THE FRENCH AND DAHOMEY.
IN spite of official assurances that nothing serious is contemplated or likely to take place in Dahomey, we very much fear that the French Government, without knowing it, may be on the eve of an African Tonquin. M. Barbey, the Minister of Marine, says that there is no idea of undertaking a campaign on a large scale in Dahomey ; but that is begging the question. If an ex- pedition is undertaken at all, it will not be the French Government who will decide whether it is to be large or small, quickly over or indefinitely prolonged. These are matters utterly beyond the power of a Paris secretariat to calculate, and depend, not upon the will of M. Barbey or M. de Freycinet, but upon the fighting-power of the four thousand black virgins of King " Shark " of Dahomey, and the degree of success with which the lads of the French Army can be got to stand the climate of a region where -every night a thick pall of white mist, heavy with fever and death, descends upon the land. We do not believe 'that M. Ferry ever imagined that the Tonquin affair was going to be more than a scuffle with a few yellow-coloured men with pig-tails ; yet it ended in producing a war with China, costing many millions, dislocating the French military system for a year, and revolutionising the pros- pects of the party leaders. Nothing is more insidious than a contest with a savage enemy that lives inland, as do the Kings of Dahomey, who, guided by an instinct of true statesmanship, have always refused to occupy a coast-line that can be bombarded by gunboats. A wise tradition has been handed down forbidding the people to have anything to do with the sea, and in obedience to this, their rulers have never possessed a port of their own, but have contented themselves with reserving the right of embarkation for their goods, and the power to collect port dues. Thus, if the French intend to conquer the country, they will be forced to march upon Abomey, which is separated from the coast by a series of pestiferous marshes and lagoons. English- men have not forgotten how much a similar undertaking, accompanied throughout with extraordinary good-fortune, took out of their pockets ; and there is no reason to think that the difficulties to be encountered by the invaders will be less in the present case than in that of the Ashantee Expedition. Indeed, they would in all probability be far greater, for Koffi Kalcalli was not so able as is Koudo, or -" King Shark," as he is called by his people ; nor are the Ashantee troops at all equal to the four thousand well- armed Amazons and fifteen thousand male warriors who constitute the army of Dahomey. The French, then, will find Dahomey a hard nut to crack, and will, we feel sure, be utterly unable to confine their operations to narrow limits. War in the tropics cannot possibly be conducted on the cheap. Minute bands of whites are useless, and large bodies demand European comforts on a scale which soon empties the Treasury and produces Extraordinary Budgets. In writing in so pessimistic a strain as to the chances of France being able to conquer Dahomey without great sacri- fices, we must not for a moment be supposed to be jealous of French aggression in this direction, or to be desirous for selfish reasons that she should be frightened out of her designs of punishing King Shark. England has no concern whatever with Dahomey, and would be heartily glad to see a. country so barbarous reduced to civilisation. Whatever the latest observers may say in mitigation of the excesses regularly practised by its Kings, it is impossible to deny the hideous cruelty of the system of which they form a part. The " Customs," as they are called, are probably the most hideous rites now existing on the face of the earth, and the European Power which abolishes them will deserve well of mankind. When the King's army has raided a neigh- bouring State and captured a large number of prisoners, a certain proportion are set apart for execution, or rather sacrifice, and despatched at a great public function in the nature of an auto da fe, at which the whole nation assembles. A writer in the current number of the Nine- teenth Century, Mr. Crouch, declares that the victims die painlessly, and suffer little mental distress, because they laugh and show other signs of unconcern on the morning of the day of execution. But so did the prisoners in the French Revolution, and yet no one thinks this fact makes the Noyades and Fusillades any the less horrible. Because the bitterness passes as soon as death has become a matter of absolute certainty, we must not condone the offence of those who never show quarter. If, then, France takes Dahomey, and puts down the " customs," she will have done a real service to civilisation. We would, however, rather that France should let this service remain undone, than that her people should risk being exposed to the misery and humiliation which an unsuccessful expedi- tion in an unhealthy tropical country always produces. A new Tonquin is what all friends of France dread for her, and this is what she will find herself committed to if she enters upon hostile action with Dahomey without resolving to spend the necessary funds on sanitary arrange- ments. The Medical Department, and the appliances for obtaining water for keeping the food pure, and for pre- venting sunstroke from killing, cost more and require more attention than the fighting line, if they are properly provided for ; and it is here, we fear, that the French authorities will show themselves negligent. They never seem able to realise that the General must take as much pride in subduing fever, malaria, sunstroke, and bad water, as he does in beating the enemy. It was by paying the minutest attention to the health of his troops that Lord Napier of Magdala managed to penetrate the Abyssinian Highlands, and hunt Theodore down in his almost in- accessible fortress. If he had only thought of the fighting part of the expedition, he would never have reached Magdala.
