The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-04-28
Ac,TY OF eLoop.

Il
| fotentate Who Makes Massacres and
Murder His Daily Pastime.
The causes which led Great Britain
70 send an expedition to chastise KIM
Drunami and capture Benin were as
| follows:
The Niger protectorate sent nine
Englishmen and $50 native carriers, all
unarmed, to visit King Drunami and
warn him not to interrupt trade.
Only two Englishmen and 20 natives
escaped the frightful massacre that
the king ordered.
Had two men visited him they nigh!
have succeeded, but, hearing that q
large force was coming, he mistook the
nature of the visit.
The affair occasioned an interest far
beyond previous African wars. The
whole world suddenly learned of the ex-
istence of an almost fabulous city and
OF potentate who makes massacre and
murder his daily pastiIne and loves to
dTench his capital in blood.
The Benin court is inside the bend of
the elbow in upper Guinea, north of
the French Congo country. The west
coast is little known. 1t is flat coun-
try covered with dense forests, streaked
by many creeks. The natives call the
capital Benin Ubine and sometimes Ad-
do. The most important tribes under
the king are the Jel1ris and Sobbos.
The Jekris are very warlike and got
thrashed in 1894 under Mana.
Ever since the British have been try
ing to control the most turbulent chiefs
and develop the trade of the interior.
This was rendered impossible by the
king of the bloody city, whose fetch
customs and rule of terror prevent COM
merce in the most important products.
The people are governed solely by
fear and the most barbarous customs
prevail. The subjects are brutalized by
incessant human sacrifices, torture and
cannibalism. The district is immense
~ rich and abounds in rubber, gum,
copal, gum arabic, turmeric, incense
gum. fibers, mahogany and many orher
hard woods. Many of these things are
under the ban Of the fetch. and Of
ivory the king claims one-half, which
he exchanges for slaves and refuses to
sell to Europeans.
James Pinnock, of Liverpool, recently
went to Benin with Capt. Galloway, a
British representative. The king kept
them outside the walls two days con-
sulting the fetch. AT last the visit was
permitted, and the two men took their
revolvers and saw the king. who was
surrounded by crowds.
The king wore garment of beads
which covered his body all except his
toes, fingers, nose and mouth, and was
go heavy that he could not move. AS
the flies alighted on these extremities
black servant knocked the insects of
and rubbed the sore spots.
A treaty was signed between the king
md Queen Victoria and the white men
were then invited to witness human
sacrifice. They declined and were then
allowed to walk through the town.
They saw At various points human
bodies, one Body being on crucif1x,
the arms and legs stretched out. An
other body, that of a man, was tied to
q tree. He had been starved to death on
account of there having been too much
rain. a third body was that of man
who had been executed because the
weather was too hot.
In various parts of the city lay
corpses, headless or armless or shock
ingly mutilated. Since that visit the
king has several times sent insoient
messages to the coast, SAYING that he
was as big as the white queen and want
ing to know If her majesty sent her
to him.
Other visitors while in Benin got
messages from the king telling them
TO stay indoors, as the chiefs were out
killing, it being the custom to gain pro-
motion rank to rank by killing as many
men as possible This is accomplished
BY waylaying in the night time.
1t is Drunami's custom to kill large
number of slaves every anniversary Of
his fathers death. The population of
he district is not numerous, not as
arge as Ashanti. The people are in
ipfCuI nuo SO"diNly ouO CLlcAS oNtU-
Died with agriculture and the protfuc- |
ion of palm oil. One correspondent |
says few white men have visited the |
Jlnce.
The best known; was tie traveller |
2elzoni, who was buried there IN 1923 |
The place is of vast antiquity and the
lncient seat of a great fetch dynasty |
which passed from one generation 70
mother and still exists with all its /
primitive revolving .sscrifcial customs.
A trader who has been there twice
avs the natives come.hooting down the
osds, barring the way even rs mile.
rom the city.
The approaches 10 the city walls pre-
ent an aspect of bloodthirsty barbar.
~ almost impossible 10 describe. Or
ither side of the roads ore the re-
pains of victims domestic death with the
most cruel fetch rites, both men and
women being cruciied, impaled. mutt
sted or half buriedi TO satisfy the
Thirns Of the neutrality-suspicious.
Icrald.
The Useful Rlboon.
So far as speed is concerned the dog