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THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME IV SLICE III
Borgia, Lucrezia to Bradford, John
Articles in This Slice
BORGIA, LUCREZIA (1480-1519), duchess of Ferrara, daughter of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, afterwards Pope Alexander VI. (q.v.), by his mistress Vanozza dei Cattanei, was born at Rome in 1480. Her early years were spent at her mother’s house near her father’s splendid palace; but later she was given over to the care of Adriana de Mila, a relation of Cardinal Borgia and mother-in-law of Giulia Farnese, another of his mistresses. Lucrezia was educated according to the usual curriculum of Renaissance ladies of rank, and was taught languages, music, embroidery, painting, &c.; she was famed for her beauty and charm, but the corrupt court of Rome in which she was brought up was not conducive to a good moral education. Her father at first contemplated a Spanish marriage for her, and at the age of eleven she was betrothed to Don Cherubin de Centelles, a Spanish nobleman. But the engagement was broken off almost immediately, and Lucrezia was married by proxy to another Spaniard, Don Gasparo de Procida, son of the count of Aversa. On the death of Innocent VIII. (1492), Cardinal Borgia was elected pope as Alexander VI., and, contemplating a yet more ambitious marriage for his daughter, he annulled the union with Procida; in February 1493 Lucrezia was betrothed to Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro, with whose family Alexander was now in close alliance. The wedding was celebrated in June; but when the pope’s policy changed and he became friendly to the king of Naples, the enemy of the house of Sforza, he planned the subjugation of the vassal lords of Romagna, and Giovanni, feeling his position insecure, left Rome for Pesaro with his wife. By Christmas 1495 they were back in Rome; the pope had all his children around him, and celebrated the carnival with a series of magnificent festivities. But he decided that he had done with Sforza, and annulled the marriage on the ground of the husband’s impotence (March 1497). In order to cement his alliance with Naples, he married Lucrezia to Alphonso of Aragon, duke of Bisceglie, a handsome youth of eighteen, related to the Neapolitan king. But he too realized the fickleness of the Borgias’ favour when Alexander backed up Louis XII. of France in the latter’s schemes for the conquest of Naples. Bisceglie fled from Rome, fearing for his life, and the pope sent Lucrezia to receive the homage of the city of Spoleto as governor. On her return to Rome in 1499, her husband, who really loved her, was induced to join her once more. A year later he was murdered by the order of her brother Cesare. After the death of Bisceglie, Lucrezia retired to Nepi, and then returned to Rome, where she acted for a time as regent during Alexander’s absence. The latter now was anxious for a union between his daughter and Alphonso, son and heir to Ercole d’Este, duke of Ferrara. The negotiations were somewhat difficult, as neither Alphonso nor his father was anxious for a connexion with the house of Borgia, and Lucrezia’s own reputation was not unblemished. However, by bribes and threats the opposition was overcome, and in September 1501 the marriage was celebrated by proxy with great magnificence in Rome. On Lucrezia’s arrival at Ferrara she won over her reluctant husband by her youthful charm (she was only twenty-two), and from that time forth she led a peaceful life, about which there was hardly a breath of scandal. On the death of Ercole in 1505, her husband became duke, and she gathered many learned men, poets and artists at her court, among whom were Ariosto, Cardinal Bembo, Aldus Manutius the printer, and the painters Titian and Dosso Dossi. She devoted herself to the education of her children and to charitable works; the only tragedy connected with this period of her life is the murder of Ercole Strozzi, who is said to have admired her and fallen a victim to Alphonso’s jealousy. She died on the 24th of June 1519, leaving three sons and a daughter by the duke of Ferrara, besides one son Rodrigo by the duke of Bisceglie, and possibly another of doubtful paternity. She seems to have been a woman of very mediocre talents, and only played a part in history because she was the daughter of Alexander VI. and the sister of Cesare Borgia. While she was in Rome she was probably no better and no worse than the women around her, but there is no serious evidence for the charges of incest with her father and brothers which were brought against her by the scandal-mongers of the time.
See the bibliographies for [Alexander VI.] and [Borgia, Cesare]; and especially F. Gregorovius’s Lucrezia Borgia (Stuttgart, 1874), the standard work on the subject; also W. Gilbert’s Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara (London, 1869), which, while containing much information, is quite without historic value; and G. Campori’s “Una Vittima della Storia, Lucrezia Borgia,” in the Nuova Antologia (August 31, 1866), which aims at the rehabilitation of Lucrezia.
(L. V.*)
BORGLUM, SOLON HANNIBAL (1868- ), American sculptor, was born in Ogden, Utah, on the 22nd of December 1868, the son of a Danish wood-carver. He studied under Louis F. Rebisso in the Cincinnati art school in 1895-1897, and under Frémiet in Paris. He took as his chief subjects incidents of western life, cowboys and Indians, with which he was familiar from his years on the ranch; notably “Lassoing Wild Horses,” “Stampeding Wild Horses,” “Last Round-up,” “On the Border of White Man’s Land,” and “Burial on the Plains.” His elder brother, Gutzon Borglum (b. 1867), also showed himself an artist of some originality.
BORGOGNONE, AMBROGIO (fl. 1473-1524), Italian painter of the Milanese school, whose real name was Ambrogio Stefani da Fossano, was approximately contemporary with Leonardo da Vinci, but represented, at least during a great part of his career, the tendencies of Lombard art anterior to the arrival of that master—the tendencies which he had adopted and perfected from the hands of his predecessors Foppa and Zenale. We are not precisely informed of the dates either of the death or the birth of Borgognone, who was born at Fossano in Piedmont, and whose appellation was due to his artistic affiliation to the Burgundian school. His fame is principally associated with that of one great building, the Certosa, or church and convent of the Carthusians at Pavia, for which he worked much and in many different ways. It is certain, indeed, that there is no truth in the tradition which represents him as having designed, in 1473, the celebrated façade of the Certosa itself. His residence there appears to have been of eight years’ duration, from 1486, when he furnished the designs of the figures of the virgin, saints and apostles for the choir-stalls, executed in tarsia or inlaid wood work by Bartolommeo Pola, till 1494, when he returned to Milan. Only one known picture, an altar-piece at the church San Eustorgio, can with probability be assigned to a period of his career earlier than 1486. For two years after his return to Milan he worked at the church of San Satiro in that city. From 1497 he was engaged for some time in decorating with paintings the church of the Incoronata in the neighbouring town at Lodi. Our notices of him thenceforth are few and far between. In 1508 he painted for a church in Bergamo; in 1512 his signature appears in a public document of Milan; in 1524—and this is our last authentic record—he painted a series of frescoes illustrating the life of St Sisinius in the portico of San Simpliciano at Milan. Without having produced any works of signal power or beauty, Borgognone is a painter of marked individuality. He holds an interesting place in the most interesting period of Italian art. The National Gallery, London, has two fair examples of his work —the separate fragments of a silk banner painted for the Certosa, and containing the heads of two kneeling groups severally of men and women; and a large altar-piece of the marriage of St Catherine, painted for the chapel of Rebecchino near Pavia. But to judge of his real powers and peculiar ideals—his system of faint and clear colouring, whether in fresco, tempera or oil; his somewhat slender and pallid types, not without something that reminds us of northern art in their Teutonic sentimentality as well as their Teutonic fidelity of portraiture; the conflict of his instinctive love of placidity and calm with a somewhat forced and borrowed energy in figures where energy is demanded, his conservatism in the matter of storied and minutely diversified backgrounds—to judge of these qualities of the master as they are, it is necessary to study first the great series of his frescoes and altar-pieces at the Certosa, and next those remains of later frescoes and altar-pieces at Milan and Lodi, in which we find the influence of Leonardo and of the new time mingling with, but not expelling, his first predilections.
BORGO SAN DONNINO, a town and episcopal see of Emilia, Italy, in the province of Parma, 14 m. N.W. by rail from the town of Parma. Pop. (1901) town, 6251; commune, 12,109. It occupies the site of the ancient Fidentia, on the Via Aemilia; no doubt, as its name shows, of Roman origin. Here M. Lucullus defeated the democrats under Carbo in 82 B.C. It was independent under Vespasian, but seems soon to have become a village dependent on Parma. Its present name comes from the martyrdom of S. Domninus under Maximian in A.D. 304. The cathedral, erected in honour of this saint, is one of the finest and best-preserved Lombardo-Romanesque churches of the 11th-13th centuries in north Italy. The upper part of the façade is incomplete, but the lower, with its three portals and sculptures, is very fine; the interior is simple and well-proportioned, and has not been spoilt by restorations. For the bénitier, a work of the early 11th century, see Rassegna d’Arte, 1905, 180. Not far from the town is the small church of S. Antonio del Viennese, a 13th-century structure in brick (ib., 1906, 22). The Palazzo Comunale, in the Gothic-Lombard style, is a work of the 14th century. Borgo S. Donnino is an important centre for the produce and cattle of Emilia.
