ows:

"At first the town seems very large; when one enters it one comes
at once into a broad street which appears to be seven or eight
times broader than the Warme street in Amsterdam; this extends
straight out, and when one has walked a quarter of an hour along
it, he still does not see the end of the street.... At the gate
at which one enters there is a very high bulwark, very thick and
strongly made, with a very deep, broad ditch, but it was dry and
full of high trees. This ditch extends a good way, but we do not
know whether it extends around the town or not. That gate is a
well-made gate, made of wood, to be shut according to their
methods, and watch is always kept there. Outside this gate there
is a large suburb.... One sees a great many lanes and streets on
both sides, which also extend far and straight, but one can not
see the end of them on account of their great extent.

"The houses in this town stand in good order, one close to the
other, like houses in Holland. Houses in which well-to-do people,
such as gentlemen, dwell, have two or three steps to go up, and
in front have an ante-court where one may sit, which court or
gallery is cleaned every morning by their servants, and straw
mats spread for sitting on. Their rooms or apartments with (the
court) are four square, having a roof all round, which, however,
does not join in the middle, but is left open, so that the wind,
rain and daylight may enter. In these houses they live and eat,
but they have specially built little houses for cooking, as well
as other huts and rooms.... The king's court is very large, being
many square places within, surrounded by courts wherein watch is
always kept. This king's court is so large that the end is not to
be seen, and when one thinks he has come to the end, one sees
through a gateway other places or courts, and one sees many, many
stables."

Another description of Benin which seems to corroborate this former
description, and which was itself substantiated by later and more
recent reports, appeared in a book[9] published by one Dapper, a
Dutchman, in Amsterdam in 1668. It seems that Dapper himself was never
at Benin, but received most of his information about the country from
the writings of a Sam Blomert, who, Dapper says, lived for many years
in Africa.[10] As Ling Roth po