BENIN, be-nite, Africa, a negro country or kingdom, on the Bight of Benin, Gulf of Guinea, extending along the coast on both sides of the Benin River, and to some distance in land, but the limits are not accurately known. The capital is Benin, a town which at one time had some 15,000 inhabitants, but is now said to have greatly decreased in population. It is situated about 50 miles from the coast, and con sists of clay-built houses neatly thatched with reeds, straw or leaves. The coast, which now belongs to the British, is thickly indented with estuaries, some of them of considerable breadth and studded with islands. The country is flat for some distance inland, when it begins gradu ally to rise till it attains a height of over 2,000 feet. It is very well wooded, and being like wise well watered, it is rich in all the vertable productions of the tropics. Cotton is indige nous and is woven into cicrth for the women. Sugar-cane of good quality is grown; and yams, plantains, maize, rice, etc., are cultivated. The
religion is Fetishism. The climate, especially at the mouth of the rivers, is veg unhealthy. Palm oil is now the principal article of com merce. The inhabitants are still in almost the savage state, human sacrifices being offered in recent times. It is believed that the Portuguese, Diogo Carn, discovered Benin in 1484. It was long the centre of the slave trade, which the British suppressed when their influence became paramount there. A massacre of British officials and other Europeans took place in 1897 and a punitive expedition was sent to take the city, which with the surroundinq district now forms part of the southern Nigena. Government au thority is vested in a British resident assisted by a council of native chiefs. Consult Roth, 'Notes on Benin Customs> (1898) and (Great Benin) (1903).