The account of the recent occurrences in Dahomey given in the Nineteenth Century, shows that the French have plenty of valid excuses for attacking King Shark, if they care to avail themselves of them. Indeed, it is difficult to see how they will be able to maintain their influence on the West Coast unimpaired, if they do not undertake some sort of punitive expedition, so monstrous has been the con- duct of the native Sovereign. The chief point in dispute has reference to the French settlement at Kotonou, " the Lagoon of the Dead," a name derived from the fact that a former King of Dahomey threw a number of prisoners into its waters. In April, 1889, King Gelele, the father of the present Sovereign, demanded the withdrawal of France from this place, disavowing a treaty of 1868 under which they claimed its possession. The French, of course, refused, but they sent M. Bayol to try and negotiate the cession of these places. M. Bayol was, how- ever, unsuccessful. He was detained at Abomey, and was made a reluctant witness of the execution of two hundred prisoners. When he was allowed to return to the coast, he naturally enough desired to be revenged on Geleltl, and though that monarch soon died and was suc- ceeded by his son Benazin—the King Shark we have mentioned above—the feud was kept up. Benazin's first act was to seize twelve French traders and carry them off into the interior ; his next, to attempt the capture of the factories at Kotonou by force. The attack was, however, repulsed, though not without great difficulty, and the King then attempted to take Porto Novo, another French settle- ment, which was finally invested by a force of two thousand Amazons and four thousand men. Here, however, Benazin was again unsuccessful, and finally he fell back on his capital, making the recall of M. Bayol an excuse for a cessation of hostilities. The French then tried to make terms, and sent an emissary to Abomey with six thousand francs' worth of presents ; but without much result, owing partly to the character of their Ambassador, a Negro trader of no standing. Still anxious, however, to come to terms, they sent a certain M. Sicilian to Abomey to make what arrangements he could ; but again little success attended their efforts. Meantime, however, the garrison had been withdrawn from Kotonou. But, naturally enough, the effect of placing the factories at the mercy of the King of Dahomey was to paralyse all trade ; and, therefore, yet another plan had to be adopted. Fresh troops were sent out, and it was determined there should be an attempt made to carry the war into the enemy's country, by marching three divisions from Whydah, Grand Popo, and Porto Novo, respectively. This seems, as far as can be gathered, the present in- tention of the French. What is likely to come of the attempt must remain a matter of doubt, but the diffi- culties that lie in the way of an advance are very great. They are thus summarised by Mr. Crouch :- " It is always difficult to predict the issue of a conflict, however insignificant ; but, if the French are bent on reaching Abomey and punishing the King in his own capital, they will find the task no easy one. Apart from the fighting-powers of the men-soldiers and Amazons, by no means to be despised even by European forces, Abomey is equally well protected by miles of un- healthy malarial district between it and the coast, and by the great Agrime swamp, which even in the dry season is very difficult to cross. The French may come to realise the difficulties of the task and abandon their project ; but if they are really in earnest, one of their most formidable opponents will prove to be this great natural barrier before the capital of Dahomey." If the French are to overcome these obstacles, they will have to spend four or five millions sterling. If they do not, they will be still more openly defied by the King of Dahomey. The prospect is not a pleasant one, looked at from any point of view, and we can only say again that the one thing we hope the French will not do is to make war on the cheap. They will find themselves, if they do, compelled to send so many conscripts, that the Republic will lose peasant votes by the hundred thousand.
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