You think you can work a reformation as you call it, in the manners of the blacks; but you ought to consider the disproportion between the magnitude of the two countries; and then you will soon be convinced of the difficulties that must be surmounted, to change the system of such a vast country as this.  We know you are a brave people, and that you might bring over a great many of the blacks to your opinions, by points of your bayonets; but to effect this, a great many must be put to death and numerous cruelties must be committed, which we do not find to have been the practice of the whites; besides, that this would militate against the very principle which is professed by those who wish to bring about a reformation.

In the name of my ancestors and myself, I aver, that no Dahoman ever 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 propagated;