[58] Physical History of Mankind, vol. ii. pp. 45, 46.

CHAPTER IV.

NEGRO KINGDOMS OF AFRICA.

     BENIN:  ITS LOCATION.—­ITS DISCOVERY BY THE
     PORTUGUESE.—­INTRODUCTION OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION.—­THE
     KING AS A 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.  He told the missionaries that he would deliver his subjects to Christianity