avould other-
Avise be. Look at the method employed to
feed this traffic. A Avar of extermination
is decided on by a giant army on an un
offending town. We all know by histories
of recent Avars with civilised troops Avhat
are the horrors of a protracted siege, or of
the excitement incidental to a mortal con
flict. Hoav can Ave wonder then at the fear
ful tragedies constantly enacted by the
Dahoman armies, when the price is honour
or disgrace ; a head or a prisoner, or to be
publicly spat upon by some self-lauding
amazon in the ensuing council ?

139
These Avars are directly and instru-
mentally the acts of the slave-merchants of
Whydah and its neighbouring parts ; but
have they no higher parties on Avhom to
lay the blame of their actions ? are these,
the agents of larger houses, the instru
ments in the hands of parties Avho have
other means of disposing of their goods, to
bear the Avhole blame ? Truth is strange
but a truth it is, that the slave trade is
carried on in Dahomey and the neigh
bouring kingdoms Avith British merchandize,
and, at Porto Novo, the residence of the
monarch of slave dealers, by British shipping
direct. I do not mean to say that if British
goods were not obtainable, the traffic Avould
cease to exist ; but the taste for British
goods runs high, and if these could not
be purchased with slaves, palm-oil Avould
be manufactured to obtain them.
Thus the discontinuance of trading Avith Discon-
_ -. „ , . tinuance of
the slave ports Avould afford most important legal trade
aid in the reduction of the horrors of the
slave trade. Except Avith the natiAres for
palm-oil or other native produce, the system

ade.

140 REFLECTIONS ON
of trading with the interior kingdoms is
in paAvns, or domestic slaves, saleable on
the sea-coast to the highest bidder. But
with these pawns a dawning of civilisation
has illustrated that the African is not even
by nature the brute he is generally believed
to be. Should the pawn become a parent,
neither the parent nor the child can be
forcibly expatriated.
The Mock- It is by no means impossible to stop
the slave trade, but the means to be em
ployed must be unceasingly applied.
Blockade is one of the means, a portion
of one system ; and, by its increase and the
adoption of steam, a mighty one. Under
the term blockade, I include the Avhole co
ercive actions of the British fleet against
the Brazilian slave trade, whether on the
coast of Africa or Brazils. But the block
ade, as it Avas two years ago, Avith one
third more extent of coast, and more than
a third less in number of vessels, only
a small portion of which (in comparison
the opposite) Avere steamers, was a very
inefficient organ of an unconnected system,

THE SLAA^E TRADE, ETC. 141
that left it obvious to those most interested,
that it would be almost impossible to check
even a contraband traffic open to so exten
sive a demand.
The blockade is a great, though only a
portion of the system that might and would
overthroAV the slave-trade. As iioav Avorked,
Avith increased efficacy, the blockade ren
ders the price of slaves high and the market
precarious. But the slaves, already so dear
in the Brazils, might be rendered consider
ably more expensive by the withdraAval of
trade from the slave dealers, and the pre.
vention of the sale of slave-grown produce
in this country, and by enacting treaties
of commerce Avith the chiefs themselves ;
thus bringing into the market desirable
articles of trade, requiring the extension of
labour to produce, and consequently point
ing out to the naturally cunning African
monarch, that in order to be rich he must
increase the number of his subjects, and
not sell the source of his Avealth, the labour
of his people.
One third at least of the extent of the Social and

142 REFLECTIONS ON
moral or slave coast has been already conquered by
congest, civilisation and legal traffic, and it requires
perseverance alone to reduce the remainder.
All the high roads to Central Africa, the
Delta of the Niger, of which I count the
Benin, the Camaroons, the Calabars, &c,
haAre submitted to the laws of civilisation,
and the inhabitants scout with disgust the
idea of selling their felloAV-men. Nor is
this all ; the heathen superstitions of the
land are fast receding before the steps of
Christianity. Between this Delta and the
other portions of reclaimed Africa, Liberia
and Gallinas, is the extent of coast of
which Dahomey is the central and all-
powerful kingdom, open to social and moral
or coercive conquest, or both. The former
would effect its object by intercourse and
trade together, aided by the morals and
example of the settlers and traders ; the
latter Avould exact treaties requiring the
expulsion of an evil at once disgraceful in
the sight of God and man. The two means
of conquest, if combined, Avould first de
stroy the evil, and then set up such a de-

THE SLAVE TRADE, ETC. 143
mand for the produce of the land as would,
as it has in the rivers above quoted, render
it impossible that the slave trade should
ever again offer its present powerful tempt
ations. The lovers of peace may quarrel
with the term coercion, but in its African
sense there is no display of military dis
cipline. Those portions of Africa Avhose
inhabitants have seceded from the slave
traffic have done it partly from coercive
measures, and partly from moral effect ; but
the former measures have been simply used
to the foreign slave-dealer, and the latter
to the native, whose benefit has been ma
terially studied, although perhaps not satis
factorily so to his grasping nature as at
once to be developed.
The material argument against such co
ercion as Avas lately enacted on Gallinas is,
that life is unsafe. I do not look upon
Africa as the deadly continent it is the
fashion to describe it. Men enter Africa
determined to have fevers ; and, like the
phantom's story in the Persian fable of
Cholera, fear kills them. Less cant on the

course.

144 REFLECTIONS ON
subject of African diseases would materially
assist to stop the slave trade, and render
African enterprise more genial.
The moral That the stoppage of trade (all trade)
would in a very short time put an end to
the slave trade, the folloAving journals will
illustrate. Even the proud king of Daho
mey succumbed to a threat, and, while his
sycophants cried night and day, "Oh, king
of kings!" gave up three prisoners, in fear
of the consequences, Avhen I threatened to
stop his trade. The crusade against the
slave trade is a holy one, and should not be
abated one iota. . Differences of opinion as to
the best methods to be pursued, there must
be, but undoubtedly the one most true Avill
be that Avhich calls for additional sacrifice
on our part, and increases the difficulties
to the Brazilians, by raising the price of
their favourite commodities. Coercion alone
cannot stop the slave trade ; indeed, I much
doubt that, if unassisted, coercion be not
a mere blind, a phantom, a shadoA\r, Avant-
ing the substance to make it tangible, in-
horrors Avithout alleviating in

115

any Avay the condition of the African ; and
such, up to a very late period, has been
the extent of operations actually brought
against_ the slave trade, not, as noAV, when
the system is strengthened by treaty, trade,
and the advancement of civilisation. These
three constitute the moral course Avhereby
to check this great evil, Avhich, with its
physical auxiliary (assisted by treaties as
Avell with the Africans as with the Chris
tian powers), will in time crown with suc
cess the most philanthropic undertaking
ever entered into in this world.
The Africans are by nature great traders, African
and require this habit to be encouraged, trade?
If not supplied by legal trade, the mer
cantile traffic in slaves occupies their at
tention. Of this trade there are several
classes, the highest of which is that of
Dahomey, which, in a Avarlike vieAV, has an
approach of honor in it. In the ancient
feudal times the prisoners Avere detained
until ransomed, the conqueror deeming he
had a right to enrich himself by his pri
soners ; but in Dahomey there are no na^
VOL. I. L

146 REFLECTIONS ON
fives to ransom, and the Dahoman war
becomes a war of extermination, and Avith
the conquest falls the very name of the
kingdom, never more to be revived. The
more degenerate are those that haA^e been
easiest uprooted, and probably less lucrative
to the gamblers — the sale of relations.
Strength ever predominated, and the father
either sold his son in his boyhood, or ran
the risk of age changing the positions,
when the son, now the strongest, bound
the father and sold him to foreign slavery.
Such scenes are eAren now at times enacted
in South-western Africa, but the laws of
Dahomey forbid such an unnatural sale of
human beings.
Of all the nations of Africa, the greatest
traders are those lying east and west of
Dahomey ; the Akoos on the one side, and
the Kroos on the other. The Akoos are the
JeAvs of Africa, and have several very rich
representatives in Sierra Leone. The Kroos
are the Gallegos, and prosper in parts
Avhere the natives starve, by undertaking
any kind of labour, and performing it well.

THE SLAVE TRADE, ETC. 147
There is no reason Avhy labour should not
be introduced into the central position, or
that the neighbours of the Akoos should not
learn the value of accumulating wealth.
With the Delta of the Niger on the Difference
of trade ,
east, and Ashantee on the west, Dahomey with free
may be said to lie between the tAvo grand states.
pillars of the dethroned slave traffic. While
in Dahomey silks are seldom imported, and
nothing but the refuse of the market,
greatly increased in price by the additional
duties and freights of a voyage and landing
via Brazils, is found in trade, it is far
different with her neighbours. The most
choice articles are selected, silks of India
and China, corals of immense value, cham
pagne and all the higher Avines, silver and
gold ornaments ; in short, all the higher
order of trade in its perfection is to be
found on board some of the largest trading
ships in the world, in the Bonny and its
neighbouring rivers, in order to be ex
changed for palm-oil.
The Liberian people are doubtless held Liberia and
. its slavery.
up as an example to the general state
L 2

148 REFLECTIONS ON
of the African, but I prefer not instancing
that state further than to prove I have
not overlooked it. For in Liberia there is
as much, if not more, domestic slavery —
that is the buying and selling of God's
image — as in the parent states of America,
over which flaunts the flag of Liberty (?)
It is difficult to see the necessity or the
justice of the negro who escapes from
slavery on one side, crossing the Atlan
tic to enslave his sable prototype on the
other, yet such is the case : and so long
as it lasts, notwithstanding the attractive
reports that emanate from this new re
public, it cannot be held as an example of
future good, but, if possible, should be
remodelled, even if at the expense of inter
nal revolution, or even total annihilation. I
doubt if many benevolent Christians in
this country are aware, that the model
republic is, in reality, a new name and
form for slavery in enslaved Africa, and,
until the system be altered, totally unde
serving of the high support and liberal
charity it receives from the benevolence of
Englishmen.

THE SLAVE TRADE, ETC. 149
The system of domestic slavery is by The system

no means confined to the Liberian portion
of civilised Africa. Pawns (as the fashion
terms the slaves on the Gold Coast) are
received and held by Englishmen indirectly,
and are to all intents and purposes their
slaves. The plan adopted is this : the mer
chant takes unto himself a femme clu
pays, and she manages his establishment.
Nor does he inquire how she hires his ser
vants. Her mode is to accept pawns, i. e.
purchase slaves, by receiving man, woman,
and child in liquidation of debt ; in other
words, selling goods to native merchants,
who, for convenience, leave slaves in pay
ment. These pawns are as directly slaves to
their master as any slaATes in the United
States, but cannot be sold out of the coun
try. I myself am aivare of one femme clu
pays of a British merchant being the
OAvner of forty pawns, who perform the
household and other services of the master,
and are, except in name, his slaves. His
money purchased them, and they obey his
commands on pain of corporal punishment,
L 3

of pawns.

in Africa.

150 REFLECTIONS ON
and draAv him to and fro in his carriage
when taking exercise. Hoav far is this
removed from actual slavery ?
Education The general reader may be astonished to
find introduced in these pages a discovery
of a written African language, of the
Phonetic order, arranged entirely by a feAV
natives of Vahie, by no means perfect, and
extremely extensive, having upwards of
200 characters ; it is no less a matter of
wonder emanating from ensla\Ted Africa.
Education is a favourite pride of the
African, and there are feAV in Sierra Leone,
who have been brought there young, but
can read and write. Men of eminence are
noAv expounding the Gospel in their native
languages, as ordained clergymen of the
Episcopal Church, Avhose early sojourn and
troubled life was passed in the lottery of
foreign slavery. The most distinguished of
these, the Rev. Mr. CroAvther, chief of the
Church Mission Society of Abeahkeutah,
has translated the Gospel into several
African languages. The return of such men,
in the advanced state of education neces-

THE SLAVE TRADE, ETC. 151
sary for an ordained clergyman must tend
materially to civilise their relatives and
fellow-countrymen. Instances are constantly occuring, illus- Capacities
, . . „ , of the Afri-
tratmg the extraordinary capacity of the Can mind.
African mind. The island of St. Thomas
sends forth hundreds of black Roman Ca
tholic priests to many parts of Africa, and
these sable fathers assist materially towards
the great object, the civilisation of Africa.
Acting, however, under the protection of
the Portuguese government ; the knoAvn con
nection of that people with the slave trade
prevents the fathers from being often
heard of out of the scene of their labours.
The richest slave-merchant resident in
Whydah, Don Jose Almedia, is an ex- slave,
sold from the very port of Popoe, in
which he now commands a monopoly.
This remarkably clever shrewd man was
educated in the Brazils, during the period
of his slavery in that country.
If from each great slave state a selec
tion of youths were made, educated in
professional rule as clergymen, doctors, agri-
L 4

