dressed in a silk night-gown. Having bowed to him, I was directed to a chair, where some slaves were ready to hold a large umbrella over me. The king was attended by his great officers of state, and the parade crowded with a multitude of the populace. Soon after I was seated, the music, which besides trumpets, flutes, and beils, consisted chiefly of a multitude of drums of various sizes, began to play, and a numerous crowd danced to this harmony. When one band was tired, they were relieved by another, and these by two more. After some time, tables were spread with abundance of good victuals, at one of which I dined. Adahunzu, the king's eldest son, and heir apparent, who knew me on former visits here, squatted down behind my chair, and condescended to receive a roasted fowl, and some other things, which I handed to him from my table. But the king never eats in public; it is even criminal to suppose he ever eats at all, or that he is much like other mortals, as to want the refreshment of sleep. When the repast was over, the music was renewed; and the king advanced into the parade, followed by a guard of twenty-four women, armed each with a blunderbuss, where he danced for some time, to convince his subjects of his health and activity, to their inexpressible joy and satisfaction, which they manifested in the loudest acclamations. He then testified his approbation of the performance of the musicians, by rewarding them with eighty ounces of cowries, (£160) which were brought in by three hundred and twenty of his wives, each carrying four thousand of them, in a brass pan, which they distributed to the drummers, who departed highly satisfied; and I also took my leave, and departed.

February 9th.-On my arrival this morning at Gringhomy house, I found a quantity of people assembled. I was received by the Mayhou, who conducted me to a spacious parade. On each side of the entrance were three human heads, that had been cut off the night before, and in the centre was erected a lofty tent or large umbrella, shaped like a sugar-loaf, about fifty feet high, and forty feet wide; it was open below, and rested on a circular range of iron rails, through which the king would have a view of what passed in the parade. He soon made his appearance, and seated himself amidst the acclamations of the people, under his tent, on an elegant arm-chair, covered with crimson velvet, and ornamented with carving and gilding. I was placed under the shade of a large umbrella, and on my left about thirty eunuchs, with each a bright iron rod in his hand, and dressed like women. After the music had played about half an hour, with the confused noise of which, and the shouts and songs of the multitude, I was almost stunned, a droll harlequin entered, who entertained the king with an odd sort of dance, and fired occasionally a blunderbuss with five barrels, which gave the king so much satisfaction, that he sent him five cabess of cowries, or fifty shillings.

The procession then began with a guard of a hundred and twenty men, carrying blunderbusses, who marched out two abreast: next, fifteen of the king's daughters, fine comely women, in the prime of life, attended by fifty female slaves; after them marched, in regular order, one by one, seven hundred and thirty of his wives bearing provisions and liquors for an entertainment in the market-place; these were followed by ninety women under arms, with drums beating. A table was then laid, and I breakfasted while the procession continued. Six troops advanced, each consisting of seventy women, with a distinguished favourite, walking under an umbrella, at its head. She who led the van, was held by the king and her attendants as too sacred to be seen, so that they secured her effectually from my sight with the umbrella, and certain targets of leather, covered with red and blue taffeta, with which

they encompassed her. In the last troop were two umbrellas, and five favourites, very fine women, who are said to be in higher esteem with the king than any, except the lady before mentioned. All these entertained the king with their songs and dances as they passed: and the favourites went into the tent to pay their respects, and received considerable presents of cowries from him.

The women were succeeded by ten bands of his younger children, fifteen in each, from about seven to fifteen years old, each band consisting of those that were nearly of the same age and size. Seven troops of fifty women each followed next, each troop preceded by two English flags; these, like the former, amused his majesty with their songs and droll dances. Four of them particularly engaged my attention; their dress was too extravagant to be described; each had a long tail fixed to her rump, which seemed to be a slip of leopard's skin, sewed up and stuffed, which, by a dexterous wriggle of her hips, she whirled round like a sling with surprising velocity: these likewise had a share of their master's bounty, and marched off loaded with cowries. Besides these, there were fifty or sixty women employed about the king's person, going on messages, and distributing presents, which he dealt about him with a liberal hand.

When the women had marched out, the eunuchs began their songs in the king's praise, enumerating his titles, and proclaiming his grandeur and actions in terms of the most fulsome adulation, which continued until the women had made the necessary preparations for him in the market-place. Then the king retired, and the procession began in the following order :-First, two coaches, drawn by twelve men each; next the sedan-chair, then three hammocks, screened from the sun by large sumptuous umbrellas of gold and silver tissue, and covered with canopies of the same; each of these was surrounded by a very strong guard, and the king was in one of them; but whether in coach, chair, or hammock, would have been presumptuous, even criminal, for any of the attendants to guess. My hammock followed, and then five other hammocks, belonging to the great officers of state, accompanied by an immense crowd of attendants and spectators.

