Bencoolen

Bencoolen, chief town of a Dutch residency on the S.W. of Sumatra. It stands at the mouth of a river of the same name on low and swampy ground, necessitating the building of the houses on piles. From 1685 to 1825 it belonged to the English, who exchanged it for the Dutch settlement on the Malay peninsula. Its chief products are pepper and camphor.