152 REFLECTIONS ON
culturists, and artizans, these, returning
to their countries, would soon assist civili
sation and generate a contempt for sacrifice
and slavery. The extraordinary contempt
an educated black has for his unpolished
neighbour is inconceivable, and it is thepride
of all to attend Church-meetings to prove
their education (not to mention a weaker
pride of exhibiting their finery). These
foibles, Avorked upon, studied, and humoured,
might be rendered eminently serviceable.
What the African particularly requires is
example ; for, be it good or bad, he Avill
folio av it if set by " The white man ; " by
Avhich he means men of any colour, but
educated. To such an extent is this idea
carried, that the candidates for the police
lists of Sierra Leone were very extensive ;
and on inquiry it appeared, that to be a
policeman Avas at once to be a Avhite man,
i. e. to be removed from the epithet of
" Nigger," associated with that state of semi-
barbarism in Avhich the black looks upon
his neighbour. Such is their taste for
finery and improvement, that I do not

THE SLAVE TRADE, ETC. 153
suppose a finer-looking, or better-dressed
body of militia exists than that of Sierra
Leone. On a Sunday, in Sierra Leone, the
churches innumerable are filled with Avell
dressed, and even handsomely dressed, con
gregations, listening to discourses of sable
ministers, I merely instance this to show
what may be done by introducing education
generally, and not to recommend the pre
sent system of negro preaching, which most
assuredly requires supervision. So far does
education interfere with the slave trade,
that if a man spoke only a few words of
English, he would be gladly turned out of a
barracoon, being deemed by his unlaAvful
master an educated and dangerous man.
There is one last and strong reason why Necessity
a conquest of slavery should be effected by tion before
moral, rather than physical force, and
tending to prove, that civilisation must
precede any decided check unassisted by
education. The slave-hunting monarchs
claim an equal position with Great Britain
as the greatest of white nations. How
often have I been told in Dahomey, " You

154 REFLECTIONS ON
make war on the Portuguese and beat
them, we on the Attapahms and others Avith
equal success. " These," said the mayo,
pointing to tAvo tumblers on the table, " are
alike in size, in make, in shape ; this is Da
homey, that England See, I turn round,
and looking again I cannot distinguish ;
they are coequal, the greatest white and
the greatest black nations. Your queen can
conquer all white nations, Gezo can take
all blacks." Such is their idea, gathered
from the reports of the slaA7e-dealers, who
cause them to believe that we are a nation of
pirates, — water-gods, in short. But, though
feared for our power, AA-e leaATe no moral im
pression upon the natives, by plundering, as
they imagine, our Portuguese and Brazilian
neighbours. All that we arrive at is, that
the highest nation of Africa owns a re
spect, Avhich may be also termed a fear, for
the nations that can do to the Avhites Avhat
they can do to the blacks. What is Avanted
is education, 1st, to give the African an
idea of the great moral force intended, at
an enormous expense, to free him from the

THE SLAVE TRADE, ETC. 155
chains of foreign slavery, and to cause him
to believe (what in his uneducated state he
has no conception of) that Great Britain
dispenses an enormous sum to effect that
object. 2nd. To enable him to under
stand the sacrifice he is making in selling
labour from a country capable of providing
for four times its population. 3rd. To put
a stop to the fearful sacrifices of human
life, and the devastating Avars consequent
on the slave trade.
Having prepared the African mind, the
slave trade could not exist, even on demand
from the Brazils, as, if the kings of Africa
forbid the embarkation of slaves in their
territories, the slaver could not trade, the
slightest delay on the coast Avould be fatal,
and the slave trade at an end. The measures
recommended here may appear to require
much time to develope, but such would not
prove the case if once set in force. That
the slave trade will be put a stop to with
out educational assistance, may be possible.
Experience, however, seems to combine in
proving the improbability of such a result.

156

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

The animal kingdom of Dahomey is very
extensive, not only in variety, but in the
dimensions of the animals themselves. The
elephant, lion, leopard, range the forests in
company with lesser brutes, while the hippo
potamus and alligator render the approach
to rivers and lagoons at least dangerous to
the unarmed wayfarer.
I cannot, like my contemporary in South
Africa, enter on a sportsman-like descrip
tion of the " Avild sports of Dahomey," yet
it will perhaps appear novel, as I believe it
has not before been published, that in this
extraordinary kingdom the softer sex, be
sides being warriors, are also the enemies
of the fiercest and wildest animals of the
vast forests.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 157
In most semi-barbarous states, the
fiercest animal of the forest is by no means
so dangerous as the idle and wilful man,
who, fearing no law, ranges the jungle at
Avar with his fellow man. Against such
desperadoes the king of Dahomey guards
his subjects, by decapitating on the spot
the murderer or thief, and ornamenting the
nearest tree Avith the ghastly skull — a
Avarning to his felloAV ruffians. As in
India, a white flag marks the spot where
a human being has been destroyed or at
tacked by a tiger. These remembrancers
cause a momentary shudder, but give
promise of protection to the traveller.
The elephant of Dahomey is of immense The Eie-
size, and is held, like all the large animals, p ant'
in religious awe. On certain occasions, or
the grand festival, the flesh of the elephant
is eaten by the king, and distributed by his
majesty to the highest of his subjects.
Two regiments of amazons are styled
rangers of the forest, and one part of their
duty is to supply the elephant-flesh for
these feasts, and the bones and skulls for

158 THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.
the fetish houses, while the tusks and teeth
are sold to the merchants at Whydah.
The elephants are never far distant from
water, which in the dry seasons is only to
be found in the extensive marsh before
described ; and here the amazons generally
succeed is shooting them. So scarce is
water in the dry season in Africa, that, in
parts of the Mosambique, the tusks of the
elephants are obtained at the price of
human life. When the large swamps be
come partially dry, Avith the remains of
moisture towards the centre, to endeavour
to alleviate the painful torture of thirst,
the elephant strays so deeply into the
morass that his strength fails, and, unable
to return, he dies. Well aware of this, at
certain seasons the Portuguese merchants
oblige their slaves to dig for ivory in the
swamps, and thus not unfrequently the
diggers are destroyed by the gas of the
marsh, and fall victims to the avarice of
their masters.
Under the charge of a eunuch, but im
mediately under command of an amazon

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 159
officer, a party sallies forth, armed with
muskets and bush knives. Arrived at the
marsh, they succeed in herding a number
of elephants, and, having selected the
youngest, they surround and shoot them,
seldom missing their aim, nor shewing the
slightest dread of their formidable oppo
nents. The selection having been made for
the festival, the meat is cut up and sent
to Abomey, while the amazon chasseurs
employ themselves in killing for their
royal master's emolument. They have no
idea of entrapping the elephant, nor will
they be taught.
The late Mr. Duncan having a commis
sion from the Royal Zoological Society,
endeavoured to interest the king of Da
homey to obtain him a live elephant. Such
a thing was impossible. He could under
stand the elephant falling into a pit, but
to get him out and lead him he could or
would not believe possible.
The lion is oftener heard than seen in The Lion,
Dahomey. Now and then, in the neighbour- ^pita-
hood of large fetish houses, and in the entrees ko0'

160 THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.
of the palaces, the skulls and jaw-bones of
these royal beasts are found. In conse
quence of the number of wild beasts, all cattle
are housed at night; and, unless on very
especial business, no man travels after dark.
Uninterrupted they prowl about even within
the streets and yards of the towns and
villages, sometimes, although very seldom,
enticed by the odour of a dead carcass into
a trap. The carcass is divided among the
friends of the lucky OAvner ; the skin sold at
Whydah; the teeth become the most valu
able of ornaments to both sexes ; while the
skull and bones are a well-received offering
to the fetish, and gain for the donor no
slight privileges. Of higher value are the
portions of the leopard, the fetish of Da
homey. The haw does not forbid the killing
of these sacred animals, but ceremonies have
to be gone through with the fetish people,
that render it an inconvenience to the ma
tador, which he will not incur a second
time if possible; nor is the leopard often
killed, except Avhen he falls into the trap
intended for the more noble wanderer, the

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 161
lion. Should man fall a victim to the leo
pard, in the belief of the Dahoman he is
gone to the land of good spirits ; and, far
from endeavouring to revenge his death,
his relations Avill if possible feed his de-
vourer. The only other carnivorous ani
mal of any size is the African wolf, the
patakoo. These animals are very bold,
entering the very squares of Whydah, and
often attacking children, I have seen them
under my hammock, eating the bones left
from supper, while sleeping in the veran
dah of a house at Torree. They have a
fearful howl, and are generally in flocks,
snarling and fighting after their prey.
No wall is high enough to deter them,
although to a certain degree they are
cowardly. The native boy, if within hear
ing of the patakoo, will, to insure safety
hold an article of clothing or piece of
wood over his head to make him appear
larger. These animals are often trapped,
and their teeth used as ornaments, but
seldom shot except by the amazon bush
rangers. Wild cats are numerous and de-
VOL. I. M

162 THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.
structive to poultry, &c. Monkeys of all
sizes dispute the more lofty and thickly
Avooded portions of the forest with birds of
the most beautiful plumage; Avhile snakes
of every size and various formation dispute
the lower with every description of rep
tile. A tropical forest is all life, animation,
and strife ; and no sooner is life departed
from one of the larger inhabitants, than
the lion, the leopard, and the wolf may
be seen feasting side by side, while the
turkey buzzard and the monkey now and
again steal smaller portions from the feast
of their dread enemies.
The white The most striking and extraordinary
Locusts. things met Avith in an African forest are
the ant-hills, standing sometimes eight and
ten feet high, in which are miles of pas
sages and millions of cells, stores of food
and heaps of eggs ; nothing can be more
ingenious, nothing more curious. One fa
mily of ants, the bug-a-bug, is of the most
destructive order: there is nothing they
will not enter and destroy that is left on
a ground floor; but as they never reach

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 163
above, casks and furniture are placed on
raised platforms. Of all the animal crea
tions in Africa the most destructive are the
ants. SAvarms of the Avhite ants migrate
in more terrible form than the locusts,
which are also a curse of Dahomey ; for
while the locust is graminivorous, and
remains Avithout the doors of dwellings,
the ant defies all hinderance, and, entering
even the key-holes, is omnivorous. As in
most tropical countries, the very air is
alive. Butterflies of the most beautiful
hues form the most pleasing of the insect
kingdom ; while, in the wet season, the
European is almost maddened by the effect
of the poisonous bite of the mosquito,
scarcely more annoying than the unhar-
monious buzz of these amphibious gnats.
That the bite of a mosquito is poisonous
to certain constitutions not a doubt can
exist. I myself have known two instances
in each of which a limb has been lost
by irritating the bite of these obnoxious
mites. u 2

164 THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.
Snakes. The boa constrictor does not grow to a
large size in Dahomej^, nor are they of a
dangerous description. Among the many
species of reptiles the cobra capella is the
most dangerous. Yet although Ave consider
the bite of the cobra deadly, the native has
an infallible cure for it, but those Avho are
initiated are jealous of their knowledge.
One of my hammock-men had been bitten
three times, and his father was a doctor.
Walking one day through some long grass,
I pointed to his bare legs, and hinted at
his danger. " None," said he ; " my father
picks some grass, and if, on the same day
as the bite, his decoction is applied, the
Avound heals at once." Strange as this
may appear, it did not seem so to me,
having witnessed the fights in India be
tween the cobra and the mongoose. The
cobra has always the advantage at first ;
and the mongoose, apparently vanquished
by the deadly poison, is no sooner bitten
than he retreats as far from his enemy as
possible, but on devouring some small
herb Avhich groAvs wild, and is easily

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 165
found, he revives, reneAvs the attack, and
conquers. The bite of the Avhip-snake is here deadly
as elseAvhere. Centipedes, millepedes, scor
pions, tarantulas, &c, fill up the host of
reptiles, and from the constant communion
one is surprised that he escapes.
The parrot is by far the most extensive Birds.
of the feathered tribe, from the grey parrot
to the beautiful green love-bird. In plum
age the variety is most extraordinary, and,
as they flit in the noon-day, the gaudy beau
tiful colours add to the grandeur of the
scene. By the margins of the lakes and
SAvamps are seen the stately storks, the
cranes, the curlew, the pelican, and the
prince of African birds, the croAvn bird.
On the broad calm waters are wild ducks,
teal, and widgeons ; soaring aloft in the
neighbourhood of towns, the turkey buz
zard and members of the eagle tribe, to
both of which a superstition is attached by
the natives — a certain dread of consequences
if destroyed — enforced by the government
in order to retain these useful scavengers.
M 3

166 THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.
Fish. The waters are by no means less inha
bited than the land ; and while the inacces
sibility of the sea renders the productions
thereof of difficulty to the Dahoman, the
inland waters are prolific in the extreme.
The hippopotami and the alligator are to be
seen basking on the banks of the large la
goons, instinct leading them to the deeper
parts, in which they eArer hide from the
sight of their common enemy man. But in
Central Africa the wanton destruction of
the works of God is happily no part of the
nature of the native : that enigma, the
fetish, appears a patron to all wilder ani
mals and forbids their destruction, while
the African is a friend to all the weaker
kinds, and fond of domesticating all kinds
of birds and animals. Thus it is perhaps
that but little fear is entertained for the
wilder beasts, and perhaps from not appear
ing in opposition, accidents are of rare oc
currence. I remember seeing a huge brute
lying on one side the lagoon at Popoe, and
inquired of the Kroo of my canoe if there
Avas any danger to a party of black urchins

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 167
who Avere bathing on the opposite side.
None he told me : once, indeed, but a long
time ago, a boy's leg was bit off ! The hippo
potamus will never attack a man, and re
mains a harmless inhabitant of the lagoon so
long as he keeps away from the cultivated
portion, which, for his own safety, taught
by instinct, he rarely visits. The lagoons
swarm with fish, shrimps, oysters, and add
considerably to the delicacies of the Why
dah market. The Dahomans are good
fishermen, and not bad shots, yet they
could teach the more enlightened Christians
a lesson in sporting. Few, if any, of the
denizens of the field, the forest, or the water,
are safe from their guns and their fishing-
tackle ; but, when they take the lives of the
brute creation, it is not for the miserable
satisfaction of destroying numbers or merely
proving their prowess, but solely to satisfy
the imperious demands of nature or custom.

