This Country is governed by an absolute King, who lives in Negrish Majesty at a Town called Sabbee, six Miles from the Sea. His Palace is a dirty, large Bamboo Building, of a Mile or two round, wherein he keeps near a thousand Women, and divides his time in an indolent manner, between Eating and Lust; he is fatned to a monstrous Bulk; never has been out since he became King (nigh twelve years) which some say, is because a large Dole being due to the People on the Demise of one, and the Accession and first Appearance of another new Prince, his Covetousness keeps him within doors: Others, that there is a Sword wanted (the Emblem of his Power); which should, but is not yet delivered him, by some grand Fetish-Man beyond Jaqueen. If any Subjects want Audience, they ring a Bell to give notice; and if admitted, must prostrate before him, as likewise to his grand Fetish-Man, or High-Priest, if present. The same Humility and Subjection is required of Inferiours to rich and powerful Men, without doors: They prostrate to as many as they meet of these in the Street, and stir not till a Sign is given to get up; so that the meanest may sometimes be two or three hours walking the length of the Town.
White People are seldom or never admitted to Presence, but at the times they pay their Customs; very considerable from Europeans, who drive here the greatest Slave-Trade of any on the whole Continent: Besides these Dues, the King augments his Revenue by a Duty on every thing bought or sold by his People. To his Women, he gives entirely the Privilege of making and selling a Beer brewed from Indian Corn, pretty much in use here, called Putto.
The King of Ardra is his potent and warlike Neighbour; a populous Country, full of large Crooms or Towns, and all of them obsequious Slaves, who dare not sell or buy any thing without Licence, and both ways he exacts a Custom. It is by means of this Country that so great a number of Slaves are brought down to Whydah and sold to the Europeans naked; the Arse-clouts they had, I fancy, having been the Plunder of the Populace: for altho’ they are kept strictly under, in respect to the Great-ones among themselves, they have in recompence, a thievish, unlicensed Behaviour to others.
Both Sexes squat when they make water, and the Women may obtain a Palaaver and Fine against any Man, who at such time should indecently discover his Privities.
Travelling is in [27]Hammocks, called here Serpentines; they are with Curtains to draw round, against Heat or Flies, slung cross a Pole and bore up at each end by a Negro, two others attending in the Journey, to relieve alternately: The Heat makes it dangerous for Englishmen to travel without them, and they are hired at six Shillings a day.
Provisions are plentiful above any place on the whole Coast, but neither very cheap nor large. A Cow of 300lib. weight is reckoned a fine Beast, and will sell for two grand Quibesses; a Calf of 80lib. weight for one grand Quibess; a Sheep of 12lib. for eight Gallinas; Fowls, five for a Crown; a Dozen Wild-fowl, or a Hog, for the same Money: but it’s convenient on this Voyage always to provide Cowrys or Booges (little Indian Shells, called in England Blackamoors Teeth, bought at 1s. and sold here at 2s. 6d. per lib.) as the readiest for this sort of Traffick. Coin is the dearest way of buying, at distance from Europe.
Whydah Currency.
| 40 | Cowrys make a | Toccy. |
| 5 | Toccys —— a | Gallina. |
| 20 | Gallinas —— a | Grand Quibess, which answers to 25 Shillings. |
Horses, are what I never saw any where else on the Continent.
The most curious of their Customs, and peculiar to this Part, is their Snake-Worship, which, according to my Intelligence, is as follows. This Snake, the Object of their Worship, is common in the Fields, and cherished as a familiar Domestick in their Houses, called Deyboys; they are yellow, and marbled here and there, have a narrow Swallow, but dilatable (as all of the Serpent Kind are) to the thickness of your Arm on feeding. It is the principal Deity or Fetish of the Country, and brought into more Regularity than others, by the superiour Cunning of their Fetishers, who have one presiding over them, called the grand Fetisher, or High-Priest, who is held in equal Reverence with the King himself; nay, sometimes more, through gross Superstition and Fear: for they believe an Intercourse with the Snake, to whom they have dedicated their Service, capacitates them to stop or promote the Plagues that infest them. He hath the craft by this means, to humble the King himself on all occasions for their Service, and to drain both him and the People, in supplying their Wants. It is Death for a Native to kill one of these Snakes, and severe Punishments to Europeans. When Rains are wanted at Seed-time, or dry Weather in Harvest, the People do not stir out after it is night, for fear of the angry Snake, which, provoked with their Disobedience, they are taught, will certainly kill them at those times, if abroad, or render them Ideots.
