Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-06-30
MARTINlQUE's ExILED KING.
Fate of Behanzin of Dahomey and His
Bave Fight With France.

1uOuSn all the world mas Deen think
ing OF Martinique, nobody seems to
have remembered that the stricken
island is the exile home of one of the
forgotten Kings of Africa. For eight
years King Behanzin has smoked his
pipe at Martinique, though a de-
throned king is detail in the pres
pipe at Martinique, though dethroned
king is a detail in the presence of a
world-moving catastrophe, and one
searches in vain for Behanzin's name
in the kilograms. The probability is
only too great that the exiled poten-
tate has smoked his last pipe and
breathed his last threat against Col
onel Dodds. Only a few months ago
he was at st. Pierre, as happy as a
king without kingdom, and it may be
found that Behanzin and his suit have
persisted in the cataclysm of fire which
has swept st. Pierre off the face of the
earth.
Behanzin was king of Dahomey-
the Dahomey, that is, of yesterday.
With him has passed his ancient king
dom, one of the seats of power in
Western Africa before the coming of
the white man For 200 years Daho-
mey fourished. 1t is, indeed, as dead
as Queen Anne, whose contemporary
on the throne of Dahomey was a man
of giant strength and talent not to be
despised. Guadjor Trudo ruled his
kingdom WE'LL and Dahomey ranked
among the great powers of Africa
when those powers were not less real
than the powers of Europe which have
brought them to an end But even the
good example of a king does not live
forever, and long line of cruel ty-
rants followed Gradjor Trudo, whose
kingdom degenerated into a huge
stronghold of slavery and oppression,
and remained so until, fifty years ago,
France set its foot down in Dahomey
territory, and Until, in our time,
France absorbed the kingdom alto
gether.
The end came with almost dramatic
suddenness. For four years Behanzin
was king, and through half of this he
was hunted like fox by the French
troops. The crisis was part of his in
heritance; already, when he succeed
ed to the throne in 1890, France was
knocking angrily at the gates, and one
of the kings first acts was to write to
| President Carnot for peace. Behanzin
was one of the troubles OF President
Carnot Twice the king appealed to
the president by letter and once Be
| hanzin's ENJOYS knocked at the door
| of Elysee. They knocked in vain.
France had come to distrust Behanzin,
and to doubt his word. The peace con-
cluded with him six months after his
accession was rudely broken, and the
French parliament voted three million
francs for an expedition against him.
1t was the kings last chance. His
predecessor had challenged France by
insulting letters to it's officials and
complaints of French merchants inter
fering with politics at Whydah, and
France had retorted by bombarding
Whydah within forty-eight hours.
The expedition of Colonel Dodds
was the last determined blow at Be
hanzin's power, and the decisive
struggle began when the king treach-
erously drew the French into ambush
by waving flag of truce and offering
to evacuate. The treachery sharpened
the ardor of the invaders. For six
weeks the French troops had been
fighting their way forward at the rate
of less than mile day, and Colonel
Dodds was still thirty miles from the
capital. But rapid movement brought
the invaders to within eleven miles of
Abomey, and when Colonel Dodds
reached Cana, the sacred city of the
kings, Dahomey sued for conditional
peace. Content with nothing but alb
solute surrender, the invaders moved
on toward the capital, working their
way with painful slowness through a
vast area of forest swamp. The king,
with his army, had occupied Abomey,
and there it was expected the great
battle between the two civilizations
would be fought out.
Behanzin, with all the forces of his
kingdom to support him, awaited the
arrival Of the French in significant
silence. He had made the war his
final trial of strength, and his famous
Amazon army, the only regular army
of women warriors, perhaps, which
| European power has ever fought, was
| fully armed. The Amazones were the
glory of Benhanzin's kingdom. From
time immemorial the daughters of the
chiefs had been trained to defend the
kingdom to the last resort and to be
a perpetual guard surrounding the
king, and at the great fetes 1t was the
commander of the Amazones who
struck off the head Of the first captive
offered to the gods. Waving the knife,
dripping with blood, before the king,
the commander would lead her troops
in their hymn of triumph
Behanzin had gathered his Amazons
around him for his last stand against
France, and on the last day of the war
the women sang before him in the
capital. The French soldiers emerged
from the swamps and forests on to a