Benguet

“ Commodious quarters for visiting Igorots and Ifugaos have been provided, and there is a fine market where they may display and sell their products. This market is a busy place. [589]
The population is rapidly increasing, now that head-hunting has practically ceased. The area of cultivated lands steadily grows larger, for the men are freed from the necessity of being constantly under arms, and we are helping them to get more irrigation water, so that they can extend their rice fields.
There are a thousand or so Bontoc Igorots in Benguet to-day, contracting for railroad excavation work. ”

“ Tradition has it that Bengerd was killed in battle, having gone with her husband on one of his campaigns. “It was not heard in any place,” says the folk-song wickedly, “that any one grieved for her.” But the King mourned for his beautiful queen to the end of his days. ”

“ The soil of Benguella is very fertile, and all kinds of fruit and vegetables grow splendidly. The trade is large and increasing yearly, particularly in beeswax, of which a great quantity is exported. There is, of course, the usual incubus of the custom-house, with its high duties and vexations weighing heavily on all enterprise and commerce. Not far from the beach is a large fort, garrisoned with a force of soldiers that supplies detachments to the districts of Dombe Grande, Egito, Novo Redondo, Catumbella, Caconda, and Quillengues. ”

“ Rigid with fright, Mistress Bengli stumbled along the swaying arras and turned into an archway that brought them to a narrow hall. From the corners of her eyes she saw that Abdullah had his simitar in his left hand, and the gleam of bare steel sent a chill into her veins.
“It is not fitting, lady,” went on the minstrel, “that a man of Khar should loiter in the hall of the feasters when a battle is joined. So, pray that no man of yours shall meet with us, and lead me to the stables—nay, not into the light!” ”

“ Thus a good many escaped who would have tended to swell the victims of the Bloody Assize, of which the Captain, to his great indignation, heard when sending occasionally on shore. The Ruby, having remained the time she had been directed on the west coast, returned to Portsmouth, where she waited for orders. Seldom in those days could a ship’s company be allowed on shore without the risk of losing a number of men, but so completely had Benbow ingratiated himself with his crew, that when their leave was up they all returned on board. ”

“ Bengham had undertaken the education of the young monarch, and was keeping him under the strictest surveillance. He meddles in all the affairs of government, and makes Kahumanna, and even sometimes Karemaku, the instrument of his will; pays particular attention to commercial concerns, in which he appears to take great interest; and seems to have quite forgotten his original situation and the object of his residence in the islands, finding the avocations of a ruler more to his taste than those of a preacher. ”

“ Bengal refused. "I want to stay in the race."
Sahwah gave a disgusted snort into the megaphone. Agony cast herself into the breach and made use of Bengal's crush on her for the sake of the Alley cause. "If you do it, Bengal, I'll come and sleep with you all the rest of the time we're in camp."
Bengal rose to the bait. "I'll do it for you," she said adoringly, and promptly jumped out of the canoe and swam back the short distance to the Island where she was soon picked up by one of the visiting launches and carried to the sidelines. ”

“ There is also much lac and benzoin of two kinds, white and black. The frazila of white benzoin is worth three cruzados, of black only a cruzado and a half. The silver to be obtained here for ten cruzados is worth fifteen at Calecut.
The distance of this country from Calecut is thirty days with a fair wind.
Bemguala [Bengal] 258 has a Moorish king, and is inhabited by both Moors and Christians. Its distance from Calecut is thirty-five days with a fair wind. There may be 25,000 fighting men, scilicet 10,000 horse and the remainder on foot, as also 400 war-elephants. ”

“ But de Bennetot went on: “Yes, and I swear to you that for two pins I’d clear out now; and all the more, look you, because I’ve a notion that Beaumagnan has us all nicely hooked. As I told you before he knows a [68] lot more about the business than we do; and we’re just puppets in his hands. One day or other, when he no longer has any need of us, he’ll bid us a fond farewell and we shall see that he has worked the whole business for his own advantage. ”

“ But the matter ended in a triumph for Joe, for Captain Benbow accompanied him before the Mayor and declared that as a mariner in the King's navy he was immune from civil action. Whether the plea was good in law I know not. The Mayor did not know either, and the clerk, to judge by his countenance, was in an equal state of puzzlement. But Benbow was clearly not a man to be trifled with, and Joe had certainly had a part in bringing the Mohocks to book, and for one reason or another he was given the benefit of the doubt. ”

“ Cotton and silk weaving was the main industry of Bengal in the olden days, and merchants of all nations of the West competed to secure the trade of the Indian fabrics. The Portuguese, under the renowned Albuquerque, had established an Empire over the Eastern seas, and from the south of Africa to the eastern limits of China the vast coast-line of many thousand miles was studded with Portuguese seaports. Thousands of the Portuguese had settled in Bengal and taken Bengal women as their wives, and they have left descendants who form the greater portion of the present Eurasian community of India. ”

“ The name of the old Portuguese settlement in Bengal about a mile above Hoogly, where there still exists a monastery, said to be the oldest church in Bengal (see Imp. Gazeteer) . The name is a Port. corruption of bandar, 'the wharf'; and in this shape the word was applied among the Portuguese to a variety of places. Thus in Correa, under 1541–42, we find mention of a port in the Red Sea, near the mouth, called Bandel dos Malemos ('of the Pilots') . ”

“ Gandy saw the outer doors pushed open, admitting a stream of yellow sunshine and with it a little bald-headed man with a red nose and green baize apron. It was Bindle. He approached the counter, eyed Mr. Gandy deliberately, and ordered a pint of ale.
Mr. Gandy drew the beer as if it were a sacred office, wheezing the while. He was a man with a ponderous manner, and a full bar or an empty bar made no difference to the sacred flow of the liquor. He had an eye that could cower a "drunk" more effectually than the muscle of a barman. ”

