Consul John Beecroft's Journal of His Mission to Dahomey, 1850
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In 1850 John Beecroft (a British Consul in West Africa) kept a diary of his diplomatic mission to the kingdom of Dahomey (in what is today the Republic of Bénin). His (unsuccessful) assignment was to suppress the trans-Atlantic slave trade and to persuade the Dahomian king, Gezo, to accept a treaty to ban the export of slaves from his dominions.