They have Fetish-Women, or Priestesses, that live separated with a number of Virgins under their Care, devoted to the Snake’s Service: I have heard, the rich Cabiceers do often buy the Consent of these Women to debauch their Pupils; they pretend to the Girls, they have had some late Correspondence with the Snake, who intimates the agreeableness of her favouring such or such a Man’s Addresses; teach her to act Fits and Distortions at the sight of him, to enhance the Price, and that for this Compliance, she shall be amply rewarded in the Snakes Country, far pleasanter than this she breaths in, and he then more amiable, having here put on his worst Shape, that Obedience might have the more Merit. A Discovery in the Girl would be certain Death, and none would believe; or if they did, would dare openly to assert such Murder against the Assertion of the Fetish-Men or Women.
It is probable that King Solomon’s Navy of Tharshish (1 Kings Ch. x.) did coast from Ezion Geber (the bottom of the red Sea) round Cape Bon Esperance [28]to Sofalu, by some thought Ophir; and if so, why not to the Gold-Coast? or that King Hiram’s Navy from Tyre, might on the North and Western side together have encompassed this Continent; tho’ afterwards, on the destruction of each State, the Navigation might be lost with the Trade. This is probable, I say, from the length of the Voyage (three years) no unreasonable time in the infancy of Sailing, Ignorance of the Compass, and dilatory Methods of Trading in Fleets, and in their Returns, Gold, Ivory, and Apes. The Peacocks mentioned in this Text, might possibly be the Crown-Birds; beautiful, of the same bigness, and a greater Rarity. One of them we had from Gambia (a Present to the Duke of Chandois) had a fine Tuft of stiff speckled Feathers on the Head; the Wings, red, yellow, white and black, with a black Down on the fore-part of it’s Head.
Granting this, whether or no it’s too foreign to imagine, some traditional Story might be derived from them concerning the old Serpent, the Deceiver of Mankind? or that fiery one lifted up by Moses in the Wilderness? Gordon in his Geography, p. 327, says, the Mosaical Law was once introduced into some parts of Negro-land, strengthned by the Affinity of some Names and Customs they retain with the Jews, particularly Circumcision, practised at most, if not all parts of the Coast. Bosman on this, says even Girls have their Clitoris stripp’d. The Ægyptians (on this their own Continent,) were the first we read of that circumcised, from whom Abraham borrowed it, and the Patriarchs Posterity might as well have transmitted the use of it with their Trade, to this opposite side of Africa; the only Objections are, the easier Method of borrowing it from the Mallays, black Turks that inhabit about the middle of Africa, with whom they communicate by Trade; and because the Practice here, like as with the Mahometans, is not taken up of Precept, but Tradition. Be it how it will, they are found tenacious of their Customs and Opinions: A Woman, from whose greater Flexibility and Subjection as a Consa to any European, might be expected a Change, never relinquishing her Country-Gods, tho’ she had cohabited for years, as has been frequently tried at our Factories.
Others think this Snake-Worship might be taken up as of old the Ægyptians did their Ox and Cow, their Crocodile and Cat, &c. They had some moral Reason, tho’ overwhelmed in Fable and ridiculous Superstition. The Ox and Cow were Emblems of Tillage, taught to them by Osiris and Isis, whom they feigned changed into those Creatures, and in that form worshipped them.
The Crocodile and Cat preyed upon those Reptiles that devoured the Fruits of their Husbandry, like as these very Snakes are said to kill the black and poisonous sort, and to destroy various Species of Vermin, injurious to their Fields and Grain.
