Europe observed_ Multiple gazes in early modern encounters 161148295X, 9781611482959

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Europe Observed

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Aper�us: Histories Texts Cultures a GBucknell series Series Editor: Greg Clingham Aper�u (apersil). 1882. [Fr.) A su111n1ary t1po.rlJ E,,,n,•my 1-IOO i . ,i., Pr.s,n1 (u,nJon:M. E . Sharp!111.;Jf Wukly 33,(May 30, 1998), 1330-36; Bh,sbr Mukhopodhy.,y , "Writin� Home, Writing Trav,:I: The Poctic-s and Politics of Dwelling in Bengali Modernity," Cowirmatwc S1wdiu i11 S«l,(ry JnJ Huto1ry (April 2002), 2 9 3 -318: Simonti Sen, Tra,otl lo fwrorc Sdf Jnd Oih,r 111 Bc11,1{;1li TrJrtl N11rrJfm•,(2005); Ptter Bcardstll, GIJJ.1 a.11J Dtml)lt!t , Self J nJ 01h,r. lma�n cf Ewrll f< 111 1ft, C1o1hurtJ ofL1111n Amm, .a(Hull: Univers ity of Hull Press. 1994); and Stu anSch wartz. l1r1r1( 11 UnJtr.111.1n.lrn9.

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Europe Observed Obscmng, R,pi,rnng arlll R,flur1� on 1.ltt fn.' o unlcr:\ lx11.1•ccn Eur"f"tlM alW Otlur P,oplo 1n 1J., &rly M,,J,m E,. (C.mb,idge: Ca m b ridge University P ress, 1996). 44. Stuart B . Schwarz, introduction. lmplu-11 UnJaJlalWi�.s,. 8. 4 5 . We fi nd very clc»e COU$in.s of our own pro j ect in t he books of Maria Rosa Men6ca.l and Jer ry Brotton, especially On.amu,t of tJv Worltj: Hou• Mi...s.lu11s, )cu•s. tJn.:i C hnsrl4,u CrcattJ a C ulhm of T i• Mofinul Sl"i" (2002) and T nsdiog Tcmtonu: M•rr••g dot E•�y ModK 1764-1766, ed. Robert E. Gallag her (London : H akluyt Soci et y , 1964), 18 5 -96.

ss.

n.,

Miguel Leon-Ponil la, Bro&ctn Sra1r,: n, Atru Account of'"' Con'f1Ull of Mttl(t>, E nglish t-rans­ la,ion by Robert Kem p (Bosto n: Beacon P ress, 1992), 30.

56. Lakshmi Subtomania n, M,Jinul Swforcn of l•di a (New Delhi: Lotus Books, 1999), 134. 57. Karam Ali, M=ff•.,,...., !to ns . and ed. Sh ais,a Kh,n (Patna: The Khudaba ksh Or iental Public Library, 1992), 1, 13.

58. EdwardW . Sa.id, H1o1m.1num 11nJ Ocmnm11 i.: Cr1r 1os1t1 (New York: Columb ia University P ress, 2004), preface, xxi x.

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.Apcr�us 59. Ih,d.

61. Satya P. Mohanty. l11cr.an· Tli,..ir" 11,J 1�, CL.i,...\. "]' fi1)l (l .r P\t'-lltl�cnu.011, O�J C.lmly, Mii h1,wf11.1rwl P,�''"' (Ithaca: C.,rndl Un1vtrs11y Press. 1997 ), I 39.

62. Julie Sanders, /\JJffJII"" JnJ 1\rrr,1rn�11i,11 (LonJ,1n: Rout lcJ�c. 2006). 28. 63. S1lvtrblan. M�crn l"i wl.Sllwnl: Pm• ,mJ 1h, Cclo111.,J Ont""' of Unovers11y Press. 2004). 5.

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Vlo rlJ {Durh am : Duke

64. Homi Bhaba. 1\, L. �·, 1111-111 4 Cwh"'' (London: Routlt:J�e. 1994), 12: sec also Michael Ta ussig.. ,\1 1'"c,us .irJ Ahm1y A P.art1; ul .ir H,,,.,,_,. of 1kr S,n.,o (New York: Routledge. L99.3); and Cy an Praka.sh, .i\,wtk,r R,11.\i>n S..u"-'' .,,,J ch, (m.a�11141k>n i,f �folcrn l11J1J (Princeton : Princeton Universi ty Press. I 999), ch. 3 . 65. Eric Hobshawm and Tc:rcncc: Ran�c:r, eds., The UniYcr.sity Press, J99 3) ,

