BEN 



243 



BEN 



is thickly wooded in most parts with mangroves, and 

 other aquatic plants; in the wet season large tracts are 

 inundated. The principal towns along the coast are 

 Quitta (Danish fort), Great and Little Popoe, Whydah 

 (English, French, and Portuguese factories), Porto Novo, 

 the sea-port of Ardrah, Badagry, and Lagos. The prin- 

 cipal rivers which empty themselves into this bight are 

 the Lagos, Benin, Escardos, Forcados, Ramos, Dodo, and 

 Sengana, all of which, except the Lagos, communicate 

 with each other and with the Quorra. Of these, the only 

 rivers accessible to shipping are the Benin, Escardos, and 

 Forcados. The whole coast is shallow, but shoals gra- 

 dually and regularly, so that a vessel may run along it, 

 keeping in soundings of forty to fifty feet, with stiff muddy 

 bottom, at the distance of about four miles from the beach. 

 The current always sets along the shore to the eastward, at 

 the rate of half to 1 mile an hour. The prevailing winds 

 are from the westward; but this coast is subject to violent 

 tornados, which always blow from the north-east, and are 

 accompanied by heavy cold rains, which sometimes depress 

 the thermometer 10 or 15. There is always a heavy 

 gurf rolling on the beach, which makes landing every 

 where dangerous, even in light canoes. The dry season 

 commences in this bight in August, and continues till Ja- 

 nuary ; the land and sea-breezes are stronger and more re- 

 gular here, and in the Bight of Biaffra, than on any other 

 part of this coast, and they have no harraattan winds. In 

 the months of February and March the tornados are most 

 frequent and violent, and in the alternations of calms and 

 light winds, the thermometer will frequently rise to 90, some- 

 times to 100. In the rainy season, during temporary ces- 

 sations, the density of the vapours which rise in the atmo- 

 sphere is most oppressive. 



The chief articles of trade at the towns on the coast, as 

 wall as up the rivers, are palm-oil and ivory ; little gold is to 

 be seen on this coast, and the use of it is almost unknown 

 at Whydah. The necessaries of life may be procured at all 

 the larger t nvns cheap and in abundance ; of fruits and 

 vegetables there is great variety and plenty. 



This coast was fir-t visited by the Portuguese about the 

 year 1485, and afterwards by the Dutch ; but the first ac- 

 count of the English trading here was in 1553, when Cap- 

 tain Windham procured a cargo of Guinea pepper in tho 

 Benin River. 



BENIN RIVER, formerly called by the Portuguese 

 Rio Formoso, empties itself into the Bight of Benin, about 

 115 miles to the N.N.W. of Cape Formosa; the latitude of 

 the N.W. point of entrance is in 5 46' N., and 5 3i' E. 

 long. At its mouth the river is two miles wide, and has 

 across it a bar of mud, clay, and sand, extending from fuur 

 to five miles off, on which there is not more than twelve or 

 thirteen feet at low water spring-tides. A short distance 

 from the sea its width diminishes to half a mile, and at New 

 Town, eighteen miles up, it is little more than 500 yards 

 across. The depth of water does not exceed twenty-four feet 

 in any part. At New Town, which lies on the southern 

 bank, and is the port of Wareo, two branches strike off 

 nearly equal in magnitude to the main trunk ; one runs to 

 the N.E., called Gato Creek, to the town of that name, 

 which is the port of Benin, and the other to the S.E. with 

 the River Forcados or Warree, while the main stream conti- 

 nues its direction to the E.N.E., and according to the report 

 of the natives, at about fifty miles up, is not navigable for 

 vessels of more than fifty tons. There are also smaller 

 creeks branching off before reaching these larger ones, as 

 Calabar Creeks, just within the entrance point to the right, 

 and Lago and Waceow Creeks, higher up on the opposite 

 shore ; but these are only navigable for small boats. 



On the southern bank o( the river, which belongs to the 

 kingdom of Warree, the first town, called Salt Town, lies 

 ju-,t within the mouth; the second, six miles farther up, is 

 called Bobee or Lobou, and the next New Town. Opposite 

 New Town, on the eastern point of the Warree Creek, is 

 Reggio Town. Both shores of the main branch, as well as 

 the creeks as far as Gato on one side, and Warree on the 

 other (with the exception of a few spots), consist of impe- 

 netrable morasses covered with mangrove-trees, and gene- 

 rally inundated, even during the dry season, as the banks 

 are very low. Formerly several European nations, ns the 

 Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French, had establish- 

 ments on this river, chiefly at Gato ; but trade has so much 

 decreased, that they have been all abandoned, and merchant- 

 vesseU DOW trading here merely hue a house for bartering 



in as long as may be necessary. The slave-trade, which is 

 carried on to a great extent in all the rivers of this coast, ap- 

 pears to be the cause of the decline of legitimate commerce. 

