BEN 



212 



B R N 



the promise of dvtntag* which led to its formation. In 

 1687 Mr. Ord, the head of the establishment, was poi- 

 soned, and we learn from tho early records of the Company 

 that they entertained in that year serious thoughts of aban- 

 doning the station, and transferring their officers to Priaman 

 or Ali-lieen. In 1694 the factory was, however, described 

 as being very prosperous, and in the following year the 

 L'orapam obtained by grant from the rajah an addition to 

 their settlement, which in consequence included the town 

 of Sillibar. During the next twenty-five years the English 

 settlers were much harassed in consequence of disputes 

 between rival chiefs, in which the settlers were compelled 

 to take a part, and in 1 719 the English were nearly all de- 

 stroyed by the natives. 



Bencoolen, with the other English settlements on the 

 coast of Sumatra, was nearly destroyed by a French force 

 under Count D'Estaiqg in 1760, b'u| the town was soon 

 rebuilt. This settlement had long ceased to be of any po- 

 litical or commercial importance to the East India Com- 

 pany. Pepper, the produce for obtaining which the factory 

 was originally established, was procured on better terms 

 from Prince of Wales' Island and from the Malabar coast. 

 Attempts were made in 1796 to cultivate the nutmeg and 

 clove, but the quality of these spices proved so inferior to 

 the produce of Amboyna as to give little encouragement for 

 persevering. The small importance of the Company's trade 

 to Bencoolen is shown by the fact that the average annual 

 cost of the consignments sent there from Europe in the ten 

 years between 1814 and 1824 did not amount to 30001. 

 The expense of the establishment was, on the other hand, 

 very considerable, and far exceeded the revenue ; the latter, 

 during the five years from 1819 to 1824, did not average 

 more than 7133/. per annum, while the average amount ol 

 charges during the same time was 92,3221. per annum. 



The East India Company made no sacrifice therefore in 

 delivering up Bencoolen to the Dutch government. This 

 cession was made in 1825, at which time all the other British 

 settlements in Sumatra were also given up in exchange for 

 the Dutch settlements en the continent of India, including 

 the town and fortress of Malacca. 



The district or province of Bencoolen has, since its cession 

 to the Dutch, been made dependent upon their settlement 

 at Padang. Bencoolen district is now described as being 

 bounded to the north and west by the district of Indrapoor, 

 and on the east and south by Lampung. The total popu- 

 lation is said (rather vaguely) to amount to 100,000 souls. 

 During the occupancy of the English, the numbers were 

 estimated at only 20,000, but the district was then not so 

 extensive as it has since been made. Since 1825 the Dutch 

 settlers are said to have discovered coal-mines in the in- 

 terior, which produce fuel of a quality little inferior to 

 the coal of Europe. This discovery, if the means of trans- 

 port to the shore are not too costly, and if the favourable 

 report as to quality should be confirmed, will prove of much 

 value in the probable event of the extension of steam navi- 

 gation in the eastern seas. 



The town of Bencoolen is small but tolerably well built 

 &nd of a pleasing appearance. It has a bod character with 

 respect to healthiness. Fort Marlborough, which stands 

 only a short distance inland, is said to be more healthy. 



The population of Bencoolen town is of a very mixc<l 

 description, including Europeans, Dutch, and English, and 

 their descendants; Chinese, Malays, settlers from Pulu 

 Neas, an island lying off Tapanooly Bay on the western 

 coast of Sumatra, and some negroes. 



The cultivation of the spice plantations is kept up by the 

 Dutch, the labour being performed by slaves, who are prin- 

 cipally brought from Pulo Neas and from the island of 

 Bally. Debtors are likewise considered as slaves, being 

 obliged to work for the benefit of their creditors. 



Bencoolen trades with Batavia, Bengal, the Coromandel 

 coast, and the more northern porU of Sumatra. The im- 

 ports are chiefly cloths, rice, salt, opium, tobacco, sn^ar, 

 and some European manufactures, part of which are re- 

 exported, with the produce of the district, to other parts on 

 the island, or are sent into the interior. (Early Itecordt of 

 the Katt India Company, inserted in the Report of the 

 Committee of the House of Lords on the Foreign Trade of 

 the Country in 1820 and 1821 ; Report of Select Committee 

 of the Home nf Common* an the Affairs of the East India 

 Company, 1832; Marsden's History of Sumatra; Count 

 Hogendorp'f Coup d'CEil tur I'lle de Jara et let autrei 

 Potteuiont Nierlandaitet dan* I'Archipel det Indet.) 



BEND- EMIR (also written Bandamir or linniifiae<r\ 

 is the name of a river in I -. tho 



Araxcs, Coros, or Cyrus of the antic: .'1 Roman 



geographers, and sometimes called Kur by or;cnt:il writers. 

