IntroductionFootnote 1
The rise of the state of Dahomey in the first quarter of the eighteenth century was a watershed event in the political history of precolonial West Africa. Fueled by desire for direct access to the ever increasing volume of European trade goods on the coast, King Agaja (d. 1740) founded a modern military state and developed an expansionist policy that was more aggressive than its predecessors.Footnote 2 In essence, war was the function of the state and no polity in the region asserted its authority more prominently than Dahomey under King Agaja. Dahomey imperialism and European designs for the slave trade in the Bight of Benin “worked together with remarkable synergy” throughout much of the eighteenth-century Atlantic world.Footnote 3 With each transaction that transferred captive Africans into the hands of traders and ship captains, imperial power brokers like King Agaja united with Europeans in a pact which gave birth to an empire of capital. The repercussions would reverberate loudest within local African communities but the screams could also be heard echoing in the darkest corners and farthest flung regions of the Atlantic world.
The conquest of Whydah by the Dahomians in March 1727 has received much attention from historians of precolonial state formation in West Africa and scholars interested in the operation of the transatlantic slave trade.Footnote 4 The first chronicler to give an extended account of the kingdom of Dahomey and King Agaja’s exploits was William Snelgrave, an English slave ship captain, who published in 1734 A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea, and the Slave Trade.Footnote 5 As an expert on the nature of cultural and economic exchange between Europeans and West Africans, Snelgrave was more than capable of publishing an account of Dahomey. For thirty years, from 1701 to 1730, Snelgrave practically lived at sea; he was the ship captain of fourteen voyages to West Africa (an unprecedented total for the period) that carried some 5,000 captive Africans to the Americas.Footnote 6 Snelgrave traded with the Dutch at El Mina, the Danish at Accra, the French and Portuguese at Whydah and often sold much-needed supplies to employees of the Royal African Company (RAC) at Gambia and Cape Coast Castle.Footnote 7 In the last decade of his career from 1720–1730, Snelgrave was a frequent visitor at many of the trading factories on the Gold Coast and at Whydah.
Why is Snelgrave’s New Account significant? To be sure, Snelgrave’s depiction of Whydah and the slave trade was not the first European account of its kind. Portuguese explorers arrived in West Africa in the fifteenth century followed by the Dutch, French, and English.Footnote 8 Accounts by Olfert Dapper, Jean Barbot, William Bosman, and Jean Baptiste Labat among others describe with vivid detail the social, political, and cultural rhythms of life in the region.Footnote 9 However, Snelgrave’s lengthy, near obsessive, account of Dahomey ritual human sacrifice stands out from other European works on the Slave Coast.Footnote 10 Snelgrave exploited Dahomean cultural and religious practices of human sacrifice for polemical purposes by associating the sacred rituals with a defense of the morality of the slave trade.Footnote 11 Anti-abolitionist writers throughout the eighteenth-century, recycled Snelgrave’s argument that captives taken in “War, would be inhumanly destroyed, was there not an Opportunity of disposing of them to the Europeans. So that at least many Lives are saved, and great Numbers of useful Persons kept” to labor on British Caribbean plantations.Footnote 12 In 1735, former Royal Navy surgeon, John Atkins published an account of his adventures in West Africa.Footnote 13 Atkins was an opponent of the slave trade and published his account explicitly to refute Snelgrave’s anti-abolitionist arguments.Footnote 14 In preparing his account, Atkins met with Bulfinch Lambe and consulted the letter in his possession from King Agaja of the Kingdom of Dahomey. Atkins concluded that Agaja did not want to establish commercial relations with King George to promote the slave trade to Dahomey but solicited English assistance to develop agricultural plantations in his new kingdom.Footnote 15 In the 1780s, during the Parliamentary debates over the abolition of the slave trade, the letter Lambe delivered from Agaja in 1731 emerged as a powerful rhetorical and polemical weapon. Ironically, both sides of the debate selected passages from the text to argue either for the protection or eradication of the slave trade.Footnote 16
Historians beginning in the late 1960s, specifically I.A. Akinjogbin and Walter Rodney, were eager to show the destructive impact of the transatlantic slave trade on Africans, African societies, and European responsibility for it.Footnote 17 The portrayal of King Agaja as an indigenous abolitionist was a critical piece of evidence for historians arguing that West Africans were innocent victims, or at least reluctant participants in slave trading. John Thornton has made a compelling argument that West African elites participation in the slave trade was voluntary, and that throughout the early modern Atlantic world Europeans rarely possessed sufficient military or political influence to impose their imperial goals.Footnote 18 As for the Slave Coast specifically, most historians have followed Patrick Manning, Robin Law, and more recently Robert Harm’s interpretations of the evidence. Each make compelling arguments based on thorough investigations of European and African archives that Agaja was in fact a strong advocate of his kingdom’s participation in the slave trade.Footnote 19 Since the 1730s, Snelgrave’s telling of the rise of the Dahomian state and characterization of King Agaja has been bound up in polemical debates over the abolition of the slave trade and the lasting impression the commerce left on modern African societies. It is for these reasons that the resurfacing of a manuscript detailing Snelgrave’s journey to visit King Agaja in early April 1727 is of great significance to historians.