fn1·tnf1011

of Tr.aJuw,n (C.mhrad�e: Cambridge

66, Suuan nc Pn:i,to n Bli er , Afr1J1m: An. Ps�dwl,ig_v. Pou'ir (Chic-aJ,to: U niver�ity o f Chii:a),to Prc.ss, 1995). 23. 61, Ann Laura Stoler, R11.r�' ofStlu.1 f11v, .ittJ the CoLnuJ f OrJcr ofllt1n�.� (Durham: Duke University Press, l 99S); sec, in pan1cular...Cuhivatin� Bourgeois Bodies an d Racial Selves." 68.

For a meditation on the implic-ations of

th is ev idence, see Carrttta's pr iu·winning bi�raphy. , Ei"'••o. 1�, Afn--•· 81"!:"r'.' of o Sdf-MoJ, Mou (Ath ens Uni\'uir,· (JU1 ,,.)nts of D1J]lrt11.u (Philaddphia: U niversity of Pen nsylvania Press, 2000).

111

Ci�f1 1un1fl,U"1ury 8r-1tt.$lt Cu.hurt

10. Claren ce Glac ken, Tr.a«s an 1kt RlwJ1J11 SJ.or< (University of C.alifor nia Press, 196 7). 1 I. Thomas R. Trautman, ArJ'OIIJ Jnd Hr 111slt l , J,J (lkrkclcy: Un iversity of California Prtss, 1997). 72. D.w id Brion D.avis, Jn�11miin &nJ-11�t' ll11 Ru, .i11J Fiill of SIJrtry ,,. 1Ji, Neu· WorlJ (Oxford: Oxford University press, 2006). 76. 73. Leon Pol iakov, Tlu Ar�·iin MJ'flt A H,�,o�, of Ra.-,.o anJ Ni111orwfu1 f.UJS '" Eurof" (London: Chatto Hei neman for the Sussex Un iversity Press. 1974) ; GcorJ,te Stocking. V 1,h ,nJn A11rl1r¢p and Joan 8. Landes.intro­ duction, in Monsrro\.lJ Bod,,s/Po l1111ol M1H1$lro.i 111cs in Eor ly M0Jtr11 F.,m,r-,·. ed. Knoppcrs anJ Landes (lrhaca, NY: 2004).1 6,21-22. -

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24. Bodleian Library, Oxford. Ms. Elliot 314 (Sachau-Erhe No. I 00), R,u.:.u ,IT.ilnrl•. hook 5, chap­ ter 5, fls. 62 Ja,26; also sec Brit ish Library, Londo n , Ms. Or. 168. fls. 698a-700. Work on this sect ion w as donejoi ntly with Muzaffar Alam, which whom I will be publishing a more extc:nsivt discussion of the text. For a brief and somewhat misle ading summary, sec. H . M. E1liot and J. Dowson, Tu. HislOT)' of I11JW 0.1 Told by lu Ou·n Ht�lori1 uu·: n, M11hommaJ1Jn P,riod. vol. 6, I 95-201. Othet copies may be found in the library of the Asiat ic S«iety of Bcng•I. in Hyderabad, and in Lucknow. We know that this te.xt was also in Tipu Sult a n's l ibrary, and th is miy b e the same as the curren t Asiatic Society ma n uscr ipt. 2 S. This pract ice is discussed by Anthony Reid, Suurh,o,o A�i.1 in 1lu Agt i,f Commtm, 1-150� lf>SO: V1,lumt WinJ,1 (N ew Haven, 1988). 148-51. Onocumtnlil{ju .a h1.i111'1J JJs mlSS(ic.s Jo pJ-Jr()JJo l"'r111 ,e,:u($ J-, Orunu; f,i.J1 J. vol. 12, td. Ant6nio J, Silv a Rego (Lisbon, 1958), 62-66.

