Archibald Dalzel

Who was Archibald Dalzel?

Archibald Dalzel was a British adventurer and Governor of the Gold Coast.

He went to Africa as a surgeon in 1763 and returned to England in 1770. During this time he served four years as governor of Whydah. He observed that the people at Whydah "pay a kind of veneration to a particular species of large snake, which is very gentle."

Appointed by the Committee of Merchants that was in charge of the Gold Coast at the time, he served as governor in two periods: 31 March 1792 - 16 December 1798, and 28 April 1800 - 30 September 1802.

In 1793 he published The history of Dahomy, an inland kingdom of Africa; comp. from authentic memoirs; with an introduction and notes where he argued that the raiding of Dahomean villages for slaves was saving them from the greater evil of being human sacrifices.

Son of William Dalziel a carpenter from Kirkliston and Alice Linn. Brother of Andrew Dalzel, Professor of Greek, Honorary Librarian at Edinburgh University.