The manuscript in question, titled “A Diary of my Journey to Ardra,” (hereafter as Diary) is Snelgrave’s first documented account of his encounter with King Agaja on 10 April 1727. The manuscript is preserved in the Bank of England Archives among the Humphry Morice Papers.Footnote 20 Save for a 1988 article by James Rawley, the Morice Papers have attracted little sustained attention from historians.Footnote 21 The editors of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database explored the Morice Papers to document his participation in the trade. This important project recovered a large proportion of the quantitative data dealing with the slave trade from archives and repositories across the globe. However, the Morice collection contains additional information relating to the volume, contours and organization of the slave trade in West Africa and the Caribbean.Footnote 22 The manuscript Diary takes on additional significance because the original manuscript version of Snelgrave’s 1734 publication A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea is preserved at the National Maritime Museum.Footnote 23 In 1990, Robin Law, in a comparative analysis of the two sources, identified several important and substantial variations between the manuscript draft and the final publication.Footnote 24 By drawing on important differences identified by Law between the manuscript draft and Snelgrave’s published New Account, this essay identifies additional textual changes and discrepancies by comparing the two sources with the Diary.Footnote 25 In addition to Snelgrave’s Diary, there are approximately two dozen manuscripts in Snelgrave’s hand consisting of letters, lists, accounts, ship’s logs, and trade journals scattered throughout the Morice Papers, many informing the nature of the Whydah slave trade before and after the rise of Dahomey that will be used as supplementary evidence in this essay.
The Diary was written by a savvy ship captain during a voyage to purchase captive Africans for sale in British Atlantic slaving zones. Snelgrave’s employer, Humphry Morice, was the largest independent slave merchant in London, the organizational epicenter for British global commerce, with multinational clientele across the Atlantic world. The Dahomey King Agaja, so vividly depicted in the Diary, founded his kingdom because he coveted King Huffon’s direct and unrestricted access to European trade goods. Because of these reoccurring themes, I have structured this introductory essay as a retracing of Snelgrave’s voyage from London to the Slave Coast. Snelgrave’s Diary provides compelling evidence of Agaja’s motives for invading Whydah in 1727, as well as additional evidence on Bulfinch Lambe’s relationship with Agaja and his mission to England in 1731. The objective of this project is twofold. First, the purpose of this essay is to build upon the corpus of Robin Law’s scholarship on Dahomey by incorporating additional evidence from the slavery archive that will further illuminate the history of precolonial West Africa. Second, by publishing the Diary in full, I hope to make the manuscript more readily accessible to interested specialists and for lecturers as a critical primary source. In addition to the Diary, a transcription of Snelgrave’s 16 April 1727 letter to Humphry Morice is appended to this article.
“A Great Revolution There”Footnote 26
In early January 1727 just as Snelgrave was preparing his new ship the Katherine for departure from the docks at London, King Agaja at his royal compound in Abomey, was reviewing tactical strategies for the approaching campaign against Whydah.Footnote 27 The Dahomey war machine did not appear suddenly or without warning but was enveloped in the larger social and political divisions splintering the region. Since the late 1690s, Dahomey was a tributary province of the Kingdom of Allada. However, in 1717 when King Soso succeeded the throne, internal divisions created instability and opportunity for ambitious outsiders.
In March 1724, Agaja marched against Allada, killed Soso, burned the city of Allada, and slaughtered thousands. Refugees scattered south towards Whydah. Some 8,000 prisoners were captured by Dahomian soldiers.Footnote 28 As Lambe shuffled past the bodies strewn about the battlefield, he noted that “had it rain’d blood, it would not have lain thicker on the ground.”Footnote 29 Agaja then annexed Allada, the coastal port of Jakin, several neighboring provinces, and set up residence at Allada in Soso’s former royal compound. Similar in some ways to King Soso’s reign, King Huffon of Whydah was also confronted with internal divisions. Agaja, a keen opportunist, was aware of the internal strife at Whydah and confident from his army’s recent battlefield victories, knew the Whydahs could not mount an effective resistance. In March 1727, the Dahomey army invaded Whydah.Footnote 30
In early March as Agaja invaded Whydah, Captain Snelgrave was at the helm of the Katherine making his way past the Rio Pongo after stopping at Rotterdam to purchase the ship’s cargo from Bastiaen Molewater.Footnote 31 Arriving at the Gold Coast in mid-March, Snelgrave stopped briefly at Anomabu but finding no trade there, sailed east towards Accra where he arrived on 23 March 1727. At Fort Christiansborg, the Danish administrative center on the Gold Coast, he met the new Governor Frederick Pahl. Snelgrave had hoped to settle Morice’s debt, some 153 oz. 8 ac. of gold, with former Governor Hendrik von Suhm. However, Von Suhm was reassigned to a new post as the governor of island of St. Thomas in the Danish Caribbean. Pahl promised to settle the debt in his absence.Footnote 32 With little prospect of trade, Snelgrave weighed anchor and continued east towards Whydah.
The news of Agaja’s invasion traveled slowly. However, two days later Snelgrave arrived at Keta, a fickle trading post near the Volta River, where he learned from the local people that the “Widahs were driven from their Country by the King of Doime.”Footnote 33 Apparently it took about three weeks for the news to travel the some 150 kilometers down the coast. Uncertain of the reliability of the report, Snelgrave departed for Little Popo where he hoped to obtain “better information” and a robust trade. Once ashore, Snelgrave learned that the story of the Dahomey invasion was authentic but the English informant offered up few details. Attacks and kidnapping raids on neighboring communities and distant ethnic groups was the primary strategy for supplying European slave ships with captives.Footnote 34 At Little Popo, war prisoners and displaced refugees captured as they fled Agaja’s army were arriving in coffles. In the aftermath of the Dahomey invasion, Ringard wrote that “many thousands of these poor People (…) sheltered themselves up and down the Country among the Bushes.”Footnote 35 Over two hundred of these “poor People” were purchased by a French ship captain destined for the French Caribbean. Snelgrave considered the war refugees unsuitable physical specimens that upon observation, would not have “given three parts of them ship room.” Many of the displaced refugees sold in the aftermath of the Dahomey invasion were missing limbs and suffering from starvation. The conditions aboard the slave ship did not improve their physical state.