(T. As.)
BORGU, or Barba, an inland country of West Africa. The western part is included in the French colony of Dahomey (q.v.); the eastern division forms the Borgu province of the British protectorate of Nigeria. Borgu is bounded N.E. and E. by the Niger, S. by the Yoruba country, N.W. by Gurma. The country consists of an elevated plain traversed by rivers draining north or east to the Niger. The water-parting between the Niger basin and the coast streams of Dahomey and Lagos runs north-east and south-west near the western frontier. In about 10° N., below the town of Bussa, rapids block the course of the Niger, navigable up to that point from the sea. The soil is mostly fertile, and is fairly cultivated, producing in abundance millet, yams, plantains and limes. The acacia tree is common, and from it gum-arabic of good quality is obtained. From the nut of the horse-radish tree ben oil is expressed. Cattle are numerous and of excellent breed, and game is abundant. Borgu is inhabited by a number of pagan negro tribes, several of whom were dependent on the chief of Nikki, a town in the centre of the country, the chief being spoken of as sultan of Borgu. The king of Bussa was another more or less powerful potentate. In the early years of the 19th century Borgu was invaded by the Fula (q.v.), but the Bariba (as the people are called collectively) maintained their independence. In 1894 Borgu became the object of rivalry between France and England. The Royal Niger Company, which had already concluded a treaty of protection with the king of Bussa, sent out Captain (afterwards Sir) F.D. Lugard to negotiate treaties with the king of Nikki and other chiefs, and Lugard succeeded in doing so a few days before the arrival of French expeditions from the west. Disregarding the British treaties, French officers concluded others with various chiefs, invaded Bussa and established themselves at various points on the Niger. To defend British interests, the West African Frontier Force was raised locally under Lugard’s command, and a period of great tension ensued, British and French troops facing one another at several places. A conflict was, however, averted, and by the convention of June 1898 the western part of Borgu was declared French and the eastern British, the French withdrawing from all places on the lower Niger.
The British portion of Borgu has an area of about 12,000 sq. m. Up to the period of inclusion within the protectorate of Nigeria little or nothing was known of the country, though there were interesting legends of the antiquity of its history. The population was entirely independent, and resisted with success not only the Fula from the north but also the armies of Dahomey and Mossi from the south and west. Travellers who attempted to penetrate this country had never returned. Since 1898 the country has been opened, and from being the most lawless and truculent of people the Bariba have become singularly amenable and law-abiding. Provincial courts are established, but there is little crime in the province. The British garrisons have been replaced by civil police. The assessment of taxes under British administration was successfully carried out in 1904, and taxes are collected without trouble. In south Borgu the people are agricultural but not industrious or inclined for trade. In the north there are some pastoral settlements of Fula. The Bariba themselves remain agricultural. Cart-roads have been constructed between the town of Kiama and the Niger. The agricultural resources of Borgu are great, and as the population increases with the cessation of war and by immigration the country should show marked development. Shea trees are abundant. Elephants are still to be found in the fifty-mile strip of forest land which stretches between the Niger and the interior of the province. The forest contains valuable sylvan products, and there are great possibilities for the cultivation of rubber. There are also extensive areas of fine land suitable for cotton, with the waterway of the Niger close at hand. Labour might be brought from Yorubaland close by, and a Yoruba colony has been experimentally started. (See [Nigeria] and [Bussa].)
BORIC ACID, or Boracic Acid, H3BO3, an acid obtained by dissolving boron trioxide in water. It was first prepared by Wilhelm Homberg (1652-1715) from borax, by the action of mineral acids, and was given the name sal sedativum Hombergi. The presence of boric acid or its salts has been noted in sea-water, whilst it is also said to exist in plants and especially in almost all fruits (A.H. Allen, Analyst, 1904, 301). The free acid is found native in certain volcanic districts such as Tuscany, the Lipari Islands and Nevada, issuing mixed with steam from fissures in the ground; it is also found as a constituent of many minerals (borax, boracite, boronatrocalcite and colemanite).
The chief source of boric acid for commercial purposes is the Maremma of Tuscany, an extensive and desolate tract of country over which jets of vapour and heated gases (soffioni) and springs of boiling water spurt out from chasms and fissures. In some places the fissures open directly into the air, but in other parts of the district they are covered by small muddy lakes (lagoni). The soffioni contain a small quantity of boric acid (usually less than 0.1%), together with a certain amount of ammoniacal vapours. In order to obtain the acid, a series of basins is constructed over the vents, and so arranged as to permit of the passage of water through them by gravitation. Water is led into the highest basin and by the action of the heated gases is soon brought into a state of ebullition; after remaining in this basin for about a day, it is run off into the second one and is treated there in a similar manner. The operation is carried on through the entire series, until the liquor in the last basin contains about 2% of boric acid. It is then run into settling tanks, from which it next passes into the evaporating pans, which are shallow lead-lined pans heated by the gases of the soffioni. These pans are worked on a continuous system, the liquor in the first being concentrated and run off into a second, and so on, until it is sufficiently concentrated to crystallize. The crystals are purified by recrystallization from water. Artificial soffioni are sometimes prepared by boring through the rock until the fissures are reached, and the water so obtained is occasionally sufficiently impregnated with boric acid to be evaporated directly. Boric acid is also obtained from boronatrocalcite by treatment with sulphuric acid, followed by the evaporation of the solution so obtained. The residue is then heated in a current of superheated steam, in which the boric acid volatilizes and distils over. It may also be obtained by the decomposition of boracite with hot hydrochloric acid. In small quantities, it may be prepared by the addition of concentrated sulphuric acid to a cold saturated solution of borax.
Na2B4O7 + H2SO4 + 5H2O = Na2SO4 + 4H3BO3.
Boric acid crystallizes from water in white nacreous laminae belonging to the triclinic system; it is difficultly soluble in cold water, but dissolves readily in hot water. It is one of the “weak” acids, its dissociation constant being only 0.08169 (J. Walker, Jour. of Chem. Soc., 1900, lxxvii. 5), and consequently its salts are appreciably hydrolysed in aqueous solution. The free acid turns blue litmus to a claret colour. Its action upon turmeric is characteristic; a turmeric paper moistened with a solution of boric acid turns brown, the colour becoming much darker as the paper dries; while the addition of sodium or potassium hydroxide turns it almost black. Boric acid is easily soluble in alcohol, and if the vapour of the solution be inflamed it burns with a characteristic vivid green colour. The acid on being heated to 100° C. loses water and is converted into metaboric acid, HBO3; at 140° C., pyroboric acid, H2B4O7, is produced; at still higher temperatures, boron trioxide is formed. The salts of the normal or orthoboric acid in all probability do not exist; metaboric acid, however, forms several well-defined salts which are readily converted, even by carbon dioxide, into salts of pyroboric acid. That orthoboric acid is a tribasic acid is shown by the formation of ethyl orthoborate on esterification, the vapour density of which corresponds to the molecular formula B(OC2H5)3; the molecular formula of the acid must consequently be B(OH)3 or H3BO3. The metallic borates are generally obtained in the hydrated condition, and with the exception of those of the alkali metals, are insoluble in water. The most important of the borates is sodium pyroborate or borax (q.v.).
Borax and boracic acid are feeble but useful antiseptics. Hence they may be used to preserve food-substances, such as milk and butter (see [Adulteration]). In medicine boracic acid is used in solution to relieve itching, but its chief use is as a mild antiseptic to impregnate lint or cotton-wool. Recent work has shown it is too feeble to be relied upon alone, but where really efficient antiseptics, such as mercuric chloride and iodide, and carbolic acid, have been already employed, boracic acid (which, unlike these, is non-poisonous and non-irritant) may legitimately be used to maintain the aseptic or non-bacterial condition which they have obtained. Borax taken internally is of some value in irritability of the bladder, but as a urinary antiseptic it is now surpassed by several recently introduced drugs, such as urotropine.
BORING. The operations of deep boring are resorted to for ascertaining the nature, thickness and extent of the various geological formations underlying the surface of the earth. Among the purposes for which boring is specifically employed are: (1) prospecting or searching for mineral deposits; (2) sinking petroleum, natural gas, artesian or salt wells; (3) determining the depth below the surface of bed-rock or other firm substratum, together with the character of the overlying materials, preparatory to mining or civil engineering operations; (4) carrying on geological or other scientific explorations.
