The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVEN! G, AUGUST 26, 1862.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON, CHATHAM, AND DOVER.

The report of the directors states that the arrangements
for commencing the continental traffic were not completed
until the Ist of May. The revenue account for the half-
year
must not therefore be taken as a criterion either of the
present or future profits of the company. Since the opening
of the continental mato there has been a gradual increase
in the receipts, and diminution in expenditure. For the
fortnight ending the 18th of May the receipts were £4,616,
and the expenses £4,276, or 9263 per cent ; for the fortnight
ending Ist of June the receipts were £5,410, and the ex-
penses £4,351, or 80.42 per cent. ; ending the 15th of June
the receipts were £7,042, and the expenses £1,500, or 63.89
per cent, ; ending the 29th of June the receipts were £7,489,
and the expenses £4,490, or 59.96 per cent. ; ending July
13 the receipts were £8,347, and the expenses £4,941, or
59.19 per cent. ; and for the fortnight ending the 27th of
July the receipts Were £9,416, and the expenses £4,777, or
50.73 per cent. of the receipts. Some delay has arisen in
the opening of the Metropolitan Extensions, in comae-
, quenee of the requirements of the Board of Trade, to sub-
stitute spikes for wooden Italians in the permanent way.
The length, however, between Herne-hill and the
Victoria Station was opened on Monday last, and
the second portion, between Herne-hill and the Elephant
and Castle, will be opened in a few weeks. The works at
the tunnel are proceeding with vigottr, and the whole line
to the station at Blaekfriars will be completed during the
autumn of next year. The directors regret that they have
not yet been able to obtain the approval of the city autho-
rities to the design for the bridge across the Thames. Much
progress cannot be made with the abutments and piers un-
til the design of the entire bridge has been approved. The
whole of the bills promoted by the company, or in their in-
terest, during the past session have received the Royal
assent. The Crystal Palace and South London Junction
Railway Company have obtained power to construct a line
from Peckham to the Crystal Palace, with a station on a
level with the floor of the building ; and the Brighton
Company to make new lines from Peckham to New-cross,
and from Peckham to a junction with the company's Metro-
politan Extension at Britton. By these lines a large traffic
will be brought over the company's Metropolitan Exten-
sions both to the city and the west-end. The Sevenoaks
Company have obtained power to extend their line to
Maidstone, and also to make a junction with the pro-
posed Lewisham and Tunbridge line of the South-
Eastern Company at Sevenoaks, and the latter com-
pany have agreed to book through for the company to
and from their Victoria and Blackfriars stations from
and to Tunbridge, Tunbridge-wells, and Hastings. The
Kent Coast Company have obtained power to make
arrangements with the Board of Trade for laying down and
using tramways on the harbour at Ramsgate in connection
with their line and station, and the whole of the works on
this company's line between Herne Bay and Margate and
Ramsgate are in active operation. The company's bill for
leasing the Crays line from the Ist of September, 1863, at
4 per cent. upon the outlay has received the Royal assent.
By this arrangement the company will obtain in their' own
hands an uninterrupted line of railway between London
and Dover. The company's Bill for erecting a goods sta-
tion on the river at Blackfriars and for making a junc-
tion with the West London ektension of Battersea has also
become law. By this junction the whole of the northern
system of railways will be brought into communication with
the company's line. The company have also obtained power
to construct a line between Dover and Deal, making a junc-
tion with the South-Eastern line at the latter place, by which
the coast communication of the county of Kent will be com-
pleted. The capital account shows that £3,237,757 had been
received, and 13,207,683 expended, leaving a balance of
£20,894. The Metropolitan Extension capital account shows
that £2,198,908 had been expended, leaving a balance against
the account of £3,505. The revenue account for the half-
year ending the 30th of June shows that £59,251 had been
received, and £54,338 expended, leaving a balance of £4,913

THE KING OF DAHOMEY.

HUMAN SACRIFICES AND THE SLAVE TRADE.

