since he has distinguished them by opposite complexions, it is fair to conclude that there may be a great difference in their minds. There is likewise a great difference in the countries they inhabit. You Englishmen, for instance, as I have been informed, are surrounded by the ocean, and, by this situation, seem intended to hold a communication with the whole world, which you do by means of your ships. We Dahomans are placed in a country where we are hemmed in by a variety of nations, and we are obliged, by the sharpness of our swords, to defend ourselves from their attacks, and to punish them when they injure us. This produces continual wars; and your countrymen are mistaken when they say that we go to war for the purpose of selling them slaves. "In the name of my ancestors and myself, I aver, that no Dahoman ever made war merely for the sake of purchasing your merchandize. I have killed thousands without thinking of your market, and I shall kill many thousands more. When po licy or justice requires that men be put to death, neither silk, nor coral, nor brandy, nor cowries, can be accepted for blood. If white men choose to remain at home, will black men cease to make war? I answer, No. And if there be no ships to receive the captives, what will become of them? I answer, They will be put to death. Perhaps you may ask, how will black men be furnished with guns and powder? I reply by another question. Had we not clubs, and bows and arrows, before we knew white men? Did you not see me make custom for Weebaigah, the third king of Dahomy? and did you not then observe that I carried a bow in my hand, and a quiver filled with arrows at my back? With such weapons my brave ancestor fought, and conquered all his neighbours. God made war for all the world, and every kingdom, large or small, has practised it. Did Weebaigah sell slaves? No; his prisoners were all killed. What else could he have done with them? Was he to let them remain in his country to cut the throats of his subjects? Had he done so, the Dahoman name would have been long ago extinct, instead of being, as it is now, the terror of surrounding nations. We do sell to white men a part of our prisoners, and we have a right to do So. Are not all prisoners at the disposal of their captors and are we to blame if we send delinquents to a far country? I have been told you do the same. "If you want no more slaves, or if the artists who made the fine things with which you purchased them have died without teaching others to make more, tell us plainly; but do not frame laws for us, and dictate how we are to live. "You have seen me kill many men at the customs, and you have seen delinquents from the provinces bound and sent up to me. I kill them, but do I never want to be paid for them? Some heads I order to be placed at my door, others to be strewed about the market-place, that people may stumble upon them when they little expect such a sight. This gives a grandeur to my customs, far beyond the display of the fine things that I buy. This makes my enemies fear me, and gives me such a name in the bush. Besides, if I should neglect this duty, would my ancestors suffer me to live? would they not trouble me day and night, and say that I sent nobody to serve them? that I was only solicitous about my own name, and forgetful of them? White men are not acquainted with these circumstances; but I now tell you that you may hear, and know, and inform your countrymen, why customs are made, and will be made, as long as black men continue to possess their own country." This harangue is a curious specimen of negro eloquence; but the situation of the speaker and that of the reporter must be considered. The one, a vender of slaves, very desirous of possessing, and very proud of displaying, the European articles that are given in exchange for them. The other, a dealer in slaves, who lives by his occupation; who, while he calls Adahoonzoo a "hellish monster" for sacrificing his captives, is silent on the cruelties practised by those who purchase them; who calls Dahomy an "unhappy country," while he acknowledges that the Dahomans triumph in the sanguinary exhibitions of their monarch; and who never alludes to the happiness enjoyed by negroes in the West Indies, where, when one be worn out by forced labour, as is constantly the case, the master comforts himself by observing, "He has lived a year, and paid his head ;" that is the price he cost. That wars would be undertaken if captives could not be sold, no person at all acquainted with the history of mankind can doubt; for, as Adahoonzoo too truly says, "every kingdom, large or small, has practised war;" but if an African monarch have now four incitements to war, that is to say, revenge, ambition, filial piety, and the acquisition of European works of art; it is fair to conclude that one fourth of the wars would cease, if the last motive no longer existed. The anecdote is as follows, and needs no comment. If a female slave have a child at her breast, the captains of European slave ships do not like to purchase her, as the space allotted to a female in one of these vessels is not sufficient to allow of an infant without its dirtying and annoying others. A Frenchman at Whydah was looking at a number of slaves on sale, and observed among them a woman about twenty-two years of age, who seemed overwhelmed with sorrow. Her breasts were rather pendant, yet full, which made him suspect that she had an infant. He repeatedly asked the Dahoman merchant, her owner, who persisted in saying that she had not; and the woman, if questioned, durst not have returned an answer, on pain of death. Not convinced, the Frenchman pressed the end of her breast between his finger and thumb, and the milk that issued declared she was a nurse. The merchant now confessed that the woman had a child; but added that this was no obstacle to the Frenchman's buying her, for that the child had been thrown to the wolves the night before. Shocked at such unheard-of barbarity, the Frenchman told the Dahoman that he would purchase the mother, on condition that he might have the child also. The child was soon produced; the humane Frenchman placed it in the mother's arms; and the poor forlorn creature, who knew not how to express her gratitude, took up the dust of the earth with her hand, and threw it on her forehead. The Frenchman's feelings, as he returned to the fort, were enviable; yet mingled with horror' at the idea of the wolves; and when he reached it, he asked his interpreter, whether what he had heard were true. Not only did this man assure him it was a fact; but he said it was the constant custom of the Dahoman merchants to throw sucking infants to the wolves. Some time after, the Frenchman met with a similar adventure with another merchant, and he purchased both the mother and child, and kept them in the fort; but he found the crime repeated so often that his fortune was inadequate to the calls upon his humanity, and he abstained from seeing slaves on sale that he might not witness distress which he was unable to relieve. CHAPTER XXIV. AQUAPIM, ACCRA, ANNAMABOE. JOURNEY TO AQUAPIM is an inland mountainous country, containing hills crowned with very large trees, and fertile vales abounding with the purest water. Its inhabitants are of the middle size, neat in their persons, firm in their opinions, and brave in the field. Their habitations are small and low, but remarkably clean. The country was the granary and garden of the neighbourhood, and contained seventeen towns and villages, sixteen of which |