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people whose features they represent. Voltaire showed his want of this kind of knowledge when he said that Aristophanes was neither a poet nor a humourist. Shakspeare and Molière necessarily require commentators (at least, to be thoroughly understood); and if two thousand years hence foreigners shall undertake to criticise them, they must first study the reigns of Elizabeth and of Louis, in order to avoid rash decisions and ill-founded judgments. If we compare for a moment only the political and social position of the Athenians with the reign of Louis XIV., before whose despotism and ostentation men of all ranks in France obsequiously bowed; if we identify and familiarize ourselves with the respective circumstances under whose influence the two authors wrote,-we shall no longer entertain the idea of comparing Theophratus with La Bruyère: the sole resemblance between them consists in the minuteness and accuracy of their observation, and in the justness and spirit of the strokes by which each has delineated his characters. La Bruyère's work, stamped as it is with the impress of a sound judgment and a good-natured satire, is one of those friends whom we always consult with pleasure and advantage. It anticipates our knowledge of the world and perfects it; and although the manners and characters therein delineated may undergo changes and modifications, its interest will be always the same, because, like all great works which take nature as their basis, it will always be true. BRUYN, BRUIN, BRUN, or LE BRÚN, CORNELIUS, for his name is printed in different books in all these ways, was a painter and traveller of some eminence. He was born at the Hague in 1652. In 1674 he quitted his native country to explore by rather a novel route Russia, Persia, the Levant, and the East Indies, and he did not return home for many years. His first work, Voyage to the Levant,' was published in folio at Paris in 1714. It relates chiefly to Egypt, Syria, the Holy Land, Rhodes, Cyprus, Scio, and Asia Minor, and is embellished with more than two hundred engravings, representing eastern cities, ruins, natural productions, costumes, &c. All these plates were executed from drawings made by himself on the spot, and, though somewhat hard, there is a great deal of truth and nature in them. His second work, Travels through Muscovy, in Persia, and the East Indies,' was published at Amsterdam by the brothers Wetstein in 1718; it contains upwards of 300 engravings, and is also in folio. Many of these plates, representing eastern ceremonies, antient edifices, animals, birds, fish, plants, and fruit, are admirably executed. Several of the engravings are devoted to the ruins of Persepolis. On the whole these are two splendid books. Another edition of the second work was brought out at Rouen in 4to. in 1725, and is said to be valuable on account of corrections and notes made to the text by the Abbé Banier, but with this French edition we are unacquainted. In this second work the reader may find much information concerning the coasts of Arabia, the island of Ceylon, Batavia, Bantam, and parts of Russia. At Batavia, where there were many Chinese colonists, he carefully investigated some of the manners and customs of that extraordinary people. He was residing on that island when the English buccaneer William Dampier, or, as he calls him, 'the famous Captain Damper,' arrived there from Ternate, after a most extraordinary voyage and series of adventures. [DAMPIER.] The value of Bruyn's second work is further increased by an account of the route taken by M. Isbrants, the ambassador of Muscovy, through Russia and Tartary to China.

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In 1714, the year in which he published his first great work, Bruyn put forth in Holland a very small disputative treatise, entitled Remarks on the engravings of old Persepolis, formerly given by Messieurs Chardin and Kæmpfer, and the mistakes and errors in them clearly pointed out. In this pamphlet he defends himself for the differences between the plates of his own work and those of Chardin, and shows in what portions of the engravings his own are the more correct. His Remarks are in Dutch, his travels in French; but the Remarks were afterwards translated into French, and published in an appendix to his second great work in 1718.

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The compilers of cyclopædias and biographical dictionaries have gone on repeating one after the other, and evidently without looking into the old traveller's books, that, though curious and instructive, Bruyn is inelegant in his style, and not always exact in his facts. Now in reality his style, though exceedingly simple, and somewhat deficient in

warmth and picturesque beauty, is very far from being in elegant, and his exactness, a quality he had in common with so many old travellers of his nation, is everywhere admirable. For the fidelity of his descriptions of most of the places he visited in the Levant, we can vouch from our own personal observation. He was not credulous himself, and he several times censures the credulity of explorers who had preceded him.

BRYA'CEÆ, a name sometimes given to the natural order Musci.