M 4

168

RELIGION, ETC.

The civilised state of a nation may be
judged of by its religion — from the sim
plicity of its doctrines and the absence of
all enslavery of its communicants. The
reformed Catholic religion is the faith of
the most enlightened nations (portions of
every quarter) of the globe. Compare
these with the followers of Confucius, the
believers of the incarnations of Buddh,
or the more numerous worshippers of the
prophet Mohammed ; it is the comparison
of light and darkness. Yet in all religions
there are some familiar forms Avhich render
them not so absolutely distinct to the semi-
civilised, as to be observed without a long
course of teaching.
Buddhism Confucius foretold that a Prophet would

RELIGION, ETC.

169

arise in the West, and the Chinese hearing and Mo.
. hamme-
that a holy religion had been established danism.
in the neighbouring continent of India,
sent ambassadors, Avho brought back the
Buddhist rubric, and many priests of the
" San Foo," or trinity of the incarnations
of Buddh. The Jesuits, on entering China,
to propagate their faith, met this religion.
The trinity in unity, the presence of the
Virgin, the form of worship, with bell and
candle, by shorn and sandalled priests (in
priestly robes), who practised celibacy and
kept fasts and vigils, called forth the re
marks recorded by Father Ripa, that the
Buddhist religion must have been invented
by the devil to puzzle the Jesuits. Such
an obseiwation, emanating from an eminent
Jesuit father, needs no comment, but
proves the similarity, in outward show,
between the Romish and Buddhist religions
in those days ; and although the Buddhist
religion is not even understood by the
priests themselves, who mutter prayers in
the Sanscrit, yet it rendered it difficult for
the Propagandists to prove to the Chinese

170 RELIGION, ETC.
that in their search for the prophet in the
West they had stumbled on the false
Christ, and that the prophecy of their
cherished and revered founder of the moral
and civil code of divine law Avas by a mis
take perverted. The Mohammedan religion,
spreading over the vast continent of Africa,
is gaining millions of converts, and, agree
ing with the wild and fearful fetish belief
of the remainder of the inhabitants of the
whole of Central Africa, in the plurality
of wives and the right of retaining slaA'es,
is welcomed far before the home truths
and self-denial to be enforced by the mis
sionaries of the Catholic faith. What the
Roman Catholics may do in Africa in esta
blishing an hierarchy there is yet to be
proved ; but in the land of the Buddhists
and folloAvers of Confucius, they left them
a portion of their primitive belief, and
admitted, in the prayers allowed for the
dead, the direct worship of ancestors. The
Africans practise in a ruder form a worship
for the dead, attended with human sacri
fices. They believe their relatives to be in

RELIGION, ETC. 171
the same rank of life in the land of spirits
they held in this, and as such to require
Avives, servants, and slaves; and to insure
their comfort, numbers are immolated on
the tombs, and often Avillingly sacrifice
themselves to join their lords in the other
world. In common with most barbarous
nations, such is the belief of the world to
come in Dahomey, and it is one reason for
the continual fearful sacrifices.
As has been stated in the accompanying The Fetish
Journals, the fetish or imaginary god of Places. sa~
Dahomey is the leopard ; and the skin and
head of this fetish are the king's by right,
should one be killed, but woe betide the
killer, better had he murdered a fellow-
being, as in punishment he is sacrificed to
the offended deity. This animal (under the
name of paugh leopard), the " voo doong,"
or fetish, represents upon earth the su
preme or invisible god " Seh," and, in com
mon with thunder and lightning, " Soh,"
and sundry Avooden images, is worshipped
by the ignorant Dahomans.
The sacrifices are various ; if of a bullock

172 RELIGION, ETC.
it is thus performed. The priests and
priestesses (the highest of the land, for the
Dahoman proverb has it that the poor are
never priests) assemble within a ring, in a
public square ; a band of discordant music
attends ; and after arranging the emblems
of their religion, and the articles carried
in religious processions, such as banners,
spears, tripods, and vessels holding bones,
skulls, congealed blood, and other barba
rous trophies, they dance, sing, and drink
until sufficiently excited. The animals
are next produced, and decapitated by the
male priests, with large chopper-kmves.
The altars are washed with the blood
caught in basins ; the rest is taken round
by the priests and priestesses, who, as
Moses commanded the elders of Israel
(b.c. 1491), " strike the lintel and two side
posts " of all the houses of the devotees,
" with the blood that is in the basin." * The
turkey buzzards swarm in the neighbour
hood, and with the familiarity of their na-
* Exodus, i. 12.

RELIGION, ETC. 173
ture gorge on the mangled carcass as it is
cut in pieces. The meat is next cooked,
and distributed among the priests; por
tions being set aside to feed the spirits of
the departed and the fetishes. After the
sacrifice the priesthood again commence,
dancing, singing, and drinking; men,
Avomen, and children, grovelling in the
dirt, every now and then receiving the
touch and blessing of these enthusiasts.
Among the priesthood are members of the
royal Avives and children. The mysteries
are secret, and the revelation of them is
punished with death. Although different
fetishes are as common as the changes of lan
guage in Central Africa, there is a perfect
understanding between all fetish people.
The priests of the worship of the leopard,
the snake, and the shark, are all initiated into
the same obscure forms. Private sacrifices
of fowls, ducks, and even goats, are very
common, and performed in a similar man
ner : the heads are taken off by the priests,
and the altars Avashed Avith the blood ;
the lintels and sides of the door-posts are

174 RELIGION, ETC.
sprinkled ; the body of the animal or bird
is eaten or exposed for the sacred turkey
buzzards to devour. The temples are ex
tremely numerous, each having one altar
of clay. There is no worship within these
temples, but small offerings are daily given
by devotees, and removed by the priests.
Diseases. Sickness is prevalent among the blacks,
smallpox and fever being unattended by
but bad practitioners in medicine. And here
let me remark, that, after teachers of the
Gospel and promoters of education, there
is no study that would so well ensure a
good reception in Africa as that of me
dicine. The doctor is always welcome,
and, as in most barbarous countries all
Avhite men are supposed to be doctors, I
worked some miraculous cures with James's
powder, diarrhoea powder, and quinine, but
am convinced bread pills Avould have an
swered as well : the patients believed and
Avere cured.
If an African sickens he makes a sacri
fice — first a small one of some palm-oil
food. Dozens of plates of this mixture are

RELIGION, ETC. 175
to be seen outside the towns, and the turkey
buzzards, horribly gorged, scarcely able to fly
from them. If the gods are not propitiated,
oavIs, ducks, goats, and bullocks are sacri
ficed ; and if the invalid be a man of rank,
he prays the king to permit him to sacrifice
one or more slaves, paying a fee for each.
Should he recover, he, in his grateful joy,
liberates one or more slaves, bullocks,
goats, foAvls, &c, giving them for ever to
the fetish, and henceforward they are fed
by the fetishmen. But should he die, he in
vites with his last breath his principal wives
to join him in the next Avorld ; and, accord
ing to his rank, his majesty permits a por
tion of his slaves to be sacrificed on the
tomb. The observance of circumcision is as
in the covenant between God and Abra
ham *, " that every man child among you
shall be circumcised." " He that is born
in thy house, and he that is bought with
thy money, must needs be circumcised ; "
* Genesis, xvii. 10.

176 RELIGION, ETC.
" and the uncircumcised man child, whose
flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that
soul shall be cut off from his people." No
maiden in Dahomey will take to her bed a
husband who has not been circumcised.
The king tolerates all religions ; but in a
negative manner the Mohammedan form of
Avorship is the only strange one practised
in Dahomey. But in Whydah the Roman
Catholic religion is exercised by some black
priests from St. Thomas ; and the Reformed
Church might be represented in any or all
her sects. As yet there are no missionaries
except the Romish. Mr. Freeman, of the
Wesleyan church, visited Abomey some
years since, and had more than one inter-
vieAV with the king, but has not since
returned, nor have any other Protestant mis
sionaries visited Dahomey. The present
increased state of the legal trade in Da
homey has rendered that country open for
the reception of religion and education,
Avhich combined Avould necessarily tend to
the decrease of the slave trade. The Moham
medan religion has also a church at Why-

RELIGION, ETC.
dah. Although there are many mallams
in Dahomey, and they are to be seen in
all the processions about royalty, yet,
owing to the jealousy of innovation and the
ignorance of the mallams, Avho are mostly
Dahomans, and but ill-instructed priests,
the Mohammedan religion has made but
little inroad among this extraordinary
people, who are, in religious matters, in a
state of the most barbarous idolatry.

177

VOL. I. N

APPENDIX.

N 2

APPENDIX.

From the great King Trudo Audatis Palace of
Abomey, in the kingdom of Dahomey. Nov. 27. 1724.
Sir, — About five clays ago, the king of this
country gave me yours of the 1st instant, and im
mediately required me to answer it in his presence,
which I did, though in a very indifferent manner :
so that if I do not recall it, I hope you will excuse
that as well as this.
As to the late conference I had with his ma
jesty on receiving your letter, I think he does
not want to make a price to let me go ; for when
I pressed him much to tell me on what terms he
would send me away, his answer was, he did not
want to sell me, I Avas not a black man ; but,
upon my again pressing him, he made a sort of
jesting demand to the sum of I think 700 slaves,
about 10,000/. or 147. a head. Which strange
ironical way of talking, as I told him, made my
n 3

182 APPENDIX A.
blood run cold in my veins ; and upon recovering
myself, I asked him if he thought the king of my
country, and that you and the company, would
think both he and I had lost our senses, should I
have writ any thing like what he said. Upon
which he laughed and told me not to put any
thing of that in the letter ; for that he Avould
order his head captain of trade to treat Avith you
upon that subject, and that if you had not some
thing very fine for him at Whydah, you must
Avrite to the company. Upon which I told him
I found I must die in his country, and that I
would only send for a few clothes and necessaries,
which I desired he would let his people bring for
me ; and he agreed to it : so that I don't find there
is any other Avay of redeeming me than by the
company's sending him a present of a crown and
sceptre, which must be paid for out of what
remains due to the late king of Ardah. I know
nothing else but what he will think mean, being
stocked Avith great quantities of plate, wrought
gold, and other rich things ; and also all sorts of
rich gowns, clothes, hats, caps, &c. He has
likewise all sorts of common goods beyond mea
sure, and gives away booges like dirt, and brandy
like water ; for he is prodigious vain and proud,
but he is withal, I believe, the richest king and
greatest warrior in this part of the world ; and

LETTER FROM ABOMEY IN 1724. 183
you may depend upon it, in time will subdue
most of the countries round him. He has already
set his two chief palaces round with men's skulls,
as thick as they can lie on the walls, one by
another, and are such as he has killed in Avar;
each of which palaces are in circumference larger
than St. James's Park, about a mile and a half
round. He talks much of settling a correspondence
with the company, and of having white men
come here, which you must encourage him in,
and tell him the way to do it, Avhich will be to
send me away; for he says he wants ships to
come to some place only for slaves, and bring
such things as are only fit for such a king as he.
To all which I gave him the hearing, and which,
if you humour, may be a great means to help
me out of this wretched state. I hope my royal
master will take my case into consideration, and
think of the long and many sufferings I have had
in their service, and what a miserable condition I
am still in, as it were, banished all the pleasures
of this life, not only from my wife and other
friends, but all conversation in general ; so that I
am like one buried alive from the world, and think
nothing can come near my unhappy fate, to lose
my time, and spend my youth as it were for
nothing in such a cursed place as this, and not
N &

