Note 129 — Chapter V

The earliest sketch of Dahome is a letter dated Abomey, November 27, 1724, from Mr. Bulfinch Lambe (not Lamb), agent at Allada for the English African Company, addressed to Mr. Tinker (not Tucker) the commandant of the English fort, Whydah. The capture of Allada is graphically, and in the main faithfully, described; and Commander Forbes found it so curious and truthful that he reprinted it in his Appendix, No. 1, from the end of “Smith’s New Voyage to Guinea” (1745). Mr. Lambe quitted Agbome about April, 1726. According to Captain Snelgrave, he took with him, by the King’s order, a Jackin negro, named Tom, who had been made prisoner at Allada, and who, speaking English, was sent to see England, and to bring back a report for the King’s ears. Instead of this he sold Tom to a gentleman in Maryland. Then hearing in Antigua, in 1728, that the King had promised to him a shipload of slaves if he came back in time, he persuaded Tom’s master to give him up, and returned with him to England in 1731. Finding it was too late to revisit Africa after five years, Lambe forged a letter from the King of Dahome to George II., and made Tom Dahoman ambassador, under the name of Prince Adomo Oroonoko Tomo. “Prince Tom” was a great success till Captain Snelgrave ridiculed English credulity, the King’s letter was declared supposititious by the Lords of Trade, and the slave-ambassador was sent back to his own country, “where, no doubt, he made an advantageous report of the sagacity and penetration of our countrymen.”