BRYANT, JACOB, was born at Plymouth in 1715; his father, who held a post in the custom-house of that town, was transferred in the seventh year of his son's age to Kent, in which county Jacob Bryant received the first part of his education at Luddesdown, near Rochester, whence he was afterwards removed to Eton. Having been elected to King's College, Cambridge, of which society he became fellow, he graduated A.B. in 1740, and A.M. in 1744. Being early distinguished for his attainments and love of letters, he was appointed tutor to Sir Thomas Stapylton, and afterwards to the Marquis of Blandford and his brother Lord Charles Spencer, at that time at Eton. A complaint in the eyes obliged him for a short time to relinquish this occupation, but having returned to it, he was rewarded in 1756 by the appointment of secretary to the Duke of Marlborough, who, continuing his patronage when nominated Master General of the Ordnance, took him as a secretary and travelling companion during his command in Germany, and gave him a lucrative situation in his own public office. His circumstances thus being rendered easy, he devoted his whole life to literature, and twice refused an office which has frequently been much coveted by others-the Mastership of the Charterhouse.

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The history of his life is embraced in that of his publications, all of which are distinguished by learning, research, and acuteness, but are more or less disfigured by fanciful conjectures and wild speculations. His first work was Observations and Inquiries relating to various Parts of Antient History,' Cambridge, 4to., 1767. In contradiction to Bochart, Grotius, and Bentley, he here, among other things, contends that the wind Euroclydon, mentioned in Acts xxvii. 14, ought properly to be termed Euroaquilo ; and in opposition to the same writers, together with Cluverius and Beza, he affirms that the island Melite, mentioned in the last chapter of the same book, is not Malta. The remaining subjects treated of in this volume are very obscure and very remote from common inquiry. He professed to throw light upon the earliest state of Egypt; upon the Shepherd Kings; and upon the history of the Assyrians, Chaldæans, Babylonians, and Edomites. Pursuing a similar course, he published in 1774 the first two volumes of the work upon which his fame chiefly depends - A New System or Analysis of Antient Mythology, wherein an attempt is made to divest Tradition of Fable, and to restore Truth to its original purity.' It appeared in 4to., and was followed by a third volume in 1776. Besides the nations whose history he had formerly investigated, he now turned to the Canaanites, Helladians, Ionians, Leleges, Dorians, Pelasgi, Scythæ, Indoscythæ, Ethiopians, and Phoenicians: pressing into his service every scattered fragment which his extensive reading enabled him to collect, and supporting his arguments by numerous forced and oftentimes false etymologies. One of his hypotheses wàs, that as all mankind sprang from the same stock, all existing languages might be traced to one original. The pursuit of radical terms was therefore, as he contended, the only sure means of discovering truth. He believed also that the heathen mythology was framed entirely upon perversions of the patriarchal history as recorded in the Old Testament; and, as has been well said, he saw the Ark in every thing. This publication involved him in much controversy, which he undertook in part anonymously, and in part, particularly in defence of the Apamean medals, in the Gentleman's Magazine. The Apamean medals were struck in honour of Septimius Severus, at Apameia, a town in Phrygia. The devices on them are a rainbow, a dove, a raven, and an olive-branch, and the legend NOE. This treatise was published separately in 1775, in 4to.; and Eckhel, the most learned numismatologist of his time, declared in its favour. In 1780 Bryant published with his name a tract which he had before printed and recalled, entitled Vindicia Flavianæ, advocating the disputed testimony of Josephus to our Saviour. Priestley expressed himself as convinced by

Bryony-root should be gathered in the autumn, after the stem has turned yellow: it is cut into slices, which are strung upon a thread, and hung in the air to dry.

