Editing Agaja (section)

===Contacts with Europeans===
Agaja was the first king of Dahomey to have significant contact with European traders. Although Dahomey had been known to European traders in the 1600s, largely as a source for slaves, because it was an inland kingdom contact was limited.{{sfn|Law|1986|p=240}} When Agaja expanded the kingdom, he came into contact with the Dutch, British, French, and Portuguese traders. Agaja opposed the Dutch and largely excluded them from trade along the coast after he had conquered it. However, he created direct officers to manage contacts with the other European powers.{{sfn|Akinjogbin|1967|p=106}}

One important contact began in 1726 when Agaja sent Bulfinch Lambe (a British trader captured in the 1724 attack on [[Godomey]]) and a Dahomey ambassador known as Adomo Tomo or Captain Tom on a mission to Britain. Lambe was meant to deliver a "Scheme of Trade" to King George I. The "Scheme of Trade" outlined a plan for King George I to work with King Agaja in the creation of a plantation in Dahomey, exporting goods such as sugar, cotton, and indigo. However, Lambe was aware that the English had already abandoned plans to set up a plantation in Dahomey; he left Dahomey with no intention of following through on Agaja's plan. Lambe initially sold Adomo Tomo into slavery in Maryland, but after a few years came back to free Tomo and bring him to England. Lambe and Tomo carried a letter claimed to be from Agaja and received an audience with [[George II of Great Britain|King George II]]. The letter from Agaja was dismissed as a fraud and Tomo was returned to Dahomey where Agaja appointed him the assistant to the chief of trade with the British.{{sfn|Law|Mann|1999|p=320}}