Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/117

 took the name of Abeokuta. These people early turned their attention to agriculture and manufacturing, and by steady increase in population, it soon became a city of great wealth and importance. About thirty years ago, a number of recaptives from Sierra Leone, who had formerly been taken from this region of country, and who had been recaptured by the English, liberated and educated, visited Lagos for trade. Here they met many of their old friends and relations from Abeokuta, learned of the flourishing town that had grown up, and with larger numbers returned to swell the population of the new city.

The King of Dahomey watched the growing power of Abeokuta with an evil eye, and in 1853, he set in motion a large army, with the view of destroying this growing city, and reducing its inhabitants to slavery. The King made a desperate attack and assault upon the place, but he met with a resistance that he little thought of. The engagement was carried on outside of the walls for several hours, when the Dahomian army was compelled to give way, and the King himself was saved only by the heroism and frantic manner in which he was defended by his Amazons. This success of the people of Abeokuta gave the place a reputation above what it had hitherto enjoyed, and no invading army has since appeared before its walls.

Much of the enterprise and improvement of these people is owing to the good management of Shodeke, their leader. Coming from all sections near the coast, and the line of the slave-traders, representing the remnants of one hundred and thirty towns, these people, in the beginning, were anything but united. Shodeke brought them together and made them feel as