“ Over a wall, beside it, there tumbled into the street some stray tendrils of a wild vine from Benvolio's garden. Suddenly Benvolio began to fancy that the book the young girl in the garden was reading was none other than a volume of his own, put forth some six months before. His volume had a white cover and so had this; white covers are rather rare, and there was nothing impossible either in this young lady's reading his book or in her finding it interesting. Very many other women had done the same. ”

“ The flags were at half mast when we sailed into Port Royal Harbor, with the pirate brig in our wake; and my dark foreboding was confirmed by the first news we had when we stepped ashore. Admiral Benbow was dead. Sturdy fighter as he was, he had contended gallantly for near a month against the fever that ensued upon the amputation of his leg, but 'twas not Heaven's will that he should live for further service to his country. In the presence of Death, the great leveler, all detraction is hushed, all enmities are extinguished ”

“ There was to be a number of other people—in fact, a very brilliant assembly; but Benvolio knew that a certain touch of the hand, a certain glance of the eye, a certain caress of the voice, would be reserved for him alone. Happy Benvolio, you will say, to be going about the world with such charming secrets as this locked up in his young heart! Happy Benvolio indeed; but mark how he trifled with his happiness. He went to the Countess's gate, but he went no further ”

“ In the dusk the horse glowed like a living jewel that holds the light when the sun has gone. Night fell, and the golden hide became a shimmer in the dark, as the outlaw moved restlessly to and fro in his prison. Then, of a sudden, with the unexpectedness and unreason of a dog’s wolf-howl at the rising moon, there rose from the gloom of the corral a shrill, wild neigh that shattered the peaceful silence of the night.
Haig left the fence, and walked swiftly to the barn.
“Farrish!” he said shortly. “We’ll break Sunnysides to-morrow. Tell Pete and Curly not to ride away in the morning. ”

“ Several districts belonging to Bengal lie interspersed within these mountains, but none beyond them; for to the westward they extend several degrees, and are in some parts impassable, as far as the province of Berar in the Decan; to the north they divide. Bengal from the southern division of BEHAR, and to the south, seem the natural separation of Bengal from ORIXA, which nevertheless has a tract of country within them extending 20 miles along the sea-coasts from Ballasore to the river of Pipley, which disembogues opposite to the Island of Sagore. ”

“ Too feeble to ask questions, she only smiled, and took obediently the remainder of the potion that Pete poured from his flask and heated in the tin-cup among the embers. On her wakening again it was seen that the fever was broken. But life in her was only a tiny flame, at times the merest spark that every gust of wind through the cavern threatened to extinguish. Hour after hour Haig and the Indian watched it, the one in such anguish as the repentant murderer suffers as he kneels over the poor victim of his rage, the other in stolid resignation, seeing that perhaps he had come too late. ”

“ At least, that is how it was in my time,’ Babylon added.
‘We will wake him,’ said Racksole.
‘But it is one o’clock in the morning,’ Babylon protested.
‘Never mind—that is, if you consent to accompany me. A cellar is the same by night as by day. Therefore, why not now?’
Babylon shrugged his shoulders. ‘As you wish,’ he agreed, with his indestructible politeness.
‘And now to find this Mr Hubbard, with his key of the cupboard,’ said Racksole, as they walked out of the room together. Although the hour was so late, the hotel was not, of course, closed for the night. ”

“ After this she gave her ball to her country neighbors, and Benvolio danced, to a boisterous, swinging measure, with a dozen ruddy beauties dressed in the fashions of the year before last. The Countess danced with the lusty male counterparts of these damsels, but she found plenty of chances to watch Benvolio. Toward the end of the evening she saw him looking grave and bored, with very much such a frown in his forehead as when he had sat staring at the fire that last day in her boudoir. She said to herself for the hundredth time that he was the oddest of mortals. ”

“ Few men, however, knew the shoals of that coast better than he did. Now the ship was put on one tack, now on another, but on each tack she lost ground.
He might, to be sure, have run for Dunkerque, Ostend, or other places along the coast, but night was coming on, and to steer in among the sandbanks was a dangerous undertaking, with the weather so thick and squally as it then was, and without a pilot; still, unless the Benbow frigate could beat off the coast,—it was one of two alternatives which remained—she might ride to her anchors, though risk of her dragging them was very great. ”

“ Still, as long as her masts and sails remained uninjured, Captain Benbow resolved to try and keep to sea; a shift of wind might enable him to gain either the Downs or the Thames. The cool intrepid way in which Captain Benbow managed his ship excited Roger’s admiration, while the crew, accustomed to confide in his skill, executed his orders with prompt obedience. When morning at length broke, dark clouds covered the sky, while leaden seas, capped with foam, rolled up around them, but no land was in sight to leeward, which showed that they had not struggled in vain ”

“ The citizens, visiting the place on Sundays according to custom, saw that the poor canons were famished with hunger. “Hic est pulcher apparatus, sed panis unde veniet?” exclaimed somebody. “It is a fine show to be sure; but where is the bread to come from?” The women present, Becket’s mother among them, vowed to send a loaf every Sunday, and soon there was enough and to spare. Very pretty is the story of the early life of the future martyr, how his mother, Rohese, used to weigh him on each birthday, and send money, clothes, and provisions, according to his weight. ”

“ The president highly complimented Captain Benbow on his gallantry, and invited him to a public banquet, to take place the next day in the Town-Hall. What became of the heads history does not narrate. They were probably returned to their sack after due note had been taken of them, and carried out to sea, and sunk with a shot or two in deep water; for it would certainly have been believed that they would not rest quietly on Christian soil, the Spaniards overlooking the fact that the ancestors of these Moors had once possessed the country as lords and masters. ”