34 BAEBAROUS KINGDOMS. 



A chain of European forts were erected along nearly the entire 

 coast, but with the abandonment of the slave-trade by Great 

 Britain, and the vigorous measures against it, the territory 

 passed into the possession of a number of petty states, many of 

 which compose aristocratic republics, turbulent, restless, licen- 

 tious, and rendered more depraved by their intercourse with 

 Europeans. But a little inland there are found in this tract 

 several powerful and well-organized kingdoms. Conspicuous 

 among them is Dahomey, one of the strangest kingdoms on the 

 face of the earth. A kingdom which was begun in blood and 

 cruelty, and which has maintained its existence for more than 

 two centuries in spite of the terrible scenes continually enacted 

 — scenes which would drive almost any other nation to revolt — 

 there, almost under the shadow of Christian mission stations, are 

 still enacted the bloody dramas of human sacrifices. Human 

 skulls are drin king-cups. And the horrid brutalities of the king 

 at home and the fiendish invasions of neighboring states are sus- 

 tained by a dreadful army of Amazons, finding a Satanic solace 

 for the enforced sacrifices of their celibate state in bloodiest 

 deeds. There, too, are the Ashantees. hardly better than the 

 Dahomey. South of Dahomey, just above the equator, in 

 Lower Guinea, are the Fans — the cannibals of Du Chaillu and 

 Mr. Reade, whose horrid barbarism shocks the bluntest sensi- 

 bilities in civilized lands. A land where even the grave affords 

 no security from the unnatural gluttony. A people " who bar- 

 ter their dead among themselves ; " the rivals of the Niam- 

 Niam in those orgies and wild dances on which Dr. Schwein- 

 furth has cast such vivid light. Along the same tract, a little 

 back from the coast, are the Ashira, the Cam ma, and various 

 other tribes, whose strange customs enrich the volumes of Du 

 Chailln. There, too, is the famous "Ashango Land." 



Brighter spots are seen in the midst of the darkness : the 

 light of Christianity is established at various points along the 

 coast; and colonization enterprises have, taken a hold which 

 promise grand results in time. 



Leaving the Avestern coast, we approach the Cape of Good 

 Hope, about which the contending oceans meet with a rage 

 which appalled the stout heart of Diaz ; whose peaceful name 

 is a memento of the bold spirit of the king who could foresee 

 in its discovery the grander attainments of the future. 