The Katherine reached Whydah on 28 March 1727. Upon arriving Snelgrave sent a present to Governor Abraham Duport of the Royal African Company requesting information on the state of affairs and trading conditions. Duport along with about forty or so other Europeans captured during Agaja’s sacking of Savi had just returned to the coast a few days earlier.Footnote 36 Duport did not send Snelgrave the requested information but told him to come to Williams Fort where he felt safer. Snelgrave went up to the fort on the morning of 30 March. Feeling anxious about the fluctuating circumstances at Whydah, Snelgrave sent presents to the Dutch governor and several of his “old Portuguese friends” at Jakin suspecting there would be a better outlet for slaves there.Footnote 37 From Duport, Snelgrave learned that Dupetitval, the Director of the French fort, was waiting for a “great no. of slaves” to arrive soon by an express coffle from Agaja. The long delay since Dupetitval received Agaja’s message troubled Snelgrave. It was clear that Jakin would be the best market because “slaves were plenty” there and the trade goods in the hold of the Katherine were in demand by local traders.
Before Snelgrave could return to his ship, a message from the “Doime captains at Sabee” arrived requesting that a “white man of each nation” should come up and meet with them. When the European captives returned to Whydah Snelgrave was informed that Agaja had reached an agreement with the “King of Widah to be tributary and that with his people should forthwith return” to Savi. Driven from their ancestral homeland, the Whydah King Huffon and the remnants of his army retreated towards the coast and took refuge at “Great Popo on an island.” As a measure to resettle the trade in his kingdom, Agaja promised to “appoint a great man to reside in the Country” as a trade mediator in order to prevent the “usual villainies” that were common by the Whydahs. In the wake of the invasion, Agaja apparently had found some favor with the English. Snelgrave attributed this to the “apish tricks” played by the French and the rigid “formality” practiced by the Portuguese which had “rendered [them] ridiculous to this Negro King.” Rather than any sort of English favoritism, Agaja was eager to settle the countryside and resume regular deliveries to the factories at Whydah. Agaja told Portuguese Governor Mendes that he should in “no way doubt his wish to trade with them” and that he was “in favour of the whites,” regardless of their European origins.Footnote 38
The invasion of Whydah commenced in early March 1727 as a Dahomey force of about 1,500 disciplined soldiers advanced on the Northern provinces, attacking and burning the villages of Gome and Paon.Footnote 39 In 1734 Gome was described as having “the finest, best built” houses a “magnificent” country “both by its situation (…) very fertile soil, and well cultivated, and adorned with fine lanes of large palm-trees.”Footnote 40 In the early stages of the campaign, Whydah authorities sent a defense force against the Dahomians and engaged in significant fighting for two days. Contemporary accounts indicate that on 5 and 6 March, the days of the heaviest fighting, the outcome of the invasion was still very much undecided.Footnote 41 The Whydahs knew that to prevent Agaja’s forces from taking the capital Savi, a victory was necessary in the early stages of fighting. However, the Dahomey army proved too powerful for the Whydah resistance and on 9 March, “nobody being willing to defend” the country, a force of about two hundred Dahomians crossed the river and occupied Savi.Footnote 42 Snelgrave informed Morice that Captain Richard Blinco, who had been at Whydah purchasing slaves since early February, would convey a “full account of how dastardly the Widah people run away on the approach of 200 Doime.”Footnote 43 Duport tried to convince Snelgrave to stay because of reports that the Whydahs would be “restor’d” to their homelands. However, Snelgrave was convinced that the restoration of the Whydahs would take months, further delaying his intended business on the coast.
As the Dahomey war machine sacked and burned the countryside with speed and precision, about forty or so Europeans were taken prisoner at Savi by Agaja’s army. As Dahomey forces overran the capital “all the white men” were captured. The group of ragtag Europeans, consisting of English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese were a novel scene for Agaja and the Dahomey soldiers.Footnote 44 Whereas for the Europeans who were quite familiar with large groups of Africans huddled together, desensitized to the violence of the slave trade, the accidental amassing of so many whites in the Whydah interior was a rare spectacle. Allegedly, before they were released without ransom, Agaja confessed that he was “surprized to see 40 of them together haveing before seen none but Mr. Lamb.” Bulfinch Lambe was a former Royal African Company trader at Jakin. He was taken prisoner by the King of Allada in July 1722 and was still a prisoner when the Dahomey army sacked Allada in March 1724. Lambe would remain a trophy in Agaja’s court until January 1726 when he was dispatched as a representative to London to establish commercial relations with King George I.Footnote 45 Snelgrave’s reference to Lambe is one of the more significant revelations of the Diary and the corpus of Snelgrave manuscripts.
In the immediate aftermath of the Dahomey invasion, the Whydah market was ill-prepared for the demands of European slave ships.Footnote 46 Snelgrave decided to try his luck at Jakin based on information he collected from English and Portuguese traders at Whydah as well as “Buttenoe” a local resident.Footnote 47 From Buttenoe, one of the “King’s servants who formally belonged to Lamb and spoke good English,” Snelgrave learned that a “great nation called the JoEs [Oyo]” who fought on “horseback” had attacked a caravan carrying Dahomey goods and killed several of Agaja’s own wives.Footnote 48 Upon learning of the attack by his neighbors to the northeast, Agaja broke up his camp at Sabee and withdrew inland to Allada. Agaja had little time to manage the movement of captives to ships on the coast. A more pertinent issue required his attention - the preservation of his new kingdom.
Snelgrave arrived at Jakin, a settlement about 40 kilometers east of Whydah, on 3 April 1727 and sent his surgeon James Dickie ashore to “demand some preliminaries” from the king. After the ritual formalities and exchanges were complete, Snelgrave was informed by the king that he should leave immediately for Ardah to consult with the “King of Doime (…) Supreme Lord of Country.” Ever the astute capitalist, Snelgrave requested to “first” open his trade before departing, a request that delayed his departure by two days. From the king, he purchased two “good women and a tolerable man slave,” and the following day “markt 22” more off for his cargo. In his satchel of goodies, Snelgrave carried to Ardah several pieces of damask and Persian linens as well as the “ship’s drum and pocket pistols” as gifts for Agaja. The last two items being timely and ideal gifts to whet the appetite of a King fresh from the killing fields and thirsty to consume European goods.Footnote 49 The next day Snelgrave departed Jakin for Ardah to meet with King Agaja.