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3S. British Library. London, Oriental and India Office Cc:,llection:i;, Mss. Eur. D. I 075, fmm O.C. 571,7 56 1 . Jhe answer of the KinJtof England, the Wearer of Hats, concerning what was demanded of the AmbasSJdor." On the historical context, see �njay Subrahmanyam, "Frank Submiss ions: The Company and the Muitha ls between Sir Thomas Roe and Sir William Norri$... i n Tlu \,\l.n'IJS -Of rite E11J1 lnJ 111 C.,mr11ny ed. H. V. Bowen, Maritatttte Lincoln, and Nigel Rigby (Woodbridge:, 2002),69-96. 36. Marie-C laude Porder, Un r"'"'' .uirin;iu .,1111.1.knt Li V1ihJ.,(Ull'1JJria(Jmr" de v,..twr.1.Jltnmn (Pondkhcrry, 1972). verses 5 0 2 -6 . Fo, o discussion, see Vd,heru N•royan, Roo, O,vid Shulman, and S3nj ay Subr-ahmanyam, .Sy,"h:ih of S11rs1,ma: C111rt 1111J SIJfc 111 NoyJkJ-r-riiJ T,m11l1111Jw (Delhi, 1992),1-12. 31. Tapan Raychaudhuri, "Europe in Indi a's Xenolog,y : The: Ninetcenth•Ctntur-y Record , " P11ll ,mJ P"""'· no. I }i (1992): 1 5 682. 38. for an intdliient summing-up, secJuan R. I. Cuk -1nv isihle Occidenul ism: E ighteenth-Century Jndo-Persi an Con£truct ions of the Wc$t," lrJn11rn .Sr11J 1u2 S , 3 -4( 1992), 3-16 ; and for a.n attempt a t a broaf V,Li�·r1. trans. Kai se r Ha� (Lcc ds: Pccpal Tree Press. 2001 ). 58. An()(hc:r Isl am i c travd �t'nrc: was the: nM.i. whic:h usually had the Haj to Mcc: ca as its 0$lcnsi hlc purpose., althouih, as the classic Rahl.a of lhn Bauuta Jemunstratc:s. the journey could extend far beyond that . Both it and the less•Ha j centen:J �·�·111.,unJmJ )ttnrc, allqtc:Jly de scribed rcal·life loca· 1 ions and occurrtnces. but could alS1ty of Gtor�i• P«ss,1904-1916. 1976-1989),20: SO. 49 . Eleazar Wheelock to John Thornton. August 2S, I768. in Richardson, lnJ 1an PrtaI f¢r lnJc f"nJJn\c (Cuernavaca. Mexico. 1968) !Coll. Sondeos Nr. 25]. 14. Fray Servando Teresa de Mier. H1�1t.m. J, .i L RmAu, 11m J,· J f\u,1·11 & ul1.l, J"'�("Jmtnu An.i 1u.M. c , I r l t•crJJJ.:,o ,m;(,'" y •J11J,.1 J, et«nth centurywooden hone from Ponugal in Dahomey. Ph01ognph byS.P.Blic,1986.

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.Aperi;us

counterfeit, the masquerade) to carry a larger message-the primacy of power. Critical in this as well was the identification of the horse (mule, elephant) as a beast of burden. How (and on what) a king appeared, was a vital political statement, of importance both locally and i n the world at large.37 That some of these constituted appropriations o f European forms made this all the more notable. The use of European carriages suggests similar ideas of burden and difference. A range of these forms was displayed during the annual cus­ toms that Richard Burton witnessed. He observes accordingly: "Then the royal equipages began to pass, the animals being men harnessed with ropes. Most of them are old barouches and other presents given to the kings when slavery was an important branch of English commerce.... Many of these heirlooms are becoming valuable as antiques. The first were of home, or native manufacture.n Dozens of these imported c a r ­ riages were wheeled around the palace during the annual ceremonies and on other occasions. According to Forbes in m i d -nineteent h -century !260

annual ceremonies there appeared "a great number of carriages ...of all sizes from the family coach to the Bath chair, some handsomely carved.n Among other such vehicles described by Forbes: "A green chariot from England ... a Landeau and a chariot in yellow from the same country as well as an English wheeled chair from the time of Elizabeth, and English family coach.... an elegant blue and gold sedan chair ... [and] a small cabriolet, lined with crimson silk. One locally made coach carry­ ing the king during the annual ceremonies was drawn by 42 men.38 Another "vehicle," which found particular prominence in the Dahomey court, was a red sedan chair that was given to King Tegbesu by one of the early slave traders-a work in which he later was buried because of his partiality to it. Not only did the kings make a point of rid­ ing exotic European import carriages (and chairs) in public, but a number of local versions were commissioned by these rulers as well.Forbes d oc u ­ ments one such astonishing local carriage: "a glass coach, the handiwork of Hoo-tan-gee [Huntondji) a native artist." Skertchly seeing this glass carriage twenty years later observed that the king: "road in the glass char­ iot made by his 'goldsmith,' a cumbrous affair, like a square photographic studio on wheels.... The carriage was fearfully jolted over the rough s u r ­ face of the ground as it was thrice dragged round the square, his majesty Digiti zed by

