DAHOMEY, a considerable kingdom, situated in the interior of Western Africa, behind the Slave Coast. It was scarcely known to Europeans till the beginning of the last century, when Guadjo Trudo, the sovereign of Dahomey, extended his dominion to the sea, by the conquest of Whidah and Ardra. These beautiful countries, the garden of Africa, were rendered almost a desert by this terrible inroad; and they have as yet recovered only a small portion of their former prosperity. Several French and English travellers have since made their way to the capital of Dahomey, and given a view of the extraordinary institutions and political system which prevail there. All the most arbitrary forms of despotism seem to be mild and liberal when compared with the tyranny established in this barbarous state. The despotism is not founded upon force and terror, nor is it connected with any timid or effeminate character in its subjects, who are the most furious and desperate soldiers in Africa. It rests on a blind and idolatrous veneration for the person of the sovereign, as for that of a superior being. It is a crime to suppose that the king of Dahomey can eat, drink, sleep, or perform J any of the functions of an ordinary mortal. Bossa Aha-dee, on his accession, caused all the persons of the name of Bossa in his dominions to be put to death, conceiving it to be an unpardonable presumption that any subject should bear the same name as his master. The greatest lords are allowed to approach the king only lying flat on their faces, and rolling their heads in the dust. The attempts thus made to inspire the people with reverence for their monarch seem completely successful. The Dahoman rushes to battle with the same blind intrepidity in the cause of his king, as the Spartans formerly did for their nation and laws. Norris having asked a Dahoman before battle if he did not think the enemy too numerous, the man replied, “I think of my king, and then I dare engage five of the enemy myself.” He declared his indifference whether he survived or not; adding, “It is not material; my head belongs to the king, not to myself; if he pleases to send for it, I am ready to resign it; or if it be shot through in battle, it is no difference to mc, I am satisfied.” War is the element of the Dahomans, and they had subdued all the neighbouring states, till they themselves were repeatedly defeated, and at length rendered tributary, by the Eyeos, a still more numerous and powerful people, who occupy the country to the north-east. The ferocity which prevails in this nation almost surpasses belief. Human skulls form the favourite ornament in the construction of the palaces and temples. The king’s sleeping chamber has the floor paved with skulls, and the roof ornamented with the jaw-bones of chiefs whom he has overcome in battle. Every year a grand festival is held, which lasts for several weeks, and during which the king waters the graves of his ancestors with hosts of human victims. The bodies of those unhappy men are not even interred, but are suspended by the feet to the walls, and left hanging till they putrefy. But the most extraordinary exercise of despotism consists in the treatment of the female sex, all of whom in Dahomey are considered as the property of the king, and entirely at his disposal. After retaining an immoderate number for his own use, he distributes the rest, first among his chief men, and then among the commons. The distribution of wives takes place once a year at the grand festival, when each individual gives in such a sum as he is able to spare for the purchase, and receives in return such a wife as the king chooses to bestow. There is no room for discussion or complaint; be she old, ugly, or deformed, she must equally be accepted. As a large proportion, however, are left without the means of procuring a wife, the king maintains a certain number of courtezans, who are obliged to ply their trade at a moderate rate to all comers. He himself has about three thousand wives, a large proportion of whom exercise functions which do not in other countries devolve upon the female sex. They are trained to arms, and compose a regiment of royal guards, divided into companies, armed with muskets and bows, and provided with drums, flags, and all the apparatus of war. At the death of the king a horrid scene commences; the wives, after the most extravagant demonstrations of grief, begin with breaking and destroying every thing that belongs to them, and then fall to murdering each other, till they are stopped by order of the new sovereign. The throne descends rightfully to the eldest son; but as it is judged indispensable that this fierce nation should be swayed by a vigorous hand, where there appears any deficiency in the eldest, the chiefs select one of the younger brothers. This arrangement, however, often gives rise to a civil war.

The country of Dahomey is very little known to Europeans, who have only observed that part which is passed in going from the coast to the capital. This appeared to [7:7:588]be very beautiful and fertile, rising for about 150 miles in a gradual slope, but without any great elevation. The soil is a deep rich clay of a reddish colour, with a little sand on the surface; but there was not observed in the whole country a stone as large as a walnut. Of farinaceous vegetables, the country, when duly cultivated, yields a plentiful supply; maize, millet or Guinea corn; a kind of peas, or rather kidney beans’, called callavances; and also a species of beans called ground beans. The Dahomans likewise cultivate yams, potatoes, the plantain, and the banana. Pine apples, oranges, limes, guavas, and other tropical fruits, abound in this fertile country; nor is it destitute of productions adapted for commerce, such as indigo, cotton, the sugar cane, tobacco, palm oil, together with a variety of spices, particularly a species of pepper, scarcely distinguishable from that raised in the East Indies. The harmattan, or dry wind, blows here strongest from the north-east; but Mr Norris does not ascribe to it those pestilential qualities which have often been supposed to belong to it. It parches up the ground indeed, and injures every species of vegetable. To man it produces unpleasant sensations, rendering the eyes, nostrils, lips, and palate very dry and uneasy. But it does not induce any fatal diseases; it even cures cutaneous eruptions, and stops the progress of small-pox, fluxes, and remittent fevers. The greatest injury to health arises from the periodical rains, and the tornadoes with which they are accompanied. These, however, are the grand source of fertility, and are immediately succeeded by the most luxuriant vegetation.