A Constructed Account
The Snelgrave Diary brings to light new insights on the process of negotiation and the realities of power on the Slave Coast. It compliments important aspects of Robin Law’s scholarship on Dahomey as a powerful military state capable of controlling minute aspects of European trade on the coast.Footnote 50 Once Snelgrave received an audience with Agaja, the first act of business, before Snelgrave could begin loading his ship was to settle the customs. Put simply, the custom was essentially a license of fluctuating value granted by the local king or landlord. The custom in essence granted permission for Europeans to trade, barter and purchase goods from local sellers. Failure to pay the custom – whether it was for firewood, water, or slaves – could result in the seizure of goods and persons, capture or death. The payment of a ransom tended to alleviate cultural trespasses.Footnote 51 The custom was not a dashee, which was an additional gift given during active bartering or negotiations.Footnote 52 In the published account, Agaja told Snelgrave he would not impose a “greater custom than used to be paid to the King of Whidaw.”Footnote 53 Snelgrave then proceeded to lecture Agaja on the “best way to make the trade flourish” in his new kingdom. By imposing “easy customs” on ship captains Agaja’s new policy would encourage additional vessels to come to Whydah rather than other trading settlements.Footnote 54 Snelgrave then alleges that after witnessing first-hand his knowledge of the commerce and personal disinterest, Agaja asked him to “name my own custom.” Snelgrave replied that he wanted “one half of what we use to pay at Whidaw,” to which Agaja “readily agreed.”Footnote 55
The Diary offers a more detailed account of the customs negotiations and reveals the dynamics of cross-cultural exchange between Snelgrave and Agaja and the intricacies of power relationships within the new Dahomey state. Such interactions between African elites and Europeans are particularly uncommon in the slavery archive.Footnote 56 Similar to the published account, Snelgrave opens the customs negotiations with a bit of flattery, hoping that since Agaja was a “great King (…) he would moderate” the high customs required by King Huffon before the invasion.Footnote 57 Snelgrave informed Agaja that Huffon “never took more than 17 tubs of Cowries for himselfe which was not quite 5 slaves,” and followed up by stating that since Agaja “exceeded him so much in greatness he would take less.”Footnote 58 It is at this point in the narrative that Snelgrave’s sanitized account of the bargaining process with Agaja represented in his publication is magnified by the lucidity of the Diary. Agaja abruptly “turned the argument on me” Snelgrave confessed, “and fixt it at 8 [slaves] for himself and 2 [slaves] for his chief captains.” Flattery proved futile. Rather than Agaja marveling at Snelgrave’s vast knowledge of commerce and trade, we see that Agaja responded as we would expect from a powerful warlord that had just slaughtered some ten thousand innocent Whydahs to gain unrestricted access to the European coastal trade. In contrast to the constructed account, published several years later where Snelgrave claims he was only required to pay half customs, it is clear that his negotiation tactics did not impress the new king and that the realities of power on the Slave Coast played out as expected. In comparing the Diary and the published account, two different pictures are presented in regards to the customs negotiations. First, it is clear that Snelgrave vastly underestimated Agaja as a tactical negotiator. Second, Snelgrave was far too confident in his own ability or capacity to manipulate the process. Third, Snelgrave simplified the outcome of the negotiations with Agaja for the published account because of the publications intended audience.Footnote 59 However, Snelgrave could not afford to be so mendacious in his correspondence with Humphrey Morice, his employer for the past decade. Despite his botched attempt to lower the customs, Snelgrave was left with no other recourse than complete honesty.
After concluding the customs negotiations, in which the English ship captain’s efforts were unsuccessful, Agaja and Snelgrave then “discours’d about the price of slaves.” Agaja opened the banter by telling Snelgrave, who had purchased slaves at Whydah in 1722 and 1724 that the last price for male adults given at Whydah was “23 guns: 20 Cabess of Cowries with 40 slesias,” for which he promised “good slaves.”Footnote 60 Snelgrave endeavored nonetheless to carry the price lower, “but prevailed in nothing but slesias,” settling on 35. Unsatisfied with the little ground he gained in negotiating down the price of slaves, Snelgrave then tried an old trick to gain Agaja’s favor. Snelgrave took a white handkerchief from his pocket and compared it to the shirt he was wearing, hoping to impress Agaja of its fine quality. Linens and cloth of hundreds of types and quality were by far the most common trade item Europeans carried to West Africa.Footnote 61 He claimed that English “slesias exceeded the French as much as them two did one” slesias.Footnote 62
Snelgrave attempted to play on his own national sensibilities and commercial self-interest by degrading the quality of French trade goods. It is unlikely Agaja was not aware of the various European imperial rivalries. However, the Dahomian king was unaffected by the ploy. Agaja then “laugh’d” at Snelgrave’s baseless claim. He told Snelgrave that since he was “his first English wife, so might do as I pleas’d with him but the next [ship] as came [for slaves] must not expect the same.” Nevertheless, Snelgrave’s pleading continued. He told the King that his employer was a wealthy ship-owner who had “4 great ships” that traded regularly at Whydah. One of those ships was expected to arrive in about a month. Snelgrave “hoped [Agaja] would do the same by him.” Growing impatient, Agaja told Snelgrave to “be satisfied with my one good fortune” which concluded the negotiations on slave prices for the Katherine. There is little doubt that Snelgrave was frustrated in his dealings with Agaja. Aside from the sheer ruthlessness required by captains of slave ships, Snelgrave managed to avoid the deadly contagions that consumed thousands of Europeans on the coast. He survived at least two shipboard slave uprisings. And somehow, after pirates fired on and boarded his ship, put a pistol to his chest and mercilessly bashed him over the head with a cutlass effectively negotiated for his life and freedom. He was lucky if anything.Footnote 63 However, Snelgrave’s inability to meaningfully lower the custom requirements, the price of slaves, or extend additional bargains and courtesies to Morice-owned ships, reveals the limits of his experience and dynamics of local authority under the new Dahomey regime.
