dge that we go to war for the purpose of supplying your
ships with slaves, are grossly mistaken.

You think you can work a reformation as you call it, in the manners of
the blacks; but you ought to consider the disproportion between the
magnitude of the two countries; and then you will soon be convinced of
the difficulties that must be surmounted, to change the system of such a
vast country as this. We know you are a brave people, and that you might
bring over a great many of the blacks to your opinions, by points of your
bayonets; but to effect this, a great many must be put to death and
numerous cruelties must be committed, which we do not find to have been
the practice of the whites; besides, that this would militate against the
very principle which is professed by those who wish to bring about a
reformation.

In the name of my ancestors and myself, I aver, that no Dahoman ever
embarked in war merely for the sake of procuring wherewithal to purchase
your commodities. I, who have not been long master of this country, have
without thinking of the market, killed many thousands, and I shall kill
many thousands more. When policy or justice requires that men be put to
death, neither silk, nor coral, nor brandy, nor cowries, can be accepted
as substitutes for the blood that ought to be spilt for example sake:
besides if white men chuse to remain at home, and no longer visit this
country for the same purpose that has usually brought them thither, will
black men cease to make war? I answer, by no means, and if there be no
ships to receive their captives, what will become of them? I answer, for
you, they will be put to death. Perhaps you may be asked, how will the
blacks be punished with guns and powder? I reply by another question, had
we not clubs, and bows, and arrows before we knew white men? Did not you
see me make _custom_--annual ceremony--for Weebaigah, the third king of
Dahomey? And did you not observe on the day such ceremony was performing,
that I carried a bow in my hand, and a quiver filled with arrows on my
back? These were the emblems of the times; when, with such weapons, that
brave ancestor fought and conquered all his neighbors. God made war for
all the world; and every kingdom, large or small, has practiced it, more
or less, though perhaps in a manner unlike, and upon different principles.
Did Weebaigah sell slaves? No; his prisoners were all killed to a man.
What else could he have done with them? Was he to