Benin: The City of Blood

About the middle of January 1897, England was startled by the news that an expedition of English officials in the territory of Benin, in northern or almost in Equatorial Africa, had ended in the capture or the massacre of nearly all the members of the force, British and native. Later news were a little, just a little, more satisfactory. Some two or three Englishmen and a very few natives had escaped. But the bulk of the force was undoubtedly captured or massacred, and capture and massacre would in that case certainly be synonymous terms.

The King of Benin is one of the savage sovereigns who might have been the horror of a boy's story-book. He, who is a fetish-worshipper, still keeps up the practice of human sacrifice, and his capital town, Benin, is commonly known as the 'city of blood.' The territory of Benin is near the Gold Coast and Dahomey, and is washed by that stretch of the sea which is called the Bight of Benin. 'Bight' is a word taken from (he Anglo-Saxon which signifies a bend, or round, of any kind which is soft, spreading, and gradual—signifies amongst other things a woman's breast—and is not geographically or otherwise any sharp or sudden indentation. The English occupation of the Niger Coast Protectorate brought on some hope of dealing on fair terms of trade with the murderous savage who is called the sovereign of Benin.