But, of all others,
that which was afforded by Mr. Morris on this ground was the most
frightful. The king of Dahomey, he said, sported with the lives of his
people in the most wanton manner. He had seen at the gates of his palace,
two piles of heads like those of shot in an arsenal. Within the palace the
heads of persons newly put to death were strewed at the distance of a few
yards in the passage which led to his apartment. This custom of human
sacrifice by the king of Dahomey was not on one occasion only, but on many;
such as on the reception of messengers from neighbouring states, or of
white merchants, or on days of ceremonial. But the great carnage was once a
year, when the poll tax was paid by his subjects. A thousand persons at
least were sacrificed annually on these different occasions. The great men,
too, of the country cut off a few heads on festival-days. From all these
particulars the humanity of the Slave-trade was inferred, because it took
away the inhabitants of Africa into lands where no such barbarities were
known.
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