the arguments in favour of the passages; but he afterwards | curbitace. The leaves are palmate, and rough on both engaged in controversy with Bryant on the difficult subject sides with callous points. The flowers are small and whitish, of Necessity. Bryant was a firm believer in the authenticity with pale green veins, and are succeeded by little red ber of the poems attributed to Rowley, and in 1781 he published ries, containing a very few seeds. Its principal use was on two vols. duodecimo, containing Observations' upon them. account of the powerful drastic properties of its root, which In 1783 the Duke of Marlborough printed for private dis- the French call, from that circumstance, Navet du Diable, tribution an account of the gems in his own collection, the or Devil's Turnip. It is excessively bitter, and when 1st vol. of which work was written in Latin by Bryant. In dried purges in doses of 30 or 40 grains. Over doses are 1792 appeared a treatise On the Authenticity of the extremely dangerous, and even sometimes fatal. Its proScriptures and the Truth of the Christian Religion, 8vo., perties are apparently owing to the presence of a principle executed at the request of the dowager Lady Pembroke; called bryonine, analogous to cathartine, which exists in and two years afterwards, in 8vo., some 'Observations on about the proportion of 2 per cent. of the root. the Plagues inflicted on the Egyptians.' But the work which engaged him in most dispute, and was more distinguished by his love of paradox than any other which he produced, was suggested by M. Le Chevalier's description of the plain of Troy. It appeared in 1796, 4to., and was entitled A Dissertation concerning the War of Troy and the expedition described by Homer, with the view of showing that no such expedition was ever undertaken, and that no such city in Phrygia ever existed. It was scurrilously answered by Wakefield, and it provoked far more honourable replies from Mr. Morritt and Dr. Vincent. In the following year appeared a tract in 8vo., entitled 'The Sentiments of PhiloJudæus concerning the Greek AOFOZ. Besides these, Bryant also wrote Observations on famous controverted Passages in Justin Martyr and Josephus,' and a pamphlet addressed to Mr. Melmoth. He closed his literary life by preparing for the press some remarks on very curious Scriptural subjects, written more than thirty years before. This 4to. vol. contained dissertations on the Prophecies of Balaam, the Standing still of the Sun in the time of Joshua, the Jawbone of the Ass with which Samson slew the Philistines, and the History of Jonah and the Whale. In the 7th vol. of the Archæologia' he furnished some 'Collections on the Zingara or Gipsy language; and numerous juvenile or fugitive pieces were found among his papers in MS. The titles of some of them will sufficiently show that his pen was not always devoted to subjects of a grave nature. We need only mention a 'Dissertation on Pork,' and an Apotheosis of a Cat.'

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His exemplary and protracted life was closed at his own residence at Cypenham, near Windsor, on the 14th of November, 1804, in consequence of a hurt which he received in the leg by a chair slipping from under him while taking down a book from an upper shelf. Such a death, as has been well remarked by a French biographer, was for a literary man to expire on the field of honour. His merits are very justly eulogized in a note on the second ' Dialogue of the Pursuits of Literature.' He left his very valuable library to King's College, Cambridge, 2000l. to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and half that sum to the superannuated collegers of Eton, at the discretion of the provost and fellows.

BRYA'XIS, a genus of coleopterous insects belonging to the family Pselaphide, which by some authors is arranged with the Brachelytra, but according to Latreille forms the third family of the section Trimera. Technical characters-antennæ long, from the third to the terminal joint gradually increasing in size; the three terminal joints forming a large knob; the last joint much larger than the rest, and somewhat conical in shape; the two basal joints large: maxillary palpi distinct, the apical joints robust: head rather large thorax rounded at the sides: elytra very broad, and covering only the basal half of the abdomen.

The species of this and allied genera, though minute, are perhaps among the most remarkable of the Coleoptera; in the short wing-cases they appear to evince an affinity to the Brachelytra, but in the number of joints in the tarsi, a character generally considered of importance, they differ; they likewise differ from that tribe in having the terminal joints of the antennæ immensely large, and in many other characters. They are generally found during the winter and early part of the spring in moss. Nine or ten species have been recorded as British. (Pselaphide.)

BRYO'NIA, the wild bryony of our hedges, Bryonia dioica, is a plant formerly much employed in rural pharmacy, but now disused. It is a perennial with large fusiform succulent roots, which have a repulsive nauseous odour. From these there annually springs a slender pale green hairy branching stem, which climbs among bushes by means of its tendrils, in the manner of a cucumber, to which it is botanically allied, both belonging to the natural order Cu

BRYOPHYLLUM, a succulent exogenous genus, belonging to the natural order Crassulacea, and remarkable for the singular property possessed by its leaves of budding from their margin. These leaves are of a succulent texture, and sometimes pinnated; they or their leaflets are of an oblong figure, with a deeply-crenelled border; when placed in a damp and shady warm place they sprout from the crenels and form young plants, a property unknown in the same degree in any other vegetable production. Physiologists, however, consider that traces of a similar power, exercised in another way, exist in all plants in their carpellary leaves, from whose edges, forming placenta, ovules, which are theoretically young buds, are constantly produced.

