MISSIONARY,--HIS FIDELITY TO THE CHURCH PURCHASED
BY WHITE WIFE.--DECLINE OF RELIGION.--INTRODUCTION OF
SLAVERY.--SUPPRESSION OF THE TRADE BY THE ENGLISH
GOVERNMENT.--RESTORATION AND PEACE.

DAHOMEY: ITS LOCATION.--ORIGIN OF THE KINGDOM.--MEANING OF
THE NAME.--WAR.--CAPTURE OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNOR, AND HIS
DEATH.--THE MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT.--WOMEN AS
SOLDIERS.--WARS AND THEIR OBJECTS.--HUMAN SACRIFICE.--THE
KING A DESPOT.--HIS POWERS.--HIS WIVES.--POLYGAMY.--KINGLY
SUCCESSION.--CORONATION.--CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LAW.--REVENUE
SYSTEM.--ITS FUTURE.

YORUBA: ITS LOCATION.--SLAVERY AND ITS ABOLITION.--GROWTH OF
THE PEOPLE OF ABEOKUTA.--MISSIONARIES AND TEACHERS FROM
SIERRA LEONE.--PROSPERITY AND PEACE ATTEND THE
PEOPLE.--CAPACITY OF THE PEOPLE FOR CIVILIZATION.--BISHOP
CROWTHER.--HIS INFLUENCE.

BENIN.

The vast territory stretching from the Volta River on the west to the
Niger in the Gulf of Benin on the east, the Atlantic Ocean on the
south, and the Kong Mountains on the north, embraces the three
powerful Negro kingdoms of Benin, Dahomey, and Yoruba. From this
country, more than from any other part of Africa, were the people sold
into American slavery. Two or three hundred years ago there were
several very powerful Negro empires in Western Africa. They had social
and political government, and were certainly a very orderly people.
But in 1485 Alfonso de Aviro, a Portuguese, discovered Benin, the most
easterly province; and as an almost immediate result the slave-trade
was begun. It is rather strange, too, in the face of the fact, that,
when De Aviro returned to the court of Portugal, an ambassador from
the Negro king of Benin accompanied him for the purpose of requesting
the presence of Christian missionaries among this people. Portugal
became interested, and despatched Fernando Po to the Gulf of Benin;
who, after discovering the island that bears his name, ascended the
Benin River to Gaton, where he located a Portuguese colony. The Romish
Church lifted her standard here. The brothers of the Society of Jesus,
if they did not convert the king, certainly had him in a humor to
bring all of his regal powers to bear upon his subjects to turn them
into the Catholic Church. He actually took the contract to turn his
subjects over to this Church! But this shrewd savage did not agree to
undertake this herculean task for nothing. He wanted a white wife.