The Hydraulic Press

A Royal Gentleman Gone.

Death, the great leveller, who spares neither age, sex nor station - who strikes with his remorseless scythe the lowest and highest forms of life alike, has claimed for his own at last the famous king of Dahomey. For the enlightenment of those who do not follow the footsteps of royalty, we will briefly explain:

Dahomey is an extremely fertile kingdom of Western Africa, on the coast of Guinea, with boundaries not very well ascertained - according to our grave authority, they being liable to extension or abridgement with the power or weakness of its sovereign. It abounds in such amiable animals as lions, hyenas, panthers, monkeys, slave traders and negroes, and the religion of the realm is Fetishism, or idolatry. For twenty-five years or more Dahomey has been ruled over by one Gezo, a wily, scheming, warlike, conquering monarch who subjected to his sway several independent tribes and succeeded in making a great name to himself amongst the outside barbarians of Europe and America. He had a female army consisting of from five to eight thousand ebon Amazons, who sported muskets, short swords and clubs with all the freedom, grace and skill of California desperadoes. He fomented and conducted a series of bloody wars which might well put Quaker kings to the blush, and to relieve his densely populated realm annually sold into foreign slavery nine thousand of his fortunate people. One of his principal amusements on gala days was the wholesale slaughter of his subjects, who were only too happy to please their lord so easily; though latterly this noble sport had rather declined, and the number of victims to royalty and superstition would not excite wonder except amongst the most lily-livered whites. After successfully daring Great Britain - pre-eminent distinction! - and being courted by the third Napoleon, Gezo, king of Dahomey, has been obliged to pay the common debt of mortality. It is gratifying to learn that every honor was paid to his memory. The newspapers say that his obsequies were worthy of the man. The traders attended in considerable numbers, and assisted, bringing each his quota of slaves to be sacrificed to his memory. Unfortunately, only eight hundred in all were thus sacrificed, instead of two thousand as was at first intended. It is supposed the high value of slaves was what led to this reduction. Thus sordidness shows its hateful front even at the grave of virtue! But it is to be hoped that even eight hundred served to appease the spirit of Gezo, and that now, "after life's fitful fever, he sleeps well."