CAPTAIN BURTON'S MISSION TO DAHOME.* Tama two volumes contain Captain
Burton's narrative of his mission to Dahome in 1863, and his accounts of Dahornan history, religion, constitution, and institutions in general, the Amaz)n army and the grand "customs" included, ending with a description of the last repulse of the Dahoman forces from before the walls of Abeokuta. It is scarcely necessary to say that Captain Burton found in his mission to the far-famed King of Dahome a task for which his African experience well qualified him, as well as a subject well calculated for enabling him again to ventilate his peculiar views on various African subjects. His readers have long sinoe learnt to pass over with equanimity his slashing attacks on every ordinarily accepted European opinion, such as belief in Christianity, popular prejudice against poly- gamy, or dislike of negro slavery. In these volumes he perhaps carries his love of uuiversal contradiction even farther than usual. There is not a single point connected with the history, reli- gion, constitution, or population of Dahome on which his anxiety to prove somebody else wrong does not manifestly exceed his desire to show that he himself is right. If the unfortunate traveller of pre-Burtonian days, who has made a rash assertion as to distance or the size of towns, happens to be a missionary, or, as Captain Burton prefers, a "missioner," so much the better. If he has ever rashly asserted that the slave-trade was objection- able or polygamy to be discouraged, better still. Captain Burton makes an example of him, and induces one to regard the offender as a sort of would-be Munchausen without imagination. We have not the least doubt that Captain Burton is, on the whole, faithfully correct throughout his two bulky volumes of description; but his incessant digressions for the sake of seizing some luckless "missioner" or philanthropist, and shaking him well, are scarcely worthy of one who has enjoyed infinitely superior advantages and opportunities for studying his subject than any previous traveller. Eliminating, however, eccentricities, proclivities, and general " contradictiousness,"—to use one of Captain Burton's own words,—we find a minute account of the mysterious " cus- toms " so long the subject of all kinds of exaggeration and fable, '4 Mission to &tele, King of Dahonte. By Richard F. Barton. Two vols. London: Tinsley Brother& an outlined history of the monarchy of Dabome, and a descrip- tion of the nature and organization of the force known as the Amazons. Captain Burton volunteered as far back as 1861 to- visit Agboine, the capital of Dahome, and in 1863 Lord Russell wrote to inform him that he had been selected for a mission to the King Gelele in order to confirm the good impression produced,. or supposed to have been produced, by Commodore Wilmot a embassy in the preceding year, and to urge upon the King the advisability of his seeking to encourage some kind of lawful commerce from which to derive revenue to supply that formerly obtained from the slave-trade, and to make provision for the settlement of English merchants at Whydah in his dominions. Presents of the kind dear to the African regal mind were lavishly promised, but the great object of Dahoman ambition—an English coach and horses—was cautiously reserved by Lord Russell, "if our future relations with the King should be of a nature to. warrant such a proceeding." Captain Burton lost no time in leaving Fernando Po, but not without commenting on the strange fact that while England, with so deep a stake in the matter, has never established one single sanitarium on the West Coast, the Spanish colony of Fernando Po, dating only from 1859, has already founded a station on the heights, 400 metres above the sea, and the result is that yellow fever as an epidemic has been almost extinguished. For sixteen years the establish- ment of a sanitarium at Camareons, on a site far superior to any in Fernando Po, has been unremittingly advocated by both medical and military officers, and yet nothing whatever has been. done. Captain Burton thinks with the French in the Crimea that Jean Boule has shattered his nerves with too much tea, and quotes Dr. Watson to the effect that ‘' disease in England has assumed an asthenie and adynamic type." We hope with him that this "new-born apathy," this "something wrong with the popular constitution," may prove but "temporary." In December last Captain Burton landed at Whydah, formerly an independent State, but overthrown by the Dahomans, and now "the Liverpool of Dahome." The population is perhaps 15,000 or so, though the wildest estimates are current. There is a Catholic mission which reckons about 600 converts, and in con- trast to many establishments of the same creed is remarkable for its refasal to enter into a compromise with native superstitions and idolatry. Twice the "Vicariat Apostolique " has bees seriously threatened by the heathenry, once for daring to ex- tinguibli a fire caused by the lightning-god, and once for ejecting a sacred snake from their premises. The population of Whydah has of course enormously decreased since the palmy days of the slave-trade. M. Martinez, a caboceer, or deputy-lieutenant of Dahome, and entitled to the chair, umbrella, and other insignia of that office, lately died of a fit of passion, and is a loss to the slaving interest. The highest foreign dignitary in Whydah is still the Chacha, Francisco de Souza, one of the family of a hundred children left by the first Chacha, or Minister of external trade, the Brazilian adventurer, Francisco de Souza. The old man became very wealthy through his right of levying heavy dues, and was the second official in Whydah,- all his sous ranking as "Hijos de Whydah." The power of the present Chacha is much diminished, though the family retain much influence over the King. The real authority in Whydah rests more with the Yevo-gan—a Viceroy, a potentate of great weight in Whydah, though always liable to disgrace and recall to the capital, perhaps death. But the glory of Whydah is gone, the half-caste De Souza family and the other millionaire slave- traders are impoverished or ruined, and spoilt by the excitement of gambling in slaves for any calling of honest industry. Occa- sionally the blockade is broken and a cargo clears the harbour, which is made the occasion of prolonged feasting and rejoicing.
