BONNY, or BANNY, is a large town situated in the Bight of Benin, on the Coast of Guinea, lying about twelve miles from the sea, on the east side of a river of the same name, opposite to a town called Peterforte- side. It consists of a considerable number of very poor huts, built of upright poles, plaistered with a kind of red earth, and covered with mats. They are very low, being only one story. The floor is made of sand, which being constructed on swampy ground, does not long retain its firmness, but requires frequent repair.

The inhabitants secure themselves, in some degree, against the noxious vapours, which arise from the swamps and woods that surround the town, by constantly keeping large wood fires in their huts. They are extremely dirty and indolent; which, together with what they call the smokes (a noxious vapour, arising from the swamps about the latter end of autumn) produces an epidemical fever, that carries off great numbers.

The natives of Bonny believe in one Supreme Being; but they reverence greatly a harmless animal of the lizard kind, called a Guana, the body of which is about the size of a man's leg, and tapering towards its tail, nearly to a point. Great numbers of them run about the town, being encouraged and cherished by the inhabitants.

The river Bonny abounds with sharks of a very large size, which are often seen in almost incredible numbers about the slave ships, devouring with great dispatch the dead bodies of the negroes as they are thrown overboard. The bodies of the sailors who die there, are buried on a sandy point, called Bonny Point, which lies about a quarter of a mile from the town. It is covered at high water; and, as the bodies are buried but a small depth below the surface of the sand, the stench arising from them is sometimes very noxious.

The trade of this town consists of slaves, and a small quantity of ivory and palm-oil, the latter of which the inhabitants use as we do butter; but its chief dependence is on the slave trade, in which it exceeds any other place on the coast of Africa.