Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/590

572  1em 1em 1em  BENGUELA, a country on the western coast of Africa, situated to the south of Angola, between 10 and 17 S. lat., and extending from the River Coanza to the Cunene, which is otherwise known as Nourse, Rio das Trombas, Rio dos Elephantes. The country rises from the coast inwards till it attains a decidedly mountainous character. There is great abundance both of vegetable and animal life ; and the higher regions contain mines of copper, silver, iron, and salt. The inhabitants belong to the Congo race and speak the Bunda language. In 1G17 the Portuguese under ManoelCerveiraPereira founded the town of S. Felipe de Benguela near the mouth of the Cavaco, on the Bahia das Vacas (Santo Antonio, or Cone s Bay), in 12 34 S. lat. and 13 20 E. long. It was long the centre of an important trade, especially in slaves, but has now greatly declined. There is but little traffic, and no manufactures. Besides the churches of S. Felipe and S. Antonio, the hospital, and the fortress, there are only a few stone-built houses. The negro town of Catombela, about 8 miles distant, is in a more nourishing condition. A short way below Benguela is Bahia Tarta, where salt is manufactured and sulphur excavated. The town of Old Benguela is situated about 130 miles to the N&quot;. ; and about 80 miles in that direction lies the Presidio of Novo Redondo, where fortifications were erected in 17G9. Among the more important inland towns are Bihe, Bai- limdo, and Caconda, in the last of which the Portuguese have long had a fortress. The southern portion of Ben guela forms the separate government of Mossamedes, of which the capital of the same name is situated on the Bay of Mossamedes at the mouth of the River Bero (Rio das Mortes). The bay was formerly called Angra do Negro, and received its present designation in honour of Baron Mossamedes about 1785. The town, which is known to the natives as Mossongo-Bittolo, was not founded till 1840. The population of the whole territory of Ben guela is estimated at about 140,000.  BENICARLO, a city of Spain, in the province of Cas- tellon, on the coast of the Mediterranean. It is surrounded by ancient walls, and has a ruined castle. The manufacture of brandy is carried on, and the town is celebrated for its red wine, which is annually exported to Bordeaux for mixing with clarets and other French wines. The value of wine exported in 1869 was 9500. Population, 7000.  BENIN, a country, city, and river of Western Africa, to the west of the main channel of the Niger. The name was formerly applied to the whole stretch of coast from the Volta, in 40 E. long., to the Rio del Rey or Riumbi, in 8 40 E. long., including what is now known as the Slave Coast, the whole delta of the Niger, and a small portion of the country to the eastward ; and some trace of this earlier application remains in the name of Bight of Benin, still given to that part of the sea which washes the Slave Coast. The kingdom of Benin seems at one time to have been one of the most powerful of Western Africa, and was known to Europeans in the 17th century as the Great Benin. Budagry and Lagos, now British posses sions, are both Beninese colonies. Benin has now been long in a state of decline, and the territory is broken up into independent states of no individual importance. Such coherence, indeed, as still exists is rather ethnographical 