Captain Burton made his progress to the King's country quarters at Kane amidst the ordinary routine of African recep- tions—incessant dancing, yelling, drum-beating, gin-drinking, and present-giving. Every halt or interview in Dahome seems made up of these elements, in slightly varying proportions. Captain Burton and his companions only escaped the command to join in the demoniacal orgies by representing that it was only respectful to the King that he should be the first to witness their dancing. As they approached the Royal residence the interview with officials became more and more numerous and more intoler- able. The Dahoman seems to have no inventiveness whatever. His idea of State splendour and pageantry never gets beyond the monotonous capering about, firing of guns, and screaming out the "strong names" of the King. Every reader of African travel—and especially of Captain Burton's—knows every detail of the normal negro State ceremony. At length the climax was reached, and Gelele, the present King of Dahome, was revealed to them in full pomp. The history of the military empire of which he is the head is given by Captain Burton according to the Dahoman account. About 1620 the King of Allada, a Ffon kingdom, died, and divided his territory between his three sons. The youngest gradually absorbed the land of a King named " Danh," or the "Snake," and at last killed him, built a palace over his corpse, or, in native phrase, "in Balm's belly." The word used was Danh-ho-men—the letters in italics being nasal or unpronounced—and thereupon be changed the name of his kingdom to that best rendered in English as Dahome, with the accent on the last syllable, as in Ashantee. The new empire increased in military strength, and the neighbouring kingdoms were soon overrun. Agriculture, too, seems to have been carried on more extensively and profitably than in other negro kingdoms. Gezo, who succeeded in 1818, carried the military power of Dahome to its height, but the blow received at Abeokuta was the com- mencement of its decline, the population became exhausted by constant wars and slave-bunts, and the repulse at Abeokuta at the commencement of this year has, according to Captain Burton, finally terminated the warlike greatness of Dahome. Gelele, the present King, is a tremendous negro of forty or forty- five, more than six feet high, athletic, and with no particularly evil expression. Unlike the rest of his family, he is not a very great drunkard. He is hideously ugly, and marked with small- pox, but much lighter in complexion than his father, the great Gezo ; and his mother is supposed by many to have been a mulatto from the French factory at Whydali. He dresses simply, but with considerably more taste than the generality of negro monarchs, and when Captain Burton was first introduced was sitting in full costume, covered with" fetish," surrounded by his wives, and smoking a long pipe. He is regarded with a most intense and personal veneration, applied rather, however,to the despotism embodied in the despot than to his own individuality, as his succes- sor, whoever he might be, would meet with the same semi-idolatry on the morrow. If he sneezes, all present touch the ground with their foreheads ; if he drinks, they bless him aloud. The Court consists of all the chief officers, ministers, and fetishers, male and female, all of whom, with their respective duties and ranks, are described by Captain Burton with the minuteness of ab,erald writing on precedence. Their mode of doing homage is bl roll- ing over and over in the duet, crawling like snakes, or shuffling on their knees, and shouting out epithets of adulation or the "strong names" of the King, which are often lengthy mottoes or proverbs, implying wonderful strength, valour, or greatness. Actual obeisance is performed by lying down, kissing the dust, and continually shovelling it over hair, face, and neck. Nothing can exceed the outward despotism of Dahome. Like the Japanese, the people only regard murder and wounding as unlawful, be- cause they are offences against the King through his slave, the
person killed Or injured. But Captain Burton thinks that in reality the body of courtiers and ministers, if united, would be far more powerful than the King himself, and that he only reigns by their co-operation.
Captain Burton was present at the yearly customs of the King, and devotes a large portion of his work to a full description of these ceremonials, so long the subject of all kinds of exaggera- tion. The theory is that, on the death of a monarch, he must be supplied with attendants in the world of spirits, and "grand customs" are accordingly held. Every year his shadowy forces are recruited by less extensive customs. Instead, however, of the thousands of victims of which popular rumour spoke, it seems, according to Captain Burton, that thirty to eighty is the usual number at the yearly customs, and that they consist exclusively of criminal Dahomaus or captives, aud as quarter is not given in African wars it is only the deliberate nature of the massacre that gives it its real horror. Similar observances are common amongst all African kingdoms, but those of Dahome seem more than any other to have excited popular imagination by tales of canoes floating in blood and similar sensational inventions. Captain Burton gives long accounts of the customs of last year, at which he was present—with the exception of the "evil .nights," when the captives and criminals were actually executed.
The Amazons, also the subject of so much exaggeration, are thoroughly described. There still remains the fact that an organized force of women of great ferocity and enormous physique forms the bulk of the Dahoman army. The subject is not a pleasant one, but Captain Burton has at least taken more pains to be ace-grate in his account of the nature and characteristics of the force than any other writer. His work is a useful addition to
our knowledge of native Africa, more especially as it is far from improbable, according to his own expressed belief, that the last repulse from Abookuta will prove the-death-hi() a. of Dolicane, and that before many years the Dahoman power may be entirely broken up, and all opportunities lost of studying one of the most characteristic and powerful of negro kingdoms.
It would be really useful to Captain Burton's readers if either he or some authorized iuterpret:r would appoud to all his works a glossary of " Burtonese." Putting aside the recognized techni- calities of anthropology with which his books, perhaps necessarily, abound, we select the following words from many others equally astounding in the volumes before us :—" Asoinatous," "fight- cress," " dovanced," " bibacity," " melanous," " bayonetteeress," " remarkabilia." We quite agree with Captain Burton's argu- ment that no one language can supply all desirable shades of expression, but what justification can that be for such a barbarism as ‘. fighteress " or such a mere affectation as " melanous ?"
Previous page
