Lot Essay
The three meetings between the Alake and Commander Bedingfield in November 1861 concluded with a signed Treaty in which the King promised to take measures to supress the exportation of slaves, to stop human sacrifices at Abeokuta and not to shut the road between Lagos and Abeokuta without the consent of H.M.'s Governor at Lagos.
The party received news of a human sacrifice at Abeokuta within a week of their return to Lagos
'Thereupon H.M. appeared, encaged, like Clapperton's portrait of the Bornuese Sultan; or, to choose a comparison nearer home, like a denizen of one of the larger dens in the Zoological Gardens. The shape and appearance of the appartment was exactly that of Mr. Punch, magnified perhaps a score of times; and it was a hole in the wall, under whose outside verandah we were sitting. The loose box was full of women and children, probably part of H.M.'s fine family ... Such was the setting that enclosed the picture. The picture itself was as curious. Okukeno, the Alake of Abeokuta, is said to be between sixty and seventy years old ... He was a large and massive man, blind in one eye ... heavy featured, coarse, and unprepossessing ... Altogether he suggested the idea of an old, very damaged and very rickety lion. His dress was a tall fez-like cap of crimson velvet, disfigured by a pendant fringe of small blue porcelain beads round the upper third ... His only body-cloth which appeared in view was a toga, of white watered silk, striped with broad crimson bands; and it sat on him incongruously enough. His manner was as peculiar as his audience-chamber and his appearance. He seemed more than three parts asleep, and we could never decide whether the cause was old age, affectation of dignity, or the two greenish glasses of strong water placed before him ... When the curtain was raised, we were severally introduced by the interpreter, Lagos Williams, and Commander Bedingfield shook hands with the Alake. Our 'mouf', as the linguist is here called, then opened the 'palaver' with sundry set and dreadfully sententious sentences ... In reply the Alake hung down his head, and affected to doze, which to say the least, was not polite.
Then the carousing began. My companions thought it their duty to imbibe some vile stuff in the shape of strong waters ... After the drinking, we wanted to depart - I especially, who, after drawing out my sketch-book, had, at the request of those present, been obliged to put it out of sight.' (Abeokuta, I, pp.140-9 (Presented at Court))
'After com'liments - to use the customary initial formula of diplomatic communication in these regions - which were acknowledged by the chief protruding his tongue, he sat down ... and became the central point of a female semi-circle ... Two others, on his right and left, used cow-skin fans: when undue warmth troubled the great man's body ... The rest grouped themselves near the wall, in a crescent, open to the front. Commander Bedingfield sat down opposite the Alake, Mr. Eales on the right of his chief officer, whilst I took my place in the rear for the purpose of easier sketching' (ibid., pp. 280-1 (Our second visit to the King))
The party received news of a human sacrifice at Abeokuta within a week of their return to Lagos
'Thereupon H.M. appeared, encaged, like Clapperton's portrait of the Bornuese Sultan; or, to choose a comparison nearer home, like a denizen of one of the larger dens in the Zoological Gardens. The shape and appearance of the appartment was exactly that of Mr. Punch, magnified perhaps a score of times; and it was a hole in the wall, under whose outside verandah we were sitting. The loose box was full of women and children, probably part of H.M.'s fine family ... Such was the setting that enclosed the picture. The picture itself was as curious. Okukeno, the Alake of Abeokuta, is said to be between sixty and seventy years old ... He was a large and massive man, blind in one eye ... heavy featured, coarse, and unprepossessing ... Altogether he suggested the idea of an old, very damaged and very rickety lion. His dress was a tall fez-like cap of crimson velvet, disfigured by a pendant fringe of small blue porcelain beads round the upper third ... His only body-cloth which appeared in view was a toga, of white watered silk, striped with broad crimson bands; and it sat on him incongruously enough. His manner was as peculiar as his audience-chamber and his appearance. He seemed more than three parts asleep, and we could never decide whether the cause was old age, affectation of dignity, or the two greenish glasses of strong water placed before him ... When the curtain was raised, we were severally introduced by the interpreter, Lagos Williams, and Commander Bedingfield shook hands with the Alake. Our 'mouf', as the linguist is here called, then opened the 'palaver' with sundry set and dreadfully sententious sentences ... In reply the Alake hung down his head, and affected to doze, which to say the least, was not polite.
Then the carousing began. My companions thought it their duty to imbibe some vile stuff in the shape of strong waters ... After the drinking, we wanted to depart - I especially, who, after drawing out my sketch-book, had, at the request of those present, been obliged to put it out of sight.' (Abeokuta, I, pp.140-9 (Presented at Court))
'After com'liments - to use the customary initial formula of diplomatic communication in these regions - which were acknowledged by the chief protruding his tongue, he sat down ... and became the central point of a female semi-circle ... Two others, on his right and left, used cow-skin fans: when undue warmth troubled the great man's body ... The rest grouped themselves near the wall, in a crescent, open to the front. Commander Bedingfield sat down opposite the Alake, Mr. Eales on the right of his chief officer, whilst I took my place in the rear for the purpose of easier sketching' (ibid., pp. 280-1 (Our second visit to the King))