The only species is Bryophyllum calycinum, a shrub found in the Moluccas, with panicles of large pendulous greenishyellow flowers. In this country it is a green-house plant; but is apt to be eaten by mice.

BRZESE LITEWSKY. [GRODNO.]

BU'BALUS. [ANTELOPE, species 61. Ox.]

BUBO (zoology), a subgenus of owls (Strigida), separated by Cuvier, and characterized by a small concha or ear aperture, and a facial disk, less perfect than in the subgenus Syrnium (chats-huans of the French). Two tufts or feathered horns of considerable size adorn the head, and the legs are feathered down to the toes.

EUROPEAN SPECIES.

Bubo maximus*. Strix Bubo of Linnæus; Le grand Duc of the French; Gufo, Gufo grande, and Gufo reale of the Italians; Schuffut. Uhu, Grosse ohreule Huhu of the Germans; Uff of the Fauna Suecica; Buhu of the Lower Austrians; Great Owl, or Eagle Owl, of Willughby, Ray, and Pennant.

This, the largest of the Nocturnal Birds, is, there can be little doubt, the Bias (Byas) of Aristotle (Hist. Anim. viii. c. 3), and the Bubo funebris mentioned by Pliny in his chapter de Inauspicatis Avibus (lib. x. c. 12 and 13), on account of whose advent Rome twice underwent lustration. Upon one of these occasions the bird of ill omen penetrated into the very cella of the Capitol.

Geographical distribution.-Temminck places its habitation in great forests, and says that it is very common in Hungary, Russia, Germany, and Switzerland, less common in France and England, and never seen in Holland. He adds, that it is found at the Cape of Good Hope. Willughby observes that about Bologna, and elsewhere in Italy, it is frequent. Bonaparte notes it as rare in the neighbour hood of Rome, and says that it is only seen in mountainous situations. It is said to extend eastward as far as Kamt

chatka.

Pennant states that it has been shot in Scotland, and in Yorkshire, from which county it was sent to Willughby. Latham adds Kent and Sussex as localities where it has been found. It is said to have been seen in Orkney; and four are stated to have occurred on the northern coast of Donegal in Ireland. The eagle owl then can be only considered as a rare visitant to our islands.

The following is Temminck's description:-Upper part of the body variegated and undulated with black and ochreous; lower parts ochreous, with longitudinal black dashes. Throat white. Feet covered to the nails with plumes of a reddish yellow. Iris bright orange. Length two feet. The female is larger than the male; but the tints of her plumage are less bright, and she is without the white on the throat. It sometimes varies, in having the colours less lively, and in being of inferior dimensions.

* Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano, places it under his subgenus Ulula, Specchio Comparativo,'

Food. Young roes and fawns, hares, moles, rats, mice, winged game, frogs, lizards, and beetles.

Nest. In the hollows of rocks, in old castles and other ruins; where the female lays two or three, but rarely four, round white eggs. Latham says two, the size of those of a hen.'

M. Cronstedt, who resided on a farm in Sudermania, near a mountain, had an opportunity of witnessing the devotion of these birds to their young, and their care in supplying them with food, even under extraordinary circumstances. Two eagle owls had built their nest on the mountain; and a young one, which had wandered away, was taken by the servants and confined in a hen-coop. The next morning there was a dead partridge lying close to the door of the coop. Food was brought to the same place for fourteen successive nights: this generally consisted of young partridges newly killed, but sometimes a little tainted. Once a moorfowl was brought still warm under the wings, and at another time a piece of lamb in a putrid state. M. Cronstedt sat up with his servant many nights in order to observe the deposit of the supply, if possible, but in vain. It was evident however to M. Cronstedt that the parents were the caterers, and on the look-out; for, on the very night when M. Cronstedt and his servant ceased to watch, the usual food was left near the coop. The supply continued from the time when the young owl was taken-in July-to the usual time in the month of August when these birds leave their young to their own exertions.

