Note 80 — Chapter XV
Reading edition
It is said that Gelele has resolved to grind the faces of his subjects for ten years, of which six have now elapsed. After that time they will be applied to honest labour, and a man shall live on a cowrie a day, so cheap will provisions become. He thus inverts the Quinquennium Neronis, and however allegiant may be his people, he will probably carry severity too far. But lately forty families have fled in a batch to “Porto Novo” as a land of liberty, and they will be followed by others.