Benin. I. A kingdom of Africa, on the Guinea coast, bounded N. W. by Yoruba, W. by Egba, E. and S. E. by the Niger and its E. branch, the Bonny. The name was formerly applied to the whole of the coast of the gulf of Guinea, and the kingdom was supposed to be very large and powerful. The coast is low, swampy, and cut up by numerous arms of the Niger. The soil is fruitful, yielding rice, yams, sugar, and in general all the products of Guinea. Palm trees grow luxuriantly. The population is dense. The king is worshipped as fetish. The chief towns are Benin and Wari or Warrah, situated 115 m. further S. upon an ami of the Niger. Wari seems to be the chief city of a negro kingdom which is subject to the king of Benin. No European settlements are now found upon the coast of Benin. Even the port of Gato (Agathon), which was situated 4»; m. below Benin on the Formosa, and once bad a number of European factories, has disappeared from the map. Benin was discovered by the Portuguese Diogo Cam in 1484, and was visited in 1480 by Alfonso Aveiro. In 1786 the French made settlements at the mouth of the river, which were destroyed by the English in .1792. II. A town, the capital of the kingdom, situated on the right bank of the westernmost arm of the Niger, formerly supposed to be an independent stream and called the Benin or Formosa river; pop. 15,000. The town occupies a large surface, and has an active trade, though since the breaking up of the Guinea slave trade it has been surpassed in commercial prosperity by Bonny, at the E. mouth of the delta.

III. Bight of, the N. part of the gulf of Guinea, W. of the delta of the Niger, on the Slave Coast.