We bear (far from Egypt) a Reverence to many Creatures, Beasts and Birds; eat some, and cherish others; I believe, often on no other Foundation than Heathen Fable. The Fetish is this Reverence improved, and if we laugh at [29]Sambo for inflicting Fine or Death on whoever hurts or kills the Snake, may not he in his turn, as justly laugh to hear that in some Countries it is Death to steal a Sheep, a Horse, &c. or Penalties to kill Pidgeons, Wild-fowl, &c. tho’ never so much in want of them: For it is all according to the Fashion of the Country, and doubtless proceeds from a profound Veneration to those Creatures.
Many and ridiculous are the Stories formed upon the Foundation of the Snake, over-acted to the Prejudice of Beliefs, which in unletter’d Countries should be short, and have the Design and Import of Laws; such Laws as in their nature are best fitted to awe or persuade Men into the Practice of what is good: but here they are multiplied with silly Circumstances, or stretch beyond Memory, and spoil their Use; for which reason, I am firmly of opinion the Snake-Worship will never endanger our Factories, or propagate far, it has made such Rogues of them.
Besides the Snake, they have two other principal Deities, and other small Fetishes. The former are their Groves, and the high Sea; addressing either upon the Peculiarity, I suppose, of their Affairs, or rather, these Groves are consecrated to the Snake, most of them having a square Tower built in a retired part of it, to which they carry Dashees, and Presents. There is one in this Neighbourhood pre-eminent to all in the Country, and to which the Prince and People annually make rich Offerings.
Their smaller Fetishes, like as at other parts, are numberless, and for smaller Concerns made of Stone, Bone, Wood, or Earth; but herein they differ from others, that this small Fetish is the first thing they see, after they are determined upon some Affair or Business, and sometimes determines them to that Affair, whence it is taken up and invoked: If the Business ends luckily, it is lain by in honour to the chief Idol, and dasheed now and then; but if not, they throw it away.
I should have done now with Whydah, but the surprizing Revolution brought about here in 1727, by the victorious King of Dauhomay, turning things topsy turvy, and entirely destroying our Slave-Trade, deserves some Remarks.
This Prince was probably incited to the Conquest from the generous Motive of redeeming his own, and the neighbouring Country People from those cruel Wars, and Slavery that was continually imposed on them by these Snakes and the King of Ardra; each helped the other to propagate the Mischief far and wide, and differ’d between themselves, only in sharing the Booty. That this spurred on their Catastrophe, I think, First, Because it is agreeable to Capt. Snelgrave’s Character of that King, a Gentleman well acquainted with that part of Guinea, and who has given the latest Account of those People: He says in that Tract, he made a Journey in company with some of the English Factory to the Camp of the King of Dauhomay (40 or 50 miles up the Country,) and informs us, “that in the Conversation and Business he had to transact, he had experienced him just and generous; in his Manners, nothing barbarous, but contrarily, the most extraordinary Man of his Colour.” The natural Consequence from such Qualities in a Prince, being, I think, to extend them towards all that are oppressed, and against those in particular, his Resentments were fired: First, on account of their publick Robberies, and Man-stealing, even to his Dominions; and Secondly, That Contempt the King of Whydah had expressed towards him, saying publickly, “that if the King of Dauhomay should invade him, he would not cut off his Head (the Custom of Conquerors) but keep him alive, to serve in the vilest Offices:” a Specimen both of his Vanity and Courage, which he had soon after Occasion to try; and then instead of the haughty Revenge he purposed, dastardly deserted his Kingdom, he and the Subjects of Ardra becoming in a few days miserable Fugitives.
2. The King of Dauhomay at this Interview with Captain Snelgrave, which was after the Conquest of Ardra and Whydah, agrees with him in the Character of these Enemies: “That they were Villains to both white and black People, and therefore had been punished by his hands;” a Text that ought to have been regarded more heedfully by the Factory than it was: For what were they Villains more than others of the Colour, unless for this illegal and unjust Trade? And if he himself declared his Victories in punishment of their Crimes, what might not they expect in their turn, who differed only as the Pawnbroker and the Thief? Mr. Testesole, the Company’s Governour, we find when Opportunity presented, was seized by them, and cruelly sacrificed: “The Crime alledged being, that he had used the Dahomes on all Occasions in his power, very ill, on account of the bad Trade they had occasioned:” and afterwards they went on, surprized and plundered all the European Merchants at Jaqueen, finishing in that, the Destruction of the Slave-trade, the little remaining being now at Appah, a place beyond the bounds of his Conquest. Yet in all this, could we separate our Idea of the Sufferers, and the temporary Views of Traders; the King’s Actions carry great Reputation, for by the destruction of this Trade, he relinquished his own private Interests for the sake of publick Justice and Humanity.
