little party consisted of Mr. George Cruikshank, a naval
assistant-surgeon detached to accompany me; the Rev. Mr. Bernasco,
Wesleyan missionary and private friend of the king; two negro
interpreters, thirty hammock men, and a troop of baggage porters. This
made up a total of ninety-nine mouths, which were never idle except
when asleep.
Between the seaboard and Kana, the “villegiatura,” or country capital,
of the king, there were fifty-two to fifty-three direct miles. The
country was here a campo, or rolling grassy prairie: there was a dense
and magnificent forest. At every few miles there were settlements, now
villages, once capitals which felt the weight of the Dahomé arm. The
first was Savé, ancient metropolis of the Whydah kingdom, when the
present Whydah, which was properly Gle-hwe, or the Garden House, was
only a squalid port. The territory was only thirty miles by seven, but
it mustered 200,000 fighting men. This, however, was easily explained.
In Africa every male between the ages of seventeen and fifty carried
arms: this would be about one-fifth of the population; consequently
there was one million inhabitants in an area of two hundred square
miles (4,762 souls to each mile).
After Savé came Tevé, also an ex-capital. It was a pretty little
village commanded by a Dahoman “caboceer.” This frequently used word
is a corruption of a Portuguese corruption, “caboceer,” or, rather,
“caboceira,” and means a pillow, a headman, or a chief officer. The
etiquette on arriving at such places is as follows. You alight from
your hammock before the tree under which the grandee and his party are
drawn up to receive you with vociferous shouts, with singing,
drumming, and dancing. After the first greetings you pledge him in
fresh water, which he has tasted before you. Then you drink spirits
and receive an offering of provisions. You make a return of rum and
gin, the people drum, dance, sing, and shout their thanks, and you are
at liberty to proceed.
On the fourth day we crossed the “Agrime Swamp,” which is hardly
practicable in the wet season. The road then entered upon a true
continent: we emerged from the false coast, which at one time was
under water, and which is raised by secular upheaval. At the little
town of Agrime we were delayed till the king, who was in his country
capital, sent an escort and permission to advance.
On Friday, December 18th, we entered Kana, a large and scattered town,
shaded by magnificent trees. It is about two hundred and seventy feet
above sea-level, and the climate is a relief after Whydah. The morrow
was fixed for our reception. It was Ember Day, and the date could
hardly have been better chosen.
It is hardly possible to form an idea of the _peine forte et dure_
attending the presentation in Africa. It is every negro’s object to
keep the white man waiting as long as possible, and the visitor must
be very firm and angry if he would not lose all his time.
We were duly warned to be ready at 10 a.m.; but local knowledge kept
me in the house till 1 p.m. Then we sat under a tree upon the chairs
which we had brought from Whydah, to witness the procession of
“caboceers.” Each grandee, preceded by his flag or flags, his band of
drums and rattles, and his armed retainers dancing and singing, passed
before us, shaded by an enormous umbrella of many colours. Having
marched round, he came up to us and snapped fingers (the local style
of shaking hands); then he drank with us three toasts, beginning with
his master’s health. After the “caboceers” trooped various
companies――musicians, eunuchs, and jesters. The last are buffoons,
reminding one of our feudal days. Their entertainment consists in
“making faces” (_cara feia_), as children say――wrinkling the forehead,
protruding the tongue, and clapping the jaws as apes do. They can
tumble a little and “throw the cart wheel” neatly; they dance in a
caricatured style, draw in the stomach to show that they are hungry,
pretend to be deaf and dumb, smoke a bone by way of a pipe, and
imitate my writing by scratching a sweet potato with a stick.
The review over, we made for the palace in a long procession; my men,
wearing bright red caps and waist-cloths, carried the flag of St.
George. The royal abodes are all on the same pattern: enclosures of
“taipa” wall, four courses high, and pierced with eight or ten gates.
The irregular square or oblong may be half a mile in circumference. At
the principal entrances are thatched sheds like verandahs, one hundred
feet long by fourteen to fifteen feet deep. The roof ledge rises sixty
to seventy feet high, enough for two stories, whilst the eaves of
thick and solidly packed straw rested upon posts barely four feet
tall. The inner buildings, as far as they could be seen, corresponded
with the external, and the king held his levées in one of these
barn-like sheds. The royal sleeping-places, which were often changed,
were described to me as neat rooms, divided from the courtyard by a
wall with a _chevaux de frise_ of human jawbones. The floors were
paved with the skulls of conquered chiefs, forming a _descente de lit_
upon which Gelele had the daily pleasure of trampling.
