In Number 14 of The Great Round World, we spoke of the massacre of a number of white men in Africa by the King of Benin. We told how the Queen of England had ordered her soldiers to punish the African king for his cruelty.
News has just come that the soldiers sent by England have captured Benin City, and that its king, Drunami, is fleeing before his angry foes.
A part of the soldiers remained in Benin to hold the city, and the rest went in pursuit of the king. They expect to take him prisoner, and if they succeed in doing so, they will keep him a captive, to prevent any more of his cruel outbreaks.
The English must be very glad to have Benin in their possession, because the king used to send out parties of his warriors to lay waste all the country round about the city. He would attack and capture the trading parties carrying ivory to the coast, and would bring the traders back within the walls of Benin, to torture and kill them in cruel and savage ways.
His city was so strongly fortified that none of the surrounding tribes dared to attack it, and he had things pretty much his own way.
So sure was he of the strength of his walls, and the cleverness of his warriors, that he laughed at the idea of the Queen of England punishing him for his wicked deeds, and waited for the soldiers to come to Benin, expecting to be able to make very short work of them.
Now, however, he has learned that there are greater and more powerful monarchs than the King of Benin, and that his boasted stronghold was of no account when attacked by a clever foe. Obliged to flee for his life, leaving his city in ruins behind him, Drunami, King of Benin, is learning that he is not so great or powerful as he thought he was. It will probably be a very useful lesson to him, and make him a better man.
A very curious law case has just come to an end in France.