The following account is extracted from the pri-
vate letter of a gentleman residing on the West
Coast of Africa :

" The King of Dahomey is named Baddahuug. He is not
the ruffian described in the English papers. Personally, ho
is well looking, and, indeed, few black men are better look-
ing. He is perfectly black. Human sacrifices are regarded
by the Africans as they were regarded by the Jews—as a
part of their religion. They are not committed out of sheer
wickedness, but in obedience to a paramount sense of reli-
gious duty, just as we bow the head at the utterance of the
name of the Saviour. The persms who are selected to die,
die cheerfully, The selection is an honour.
"Dahomey is not under the British flag. It is an inde-
pendent State, and Baddahung is an independent sovereign.
If he has one feeling more intense than another it is hatred
of the English. Ho hates us because we interfere with the
revenue of his kingdom. _

"He lives at Abomey, which is his capital. It lies 130
miles to the rear of our new colony of Lagos. Lagos stands
on an island. Abomey is not a strong place, but a wall
surrounds it, and it stands on flat land. An attack on Abo-
mey would be foolhardy. Dahomey was never mentioned
by civilised people until the King got possession of Why-
doh, Whydah is on the seaboard, and not far from Lagos.
It is, in fact, on the Slave Coast. The Slave Coast extends
from the river Volta to the river Lagos. It includes a ter-
ritory blessed by Nature in many ways. The soil is fertile;
the men are a fine race, and the water communication ex-
tends by means of a vast lagoon from end to end of the ter-
ritory. No gold is found there, as on the Gold Coast, but
the palm-oil supplies the place of the dumb god.' Cow-
ries, a kind of shell found on the coast of Zanzibar, are the
coin of the country, and the common,medium of exchange.
The chief towns of the Slave Coast are Lagos, Whydah,
Badagoy, and Porto Novo.
" Whydah, as I have said, belongs to the King of
Dahomey, and is about 70 miles from Abomey. It is his
principal seaport. Take it from him and he would be re-
duced to the original insignificance and harmlessness of his
forefathers. Whydah is very prettily situate. It has an
excellent market, where beet, pork, mutton, fish of various
kinds, pigeons, fowls, ducks, turkeys, guinea-fowls, fruits,
vegetables, and European and native manufactured goods
may bo had. The town is regularly laid out in streets. It
stands back about three miles from the seashore. It is
three miles long and one mile broad, The population is
dense; for on one occasion it sent a contingent of 10,000
fighting men to the King of Dahomey.

" There is a Governor of the town. Ho is called the
Avogah,' or ' the Father of the White Man ;' that is the
meaning of the word. The Avogah is a black man—a chief
of the King, in fact. The Avegah also acts as a judge. He
presides over a Supreme Court, in which all disputes be-
tween the white man and the natives are settled. There is
likewise an inferior Court, and that is presided over by
another officer of the King. He is called Shassah.' The
Shassah' settles all disputes between the natives. There
is an appeal from him to the Avogah ; but from the deci-
sion of the Avogali there lies no appeal, except to the King
himself.

"All vessels going to Whydah pay a duty to the King.
Vessels with two masts pay £64, and vessels with three
masts pay £93. The duty clears the whole cargo, be it worth
what it may. Sometimes, however, and under certain cir-
cumstances, no duty is paid. For instance—between the
town and the sea these is a lagoon, and between the lagoon
and the sea there is a long thin slip of sand. If the master
of a vessel chose to land his goods upon this strip of sand,
and to sell them there, he need pay neither the £64 nor the
£93 ; but if he takes the goods across the lagoon, into the
town, he pays according to the number of the masts of his
vessel.