184 APPENDIX A.
see a likelihood of getting out of it, but that
I must end my days here. To prevent all which,
I hope that they and you in their behalf will use
your utmost endeavours by such means as are
requisite for my deliverance, which I shall very
impatiently pray to God to bring to pass.
Governor Baldwin promised me in his last,
upon his arrival in London, he would lay my
case before our royal masters. Therefore, when
you write, I beg you will remind him and them
thereof, and note the contents of what I now
write. If any letters come from England for me,
I believe either them or any thing else will come
safe to my hands by this king's people. He is
very willing I should have letters come to me, or
any thing else. JSor will he be guilty of any
mean action in keeping any thing from me, if it
were twenty slaves. Neither do I believe he would
detain any white man that should come here, hut
me whom he deems a captive taken in his wars.
He sets a great value upon me, he never having
had a white man here before, only an old mu
latto Portuguese, Avhich he bought of the Popoe
people, at the rate of about 500/. as near as I
could compute. And though this white man is
his slave, yet he keeps him like a great caboceroe,
and has given him two houses, and a heap of
wives and servants. It may be that, once in two

LETTER FROM ABOMEY IN 1724. 185
or three months, he mends (he being a tailor by
trade) some trifle or other for his majesty, but
after the devil of a manner. So that if any tailor,
carpenter, smith, or any sort of white man
that is free, be willing to come here, he will find
very good encouragement, and be much caressed,
and get money if he can be contented Avith this
life for a time, his majesty paying every body
extravagantly that works for him. And then it
might be one means of letting me go with a
promise of returning to trade with him ; but he
now says, if I go, he does not know whether he
shall see any more white men, thinking they add
to his grandeur ; so that if any fellow Avhatsoever
comes up and goes down again, it will possess him
with a notion, that more white men will come,
and so let me go in order to encourage their
coming. Or, if my little servant, Henry Tench,
be at Whydah, and is willing to come to me, it
may in time be much for his interest, as noAV,
being a boy, the king will he entirely fond of him ;
for though I do nothing for him, he has put me
into a house and given me half-a-dozen men and
women servants ; also a constant supply to main
tain myself and them. If I loved brandy, I might
soon kill myself, having enough of that ; also of
sugar, flower, and the like. And when he kills oxen,
Avhich is often, I am sure of a quarter, and some-

186 APPENDIX A.
times a live hog, sheep, or goat ; so that I shall
not starve (but this is nothing, I still Avant con
tent. And when he comes out in public, the Por
tuguese and I are called to sit all day in the sun,
only our hoys are permitted to hold our kidey-
solls or umbrellas over our heads ; but then he
pays us pretty well for it, sometimes giving us
two, sometimes three or four, grand cabess * a
piece, and a huge flask of brandy to drink there,
besides one or two more for each to carry
home; so that the Portuguese and I endeavour
to live as Avell as we can ; and think it enough
if we can keep up our hearts and ourselves in
health. But being Aveary of this wretched life,
sometime ago requested his majesty to put me into
the hands of his great captain of Avar or general,
give me a horse, and let me go to war. To
which he would by no means agree, saying he
did not want me to be killed, for that he should
anon find other business for me ; wherefore, he
would have me be easy, and sit and see what he
does : the meaning of which, I do not at present
understand. My going to war was, likewise,
much opposed by the aforesaid general, who al-
* Forty boges make one tokey ; five tokeys one
gallina ; and twenty gallinas one grand cabess, equal
in value to one pound sterling.

LETTER FROM ABOMEY IN 1724. 187
leged that, if I should be killed, it might bring a
pallaver upon his head, and make the king angry
with him, as thinking him to be the occasion
of it. However, his majesty ordered me a horse,
and told me, whenever he went out, I should
go with him, which he often does for his plea
sure, in a fine hammock with gilded awning and
curtains. He likewise very often adjourns to
some other of his palaces, which are some miles
distant hence ; and I am told in number eleven.
In this labyrinth, I am willing to make life as
comfortable as possible ; but as it is very uneasy
to ride a bare horse, I pray you will not fail
to send me an old furniture with spurs and
whip. The king has likewise desired me to
write to you for the best horse furniture that
is to be got at Whydah, and he Avill pay what
you shall demand for it ; likewise, a little English
dog, and a pair of shoe buckles, and if you
think well of it, you may charge them to me
with the following things, both for the king and
myself, being assured that even a trifling present
will not only be acceptable from me, but very
much increase my interest, whether I stay or go,
which at the shortest must be very long. I
therefore beg you will not fail to send me Avhat is
to be got of them, which may not only make my
unhappy state a little the better, but make his

188 APPENDIX A.
majesty conclude there is no thought of ransom-
mo- me, and so send me home in some of his
majesty's whims.
If my two chests, left at Jacquin, are yet
come to Whydah, I pray they may he sent to me
with everything in them, good and bad : also the
following things, if to be got on any reasonable
terms, viz., &c. &c. [of no use to the reader, and
too tedious to be inserted].
I hope you will not scruple sending anything
I write for, as not having received any salary or
diet-money, since I have been in Guinea. Nor
would I have you admire at my sending for so
many things, seeing his majesty has ordered
another house to be built for me at a town he
mostly resorts to when he is preparing for war,
which fills me with melancholy thoughts, and
looks no way like my going out of this captivity
speedily. If you think well of my agreeing for any
slaves with the king, you must talk with his
servants thereon, and send me a mark *, for
while I am here I am willing to do the Company
some seiwice, if possible, their interest being
always what I shall study to promote to the ut
most of my power; but then I must have a
"* Thirty-two pounds.

LETTER FROM ABOMEY IN 1724. 189
specie of all sorts of goods, marked and numbered
with the rates, to prevent mistakes. Most of the
ink you sent me being unfortunately spilt, I beg
you will send me a paper of ink-powder. His
majesty has likewise got from me the greatest
part of the paper, having a notion in his head of
a kite, which, though I told him was only fit for
boys to play with, yet he says I must make one
for him and I to play with ; so I beg you will
send me two quires of ordinary paper and some
twine for that use, and a score of match, his
majesty requiring me sometimes to fire his great
guns, and I am much in fear of having my
eyes put out with the splinters. He has twenty-
five cannons, some of Avhich are upwards of a
thousand weight, so that a man would think the
devil helped to bring them here, this place being
about 200 miles distant from Whydah, and at
least 160 from Ardah. His majesty takes great
delight in firing them twice round every market
day, only now that his people are making car
riages for them ; and, though he seems to be a
man of great natural parts and sense as any of
his colour, yet he takes great delight in trifling
toys and whims ; so that if you have anything of
that kind, I pray you Avill send them to me, or
any prints or pictures, he much loving to look in
a book, and commonly carries a Latin mass-book

190 APPENDIX A.
in his pocket, which he had from the mulatto ;
and when he has a mind to banter any body out
of their requests, he looks in his book as studi
ously as if he understood it, and could employ
his thought on no other subject ; and much af
fects scrawling on paper, often sending me his
letters ; but then he sends an interpreter with a
good flask of brandy and a grand cabess or two.
If there is any cast-off woman, either white or
mulatto, that can be persuaded to come to this
country, either to be his wife or else practise her
old trade, I should gain his majesty's heart en
tirely by it, and he would believe anything I say
about my going and returning again with more
white men from the company. I pray you will
comply with as much of this letter as possible,
which may be much for my interest. As to any
one's coming, they need not fear his using any
compulsion, having at least 2,000 wives, which
he maintains beyond any black king, and suffers
them to do nothing but for his own use, in his own
house or palace, which is as big as a small town ;
and when 160 or 200 of them go Avith small pots
for water, they one day wear rich silk waist-cloths,
called * * * * ; another day they all wear scarlet
clothes, with three or four large strings of coral
about their necks, and their leaders sometimes in
crimson, sometimes in green, and sometimes blue

LETTER FROM ABOMEY IN 1724. 191
velvet clothes, Avith silver gilt staffs in their
hands, like golden canes.
When I came here first, the Portuguese had a
mulatto * * *, who his majesty used with abund
ance of good manners, continually giving her
presents. He gave her two Avomen and a girl
to wait on her. But she dying of the smallpox,
he wants mightily more to come, and says that
no white body shall ever want anything he can
purchase for gold. He likewise gives great en
couragement to all black strangers, and is ex
tremely kind to some Malay people who are now
here. This country is mighty healthful, lying so very
high, and is daily refreshed with fine cool breezes.
It is likewise extremely pleasant, having all Great
Popo in vieiv, though at a vast distance ; neither
are we pestered with mosketoes.
I hope I shall have a better opportunity to
describe the poAver and grandeur of this con
quering king, Avhich has often surprised me, not
thinking ever to see any thing like it in this part
of the world. I shall therefore conclude my letter
Avith a short account of that war, whereto I was
an unfortunate eye-witness, and from whence I
saved nothing in the world, but what I had on
my back, and narrowly escaped perishing in the
flames, being the fate of many hundreds j which I

192 APPENDIX A.
had shared, had not a man hauled me over the
wall of old Blanco's house, in which I was sud
denly shut up as soon as the cry of Avar came.
And Avere it not for that misfortune, I might
had a chance to make my escape, which I sup
pose the king and old Blanco were afraid of;
for which reason they sent to secure me. How
ever, that house being the first they set fire to in
the town, I got soon enough out to he a melan
choly spectator of the ensuing desolation and de
struction. Some time after I was hauled out,
they carried me through the town to the king's
house, where this king's general was, and though
he was in a great hurry and flushed with victory,
he took me A-ery kindly by the hand, and gave
me a dram, which was some comfort to me,
though I knew not who he was : at first, I took
him to be the king of Ardah's brother, hut then
I admired at his face being cut*, and the house
being in flames ; but I soon understood Avho he
was. When we went out, there Avas scarce any
stirring for bodies without heads, and had it
rained blood, it could not have lain thicker on the
ground. Night being come, I walked among
crowds of people, with the general, to the camp,
* Some inland countries do cut and scarify their
faces for ornament sake.

LETTER FROM ABOMEY IN 1724. 193
who after giving me two or three drains, gave me
in charge to one of the petty captains of Avar, who
Avas extremely kind to and careful of me. The next
day they brought one of my boys to me, who
Avas Captain Blanco's son, but he being mortally
wounded in the head, so that his brains might
be seen, was not able to let me know what they
said. Two days after, the general called me to
come and sit with him and the petty captains of
war, while they counted the captive slaves, which
they did, by giving a booge to every one : the
whole amounted to upwards of two grand ca-
bess, or above 8000 in number, among whom
I saw two more of my boys ; one of Avhich Avas
wounded in the thigh, and the other in the knee.
This accident gave me an opportunity of a little
more talk with the general, who endeavoured to
hearten me up, calling for a flask of brandy.
He drank to me, and bid me keep the rest : he
likewise offered me some pieces of chintz sletias,
&c, which having no use for, refused, telling them
if they found among their plunder any shirts or
clothes, I should be thankful for them, being, as
you may suppose, very dirty.
The people to whom my servants were cap
tives, Avould never permit them to come to me
without coming with them ; however, the general
bid me not be uneasy at that in the least, for
VOL. I. 0

194 APPENDIX A.
nothing should hurt me till I saw the king his
master, who would receive me extremely well and
kindly, Avhich, indeed, he afterwards did. The
general gave me a kidey-soll and hammock to
carry me up in the country, which I gladly ac
cepted of.
Having seen so many cruelties committed on
the bodies of old men and women, also on such as
were not able to travel by reason of their wounds
and burns, &c, I could not choose but labour
under dismal apprehensions, particularly the first
morning, when they led me out, as I imagined,
to sacrifice me, with a drum beating a sort of
dead march before me, and many hundreds
gathered about me, jumping and tearing, enough
to rend the very skies with such a noise as would
fright the devil himself. Many had drawn swords
and knives in their hands, which they flourished
about me, as if ready for execution. While I was
calling upon God to have mercy upon me, the
general sent orders to the petty captain of Avar
to bring me to him, being retired about two miles
out of the camp. His orders were quickly
obeyed, and I brought to him, Avhich put an end
to my fears.
I should have given you an account of my in
troduction to the king, had not his majesty sent
this minute in a hurry to me for this letter, which

B. VAHIE LANGUAGE.
I cannot have time either to copy or correct, as I
intended. I therefore beg you will pardon tau
tology and all other faults. Being, with hearty
service to all the gentlemen, Sir,
Your most obedient humble servant,
Bulfinch Lamb.

