obur that everybody was on
the move.

Long lines of Dahomians were hurrying along the roads from the
country into the capital, Abomey. Well kept roads radiating among
vast plains clothed with giant trees, immense fields of manioc,
magnificent forests of palms, cocoa-trees, mimosas, orange-trees,
mango-trees--such was the country whose perfumes mounted to the
"Albatross," while many parrots and cardinals swarmed among the trees.

The engineer, leaning over the rail, seemed deep in thought, and
exchanged but a few words with Tom Turner. It did not look as though
the "Albatross" had attracted the attention of those moving masses,
which were often invisible under the impenetrable roof of trees. This
was doubtless due to her keeping at a good altitude amid a bank of
light cloud.

About eleven o'clock in the morning the capital was sighted,
surrounded by its walls, defended by a fosse measuring twelve miles
round, with wide, regular streets on the flat plain, and a large
square on the northern side occupied by the king's palace. This huge
collection of buildings is commanded by a terrace not far from the
place of sacrifice. During the festival days it is from this high
terrace that they throw the prisoners tied up in wicker baskets, and
it can be imagined with what fury these unhappy wretches are cut in
pieces.

In one of the courtyards which divide the king's palace there were
drawn up four thousand warriors, one of the contigents of the royal
army--and not the least courageous one. If it is doubtful if there
are any Amazons an the river of that name, there is no doubt of there
being Amazons at Dahomey. Some have a blue shirt with a blue or red
scarf, with white-and-blue striped trousers and a white cap; others,
the elephant-huntresses, have a heavy carbine, a short-bladed dagger,
and two antelope horns fixed to their heads by a band of iron. The
artillery-women have a blue-and-red tunic, and, as weapons,
blunderbusses and old cast cannons; and another brigade, consisting
of vestal virgins, pure as Diana, have blue tunics and white
trousers. If we add to these Amazons, five or six thousand men in
cotton drawers and shirts, with a knotted tuft to increase their
stature, we shall have passed in review the Dahomian army.

Abomey on this day was deserted. The sovereign, the royal family, the
masculine and feminine army, and the population had all gone out of
the capital to a vast plain a few miles away surrounded by
magn