Formerly this village was very thick and in a manner overcharged with inhabitants, which is yet visible from the ruins of half remaining houses; but at present the houses stand like poor men's corn, widely distant from each other.

Description of Benin City, from a letter written on board the yacht Johanna Maria (1 September 1702), in Willem Bosman, Nauwkeurige Beschryving van de Guinese Goud- Tand- en Slave-kust (1702): translated as A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, Divided into the Gold, the Slave, and the Ivory Coasts, 2nd ed. (London, 1721) Letter 21, p. 429. See also: A. M. Boisragon