The complicated reception was typical of the Dahoman military empire.
We found, ranged in a line outside the gate, twenty-four umbrellas or
brigades belonging to the highest male dignitaries. The army, or, what
was here synonymous, the Court, was divided into two portions, male
and female, or, rather, female and male, as the women troops took
precedence. They occupied the inside of the palace, and they were the
king’s bodyguard in peace or war. Each line had a right and a left
wing, so called from their position relative to the throne. The
former, which is the senior, was commanded by the “min-gau” who
cumulated the offices of premier and head executioner. His lieutenant
was the adanejan. Dahoman officials, for better espionage, were always
in pairs. The general of the left wing was the “meu,” who collected
revenue and tribute, declared war, and had charge of all strangers.
His _alter ego_ was styled the ben-wan-ton. Under these great men were
smaller great men, and all were _de facto_ as well as _de jure_ slaves
to the king.
[Illustration: BURTON VISITS THE KING OF DAHOMÉ. [_See Page 213._]
Presently we were summoned to enter the palace. We closed our
umbrellas by order, walked hurriedly across a large yard, and halted
at a circle of white sand spread upon the clayey ground. Here we bowed
to a figure sitting under the shady thatch; and he returned, we were
told, the compliment. The chief ministers who accompanied us fell flat
upon the sand, kissed it, rolled in it, and threw it by handfuls over
their heads and robes of satin and velvet. The ceremony is repeated at
every possible opportunity; and when the king drinks, all the subjects
turn their backs upon him and shout.
Then we advanced to the clay bench upon which King Gelele sat. After
the usual quadruple bows and hand-wavings, he stood up, tucked in his
toga, descended to the ground, and, aided by nimble feminine fingers,
donned his sandals. He then greeted me with sundry vigorous wrings _à
la John Bull_, and inquired after Queen Victoria, the Ministry, and
the people of England, which country is supposed to be like Dahomé,
but a little larger and richer.
Our chairs were then placed before the seat, to which he returned, and
we drank the normal three toasts to his health. On these occasions it
is not necessary to empty the glass, which may be handed to an
attendant. Salutes having been fired, we retired a hundred feet from
the presence and sat under giant umbrellas.
Gelele was then about forty-five years old, upwards of six feet high,
olive complexioned, athletic and well made, with clear signs of
African blood. His dress was simple to excess: a loose shirt of plain
white stuff edged with green silk, a small smoking-cap, a few iron
rings on his arms, and a human tooth strung round his neck. The only
splendour was in his gold and scarlet sandals, here distinctive of
royalty. They were studded with crosses, also royal emblems. He called
himself a Christian, and he was a Moslem as well: like all barbarians,
he would rather believe too much than too little, and he would give
himself every chance in both worlds.
Under the thatch behind the king were his wives, known by their
handsome dresses, silver hair studs, and the absence of weapons. They
atoned for want of beauty by excessive devotion to their lord, who
apparently did everything by proxy except smoke his long-stemmed clay
pipe.
The inner court of the palace reflected the outer, and the women sat
in the sun along the external wall of the royal shed with their
musket-barrels bristling upwards. The right wing was commanded by a
“premieress,” who executed all women; the left was also under the she
“meu.” A semicircle of bamboos lying on the ground separated the sexes
at levées. The instrument of communication was a woman-messenger, who,
walking up to the bamboos, delivered her message on all fours to the
“meu.” The latter proclaimed it to the many.
I must here say a few words about the Amazons, or fighting women. The
corps was a favourite with the late king, who thus checked the
turbulence and treachery of his male subjects. The number was
estimated at 10,000 to 12,000; I do not believe it exceeded 2,500.
They were divided into blunderbuss-women, elephant-hunters, beheaders,
who carry razors four feet long, and the line armed with muskets and
short swords.