Prospecting by boring is practised most successfully in the case of mineral deposits of large area, which are nearly horizontal, or at least not highly inclined; e.g. deposits of coal, iron, lead and salt. Wide, flat beds of such minerals may be pierced at any desired number of points. The depth at which each hole enters the deposit and the thickness of the mineral itself are readily ascertained, so that a map may be constructed with some degree of accuracy. Samples of the mineral are also secured, furnishing data as to the value of the deposit. While boring is sometimes adopted for prospecting irregular and steeply inclined mineral deposits of small area, the results are obviously less trustworthy than under the conditions named above, and may be actually misleading unless a large number of holes are bored. Incidentally, bore-holes supply information as to the character and depth of the valueless depositions of earth or rock overlying the mineral deposit. Such data assist in deciding upon the appropriate method for, and in estimating the cost of, sinking shafts or driving tunnels for the development and exploitation of the deposit. In sinking petroleum wells, boring serves not only for discovering the oil-bearing strata but also for extracting the oil. This industry has become of great importance in many parts of the United States, in southern Russia and elsewhere. Rock salt deposits are sometimes worked through bore-holes, by introducing water and pumping out the solution of brine for further treatment. The sinking of artesian wells is another application of boring. They are often hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of feet in depth. A well in St Louis, Missouri, has a depth of 3843 ft.
Boring is useful in mines themselves for a variety of purposes, such as exploring the deposit ahead of the workings, searching for neighbouring veins, and sounding the ground on approaching dangerous inundated workings. In the coal regions of Pennsylvania, bore-holes are often sunk for carrying steam pipes and hoisting ropes underground at points remote from a shaft.
Several of the methods of boring in soft ground are employed in connexion with civil engineering operations; as for ascertaining the depth below the surface to solid rock, preparatory to excavating for and designing deep foundations for heavy structures, and for estimating the cost of large scale excavations in earth and rock.
Lastly, a number of deep holes have been bored for geological exploration or for observing the increase of temperature in depth in the earth’s crust; for example, at Paruschowitz, Silesia, about 6700 ft. deep; at Leipzig, Germany, 6265 ft.; near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 5532 ft.; and at Wheeling, West Virginia, nearly 5000 ft. The two last mentioned were intended to obtain as complete a knowledge as possible of the bituminous coal and oil-bearing formations.
There are five methods of boring, viz.: by (1) earth augers, (2) drive pipes, (3) long, jointed rods and drop drill, (4) the rope system, in which the rods are replaced by rope, (5) rotary drills. The first two methods are adapted to soft or earthy soils only; the others are for rock.
1. Earth augers comprise spiral and pod augers. The ordinary spiral auger resembles the wood auger commonly used by carpenters. It is attached to the rod or stem by a socket joint, successive sections of rod being added as the hole is deepened. The auger is rotated by means of horizontal levers, clamped to the rod—by hand for holes of small diameter (2 to 6 in.), the larger sizes (8 to 16 in.) by horse power. Clayey, cohesive soils, containing few stones, are readily bored; stony ground with difficulty. The operation of the auger is intermittent. After a few revolutions it is raised and emptied, the soil clinging between the spirals. Depths to 50 or 60 ft. are usually bored by hand; deeper holes by horse power. For sandy, non-cohesive soils, the auger may be encircled by a close-fitting sheet-iron cylinder to prevent the soil from falling out.
Pod augers generally vary in diameter from 8 to 20 in. A common form (fig. l) consists of two curved iron plates, one attached to the rod rigidly, the other by hinge and key. By being turned through a few revolutions the pod is filled, and is then raised and emptied. For boring in sandy soils, the open sides are closed by hinged plates. Fig. 2 shows another type of pod auger. For holes of large diameter earth augers are handled with the aid of a light derrick.
| Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Pod Auger. |
2. Drive pipes are widely used, both for testing the depth and character of soft material overlying solid rock and as a necessary preliminary to rock boring, when some thickness of surface soil must first be passed through. In its simplest form the drive pipe consists of one or more lengths of wrought iron pipe, open at both ends and from ½ in. to 6 in. diameter. When of small size the pipe is driven by a heavy hammer; for deep and large holes, a light pile-driver becomes necessary. The lower end of the pipe is provided with an annular steel shoe; the upper end has a drivehead for receiving the blows of the hammer. Successive lengths are screwed on as required. For shallow holes the pipe is cleaned out by a “bailer” or “sand-pump”—a cylinder 4 to 6 ft. long, with a valve in the lower end. It is lowered at intervals, filled by being dashed up and down, and then raised and emptied. If, after reaching some depth, the external frictional resistance prevents the pipe from sinking farther, another pipe of small diameter may be inserted and the driving continued. Drive pipes are often sunk by applying weights at the surface and slowly rotating by a lever. Two pipes are then used, one inside the other. Water is pumped down the inner pipe, thus loosening the soil, raising the debris and increasing the speed of driving. The “driven well” for water supply is an adaptation of the drive pipe and put down in the same way.
3. Drill and Rods.—This method has long been used in Europe and elsewhere for deep boring. In the United States it is rarely employed for depths greater than 200 or 300 ft. The usual form of cutting tool or drill is shown in fig. 3. The iron rods are from 1 to 2 in. square, in long lengths with screw joints (fig. 4). Wooden rods are occasionally used. For shallow holes (50 to 75 ft.) the work is done by hand, one or two cross-bars being clamped to the rod. The men alternately raise and drop the drill, meanwhile slowly walking around and around to rotate the bit and so keep the hole true. The cuttings are cleaned out by a bailer, as for drive pipes.
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| Fig. 3 Drill Bit. | Fig. 4. Rod Joint. |
| Fig. 5. Sliding Link. |
In boring by hand, the practical limit of depth is soon reached, on account of the increasing weight of the rods. For going deeper a “spring-pole” may be used. This is a tapering pole, say 30 ft. long and 5 or 6 in. diameter at the small end. It rests in an inclined position on a fulcrum set about 10 ft. from the butt, the latter being firmly fixed. The rods are suspended from the end of the pole, which extends at a height of several feet over the mouth of the hole. With the aid of the spring of the pole the strokes are produced by a slight effort on the part of the driller. Average speeds of 6 to 10 ft. per 10 hours are easily made, to depths of 200 to 250 ft.
For deep boring the rod system requires a more elaborate plant. The rods are suspended from a heavy “walking beam” or lever, usually oscillated by a steam engine. By means of a screw-feed device, the rods, which are rotated slightly after every stroke, are gradually fed down as the hole is deepened, length after length being added. A tall derrick carries the sheaves and ropes by which the rods and tools are manipulated. The drill bit cannot be attached rigidly to the rods as in shallow boring, because the momentum of the heavy moving parts, transmitted directly to the bit as the blow is struck, would cause excessive vibration and breakage. It becomes necessary, therefore, to introduce a sliding-link joint between the rods and bit. One form of link is shown in fig. 5. On striking its blow, the bit comes to rest, while the rods continue to descend to the end of the stroke, the upper member of the link sliding down upon the lower. Then, on the up stroke the lower link, with the bit, is raised for delivering another blow. For large holes the striking weight is, say, 800 to 1000 ℔, length of stroke 2½ to 5 ft., and speed from 20 to 30 strokes per minute.
| Fig. 6. Kind Free-Falling Tool. |
By using the sliding link the cross-section and weight of the rods may be greatly reduced, the only strain being that of tension. To deliver a sharp, effective blow, however, the rods must drop with a quick stroke, which brings a heavy strain upon the operating machinery. For overcoming this difficulty, various “free-falling tools” have been devised. By these the bit is allowed to fall by gravity; the rod follows on its measured down stroke, and picks up the bit. Free-falling tools are of two classes: (1) those by which the bit is released automatically; (2) those operated by a sudden twist imparted to the rod by the drillman. One of the best known of the first class is the Kind free-fall (fig. 6). The shank of the bit is gripped and released by the jaws J, J, worked through a toggle joint by movements of the disk D. When the rod begins its downward stroke, the resistance of the water in the hole slightly raises D, thus opening the jaws and releasing the bit, which falls by gravity. On reaching the end of the stroke the jaws again catch the shank of the bit and raise it for delivering another blow. The Fabian free-fall may be noted as an example of the second class (see Köhler, Lehrbuch der Bergbaukunde, p. 57). Tools are sometimes used for cutting an annular groove in the bottom of the hole, and raising to the surface the core so formed, for observing the character of the rock.