Belon gives an account of the use which falconers made of this bird to entrap the kite. They tied the tail of a fox to the eagle owl, and let him fly. This spectacle soon excited the attention of the kite, if he were near, and he continued to fly near the owl, not endeavouring to hurt him, but apparently intent on observing his odd figure. While so employed the falconer surprised and took the kite.

are co-extensive with this segment to maintain its peculiar shape, and to afford a firm basis for the support of a very large and prominent cornea. No. 1798 shows the eye-ball, nictitating membrane and their muscles, with the external eye-lids and Harderian gland.

AMERICAN SPECIES.

Bubo Virginianus. The Virginian Horned Owl. Strix Virginiana of Vieillot; Duc de Virginie of Buffon; Netowky-omeesew of the Cree Indians, according to Mr. Hutchins; Otowuck-oho of the Crees of the plains of the Saskatchewan, according to Dr. Richardson.

Pennant (Arctic Zoology) says that this seems to be a variety of the eagle owl, although he notices the inferiority in size: but it is a very distinct species.

It is not improbable, as Dr. Richardson observes, that this night-bird, peculiar to America, inhabits that continent from end to end. Cuvier gives his opinion that the Strix Magellanica of the Planches Enluminées differs merely in having browner tints of colour; and Dr. Richardson mentions the result of Mr. Swainson's comparison of the northern specimens with those of the Table Land of Mexico, as confirmatory of the identity of the species; the only difference being a more general rufous and vivid tint of plumage in the Mexican specimens. Almost every part of the United States possesses this bird, and it is found, according to Dr. Richardson, in all the fur countries where the timber is of large size.

We have seen how the civilized Romans regarded the European bird; and it is curious to observe how, in a comparatively savage state, the same superstitious feelings were connected with the American species. The savages,' says Pennant, quoting "Colden's Six Indian Nations," have their birds of ill omen as well as the Romans. They have a most superstitious terror of the owl, which they carry so far as to be highly displeased at any one who mimics its hootings. Lawson, evidently speaking of these birds, says They make a fearful hallooing in the night-time, like a man, whereby they often make strangers lose their way in the woods. Wilson thus describes the haunts and habits of the Virginian horned owl:- His favourite residence is in the dark solitudes of deep swamps, covered with a growth of gigantic timber; and here, as soon as the evening draws on, and mankind retire to rest, he sends forth such sounds as seem scarcely to belong to this world...... Along the mountain shores of the Ohio, and amidst the deep forests of Indiana, alone, and reposing in the woods, this ghostly watchman has frequently warned me of the approach of morning, and amused me with his singular exclamations. Sometimes sweeping down and around my fire, uttering a loud and sudden Waugh O! Waugh O! sufficient to have alarmed a whole garrison. He has other nocturnal solos, one of which very strikingly resembles the half-suppressed screams of a person suffocating or throttled. Wilson treats this visitation like a philosopher, but, after reading his description and that of Nuttall (Ornithology of the United States), we shall cease to wonder at the well-told tale in Fauna Boreali-Americana' of the winter night of agony endured by a party of Scottish Highlanders who, according to Dr. Richardson, had made their bivouac in the recesses of a North American forest, and inadvertently fed their fire with a part of an Indian tomb which had been placed in the secluded spot. The startling notes of the Virginian horned owl broke upon their ear, and they at once concluded that so unearthly a voice must be the moaning of the spirit of the departed, whose repose they supposed they had disturbed.

The following is Dr. Richardson's description of the plumage of a specimen, twenty-six inches in length from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, killed at Fort Chepewyan:

Bill and claws pale bluish black. Irides bright yellow. Facial circle of a deep black immediately round the orbit, composed of white mixed with black bristly feathers at the base of the bill, and posteriorly of yellowish brown wiry feathers, tipped with black, and having black shafts. The black tips form a conspicuous border to the facial circle posteriorly; but the small feathers behind the auditory opening differ little in colour and appearance from the adjoining plumage of the neck. Egrets composed of ten or twelve dark brown feathers, spotted at the base of their outer webs, and along their whole inner ones, with yellowish brown. Forehead and crown dark blackish-brown, finely

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mottled with greyish white, and partially exhibiting the yellowish-brown base of the plumage. The whole dorsal plumage is yellowish-brown for more than half the length of each feather from its base, and dark liver-brown upwards, finely barred and indented with undulated white lines. More of the yellowish-brown is visible on the neck and between the shoulders than elsewhere. The primaries present six or seven bars of dark umber or liver-brown, alternating with six bars, which on the outer webs are brownish-white, finely speckled with dark-brown, and, on the inner webs, are of a bright buff-colour, sparingly speckled with the dark-brown near the shafts. The tips of the feathers have the same mottled appearance with the paler bars of the outer webs. The secondaries and tail feathers are similarly marked to the primaries, but show more white on their outer webs. There are six liver-brown bars on the tail, the last of which is nearly an inch from its end.

