BEN 



448 



BEN 



Bncooicn, lish hail lost the pepper trade of Bantam, they form- 

 Btnt lcf. c( j a settlement here in 1<>S5, and Fort York was built 

 "~ v ~"" rf by the East India Company in 1690. As the town 

 and fort, however, stood on a stinking morass, a great 

 mortality prevailed among the settlers in 1693, and 

 the governor and council fell victims to the insalubri- 

 ty of the climate. A new fort was therefore begun 

 in a more healthy situation in 1719 ; but the jealousy 

 of the natives prompted them to set fire to the fort, 

 and the houses of the English, and compel the go- 

 vernor and garrison to embark for Batavia. The 

 fears of the natives having subsided, the English were 

 in the year following permitted to return and finish 

 their fort, which received the name of Marlborough 

 Tort. In the year 1760, Bencoolen was taken by the 

 French, and Fort Marlborough destroyed. In 1763, 

 when it was restored to the English, and Manilla 

 ceded to the Spaniards, several Chinese merchants re- 

 moved their families from Manilla to Bencoolen, 

 where they all perished in a short time. 



The town, which stands upon a morass, is about 

 two miles in circuit, and is distinguished by marinfcrs 

 by means of the lofty mountain called the Sugar Loaf, 

 which is situated in the interior of the island, about 

 '20 miles from Bencoolen. A large and commodious 

 bay is'formed by an island which fronts the town, and 

 by the point of Silleban, which stretches about two or 

 three leagues to the south of it. The inhabitants of 

 Bencoolen, whose houses are built on bamboo pillars, 

 are mostly carpenters, who hire themselves to work 

 in the English fort. Some of them gain their sub- 

 sistence by fishing, and others by planting rice and 

 pepper trees. The pepper, which forms the princi- 

 pal article of commerce, is brought from the interior 

 by a river which runs north-west of the town ; but a 

 bar at its mouth occasions a considerable inconvenience 

 in the shipping of it. The soil of the surrounding 

 country is a fertile clay, which produces long grass. 

 The country is in general woody and mountainous, 

 and near the sea, it is a complete morass. East Long. 

 102 3', South Lat. 3 50'. See Marsden's Account 

 of Sumatra; and also Sumatra, (h) 



BENDER, Ti-gin, or Tekix, a fortified town of 

 European Turkey, and the capital of Bessarabia, is 

 situated on the right bank of the Dniester, and is 

 celebrated as the residence of Charles XII., when he 

 threw himself on the protection of the Turks after 

 the battle of Pultowa. Bender received its name from 

 Bajazet II., when, on his death-bed, he commanded 

 Iris successor Selim I. to erect a fortress in this place, 

 having ended his exhortation with the words llca- 

 Derim, or I command thec. The fortress, which is 

 only remarkable for the immense ditch which encom- 

 passes it, contains 300 cannon, 25 mortars, and three 

 howitzers, beside an abundant supply of powder, balls, 

 rice, meal, Sec. &c. Oi the inner wall of the castle, 

 or old fortress, Campenhausen observed two inscrip- 

 tions, one of which was effaced, and the other written 

 in Arabian, of which the following is a translation : 

 Built by order of the " Stambulian Padischa Beyza- 

 Devoly, by the powerful Padischa Sultan Selim 

 Hazy." There are two suburbs, twelve mosques, 

 six inns, or khauns, and seven gates ; viz. the gate of 

 Constantinople, the tanners gate, the gate of Varna, 

 ihe water gate, the Uul gate, the Orda gate, and the 



stone gate ; two of these gates are marked with inscrip- Bender. 

 tions,one of which is peculiarly important, as it proves, *%' 

 in opposition to the testimony of the Hungarian his- 

 torian, that Tegin was taken by storm, and not by 

 treachery. The following is a literal translation : 



" I, by the grace of the Highest, the first of all 

 emperors in the world, Sultan, form of God, and of 

 his prophet Muhamed, companion of the Lord, con- 

 queror of the world, and of the Woywod Peter, and of 

 Bogdauia, I, Solyman, seal bearer of the temple of 

 the only God, I, I have wrested the fortress of Tegin 

 and its garrison from the King of Germany ; I haw 

 taken it by storm, in the presence of all the chiefs of 

 my ever invincible army ; and 1 have given orders 

 to have the stones taken from the castle of Palanka, 

 to build this wall and gate ; and the foitress shall be 

 named Ben-Derim. In the year of the Hegira 96.5." 



The principal mosque, called Muynkar-Dgammid, 

 is a kind of cathedral where the people assemble on 

 Fridays only, in which alone it is lawful to pray for 

 the Sultan. The streets of Bender are narrow, 

 gloomy, and dirty, and the carcases of horses, oxen, 

 dogs, &c. lie putrifying in the streets. The inns are 

 large square buildings resembling convents ; the win- 

 dows look into a court yard, encircled with a high 

 wall ; and there is a number of small chambers with- 

 out furniture, in which travellers lodge, and foreign 

 merchants expose their goods to sale. 



The large metsched, or mosque, is a building 58 pa- 

 ces square, and is the finest edifice in Bender. Over 

 the principal entry, is a cornice containing a verse of 

 the Koran, written in golden letters. A metal bason 

 is suspended by a chain in a niche, opposite the door ; 

 and on the left of this, there is a recess with a repre- 

 sentation of the Kaba, and the tomb of Mahomet. 

 To the right of the metal bason is a small pulpit, 

 with ten steps covered with red cloth, from which 

 the I man reads the Koran. The floor is adorned 

 with rich carpets, and divans are placed round the 

 walls. There is a cupola in the middle of the build- 

 ing, ornamented with a red star, from the centre of 

 which is suspended a lustre, having its branches load- 

 ed with several hundreds of glass lamps of various co- 

 lours. Several ostrich eggs are suspended above this 

 lustre. A prayer against the plague is written on the 

 wall, and on one side is a painting of the sabre of Ali. 

 The ruins of the house where Charles XII. resided, 

 and the remains of his entrenchment at Varnitza, are 

 still to be 6een ; but the inhabitants are completely 

 ignorant that their town was honoured with the pre- 

 sence of this distinguished hero. 



There is a great number of tanners in Bender, three 

 paper manufacturers, several smiths, and a watch- 

 maker. The paper is made of cotton, and smoothed 

 with glass, and the ink is obtained from the bark of 

 the alder. Bender is the residence of the principal 

 ^Jandgiack of Bessarabia, who has an yearly salary of 

 j3000 sterling, and a number of provincial gover- 

 nors under him. 



Bender is celebrated for the famous siege which 

 it underwent in the year 1770. On the 30th of 

 July, the Russian army under Count Panin, opened 

 their trenches and bombarded the town, but the gar- 

 rison and the inhabitants defended themselves with 

 great bravery, and annoyed the besiegers by nuinc- 