A Considerable Present
The final subject discussed by Agaja concerned the whereabouts of his former prisoner turned commercial ambassador, Bulfinch Lambe. King Agaja asked Snelgrave about “Mr. Lamb a white man who he had some years with him.” Snelgrave replied that he “had never seen” Lambe but that had heard rumors that he was at Barbados.Footnote 64 Before departing his court, Agaja gave Lambe a substantial allowance of “80 slaves and 320 oz. gold” upon which Lambe promised “to return again with a ship.”Footnote 65 Concerned that Lambe’s long absence might reflect negatively upon him as an Englishman, Snelgrave replied that he hoped Lambe would “prove an honest man” and return soon. Agaja stated that it had been “many months” since Lambe left from Dahomey “but if he proved a rogue it was no matter, others should not suffer.”Footnote 66 Snelgrave was doubtlessly relieved.
The mention of Lambe in Snelgrave’s 16 April letter and Diary, Agaja’s concern for his whereabouts, and the sum of gold and slaves Lambe received is particularly important because there is some disagreement on the topic. More specifically, the dispute surrounds the purpose of the gold and slaves Lambe received upon departure from Agaja’s court and his mission to England. Snelgrave’s Diary clearly states that Lambe received “80 slaves and 320 oz. gold.” Snelgrave repeated this information in his deposition before the Board of Trade in 1731 and in his 1734 publication.Footnote 67 In his statement, Governor Tinker, who was at Whydah when Lambe departed from the coast, reported that Lambe had received eighty slaves from Agaja, of which twenty “were for himself and the remainder to purchase presents to return with” to Dahomey. Lambe and Captain Tom in their depositions both denied receiving any “gold dust” from Agaja.Footnote 68
Robin Law identified several discrepancies between Snelgrave’s manuscript draft and the published edition of New Account. Most critical is Snelgrave’s discussion of Lambe and the authenticity of his mission. Law writes that “Snelgrave’s account of his conversation with the king of Dahomey in 1727 constitutes virtually our only evidence relating to Lambe’s mission which is independent of Lambe’s own claims in 1731, and is therefore crucial for any assessment of the authenticity of the latter.” Of particular importance is the subtle yet significant changes from the manuscript version where Snelgrave states that Lambe received a “considerable present” from Agaja to “three hundred and twenty ounces in Gold, with eighty slaves” in the published account. While Law notes that this change raises the “possibility that Snelgrave may have embroidered” the published version with “material derived later from Lambe himself” which may to some degree “undermine its corroboratory value,” it is indisputable that the Diary corroborates aspects of Lambe’s mission.Footnote 69 Thus the Diary is a decisive and independent source supporting Lambe’s claims.
In order to make these important documents, Snelgrave’s Diary and his 16 April 1727 letter to Humphrey Morice, more generally known and accessible, the complete text is presented here. Snelgrave sent his Diary and several other dispatches to London on the RAC packet ship Bonetta. Snelgrave informed Morice in a 22 June 1727 letter that he sent a second copy of his Diary “fearing my first may miscarry.”Footnote 70 It is likely one of the copies that Snelgrave sent did not make it to London. There is only one complete copy of the Diary in the Morice Papers. One is clearly in Snelgrave’s handwriting while the second is only a partial copy, about half, of the Diary. In preparing the texts, Snelgrave’s handwriting was cross-checked with other letters in the Morice Papers. Snelgrave’s and the copy are nearly identical, save a few spelling and copy errors. The publication of the two texts allows for comparison of the successive versions and illustrates the progressive transformation of the text as it developed towards publication. The guidelines outlined by David Henige as published in this journal were consulted in reproducing the text.Footnote 71
Neal D. Polhemus is a PhD candidate in History at the University of South Carolina. His dissertation is titled “A Culture of Commodification: Hemispheric and Intercolonial Migrations in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, 1660–1807.” His research has been published in Atlantic Studies: Global Currents. E-mail: polhemus@email.sc.edu
APPENDIX
A Diary of My Journey to Ardra
8th AprilFootnote 72
Having cross’t the river at Jacqueen in company with the King’s BrotherFootnote 73 and 100 other Blacks:Footnote 74 a Dutch CaptainFootnote 75 and writerFootnote 76 got into my hammockFootnote 77 at 9 in the morning. wee travell’d about 4 miles an hour through a pleasant Country which lyes desolate, the people by war being drove away, the roads were mostly good: but according to the Black Custom wee rested often and at 6 [in] the Evening came to a place where was 3 sorry hovellsFootnote 78 being as near as can judge 30 miles from Jacqueen: here wee lay all night on the ground.