Lastly, that this destruction of the Trade was designed in the King of Dauhomay’s Conquest, seems confirmed by Captain Bulfinch Lamb’s Proposal from him to our Court.
This Gentleman, on some Business of the Factory, was at Ardra when the Dahomes came down upon them, was made a Prisoner, detained near four years with the Emperor, and came to England at last by his Permission or rather Direction, having given him 320 Ounces of Gold, and 80 Slaves to bear his Charges. In his Scheme of Trade, said to be proposed from that Emperor and laid before our Commissioners of Trade, some of the Articles run thus;——That the Natives would sell themselves to us, on condition of not being carried off.——That we might settle Plantations, &c. a Foundation quite foreign to the former Slave-trade, and carried no Temptation but the empty one of Instruction and Conversion, which he himself might have laid down there, and had given some room to expect, agreeably to the Judgment he made of the King’s Sentiments, and his own view of getting away; an additional Honour to the King in this way of thinking indeed; “but the Inconsistency made it unsuccessful,” and Captain Lamb, tho’ under a solemn Promise to return, never gave any Account of his Embassy to that Prince.
Captain Snelgrave’s Account leads me still a little farther, on his suggesting these conquering Dahomes to be Men-eaters; I beg an Animadversion or two on that Head.—Common Report has settled Cannibals at several parts of Africa. Dapper in the Geographical Atlas says, the Ausicans or Gales in Æthiopia, and many of the Natives of Quiloa, Melinda, and Mombaza, on the East side of Africa are such, and that human Flesh is sold in the Shambles. Gordon, in his Geographical Grammar, conveys it modestly as a Report, that the Kingdom of Loango in South-Africa has many Cannibals, and that human Flesh in several places is sold publickly in the Shambles, as we do Beef and Mutton. That the Caffres, (tho’ abounding with Provisions) also are such, and will eat even nasty Hottentots their Neighbours; who tho’ accounted the most brutish People upon the Globe in their Manners and Feeding, are at the same time excused by all Travellers so inhuman a Custom. Bosman reports the same of Drewin. The Observation I shall make on these and the like Stories I have heard from other parts of the World, is their being reported of Countries remote from our Correspondence, abounding with Provisions, by Persons who never were in the Places they relate their Wonders; or where they have, their Testimony is on hear-say, or their Reasons inconclusive, and against later Experience. I am prejudiced indeed against the Opinion of Cannibals, and very much doubt whether there be any such Men on the face of the Earth, unless when provoked by Famine, as has unfortunately happened in Voyages: Or possibly with Savages, single Instances may have been, as their way to express an intense Malice against a particular Enemy, and in terrorem; or to cement with a Bond of Secrecy some very wicked Societies of Men: but that there should be a common Practice of it, Nations of Men-eaters, to me looks at present impossible. Captain Snelgrave’s being the newest Account of this Affair, and on his own personal Knowledge, I shall amuse the Reader with a short Extract from him, and then my Objections.