4. Rope and Drop Tools.—This method was long ago used in China. Because of its extensive application in the oil-fields it is generally designated in the United States as the “oil-well system.” In its various modifications it is often employed also in general prospecting of mineral deposits and in sinking artesian, natural gas and salt wells. One of its forms is known in England as the Mather & Platt system.
| Fig. 7. Temper Screw. |
The chief point of difference from rod-boring is the substitution of rope for the jointed rods. For deep boring it possesses the advantage of saving the large amount of time consumed in raising and lowering the rods, as required whenever the hole is to be cleaned out, or a dull bit replaced, since the tools are rapidly run up or down by means of the rope with which they are operated while drilling. The speed of rope-boring is therefore but little affected by increase of depth, while with rod-boring it falls off rapidly. In its simplest form the so-called “string of tools,” suspended from the rope, is composed of the bit or drill, jars and rope-socket. The jars are a pair of sliding links, similar to those used for rod-boring, but serving a different purpose, viz. to produce a sharp shock on the upward stroke, as the jars come together, for loosening the bit should it tend to stick fast in the hole. A heavy bar (auger stem) is generally inserted between the jars and bit, for increasing the force of the blow. The weight of another bar above the jars (sinker-bar) keeps the rope taut. The length of stroke and feed are regulated by the “temper-screw” (fig. 7), a feed device resembling that used for rod-boring. Clamped to it is the drill rope, which is let out at intervals, as the hole is deepened. The bits usually range from 3 to 8 in. diameter, the speed of boring being generally between 20 and 40 ft. per 24 hours, according to the kind of rock. A great variety of special “fishing tools” are made, for use in case of breakage of parts in the hole or other accident.
5. Diamond Drill.—The methods described above are capable of boring holes vertically downward only. By the diamond drill, holes can be bored in any direction, from vertically downward to vertically upward. It has the further advantage of making an annular hole from which is obtained a core, furnishing a practically complete cross-section of the strata penetrated; the thickness and character of each stratum are shown, together with its depth below the surface. Thus, the diamond drill is peculiarly well adapted for prospecting mineral deposits from which samples are desired. The first practical application of diamonds for drilling in rock was made in 1863 by Professor Rudolph Leschot, a civil engineer of Paris.
The apparatus consists essentially of a line of hollow rods, coupled by screw joints, an annular steel bit or crown, set with diamonds, being attached to the lower end. By means of a small engine on the surface the rods are rapidly rotated and fed down automatically as the hole deepened. The speed of rotation is from 300 to 800 revolutions per minute, depending on the character of the rock and diameter of the bit. While boring a stream of water is forced down the hollow rods by a pump, passing back to the surface through the annular space between the rods and the walls of the drill hole. The cuttings are thus carried to the surface, leaving the bottom of the hole clean and unobstructed. For recovering the core and inspecting the bit and diamonds, the rods are raised at every 3 to 8 ft. of depth. This is done by a small drum and rope, operated by the driving engine.
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| Fig. 8.—Little Champion Rock Drill. | Fig. 9. |
| Fig. 10. Diamond Drill Bit. |
Diamond drills of standard designs (fig. 8) bore holes from 19⁄16 to 2¾ in. diameter, yielding cores of 1 to 115⁄16 in. diameter, and are capable of reaching depths of a few hundred to 4000 ft. or more. They require from 8 to 30 boiler horse-power. Large machines will bore shallower holes up to 6, 9 or even 12 in. diameter. For operating in underground workings of mines, small and compact machines are sometimes mounted on columns (fig. 9). They bore 1¼ to 19⁄16 in. holes to depths of 300 to 400 ft., cores being 7⁄8 to 1 in. diameter. Hand-power drills are also built. In the South African goldfields several diamond drill holes from 4500 to 5200 ft. deep have been successfully bored. Rates of advance for core-drilling to moderate depths range usually from 2 to 3 ft. per hour, including ordinary delays, though in favourable rock much higher speeds are often attained. In deep holes the speeds diminish, because of time consumed in raising and lowering the rods. If no core is desired a “solid bit” is used. The drilling then proceeds faster, as it is only necessary to raise the rods occasionally, for examining the condition of the bit.
| Fig. 11. Core Lifter and Barrel |
The driving engine has two inclined cylinders, coupled to a crank-shaft, by which, through gearing, the drill-rod is rotated. The rods are wrought iron or steel tubes, in 5 to 10 ft. lengths. For producing the feed two devices are employed, the differential screw and hydraulic cylinder. For the differential feed (fig. 9) the engine has a hollow left-hand threaded screw-shaft, to which the rods are coupled. This shaft is driven by a spline and bevel gearing and is supported by a threaded feed-nut, carried in the lower bearing. Geared to the screw-shaft is a light counter-shaft. By properly proportioning the number of teeth in the system of gear-wheels, the feed-nut is caused to revolve a little faster than the screw-shaft, so that the drill-rod is fed downward a small fraction of an inch for each revolution. To vary the rate of feed, as suitable for different rocks, three pairs of gears with different ratios of teeth are provided. The screw-shaft and gearing are carried by a swivel-head, which can be rotated in a vertical plane, for boring holes at an angle.
The hydraulic feed is an improvement on the above, in that the rate of feed is independent of the rotative speed of the rods and can be adjusted with the utmost nicety. There are either one or two feed cylinders, supplied with water from the pump. The rod, while rotating freely, is supported by the feed cylinder piston and caused to move slowly downward by allowing the water to pass from the lower to the upper part of the cylinder. A valve regulates the passage of the water and hence the rate of feed.
The bit (fig. 10 and fig. 11, B) is of soft steel, set with six to eight or more diamonds according to its diameter. The diamonds, usually from 1½ to 2½ carats in size, are carefully set in the bit, projecting but slightly from its surface. Two kinds of diamonds are used, “carbons” and “borts.” The carbons are opaque, dark in colour, tougher than the brilliant, and have no cleavage planes. They are therefore suitable for drilling in hard rock. Borts are rough, imperfect brilliants, and are best used for the softer rocks. As the bit wears, the stones must be reset from time to time. The wear of carbons in a well-set bit is small, though extremely variable. Above the bit are the core-lifter and core-barrel. The core-lifter (fig. 11, A) is a device for gripping and breaking off the core and raising it to the surface. The barrel, 3 to 10 ft. long, fits closely in the hole and is often spirally grooved for the passage of the water and debris. It serves partly as a guide, tending to keep the hole straight, partly for holding and protecting the core.
Diamond drills do not work satisfactorily in broken, fissured rock, as the carbons are liable to be injured, loosened or torn from their settings. In these circumstances, and for soft rocks, the diamond bit may be replaced by a steel toothed bit. Another apparatus for core-drilling is the Davis Calyx drill. For hard rock it has an annular bit, accompanied by a quantity of chilled steel shot; for soft rock, a toothed bit is used.
Diamond drill holes are rarely straight, and usually deviate considerably from the direction in which they are started. Very deep holes have been found to vary as much as 45° and even 60° from their true direction. This is due to the fact that the rods do not fit closely in the hole and therefore bend. It is also likely to occur in drilling through inclined strata, specially when of different degrees of hardness. By using a long and closely fitting core-barrel the liability to deviation is reduced, but cannot be wholly prevented. Holes which are nearly horizontal always deflect upward, because the sag of the rods tilts up the bit. Diamond drill holes should therefore always be surveyed. This is done by lowering into the hole instruments for observing at a number of successive points the direction and degree of deviation.[1] If accurately surveyed a crooked hole may be quite as useful as a straight one.
Authorities.—For further information on boring see Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining Engs. vol. ii. p. 241, vol. xxvii. p. 123; C. le Neve Foster, Text-book of Ore and Stone Mining, chap. iii.; Glückauf, 9th December 1899, 20th and 27th May 1905; Scientific American, 21st August 1886; Engineering and Mining Jour. vol. lviii. p. 268, vol. lxx. p. 699, vol. lxxx. p. 920; Trans. Inst. Mining Engs., England, vol. xxiii. p. 685; School of Mines Quarterly, N. Y., vol. xvi. p. 1; Zeitschr. für Berg- Hütten- und Salinenwesen, vol. xxv. p. 29; Denny, “Diamond Drilling,” Mines and Minerals, vol. xx., August 1899, p. 7, to January 1900, p. 241; Mining Jour., 26th January 1901; Mining and Scientific Press, 28th November 1903, p. 353; Öst. Zeitschr. für Berg- und Hüttenwesen, 21st May, 4th June 1904; Trans. Inst. Mining and Metallurgy, vol. xii. p. 301; Engineering Magazine, March 1896, p. 1075.
(R. P.*)
[1] Brough, Mine Surveying, pp. 276-278; Marriott, Trans. Inst. Mining and Metallurgy, vol. xiv. p. 255.