Under surface. Chin white, succeeded by a belt, extending from ear to ear, of liver-brown feathers, having pale yellowish-brown margins. Behind the belt there is a gorgetshaped mark of pure white. The rest of the lower surface of the body is crossed by very regular transverse bars of white, alternating with bars of equal breadth (three lines) of liver-brown, shaded with chocolate-brown. The yellowish-brown base of the plumage is likewise partially visible: there is a white mesial line on the breast, and when the long feathers covering the abdomen are turned aside, a good deal of white appears about the vent. The outside thigh feathers are yellowish-brown, with distant cross bars of liver-brown; and the legs and feet are brownish-white with brown spots. The linings of the wings are white, with hars of liver-brown, margined by yellowish-brown. The insides of the primaries are bright buff, crossed by broad bars of clove-brown. On the under surface of the secondaries the clove-brown bars are much narrower. The under tail coverts are whitish, with distant bars of liver-brown. The under surface of the tail has a slight tinge of buffcolour, and is crossed by mottled bars of clove-brown.

Dr. Richardson adds, that another specimen killed by Mr. Drummond on the Rocky Mountains measured two inches less in length, and differed generally from the preceding, in being of a darker hue above, with finer and less conspicuous white mottling. The yellowish-brown colour

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of the base of the plumage was also less bright, and the facial circle was of a more sombre hue. Its bill, also, was more compressed.

The bird preys, according to Dr. Richardson, on the American hare, Hudson's Bay squirrel, mice, wood-grouse, &c., and builds its nest of sticks on the top of a lofty tree, hatching in March. The young, two or three in number, are generally fully fledged in June. The eggs are white. Wilson observes that it has been known to prowl about the farm-house and carry off chickens from roost. A very large one,' says that author, wing-broken, while on a foraging excursion of this kind, was kept about the house for several days, and at length disappeared no one knew how. Almost every day after this, hens and chickens also disappeared, one by one, in an unaccountable manner, till in eight or ten days very few were left remaining. The fox, the minx, and weasel, were alternately the reputed authors of this mischief, until one morning the old lady herself rising before day to bake, in passing towards the oven surprised her late prisoner regaling himself on the body of a newly-killed hen! The thief instantly made for his hole under the house, from which the enraged matron soon dislodged him with the brush handle, and without mercy dispatched him. In this snug retreat were found the greater part of the feathers, and many large fragments of her whole family of chickens.'

There are specimens in the gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park.

We cannot close this article without referring to the beautiful figure and interesting description of Bubo Arcticus in Fauna Boreali-Americana.' It is not at all improbable that this may be the Strix Scandiaca of Linnæus. Of this Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology,' says that Linnæus seems to take his description from a painting of Rudbeck's, adding, its existence is confirmed by Mr. Tonning of Drontheim:' but Temminck considered this Scandinavian eared owl to be merely a snowy owl, on which two fictitious egrets had been placed.

The specimen of Bubo Arcticus described by Dr. Richardson was observed flying at mid-day in the immediate vicinity of Carlton House, and was brought down with an arrow by an Indian boy.

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BUBON. [GALBANUM.]

BUCCANEERS, a most numerous and well-known association of sea-robbers or pirates, who were also called The Brethren of the Coast,' and still more commonly Flibustiers.' The term Buccaneer is of curious derivation. The Caribbee Indians taught the colonists in the West Indies a singular mode of curing and preserving the flesh of cattle: when cured, this flesh was called Boucan by the Caribbees: from boucan the French made the verb boucaner, which the 'Dictionnaire de Trevoux' explains to be 'to dry red, without salt.' Hence comes the noun Boucanier, and our Buccaneer.

The term Flibustier is supposed to be nothing but the French sailors' corruption of our word freebooter; and it is a curious fact, that as we always used a word corrupted from them, so the French designated the robbers by a word derived from us, invariably calling them flibustiers, or freebooters.