 Sir.ilio (xv. c. 3, p. 729, Casaub.) says that the founder of 

 the Persian monarchy was originally called , but 



that he assumed (/uriXnS*) the name Cxrus I'ruin lhi> river 

 the passage is thus read in all the MSS. ; but most editors 

 (altering prA.i.ii into pir/3aXi) make the author say that 

 Cyrus gave the river his own name, its previous appellation 

 being A gradates: Gioskurd, the most recent German trans- 

 lator of Strabo, and A. F. Pott (Etymologiicht Fitrtehun- 

 gen, Introduct. p. xliv.) have given the preference to the 

 reading of the MSS., which is doubtless t'nc right nv 

 According to the map accompanying Sir William Ouseley s 

 Travels, it has its origin in the hills towards the north of 

 Shiraz, and flows in a direction to the S.E.E. towards the 

 lake Bakhtcgan. In its course it traverses the beautiful and 

 productive valley of Marvdasht, or Merdesht, where it is 

 joined by a small tributary stream from the north, the 

 Palwur, (according to Kinneir, the Shamicr,) and pa-ses l,y 

 the celebrated ruins of Persepolis, which are situated 

 on its left or northern side ; farther on it flows through 

 the district of Kurbal, where it is divided into numerous 

 channels to fertilize the ground. The part of the water 

 which is not spent in the irrigation of the ground, falls 

 into lake Bakhtcgan, at a distance of about fifty miles 

 towards the east from Shiraz. Niebuhr, who crossed the 

 Bend-Emir in his way from Shiraz to Persepolis, describes 

 it us a very rapid river, and s-a\s th.\t a bridge of bricks, 

 300 feet long, was built across it. Bend-Emir is also the 

 name of a village situated on the river. The name of both 

 the village and the river alludes to the extensive mounds 

 or dykes constructed here in the tenth century by the emir 

 Aza'd-al-daulah, by which a tract of country of considerable 

 extent was fertilized. (See BAND ; Ouseley 's TVwv/v, vol. ii. 

 p. 1 80, seq. ; Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie, <<-. vol. ii. p. 98 ; 

 Kinneir, Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire, p. 59 ; 

 Strabon's Erdbcschreibung von Groskurd, vol. iii. p. 187, 

 188, Berlin, 1633, Svo.) 



BENDER (formerly Teckin or Tigine, called by the 

 Russians Bendery, and by the natives Tigino), a fortified 

 place, and the chief town of the circle of Behdersko-Kdou- 

 kansk, in Bessarabia, which is the most south-western pro- 

 vince of the Russian dominions in Europe. The town is M- 

 tuated in 46 50' N. lat., and 29 35' E. long. It lies on the 

 right bank of the Dniester, and is built on the land-side in 

 the shape of a crescent. Up to the commencement of tho 

 present century it belonged to Turkey, and was consulcivl 

 a post of such high military importance, that its fortifica- 

 tions were strengthened and enlarged by that power at 

 various times. It is still inclosed by a wall and deep 

 broad ditch, and retains its citadel, which is construe led 

 on an eminence; the defences, however, have of late \ears 

 been used fir the erection of soldiers' quarters, maga- 

 zines, &c. The streets are narrow, gloomy, and kept it: a 

 filthy state ; the mosques, twelve in number, have been 

 mostly converted to other purposes ; and there are lil. 

 an Armenian and Greek church, as well as a synagogue 

 in the town. Bender has seven gates, and two suburbs, 

 which are inhabited by natives, whose occupation is mostly 

 agriculture and grazing. Its population, which in former 

 tunes was 20,000, is at present reduced to less than 5000 . 

 the chief source of their support is a salt-petre work, some 

 tanneries, iron-smithies, nnd three paper-mills. Its cele- 

 brity dates from the early part of the last century, when 

 Achmet III. granted an asylum in his dominions to Charles 

 XII. of Sweden, after he had lost his army in the battle of 

 Pultawa, on the 8th of July, 1709, and had (led to Bender. 

 He wag permitted to take up his residence in the adjoining 

 village of Varnitza on the Dniester, where he lived for the 

 next four years; but by his offensive conduct, maliciously 

 aggravated in the eyes of the Turks by the intrigues of 

 < ;i;herino of Russia, ultimately brought upt/n himself tho 

 ho-tility of his host, whom he had the temerity to brave by 

 resisting several thousand men with a handful of followers in 

 a barricaded house. His generous enemy, however, allowed 

 his royal prisoner to escape, and make his way peaceably 

 back to his native country. Bender was twice taken by 

 assault in Catherine's time. On the last of these occa- 

 in 1771, General Panin stormed it, put the garrison and in- 

 habitants, to the number of 30,000, to the sword, and then 

 burnt the town. Russia, in dictating the subsequent treaty 