BORIS FEDOROVICH GODUNOV, tsar of Muscovy (c. 1551-1605), the most famous member of an ancient, now extinct, Russian family of Tatar origin, which migrated from the Horde to Muscovy in the 14th century. Boris’ career of service began at the court of Ivan the Terrible. He is mentioned in 1570 as taking part in the Serpeisk campaign as one of the archers of the guard. In 1571 he strengthened his position at court by his marriage with Maria, the daughter of Ivan’s abominable favourite Malyuta Skuratov. In 1580 the tsar chose Irene, the sister of Boris, to be the bride of the tsarevich Theodore, on which occasion Boris was promoted to the rank of boyar. On his deathbed Ivan appointed Boris one of the guardians of his son and successor; for Theodore, despite his seven-and-twenty years, was of somewhat weak intellect. The reign of Theodore began with a rebellion in favour of the infant tsarevich Demetrius, the son of Ivan’s fifth wife Marie Nagaya, a rebellion resulting in the banishment of Demetrius, with his mother and her relations, to their appanage at Uglich. On the occasion of the tsar’s coronation (May 31, 1584), Boris was loaded with honours and riches, yet he held but the second place in the regency during the lifetime of his co-guardian Nikita Romanovich, on whose death, in August, he was left without any serious rival. A conspiracy against him of all the other great boyars and the metropolitan Dionysy, which sought to break Boris’ power by divorcing the tsar from Godunov’s childless sister, only ended in the banishment or tonsuring of the malcontents. Henceforth Godunov was omnipotent. The direction of affairs passed entirely into his hands, and he corresponded with foreign princes as their equal. His policy was generally pacific, but always most prudent. In 1595 he recovered from Sweden the towns lost during the former reign. Five years previously he had defeated a Tatar raid upon Moscow, for which service he received the title of sluga, an obsolete dignity even higher than that of boyar. Towards Turkey he maintained an independent attitude, supporting an anti-Turkish faction in the Crimea, and furnishing the emperor with subsidies in his war against the sultan. Godunov encouraged English merchants to trade with Russia by exempting them from tolls. He civilized the north-eastern and south-eastern borders of Muscovy by building numerous towns and fortresses to keep the Tatar and Finnic tribes in order. Samara, Saratov, and Tsaritsyn and a whole series of lesser towns derive from him. He also re-colonized Siberia, which had been slipping from the grasp of Muscovy, and formed scores of new settlements, including Tobolsk and other large centres. It was during his government that the Muscovite church received its patriarchate, which placed it on an equality with the other Eastern churches and emancipated it from the influence of the metropolitan of Kiev. Boris’ most important domestic reform was the ukaz (1587) forbidding the peasantry to transfer themselves from one landowner to another, thus binding them to the soil. The object of this ordinance was to secure revenue, but it led to the institution of serfdom in its most grinding form. The sudden death of the tsarevich Demetrius at Uglich (May 15, 1591) has commonly been attributed to Boris, because it cleared his way to the throne; but this is no clear proof that he was personally concerned in that tragedy. The same may be said of the many, often absurd, accusations subsequently brought against him by jealous rivals or ignorant contemporaries who hated Godunov’s reforms as novelties.
On the death of the childless tsar Theodore (January 7, 1598), self-preservation quite as much as ambition constrained Boris to seize the throne. Had he not done so, lifelong seclusion in a monastery would have been his lightest fate. His election was proposed by the patriarch Job, who acted on the conviction that Boris was the one man capable of coping with the extraordinary difficulties of an unexampled situation. Boris, however, would only accept the throne from a Zemsky Sobor, or national assembly, which met on the 17th of February, and unanimously elected him on the 21st. On the 1st of September he was solemnly crowned tsar. During the first years of his reign he was both popular and prosperous, and ruled the people excellently well. Enlightened as he was, he fully recognized the intellectual inferiority of Russia as compared with the West, and did his utmost to bring about a better state of things. He was the first tsar to import foreign teachers on a great scale, the first to send young Russians abroad to be educated, the first to allow Lutheran churches to be built in Russia. He also felt the necessity of a Baltic seaboard, and attempted to obtain Livonia by diplomatic means. He cultivated friendly relations with the Scandinavians, in order to intermarry if possible with foreign royal houses, so as to increase the dignity of his own dynasty. That Boris was one of the greatest of the Muscovite tsars there can be no doubt. But his great qualities were overbalanced by an incurable suspiciousness, which made it impossible for him to act cordially with those about him. His fear of possible pretenders induced him to go so far as to forbid the greatest of the boyars to marry. He also encouraged informers and persecuted suspects on their unsupported statements. The Romanov family in especial suffered severely from these delations. Boris died suddenly (April 13, 1605), leaving one son, Theodore II., who succeeded him for a few months and then was foully murdered by the enemies of the Godunovs.
See Platon Vasilievich Pavlov, On the Historical Significance of the Reign of Boris Godunov (Rus.) (Moscow, 1850); Sergyei Mikhailivich Solovev, History of Russia (Rus.) (2nd ed., vols. vii.-viii., St Petersburg, 1897).
(R. N. B.)
BORISOGLYEBSK, a town of Russia, in the government of Tambov, 100 m. S.S.E. of the city of that name, in 51° 22′ N. lat. and 43° 4′ E. long. It was founded in 1646 to defend the southern frontiers of Muscovy against the Crimean Tatars, and in 1696 was surrounded by wooden fortifications. The principal industries are the preparation of wool, iron-casting, soap-boiling, tallow-melting, and brick-making; and there is an active trade in grain, wool, cattle, and leather, and two important annual fairs. Pop. (1867) 12,254; (1897) 22,370.
BORKU, or Borgu, a region of Central Africa between 17° and 19° N. and 18° and 21° E., forming part of the transitional zone between the arid wastes of the Sahara and the fertile lands of the central Sudan. It is bounded N. by the Tibesti Mountains, and is in great measure occupied by lesser elevations belonging to the same system. These hills to the south and east merge into the plains of Wadai and Darfur. South-west, in the direction of Lake Chad, is the Bodele basin. The drainage of the country is to the lake, but the numerous khors with which its surface is scored are mostly dry or contain water for brief periods only. A considerable part of the soil is light sand drifted about by the wind. The irrigated and fertile portions consist mainly of a number of valleys separated from each other by low and irregular limestone rocks. They furnish excellent dates. Barley is also cultivated. The northern valleys are inhabited by a settled population of Tibbu stock, known as the Daza, and by colonies of negroes; the others are mainly visited by nomadic Berber and Arab tribes. The inhabitants own large numbers of goats and asses.
A caravan route from Barca and the Kufra oasis passes through Borku to Lake Chad. The country long remained unknown to Europeans. Gustav Nachtigal spent some time in it in the year 1871, and gave a valuable account of the region and its inhabitants in his book, Sahara und Sudan (Berlin, 1879-1889). In 1899 Borku, by agreement with Great Britain, was assigned to the French sphere of influence. The country, which had formerly been periodically raided by the Walad Sliman Arabs, was then governed by the Senussi (q.v.), who had placed garrisons in the chief centres of population. From it raids were made on French territory. In 1907 a French column from Kanem entered Borku, but after capturing Ain Galakka, the principal Senussi station, retired. Borku is also called Borgu, but must not be confounded with the Borgu (q.v.) west of the Niger.
A summary of Nachtigal’s writing on Borku will be found in section 28 of Gustav Nachtigal’s Reisen in der Sahara und im Sudan (1 vol.), arranged by Albert Fränkel (Leipzig, 1887). See also an article (with map) by Commdt. Bordeaux in La Géographie, Oct. 1908.
BORKUM, an island of Germany, in the North Sea, belonging to the Prussian province of Hanover, the westernmost of the East Frisian chain, lying between the east and west arms of the estuary of the Ems, and opposite to the Dollart. Pop. about 2500. The island is 5 m. long and 2½ m. broad, is a favourite summer resort, and is visited annually by about 20,000 persons. There is a daily steamboat service with Emden, Leer and Hamburg during the summer months. The island affords pasture for cattle, and a breeding-place for sea-birds.
BORLASE, WILLIAM (1695-1772), English antiquary and naturalist, was born at Pendeen in Cornwall, of an ancient family, on the 2nd of February 1695. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, and in 1719 was ordained. In 1722 he was presented to the rectory of Ludgvan, and in 1732 he obtained in addition the vicarage of St Just, his native parish. In the parish of Ludgvan were rich copper works, abounding with mineral and metallic fossils, of which he made a collection, and thus was led to study somewhat minutely the natural history of the county. In 1750 he was admitted a fellow of the Royal Society; and in 1754 he published, at Oxford, his Antiquities of Cornwall (2nd ed., London, 1769). His next publication was Observations on the Ancient and Present State of the Islands of Scilly, and their Importance to the Trade of Great Britain (Oxford, 1756). In 1758 appeared his Natural History of Cornwall. He presented to the Ashmolean museum, Oxford, a variety of fossils and antiquities, which he had described in his works, and received the thanks of the university and the degree of LL.D. He died on the 31st of August 1772. Borlase was well acquainted with most of the leading literary men of the time, particularly with Alexander Pope, with whom he kept up a long correspondence, and for whose grotto at Twickenham he furnished the greater part of the fossils and minerals.
