BENCOOLEN, a sea port town on the south west coast of the island of Sumatra. After. the Eng lish had lost the pepper trade of Bantam, they form. ed a settlement here in 1685, anti Fort York was built 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 169:3, 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 act fire to the fort, and the houses of the English, and compel the go vernor and garrison to embark for Batavia. The Mears 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 "Fort. 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 =ringers 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
by 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. 7 he 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 ii in Fencral 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)