"Again. There are two great stores or warehouses, or
shops, or, as they are called here, factories, in Whydah ;
the one is a French factory and the other is a factory which
belongs to the famous slave-dealer, Domingo Martinez.
Domingo is a Brazilian.
" This Domingo Martinez carzies on the slave trade.
He is a friend and chief of Baddahung. If the Avogah
should come across Domingo in the streets of Whydah
he is obliged to prostrate himself in the dust and dirt before
the illustrious Brazilian. When I say 'prostrate himself,'
I mean that he must literally go down on both knees and
clap the palm of the right hand several times over the back
of the left hand, in true African supplicatory style. Now,
the Avogah is a greater subject at Whydah than the Vice-
roy of India is at Calcutta; and when I thus put my illus-
tration you may fancy what enormous power and influence
Domingo must have in the realms of Dahomey. Not three
months ago this same Martinez shipped a cargo of slaves
from Whydah whose gross value was set down at £lBO,OOO
sterling. The vessel which bore this spldndid cargo safely
off to the Brazils was a steamer, and she ran away from the
land at not less than 16 knots an hour. I know some good
folks here who saw the shipment; they counted 1,600 poor
devils go up the side. They were chained together in gangs
by means of iron collars, and they were chattering, and
singing, and laughing as they mounted out of the canoes up
to the deck of the steamer. It is understood on the coast
that Domingo is regarded by Baddabung as the heir to the
throne of Dahomey.
" But to return. The French factory pays 10,000 dols.
(4s. 6d. to the dollar) to the King of Dahomey for the right
of trading there ; and Domingo pays 20,000 dole, for the
like privilege. Now, if a vessel discharges her goods and,
sends them to the French factory for the purpose of sale
the vessel pays no duty; the same with Domingo. •
" As you walk along the streets of Whydah you will often
come across the ruins of a house. The town is dotted with
these wretched tokens of past comfort and prosperity. These
ruins were once the mansions of people who have given
offence to the King. So soon as the King fancies that he
has been offended by any person he sends from Abomey for
the offender. The offender is carried off, his family and all,
into the interior, to Abomey, and he is never seen again.
His house tumbles to pieces, of course, and no one is al-
lowed on any pretence whatsoever to build upon the spot
where the offender once lived ; neither can the house be
kept in repair,—to the ground it must fall, and on the
ground remain.
" To send an expedition up to Dahomey would be mad-
ness. You good people in England have no conception
what Africa is like. You have no conception of the furious
heat. Even at sea, unless captains of ships look sharp, the
intense heat of-the sun will crack their deck planks and
play mischief with their spars. Can you conceive what a
country is like which has no roads? Suppose all London
were surrounded by a thick jungle, swarming with tigers,
panthers, and every imaginable venomous snake, and having
footpaths to it about half a foot broad ; and suppose a broil-
ing sun over head, and musquitoes and gnats doing their
best to set up violent inflammation of the nose, eyes, and
ears. What could you de ? No. If we really mean to put
down the King of Dahomey and his truculencies, we must
deprive him of Whydah and Godomey, his only two sea-
ports. Without them he cannot carry or. the slave trade.
"As I have said before, the King is not so vile as they
paint him in England. All the atrocities committed in his
territories are committed by the coercion of his chiefs. No
African King can sneeze without the consent of his chiefs.
The monarchies here are strictly limited. The King alone
is unable to do what he likes.

" The King of Ashantee himself is not despotic—not
nearly so despotic as any British Governor on the West
Coast. If the Governor of the Gold Coast write to him a
letter, he does not open it at the moment of its receipt, but
he waits till midnight, and then, in the presence of some
confidential old Mentor, he opens it and reads it, or, rather,
has it read, for read or write he cannot. He acts in this
way in order that he may know what the Governor has
written about. If the subject of the letter is not objec-
tionable there is no difficulty ; but if the subject is ob-
jectionable, he has the opportunity of knowing the matter
beforehand, and of debating how he shall lay it before the
chiefs in the morning. All letters tire supposed to be read
in the presence of his chiefs. They consult with him and
determine the answer. The King of Ashantee, Quacoe
Duah, is not a bad man, and he has all the wish to adopt
our religion and our ways ; but his chiefs won't permit him.
Now, the human sacrifices at Coomassie are ten times worse
than those at Dahomey. If an unfortunate devil should
meet a wife of the King of Ashantee in the streets, and
should by chance see her—should he even not know that
the woman is the wife of the King—his lot is death. He
is beheaded. The Africans don't dislike these customs. I
think they like them. Human sacrifices are a part of their
creed. Abraham was not considered a scoundrel for pre-
paring to cut his son's throat. The customs in Africa are
most ancient. Human sacrifice is the heritage of the
Jews."

