The Great Stain

by Noel Rae

  “Soon after my arrival at Joar, the king of Barsally came thither, attended by three of his brothers, above one hundred horsemen and as many foot; and though he had a house of his own in the town he insisted on lying out at the factory. Mr. Roberts, Mr. Harrison, who were factors, and I, were all the English there. The king immediately took possession of Mr. Robert’s bed; and then having drank brandy until he was drunk, ordered Mr. Roberts to be held while he himself took out of his pocket the keys of the storehouse, into which he and several of his people went, and took what they pleased. He searched chiefly for brandy, of which there happened to be but one anchor [a cask holding ten gallons]; he took that, and having drank till he was dead drunk, was put to bed. This anchor lasted him three days, and it was no sooner empty than he went all over the house to look for more.

  “This king, as well as his attendants, are of the Mahometan religion, notwithstanding their being such drunkards; and this monster, when he is sober, even prays. His people, as well as himself, always wear white clothes and white caps; and as they are exceeding black this dress makes them look exceeding well. This tyrant is tall, and so passionate that when any of his men affront him, he makes no scruple of shooting them; and sometimes when he goes aboard a company’s sloop at Cohone, where he usually resides, he inhumanly shows his dexterity by shooting at the canoes that pass by, frequently killing one or two men a day.”

  For thirty years following Captain Phillips’ visit, Whydah continued to prosper as a market-place for slaves brought down to the coast from the interior. “This trade,” wrote John Barbot, “was so very considerable that it is computed, while it was in a flourishing state, there were above twenty thousand Negroes yearly exported from thence, by the English, French, Dutch and Portuguese.” But this came to an end in 1727 when Whydah was attacked and devastated by the Dahomeys, a powerful inland kingdom.

  William Snelgrave, an English slaver, who arrived soon after the war, gave three reasons for the defeat. First, prosperity had made the people of Whydah “so proud, effeminate and luxurious” that they had lost their fighting spirit. Second, their present king was “indolent and lascivious, having in his court several thousands of women, by whom he was served in all capacities,” and “being thus softened by his pleasures he grew entirely negligent of his affairs.” And third, when the “politic and courageous” king of Dahomey, “a far inland prince, who for some years past had rendered himself famous by many victories gained over his neighbours,” sent a message to the king of Whydah “requesting to have an open traffic to the sea side, and offering to pay him his usual customs on Negroes exported,” his request was snubbed, an insult that the king of Dahomey “resolved to resent when opportunity offered.”

  This opportunity came when yet another local ruler, the king of neighboring Ardra, “much injured his own brother.” This brother then turned to the king of Dahomey for help in avenging his injury. Hearing of this, the king of Ardra sent a message to the king of Whydah proposing an alliance, but this was refused. “So, being obliged to encounter alone the king of Dahomey, he”—the king of Ardra—“met him with all the forces he could raise,” but “was totally defeated, and himself taken prisoner. Soon after which he was beheaded in his conqueror’s presence according to the barbarous custom of these black princes.”

  After this the king of Dahomey had no trouble in taking on and defeating the “proud, effeminate” Whydahs and their “indolent and lascivious” king. He had also been “so politic as to send to the Europeans then residing at Whydaw to assure them, if they stood neuter, and were not found in arms, they should receive no damage in their persons or goods in case he proved the conqueror; and that he would ease their trade and remove divers impositions laid on it by the king of Whydaw.”

  On his arrival at Whydah, Snelgrave heard from the merchants at the English factory “a full account of the great calamity fallen on the country. It was a lamentable story to hear, and a dismal sight to see, the desolation of so fine a country, lately exceeding populous, now destroyed in such a manner by fire and sword. The carnage of the inhabitants was, above all, a most moving spectacle, the fields being strewed with their bones. Moreover the concern for the interest of my voyage affected me not a little. But knowing it highly necessary to keep up my spirits in so hot a country, I resolved (humbly relying on Providence) not to be wanting in my endeavours for the interest I had under my care; and I met with far greater success than any way I could have reasonably expected, considering the melancholy prospect I had then of affairs.”

  This is how, with the help of Providence, Snelgrave achieved his commercial success: after sailing a few miles along the coast to a town in neighboring Ardra called Jaqueen, he was sought out by an English-speaking messenger from the king of Dahomey who invited him to the king’s camp, about forty miles inland. When Snelgrave hesitated, the messenger added “that if I did not go it would highly offend the king; that he feared I should not be permitted to trade, besides other bad consequences might follow.” So Snelgrave decided to go. A Dutch captain offered to go with him, “likewise the lord of Jaqueen offered to send his brother to pay his duty with great presents to the king.” Three days later they set off, accompanied by one hundred black servants. The white men and the lord of Jaqueen’s brother were carried in hammocks, “the usual way of traveling in this country for gentlemen either white or black.”

  The all-powerful king of Dahomey holds court. At his feet a supplicant grovels on the ground and pours earth over his head as a sign of abasement. To his left are seated some white men wearing three-cornered hats, undoubtedly slave traders. Behind him are members of his all-female bodyguard, known as the Ahosi (“king’s wives”). Women also formed one of Dahomey’s élite regiments.