The Buccaneers were natives of different parts of Europe, but chiefly of Great Britain and France. They were most of them seafaring people, and the origin of the associations about the year 1524 was entirely owing to the jealousy of the Spaniards, who would not allow any other nation to trade or settle in the West Indies, and who pursued the English or French like wild beasts, murdering them wherever they found them. At that time and long afterwards, Spain, in right of her priority of discovery, and of the well-known bull of Pope Alexander VI., considered the whole of the New World as tresure-trove of which she was lawfully and exclusively the mistress. Every foreigner found among the islands or on the coasts of the vast Ame rican continent was treated as a smuggler and robber, and this being the case it is no wonder that seafaring adventurers soon became so, and returned cruelty by cruelty. As early as 1517, when an English ship appeared at St. Domingo to request liberty to trade, the Spaniards fired their cannon at her and drove her away. When this unexpected visit was reported to the Spanish government at home, the minister sent out a sharp reprimand to the governor of St. Domingo because he had not artfully seized the ship instead of driving her away, and so disposed of the English that no one of

In 1638 the Spaniards in force surprised Tortuga, while most of the adventurers were absent in Hispaniola hunting cattle, and they massacred all the English and French buccaneers that fell into their hands. The buccaneers however soon retook the island, and made it the centre of their hunting and cruizing as before. These singular associations were held together by a very simple code of laws. It is said that every member of it had his chosen and declared chum or comrade, between whom and himself property was held in common while they lived together, and when either of the two died the survivor succeeded to whatever he possessed; but as buccaneers were known at times to bequeath property by will to their friends in Europe, this cannot have been a compulsatory regulation. What, however, was insisted upon by their corporate laws was, that there should be a general participation in certain essentials, among which were enumerated meat for present consumption and other necessaries of life. It has been said that bolts, locks, and all kinds of fastenings were prohibited among them, as implying a doubt of the honour of their vocation.'

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them should have returned to teach others of their nation | calling, and confounded the notions of right and wrong in the route to the Spanish Indies. But the enterprising their ignorant minds. The governors of the first English nations of Europe were not to be checked by the tyranny of colonies in the West Indies, or at least the majority of them, Spain, nor could a papal bull shut the eyes of navigators were great rogues, and on condition of sharing spoils with and make them blind to the improving science of naviga- the buccaneers they let them do pretty much as they chose, tion, or to their way across the ocean. The mariners of even when there was no war with Spain. Europe, moreover, still considered the New World as an Eldorado where gold and treasures were to be had for the fetching, and this made them brave the monstrous cruelties of the Spaniards. In 1526 one Thomas Tyson was sent to the West Indies as factor to some English merchants, and many adventurers soon followed him. The French began to make voyages to Brazil, and the Portuguese and the Dutch successively began to show themselves in numbers in the West Indies. Knowing what they had to expect they were always prepared to fight desperately. From an ingenious phrase, se dédommager d'avance, used by one of the French fibustiers, it appears they did not always wait to be attacked, but in case of a favourable opportunity became themselves the assailants. To repress these interlopers the Spaniards employed guarda-costas, the commanders of which were instructed to massacre all their prisoners. This tended to produce a close alliance, offensive and defensive, among the mariners of all other nations, who in their turn made descents on the coasts, and ravaged the weaker Spanish towns and settlements. A permanent state of hostilities was thus established in the West Indies entirely independent of peace or war at home. The Brethren of the coast' cared not if their respective native countries in the Old World were at peace with Spain; in the New they must of necessity fight the Spaniards or die, or relinquish the benefits which that immense region offered. When not engaged in traffic with the Indians or in predatory excursions against the Spaniards, the principal occupation of these men was hunting wild cattle, of which they made their boucan, but they did not begin the latter occupation until several years after their first appearance in the Caribbean seas. At a still later date many of them became logwood cutters in the bay of Campeachy, and as both these occupations soon became very profitable, aud trading ships from Europe began to resort to them in numbers for their hides, suet, dried meat, wood, &c., there is good reason for supposing that if the Spaniards had left them in peace they would gradually have settled down into quiet industrious communities. But instead of this, the Spaniards continued to murder them whenever they could surprise them, to burn their log-huts, to hunt them from place to place, and even to kill the shipwrecked mariners who were thrown by misfortune upon their coasts. The effect of all this was, that the buccaneers became as sanguinary as their enemies, increased their numbers, condensed their operations, and soon considered everything Spanish as fair prize, and every Spaniard's life a forfeit to them. Some home-returning flibustiers brought accounts of the barbarities of the Spaniards into Europe, where they soon got into print, were circulated as popular stories, and produced an immense sensation. A Frenchman of the name of Montbars on reading one of these stories conceived such a deadly hatred of the Spaniards that he became a buccaneer, and killed so many of that nation in the West Indies that he obtained the title of The Exterminator. Other men joined the brethren of the coast from less ferocious motives. Raveneau de Lussan took up the trade of buccaneering and robbing because he was in debt, and wished, as every honest man should do, to have wherewithal to pay his creditors. By degrees many men of respectable birth joined the associations, on which it was customary for them to drop their family name and assume a new one. Some of the buccaneers were of a religious temperament. A French captain, named Daniel, shot one of his crew in church for behaving irreverently during the celebration of mass. Captain Richard Sawkins, an Englishman, threw the dice overboard on finding them in use on the Sunday; and the first thing Captain John Watling did was to order his robbers to keep holy the Sabbath.

