Note 141 — Chapter V

In the oldest authors, Bosman and Barbot, it is called Great Ardrah, and is placed at the distance of sixteen leagues from its port, Little Ardrah or Offra, with which it was connected by a good and spacious road. The latter is clearly our modern “Porto Novo”—New Haven—which the Yorubas call “Ijashe,” and the Popos “Hwebonu.” Hence some writers, as Mr. Norris (1772), make Ardrah, or Assem, on the Lagoon, and Ardrah, or Alladah, in the interior. So Commander Forbes (vol. i. p. 12) speaks of “Ardrah, whose capital Allahdah still remains.” “Porto Novo” proper is the old “beach” or port of Hwebonu, and is mentioned in the History. It lies four to five miles from its main town, and was rebuilt by M. J. D. Martinez. We have blunderingly transferred its name to the chief settlement on the Lagoon. Unless read by this light, the History will in places—for instance, the troubles between Allada (Porto Novo) and Dahome, in 1786—be unintelligible.