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Europe Observed bowing to us as he passed our chairs.· Whether Dahomey's monarchs had ever heard about the famous glass Cinderella coach of European folklore or whether this presents some other form of Dahomey visual play is not clear. What can be said, however, is that European forms-here vehi­ cles-were an instigation for some of Dahomey' s most creative arts. 39 Here, too, their very form and primacy cross from the merely symbolic into the arena of political expression and one-upmanship. C.Oncomitant with the importance of these giant sculpture vehi­ cles-some of which as we have seen depict elephants, mules, and horses-in both Dahomey and Europe in the latter half of the nine­ teenth century, local artists evinced a striking interest in monumenta l ­ ism particularly in the context of state (i.e., political) sculpture. This giganticism, otherwise unusual in sub-Saharan African art, also can be seen in a unique grouping of Dahomey works drawn from European sources, in this case as religious expressions. King Guezo indeed is known to have ordered from Europe a set of sculptures representing the principal "Gods" of Christianity. Outlined above, these works comprised various sculptures of saints. Burton, perhaps referencing some of these objects, observed "a short St. Lawrence and Grid-iron; a Dominican friar and other statuettes." Another sculpture of European manufacture (Figure 9) found its way to a shrine in the family compound of the Akati blacksmith family, the artist who created Dahomey's famous life-size iron warrior sculpture.40 Early accounts also provide us insight into how these saint sculp­ tures were received in Dahomey. The local rationale for these foreign art acquisitions is noted i n the 1861 report. A key phrase in this report suggests that Guezo "had for a long time desired to be initiated in our

religion to which he attributed our superiority over the blacks." As noted above, Repin described the arrival and presentation of these saint figures at the Dahomean court, noting that he had brought them "on the

express demand of the king, who had manifested a desire to see the fetiches of the whites." Later in this article, he describes their initial display at court: "Behind us, one had placed the saint statues on pedestals . . . ; they had no need, like us, of a guard to defend them from the indiscrete curiosity of the people, because these blacks, who knew they were white fitiches, only approached them with respectful fear." Digiti zed by

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26 II

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Repin also offers

poignant

insight into how these works were being

framed locally: In passing in front of the statues of the saints he [Guczo) asked about the names of each of them: but after having heard them named, he manifested a fear of forgetting these new terms himself. According to Repin, the min­ ister Mehu thought of an indigenous means to assure this-and an early outcome:

He had as many men as there were saints approach (the front). placed the men near each work, and declared to them that no matter what, they must remember the name by which their new patron (saint) was desig· oared, adding that they should take guard not to forget, because he would go after their heads. The next day, a small tragi-comic scene occurred. One of these poor devils (it was Saint Laurence) had, despite the recommen­ dation, forgotten his new name. In seeing us pass on our way to the king, he ran up to us in a most vivid discomfort, trying to make us understand the precarious position in which he found himself. Thanks 10 our inter­ preter, we ended up understanding what he wanted, and in receiving his embrace, w e recalled for him his name of Saint Laurence, and he left re�ating it on his lips in the m0st comic way in the world.41

How much the Dahomeans knew of the European histories of these saints or their symbolic attributes is not clear, but one of the included works is said to have represented Saint Roch, a popular local saint invoked during epidemics of the plague. This saint in Europe often is shown holding a staff with a gourd. Smallpox was an important problem in mid-nineteenth-century Dahomey, and small gourds often were used t o carry medical substances, suggesting that here, too, it may have held special meaning. By acquiring (appropriating) the requisite objects of European faith and worship, and then by modeling a distinctive local corpus of figures after them, the Dahomey monarchs in essence succeeded in appropriat­ ing their power. Regardless of rationale, here, too, it is clear that royal Dahomey works modeled after European art sources reflected distinc­ tively Dahomey insight, imagination, and creativity. Suggesting at once a form of aesthetic pastiche and cultural cannibalism (here an apparent desire to access the vital force assumed critical for the well-being of Digiti zed by