9. [April]
Sett out again at 6 [in] the morningFootnote 79 and by 9 came within 1/2 mile of Ardra: judge might then have come 10 miles.Footnote 80 here a messenger came to us from the King of Doime to bid us wellcome, and wee were order’d to dress our selvesFootnote 81 which did under the covert of an old wall: then advanc’d within 1/4 of a mile of the Town and was order’d to wait for a great man who was to receive us. The King to do us honor sent the 1st person of his CourtFootnote 82 called Capt. Grande.Footnote 83 he recv’d us with great respect as I was told afterwards. But there was so many odd and ridiculousFootnote 84 things done by him and his soldiers that could not at first imagine what was meant (for these people has not anything of the politeness of the Whidahs haveing but lately seen white men) after in token of friendship Capt. Grande had given his hand wee were conducted by him into the Town that was once Ardra,Footnote 85 but now only full of Beehives the Negroes housesFootnote 86 being made just like them only bigger where they creep into a hole on one side of them: I judge the King has not determin’d yet whether to make this place the seat of his Empire is the reason no houses are rais’d but only a sorry one for himself and a hovell for the white men. wee were sett under trees by the King’s house where such crowds of people came about us that the officers were obliged to drive them away wee being allmost smother’d: after had been diverted with divers feats of ActivityFootnote 87 by the men of war, wee were carried to the hovell design’d for us and was obliged to creep into itt, having stowed our baggage and din’d wee were sent for again. I was surpriz’d that [we] had not been crowded with people at our house but was told the King had given order if any came there they should be seiz’d for slaves:Footnote 88 wee went to the King’s gate where was presented with a cow and there was 40 soldiersFootnote 89 drawn up haveing hung about their necks as many dead men’s teeth as would furnish all the Barber surgeon’s shops in Europe, then return’d to our hovell hung up our hammocks and spent the night in them.
10th [April]
Att 9 in the morning the King sent for us: found him in his court in a fine Gilt chair he got at Whidah 3 large umbrellaes over his head: none but women round the chair 2Footnote 90 of which had guns; we were plac’d 30 footFootnote 91 from him on chairs: he bid us wellcome then wee saluted him with our hatts and he said had sent for us to see him pay his soldiers for the slaves they had catcht: he kept us 3 hours dureing which more than 200 slavesFootnote 92 were brought in, he paid 2 CabessFootnote 93 for a man and one CabessFootnote 94 for a woman and for a dead man’s head 5 Galenaes:Footnote 95 none of his men servants went nearer then 10 footFootnote 96 to him all lying on the ground and frequently kissing itt and a woman went between the King and them to carry the replies and answers:Footnote 97 2 men were sent for and a large dish holding 3 gallons of stuff as thick as furmetyFootnote 98 being sett before them, they with their hands threw it into their mouths in 1/2 minute that t’was surprizing how they could swallow it so fast: after this we desired leave to go to our house the sun haveing parcht us allmost to death, so went to dinner: in the afternoon sent to desire audience but was answer’d there was so many slaves come to town that the King could not see us till next day: and indeed there was many hundredsFootnote 99 sent in by his Captains from a country called TuffoFootnote 100 5 days journeyFootnote 101 from hence. The King’s officers pickt them and the old ones were given to the common people to kill. It was a lamentable sight to see these poor creatures thus slaughter’d: there was 2 stages on which was pil’d about 4000 of the WhidahsFootnote 102 heads: these were shown to them saying that theirs should be pil’d in the same manner. That day about 400 was slain there being several young men and women among them: I asked the linguister the reason of this: he told me that the King had been highly offended with the Tuffoes who had slain some of his women going to DoimeFootnote 103 and that he gave these young people to serve them in the other world,Footnote 104 and that no body would buy the old ones who were not worth their victualls and Pester the Country. I durst not show my compassion for these poor wretches only said our God forbid us to do so.Footnote 105
11 [April]
The King sent word that he was so engaged in business he could not see us this day.Footnote 106 I desired the messenger to tell him that at Jacqueen was told should stay but one day here, that I fear’d should fall sick if he did not please to dispatch me forthwith haveing so bad accommodation of the victualls and lodging; on which he sent us word would see us in the afternoon, according at 4 a clockFootnote 107 was sent for: he was under a low house and we were plac’d on matts very near him: he was richly dres’d a middle siz’d man about 45 and show’d something in his Countenance Extraordinary.Footnote 108 After had bid us wellcome was order’d to deliver my business, I told him he having sent for me from Jacqueen I readily came to him with much pleasure to see so great and good a King, and I requested he would please to dispatch my ship full of slavesFootnote 109 forthwith, I observ’d the complement, pleas’d him and he answer’d I should soon be dispatcht, but that the first thing to be talk’d of must be his Custom. He then sent for Capt. Zunglar,Footnote 110 a cunning fellow who was formerly his agent at Whidah and ask’d him how many slaves custom wee us’d to pay there; he told him 16: so he said I should now pay but 15. I replied it was true wee us’d to pay so many for first and last customs, but that I hoped as he was a great King so he would moderate it: it being his interest likewise to encourage more ships to come which the King of Whidah had impractically prevented by raiseing them, and allowing his people in so many Villanies towards us. he answer’d would use me as a young bride who must be denied nothingFootnote 111 with other succinct sayings; that I found had another guess man to deale with then had ever before met with amongst the Negroes. I thank’d him and said the King of Whidah never took more than 17 tubs of Cowries for himselfe which was not quite 5 slaves: so hoped as he exceeded him so much in greatness he would take less: but he turn’d the argument on me and fixt it at 8 for himself and 2 for his chief captains.Footnote 112 I represented as I must pay the King of Jacqueen with the Capt. of the Sand and others Custom it would amount to more than I ever paid at Whidah. He answer’d he had nothing to do with what I paid my servants and that one slave was enough for the King of Jacqueen. I desir’d he would please to order he might take no more but he answer’d I had best inform my selfe what he us’d to receive and pay him accordingly. Then wee discours’d about the price of slaves. He told me that the last price at Whidah was for men 23 guns: 20 Cabess of Cowries with 40 slesias: but he would sett no higher price to me then 20 guns, 18 cabess and 40 slesias for which should have good slaves.Footnote 113 I endeavor’d to bring it lower but prevailed in nothing except the slesias; he allowing at last 35, for show’d him a white handkerch had in my hand and comparing it with my shirt told him our slesias exceeded the French as much as them two did one the other. He laugh’d and said I was his first English wife so might do as I pleas’d with him, but the next as came must not expect the same. I represented Mr. Morrice had 4 great shipsFootnote 114 which us’d this trade that as I belong’d to him and expected another in a monthFootnote 115 I hoped he would do the same by him. he answer’d I ought to be satisfied with my one good fortune.Footnote 116 Then wee fell into other discourse telling me he was informed by Capt. SennoeFootnote 117 (who is now in town on behalf of the King of Whidah) that I was an honest manFootnote 118 and well belov’d amongst them, desireing me to tell him truly if the King of Whidah allow’d such injustice towards us as he had heard of. I told him the story of his making me pay 1/2 custom for the Portugal Galley Footnote 119 tho had given his word to the contrary. he replied God had made him the instrument of punishing him for such things and that he would take care both at Whidah and Jacqueen there should be no more thieving, for the first as was ketcht he would impale a live on the sand, that himself would buy nothing from the white men but what he would forthwith pay for and that I should send no goods to any of his people. he then ask’d concerning one Mr. LambFootnote 120 a white man who he had some years with him and when he let him go, gave him 80 slaves and 320 oz. gold he promiseing to return again with a ship. I told him had never seen Mr. Lamb but heard he was at Barbadoes and that I hoped he would prove an honest man and come here again. he answer’d that it was many monthsFootnote 121 since he went but if he proved a rogue it was no matter, others should not suffer for that so concluded: I thank’d him for all favours, desir’d leave to go for Jacqueen and hoped God would give him many days for the good of the white men. he thank’d me but said I must stay till the next day so bid us good night.
