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Bulfinch Lambe and the Emperor of Pawpaw: A Footnote to Agaja and the Slave Trade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Marion Johnson
Marion Johnson*
Affiliation:
Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham
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Extract

In “Agaja and the Slave Trade” it was argued that the evidence cited to support Akinjogbin's view of Agaja's attitude to the slave trade did not in fact give any support to his view. Particular reference was made to Bulfinch Lambe, whose “Proposal” was quoted by Atkins in support of his interpretation of Agaja's motives for the conquest of Whydah –– the only contemporary to give an interpretation in line with Akinjogbin's.

Atkins was not on the coast at the time of the conquest of Whydah (nor, apparently, had he been there since 1722); but it seems that he met Lambe, presumably after Lambe's return to England. Atkins refers to Lambe's “scheme of trade, said to be proposed from that Emperor [Agaja] and laid before our Commissioners of Trade;” he leaves the reader with the impression that nothing was ever done about the matter, “and Captain Lamb, tho' under a solemn Promise to return, never gave any Account of his Embassy to that Prince.”

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 5 , 1978 , pp. 345 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1978

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References

NOTES

1. Henige, David and Johnson, Marion, “Agaja and the Slave Trade,” History in Africa, 3(1976), pp. 57–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. Atkins, John, A Voyage to Guinea, Brazil and the Vest Indies (London, 1735), p. 121.Google Scholar

3. Ibid, p. 67.

4. Ibid, p. 122.

5. Snelgrave, William, A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea and the Slave Trade (London, 1734), pp. 66–72.Google Scholar

6. Burton, Richard, A mission to Gelele (London, 1864Google Scholar, rep, ed. Newbury, Colin W., London, 1966), pp. 99–100n.Google Scholar

7. Particularly so, since the references are given by Newton, A.P. in his introduction to the Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, 1731, ed. Headlam, C. and Newton, A.P., (London, 1938), lxvi.Google Scholar

8. Journal of the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, Jan. 1728/9-Dec. 1734, (London, 1928), pp. 199, 201–03, 213–17.Google Scholar

9. The most important of the separate traders, a London Merchant often consulted by the Commissioners; see also Atkins, , Voyage, p. 159.Google Scholar

10. This is the only use of this title in the papers of the Commissioners; elsewhere Agaja is always referred to as “The Emperor of Pawpaw,” a title for which there seems to be no explanation, apart from the fact that the coast eastwards of the Volta was sometimes known as the Popo or “Paupau” coast, from the towns of Little Popo and Grand Popo. The King of Dahomey did not extend his rule over these towns, which gave asylum to the king of Whydah after his defeat in 1727.

11. CO 267/5.