195

B.
The Discovery of the Vahie Language and
Vocabulary.
There is no greater difficulty not only to the
traveller and the merchant, but also to the ad
vance of civilisation and the destruction of that
infamous traffic the slave trade, than the variety
of African languages ; and there can he nothing
more desirable than to form one phonetic written
language to command all or as many of the Afri
can dialects as possible.
It will appear strange that the Africans them
selves are beginning to feel the want of a written
character, and in the following instance It may
o 2

196 APPENDIX B.
surprise the reader to find that negro enterprise
supplied for their own peculiar dialect the Vei
Phonetic. The following is a copy of the despatch
reporting the discovery. H.M.S. Bonetta, Sierra Leone,
Jan. 18. 1849.
Sir,
It has fallen to my lot to make a discovery
of such importance to the civilisation of Africa,
that I am anxious my own profession should
bear the honour that it may deserve.
The discovery consists of a written language of
the Phonetic order.
On my arrival at Sierra Leone I did myself
the honour to report the discovery to his Excel
lency the Acting Governor; and, at his request,
furnished him Avith a copy of the characters,
alphabetically arranged, which his Excellency
purposed sending to the Secretary of State for
the Colonies. In a service letter upon the sub
ject I made use of the following expression : —
" To the Admiralty, the head of the profession
to which I have the honour to belong, I deem
it my duty to forward a vocabulary I have ar
ranged." By his Excellency I was strongly recommended
to send the vocabulary to England as early as

VAHIE LANGUAGE.
possible, and from him I received the follow
ing:— " I have inspected your alphabet and vocabulary
of the Vahie language, and I have no hesitation
in saying that you have made a most important
discovery ; it being up to this time asserted on
all hands that there exists no native African
Avritten language. 1 advise you not to lose a
moment in making your discovery known to the
learned in Europe ; otherwise, as you have men
tioned the subject to several persons on this coast,
you will run the risk of sharing the fate of many
other contributors to the stock of human know
ledge, by being deprived of the honour of your
discovery by some unscrupulous plagiarist."
The curiosity of the discovery brought people
of all classes in Sierra Leone to witness it ; and
among others the missionaries — to these men the
more astonishing, one of their Society being a
man of sound philological learning. The follow
ing is the copy of a letter I received from the
senior Missionary of the Church of England, the
Eev. Ed. Jones, M. A. : —
" I am unwilling that you should leave our
shores without expressing to you how deeply I
feel your kindness in favouring me with a sight
of your African vocabulary. I trust your most
praiseworthy exertions amid the arduous duties
o 3

197

198 APPENDIX B.
of your profession will lead to ulterior measures,
and that steps will be immediately taken to pur
sue what you have so spiritedly begun, and thus
satisfy all that the interests of philology and the
cause of African improvement may demand. It
does seem a strange thing (for truth is strange)
that at a point of land within a few days' sail of
us, and immediately bordering upon an American
colony, it should be left to a naval officer, ac
tively engaged in the suppression of the slave
trade, to bring to light the existence of a written
language previously, so far as I have any means
of judging, altogether unknown. This is your
just merit, and I cheerfully acknowledge it."
I have had the pleasure of receiving from Mr.
Roberts, the President of Liberia, an assurance
that the language is a novelty to him, and he did
me the honour to request I would furnish him
Avith a copy of the characters.
Hoping this communication may meet your
approbation, as well as the good opinion of their
Lordships, I have, &c,
(Signed) F. E. Forbes,
Lieut. R.N. commanding H.M.S. Bonetta.
To Commodore Sir Charles Hotham, K.C.B.,
Commander-in-Chief, AArest Coast of Africa,
&c. &c.

VAHIE LANGUAGE. 199
At Cape Mount, on the house of one of the
Liberian settlers, I chanced to meet the follow
ing characters — " ko i si a wa ke mu." * Never
having heard of an African language of the kind,
I inquired, and discovered them to he of a native
language of late introduction or invention. For
some time I failed in getting them explained,
or in obtaining any further information on the
subject. A lucky chance took me to a town called
" Bohmar," about eight miles E. of Cape Mount,
and there I met a man by the name of Mormorro
Dualoo Wohgnae, a nephew of the king of Su-
gury, Avho possessed a manuscript and understood
the language.
On this man consenting to live on board her
Majesty's ship, I undertook to arrange the inclosed
vocabulary, having collected and classed all the
characters his book contained.
It will be observed that the language is of the
Phonetic order ; that the characters are not sym
bolical ; and, according to my teacher, it Avas in
vented ten or twenty years ago by the following
eight men : — Native Character,
1. Duaroo-Kehloe-Kaie. Dua du ke ra gai .
2. Fargan-Zapoh. Fa nge sa gbo.
* See facsimile on the second lithograph.
o 4

200 APPENDIX B.
Native Character.
3. Duaroo-Boh-Kehlae. Dua du bii ke ra. *
4. Hhumdongloh-AVooloh. Kg ro lo ulo.
5. Duaroo Tamee. Dua du ta mi.
6. Bahee Behseh. Ba i bi se.
7. Karnahmar. Ga na ma.
8. Kanlee fohloh. Ka i fo lo.
" Mormorro Dualoo Wohgnae " thus writes his
name : — Mo mo du dua du wo ye.
He informs me that at first the language was
studied by many, and that schools were esta
blished : but that such extraordinary signs of
civilisation aroused the jealousy of their Spanish
neighbours at Gallinas, who, by intrigue and pre
sents, soon laid the whole country into such a
state of anarchy as overthrew the progress of
learning. If the language be one of such recent origin,
or even an introduction, how far we must have
mistaken the African's constitution !
The present vocabulary has been a work of
upwards of three months' constant study, and has
been revised four times.
I cannot think I am possessed of all the cha
racters. However, my teacher assures me there
are no more.
* This is obviously the Doalu Bukara of the Rev. Mr. Koelle.

SPECIMENS OF THE VAHIE PHONETIC
$> )J + "% "l -» £ a t
=i» o? ? a3 if w;i -in
* H X ^ s? a h? "r'n> » «

VAHIE LANGUAGE.

201

A VOCABULAEY.

Phenomena.

English.

Phonetic Character.

Pronunciation.

AA^orld

du nya

doo fiah

Sea

ko i

qua ie

Sun

te le

tai lee

Moon

galo

kar loh

Star

to ma la

to ro mar la

Light

du ma ga

doo mar ka

Dark

du ma fi

doo mar fee ng

Sunrise

te ga du ma

tai lee ka doo mao

Sunset

te bi la

tai lee bih la

Heat

gba ni

pann dee

Cold

ki ma

kee mar

Night

su dong

su loh

Day

te dong

tai lee loh

Elements.

Fire

ta

tah

Aii-

a i fi la gbd a

ah ee fee lah bo ah

Earth

du ma

doo mar

Smoke

j;

gee

Water

si si

se se

Wind

fila

fee lah

Calm

fi la be le Senses.

fee lah bih lee

See

jaja

eah jay

Hear

ja la

eah lah

Smell

ku e

ko na

Feel

bu sa dong

boh sor dong

202

APPENDIX

B.

Symmetry.

English.

Phonetic Character.

Pronunciation.

Body

mo fi ma

moh fee mar

Head

ku

kung

Hair

ku ri

kung de

Eye

ja

ja

Ear

to ro

to roh

Face

ja dong

tar roh

Mouth

jo (?)

la

Nose

sung

sung

Chin

gba ko ro

pah ko loh

Arm

bo

boo

Hand

bo lu va lo

boo loo far loh

Finger

bo lu dong le

boo loo dong le

Leg

ke ne

kai nee

Foot

ke ne ja lo

kai nee jar loh

Toes

ke dong le

kain dong lee

Back

kd

koh

Belly

bu MALADIES

boo
».

Deaf

f a we le ko lo la
L a to lo gbo ti mu

ah wee ly ko loh da

ah to loh poo tee le moo

Dumb

mu mu

moo moo

Blind

a bi le mo ja

ah bil lee mo jay

Idiot

a ku ra nya

ah ku lae na

Mad

a bu lo wa

ah bo loh oar

Lame

a ma gba

ah man pah

Wound

gba a

pa ah

Fever

a ma ni gba di a

ah ma nee pan dee ar

Sick

a ki la

a hi kee lah

Relations.
Father
fa
fa
Mother
ng ba
hhurn bah
Husband
na ga
nah kar
VAHIE LANGUAGE.

203

Relations — continued.

English.

Phonetic Character.

Pronunciation.

Wife

na mus i

nah moo su

Man

gai

kai ee

Woman

mu su ma

mu su mar

Brother

nyo mo

gno moh

Sister

nyo mo mu su ma

gno moh mu su mar

Son

na deng

nah ding

Daughter

na deng mu su ma

nah ding mu su mar

Boy

deng ga i ma

ding kai ee mar

Girl

deng mu su ma

ding mu su mar

House,

&c.

House

ke"

kain

Door

ke la lo

kain dar roh

Window

j& le la lo

jayn dee lah loh

Thatch

ja la

jan dab.

Wood

sa

so ro

Room

so ri lo

zoh de loh

Table

ma sa

mar sar

Bed

gbe gbe

ping pih

Seat

gbe ye

big ngae

Mat

wa la

our lah

Pipe

ta wa la

ta oar lah

Tobacco

ta, wa

ta oar

Forest.

Forest

fi la ba wo la

fee la bah woh la

Tree

kd ng

koang

Bush

w& gbd

jaum boh

Bough

a bd dong

ah boo loon

Trunk

kd ng te

koang tih

Leaf

ja ng ba

ja hhum bah

Flowers

kd fu

kon foo

Fruit

kd pong

kon pong

Shade

si le kd lo

su elee a kor loh

204

APPENDIX B.

Forest — continued.

English.

Phonetic Character.

Pronunciation

Bark

kd fo lu

koang fo loo

Thorn

wa le

wah lee

Roots

kdng su lu

koang soo doo

Creeper

judu Arms, &c

juh doo

Spear

ta ba

tam bah

Sword

mi ye

mee nae

Musket

bu

boh

Powder

bu ng

boh foung

Cannon

do ba

doo bah

Fowling-piec

ese dong

seh doong

Powder-flask

fu n

vou loo

Musket-ball

bu kd je Animals.

boh ko enjae

Bull

ni ga i ma

gnee kaie mar

Bullock

ni

gnee

Cow

ni mu su ma

gnee mu su mar

Goat

ba

bah

Sheep

ba wa la

bah oar la

Pig

kd nya

ko fiah

Leopard

ko ri

ko de

Deer

ke la

kain la

Elephant

ga ma

kar mar

Dog

u du

woo doo

Cat

ma nya le

mar gnah elee

Rat

to la

to la

Mouse

ding ri

ding de

Musk-rat

do du

doo loo

Bush-cat

ko le gbe le

ko lee pih lee

Lion

ja la

ia la

Tiger

su du gbo

su loo poo

VAHIE LANGUAGE.

205

Birds.

English,

Phonetic Character.

Pronunciation.

Fowl

ti ea

tee ea

Duck

bu dong ko ri

boh loh kon dee

Eagle

kd ng ja

quan ja

Snipe

gbo lo ma se be

po lo mar seh mbeh

Palm bird

kd si a

ko se ah

Dove

pong u

poh woo

Turkey

do gba, ke ko deng

doo pah ke kon de

Toucan

gbe a gbe a'
Fruit.

pih ah piah

Orange

du bii lo

doom boo loh

Pine-apple

ke fe

kain fae

Plantain

ba na

bah nah

Banana

po ng ba na

poro ba nah

Cocoa-nut

po ng kd ea

poro kon jae

Guava

kd ri wa

ko le oar

Paupau

pagai

pah kaie

Vegetable s.

Pumpkin

gbo du

po loo

Yams

si na be le

ce nah beh lee

Cassada

tu sa

bah sar

Sweet potato jo u

joh woo

Rice

kd ro

ko loh

Onions

si ba la

se bah lah

Chillies

ki la fe

kee lah fae

Beans

sa
Metals

sor

Gold

ga ni ja le

kar nee jar lee

Silver

ga ni gbe ma

kar nee peh mar

Copper

ta, ni

ta gnee

Brass

bang bang te ra

bang ban teh lae

Iron

ku du

kung doo

Tin.

g&ga

gon gong

Charcoal

ke bu

kain boo

206

APPENDIX B.

Minerals.

English.

Phonetic Character.

Pronunciati

Diamond

ni na si ng

nee nah seng

Glass

me se ra Spices.

meh neh lae

Salt

ko

koh

Pepper

ki le fe

kee lee fae

Oil

do du

too doo

Meats, &c.

&c.

Meat

su ye

soo yea

Bullock flesh

ni su ye

gnee soo yea

Goat flesh

ba ne ye

bah soo yea

Bread

gbo ng

boh foo

Flour

gbo ng mu

boh foo mun

Fish

nyi

gnea

Drinks.

Palm wine
Spirits
Rum

White
BlackYellow Red Green

ClothesCap ShirtTrowsers

ba gbe
po ng gbe
gbe

bang peh
poro peh
peh

Colours.

a gbe ma
fi ma
nye le
ja le
jiro

ah peh mar
fee mar
nae lee
ja lee
gee dong

Clothes.

dong fing
gbo lo
ddng ma
ke ko la

doung fing
boh loh
doung mar
kain kon lah

VAHIE LANGUAGE.

