Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/324

 by the authorities. In stormy weather the roadstead is unsafe, as is evident from the wreckage constantly strewn along the beach.

On the route to Agbomey the first station is Savi (Xavier), former capital of the kingdom of Whydah, whose sovereign was said at one time to command two hundred thousand troops. Beyond Savi the route passes by Tolli, and Allada, the ancient Adara, also formerly the capital of a state, and still regarded as the metropolis of Dahomey, one of the royal titles being "Lord of Allada." Yet the place was ruined by the Dahomey people themselves in 1724, when they conquered the seaboard route and massacred the inhabitants of Allada.

The natural limit which formerly separated the states of Allada and Dahomey is the extensive swamp of Ko, or Lama, easily traversed in the fine season, but almost impassable during the rains. In 1784, the most difficult points were bridged and the road partly raised, but soon again subsided. North of Ko begins the true continental coastline, and here, on a terrace over 1,000 feet above the sea-level, but easily accessible from the south, stands Abomey (Agbomey), capital of Dahomey, a "City within an enclosure," as the name signifies, with monumental gates, deep ditches, and a thick-set wall of thorny trees. Abomey covers an extensive area, but most of the enclosed space consists of gardens and ruins, while the aggregate of huts called the palace is alone two miles in circuit. The wall of this residence was formerly stuck all round with human heads or skulls, eloquent witnesses of the royal power. But the Minister of Portugal, the protecting state, no longer tolerates the massacres till recently required by custom, and nothing is now seen except the iron spikes on which once stood the hideous trophies.

The population of Abomey varies with the migrations of the court between the official capital and Kana (formerly Kana-Mina, or Calmina), a summer residence, lying in a fever-stricken depression between the hills, and resembling a rural district dotted over with houses, rather than a city in the proper sense of the term.