New Hampshire Statesman And Concord Register

AN AFRICAN KING.

A gentleman named Houston, who has travelled much in Africa, in a letter from Bahia, dated April 7, 1825, writes to his friends at Manchester as follows:—"I resided in Benin the greater part of 1822 and 1823, and had I not already written more than sufficient to exhaust your patience, I could give you some description and anecdotes of that country and people which might amuse you. But I must close with an allusion to the King's domestic establishment, and which may interest some of your friends. His Majesty is a fine noble black fellow, of about 35 years of age: beloved by his people and feared by his enemies; and has yet only about 500 wives, and from 40 to 50 children. He communicated an idea to me, on which his imperial thoughts had for some time ruminated, and which I, as other favorites of royalty, of course praised, and that highly too;—this was no less than the design, fraught with profound political wisdom, of improving the blood-royal by adding to his seraglio a white lady!—I offered my services to make known his most gracious thoughts to those of the red rose and the white' of my country; on which he promised to bind himself to make the said lady his only queen and his other wives her slaves and servants. On this we parted, with his desiring me to give his respects to his brother, the King of England, and should his Majesty be in want of a wife, there were a dozen of the Princesses of Benin at his service."