 This river, like all the others on the coast, is pestilentially 

 unhealthy, and the mortality that invariably occurs in the 

 crews of vessels trading here is appalling ; the disease is a 

 malignant remittent fever, which generally proves fatal with- 

 in the third day after the attack. The chief articles procured 

 in this river are palm-oil and ivory ; pod-pepper (Cayenne) 

 was also once an object of commerce, but is now more plenti- 

 fully procured from the West Indies. In exchange the na- 

 tives take cloth (scarlet particularly), beads, guns, and gun- 

 powder, hardware, spirits, &c. The tide flows six hours at 

 full and change, and rises five or six feet; during the rainy 

 season the ebb is very rapid, and frequently washes away 

 portions of the river banks. 



BENJAMIN, Tribe of. [See ISRAEL, Tribes of.] 



BENJAMIN of Tudela, a Jewish rabbi, and author of 

 the Itinerary, was the son of Jonas of Tudela, and was 

 born in the kingdom of Navarre. He was the first Eu- 

 ropean traveller who went far eastward. He penetrated 

 from Constantinople through Alexandria in Egypt and 

 Persia, to the frontiers of Tzin, now China. Saxius, who 

 follows Wol Bus's Bibliotheca Hebraica, places the date of 

 Rabbi Benjamin's travels about 1160. They ended in the 

 year in which he died, A.D. 1173. (Gantz, Tsemach David, 

 fol. 39, quoted by Baratier, Dist. I. sur R. Benj.) 



Casimir Oudin (Comment.de Script. Efdes. ed. Lips. 1 722, 

 torn. ii. col. 1524) probably gives the true character which 

 Rabbi Benjamin bore among his countrymen, when he 

 says that he was a man of great sagacity and judgment, well 

 skilled in the sacred laws, and that his observations and 

 accounts have been generally found to be exact upon exami- 

 nation, he being remarkable for his love of truth. The 

 work is no doubt a curiosity, as the production of a Jew in 

 the twelfth century ; but considered in itself, the Itinerary 

 has only a small portion of real worth : for, in addition to 

 the fabulous narrations which lead the reader to suspect 

 him when he speaks the truth, there are many errors, omis- 

 sions, and mistakes. Benjamin's principal view seems to have 

 been to represent the number and state of his brethren in 

 different parts of the world, and accordingly he merely men- 

 tions the names of many places to which we are to suppose 

 he travelled, and makes no remark about them, except per- 

 haps a brief notice of the Jews found there. When he 

 relates anything farther, it is often trilling or erroneous. 



Wolfius says, the Itinerary was first printed at Constan- 

 tinople, in 8vo. 1543; at Ferrara in 1556, and a third edi- 

 tion at Fribourg in 1583. It was translated from the Hebrew 

 into Latin by Benedictus Arias Montanus, and printed by 

 Plantin at Antwerp, 8vo. 1575. Constantine L'Empereur 

 likewise published it, with a Latin version, and a prelimi- 

 nary dissertation and large notes, printed by Elzevir, 12mo. 

 1633 ; in which year Elzevir also printed the Hebrew text 

 alone in a very small size. It was translated into Dutch by 

 Jan Barn, 16mo. Amst. 1666. J. P. Baratier translated it 

 into French, 1734, 2 vols. 8vo- another edition in French, 

 translated from the Latin of Anas Montanus, was published 

 in Bergeron's Voyages fails principalement enAsiedans In 

 xii. xiii. xiv. et \v.sieclc>, 4to. a la Have, 1735 ; and a third 

 has been recently published in a volume entitled Voyages 

 autour da Monde en Tartarie et en Chine, 8vo. Par., 1030. 

 An English translation, with notes, was published in 8vo. 

 Lond. 1 783, by the Rev. B. Gerrans, made from the Hebrew 

 edition published by Constantine L'Empereur at Leyden in 

 1633. (.See Wolflus's Biblioth. Hebraica, torn. i. p. 247 ; 

 Monthly Review, vol. Ixx. p. 347 ; Chalmers's Biog. Diet. 

 vol. iv. p. 449.) 



BENNINGTON, a post town of the United States, and 

 capital of a county of the same name in the state of Ver- 

 mont; distant 103 miles S. by W. from Montpelier, the 

 capital of the state, and 338 miles N.N.W. from Washing- 

 ton. Bennington is the oldest town in Vermont, having 

 been chartered in 1749, by Benning Wcntworth. governor 

 of New Hampshire. A battle was fought here in August, 

 1777, between 1600 American militia under General Stark, 

 and a British detachment under Colonel Uaume, who had 

 been despatched by General Burgoyne to seize a depot in 

 New Hampshire Grants. The British were defeated ; and 

 this affair is < onsitlered to have largely contributed to the sur- 

 render of Burgoyne's army, which followed soon after. Ben- 

 nington is situated in a good farming district, on the borders 

 of New York, and is a place of gome trade and manufacture. 