  “The country as we travelled along appeared beautiful and pleasant, and the roads good; but desolated by the war, for we saw the remains of abundance of towns and villages with a great quantity of the late inhabitants’ bones strewed about the fields.” The next day, as they neared the camp, they stopped to change into their best clothes. Then the king, “to do us the more honour, sent the principal person of his court (whom the Negroes distinguished to us by the title of Great Captain) to receive us, which he did in a very extraordinary manner; for he came in the midst of five hundred soldiers who had fire-arms, drawn swords, shields and banners in their hands, using so many odd and ridiculous ceremonies (as they appeared to us) that at first we could not judge whether they meant us well or ill; for the Great Captain, with some of his officers, approached us with their swords drawn, flourishing them over our heads, then pointing them to our breasts, and skipping and jumping about us like so many monkeys, showing as many tricks and postures as that animal generally does. At last, after some time spent in this manner, the great man settled into a sedate temper; then he gave us his hand, welcoming us in the king’s name and drank to us in palm wine, which is a juice drawn from the palm-tree, which is very common in that country. We returned the compliment, drinking the king’s heath both in wine and beer we had brought with us; and all ceremonies being ended, he desired us to go with him towards the camp; and accordingly we proceeded, the soldiers guarding us, and the musical instruments making a dismal noise.”

  Most of those in the camp had come from far inland and had never seen a white man before, and “such numbers of people flocked about us that if the officers had not ordered the soldiers to keep the multitude off we should have been in danger of being smothered.” They were then shown into a thatched house and “the great man took his leave of us, but left a guard to prevent any of the people from disturbing us, and he went to the king to give his majesty an account of our arrival.” They lunched on “cold ham and fowls which we had brought with us,” but were plagued with “such an infinite number of flies that though we had several servants with flappers to keep them off our victuals, yet it was hardly possible to put a bit of meat into our mouths without some of those vermin with it. These flies, it seems, were bred by a great number of dead
men’s heads, which were piled on stages, not far from our tent, though we did not know so much at the time.” (Their interpreter later informed them that “they were the heads of four thousand of the Whydahs, who had been sacrificed by the Dahomeys to their god about three weeks before, as an acknowledgment of the great conquest they had obtained.”)

  “Next morning, at nine o’clock, an officer came from the king to acquaint us we should have an audience forthwith. Accordingly we prepared ourselves, and then going to the king’s gate were soon after introduced into his presence. His majesty was in a large court palisadoed round, sitting (contrary to the custom of the country) on a fine gilt chair, which he had taken from the king of Whydah. There were held over his head, by women, three large umbrellas to shade him from the sun; and four other women stood behind the chair of state, with fusils [guns] on their shoulders. I observed the women were finely dressed from the middle downward (the custom of the country being not to cover the body upward, of either sex); moreover they had on their arms many large manelloes, or rings of gold, of great value; and round their necks and in their hair abundance of their country’s jewels, which are a sort of beads of divers colours, brought from a far inland country where they are dug out of the earth, and in the same esteem with the Negroes as diamonds amongst the Europeans.

  “The king had a gown on flowered with gold, which reached as low as his ankles; an European embroidered hat on his head; with sandals on his feet. We being brought within ten yards of the chair of state were desired to stand still. The king then ordered the linguist to bid us welcome, on which we paid his majesty the respect of our hats, bowing our heads at the same time very low, as the interpreter directed us. Then I ordered the linguist to acquaint the king ‘that on his majesty’s sending to desire me to come to his camp I forthwith resolved on the journey, that I might have the pleasure of seeing so great and good a king, as I heard he was; relying entirely on the promises his messenger had made me in his majesty’s name.’ The king seemed well pleased with what I said and assured us of his protection and kind usage. Then chairs being brought we were desired to sit down, and the king drank our healths; and then liquor being brought us by his order, we drank his majesty’s. After this the interpreter told us ‘it was his majesty’s desire we should stay some time with him, to see the method of paying the soldiers for captives taken in war, and the heads of the slain.’

  “It so happened that in the evening of the day we came into the camp there were brought above eighteen hundred captives from a country called Tuffoe, at the distance of six days’ journey. The occasion of warring on them the linguist thus related: ‘That at the time his king was wholly employed in contriving the destruction of the Whydahs, these people had presumed to attack five hundred of his soldiers, sent by his majesty as a guard to twelve of his wives, who were going with a large quantity of goods and fine things, carried by slaves, to the country of Dahomey. The guard being routed and the women slain, the Tuffoes possessed themselves of the goods; for which outrage, as soon as the conquest of the Whydahs was completed, the king sent part of his army against them, to revenge him for their villainy; in which they had all desirable success.’ It was necessary to mention this affair for the better understanding of what follows, it being so very remarkable.