In 1625 the English and French conjointly took possession of the island of St. Christopher, and five years later of Tortuga, which islands became the head quarters of the buccaneers, who, whenever the countries of which they were natives were at war with Spain, obtained commissions or letters of mark from Europe, and acted as regular privateers in the West Indies and on the Spanish Main. This latter custom gave a colour of legitimacy and honour to their

In addition to the names already mentioned, Peter of Dieppe, called Peter the Great,' Bartolomeo Portuguez, François L'Olonnais, and Mansvelt were distinguished captains of buccaneers, who made themselves terrible in those seas. But the fame of all these men was eclipsed by Henry Morgan, a Welshman, who succeeded Mansvelt in a sort of general command. He took and plundered the town of Puerto del Principe in Cuba, attacked Puerto Bello, one of the best fortified places in that part of the world, and took and sacked Maracaibo and Gibraltar. Morgan displayed not only infinite bravery, but the highest qualities of a great commander; unhappily however, like most of his predecessors, he was treacherous, cruel, and bloodthirsty. He was in the habit of torturing his prisoners in order to make them confess where they had concealed their treasures. The boldest and most astonishing of all Henry Morgan's exploits was his forcing his way across the isthmus of Darien from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. His object was merely to plunder the rich city of Panama, but his expedition opened the way to the great southern seas, where the buccaneers soon achieved strange exploits, and laid the foundation of much of our geographical knowledge of that ocean. In December, 1670, thirty-seven vessels, having on board about 2000 men, rendezvoused at Cape Tiburon under the enterprising Welshman, whom French and English obeyed with equal alacrity. On the 16th of Dec. he took the island of Santa Catalina, where he left a strong garrison. He next took the strong castle of San Lorenzo, at the mouth of the river Chagre, on the east side of the isthmus of Darien, where out of 314 Spaniards he put 200 to death. He left 500 men in the castle, 150 to take care of his ships, and with the rest, who, after deducting the killed and wounded, amounted to about 1200 men, he began his land march through one of the wildest and most difficult countries, which was then only known to the wild Indians. The fatigues and difficulties they suffered on this march were dreadful. On the tenth day after his departure from San Lorenzo, Morgan, after a desperate combat with the Spaniards, who had 2000 foot and 400 horse, took and plundered the rich city of Panama, which then counted about 7000 houses. Here again his cruelties were abominable. He returned in safety, and loaded with wealth, to San Lorenzo, where he found all his ships undisturbed. Having tricked most of the fleet out of their share of the spoils, he sailed for Jamaica, which was already an English colony. This dexterous ruffian was afterwards knighted by Charles II., and became successively commissioner of the admiralty court in Jamaica, and deputy governor of that island.

In 1673 the Spaniards murdered 300 French flibustiers, who had been shipwrecked at Puerto Rico-a barbarcus act which provoked atrocious reprisals.

The short way to the South Seas had been shown by Morgan, and, in 1680, about 330 English buccaneers started from the shores of the Atlantic to cross the Isthmus. The route they pursued varied slightly from that followed by

VOL. V.-3 T

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