about two o'clock
The sovereign , the royal family , the masculine and feminine army , and the population had all gone out of the capital to a vast plain a few miles away surrounded by magnificent forests . On this plain the recognition of the new king was to take place . Here it was that thousands of prisoners taken during recent razzias were to be immolated in his honor . It was about two o'clock when the `` Albatross '' arrived over the plain and began to descend among the clouds which still hid her from the Dahomians . There were sixteen thousand people at least come from all parts of the kingdom , from Whydah , and Kerapay , and Ardrah , and Tombory , and the most distant villages . The new king -- a sturdy fellow named Bou-Nadi -- some five-and-twenty years old , was seated on a hillock shaded by a group of wide-branched trees . Before him stood his male army , his Amazons , and his people .