  “The king at the time we were present ordered the captive Tuffoes to be brought into the court; which being accordingly done, he chose himself a great number out of them to be sacrificed to his fetish, or guardian angel; the others being kept for slaves for his own use, or to be sold to the Europeans. There were proper officers who received the captives from the soldiers’ hands, and paid them the value of twenty shillings sterling for every man, in cowries (which is a shell brought from the East Indies and carried in large quantities to Whydah by the Europeans, being the current money of all the neighbouring countries far and near), and ten shillings for a woman, boy, or girl. There were likewise brought by the soldiers some thousands of dead people’s heads into the court; every soldier, as he had success, bringing in his hand one, two, three or more heads hanging on a string; and as the proper officers received them they paid the soldiers five shillings for each head. Then several people carried them away in order to be thrown on a great heap of other heads that lay near the camp, the linguist telling us that his majesty designs to build a monument with them and the heads of other enemies formerly conquered and killed.”

  According to Snelgrave, though he never actually witnessed such an event, the decapitated bodies were then eaten as “holy food”—as the interpreter put it, “the head of the victim was for the king; the blood for the fetish, or god; and the body for the common people.” In addition to its religious importance, this practice seems to have been an effective military tactic, for “discoursing afterwards with some of the people of Ardra and Whydah, who had escaped the conqueror’s sword, and telling them what a reproach and disgrace it was to the latter nation to quit their country to the Dahomeys in so cowardly a manner as they had done; they answered it was not possible to resist such cannibals, the very report of which had extremely intimidated their whole nation …The thoughts of being eaten by their own species were far more terrible to them than the apprehensions of being killed.’”

  As a trader, Snelgrave deplored such waste, observing to an officer in the Dahomey army “that I wondered they should sacrifice so many people of whom they might otherwise make good advantage by selling them.” To this the officer replied that “it had ever been the custom of their nation, after any conquest, to offer to their god a certain number of captives, which were always chosen out from among the prisoners by the king himself; for they firmly believed, should this be omitted, no more successes would attend them.”

  Not long afterward Snelgrave had another audience with the king, who this time “was sitting cross-legged on a carpet of silk spread on the ground.” Through the interpreter the king asked “‘What I had to desire of him?’ To which I answered, ‘That as my business was to trade, so I relied on his majesty’s goodness to give me a quick dispatch, and fill my ship with Negroes; by which means I should return into my own country in a short time, where I should make it known how great and powerful a king I had seen.’ To this the king replied by the linguist ‘That my desire should be fulfilled, but the first business to be settled was his customs.’”

  Most slaves were branded at least twice: first when bought in Africa, with a mark such as DY, for Duke of York, patron of the Royal African Company, and again when re-sold on arrival. Brands for identification were made on the shoulder or chest, brands for punishment on the hands or face.

  After negotiating a favorable customs rate (half that formerly charged by the king of Whydah), Snelgrave and his companions were given leave to return to the coast, which they did as soon as they could—“our hammock-men had no need of being pressed to make haste and travel fast, for the impression made on their minds by the sacrificing the poor people of Tuffoe still so much affected them that they ran full speed with us, even beyond their strength; so that by five o’clock in the evening they brought us into Jaqueen Town, where the people received us with much joy, having been under great apprehensions for our safety.

  “The next day, being the 15th of April, 1727, I paid the King of Dahomey’s officers the custom agreed on; and in two days after a great many slaves came to town, being sent by his majesty for me to choose such as I liked of them.” It took a while to complete his business—“the porters refused to bring my goods from the sea-side except I would pay them double the price I did at my first coming.” Also, “I was taken ill of a fever; my surgeon, a very eminent man for trade as well as his profession, died in a few days after my being taken ill; and the rainy season coming on, my white people both on board and on shore grew sickly.” No less provokingly, the captain of another ship decided not to come to Jaqueen but to trade instead at war-ravaged Whydah, “where he had great success; for that people being in a starving condition, and obliged to sell their servants and children fo
r money and goods to buy food from their neighbours of Popoe, his ship was soon filled with Negroes, and he had the good fortune to sail from the coast three days before me.” But at length his cargo was complete and “I got on board to my great satisfaction, having through the goodness of Providence completed my affairs much beyond my expectation. The first of July, 1727, we sailed from the road of Jaqueen, having on board 600 Negroes. I had a tedious passage to the West-Indies of seventeen weeks … but at length we arrived at Antigua, where the cargo of Negroes (who had stood very well) came to a good market; and having lain there for a cargo of sugars, we sailed from thence at the latter end of February, and got safe into the river of Thames the 25th of April, 1728, having been sixteen months on this remarkable voyage.”

  Later in his memoirs Snelgrave acknowledged that “several objections have often been raised against the lawfulness of this trade” and that “to traffick in human creatures may, at first sight, appear barbarous, inhuman and unnatural.” But closer inspection would put matters in their true light:

  “First, it is evident that abundance of captives in war would be inhumanly destroyed was there not an opportunity of disposing of them to the Europeans. So that at least many lives are saved, and great numbers of useful persons kept in being.

  “Secondly, when they are carried to the plantations, they generally live much better there than they ever did in their own country; for as the planters pay a great price for them, ‘tis their interest to take care of them.