207

Clothes — continued.
English. Phonetic Character. Pronunciation.
Shoes k& wa ko oar
Black handkcf. bi ta gba sa fee ta pah sar
Cloth mu lu fu moo luh fuh
Piece cloth ko la koh lah
Country cloth ga ro ko la kan doh ko lah

Times, &c.

Year
Month
Morning
Evening Noon
Midnight To-dayTo-morrowEndBeginningRainy season
Dry season
Land wind
Sea wind

I ThouHeA\re YouThey
WhoWhich My His
OursYours

sang
galosa ma
te le lo
te le ku te
su te
s& ro ro
si na
a ba he
a ku du mi
sa ma lo
ko ri ma
u la lo fi la
ko i lo fi la

sang kar loh
sar mar
teh lee loh
teh lee kun teh
su tih
sor don do
se nah
ah bang he
ah ko ro mee
sar mar ro
ko le mar
woo la loh fee lah
qua ee loh fee loh

ng nya
i wa
ga i me
mu gbe
i wa
mo me nu
wa mu
a me na
la mu
a ta mu
mu ta mu he
i wa ta, mu

Pronouns, &c. hhum gar
ee oar

ka ie meh
mun bih
ee oar
moh meh noo
jauh mun
ah me nah
tah mun
ah tah mun
mun tah mun he
ee oar ta mun

208

APPENDIX B.

English.
Theirs
Each All Neither This That Some Other Such More None

Phonetic Character.
a nu t4 mu
ke ke
a gbe ra
ro ro gbe ra
keke nie nu
ng kd deng
a ma deng
ke ta lo
ng u gbd lo la
a gbe deng

Pronunciation.
ah noo ta mun
keh o keh
ah peh lae
don do peh lae
ke
keh me noo
hhum ko ding
ah mar ding
keh ta roh
hhum worro bo riola
ah peh ding

1
2
3 4
5 6
7
89
1011
20
21 30
31¦10 41
5051
60
CI 70 71

Numerals.
Pronunciation.
don do
fee lah
sarc pah
nah nee
sor doo
sor don do
sorn fee la
sorn sarc pah
sorn na nee
tang
tang don do
mo ban dee
mo ban dee ako don do
mo ban dee ako tang
mo ban dee ako tang don do
moh fee lah ban dee
moh fee lah ban dee ako don do
moh fee lah ban dee ako tang
mo fi la ba le ako tang ro ro moh fee lah ban dee ako tang
don do
mo sa gba ba le moh sack pah ban dee
mo sa gba ba le a ko ro ro moh sack pah ban deeako don do
mo sa gba ba le a ko tang moh sarc pah ban dee ako tang
mo sa gbii ba le u ko tang moh sarc pah ban dee ako tang
ro ro don do

Phonetic Character.
ro ro
fi la
sa gba
na ni
sa du
sa du ro ro
sa du fi la
sa du sa gba
sa du na ni
ta ng
ta ng ro ro
mo ba le
mo ba le a ko ro ro
mo ba le a ko tang
mo ba le a ko tang ro ro
mo fi la ba le
mo fi la ba le ako ro ro
mo fi la ba le ako tang

VAHIE LANGUAGE.

209

Numerals — continued.
Phonetic Character. Pronunciation.
80 monanibale moh nar nee ban dee
81 mo na ni ba le ak6 ro ro mohnarneebandeeakodondo
90 mo na ni ba le a ko tang moh nar nee ban dee ako tang
91 mo na ni ba le a ko tang ro ro moh nar nee ban dee ako tang
100 boh ro ro hun de ro don do [don do
1000 ta su ro ro taow su don do

Adjectives.

English.

Phonetic Character.

Pronunciation.

Able

ku la

koun dah

Acid

a dong la

ah don lah

Aged

ka ki la

karn kee lah

Agreeable

kd ni

koh nee

Alike

nyo gbi

neaugh beih

Alive

ake ra

ah ken dae

Bad

a ma na

ar mar gne

Barren

a gbe ma le mu

ah peh mar lee moo

Bend

i du

ee doo

Boiling

a u ri

ah woo dee

Broken

i ga ri

ee kar dee [pang

Careful

i ku ma fe ra gba gbi

a, ee ko mar feh lae pang

Cheap

a sa woh ma gbe ra

ah song woh mar peh lae

Clean

ako le

ah ko elee

Clever

i ko sa

ee koh sar

Cloudy

ba la gbi la

ban da beih lah

Complete

a ku be le mu

ah kung ben dee mun

Drunk

gbe bi la

peh bi lah

Dry

a gba la

ah pah la

Empty

a fd lu mu

ah fo loo mun

Enough

a ku la

ah kung dah

Equal

ng kd ta

hhum kon tah

Female

su

su

Few

a ma fing fa

ah mar fmg far

First

a se je se je

ah sen gee sen gee

Fit

a ku la gbe

ah kung dal ping

VOL. I.

210

APPENDIX B.

Adjectives — i

continued.

English.

Phonetic Character.

Pronunciation.

Future (?)

jalo

jar loh

Free

ma ja deng

man ja ding

Glad

a ng va la sa

ah hum far la sar

Great

a sS, wd be le

ah song woh bil lee

Hard

a gbe ra

arc peh lae

Heavy

a va nya

ah far na

High

a ga ro ja ng

ah can doh jang

Hot

a gbd. ri a

ah pan deah

Hungry

kd ng w.d

kong woh

Jealous

a mu su va la

ah mu su fa la

Ignorant

a ma ko sa

ah mar ko sar

Improper

a ma ma

ah mar mar

Laborious

a gbo ro wi ra tu

ah poh loh wee lae too

Large

a ko lu

ah koo loo

Last

a gbe me

ah peh ne meh

Late

i a fe ja ja

ee ah feh jan ja

Less

a ku ma ko lu

ah kung mar ko loh

Long

a ja ng

ah jang

Loose

i fd le

ee foo lee

Lost

a sa ma

ah sar mar

Male

ka i

ka ie

Middle

a te ma

ah teh mar

More

a gbd lo

ah bo roh

Near

nu be fo

noo beh for

New

a na ma

ah nah mar

Next

a ro ma le

ah roh man dee

Numerous

a ku du bk

ah koor uin bah

Old

a ko lo kd lo ba mu

ah ko loh ko loh bah moo

Open

i da ga

ee dar ka

Past

a be le a

ah beh lee ah

Poor

ja mo mu

jar moh moo

Pretty

a nyi gba

ah gneae pah

Quick

i na ri a ri a

ee nah dee ah dee agh

Rapid

a lo gba ri a

ah loh pan dee ah

Same

a ta ro

ah tar roh

VAHIE LANGUAGE.

211

Adjectives — continued.

English.

Phonetic Character.

Pronunciation.

Short

a i ku du

ah ee kung doo

Sick

a ki la wa

ee kee la oar

Slow

i ma ta ri a

ee mar tar de ah

Soft

a ma gbe la

ah mar peh lae

Strong

a nge na

ah gar nah

Sweet

a hi nya gba

ah kee na pah

Thirsty

ng kd ji ni a mi

hhung ko gee nee ah mee

Timid

a mi ni nya

ah mee nee na

True

tan nya mu

tau na moo

Unequal

a ma ga ng

ah mar kang

Unwilling

ma da lu

mar da roo

Useful

na i ri a

nah ee dee ah

Useless

ma lu lu a la Verbs.

mar oo loo a lah

Abuse

a gbe raja u

ah peh lae ja oo

Accept

i gbi la je

ee beh la enjae

Accuse

a ta ko se ri na

ah ta ko seh di nah

Answer

i wi kd le

ee vee qua lee

Arrive

a ke

ah kay

Ask

i to sa

ee to sar

Assist

i ba sa la

ee bar sar la

Bargain

u, sa wd na

ah sor woh gnee

Beat

ng be bu a

hhum beh boo ah

Beg

fu ra ke

foo lae kae

Begin

i ku du bi

ee koo roo bee

Believe

i sa la

ee sar la

Bind

i ki ri a kd

ee kee lee ah ko

Boil

i ki ng

ee kee ng

Bring

i na la

ee nah lah

Buy

i a sa

ee ah sang

Call

i ke le

ee kain lee

Carry

i ta la

ee ta la

Catch

i bi la

ee bee la

Chew

i ro p 2

ee dong

212

APPENDIX B.

Verbs -

— continued.

English.

Phonetic Character. Pronunciation.

Collect

i la so

ee dar song

Come

i na

ee nah

Count

i la ng

ee dang

Cut

i tehi

ee tehea

Dance

mu ta ro ke

mun ta dong ke

Deliver

i ta kd

ee ta ko

Destroy

a ro ja lu

ah ro ja oo

Die

a fa la

ah far la

Double

a si na ma

ee se nah mar

Divide

u i te du

oo ee teh doo

Dress

i ma ki ri

ee mar kee dee

Drink

1 mi

ee mee

Eat

feng ro

fing dong

End

a ba ng

ah bang

Explain

i ro ji la ng la

ee roh gee lang dah

Enter

i dong

ee doung

Invite

i ke ba la he

ee kain bah la he

Go

i ta

ee tah

Kick

i ma ng te

ee marn teh

Kiss

i la dong ng la

lo ee da doung hhum dah

Kill

i fa

ee far [loh

Know

na sa

nah sor

Laugh

i ja ra ke

ee jay lae ke

Lend

ng si na

hhum see nah

Lie

i fa ni

ee far gnee

Live

i fe la gbd

ee fe la boh

Love

na i ri a

nah ee de ah

Look

ng fe ra

hhum feh lae

Make

i na a

ee gnee ah

Move

ibi

ee bee

Occupy

a be nu

ah bih noo

Open

i la ga

ee dar kar

Owe

a gba gbi la ng

bd lo ah pang beh la hhum boo

Paddle

da la

dar lah [l0h

Part

i te ga

ee teh kar

VAHIE LANGUAGE.

213

English.

Phonetic Charact

Pay

pa wa ke

Please

kd nya

Prepare

i ma di a

Promise

ku ra gbi la

Protect

ku ma fe ra

Quarrel

kd ri

Receive

a gba bu lo

Recollect

a sa ku ro

Rob

a ga (?)

Run

bu le ka

Sail

wu fi la se ra

Say

fing ro

Sell

iga

See

aje

Sing

ro ng gba,

Speak

ifo

Stab

a ng sa me a

Stop

i sa

Swear

a bu lo ke

Take

igbi

Talk

di a bu

Tell

ifo

Tear

i te

Think

i ku ro ki le ma

Touch

i ma

Tremble

a ma ni sa ng ba

Trust

i sa la

Understand

na sa

Wake

ea ku ye

Walk

i ta ea

Watch

i ma ki ke

Want

ng lu lo a la

Weigh

i mu su ma

Wish

i wd lo

Work

sa ke

Verbs — continued. Pronunciation.
paugh oar ke
ko gnee
ee mar dee ah
ku lae bih la
kung mar feh lae
qua dee
ah bong boo loh
ah song kung dong
ah kar gar
boo lee keh
woo fee lah seh lae
fing dong
ee kar
ah enjae
dong hhum boh
ee for
ah ung sor me ah
ee sor
ah boo loh keh
ee bee
dhe am boo
ee for
ee teh
ee kung dong kee lee
ee mar [mar
ah mar gnee sam bah
ee sar rah
nah sor
ea kung nay
ee ta eah
ee mar kee keh
hhum woo loh a lah
ee mu su mar
ee woh loh
sor keh
p 3

214

APPENDIX B.

The foregoing vocabulary is of the " Vahie "
or Vei language, which extends over the follow-
ing countries : — Cape Mount, Soungrie, Marma,
and Gallinas, on the sea coast, and several interior
countries. Varieties of African languages are
so frequently met with, that they may be more
properly termed dialects, as the following may
prove : —

Vahie.

Courroo.

Kroo.

Fish.

1 Dondo

goonoo

doo

(loo

2 Feelah

tierla

song

song

3 Sacpah

tarlee

tah

tah

4 Narnee

teenar

neah

eh

5 Sooloh

noono

moo

d'moo

6 Soo dondo

dia goonoo

moomadoo

neeroo

7 Soo feelah

dia tierla

rnooniasong

mesoong

8 Soo sacpah

dia tarlee

mumatah

biah biah

9 Soo narnee

dia teenar

munia sussahdoo chieeroo

10 Tang

zehiar

pouah

poh

Thus the above characters of the Vahie Pho
netic, might be arranged into a general African
written language.
In concluding, I hope the missionaries or
others may follow up what has been thus com
menced, as, from the opposite nature of the duties
of a naval officer, I could neither spare time, nor
hope for the opportunity of faithfully arranging a
grammar or making translations.
From the Admiralty my discovery was trans
mitted officially to the Koyal Geographical Society.