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Aper�us

another population), related objects served here, too, as a ground through which idioms of power and difference were tactically engaged, with related reconfigurations helping locally to both trace difference and reframe it. 42 Knowledge of this gift also provides us with insight into the late nineteenth-century zoomorphic carvings of Dahomey kings including a life size heraldic lion linked to King Glele. 43 This work and several oth­ ers created with it shows striking similarities with provincial European saint sculptures, particularly in the neoclassical contraposto stances and triumphant raised arm gesture. The life size proportions of the works are also noteworthy. Surprisingly, naturalism and realism, two major con­ cerns in European art at this time, were of less importance to the Dahomey sculptors than other factors. Like Picasso and others working in France at the turn of the century for whom African art was a vital

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artistic source, local Dahomey artists were picking and choosing among the various features of the foreign works with which they engaged. There is no way that one would confuse the gigantic lion statue repre­ senting King Glele's animal avatar with either a work of European her­ aldry or a Catholic saint. Indeed these royal human-zoomorphic sculptures no more resemble European arts of the period than does Picasso's oeuvre recall specific works of African art. In both, however, there were vital social concerns at play as well. Many of the European inspired arts in Dahomey (whether of Western or local manufacture) served to reinforce not only the stature and authority of the monarchy but also its religious and political primacy. In both cases, core features of artistic cannibalism and concomitant collapse of historic and geographic signifiers of difference found grounding in a desire to capture the power (and primacy) of the Other. Here, as so often happens in the history of art, we can see the use of quotation to signal historical connection and disparity, helping both to collapse and reinforce historic, cultural, and geographic distance. Political concerns are also of interest with respect to Dahomey prac­ tices of appropriation of European-linked architectural forms. Several additional examples of this can be seen in the palace buildings con­ structed during the reign of King Guezo. The two story entry way into Guezo's palace was modeled on European trading houses in the port Digiti zed by

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Europe Obs,rv,d city of Ouidah. Illustrations of these structures suggest complements with Guezo's two-story palace entry structure. Through this form of architectural borrowing, King Guezo reinforced his close ties with the area's Brazilian and European traders (who were an important source of his wealth and power) at the same time as underscoring his own unique position of power (and difference) in his own capital, Abomey. The help that the Brazilian slave trader de Souza had offered Guezo in the coup d'etat, which brought the latter king to the throne, no doubt was impor­ tant, too. That architectural borrowing had important meaning i n Dahomey also can be seen in the fact that Guezo had named one of his princely palaces, "Coomasi," after the Asante kingdom's capital (Kumasi) to the west. The adoption of this name followed a successful mock-battle against this rival (and much more powerful) kingdom. In naming his palace "Coomasi," Guezo sought t o make visible his superi­ ority over this political competitor. Although Guezo had never seen Kumasi (nor presumably had his architects and troops) he was able to architecturally appropriate the identity of the latter fortign capital through the usurping of its name. Guezo's son, Glele followed the same foreign appropriation tradi­ tion by naming his palace entry, Wehonji, "the entrance of mirrors," a term apparently inspired by the palace of Louis XIV. The interior walls of this structure, appropriately, were said to be decorated with mirrors. As with the case of the powerful Asante kingdom, Dahomey clearly could not defeat France in war, but in the appropriation of one of its most important architectural symbols, Dahomey was able to convey in visual terms vital ideas of domination. Art and architectural appropria­ tion here, too, carried an important and enduring political message. What should be emphasized here, to conclude, is that artists have often been at the forefront of bridging strikingly different worlds, reli­ gions, and values. One should note in this light that to some degree it was inevitable that Dahomey artists would have sought actively to engage in the visual of culture of Europe, which inundated the west African coast in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the case of Dahomey, the desire to appropriate European art traditions clearly dove­ tailed with the role of the court i n brokering valued power symbols of both local or foreign origin. Politics and artistic citation in this way are Digiti zed by

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closely tied. Dahomey kings clearly saw politics as an ongoing process of appropriating the dominant power symbols of those with whom they engaged through a policy of capture, transformation, and display. Here artistic appropriation had long been recognized as a critical part of the political process. N,ptcs