All the Amazons were _ex-officio_ royal wives, and the first person
who made the king a father was one of his soldieresses. It was high
treason to touch them even accidentally; they lodged in the palace,
and when they went abroad all men, even strangers, had to clear off
the road. Gelele often made his visitors honorary commandants of his
guard of Amazons (I was made one); but this did not entitle them to
inspect companies.
Such a _régime_ makes the Amazons, as might be expected, intolerably
fierce. Their sole object in life is blood-spilling and head-snatching.
They pride themselves upon not being men, and with reason. The
soldiers blink and shrink when they fire their guns; the soldieresses
do not. The men run away; the women fight to the bitter end. In the
last attack on the city of Abokuta (March 15th, 1864) several of the
Amazons of my own regiment scaled the walls; their brethren-in-arms
hardly attempted the feat.
Dahomé thus presented the anomaly of an African kingdom in which women
took precedence of men. Hence every employé of Government had to
choose a “mother”――that is to say, some elderly Amazon officer who
would look after his interests at headquarters. Often he had two, an
“old mother,” dating from the days of the late king, and a “young
mother,” belonging to the actual reign. He had to pay them well, or
his affairs were inevitably bad. Thus there was also a Brazilian, an
English, and a French “mother”; and visitors of those nations were
expected to propitiate their fond and unpleasant parents with presents
of cloth, jewelry, perfumes, and so forth.
The levée ended with a kind of parade. A few simple manœuvres and many
furious decapitation dances were performed by a select company of the
young Amazons. They were decently dressed in long sleeveless
waistcoats, petticoats of various coloured cottons, secured at the
waist by a sash and extending to the ankles, whilst narrow fillets of
ribbon secured their hair and denoted their corps. Their arms were
muskets and short swords, and all had belts, bullet bags, and
cartridge boxes.
When the sun set a bottle of rum was sent to us. At this hint we rose
and prepared to retire. Gelele again descended from his seat and
accompanied us to the gate, preceded by a buzzing swarm of courtiers,
who smoothed every inch of ground for the royal foot. He finally shook
hands with us, and promised to meet us in a few days at Agbomé, the
capital.
We lost no time in setting out for Agbomé, and were surprised to find
an excellent carriage road, broad and smooth, between the two cities.
Agbomé had no hotels, but we managed lodgings at the house of the
bukono, a high officer who was doctor and wizard to the Court and
curator of strangers, whom he fleeced pitilessly.
I will now touch briefly on the ill-famed “customs” of Dahomé. The
word is taken from the Portuguese _costume_, and here means the royal
sacrifices. Many travellers have witnessed them, but no one has
attempted to inquire into their origin. I attribute these murderous
customs not to love of bloodshed, but simply to filial piety.
The Dahoman, like the ancient Egyptian, holds this world to be his
temporary lodging. His own home is Ku-to-men, or Deadman’s Land. It is
not a place of rewards and punishments, but a Hades for ghosts, a
region of shades, where the king will rule for ever and where the
slave will always serve. The idea is ever present to the popular mind.
When, for instance, sunshine accompanies rain the Dahoman says the
spirits are marketing. In Brazil the fox is marrying; in England the
devil is beating his wife.
A deceased king cannot, therefore, be sent to Ku-to-men as a common
negro. At his interment a small court must be slain――leopard-wives
(that is to say, young and handsome wives), old wives, ministers,
friends, soldiers, musicians, men and women. These are the grand
customs, which may average one thousand to two thousand deaths. The
annual customs, which we were now to witness, reinforce the ghostly
court, and number from eighty to one hundred head.
But destruction of life does not end here. All novelties, such as the
arrival of an officer in uniform, must be reported to the dead by the
living king. A captive or a criminal is summoned, and the message is
given to him. He is made to swallow a bottle of rum, whose object is
to keep him in a good humour, and his head is then and there struck
off. Only on one occasion did the patient object to the journey,
saying that he did not know the road to Ku-to-men. “You shall soon
find it out!” cried the king, who at once decapitated the wretch
without rum. If any portion of the message be forgotten, another
victim must be despatched with it. A hard-hearted traveller calls this
the postscript.
