Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-05-31
O5lo Statesu1arl.
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY
The Ohio Statesman Company,
TUESDAY MORNING, MAY 81
ANIAZONs IN BATTLE.
A Great Battle i'm Afrlca-Defea1
Of the King of DahOmey's
ras Troops by the Egbas.

The English papers received by the Asia
contain accounts of sanguinary battle in
Africa between the troops of the King OF
Dahomey and the tribe of the Egbas. The
Dahomiin Amazons fought bravely but the
Egbas won the victory. 1t 10 related in the
description of the fight that the King of
Dahomey marched in person on the 10Th of
March at the head of ten thousand troops
(male and female), and on the 10th attack
ed the Egbas in their fortified town of Abb
beOkuta--a place Of two hundred thousand
inhabitants. The King had three brass
field six-pounder pieces, bearing the in
scription upon the breech of "Mexico,
1916" He advanced till within fifty yards
of the wall of Abbeokuta, then suddenly
displayed his flags, extended his lines and
marched rapidly towards the WALL
The Egbas Immediately opened ire
mendous fire on the lines, and arrested
them at once. In the advancing columns
were Amazons, who fought bravely
and desperately. Many of these furies
climbed the wall, which is more than
fifteen feet high; but, so soon as they reach
ed the top, the Egbas dragged them over
and slew them. One Amazon, who had one
of her hands cut off in her efforts to clam
ber over the wall, discharged her musket
with the other hand and shot an Egba. She
received a severe blow from q sabre, and
fell backwards into the trench. The Da-
homians were utterly defeated. They lost
upwards of one thousand in killed, and the
number of prisoners is said to exceed two
thousand. The Dahomians fled in two di-
visions. In front of the division which
took first to flight was the doughty king
himself. The Egbas pursued both divisions
and slaughtered the fugitives without mer
cy and without pause. Seeing the dis
comfiture of the king, the inhabitants o
the neighboring crooms turned out ant
Joined heartily in the general massacre. o
his three field-pieces, the king had the mis-
fortune to leave two in the keeping OF th
Egbas.
Another account says of the fighting o
the AmaZons:
''Some of the desperate Amazons rushed
to the wall (on the part defended by tn
Christian converts and the people of Ijeun
with ferocious resolution, plunging into tin
trench and endeavOring to scale the wall
others attempting to enter the town by tn
excavations under the wall; they were sho
in the trench or cut down in their mad at
tempt to scale the wall. Some Amazon
gave the defenders little annoyance, fo
when in the trench they threw large stone
over the wall on the Egbas, and snatche
away about six muskets from the hands {
the Egbas in the act of firing; by an equa
determination on the part of the Egba
they were killed. No fewer than seventy
two dead Dahomians were counted after
wards from the trench at this point. On tn
Owu side of the walls three fGrocious Anna
IONS actually planted their banners alon
the wall, but were instantly cut down, thei
heads and hands stuck on poles and exhibit
ed over the wall with general shout {
victory from the Egbas."