I. Adolphe &din,j,J11·8ilp11,,11 8l.i111J..;1rJ .iw. 0Jkm,:,. J.,1.,·11.il J, IJ Camf"J:"' ["Jr w11 MarSc)1o1111 (Paris, 1895). f ,g . I. A. Colin. (illus. P . Kauffman). 2. Frederick Edwyn Forhcs, D.zh"lttfY and rl'lt f>.Jlt11m,u.. � , 8nn$: 1h, Jtnmwfs a{TU' Mis!(WltS ro rh, Krng of D.ilt., m,y RrnJcnu .ir His Car1111l i11 du Y,ar.t UW9 11,i.d 1950 vols. I and 2 (London : Franlc Gu.s and C.O., Ltd., 1966 rtprint of 185I edit i on), front is p iece,76-77. There a.re other n0tablc examples as w ell of the importance of European import hats. Wallon nou.s for example that "A French slave trader whose name: is well known in Dahomey lately had the ide a tO make a gift toGbczoof a hun· drtd very brilliant fireman's helmets" (F. Wallon ..Le Royaume d(: Dahomey," in Rm&< Mari11m, 8, ( 1861): 345.A, Boutt would earlier explai n with ttgard to this gift: "I added oomc other articles. among Others SO fiKme n's helmets bought at the reformed Temple, which I counted on having a superb effect in Dahomey· (Auguste Boue1 "L: Royoume de Dahomey. Relat ion d u voyage de M. le Lieutenant de va.isstau Auguste Soult, cnvoye en mission pres du roi de dahomey, en mai 185 I ... Ull/...,1 ,a1>n 20. 490 Uuly 17. I 852). 39.). Forbes describes what appe,r to be these same helmets at co un , noting th.at while visi ting the king he saw "six ladie s of the chamber dressed most magnif­ icently ...: one wort a Charles ll's hat.covtrtd with gold lace and milk-white plume s ; the other five wore gilt helmets. with green and rtd plumes." (Forbes. D,hom,y YOI. 2, 237), 3. See Roberto Pazzi, Jntrod'ucticn a nustOtr, d, 1'111rt c11hurtllc Aja1a.do, Erudcs ct Documents de Sciences Humains, UnivcrsitC du Benin, Ser. A, no. I (l.omC:: UnivcrsitC de Benin/ lnstitut National del Sciencc,de !"Education,March 1979). 254. 247). 4 . King Guezo·s son. King Gide ( 1858-89) also showed a keen interest in Europea n hats and other formsof attire. Among the various hats dcxunlcnted by A .Skcrtchly in Glelc's possession were "'a la'lle brood-brimmed fclc ha,. heavily braided wich gold." a ·gold rimmed black hat." and a ·gold­ br,ided cardi nal"s hac." On anocher occasi on Skenchly observed thac Gide appe,red in ·a pe•ked topped cap of black velvet with scarlet binding. che potcern being evidently take n from a scotch bon· net." Some of the king's coun were similarly dressed in European attire. Thus Skenchly nO(es for the ann ua1 royal ceremoniesthat ·Tens of the. king's ...men wttt dressed in calico trousers and black frock coots." Of a group of Dahomey so ldiers parading before the king. Skertchl y observed tha� "The blunderbuss-men ... (wetn &o Gd,lt: 189, n . 1.

14. Lamb in Forbes, D11 homty, 187, 189; Norr is, Memoirs. xi. Lamb writes with respect to the Dahomey King that: "though he seems to be a man o f great nuural pans and sense as any of h is colour, yet he takes g r eat deli ght in trifling toys and whims; so that if y ou have anythin g of that kind, I pray you will send the m to me, or any prints o r pictures, h e much loving to look in a boolc, and commonly carries• Latin mass-book in his poclce-t, which he had from the mulatto; and when he has a mind to b ante r any body out of their requests, he looks in his book as studiously as if he und erstood it, and could e mploy his thought on no Other subject; and much affects scruwling on paper. ofte n sending me his letters (Lamb in Forbes, ().J,...,y, vol.2, 189-90� 15. InJean-Claude Nardin, "La Reprise des relat ions franco-dahomtennes au XIXe sitde. La miss ion d'Auguste Bouct a la cour d'Abomey ( 1851 )." i n C,h.,., J'Ei.Ju Af.-ic,,.,, (1967): 7, 25, 117. A, Boue{"'t noc:es soon afrer his arrival in the capital: "The king got up, came toward me and .. , me news about the King of Fronce, and mine. , . , He received the letter [ from pres of Republic) wi th joy, and having been brou ght a magnificent cabaret I wid e service tray I in massiv e silve r, he asked that we drink t o the health of the King of France (Boutt, "Le Royaume de Dahomey." 94). Accordi ng tD &11il, 1J.c D.:1hom,y mu1i,s1tr of E11ropt4ns (1J., Yarogan) "i"'.sud for l1 is r1ri. " 1,111 1form of on inf-,niry copc,1111 wl'.IJ. 1n�ignio. B.n1t"l nolc.s wi11' rc.sf"CI lo 11'is uqucsl d1.a1 d1t 11n1fi'1rm ·.J1M1IJ be t>