“This Gentleman, by an Invitation from the King of Dahome or Dauhomay, went in company with some other of the Factory from Jaqueen, to pay him a Visit at his Camp, 40 miles inland; there he was an Eye-witness of their human Sacrifices, Captives from the Kingdoms of Ardra, Whydah, Tuffoe, and other Conquests: the King chose them out himself. The first Victim I saw, says he, was a well-looking Man, of 50 or 60, his Hands tied, he stood upright by a Stage five foot from the Ground. The Fetisher or Priest laying his Hand on the Head, said some Words of Consecration for about two Minutes; then giving the Sign, one behind with a broad Sword hit on the Nape of his Neck, and carried off the Head at one Blow, the Rabble giving a Shout. Others of these Captives he made his Servants, or sold for Slaves.——”
The Story thus far is not over-marvellous; whether the Sacrifices be considered as a Thanksgiving to their Fetish, or God (as an Acknowledgment, he was told) or an Honour to the Manes of his deceased Heroes, because such Practice is supported both by Scripture and History. The Captives in War under the Jewish Law, which fell to the Lord’s Share, were to be slain (Levit. xxvii. v. 28, 29.) and the Custom of many Pagan Countries has been, and still continues in many parts of the World to this day (if we may credit History or Travellers) to attend the Obsequies of their Princes and great Men with human Sacrifices, particularly at some other Parts of Guinea. The Emperor of Feton’s Funeral (Miscell. Curiosa, Vol. 3. p. 356.) was accompanied with a great number, and remarkably barbarous. Montezuma, (Antonio Solis says,) sacrificed 20000 Enemies a year. The present Dahomes follow it from political Principles, to awe the Conquered, and secure the Conquest; for the captive King was always one, and next him the Men of Experience and Influence, such as already had, or were most likely to disturb his future Peace; answering more justly than that Argument à posteriori, of the Bow-string or Halter, when Men rise for the Recovery of a lost Country, &c.
Contending Princes do to this day frequently sacrifice with less honourable Views, if we may credit Captain Gulliver, who says, one King has lost his Life, another the Crown, only in a Contest about the primitive way of breaking Eggs.
I say this is not so over-marvellous; but when we come to the Carcases of these Men, how the Dahomes had made a Festival of their Flesh in the night, it swells to Incredibility. “Captain Snelgrave was not an Eye-witness of this indeed; he says, the Bodies lay a little while on the ground to drain the Blood, and then were carried by Slaves to a place nigh the Camp, and laid in a Heap; he saw two of these Heaps over night, containing he judged about 400, who had been chose out by the King that Morning, for Sacrifice. On the next Morning they were gone, and asking the Linguist what had become of them, he answered, the Vulturs (ravenous Birds very plentiful in the Country) had eaten them. Not satisfied with this Answer, (seeing nothing remain but Blood) we asked for the Bones, and then he confessed, the Priest had divided the Carcases among the People in the night, who had boiled and feasted on them, as holy Food; the Head is for the King, (continues the Linguist) the Blood for the Fetish, and the Body for the common People.”
I make no doubt of the truth of this Relation, and yet think the Circumstances not conclusive enough, to charge the Dahomes as Anthropophagites.
1. Because the truth depends too much on the Linguist, (Butteno, a Negro of Mr. Lamb’s, brought up at the Factory) how well he knew to render the Language to our Ideas: and to his Veracity and his Courage. He might think with his Country-men that it was their best Excuse to the white People, for that cowardly and ignominious Flight of Thousands from 200 of the Dahomes at Sabbee (the Whydah’s head City) where, instead of eating them, they pretended a Fright of being eat, and with the King, took precipitately to their heels, deserting in a shameful manner their Country: and makes something like the Story of our Saracens Heads of old; when the English had been threshed heartily for their silly Croisade, they represented their Adversaries thus large, to insinuate none but Monsters or Devils could have done it. However the Linguist tells his Masters first, that the Vulturs had eaten those Bodies, but perceiving them diffident of this, and prone to another Persuasion (which, by the way, is some excuse for him) he tells them frankly, that the People had eaten them in the night, &c. The Bones, which were wanting, and that had drawn this Secret from him, are to me a Confirmation that they were buried. Otherways, as these Cormorants could not chew or digest them, they should have been found strewed somewhere, as the Roads were in his Journey: The Fellow might also in his turn propose some advantage in this Belief; for Captain Snelgrave tells us, he met with great Impositions and Cheats at his return to Jaqueen, by the Lord there, and others in Trade, notwithstanding the kind Reception he had met with at Camp, and that King’s Charge to the contrary.
2. A Portuguese who resided there, that spoke their Language, and which is very remarkable, had married a woolly white Woman born of black Parents, who had never seen any other Colour: this Gentleman talked highly of the King’s Policy and Generosity, that his Sacrifices were a Proof of it; that he was just, strictly obeyed, and never eat any human Flesh. If so, according to my way of thinking, he would hinder so barbarous a Custom in others his Subjects; or it would be a Contradiction to his Character, a Sufferance being the same, as doing it himself.