TRADE OF LONDON, A.D. 1800.—At the com-
mencement of the present century the trade of the Port of
London is reported to have been more extensive than at any
previous period in the history of England. London carried
on one-third of the trade of the empire ; and the value of
the floating property upon the Thames, forming its com -
merce, was estimated at no loss than £70,000,000 annually.
It was found that the conveniences of the port were
utterly insufficient for its trade ; that the landing
wharves and quays and sufferance 'wharves toge-
ther, were inadequate for the wharfage and ware-
housing of the goods landed and embarked ; and
that the depredations on property, consequent on the
vast increase of shipping and the want of accommodation
on the legal quays, rendered adjuncts to to the port abso
lutely necessary, In 1790 the West India merchants ac-
cordingly obtained an Act of Parliament to make docks,
with legal quays, and wharfs and warehouses, for the re-
ception and discharge of the vessels in their trade ; and
from this period we may date another era in the commerce
of the port of London.—Frotn Capper," Tort and Trade of
London.

LITERATURE.

Travels in British Columbia, with, the Narrative
of a Yacht Voyage round Vancouver's Island.
By Capt. C. E. Barrett Lennard. 1 vol. Hurst

and Blackett.

Rightly judging that all authentic information
respecting the auriferous region of Fraser River
will at the present time be welcome, Capt. Barrett
Lennard has here published the results of two years'
experience on the Pacific coast of the North Ameri-
can continent, as well as of a cruize round the
Island of Vancouver; and he has also collected from
various sources such hints for guidance as he thought
might be of use to the intending emigrant. At
present it seems there are two toutes to these
districts, " the ordinary one by sea, era Cape Horn,
which involves a sea voyage of some 20,000 miles,
and the so-called overland route, via Panama,
whereby the distance and duration of the voyage
are greatly abridged." The disadvantage of the
Panama route appears to be the delay which may
take place at that city from the necessity of waiting
for the San Francisco steamer, and as the climate
is extremely unhealthy the consequences may be
dangerous ; whilst the sea route round Cape Horn
involves a journey of some five or six months
duration, exposes the traveller to a double:alterna-
tion of winter and summer, and requires that tropi-
cal heat and arctic cold be alike provided for ; but
as steamers have recently been advertised to sail by
this route from England to British Columbia, the
duration of the voyage will be, by this means, con-
siderably abridged. The Island of Vancouver,
which the writer first describes, is, he states, a
vast rock covered with a vegetable mould which,
wherever it is of sufficient depth, is highly fertile.
The staple natural ploduction is the pine, of which
there are immense forests, and these, owing to the
thick undergrowth, are, with the exception of an
occasional Indian trail, wholly impenetrable. The
trees grow to an enormous height, and are of
gigantic girth, and occasionally vast conflagrations
break out, arising, it is supposed, from the spon-
taneous combustion of masses of decayed vegetation,
thus converting vast spaces into a wilderness of
blackened ashes. The Indians, however, assert that
in the interior of the island there are extensive open
plains, and that there is a water communication
between the south-west and the north-cc st coasts ;
but the interior appears as yet to be imperfectly
known. The climate is said to very much resemble
our own, and to be extremely well suited to most of
our vegetable productions. The navigation round
the island seems to be extremely difficult, owing to
the uncertainty of the tides, which are as capri-
cious as the winds, and give rise to currents
which the writer says, " Setting in from the
ocean, through the opposite extremities of
the channel, meet in its narrowest portion
called Johnson's Straits, characteristically known
as the Rapids. The absolute point of meeting is,
as far as I was able to form an opinion, opposite
Cape Mudge, at the southern extremity of Valdez
Island, forming a series of eddies and whirlpools,
locally known as tide-rips, in which a vessel is car-
ried helplessly along unless a very strong breeze is
blowing. The navigation of these narrow seas is,
moreover, much impeded by floating timber of
gigantic proportions, and also by enormous beds of
that extraordinary marine plant, the kelp. I have
seen a vessel of 40 or 50 tons, with a fair breeze,
brought up dead, as if at anchor, by coming sud-
denly on a bed of kelp, and woe betide the hapless
