Total Pageviews

Saturday, August 31, 2013

African Princess

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

A beautiful African princess ...

Born an African princess around 1843, she was captured as a small child by a rival nation, who had killed her parents, and took the girl to be killed eventually in a ritual sacrifice. A European naval officer, on a mission in the autumn of 1849 to negotiate an end the slave trade, interceded for the child, demanding her as a gift for his Queen. The officer had the child baptized with his name and the name of his ship and sailed home with her, where she was presented to the Queen and thereafter raised under the Queen's protection.

No comments: