Contending Princes do to this day frequently sacrifice with less honourable Views, if we may credit Captain Gulliver, who says, one King has lost his Life, another the Crown, only in a Contest about the primitive way of breaking Eggs.
I say this is not so over-marvellous; but when we come to the Carcases of these Men, how the Dahomes had made a Festival of their Flesh in the night, it swells to Incredibility. “Captain Snelgrave was not an Eye-witness of this indeed; he says, the Bodies lay a little while on the ground to drain the Blood, and then were carried by Slaves to a place nigh the Camp, and laid in a Heap; he saw two of these Heaps over night, containing he judged about 400, who had been chose out by the King that Morning, for Sacrifice. On the next Morning they were gone, and asking the Linguist what had become of them, he answered, the Vulturs (ravenous Birds very plentiful in the Country) had eaten them. Not satisfied with this Answer, (seeing nothing remain but Blood) we asked for the Bones, and then he confessed, the Priest had divided the Carcases among the People in the night, who had boiled and feasted on them, as holy Food; the Head is for the King, (continues the Linguist) the Blood for the Fetish, and the Body for the common People.”
I make no doubt of the truth of this Relation, and yet think the Circumstances not conclusive enough, to charge the Dahomes as Anthropophagites.
1. Because the truth depends too much on the Linguist, (Butteno, a Negro of Mr. Lamb’s, brought up at the Factory) how well he knew to render the Language to our Ideas: and to his Veracity and his Courage. He might think with his Country-men that it was their best Excuse to the white People, for that cowardly and ignominious Flight of Thousands from 200 of the Dahomes at Sabbee (the Whydah’s head City) where, instead of eating them, they pretended a Fright of being eat, and with the King, took precipitately to their heels, deserting in a shameful manner their Country: and makes something like the Story of our Saracens Heads of old; when the English had been threshed heartily for their silly Croisade, they represented their Adversaries thus large, to insinuate none but Monsters or Devils could have done it. However the Linguist tells his Masters first, that the Vulturs had eaten those Bodies, but perceiving them diffident of this, and prone to another Persuasion (which, by the way, is some excuse for him) he tells them frankly, that the People had eaten them in the night, &c. The Bones, which were wanting, and that had drawn this Secret from him, are to me a Confirmation that they were buried. Otherways, as these Cormorants could not chew or digest them, they should have been found strewed somewhere, as the Roads were in his Journey: The Fellow might also in his turn propose some advantage in this Belief; for Captain Snelgrave tells us, he met with great Impositions and Cheats at his return to Jaqueen, by the Lord there, and others in Trade, notwithstanding the kind Reception he had met with at Camp, and that King’s Charge to the contrary.
2. A Portuguese who resided there, that spoke their Language, and which is very remarkable, had married a woolly white Woman born of black Parents, who had never seen any other Colour: this Gentleman talked highly of the King’s Policy and Generosity, that his Sacrifices were a Proof of it; that he was just, strictly obeyed, and never eat any human Flesh. If so, according to my way of thinking, he would hinder so barbarous a Custom in others his Subjects; or it would be a Contradiction to his Character, a Sufferance being the same, as doing it himself.
3. If the Sacrifices were designed for eating, one would think they should have been all young People, not thrown in a Heap, which is an Objection to their spending well; and now and then I should have expected they would have been prompted by Novelty to have tasted a white Man: but it is the King’s Character of being far from barbarous, and of delicate Wit and Policy: Lamb lived three years and a half with them, and never was eat.
4. If Men were thus eat, and liked by a Nation, there would be less occasion and Inclination to sell them us for Slaves; they at least must lose a Breakfast by it now and then; and it would fall heavier on such Captives they had made their Servants, (for some were made so at the same time the others were sacrificed) who I am in some doubt whether they would wait tamely for the turn of having their Throats cut. This Man-Eating therefore probably might be an Imposition on the Credulity of the Whites; as the Persuasion amongst some of them is, that they are bought by us to fat and eat: the Belief in my opinion is equally grounded. Theirs (if any) is better; for the next Cruelty to buying human Flesh, one would naturally think, should be to eat it; especially with Negroes, who cannot conceive how their Labour can be used, that want so little for their own support.
5. Some Places reported on the Coast to be Men-Eaters are by latest Accounts much doubted, if not contradicted. At Loango they are found with better Manners, and mixed with Portuguese. At Cape St. Mary’s, the Starboard Entrance of the River Gambia, generally said to be Men-Eaters, were found by our Boat’s Crew as civilized as any People on the whole Coast, tho’ their Number exposed them an easy Prey. To this we may add, that all Negroland, by the Observations I could make, are very abstemious of Flesh in comparison of us; they have very few tame Creatures (Kid, Sheep, Kine, &c.) among them; their Country is mostly Woods cleared away a little at their Cooms, to sow as much Indian Corn and Rice as they imagine will serve them; which, with Banana’s, Plantanes, Palm-Nuts, Pine-Apples, and now and then a little stinking Fish, or a Fowl, is the chief of their Diet.
6. As Slave-Cargoes are a Compound of different Nations, it is more than probable they are mixed from these Men-eating Countries; and therefore on their rising and murdering a Ship’s Company, they would have shewn us e’er now a Precedent, especially those who believed we were to eat them.