embarked in war merely for the sake of procuring wherewithal to purchase
your commodities. I, who have not been long master of this country, have
without thinking of the market, killed many thousands, and I shall kill
many thousands more. When policy or justice requires that men be put to
death, neither silk, nor coral, nor brandy, nor cowries, can be accepted
as substitutes for the blood that ought to be spilt for example sake:
besides if white men chuse to remain at home, and no longer visit this
country for the same purpose that has usually brought them thither, will
black men cease to make war? I answer, by no means, and if there be no
ships to receive their captives, what will become of them? I answer, for
you, they will be put to death. Perhaps you may be asked, how will the
blacks be punished with guns and powder? I reply by another question, had
we not clubs, and bows, and arrows before we knew white men? Did not you
see me make _custom_--annual ceremony--for Weebaigah, the third king of
Dahomey? And did you not observe on the day such ceremony was performing,
that I carried a bow in my hand, and a quiver filled with arrows on my
back? These were the emblems of the times; when, with such weapons, that
brave ancestor fought and conquered all his neighbors. God made war for
all the world; and every kingdom, large or small, has practiced it, more
or less, though perhaps in a manner unlike, and upon different principles.
Did Weebaigah sell slaves? No; his prisoners were all killed to a man.
What else could he have done with them? Was he to let them remain in this
country to cut the throats of his subjects? This would have been wretched
policy indeed; which, had it been adopted, the Dahoman name would have
long ago been extinguished, instead of becoming as it is at this day, the
terror of surrounding nations. What hurts me most is, that some of your
people have maliciously misrepresented us in books, which never die;
alledging that we sell our wives and children for the sake of procuring a
few kegs of brandy. No! We are shamefully belied, and I hope you will
contradict, from my mouth, the scandalous stories that have been