A Dahoman king neglecting these funeral rites would have been looked
upon as the most impious of men, and a powerful priesthood would soon
have sent him to Ku-to-men on his own account. It may now be
understood how hopeless was my mission. It may be compared, without
disrespect, to memorialising the Vatican against masses for the dead.
The king’s sole and necessary answer was _non possumus_.
The “customs” began on December 28th, 1863, and ended on January 25th,
1864. They were of two kinds. The first was performed by Gelele, king
of the city; the second are in the name of Addo-Kpon, ruler of the
“bush,” or country――also Gelele. The ruler of Dahomé was thus double,
two persons in one, and each had his separate palace and property,
mothers and ministers, Amazons, officers, and soldiers. I have
conjectured that the reason of this strange organisation is that the
“bush-king” may buy and sell, which the “city-king” holds to be below
his dignity.
The description of a single “custom” will suffice. About midday of
December 28th, when summoned to the palace, we passed through the
market-place, and we found the victim-shed finished and furnished.
This building was a long, wall-less barn one hundred feet long, the
roof was a thatch covered with a striped cloth on a blood-red ground
and supported by tree trunks. On the west was a two-storied tower,
sixty feet high, with four posts in front of each floor. There were on
this occasion twenty victims sitting on stools, each before his post,
with his arms around it and his wrists lashed together outside it. The
confinement was not cruel; each had a slave to flap away the flies,
all were fed four times a day, and they were released at night. The
dress was a long white nightcap and a calico shirt with blue and
crimson patches and bindings. A white man would have tried to escape;
these negroes are led like black sheep to the slaughter. They marked
time as the bands played, and they chatted together, apparently
quizzing us. I may here remark that at my request the king released
half of these men, and that not one of them took the trouble to thank
me or to beg alms from me.
Hardly were we seated when Gelele, protected by a gorgeous canopy
umbrella, came forth from the palace with Amazons and courtiers in a
dense, dark stream. Having visited his fetish gods, he greeted us and
retired to his seat under the normal shed. As at Kana, his wives
crowded together behind and the soldieresses ranged themselves in
front. The ceremonies consisted of dancing, drumming, and distributing
decorations――necklaces of red and yellow beads. There was fearful
boasting about feats of past valour and bravery to come. About sunset
the king suddenly approached us, and I thanked him for the spectacle.
He then withdrew, and we lost no time in following his example.
Nothing could be poorer than this display: any petty Indian rajah can
command more wealth and splendour. All was barren barbarism, and the
only “sensation” was produced by a score of human beings condemned to
death and enjoying the death show.
On the morrow I sent a message to the palace, officially objecting to
be present at any human sacrifice, and declaring that if any murder
took place before me I should retire to the coast. The reply was that
few were to be executed, that the victims would only be malignant war
captives and the worst of criminals, and that all should be killed at
night. With this crumb of comfort I was compelled to rest satisfied.
Hitherto gangs of victims cruelly gagged had been paraded before
visitors, in whose hearing and often before whose sight the murders
were committed. Something is gained by diminishing the demoralising
prominence of these death scenes. It is not so long ago since it was
determined that the “customs” of England should be performed within
the prisons, and not further debase the mob of spectators.
The catastrophe took place on what is called the “zan nya nyana,” or
the evil night. At intervals we heard the boom of the death-drum
announcing some horrible slaughter. It was reported that the king had
with his own hand assisted the premier-executioner.
On the next morning we were summoned to the palace, whose approach was
a horror. Four corpses, habited in the criminal shirts and nightcaps,
sat as though in life upon the usual dwarf stools. The seats were
supported upon a two-storied scaffold made of four rough beams, two
upright and two horizontal, and about forty feet high. On a similar
but smaller erection hard by were two victims, one above the other.
Between these substantial erections was a tall gallows of thin posts,
from which a single victim dangled by his heels. Lastly, another
framework of the same kind was planted close to our path, and attached
to the cross-bar, with fine cords round the ankles and above the
knees, hung two corpses side by side and head downwards. The bodies,
though stiff, showed no signs of violence: the wretches had probably
been stifled.
At the south-eastern gate of the palace we found freshly severed heads
in two batches of six each, surrounded by a raised rim of ashes. The
clean-cut necks were turned upwards, and the features were not
visible. Within the entrance were two more heads; all the bodies had
been removed, so as not to offend the king.