3. If the Sacrifices were designed for eating, one would think they should have been all young People, not thrown in a Heap, which is an Objection to their spending well; and now and then I should have expected they would have been prompted by Novelty to have tasted a white Man: but it is the King’s Character of being far from barbarous, and of delicate Wit and Policy: Lamb lived three years and a half with them, and never was eat.
4. If Men were thus eat, and liked by a Nation, there would be less occasion and Inclination to sell them us for Slaves; they at least must lose a Breakfast by it now and then; and it would fall heavier on such Captives they had made their Servants, (for some were made so at the same time the others were sacrificed) who I am in some doubt whether they would wait tamely for the turn of having their Throats cut. This Man-Eating therefore probably might be an Imposition on the Credulity of the Whites; as the Persuasion amongst some of them is, that they are bought by us to fat and eat: the Belief in my opinion is equally grounded. Theirs (if any) is better; for the next Cruelty to buying human Flesh, one would naturally think, should be to eat it; especially with Negroes, who cannot conceive how their Labour can be used, that want so little for their own support.
5. Some Places reported on the Coast to be Men-Eaters are by latest Accounts much doubted, if not contradicted. At Loango they are found with better Manners, and mixed with Portuguese. At Cape St. Mary’s, the Starboard Entrance of the River Gambia, generally said to be Men-Eaters, were found by our Boat’s Crew as civilized as any People on the whole Coast, tho’ their Number exposed them an easy Prey. To this we may add, that all Negroland, by the Observations I could make, are very abstemious of Flesh in comparison of us; they have very few tame Creatures (Kid, Sheep, Kine, &c.) among them; their Country is mostly Woods cleared away a little at their Cooms, to sow as much Indian Corn and Rice as they imagine will serve them; which, with Banana’s, Plantanes, Palm-Nuts, Pine-Apples, and now and then a little stinking Fish, or a Fowl, is the chief of their Diet.
6. As Slave-Cargoes are a Compound of different Nations, it is more than probable they are mixed from these Men-eating Countries; and therefore on their rising and murdering a Ship’s Company, they would have shewn us e’er now a Precedent, especially those who believed we were to eat them.
7. Men in this horrid Practice would, with the distinguishing Characteristick of Reason about them, be more brutish than any part of the Creation; no Creatures of the greatest Ferocity preying upon their own Species.
8. If such Custom were taken up to intimidate their Neighbours, and facilitate Conquests, the Practice should be more publick; not in the Night, but Day, and openly: Custom in any People familiarizing all Barbarities, and more so, when an Interest is proposed.
Therfore, lastly, the strongest Proof produced for it is, that one Mr. More saw human Flesh sold at Dahome’s Market-place.
If the Person mentioned does not mean human Flesh alive, and in way of Trade, yet without a good interior Sight, he might mistake it for that of Monkeys, there being an awkard Resemblance to the Moorish Race, in the Hands and Phiz; and I have given one Example purposely, among many (at the beginning of this Chapter) to shew they are a common Diet at some places; our Sailors frequently eat them. What inclines me more to this Opinion is, First, the Force of Pre-possession and Fear, which many Readers may experience in their own Constitution. Second, That I never saw a Flesh-Market of any sort, tho’ I have been on shore at many places on the Coast of Guinea, not even among the English, the most carnivorous in the World; but when they do kill, lend it out. Thirdly, What is my greatest Objection, is, that the Captain should bring another to assert what he might have done himself, since he was at Dahome’s Camp, (the same place,) and more inquisitive and discerning; unless this Market was kept one Voyage, and not another.
I have bestowed these Objections, purely in respect to the King of Dahomay, whom, tho’ I never saw, nor expect to be advanced in his Court, I have a natural Propensity to wish well, since he has redeemed his Country-Men from being sold as Slaves. I would feign, after such an Action, excuse them from being Men-eaters; a Charge full as bad for the People, a jumping out of the Frying-pan into the Fire. Their Guilt herein is less likely, because it happens that this conquered Country abounds more with Neat Cattle, than all other parts of the Coast.