We then proceeded in this manner to Ajawhee market, directly under five gibbets, with a man hanging on each, as described before, who had been murdered the preceding night for that purpose. We then entered a large parade, enclosed with different kinds of cloth, extended on nails to keep off the populace. Adjoining one end of it, was a higher enclosure, of finer cloth, for the king. None came into the large parade, but the chief officers of state and their attendants, except myself and servants; and here I sat down to a dinner, which would have served a hundred more. After I had dined, the Tamegan and the other attacked the remainder; and the crowd without were so well supplied with victuals and brandy, that every one of them was fully satisfied.

In the evening I had permission to visit the king; and, having passed half an hour with him, I returned to my quarters, sufficiently tired with the noise and fatigue of the day. On my way I passed by the place where I had seen the seven men, and the like number of horses, tied two days before. They were now gone, and, I was told, had been murdered on the preceding night; but that none of them were those upon the gibbet, nor those whose heads were in the king's house.

Nothing material occurred on the three ensuing days, which I employed in purchasing some slaves and ivory; but on the 12th I was summoned again to court to attend another festival. Only four human heads were placed at the

king's door on this occasion. The dances and procession were nearly the same as before, except that the dresses of the women were far more showy. Besides, there was added another troop of forty women with silver helmets ; and there was a display of the king's furniture and trinkets, most of the women carrying something or other of his; some of them fine swords, and others silver-mounted guns; above a hundred of them held either gold or silver-headed canes in their hands; and that none might be unprovided, some carried candlesticks, or others lamps, perhaps fifty of each at least, and many other articles, which were held up for the gaping multitude to admire. We dined, as before, in the market-place; and in the evening when I went to wait on the king, a female dwarf was introduced to dance before him, in which she acquited herself very well: she seemed to be about thirty years old, and measured about two feet eleven inches high; was without any deformity, and tolerably well shaped. During this day's amusements, we were visited by an Harmattan, which, if described scientifically, would furnish a curious chapter in the history of winds.

As the business which brought me to Abomey, and which respected abuses practised by the carriers of goods, who, in bringing them from the beach to the factories in Grigwhee, pilfered considerable quantities of them, was in some measure effected, by the king's promising that he would take proper measures to prevent the like in future; I was now desirous to return, and acquainting the king with my intention to do so as soon as the Harmattan should cease, took my leave of him. This wind continued blowing fresh for two days longer, which detained us, as the weather was too disagreeable for travelling. In the interim, a great part of Dahomy-house took fire, which greatly endangered the whole of it. As soon as the hurry occasioned by it was over, I was induced to wait upon the king as a mark of respect. I observed, as I expected, some disorder and confusion in the house; several heads had been cut off, and lay scattered about, to the number of twenty at least; and I found the king much irritated against his women, who were accusing each other of carelessness, and each endeavouring to remove the blame of it from herself. It was probably not easy to ascertain how the accident happened; however, the king finding the wives' litigation difficult, and his displeasure somewhat appeased by the lives which he had taken away in the first impulse of his anger, he settled the business by selecting nineteen of them, whose residence was in the quarter where the fire broke out, and sold them to me for slaves. On the third day, the Harmattan ceased, and I prepared for my departure, previous to which the king sent me a fat sheep, an anker of brandy, and five cabees of cowries, towards defraying the expenses on the road, and a further present of a fine striped cotton cloth, and a handsome female slave.

I should have set off on my return to Whydah early in the morning of the 16th of February, which was the last day of the Annual Customs, on which the king distributed a profusion of presents among his people; but I was prevailed upon to remain till evening, at the request of my attendants, who hoped to pick up something in the scramble of the day. On this occasion, a large stage is erected near one of the palace gates, adorned with flags and umbrellas, and surrounded with a fence of thorns to keep off the rabble. On this are piled heaps of Silesias, checks, calicoes, and a variety of other European and Indian goods, with a great many fine cotton cloths, that are manufactured in the Eyeo country, and a prodigious quantity of cowries, When all is ready, the king comes upon the stages, accompanied by any of

the governors or captains that may be there; and attended by the Tamegan, Mayhou, and a few other of his head-men, to each of whom he gives, according to their rank, the choice of an Eyeo-cloth, and a string of coral beads. His subordinate officers are then called over from among the crowd below, and receive each a piece of cloth and some cowries, as a mark of their master's approbation and regard. The king then throws a bunch of cowries with his own hands among the crowd, on which the women begin to throw the remainder of the goods indiscriminately among the multitude; the white men, if they please, and the Tamegan assisting. And finally, as some cruelty must accompany all these exhibitions, a man tied neck and heels, an alligator muzzled, and a couple of pigeons, with their wings clipped, are thrown off the stage among the crowd, where a confusion, greater, if possible, than what has preceded it, ensues, in scrambling for the heads of each, to the great amusement of the king. Whoever are lucky enough to carry off the prizes, which consist of the heads of the victims, are each rewarded with a handsome present. This is the last human sacrifice at the Annual Customs, and is the part of the ceremony which the whites seldom stay to see performed; but, if report may be credited, the carcass of the human victim is almost wholly devoured, as all the mob below will have a taste of it.