Borlase’s letters to Pope, St Aubyn and others, with answers, fill several volumes of MS. There are also MS. notes on Cornwall, and a complete unpublished treatise Concerning the Creation and Deluge. Some account of these MSS., with extracts from them, was given in the Quarterly Review, October 1875. Borlase’s memoirs of his own life were published in Nichol’s Literary Anecdotes, vol. v.
BORMIO (Ger. Worms), a town of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Sondrio, 41½ m. N.E. of the town of Sondrio. Pop. (1901) 1814. It is situated in the Valtellina (the valley of the Adda), 4020 ft. above sea-level, at the foot of the Stelvio pass, and, owing to its position, was of some military importance in the middle ages. It contains interesting churches and picturesque towers. A cemetery of pre-Roman date was discovered at Bormio in 1820.
The baths of Bormio, 2 m. farther up the valley, are mentioned by Pliny and Cassiodorus, the secretary of Theodoric, and are much frequented.
BORN, IGNAZ, Edler von (1742-1791), Austrian mineralogist and metallurgist, was born of a noble family at Karlsburg, in Transylvania, on the 26th of December 1742. Educated in a Jesuit college in Vienna, he was for sixteen months a member of the order, but left it and studied law at Prague. Then he travelled extensively in Germany, Holland and France, studying mineralogy, and on his return to Prague in 1770 entered the department of mines and the mint. In 1776 he was appointed by Maria Theresa to arrange the imperial museum at Vienna, where he was nominated to the council of mines and the mint, and continued to reside until his death on the 24th of July 1791. He introduced a method of extracting metals by amalgamation (Über das Anquicken der Erze, 1786), and other improvements in mining and other technical processes. His publications also include Lithophylacium Bornianum (1772-1775) and Bergbaukunde (1789), besides several museum catalogues. Von Born attempted satire with no great success. Die Staatsperücke, a tale published without his knowledge in 1772, and an attack on Father Hell, the Jesuit, and king’s astronomer at Vienna, are two of his satirical works. Part of a satire, entitled Monachologia, in which the monks are described in the technical language of natural history, is also ascribed to him. Von Born was well acquainted with Latin and the principal modern languages of Europe, and with many branches of science not immediately connected with metallurgy and mineralogy. He took an active part in the political changes in Hungary. After the death of the emperor Joseph II., the diet of the states of Hungary rescinded many innovations of that ruler, and conferred the rights of denizen on several persons who had been favourable to the cause of the Hungarians, and, amongst others, on von Born. At the time of his death in 1791, he was employed in writing a work entitled Fasti Leopoldini, probably relating to the prudent conduct of Leopold II., the successor of Joseph, towards the Hungarians.
BORNA, a town of Germany in the kingdom of Saxony, on the Wyhra at its junction with the Pleisse, 17 m. S. by E. of Leipzig by rail. Pop. (1905) 9176. The industries include peat-cutting, iron foundries, organ, pianoforte, felt and shoe factories.
BÖRNE, KARL LUDWIG (1786-1837), German political writer and satirist, was born on the 6th of May 1786 at Frankfort-On-Main, where his father, Jakob Baruch, carried on the business of a banker. He received his early education at Giessen, but as Jews were ineligible at that time for public appointments in Frankfort, young Baruch was sent to study medicine at Berlin under a physician, Markus Herz, in whose house he resided. Young Baruch became deeply enamoured of his patron’s wife, the talented and beautiful Henriette Herz (1764-1847), and gave vent to his adoration in a series of remarkable letters. Tiring of medical science, which he had subsequently pursued at Halle, he studied constitutional law and political science at Heidelberg and Giessen, and in 1811 took his doctor’s degree at the latter university. On his return to Frankfort, now constituted as a grand duchy under the sovereignty of the prince bishop Karl von Dalberg, he received (1811) the appointment of police actuary in that city. The old conditions, however, returned in 1814 and he was obliged to resign his office. Embittered by the oppression under which the Jews suffered in Germany, he engaged in journalism, and edited the Frankfort liberal newspapers, Staatsristretto and Die Zeitschwingen. In 1818 he became a convert to Lutheran protestantism, changing his name from Löb Baruch to Ludwig Börne. This step was taken less out of religious conviction than, as in the case of so many of his descent, in order to improve his social standing. From 1818 to 1821 he edited Die Wage, a paper distinguished by its lively political articles and its powerful but sarcastic theatrical criticisms. This paper was suppressed by the police authorities, and in 1821 Börne quitted for a while the field of publicist writing and led a retired life in Paris, Hamburg and Frankfort. After the July Revolution (1830), he hurried to Paris, expecting to find the newly-constituted state of society somewhat in accordance with his own ideas of freedom. Although to some extent disappointed in his hopes, he was not disposed to look any more kindly on the political condition of Germany; this lent additional zest to the brilliant satirical letters (Briefe aus Paris, 1830-1833, published Paris, 1834), which he began to publish in his last literary venture, La Balance, a revival under its French name of Die Wage. The Briefe aus Paris was Börne’s most important publication, and a landmark in the history of German journalism. Its appearance led him to be regarded as one of the leaders of the new literary party of “Young Germany.” He died at Paris on the 12th of February 1837.
Börne’s works are remarkable for brilliancy of style and for a thorough French vein of satire. His best criticism is to be found in his Denkrede auf Jean Paul (1826), a writer for whom he had warm sympathy and admiration, in his Dramaturgische Blätter (1829-1834), and the witty satire, Menzel der Franzosenfresser (1837). He also wrote a number of short stories and sketches, of which the best known are the Monographie der deutschen Postschnecke (1829) and Der Esskünstler (1822).
The first edition of his Gesammelte Schriften appeared at Hamburg (1829-1834) in 14 volumes, followed by 6 volumes of Nachgelassene Schriften (Mannheim, 1844-1850); more complete is the edition in 12 volumes (Hamburg, 1862-1863), reprinted in 1868 and subsequently. The latest complete edition is that edited by A. Klaar (8 vols., Leipzig, 1900). For further biographical matter see K. Gutzkow, Börnes Leben (Hamburg, 1840), and M. Holzmann, L. Börne, sein Leben und sein Wirken (Berlin, 1888). Börnes Briefe an Henriette Herz (1802-1807), first published in 1861, have been re-edited by L. Geiger (Oldenburg, 1905), who has also published Börne’s Berliner Briefe (1828) (Berlin, 1905). See also Heine’s witty attack on Börne (Werke, ed. Elster, vii.), G. Gervinus’ essay in his Historiche Schriften (Darmstadt, 1838), and the chapters in G. Brandes, Hovedströmninger i det 19 de Aarhundredes Litteratur vol. vi. (Copenhagen, 1890, German trans. 1891; English trans. 1905), and in J. Proelss, Das junge Deutschland (Stuttgart, 1892).
BORNEO, a great island of the Malay Archipelago, extending from 7° N. to 4° 20′ S., and from 108° 53′ to 119° 22′ E. It is 830 m. long from N.E. to S.W., by 600 m. in maximum breadth. Its area according to the calculations of the Topographical Bureau of Batavia (1894) comprises 293,496 sq. m. These figures are admittedly approximate, and Meyer, who is generally accurate, gives the area of Borneo at 289,860 sq. m. It is roughly, however, five times as large as England and Wales. Politically Borneo is divided into four portions: (1) British North Borneo, the territory exploited and administered by the Chartered British North Borneo Company, to which a separate section of this article is devoted; (2) Brunei (q.v.), a Malayan sultanate under British protection; (3) Sarawak (q.v.), the large territory ruled by raja Brooke, and under British protection in so far as its foreign relations are concerned; and (4) Dutch Borneo, which comprises the remainder and by far the largest and most valuable portion of the island.
