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BENGAL. BAY OF 485 BENIN very large. The chief exports are opium, jute, indigo, oil seeds, tea. hides and skins, and rice. The foreign trade is chiefly with Great Britain. China, the Straits Settlements, France, the United States, and Ceylon. Language. — The Bengali language is spoken by a majority of the population. It is like the numerous vernacular dia- lects spoken in northern India, appar- ently descended from the ancient classical language of the country, the Sanskrit. Its alphabet comprises 14 vowels and diphthongs, and 33 consonants. The ground work of the Bengali language is altogether Sanskrit. ^Education, etc. — The first rudiments of education are usually given in the primary* schools that have been developed out of the native schools, and are now connected with government. There are also a number of secondary and superior schools established by government, in- cluding eight government colleges. The highest educational institution is the Calcutta University, the chief fun:tion of which is to examine and confer de- grees. There were in 1918 48,303 edu- cational institutions, with 1,892,951 scholars. The total expenditure for edu- cation in that year was £1,699,.569. The population of Bengal beyond the capital, Calcutta, and its suburbs, is largely rural. Hi-sto7'y. — The first of the East India Company's settlements in Bengal were made early in the 17th century. The rise of Calcutta dates from the end of the same century. The greater part of Bengal came into the hands of the East India Company in consequence of CIi%'e's %ictory at Plassy in 1757. and was formally ceded to the company by the Nabob of Bengal in 1765. Chittagong had previously been ceded by the same prince, but its government under British administration was not organized till 1824. Orissa came into British hands in 1803. In 1858 the country passed to the crown, and since then the history of Bengal has been, on the whole, one of steady and peaceful progress. BENGAL. BAY OF. that portion of the Indian Ocean which lies between Hindustan and Farther India, or Burma, Siam, and Malacca, and may be regarded as extending S. to Ceylon and Sumatra. It receives the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Irrawadi. Calcutta. Rangoon, and Madras are the most important towns on or near its coasts. BENGTJELA (ben-ga'la). a district of the Portuguese colony of Angola on the W. coast of South Africa; The country is mountainous in the interior, and thickly intersected by rivers and streams. Its vegetation is luxuriant, including every description of tropical produce, and animal life is equally abundant. Copper, silver, iron, salt, sulphur, petroleum, and other minerals are found. The natives are mostly rude and barbarous. Pop. over 2.000,000. The capital, also caller Benguela, or San Felipe de Benguela, i: situated on the coast, on a bay of the Atlantic, in a charming, but very un- healthful, valley. It was founded bv the Portuguese in 1617, and was formerly an important center of the slave trade, but has now only a spasmodic trade in ivory, wax, gum, copal, etc. Pop. about 3,600. BENHATVT, ANDREW ELLICOTT KENTfEDY. an American naval officer, born in New York, April 10, 1832; entered the navy in 1847; served in the East India and the Home Squadrons in 1847-1852; attended the United States Naval Academy in 1852-1853; was com- missioned Lieutenant in 1855; Lieuten- ant-Commander in 1862; Commander, 1866; Captain, 1875; Commodore. 1885; and Rear-Admiral in 1890, and was re- tired in 1894. During the Civil War he served in the South Atlantic and West Gulf Blockading Squadrons. In April, 1893, he commanded one of the divisions in the great naval display at New York; in 1894, as commander of a squadron at Rio de Janeiro. Brazil, he forced the commander of the insurgents' squadron to raise the blockade of the city and to discontinue firing on American merchant vessels; and in 1898 was naval prize commissioner in Savannah, Ga. He died Aug. 11, 1905. BENI. a river of Bolivia, South Amer- ica; formed by the union of all the streams flowing down the eastern Cor- dillera. It unites with the Mamore on the Brazilian frontier to form the Ma- deira. Its course is N. to N. E.; length, about 850 miles. BENT, one of the departments of Boli^^a, South America. It is in the N. E. part; area, about 40.000 square miles; pop. 107,744; chief town. Trini- dad. BENIN, a former negrro kingdom of west Africa, on the Bight of Benin, ex- tending along the coast on both sides of the Benin river, W. of the lower Niger, and to some distance inland. The chief town is Benin (pop. about 10,000). sit- uated on the river Benin, one of the mouths of the Niger. Cotton is indige- nous, and woven into cloth by the women.