A Narrow Escape 
could first get through a high circle of thorns 
and kill a helpless prisoner tied to a stake. 
Though their limbs were shockingly torn by the 
spikes, they thought it excellent sport. I was 
also informed that when one of them sneeringly 
said to another, “You are nothing but a man,” 
only the death of one or the other could settle 
the difficulty. All that I heard about them tended 
to convince me that they were past human feel¬ 
ing and that the shedding of human blood was 
their chief delight. 
When the Egbars united with the English in 
breaking up the slave trade, the Dahomian king 
came with a large army, including 7,000 am¬ 
azons, to destroy Abeokuta. They stormed the 
city with great fury but received a bloody re¬ 
pulse, leaving from eight to ten thousand of their 
bravest warriors under the walls. From that 
time until the time of my coming to Abeokuta, 
the king of Dahomey had been vowing venge¬ 
ance against the people who had shown that 
he was not invincible. The amazons especially 
were eager for revenge. He had entered into an 
alliance with Ogumulla and had agreed to attack 
Abeokuta at the same time that the latter attacked 
Ejahyay, but for some reason this covenant was 
broken. He came within a hundred miles of 
229 
