Washington telegraph., 1852-09-15
From the London Times.
An African King With $4,000
Wives.

ginning to pail upon the taste of the reading
public, we recommend some enterprisng
bibliopole to try what can be made out of the
Romance of the Blue-books;;" and he can
not do better than commence with the
Papers yelatiue to the reduction Of La
gos," which have just appeared Their
contents are positivcy astounding; and when
we read of an African sovereign with 49,
600 wives, and with well-appointed regi-
ments of female soldiers, we know not
whether we can persist, as heretofore, i'll
treating the ancient Amazons as myth
There are, indeed, even in some of the
most business-like of the documents in this
collection, symptoms of the tendency to ex-
aggeration popularity attributed to travellers;
but after every due allowance has been
made, they contain authenticated wonders
sufficient to amuse and interest the most ja-
ded lover of the marvellous.
The first of the Papers is despatch
dated June 80, lS49, and addressed by Lord
Palmerston to Mr.. Beecroft, conferring on
that gentleman the appointment of Consul
at certain places on the African coast, and
instructing him to use every possible infu-
ence to induce the native kings or chiefs to
exchange the slave-trade for more humane
and equally profitable description of traffic
His Lordship had already (May 20, 1S4Y
written to the King of Dahomey, to impress
upon his Majesty that agriculture and COM
merce are more useful and advantageous
than the stealing and selling of men, women
and children" The royal response is char
acteristic and affords important materials for
estimating the effect Of his Lordship's
praiseworthy exertions to enlighten the un-
derstandings of these swarthy potentates:-
The King Of Dahomey presents his best
compliments to the Queen of England
The presents which she has sent him are
very acceptable, and are good for his face
When Governor Winniett visited the King
the King told him that he must consult his
people before he could give final answer
about the slavc-trade. He cannot see that
he and his people can do without it. 1t is
from the slave-trade that he derives his prin-
cipal revenues. This he has explained in
long palaver to Mr.. Cruikshank. He
begs the Queen of England to put a stop
to the slave-trade everywhere else, and aI-
loa0 linn TO c01uislue It," The concluding
request sounds natural, if not altogether
reasonable; and the following intimation
shows that his Majesty has instinctively di-
yined one of the main sources of resistance
to oppression: ''The King also begs the
Queen to make law, that no ship shall be
allowed to trade at any place near his do
minions lower down than Whydah, as by
means Of tracing -UesSeks, the people are
getting rich and acithSt0aaling his au-
Mority. He hopes the Queen will send
him some good Tower guns and blunderbus-
ses, and plenty of them, to enable him to
make war. He also uses much cowsries,
and wishes the Queens subjects to bring
plenty of them to Whydah, to make trade
He wishes to see plenty of Englismen ma
king trade at Whydah.'
The King having expressed strong de-
sire to communicate in his capital with a
British naval officer Lieut. Forbes was des-
patched to Dahomey, and it is from his jour-
structive details concerning the sovereign,
the people, and the place. He thus des-
cribes his formal reception Oh approaching
the metropolis: "Oct H. Started in full
uniform for the capital, distant ten miles,
Having entered the gate of the city, which
is ornamented with human skulls. and in
the vicinity of the principal Fetish house,
we halted, and taking a position in chairs
across the road, waited for the ceremony of
being met by the Cabooceers. In short
time, an immense crowd advanced towards
us, with banners flying among them. At
some distance they halted, and the Governor
of the city, at the head of a few soldiers,
advanced When arrived in front of our
position, he countermarched, and made a
circle from left to right three times around
our seats, bowling each time when he came
in front On the last time he fired off a
musket, and danced before us; then, having
shaken hands. he took seat Mr.. Forbes
proceeds to state that the square in front of
the palace, though extremely large. was
densely crowded with armed men and wo-
men, squatted on their hams, their long
Danish muskets standing up like minia-
ture forest. Banners abounded those Of
the King being uniformly surmounted by a
skull. This ghostly style of ornament ap-
pears to be particularly in request in Da-
honey. "The palace wall Of red clay, y
says Mr.. Forbes, standing about twenty
feet high, extending over more than square
mile, was one continued line of human
skulls; yet it might be remarked that, where
decay had destroyed them, these CHASTITY or
naments were not replaced. On the thres-
holds and sides of the portals of the palace
were also human skulls, but the practice
of human sacrifice is fast vanishing from
the kingdom of Dahomey." Some Of his
subsequent revelations however, lead to an
opposite conclusion. For instance, we are
told that ten prisoners of rank, bound with