VAHIE LANGUAGE.
Mr. Norris studied the language and published
notes with a full alphabet, enlarging considerably
on Mr. Koelle's and my researches. They will
be found in the 20th Number of the Report of
the Royal Geographical Society.
I was somewhat surprised, on my return to
England, having given a vocabulary of the lan
guage and the characters alphabetically arranged
to a German missionary and philologist at Sierra
Leone, in finding that gentleman, after most
spiritedly following up the discovery, had pub
lished a pamphlet, entitled " Narrative of an
Expedition into the Vy Country of West Africa,
and the Discovery of a System of Syllabic Writ
ing, &c. By the Rev. J. W. Koelle, missionary,"
&c. ; almost entirely forgetting the pioneer, leav
ing it a matter of doubt to the reader, to whom
the credit of the discovery belonged.
There remains no doubt but that this language
is purely an invention of late date, and one en
tirely of African enterprise. What the African
intellect is capable of developing, may not be al
together known in this country. Education is
doing much towards civilising Africa, and if used
as a material organ will be a very strong one
against the slave trade.
Among a people who, for convenience, can
frame and establish a Phonetic language, and teach
p 4

215

!16 APPENDIX B.
from it unassisted (although in the neighbourhood
of colonies of nations known to be patrons of
literature), an extension of education must be of
most material service.
There are several extraordinary instances of
blacks becoming highly educated, and of the
most eminent service to their fellow men : of
these one of the most enterprising may be con
sidered the Rev. Mr. C  , the senior mis
sionary at Abeahkeutah, who has translated the
Scriptures into the Yoribah language. This
gentleman was originally a slave, and liberated
from the slave-yard at Sierra Leone.
In the new presidency of Liberia are several
instances of the capacity of the blacks' intellect,
Among the emigrants, or liberated Africans at
Sierra Leone, the Akoos, natives from the Bight
of Benin (so termed from the general salute, or
" good morning," common to all the kingdoms of
that portion, " Akoo Akoo"), are said to be the
most apt at learning. They become, in love of
money and ingenuity and tact at bargains, the
Jews of Africa, when removed from their own
country ; though some (as, for instance, Don Jose
Almeida, instanced in the foregoing Journals)
take advantage of their education on their return
to cheat their own people.
With such convincing proofs, let it be hoped

VAHIE LANGUAGE.
that education will be extended; and wherever
a black becomes distinguished for talent, such re
wards should be open to him, in his own con
tinent, as have lately been given to a reverend
and learned black gentleman, the new consul of
the negro republic of Liberia.
If the offices of the colony of Sierra Leone
were more open to black enterprise, there would
be a greater extension of competition; and al
though the missionaries have many large schools,
and the course of education is exceedingly good,
the scholars would considerably increase in num
bers, and no doubt many of them become also
excellent missionaries and schoolmasters to re
turn to their native country.
Slavery is the offspring of ignorance, and in no
part of Africa where the light of civilisation has
shone does slavery exist. In Dahomey the mis
sionaries have not yet planted the tree of know
ledge, although in each of the large neighbouring
countries, Ashantee and Abeahkeutah (Yoribah),
education is fast advancing, and the slave trade
receding. Trade and education generally in Africa ad
vance with equal strides, treading down the slave
traffic, and carrying with them all the advantages
of civilisation over barbarism. In all the laro-e
rivers of the Bights of Benin and Biafra, the

217

218 APPENDIX C.
slave trade has been almost entirely uprooted by
the extension of palm-oil trade and increase of
education, the kings of those rivers keeping their
own ledgers, and attending materially to their
trade affairs to such an extent as to have abolished
the religious superstitions that in former years
ruled the kings themselves : among these the
" Egboh of the Camaroons " (a wild superstition
that ruled all classes to such an extent that British
captains of merchant vessels have bought Egboh,
i. e. become votaries of this degrading, disgustino*
superstition, in order, in their position as priests,
to command a monopoly over their more ignorant,
but less to be pitied customers) has been entirely
done away with.

c.
Vocabulary of the Dahoman Language.
The language is of the poorest order of any I
have met even in Africa, although in the vicinity
of the most complete of African languages, the
Haussa, in which the Arabic cipher is applied to

DAHOMAN LANGUAGE.
its intonation. This may be considered extra
ordinary to those unacquainted with the obscure
origin of the Dahomans. I can make but the
following few observations of the Dahoman man
ner of expression.
Many of the words are compounded, while
other words are (altered in sound) pronounced
with or without emphasis, according to the (or
otherwise) superlative meaning required: thus,
dag bee, good ; dag bee, dag bee, means beautiful,
sublime, purity, excellence, &c, according to its
emphatic sound and the number of the repeti
tions. The addition of the word " voo" to the name of
an animal, signifies the offspring of that animal :
thus, soh, a horse ; soh voo, a colt ; — koh kroo, a
fowl ; koh kroo voo, a chicken.
The addition of " pee vee," or small, is sufficient
to express almost an entirely different meaning in
our idiom : thus, toh, a city ; toh pee vee, a vil
lage ; — hoh, a house ; hoh pee vee, a hut.
All foreign introductions are termed " ee a voo,"
or the white man's: thus, zah, a mat ; ee a voo zah,
a mattress ; — zing poo, a stool ; ee a voo zing poo,
a chair. Any native who leaves his country, even
as a slave, and returns, if he wears the dress of a
foreigner, is termed ee a voo, a white man : thus,
in Whydah, to distinguish two men named Das-

219

220 APPENDIX C.
soo, one is termed for the above reason, Ee a voo
Dassoo. The numerals are very peculiarly compounded,
as the following list will show.

Numerals.
1. Deh
2. Oui
3. Alitor
4. Eh neh
5 Ah tong
6. Ah ee zae
7. Teghn oui
8. Tar tor
9. Teghn neh
10. Woh
1 1 . Woh deh poh
12. Woh oui
13. Woh ator
14. Woh eh neh
15. Ah fau tong
16. Ah fau tong noo koo noo deh poh
17. Fau tong noo koo noo g'noui
18. Fau tong noo koo noo ah tong
19. Fau tong noo koo noo eh neh
20. Koh
2 1 . Koh noo poo noo koo deh
30- Ek bagh
40. Kan dee
50. Kan dee woh
60. Kan dee koh
70 Kan dee ek bagh

DAHOMAN LANGUAGE.
Numerals — coutinued.
80. Kan oui
90. Kan oui woho
100. Kan oui koh
After ten to fifteen the translation would be ten 4- one,
+ two &c. : sixteen is a compound of ten, five, and one
added, and so on to 20.
40. A contraction of twice twenty.
50. Twice twenty and ten added.
60. Twice twenty and twenty.
70. Twice twenty and thirty added.
80. Twice forty.
90. Twice forty and ten added.
100. Twice forty and twenty added.

221

Phenomena.

World

toh

Visible heaven

gee noo

Earth

aee kung bangh

Sea

ah hoo

Sun

hoo soo voh

Moon

sung

Star*

sung voo

Light

a ee hoo

Darkness

sang koo

Sunrise

hoo ae tong

Sunset

hoo ae haugh

Shadow

ee ah

Heat

usu

Cold

ah ve voh

Lightning

soh meah

Thunder

gee dag bah

Rainbow

dah

* Sung voo, literally the offspring of sung (the moon).

222

APPENDIX C.

Fire, &c.

Fire

zoli

Smoke

min ah zoh

Sparks

zoh jah gee ah

Flame

zah fing

Fuel

zah kee

Charcoal

zoh kah

Water, &c.

Water

seeng

Ditto muddy

dee hoh

Fresh water

seeng dag bee

Salt ditto

jae seeng

Well ditto

dah roh

Rain ditto

gee jah

River

gae seeng

Well

doh

Swamp

bah bah

Tears

ah wee

Rain

gee kung

Dew

ah hung

Fog

a vee vee

Air, &c.
Wind
tah hong
Calm
yu su beh
Storm
a foo meh
East
hoo ee tong
West
hoo ee haugh
Senses.
Seeing
noli pong
Hearing
ee seh noo ah
Smelling
hoo neh pono-
Feeling
heh pong
DAHOMAN LANGUAGE.

223

Symmetry, &c.

Face

noo koo meh

Dumb

deh koo koo noo

Deaf

toh koo noo

Blind

eh toh noo koo

Squinting

noo koo mee me ah

Stammer

deh koo koo noh

Humpback

boh toh noh

Silly

lae loo noo

Mad

noo loo noo

Cough

ee jek pegh

Small-pox

a poh tee peh vee *

Itch

eh jah zeh

Fever

ah vee voh zoung

Wound

zeh noo noo mee

Sneeze

eh gnee zing

Bald

eh soon tah

Toothache

ee soo ah doo

A cold

meek pong

Relations of Lite.

Man

soo noo

Woman

gno noo

Husband

ah soo kee

Wife

ah see kee

Father

toh kee

Mother

noh kee

Brother

noh ee vee

Son

vee kee

Daughter

mee noh kee

Slave

kah noh moh, or ah kroo

Buildings, &c.

Bricks

pengh

Tiles

sih

* A poh

tee peh vee, literally " small a poh tee."

224

APPENDIX C.

Buildings — continued.

Lime

adak peh

Sand

neah keh

Beam

zah ting

Board

hoh lae

Thatch

seh

Spars

a seh a tengh

Nails

hoon jeh

House

hoh ee

Church

voh dong jee vee

Fort

sing boh mee

Storehouse

zah hoh

Hut

hoh peh vee

Market

ah hee meh

Shed

dee hoh

Fowl-house

hoh koh kroo

Door

hoong

Lock

gloh goh

Key

chah vee

AVindow

noo voo koo

Room

hoh mee

Stairs

a lee a gee

Floor

hoo leh

Cook-room

adoh haw

Partition

doh

Housetop

zah gee

Furniture.

Table

tah ooh

Chair

ee a voo zing poh

Stool

zing poo

Mat

zah

Mattrass

ee a voo zah

Hammock

pong

Pillow

kor do noo

Curtains

a noo dong

DAHOMAN LANGUAGE.

225

Furniture — continued.

Box

a poh ting

Basket

hah '

Watch

gah poh noo

Clock

gah noo

Hour-glass

gah poh too

Musket

too

Pistol

too peh vee

Gun

ah kor doh

Sword

gee vee doh hoh

Spear

hoo waugh

Dagger

gee vee peh vee

Spy-glass

hoong poo noo

Looking-glass

noo puengh

Blunderbuss

ah bah leah

Furniture oe the Table.

Tablecloth

tah voo gee voo

Dish

nah too gar gar

Plate

Hah too

Cup

ting zoo noo noo

Basin

woo koo meh fung bah

Jug

see noo noo ee a voo tong

Spoon

ah kee nee

Knife

ee a voo gee vee

Fork

lah soo ee

Bottle

mak beh goo

Furniture or the Kitchen.

Pan

noo dah zeh

Pot

zeh

Lamp

zoh beh

Candlestick

zoh beh noo

Candle

zoh beh

Tub

ah kroo pap

Broom

ah kee sar

VOL. I.

226

APPENDIX C.

Tools, &c.

Hammer

ham mah

Anvil

zoong

Bellows

wah hoong

Saw

sah

Axe

ha vee

Hoe

ah lee

Saddle

soh pah

Bridle

soh gan

Paper

wee mar

Ink

wee zing

Pen

wee oo na noo

Wild Animals.

Lion

kennee kenee

Tiger

paugh

Elephant

ah tengh nee

Ditto trunk

a doh

Ditto tusk

a tengh ee doo

Wild hog

ha veh

Hysena

ha lah

Deer

ak boh

Monkey

a tugh

Ditto, small

zee o

Ditto, long-tailed

toh kra

Squirrel

dong

Lizard

a loh toh

Cat

glargh zee

Mouse

u. j ah kah

Serpents, &c.
Snake
dang
Centipede
a ting dooeh
Millepede
a na tung goo goo
Scorpion
a hong klee klee
Alligator
loh
DAHOMAN LANGUAGE.

227

Serpents, &c. — continued.

Tortoise

loo goo zoo

Oyster

da kwei

Insects.

Butterfly

wee tee pah da dah

Louse

soh

Fly

soo peh

Mosquito

zah soo peh

Firefly

zoo klee nee gnee

Spider

tog bee eh

Domestic Animals.

Horse

soh

Mare

soh ahsee

Stallion

soh assoo

Foal

soh voo

Bullock

gnee boo

Bull

gnee boo soo

Cow

gnee see

Calf

gnee boo voo

Ass

huagh gnee

Mule

soh

Vegetables.

Yams

teh vee

Cassada

feh rin ha

Sweet potatoes

oo ee vee

Beans

a ee vee

Ground beans

ah zing

Ground nuts

ah ee o zing

Spices, &c.
Salt
seh
Pepper
ee e teh
Ditto, Cayenne
ee eteh me me sh
Oil
ah mee
Butter
boo droo
Q 2
228

APPENDIX C.

Eatables.