Physical Features.—The general character of the country is mountainous, though none of the ranges attains to any great elevation, and Kinabalu, the highest peak in the island, which is situated near its north-western extremity, is only 13,698 ft. above sea-level. There is no proper nucleus of mountains whence chains ramify in different directions. The central and west central parts of the island, however, are occupied by three mountain chains and a plateau. These chains are: (1) the folded chain of the upper Kapuas, which divides the western division of Dutch Borneo from Sarawak, extends west to east, and attains near the sources of the Kapuas river a height of 5000 to 6000 ft.; (2) the Schwaner chain, south of the Kapuas, whose summits range from 3000 to 7500 ft., the latter being the height of Bukit Raja, a plateau which divides the waters of the Kapuas from the rivers of southern Borneo; and (3) the Müller chain, between the eastern parts of the Madi plateau (presently to be mentioned) and the Kapuas chain, a volcanic region presenting heights, such as Bukit Terata (4700 ft.), which were once active but are now long extinct volcanos. The Madi plateau lies between the Kapuas and the Schwaner chains. Its height is from 3000 to 4000 ft., and it is clothed with tropical high fens. These mountain systems are homologous in structure with those, not of Celebes or of Halmahera, but of Malacca, Banka and Billiton. From the eastern end of the Kapuas mountains there are further to be observed: (1) A chain running north-north-east, which forms the boundary between Sarawak and Dutch Borneo, the highest peak of which, Gunong Tebang, approaches 10,000 ft. This chain can hardly be said to extend continuously to the extreme north of the island, but it carries on the line of elevation towards the mountains of Sarawak to the west, and those of British North Borneo to the north, of which latter Kinabalu is the most remarkable. The mountains of North Borneo are more particularly referred to in the portion of this article which deals with that territory. (2) A chain which runs eastward from the central mountains and terminates in the great promontory of the east coast, known variously as Cape Kanior or Kaniungan. (3) A well-marked chain running in a south-easterly direction among the congeries of hills that extend south-eastward from the central mountains, and attaining, near the southern part of the east coast, heights up to and exceeding 6000 ft.
Coasts.—Resting on a submarine plateau of no great depth, the coasts of Borneo are for the most part rimmed round by low alluvial lands, of a marshy, sandy and sometimes swampy character. In places the sands are fringed by long lines of Casuarina, trees; in others, and more especially in the neighbourhood of some of the river mouths, there are deep banks of black mud covered with mangroves; in others the coast presents to the sea bold headlands, cliffs, mostly of a reddish hue, sparsely clad with greenery, or rolling hills covered by a growth of rank grass. The depth of the sea around the shore rarely exceeds a maximum depth of 1 to 3 fathoms, and the coast as a whole offers few accessible ports. The towns and seaports are to be found as a rule at or near the mouths of those rivers which are not barricaded too efficiently by bars formed of mud or sand. All round the long coast-line of Dutch Borneo there are only seven ports of call, which are habitually made use of by the ships of the Dutch Packet Company. They are Pontianak, Banjermasin, Kota Bharu, Pasir, Samarinda, Beru and Bulungan. The islands off the coast are not numerous. Excluding some of alluvial formation at the mouths of many of the rivers, and others along the shore which owe their existence to volcanic upheaval, the principal islands are Banguey and Balambangan at the northern extremity, Labuan (q.v.), a British colony off the west coast of the territory of North Borneo, and the Karimata Islands off the south-west coast. On Great Karimata is situated the village of Palembang with a population of about 500 souls employed in fishing, mining for iron, and trading in forest produce.
Rivers.—The rivers play a very important part in the economy of Borneo, both as highways and as lines along which run the main arteries of population. Hydrographically the island may be divided into five principal versants. Of these the shortest embraces the north-western slope, north of the Kapuas range, and discharges its waters into the China Sea. The most important of its rivers are the Sarawak, the Batang-Lupar, the Sarebas, the Rejang (navigable for more than 100 m.), the Baram, the Limbang or Brunei river, and the Padas. The rivers of British North Borneo to the north of the Padas are of no importance and of scant practical utility, owing to the fact that the mountain range here approaches very closely to the coast with which it runs parallel. In the south-western versant the largest river is the Kapuas, which, rising near the centre of the island, falls into the sea between Mampawa and Sukadana after a long and winding course. This river, of volume varying with the tide and the amount of rainfall, is normally navigable by small steamers and native prahus, of a draught of 4 to 5 ft., for 300 to 400 m., that is to say, from Pontianak up to Sintang, and thence as far as Benut. The middle part of this river, wider and more shallow than the lower reaches, gives rise to a region of inundation and lakes which extend as far as the northern mountain chain. Among its considerable tributaries may be mentioned the southern Melawi with its affluent the Penuh. It reaches the sea through several channels in a wide marshy delta. The Sambas, north of the Kapuas, is navigable in its lower course for vessels drawing 25 ft. Rivers lying to the south of the Kapuas, but of less importance in the way of size, commerce and navigation, are the Simpang, Pawanand Kandawangan, in the neighbourhood of whose mouths, or upon the adjacent coast, the principal native villages are situated in each case. The Barito, which is the principal river of the southern versant, takes its rise in the Kuti Lama Lake, and falls into the Java Sea in 114° 30′ E. Its upper reaches are greatly impeded by rocks, rapids and waterfalls, but the lower part of its course is wide, and traverses a rich, alluvial district, much of which is marshy. Cross branches unite it with two rivers of considerable size towards the west, the Kapuas Murung or Little Dyak, and the Kahayan or Great Dyak. The Katingan or Mendawei, the Sampit, Pembuang or Surian and the Kota Waringin are rivers that fall into the sea farther to the west. The rivers of the southern versant are waters of capacious drainage, the basin of the Kahayan having, for instance, an area of 16,000 sq. m., and the Barito one of 38,000 sq. m. These rivers are navigable for two-thirds of their course by steamers of a fair size, but in many cases the bars at their mouths present considerable difficulties to ships drawing anything over 8 or 9 ft. Most of the larger affluents of the Barito are also navigable throughout the greater part of their courses. The south-eastern like the north-western corner of the island is watered by a considerable number of short mountain streams. The one great river of the eastern versant is the Kutei or Mahakan, which, rising in the central mountains, flows east with a sinuous course and falls by numerous mounts into the Straits of Madassar. At a great distance from its mouth it has still a depth of three fathoms, and in all its physical features it is comparable to the Kapuas and Barito. The Kayan or Bulungan river is the only other in the eastern versant that calls for mention. Most of the rivers of the northern versant are comparatively small, as the island narrows into a kind of promontory. Of these the Kinabatangan in the territory of British North Borneo is the most important. Lakes are neither numerous nor very large. In most cases they are more fittingly described as swamps. In the flood area of the upper Kapuas, of which mention has already been made, there occurs Lake Luar, and there are several lake expanses of a similar character in the basins of the Barito and Kutei rivers. The only really fine natural harbour in the island of which any use has been made is that of Sandakan, the principal settlement of the North Borneo Company on the north coast.
Geology.—The geology of Borneo is very imperfectly known. The mountain range which lies between Sarawak and the Dutch possessions, and may be looked upon as the backbone of the island, consists chiefly of crystalline schists, together with slates, sandstones and limestones. All these beds are much disturbed and folded. The sedimentary deposits were formerly believed to be Palaeozoic, but Jurassic fossils have since been found in them, and it is probable that several different formations are represented. Somewhat similar rocks appear to form the axis of the range in south-east Borneo, and possibly of the Tampatung Mountains. But the Müller range, the Madi plateau, and the Schwaner Mountains of west Borneo, consist chiefly of almost undisturbed sedimentary and volcanic rocks of Tertiary age. The low-lying country between the mountain ranges is covered for the most part by Tertiary and Quaternary deposits, but Cretaceous beds occur at several localities. Some of the older rocks of the mountain regions have been referred to the Devonian, but the evidence cannot be considered conclusive. Vertebraria and Phyllotheca, plants characteristic of the Indian Gondwana series, have been recorded in Sarawak; and marine forms, similar to those of the lower part of the Australian Carboniferous system, are stated to occur in the limestone of north Borneo. Pseudomonotis salinaria, a Triassic form, has been noted from the schists of the west of Borneo. In the Kapoewas district radiolarian cherts supposed to be of Jurassic age are met with. Undoubted Jurassic fossils, belonging to several horizons, have been described from west Borneo and Sarawak. The Cretaceous beds, which have long been known in west Borneo, are comparatively little disturbed. They consist for the most part of marls with Orbitolina concava, and are referred to the Cenomanian. Cretaceous beds of somewhat later date are found in the Marpapura district in south-east Borneo. The Tertiary system includes conglomerates, sandstones, limestones and marls, which appear to be of Eocene, Oligocene and Miocene age. They contain numerous seams of coal. The Tertiary beds generally lie nearly horizontal and form the lower hills, but in the Madi plateau and the Schwaner range they rise to a height of several thousand feet. Volcanic rocks of Tertiary and late Cretaceous age are extensively developed, especially in the Müller Mountains. The whole of this consists of tuffs and lavas, andesites prevailing in the west and rhyolites and dacites in the east.