I reached Agrimee, on the borders of the wood, that night; and after a few hours rest, rose before day, to get through the fatiguing part of the journey before the heat of the morning; not halting till I got to my old friend Jabrakou at Whybow, with whom I spent that day, and great part of the next, but could not stay to accompany him at a great buffalo-hunt for which he was preparing, I arrived at Ardra on the evening of the 17th of February, where an occurrence happened that might have terminated worse for us than it did. I had my hammock slung in the white men's apartment, adjoining the Mayhou's house; and the weather being very warm, the hammock-men, porters, &c. choose to spread their mats, and lie in the piazza, in the little court before it, in the open air. When we were all asleep, except the captain of the gang, who, after having taken a nap, was regaling himself with a pipe, a leopard leaped over the wall, walked over those who were sleeping in the court, and without waking them, seized the fat sheep which the king had given me, that was tied in the corner of the yard, and carried it off in an instant, over a wall eight feet high, before a man who saw it had time to get a shot at him.

ment.

The next day, February 18, 1772, I returned safe to my factory; and here my narrative should conclude; but that I am tempted to add a few circumstances that occurred in a subsequent journey to Dahomy. I had occasion to visit Abomey again in December, 1773. The king was then infirm, and sinking under years as well as disease; he was confined to his chamber, but, desiring to see me, gave me an opportunity of inspecting his private apartIt was a neat detached room for sleeping in, separated from the court in which it stood, by a wall about breast-high, the top of which was stuck full of human lower jaw-bones. The little area within it was paved with skulls; which I understood were those of neighbouring kings, and other persons of eminence and distinction, whom, having been taken prisoners in the course of his wars, he had placed them there, that he might literally enjoy the savage gratification of trampling on the heads of his enemies. He did not long survive this interview, but lingered on till the 17th of May, 1774, when he died, aged near seventy years, of which he had reigned about forty, and was succeeded by his son Adahunzu.

MAGNANIMOUS FEMALE.

The wife of Lepinai, a Vendean general, was imprisoned by Carriere in his infernal dungeons with a young female of Chatellerault, who was attached to her service as a waiting woman. One day the revolutionary agents entered the prison to assemble the victims whose turn it was to be sent on board the barques à soupape, in order to be drowned. The young female heard Madame Lepinai's name, and as her mistress was momentarily absent from her cell on account of indisposition, she answered to the call, presented herself to the assassins, devoted herself, and perished in the waters of the Loire.

VISION OF CHARLES XI. OF SWEDEN.

The following singular narration occurs in the Rev. J. T. James's Travels in Sweden, Prussia, Poland, &c. during the years 1813 and 1814.-The most marvellous part of the affair is, that, no less than six persons (the monarch inclusive) concur in attesting the reality of the pretended vision.

Charles XI., it seems, sitting in his chamber between the hours of eleven and twelve at night, was surprised at the appearance of a light in the window of the hall of the diet: he demanded of the grand chancellor, Bjelke, who was present, what he saw, and was answered that it was only the reflection of the moon; with this, however, he was dissatisfied; and the senator, Bjelke, soon after entering the room, he addressed the same question to him, but received the same answer. Looking afterwards again through the window, he thought he observed a crowd of persons in the hall; upon this, said he, "all is not as it should be-in the confidence that he who fears God need dread nothing, I will go and see what this may be." Ordering the two noblemen above-mentioned, as also Oxenstiern and Brabe, to accompany him, he sent for Grunsten the door-keeper, and descended the staircase leading to the hall. Here the party seemed so sensible of a certain degree of trepidation, and no one else daring to open the door, the king took the key, unlocked it, and entered first into the anti-chamber; and to their infinite surprise, it was fitted up with black cloth: alarmed at this extraordinary circumstance, a second pause occurred; at length the king set his foot within the hall, but fell back with astonishment at what he saw; again, however, taking courage, he made his companions promise to follow him, and advanced. The hall was lighted up and arrayed with the same mournful hanging as the anti-chamber: in the centre was a round table, where sat sixteen venerable men, each with large volumes lying open before them: above was the king, a young man of sixteen or eighteen years of age, with the crown on his head and sceptre in his hand. On his right hand sat a personage about forty years old, whose face bore the strongest marks of integrity; on his left an old man of seventy, who seemed very urgent with the young king that he should make a certain sign with his head, which as often as he did, the venerable men struck their hands on their books with violence.

"Turning my eyes," says the king, "a little further, I beheld a scaffold and executioners, and men with their clothes tucked up, cutting off heads one after the other so fast, that the blood formed a deluge on the floor: those who suffered were all young men. Again I looked up, and perceived the throne behind the great table almost overturned; near to it stood a man of