VI 
AN AFRICAN DESPOT. 
The character and history of Kumee, chief of 
Ejahyay, were singularly remarkable. He had 
been honored by the king of Yoruba with the 
title Areh, and by this name only was he known 
among his people, and by this name alone I 
shall call him in future. He was haughty, des¬ 
potic, ambitious and cruel, yet he was just such a 
ruler as these people needed to keep them in 
order; for he was also firm, just and reasonable 
on most occasions. I never saw better order 
anywhere than 1 saw in Ejahyay while Areh was 
its ruler. But he was a bloody usurper. When 
he was a young man, he was a notorious free¬ 
booter and slave hunter. With a number of fol¬ 
lowers, who had attached themselves to his for¬ 
tunes, he would go out from Ejahyay into some 
distant province on predatory excursions. By 
kidnapping in the farms and by plundering cara¬ 
vans he became rich and powerful and the leader 
of a party which favored his ambition to become 
the ruler of the city. So one night, with a num¬ 
ber of his most daring and reckless adherents, he 
53 