wight whose fate it may be to get entangled while
bathing among the treacherous rope-like stems
and long, leathery leaves of this Brob-
dignag, submarine growth. He is caught
like a fly in the meshes of a spider, and
with as little chance of escape. To this fact I can
testify, from several painful cases of brave fellows
and capital swimmers who thus lost their lives dur-
ing my stay in the colony." Of the Indian tribes
inhabiting these regions the author does not speak
in very high terms. He considers, however, that
they differ, materially, from those of the interior of
the continent, otherwise we should be forced to
suspect the glowing accounts of savage chivalry and
virtue furnished by Catlin, Cooper, and others, to
be greatly overdrawn. These tribes, rejoicing in
such names as the " Stickeens," the " Skidegates,"
&c,, are treacherous and cruel, whilst their prac-
tices of flattening the skull, distorting it to a sugar
loaf shape, and distending the lower lip to a fright-
ful extent by the insertion of a shell or a piece of
wood, by no means adds to their personal beauty.
Tattooing is occasionally practised among them,
and painting the face is universal. Their canoes
aro not of bark, as is the case with those of the
tribes of the interior, but are hollowed out of the
trunk of a tree by a glow fire, and they arc com-
monly used as sepulchres for their dead. The canoe
is dragged ashore for the purpose, and the body,
enveloped in a blanket and surrounded by the
weapons and other articles used by the deceased in
his lifetime, is laid therein. Some tribes, however,
place their dead in boxes among branches of trees.
Gambling and drunkenness are emong their vices,
and "a game is played among themselves, with a
number of small pieces of polis Led stick, about five
inches in length, and having much the appearance
of short pencils. These are enveloped from time to
time, by the players on either side, in a mass of
bark fibre or tow, and then dealt out like a pack
of cards with great rapidity." At this game,
which the author sayS he could never comprehend,
they will sit for hours. Of their religious creed
we have the following account :—" The belief
among the Northern Indians is, first, that Yale
(Crow) made everything. That men possess a never-
dying soul, The brave who fall in battle, and those
who are murdered, enjoy everlasting happiness in
heaven ; while those who die a natural death are
condemned to dwell for ages among the branches of
tall trees. The world was originally dark, shape-
less, chaotic, the only living thing being Yale. For
a long time he flew round and round the watery
waste, until at length, growing weary of the into-
lerable solitude, he det,rmined to people the uni-
verse. He bade the waters recede and the .sun
shine forth and dry the earth. The effect of this
was to cause a dense mist to arise ; out of this mist
he created salmon, and put them into the lakes and
rivers. Birds and beasts were afterwards created
on land. After Yale had finished his work of crea-
tion he made a survey of it, and found that all crea-
tures were satisfied with the universe in which
they had been placed, with the exception of the
lizard, who, having a stock of provisions laid up for
winter use, and being moreover a great sleeper, pre-
ferred a request to be allowed five months winter.
Not so,' replied Yale, for the sake of the other ani-
mals there shall be but four snowy months. The
lizard insisted on five, stretching forth at the same
time his five digits—for in those days he had a hand
like a man. The crow seized-his hand, and cutting
off one finger gave him to understand that the
remaining number should indicate the months
of the seasons—four rainy, four snowy, and four
summer." The legend goes on to tell how the crow
took to wife a salmon, but that they parted owing
to incompatability of disposition, and then narrates
his nuptials with a daughter of the sun ; the issue
of which, trying to guide his grandfather's
chariot, nearly set the earth on fire ; and
it winds up with an account of a universal
deluge. Both Catholic sod Protestant mission-
aries are now labouring at the conversion of
these people, and the author " heard a chapter in
the Bible translated and expounded to them in
Chinnook, as well as the Decalogue with the very
appropriate introduction of an eleventh command-
ment—" Wake klosh muck-a-muck whisky. Thcu
shalt not drink whisky ;" well meant, no doubt, but
a precedent of questionable propriety. Proceeding
now to British Columbia, the author ascended Fra-
ser River, the current of which in part of its course
was so great that he says, " The steamers seldom
succeed in achieving a higher speed than from one
to two knots per hour, and I have known them not