THE DAHOMIANS.

THE Dahomians are amongst the most ferocious and bloodthirsty of modern heathen nations. A people that delight in war, they have for upwards of a hundred years been the scourge of the African tribes and territories around them. We have now lying before us a curious letter, addressed by TrudoAudato, King of Dahomey, to George II., in 1732, and sent to England by a Captain Lambe, who had been detained for some time as a prisoner at his court. In this he thus reckons up his warlike exploits—

My grandfather was no warrior, and only enlarged his dominions by conquering one kingdom; my father, nine; but my brother fought 79 battles, in which he subdued several petty kingdoms; and I myself have fought 209, in which I subdued many great kings and kingdoms. In my brother's reign the king of Weemia, and his army of several hundred thousands, were destroyed, myself being then head general. The king's head we have preserved to this day, with flesh and hair on; the heads of his generals we distinguished by giving them places on each side of the doors of our fetish houses; those of his captains have paved all before the doors; and the heads of the common soldiers we have set round the walls of the palace of our ancestors, as close as they can lie, being in circumference about three miles.

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