Colonel Dodds has attacked and carried Kane, the sacred village
of the Dahomeyans, eight miles from the capital, Abomey. The fighting appears to have been severe, the French having 11 men killed and 42 wounded, exclusive, we imagine, of the casualties among the black auxiliaries. The attack was delivered on the 4th inst., and it is believed that the final assault on Abomey would be made on the 9th, the country immediately round the town being almost clear of jungle. The French Government is so certain of success that it has made Colonel Dodds a General, but private accounts are not quite so favourable. The Dahomeyans, it is said, fight well, the troops, though they quail under the French fire, returning incessantly to the conflict, and the resistance behind the walls of Abomey will be severe. General Dodds has ordered up his last reinforcements, so that there is not a healthy white man between him and the sea, and his available white soldiers are greatly weakened by the fever. We wish some distinction were drawn in the list of casualties between the Whites, who belong usually to the Foreign Legion, and the Senegalese ; but the presumption is that Abomey will be carried, and that the French, to their exasperation, will find themselves compelled either to garrison it, or leave it at the mercy of Behanzin. Their idea is to make his Chiefs independent, and so divide Dahomey ; but the King's authority is based on a religious idea, and may survive defeat.
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