The officer who brought back a princess

"To have refused would have been to have signed her death warrant." — Frederick Forbes, on accepting the child Aina

In July 1850, Captain Frederick Edwyn Forbes of the Royal Navy arrived at the coast of Dahomey on a British diplomatic mission. His instructions from the Foreign Office were straightforward: persuade King Ghezo to end Dahomey's participation in the Atlantic slave trade.

He failed in that objective. But his mission produced two lasting legacies: a detailed book about the kingdom, and the rescue of a young girl who would become one of Victorian England's most remarkable figures.

Who was frederick Forbes?

Forbes was a career naval officer with experience on anti-slavery patrols off the West African coast. The British Navy's West Africa Squadron had been intercepting slave ships for decades, and Forbes had seen the human cost of the trade firsthand. His appointment to lead the diplomatic mission to Dahomey came from a combination of naval experience and diplomatic instinct.

Unlike Richard Burton, who visited fourteen years later, Forbes was not a famous explorer. He was a competent officer who wrote well, and his book Dahomey and the Dahomans; being the journals of two missions to the king of Dahomey, and residence at his capital, in the year 1849 and 1850 is the work of a practical naval man, not a celebrity adventurer.

The mission to king Ghezo

King Ghezo (reigned 1818-1858) was at the height of his power when Forbes arrived. Ghezo had transformed Dahomey from a tributary of Oyo into an independent military power, expanded the army, and enriched the kingdom through military campaigns and the slave trade. He was not inclined to abandon the source of that wealth.

Forbes made two journeys to Abomey. The first established diplomatic contact; the second, more detailed, produced the bulk of his observations.

The March to Abomey

Forbes recorded the journey from the coast with precision. The road passed through villages controlled by Dahomey's administration, with each community required to provide labour for road maintenance and porterage for official travellers. The system impressed him as evidence of a sophisticated state apparatus.

Life at court

Forbes spent several weeks at Abomey, observing the royal court. He described:

The Royal Palaces: The interconnected palace compounds, each with its own courtyard, audience hall, and quarters for the king's wives and officials.

The Administration: The Migan (prime minister), the Meu (second minister), the tax collectors, and the provincial governors who reported to Ghezo.

The Mino: Forbes produced the most famous early drawing of the Dahomey Amazons — the 1851 illustration of Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh, a Mino commander, which remains one of the most reproduced images from the kingdom.

The Annual Customs: He witnessed parts of the Huetanu ceremonies, including military parades, tribute presentations, and the ceremonial display of captives.

The drawing of seh-dong-hong-beh

Forbes' illustration of Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh is remarkable. It shows a Mino warrior holding a musket and a machete, wearing a tunic and a cap with insignia. The caption identifies her as "a Dahoman Amazon of the king's bodyguard."

This drawing is the best-known visual record of a Mino warrior from the 19th century. It has been reproduced in histories, documentaries, and museum exhibits worldwide. It is also the source of one of the few named Mino figures from the period — Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh.

Sarah Forbes Bonetta: The girl who crossed the Atlantic

Forbes' most consequential act in Dahomey was not diplomatic or literary. It was the acceptance of a gift.

King Ghezo presented Forbes with a young girl, approximately eight years old, who had been captured in a raid and was destined for sacrifice at the annual customs. Her name was Aina. Forbes later wrote that refusing the gift would have condemned her to death.

He named her Sarah Forbes Bonetta — Sarah after his ship's patron, Forbes after himself, and Bonetta after his ship, HMS Bonetta. He brought her to England, where she was presented to Queen Victoria.

Sarah Forbes Bonetta became the queen's goddaughter. She was educated in England, showed remarkable intellectual ability, and became a figure in Victorian high society. She later married a wealthy Sierra Leonean merchant, Captain James Davies, and returned to West Africa.

Her story is extraordinary in its own right. But it begins with Forbes' mission to Dahomey.

Forbes' book: An underrated source

Dahomey and the Dahomans (1851) is less famous than Burton's A Mission to Gelele, but in some ways it is more valuable. Forbes was less judgemental than Burton. He recorded what he saw with less editorialising, and his naval training made him an excellent observer of practical details: distances, fortifications, troop numbers, and logistics.

Forbes also recorded aspects of Dahomey that Burton missed: the daily life of ordinary people, the structure of villages, the agricultural calendar, and the role of women outside the Mino.

Forbes' limitations

Forbes was not an ethnographer. He was a naval officer on a specific mission, and his observations were shaped by that mission's priorities. He was more interested in military capacity and political structures than in religion or culture.

He was also a product of his time. He opposed the slave trade but accepted the racial hierarchies of Victorian Britain. His descriptions, while detailed, carry the assumptions of a man who believed in British civilisation as a superior model.

The legacy

Forbes returned to England, published his book, and faded from public view. He never became famous like Burton. But his work has endured.

• His drawings of Dahomey are among the most important visual records of the kingdom
• His account of the mission provides a crucial counterpoint to Burton's more famous book
• His rescue of Sarah Forbes Bonetta saved a life that would become historically significant in its own right

Forbes proves that you do not have to be a celebrity to change history. Sometimes, a competent naval officer with a journal and a conscience is enough.

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Explore further: King Ghezo — The Warrior King · Richard Burton's Mission to Abomey · The Dahomey Slave Trade · Dahomey Amazons — Real History · Ouidah Origins

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