12 [April]
This morning at 10 a clock the King sent for us: his officers told us this was his fetiche dayFootnote 122 so could not see us but had order’d them in his name to present us with some things. I had a young Negro woman given to wash my linnen, a cow and a goat,Footnote 123 my black servants a handsome cloth and cowries,Footnote 124 with leave given me to go for Jacqueen when I pleas’d and the slaves should be sent after meFootnote 125 forthwith so returning thanks we parted.
Att noon the Kings Captains with their soldiers returned from Tuffo:Footnote 126 it really was a fine sight they having colours shields and regularity much beyond whateverFootnote 127 I saw amongst the Negroes and believe the reason of their keeping us here 4 days was on this acct:Footnote 128 on the whole this King is a very great man haveing now a very large extent of Country: abundance of people who venerate him like a God paying respect to his very name when mention’d, and excepting his allowing his people to slaughter the poor slaves as they did (which believe to be out of policy incurring them to blood and fierceness) saw nothing else that could be reckon’d barbarous in him.
We were obliged to stay till 8 a clockFootnote 129 this morning for the King’s Brother of Jacqueen he being taken up with the visits of the great men in which wee had apart, then sett out on our journey, the hammock men made more hast to return then when went up, they haveing been much frighten’d at the slaughter of the slaves att Ardra: Wee arrived at Jacqueen at 7 in the eveningFootnote 130 in good health where was recv’d with great joy by the people.
William Snelgrave to Humphrey Morice, 16 April 1727Footnote 131
My last was dated 21st MarchFootnote 132 a coppy of which is inclosed. That night I left AnnamaboeFootnote 133 and two days after anchored at AccraFootnote 134 I went forthwith to the Danes Fort.Footnote 135 The present Governour Mynheer Frederick PahlFootnote 136 seems to be a very honest man but as he had a small vesselFootnote 137 of their own to dispatch in a few days, so excus’d himself from paying me anything but promis’d to clear the acct (which is 153 oz. 8 ac.) by Capt. DaggeFootnote 138 and Capt. BakerFootnote 139 and believe he will do it if the trade revives in the least it being very dull at present. It seems the occasion of Von Suhm’sFootnote 140 going off was he being appointed Governour of the Island of St. Thomas belonging to the Dane in the West Indies.
I bought 7 good slaves here without looseing any time then sailed and in my way toucht at Quittah where I found two French ships. The English ChiefFootnote 141 came off telling me there was little trade so prepar’d him for your other ships. The Blacks reporting here the Widahs were driven from their Country by the King of Doime and all the white men taken prisoners. I weighed and stopt at Little Popoe for better information.
The English chiefFootnote 142 came off and inform’d the story was to true but could tell me few particulars. Here was a French ship who had purchas’d in a fortnight 200 slaves but they are mostly such poor creatures I would not have given three parts of them ship room, and as he could give me no incouragement to stay advised him to be ready for your other ships and went for Whidah where I anchor’d the 28th of March. Found in the road 2 Portuguese with 3 large French ships. The last has been here two months and few slaves on board. One of the Portuguese is just slaved. The other arrived 8 days past from Bahia.
I sent the 2nd mate with a present and letter for the Governour DuportFootnote 143 desireing the favour he would inform me the state of affairs. The sea being bad he did not answer till next day in the afternoon and desir’d me to come to the fort where might be in safety and consult for your interest. Accordingly went the next morning haveing over night sent the 2nd mate to Jaqueen with a present for the Dutch chiefFootnote 144 and my old Portuguese friendsFootnote 145 desireing them to inform me how affairs are with them. On coming to the fort Mr. Duport told me that he had the day before resolv’d to advise me to stay at Widah on the promises the French had recvd from the King of Doime of a great no. of slaves comeing down instantly, but as they had failed so believed it was my best way to go for Jaqueen. I found by this he was sincere and it agreeing with my own sentiments resolved for that place, especially when recvd an acct from thence that slaves were plenty and our goods wanted.
