FORBES, FREDERICK E.

Dahomey and the Dahomans: being the Journals of two Missions to the King of Dahomay, and Residence at his Capital, in the Years 1849 and 1850. 2 Vols.

London, Longman, Green, and Longmans, 1851. Small 8vo. Uncut in 2 orig. blindstamped full cloth. Gilt lettering to spines. Light wear along edges. XII,244;V,248 pp. and 13 plates (10 lithographed, 4 in colour, 6 tinted and 3 in woodcut). Internally clean. With errata slip

First edition. Having captured six slave ships in the year preceding his first mission to Dahomey, Forbes was eager to visit this one country which had chosen to ignore the foreign request to end the slave trade. His account provides information not only on the country itself and the manners and customs of the people, but includes a large appendix with vocabularies of the Vahie and Dahoman languages.
Dahomey was an African kingdom (located in the area of the present-day country of Benin) which lasted from about 1600 until 1894, when the last chief Behanzin was defeated by the French and the country was annexed into the French colonial empire.

Order-nr.: 52556