Rice

moh lee kung

Fish

hueh vee

Crabs

ah gar sar

Flour

ee a voo hee fee

Bread

ee a voo augh

Beer

ee a voo hah voh

Pitto

hah voh

Tea

ee a voo see zing no bloo noo

Beef

gnee boh lah

Mutton

bah lah

Meat

lah

Egg, fowl's

koh kroo zee

Times and Seasons.

Time

ek beh

Year

hueh

Month

sung

Week

voo dong bee

Day

peh dag bee

Night

zan koo

Moon

hah ee hing flah doo wee

Midnight

zan flah doo wee

Yesterday

sor

Last night

sor see sang koo

To-morrow

ah hee hung sor

Domestic Animals.
Ram
lain boh assoo
Lamb
lain boh voo
Goat
bah
Pig
agroo zar
Kid
boh voo
Dog
ah voo
Cat
ah whee
Kitten
ah whee voo
DAHOMAN LANGUAGE.

229

Poultry.

Duck

pak pah

Fowl

koh kroo

Chicken

sob kroo voo

Cock

koh kroo soo

Turkey

troh troo

Guinea-fowl

ah wah nee

Dove

pah ho lee

Birds.

Turkey buzzard

ah klah soo

Parrot

kee seh

Parroquet

kee seh kroo

Hawk

gan gar

Metals, &c.

Gold dust

see kah oh

Gold

see kah

Diamonds

jeh mah tee

Silver

pah toh gar

Iron

gan

Brass

gan boh

Copper

boh deah

Gunpowder

f dah doo noo
l soh too too

Medicine

ah moh

Trees, &c.
Tree
ah ting dah ho
Shrub
ah ting peh vee
Branch
ah ting kang
Trunk
ah ting velah me
Root
ah ling doh
Flowers
ah ling seh
Forest
zoong doh ho
Q 3
230

APPENDIX C.

Fruits.

Fruit

ah ling seh se

Orange

ee a voo slh

Lime

ee a voo seh klee

Pine-apple

ah gong dee

Plantain

koh kwei doh ho

Banana

koh kwei peh vee

Guava

king

Pau-pau

bah ek peh

Cocoa-nut

ah gong keh

Kashew

ka zoo

Dress.

Hat

pah kung

Cap

a voh pah kung

Coat

ahoo

Trowsers

toh ko too

Waistcoat

ah boh nieh hoo

Robe or Gown

ah voh

Handkerchief

doo kwei

Shoes

ah fok pah

Sandals *

niah lae fok pah

Button

boh

Needle

gneeh

Thread

a voh kah

Comb

sogh

Stick

pogh

Ear-ring

toh doo ee

Finger-rino-

¦i loh keh

Bracelet

a loh gan

Thimble

Scissors
fee ehee leh
Ribbon
fee teh
* Mali -lae, or Mallam's shoes, introduced into Dahomey by
Haussa Mallams, who have a mosque in Abomey, and one in
Whydah.
DAHOMAN LANGUAGE.

231

Dress — continued.

Lace

see kar gan

Calico

ah klah koo

Flannel

boh fung

Canvass

ah tee

Satin silk

seh dah

Religion.

God

ee a wee

Devil

ah zeh loh

Worship

ee mah ee voo doo koo ee

Prostrate

ee voo noo voo noo voh dong

Kneel

ee pah koh lee

City, &c.

City or town

toh

Village

toh peh vee

Island

leh leh dwee toh nee

Mountain

soh

Garden

gee pah meh

Soil

koh

Field

gree tah

Stone

ah wee ah peh vee

Canal

soo ee

Or a Man.
Body
woo too
Head
ta kung
Hair
dah
Beard
tahn
Face
noo kung meh
Nose
a oung lee
Eyes
woo kung
Mouth
noo beh
Tongue
deh
Lips
noo beh
Tooth
ah doo
Ear
toh
0 4
232

APPENDIX C.

Or A Man — continued.

Neck

ee kah

Shoulder

ah boh tah

Arm

ah wa

Hand

ah loh pah

Elbow

oh ah goh lee

Back

gnee bee

Stomach

hoon jee

Leg

ah foh

Knee

go go lee

Thigh

ah sah

Foot

ah fo

Bone

hoo

Flesh

kaug

Veins

kau da ho

Pulse

ee nook doh

Blood

hoong

Heart

a dah jah meh

ADJECTIVES.

Able AcidAcuteAgedAgreeable AlikeAustere Awkward

Bad
BarrenBeautiful Bent Blazing

na soh gan
ee beh
hoo tah
hoh hoh
dagbee dagbee
ee demee tra la
gne na gne na
noo bah tong

B.

ee niu ah
ee gee vee ah
ee niu dagbee dagbee
go doh go doh
eh zoo

DAHOMAN LANGUAGE.

233

Blue

ah ho

Boiling

eh bee

Brave

hono hdno

Broken

ek boh

C.

Careful

hau koo nootah

Cheap

ek poh

Clean

ee wee dagbee dagbee

Clever

ee niu niu tra la

Cloudy

vee vee doh

Coarse

niu ah

Cold

ah vi voh

Courteous

hau soo doh beh lae oh allah doh

Counterfeit

eh niu ah

Criminal

niah niah

Crooked

go doh go doh

Cruel

eh niu ah

D.

Dead

eh koo

Deaf

eh koo toh

Dear

eh veh trala

Deep

ah doo beh

Difficult

nah bloo ah

Dilatory

foh lee moh

Diligent

ee yahon trala

Disobedient

ah ma na blu

Distant

ee nee trala

Drunk

ah noo moo noo

Dry

ee hoo trala

Dumb

deh koo koo noo

E.

Easy

beh lae hoo

Empty

noo voh

234

APPENDIX C.

Enough

eh koh

Equal

eh sok beh

F.

Fast

dee wae zoo

Fat

ee kroo trala

Feeble

eh blah oo

Female

niau noo

Ferocious

hoh meh sing beh

First

niu wae ja noo kong

Fit

ek peh

Foolish

lae loo noh

Foreign

foh deh voh

Fortunate

noo myah nah

Foul

eh on wae trala

Free

foh leh ah

Full

eh goh

G.

Glass

see ah woo trala

Glorious

noo dagbee

Good

dagbee

Great

dah ho

Grateful

ee niu trala

Green

ah mah moo

Guilty

hoo toh

II.
Handsome
ee niu dagbee dagbee
Hard
ee se gnea
Heavy
ek peh
High
ee dee gar
Hoarse
noo che au
Hollow
doh
Hot
ee noo zoo
Hungry
hoh zeh
DAHOMAN LANGUAGE.

235

Ignorant

noo teah

Improper

ee niu tah

Innocent

nah ee soh ah

Insufficient

ee soo ah

Just

dagbee

Kind

K.

eh niu

LargeLast LazyLess
Level Little LivingLongLost
LooseLow

MadMaleMany
MerryMiddle Mor

Naked NearNew

dah hoh

goo doh

fau nee

soo ah

ee niu ah

pee vee

ee noh

dee gah

eh boh

luah boh

doh

M. woo loo noh

soo noh

soo soo

noh koo noo trala

feh tee

soo soo

N.

dae mae

eh neah

yah yau

236

APPENDIX C.

Next
Noisy
Numerous

soh voh
doh hoh
mae soo soo

O.

ObstinateOldOpen
Outward

ee nah
hohhoon
gotong

P.

PastPerfectPleasant

hwaysee dee

Poisonous

amar

PoorPregnant
ProperProud
Putrid

war moo noo
nah jee vee
dagbee
gne ah
eh wheh

Q.
QuarrelsomeQuick
mae mela mela
wae zoo
R.
Ready Red
RichRipe
Rotten
doh gee
feh feh
daw koo noo
bee ah
foo foo
S.
SharpShort
gahwee
DAHOMAN LANGUAGE.

237

Sick
Silent SlowSoftSorry SquareStrongSweet

azohna boh
deh deh
ee see ah
sah voo
dae mae noo
see eh
vee vee

Tall Thick
Thin ThirstyTimidTrue

Useful Useless

Warm
WeakWet WhiteWild

YellowYoung

dah ho
fee lee ah
veh goh
feh see
eh noh deh noo voo ah

U.

ee gnon trala
ee gnon ah

W.

yu zoo
blah hoo
niu see
ee vee
meh see ah

Y.

sah mee ah
noo yau

To Abide
Abolish

VERBS. A.
eh deh wae tieh wae
dor noo m beh

238

APPENDIX C.

To Abuse

eh zung me-trala

Accept

doo po

Accompany

pla mee doo

Accuse

ploh noui

Adore

ni ung

Advise

doo voh

Answer

hhum kotroh

Arrest

oo elee

Arrive

so loh

Ask

kah no beah

Assist

hhum dogee

Awake

fong

B.

Bake

tuloh

Bargain

dah hee

Bathe

lae hoo

Bawl

sua noee loh mae

Be

na wa

Bear fruit

ting see seh

Beat

na doo

Beckon

oh ah

Beg

sah voo

Begin

gae gee

Behold

na pong

Believe

na see

Besmear

sah mee

Bind

bleh

Bite

doui

Bleed

boo hoo nee

CallComprehend
ConfessConquer

C.

row mae
oui na see
nah doh ho
ek bah

DAHOMAN LANGUAGE.

239

To Contradict

eh noo voo oui

Copy

na ola

Cover

sor deh gee

Covet

juloh noo bee

Cough

pegh

Count

hah

Crack

bah

Crawl

sar

Cry

a vee

Cut

boo

D.

Dance

doo vee

Defame

sem

Delay

ma you

Deliver

soh noh

Desire

gno bah

Destroy

ek bri

Devour

doo ah

Die

koo

Dig

koung doh

Disguise

sor doo hoh n

Dive

oua dee

Divide

bloh

Double

peh

Dream

koo drah

Dress

na bah

Drunk

na noo

Drown

koo toh

E.

Eat

na doo

End

bloo voh

Enter

na ee

Expect

gno wae niu

Explain

na boh noh

Extinguish

fah

240

APPENDIX C.

To Fade
Force
Free

Go

HinderHelp
Hope

F.
eh meah soo
na bloo
oui
G.

II.

doh meh teh
bah mae de
joh loh

Itch r
Judge

Keep
Kick Kill
KissKnockKnow

LaughLay
Ditto eggs
Leak
LeaveLend
Lie
Live
Lock Look

hih hee mee
nah doh

K.

soh doo
sar fau mee
nah oo
oui gnon
hoo noo
nah gnon

L.

koo noo
me lain
doo ah zee
doo doo
ou ar zee
nar mee
na doo noo voo
na koo ah
soo
pong

DAHOMAN LANGUAGE.

241

To Loose
Love

Make Measure MeetMendMilk MixMove

Neglect

Obey Occupv Offer "
Open
Order Owe

eh froo peh lee
neh groo

M.

nah bloo
na gee lae
ou ah pegh
fiong deh do gee
na hee

N.

nae blee

O.

nah see
nah oua
nah groo
na hoong
dor nee
doo ah hoh

Paddle Paint
PartPayPerspire
Pinch Please
Plunder PoisonPrepare Promise
Prostrate

doong poh
seh
bloh meh
sah hoh
sah deh
gar feh mee
boo soh
fau noo bee
doo noo noo meh de
dah loh gee
boh ah
deh koh

VOL. I.

R

242

APPENDIX C.

To Pull
Punish
PushPut

eh doo eugh
hoo ee
ee sar
sor de gee

Quarrel
Question

Q.

nah doh hoh
hhum ko tee

R.

Rain ReadReceiveRecollectRejoiceReleaseRepairRequest ReturnRiseRob
Run Rub

na gee
noh hah
me moh
nah boo ah
na vee vee
soh
jee lah doo
nah boh
nah ee
nah ouagee
nah fee
koo loh
hohn

S.

Sail Salute
Saw SayScrape Scratch ScreamSeeSell

soo
dah pah
sar doh hoh lae
kroo
sua hoh
noh moh
nah sah

DAHOMAN LANGUAGE.

243

To Send
Set
Sew
Shake Shave Sing Sit Sleep
Smell Smoke SnoreSowSpeak SpinStand StarveStealStop SweepSwim

eh no zo
no boh
fbir dah
koo lae
gee ah
gee za ee
mee lah ee
huinoo noo oua
do da ho
begh
tee dagbee
mar tee
nah sah
no tee
zah ee
nee loh

Take Talk Taste Tear
TeachTear Tell
ThankThink
Tickle
Tie Touch TremblTurn

na soh
boo doh
doo noo
leh nee
na poo leh
teh nee
doo noo ee
doh peh
nah doh poo ee
noo ko noo ko
blah dah loo
see soh
lae

244

APPENDIX C.

U.

To Uncover

eh sor tee un

Understand

noh see

W.

Walk

boo ee

Wash

ma lae oo

Want

na groo

Weigh

na doo

Whisper

deh pah

Whistle

kwee kwee

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME*

Spottiswoodes and Shaw,
New-street- Square.

YALE UNIVERSITY

00i*290277b