Thus on Gelele’s “evil night” twenty-three human beings had lost their
lives. And this is but one act in the fatal drama called the
“customs.” It is said that an equal number of women were slaughtered
within the walls of the royal abode, and I had every reason to believe
the report.
I was kept waiting more than a month in this den of abominations
before the king could enter upon public affairs. He was discontented
with the presents sent from England, and he was preparing to attack a
huge Nago city――Abeokuta――where, by-the-bye, he was signally defeated.
When my last visit to him took place he stubbornly ignored, even in
the least important matters, the wishes of H.M.’s Government. Filled
with an exaggerated idea of his own importance, and flattered almost
to madness by his courtiers, he proceeded to dictate his own terms.
His next thought was an ignoble greed for presents. He bade me a
friendly adieu, and asked me to visit him next year with an English
carriage and horses, a large silk pavilion, and other such little
gifts. I refused to promise, and I resolved not to put my head for the
third time into the hyæna’s mouth. For although Gelele has never shed
the blood of a white man, he might, at the bidding of his fetishers,
send a new kind of messenger to Ku-to-men by means of a cup of coffee
or a dish of meat. I was glad when I found myself safely back in the
pestilential climate of Fernando Po.
_A TRIP UP THE CONGO_
1863
_A TRIP UP THE CONGO_[7]
1863
Before starting on an exploration into any part of Africa (especially
the West Coast), it is essential that the traveller should be properly
equipped with the necessary kit both for the inward and outward man.
Clothing, blankets, and waterproofs of every description; tea, coffee,
and sugar if they be desirable; a few bottles of real genuine cognac
if come-at-able, or some ten years’ old Jamaica rum if attainable.
On the occasion of our starting from Fernando Po in August 1863, for
the purpose of ascending the river Congo, our kit consisted of one
bullock-trunk, one small portable canteen, one dressing-bag, two
uniform-cases, one hat-box, one gun-case, one tin box, one deal case
of bread, one package of tins of milk, one canteen of cooking
utensils, one tin of green tea, one ditto coffee, one small box of
medical comforts, etc., two striped bags, a white canvas bag
containing newspapers, three guns, two walking sticks, one camp bed
and mats, two revolvers, one simpiesometer, a pocket azimuth, an
instrument case, one powder horn, one shot-bag and hunting ditto. At
St. Paul de Loanda we added two cases of gin, and at Point Banana
twelve pieces of siamois, or fancy cloths, twenty pieces riscados, or
blue and white stripe, and ten pieces satin stripe, besides six
thousand five hundred beads, china, and imitation corals. To all this
we afterwards received at Embomma fifteen kegs of gunpowder and ten
demijohns of rum.
H.M.S. _Torch_ took us down to Loango Bay, and there Captain Smith
transferred us on board the sloop-of-war _Zebra_, Captain Hoskins, who
in his turn took us to St. Paul’s and put us in the hands of Captain
Perry, of H.M.S. _Griffon_, and this latter vessel took us into the
Congo; and forthwith we commenced a start up the river on August 31st,
1863.
The usual mode of ascending the river up as far as Embomma is by means
of small fore and aft schooners, generally from twenty to forty tons
measurement, which are heavily sparred and well supplied with canvas.
Our gear was taken by the _Griffon’s_ boats and put on board the
French schooner _Esperance_. We had a fine breeze that afternoon, and
the _Esperance_ sailed up the river most gallantly. The party on board
consisted of myself, Captain Perry, Mr. Bigley, and Monsieur Pisseaux,
a Frenchman; besides William Dean, boatswain, my servant, four French
native soldiers, and the schooner’s crew.
_Wednesday, September 2nd._――We breakfasted at a Portuguese factory,
and soon after breakfast we weighed anchor and sailed up the river,
arriving betimes at Porto da Lentra. In the afternoon we left Porto da
Lentra, and proceeded. Passed several villages on the port hand. Boat
got ashore several times after dark. About nine o’clock the
Missolongis hailed and asked who we were. When I answered, they said
they would pay us a visit during the night. We prepared to give them a
warm reception. During the night we rounded Point Devil, a most
dangerous place for navigation. Anchored at 10.30 p.m.