Law, Robin. "An Alternative Text of King Agaja of Dahomey's Letter to King George I of England, 1726". History in Africa, Vol.29 (2002): 257-271.

Law, Robin. "An Alternative Text of King Agaja of Dahomey's Letter to King George I of England, 1726". History in Africa, Vol.29 (2002): 257-271.

This article is written as an updated version of an analysis published in 1990 of a letter received by King George I of England, allegedly written by King Agaja of Dahomey.

• The letter was delivered in 1731 by Bulfinch Lambe, a former employee of the Royal Africa Company, who claimed that he had written the letter through dictation by King Agaja while detained in Dahomey. He was accompanied by an African translated named Adomo Oroonoko Tomo, who vouched for its authenticity (257).
• The actual text of the letter has not been discovered, with Dr. Law using a text collected from the House of Commons after being read out by an pro-slavery minister during a debate in 1789. That MP used the text to 'prove' that slavery in the Americas was the lesser of two evils compared to African slavery (258).
• John Henniker, the MP citing the letter, said that he discovered the original document among the possessions of the first Duke of Chandos, the governor of the Royal Africa Company during the time of the letter's delivery (258).
• The author has subsequently discovered another version of the text, published by the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1732. The version of the text in the newspaper was fewer grammatical mistakes than the copy owned by the House of Commons, demonstrating editing, but also highlighting those parts of the letter undeniably authentic (259).
• The version in 1732 also contains several sentences not present in the 1789 version and omits a number of sentences present in the 1789, leading the author to believe that the actual text contained both elements (260).
• Information from the Pennsylvania Gazette informs us that Adomo Tomo was baptized while in England and that the name he chose after baptism was Robert Widah. He was shortly married to an English woman named Mrs. Johnson, who accompanied her husband back to Dahomey in 1732 (261).
• A combined version of the text, including a synthesis of elements of the 1732 and 1789 copies, is compiled by the author from page 262 to page 271.