The sea was so bad could not go off that day without utmost danger and a message comeing from the Doime captains at Sabee to desire a white man of each nation to come to them I was willing to hear what it was about. When they return’d had this account that the King of Doime by his Captains inform’d them he had agreed with the King of Widah to be tributary and that with his people should forthwith return to Sabee. That he would appoint a great man to reside in the Country who should take care of the white men and prevent the Widahs in their usual villanies which he abhord. That when the white men was at Ardra he took notice of such nations actions. That he much esteemed the English above the rest and they may depend on his favour. It seems the French with their apish tricks and the Portuguese with their formality, rendred themselves ridiculous to this Negro King who by all accounts is a very great man in many respects. He excus’d the usage of the white men when prisoners confessing he was surprized to see 40 of them together haveing before seen none but Mr. LambFootnote 146 and on the whole I think they are rather to be noted of folly to be ketcht as they were then to complain of their treatment for as soon as things were a little settled care was taken of them and had their liberty without ransom. Capt. BlinckoeFootnote 147 came to this place to sell a quantity of cowries he had left am told he had no success in it and sailed from hence 25th of March and as no doubt he will give you a full account how dastardly the Widah people run away on the approach of 200 Doime with a particular acct of all things so now shall go on with other matters.
On the news of the Widahs being to be restor’d (who are now at Great Popo on an island) Mr. Duport altered his opinion and advis’d me to stay, concludeing the Doimes would go forthwith to Jaqueen, but I held my resolution for staying at Widah, I judged was only more loss of time and it would be a long while before the people could settle again and as the King of Jaqueen had acknowledged Doime for his Lord so did believe they would not go down there. Moreover I understood from one of the King’s servants who formerly belonged to Lamb and spoke good English, that his master had an account, a great nation called JoEsFootnote 148 – who fight on horseback was comeing down to invade his country of PoyneFootnote 149 and that the army was to march inland to joine his people there and accordingly they broke up their camp at Sabee that night. I then went on board and sailed for Jaqueen where anchor’d the 3rd of Aprill found here 2 Portuguese ships just slaved, with another who came a week past. I sent my surgeon on shore to the King to demand some preliminaries, which if he would take his fetishe to observe then promisd to go myself next day and land goods forthwith.
In the mean time Hon’d Sr, (till hear from him) shall inform you that a weeks past the 2 Portuguese men of warFootnote 150 surpriz’d here a Dutch ship of 18 guns whom they forc’d onshore and destroyed, then sailed as they gave out in order for the Mine declareing they will not leave one Dutch ship on the coast.
This ugly business am afraid will spoile the Portuguese trade on this Coast for they tell me they expect the Dutch now will make prize of their Brazill ships. But on the other hand as the Dutch cannot subsist without them hope they will not do it. Myhheer NorreFootnote 151 assur’d 2 Portuguese vessels that was at the Mine when I was there that they had nothing to fear, but yet believe on their hearing this news at Brazill it will intimidate them for some time.
The Generall told me that by the treaty the Portuguese are absolutely debar’d comeing to this coast, and their allowing them on paying 10 per cent is only of mere grace which may at pleasure be suspended. He vowed a severe revenge but observ’d had a deep concern for his own interest. He in a way of discourse let drop that the 2 Portuguese ships as are now come lately to Widah and this place had a large quantity of European goods which he winkt at and no doubt had a good sum for it that he would not be severe on the Brazill ships, but as to the Lisbon men they must never be tolerated, so that on the whole believe it will be a great while before things run in their old channell again. The men of war don’t pretend the Kings orders for what they do but say they belong to the Corsico CompanyFootnote 152 who by way of revenge for losing their Lisbon ships have sent them to scourge the Dutch.
As soon as Mr. DickieFootnote 153 informed me the King had promis’d to comply with my demands I went on shore and was recvd kindly by him. He assured me my treatment should be such as I could desire, but that I must go to the King of Doime at Ardra he being Supreme Lord of the Country and believing it absolutely for your interest I complied but desir’d might have my trade open’d first which was promis’d. Twas 2 days before it was done the blacks being allways tedious in such affairs and found much better usage than us’d to have at Widah, for I mark’t off the Kings 2 good women with a tollerable man slave.
The following day I mark’t 22 slaves, and the next night sett out for Ardra. I carried the King one piece of damask, his first wife a ps of persian, the ship’s drum, and pocket pistolls, with several things of my own. The success and acct of my journey have inserted in a diary inclos’d to which refer.
On my return here settled matters with the King of this place who is to have his usual custom of 4 slaves, besides what the Captain of the sand and others are to have so that the customs alltogether will amount to as much as us’d to pay at Whidah.
According to the King of Doime’s promise a good no. of slaves are come to town, have mark’t 50 and should go on briskly, but as yet have few goods up for the people are not like the Whidahs, being not vers’d in trade and unwilling to take notes.
This day hope to settle the carriage of goods they insisting on more than used to pay at that place. Believe the cowrie cask may be brought up without pilferage but am desirous to bring them in bags which will save half the charge, but being new to them at present they dispute it.
Can make no exact judgment of what goods are in demand here having paid for no slaves but find they insist much on guns and with powder might buy boys and girls very cheap. Have a good hope to gett a no. of slaves against your Portugal [if] comes down to dispatch her off, but as to gold there is no prospect at present. However 4 Portuguese ships are expected every day believe then things will alter for the better in that respect. Here is at present a Portuguese ship who came from Whidah 1/2 slaved and another that found here, but deny having any gold left.
This comes by an African Company’s vessel Capt. LivingstonFootnote 154 directly for England. Sent up one of my cannoes with it to Whidah and a letter for Capt. Dagge desireing if he is not come there to forward it to Little Popoe.
Am told the Whidahs are returning to their Country apace, believe the King of Doime designs to restore trade there for on my asking him which place he would have your Italian stay at, he replied he was Lord of both places and the Capt. might stay at which he pleased. The Blacks here have little notion of trade or gold, being awkward and tedious, so should be glad if Whidah should be the centre again.