Minerals.—The mineral wealth of Borneo is great and varied. It includes diamonds, the majority of which, however, are of a somewhat yellow colour, gold, quicksilver, cinnabar, copper, iron, tin, antimony, mineral oils, sulphur, rock-salt, marble and coal. The exploitation of the mines suffers in many cases from the difficulties and expense of transport, the high duties payable in Dutch Borneo to the native princes, the competition among the rival companies, and often the limited quantities of the minerals found in the mines. The districts of Sambas and Landak in the west, the Kahayan river, the mountain valleys of the extreme south-east and parts of Sarawak furnish the largest quantities of gold, which is obtained for the most part from alluvial washings. The Borneo Company is engaged in working gold-mines in the upper part of the Sarawak valley, and the prospects of the enterprise, which is conducted on a fairly extensive scale, are known to be encouraging. Diamonds are also found widely distributed and mainly in the same regions as the gold. The Kapuas valley has so far yielded the largest quantity, and Pontianak is, for diamonds, the principal port of export. Considerable progress has been made in the development of the oil-fields in Dutch Borneo, and the Nederlandsch Indische Industrie en Handel Maatschappij, the Dutch business of the Shell Transport and Trading Company, increased its output from 123,592 tons in 1901 to 285,720 tons in 1904, and showed further satisfactory increase thereafter. This company owns extensive oil-fields at Balik Papan and Sanga-Sanga. The quality of the oil varies in a remarkable way according to the depth. The upper stratum is struck at a depth of 600 to 700 ft., and yields a natural liquid fuel of heavy specific gravity. The next source is met with at about 1200 ft., yielding an oil which is much lighter in weight and, as such, more suitable for treatment in the refinery. The former oil is almost invariably of an asphalte basis, whereas the latter sometimes is found to contain a considerable percentage of paraffin wax. The average daily production is very high, owing to a large number of the wells flowing under the natural pressure of the gas. There is every reason to believe that the oil-fields of Dutch Borneo have a great future. Coal mines have, in many instances, been opened and abandoned, failure being due to the difficulty of production. Coal of good quality has been found in Pengaron and elsewhere in the Banjermasin district, but most Borneo coal is considerably below this average of excellence. It has also been found in fair quantities at various places in the Kutei valley and in Sarawak. The coalmines of Labuan have been worked spasmodically, but success has never attended the venture. Sadong yields something under 130 tons a day, and the Brooketown mine, the property of the raja of Sarawak, yields some 50 tons a day of rather indifferent coal. The discovery that Borneo produced antimony was made in 1825 by John Crawfurd, the orientalist, who learned in that year that a quantity had been brought to Singapore by a native trader as ballast. The supply is practically unlimited and widely distributed. The principal mine is at Bidi in Sarawak.
Climate and Health.—As is to be anticipated, having regard to its insular position and to the fact that the equator passes through the very middle of the island, the climate is at once hot and very damp. In the hills and in the interior regions are found which may almost be described as temperate, but on the coasts the atmosphere is dense, humid and oppressive. Throughout the average temperature is from 78° to 80° F., but the thermometer rarely falls below 70°, except in the hills, and occasionally on exceptional days mounts as high as 96° in the shade. The rainy westerly winds (S.W. and N.W.) prevail at all the meteorological stations, not the comparatively dry south-east wind. Even at Banjermasin, near the south coast, the north-west wind brings annually a rainfall of 60 in., as against 33 in. of rain carried by the south-east wind. The difference between the seasons is not rigidly marked. The climate is practically unchanging all the year round, the atmosphere being uniformly moist, and though days of continuous downpour are rare, comparatively few days pass without a shower. Most rain falls between November and May, and at this season the torrents are tremendous while they last, and squalls of wind are frequent and violent, almost invariably preceding a downpour. Over such an extensive area there is, of course, great variety in the climatic character of different districts, especially when viewed in relation to health. Some places, such as Bidi in Sarawak, for instance, are notoriously unhealthy; but from the statistics of the Dutch government, and the records of Sarawak and British North Borneo, it would appear that the European in Borneo has in general not appreciably more to fear than his fellow in Java, or in the Federated Malay States of the Malayan Peninsula. Among the native races the prevailing diseases, apart from those of a malarial origin, are chiefly such as arise from bad and insufficient food, from intemperance, and from want of cleanliness. The habit of allowing their meat to putrefy before regarding it as fit for food, and of encouraging children of tender age to drink to intoxication, accounts for absence of old folk and the heavy mortality which are to be observed among the Muruts of British North Borneo and some of the other more debased tribes of the interior of the island. Scrofula and various forms of lupus are common among the natives throughout the country and especially in the interior; elephantiasis is frequently met with on the coast. Smallpox, dysentery and fevers, frequently of a bilious character, are endemic and occasionally epidemic. Cholera breaks out from time to time and works great havoc, as was the case in 1903 when one of the raja of Sarawak’s punitive expeditions was stricken while ascending the Limbang river by boat, and lost many hundreds of its numbers before the coast could be regained. Ophthalmia is common and sometimes will attack whole tribes. About one sixth of the native population of the interior, and a smaller proportion of those living on the coast, suffer from a kind of ringworm called kurap, which also prevails almost universally among the Sakai and Semang, the aboriginal hill tribes of the Malayan Peninsula. The disease is believed to be aggravated by chronic anaemia. Consumption is not uncommon.
Fauna.—The fauna of Borneo comprises a large variety of species, many of which are numerically of great importance. Among the quadrupeds the most remarkable is the orang-utan (Malay, ôrang ûtan, i.e. jungle man), as the huge ape, called mias or mâyas by the natives, is named by Europeans. Numerous species of monkey are found in Borneo, including the wahwah, a kind of gibbon, a creature far more human in appearance and habits than the orang-utan, and several Semnopitheci, such as the long-nosed ape and the golden-black or chrysomelas. The large-eyed Stenops tardigradus also deserves mention. The larger beasts of prey are not met with, and little check is therefore put on the natural fecundity of the graminivorous species. A small panther and the clouded tiger (so called)—Felis macroscelis—are the largest animals of the cat kind that occur in Borneo. The Bengal tiger is not found. The Malay or honey-bear is very common. The rhinoceros and the elephant both occur in the northern part of the island, though both are somewhat rare, and in this connexion it should be noted that the distribution of quadrupeds as between Borneo, Sumatra and the Malayan Peninsula is somewhat peculiar and seemingly somewhat capricious. Many quadrupeds, such as the honey-bear and the rhinoceros, are common to all, but while the tiger is common both in the Malayan Peninsula and in Sumatra, it does not occur in Borneo; the elephant, so common in the peninsula, and found in Borneo, is unknown in Sumatra; and the orang-utan, so plentiful in parts of Borneo and parts of Sumatra, has never been discovered in the Malay Peninsula. It has been suggested, but with very scant measure of probability, that the existence of elephants in Borneo, whose confinement to a single district is remarkable and unexplained, is due to importation; and the fact is on record that when Magellan’s ships visited Brunei in 1522 tame elephants were in use at the court of the sultan of Brunei. Wild oxen of the Sunda race, not to be in any way confounded with the Malayan seladang or gaur, are rare, but the whole country swarms with wild swine, and the babirusa, a pig with curious horn-like tusks, is not uncommon. Alligators are found in most of the rivers, and the gavial is less frequently met with. Three or four species of deer are common, including the mouse-deer, or plandok, an animal of remarkable grace and beauty, about the size of a hare but considerably less heavy. Squirrels, flying-squirrels, porcupines, civet-cats, rats, bats, flying-foxes and lizards are found in great variety; snakes of various kinds, from the boa-constrictor downward, are abundant, while the forests swarm with tree-leeches, and the marshes with horse-leeches and frogs. A remarkable flying-frog was discovered by Professor A.R. Wallace. Birds are somewhat rare in some quarters. The most important are eagles, kites, vultures, falcons, owls, horn-bills, cranes, pheasants (notably the argus, fire-back and peacock-pheasants), partridges, ravens, crows, parrots, pigeons, woodpeckers, doves, snipe, quail and swallows. Of most of these birds several varieties are met with. The Cypselus esculentus, or edible-nest swift, is very common, and the nests, which are built mostly in limestone caves, are esteemed the best in the archipelago. Mosquitoes and sand-flies are the chief insect pests, and in some districts are very troublesome. Several kinds of parasitic jungle ticks cause much annoyance to men and to beasts. There are also two kinds of ants, the sěmut âpi (“fire ant”) and the sěmut lâda (“pepper ant”), whose bites are peculiarly painful. Hornets, bees and wasps of many varieties abound. The honey and the wax of the wild bee are collected by the natives. Butterflies and moths are remarkable for their number, size, variety and beauty. Beetles are no less numerously represented, as is to be expected in a country so richly wooded as Borneo. The swamps and rivers, as well as the surrounding seas, swarm with fish. The siawan is a species of fish found in the rivers and valued for its spawn, which is salted. The natives are expert and ingenious fishermen. Turtles, trepang and pearl-shell are of some commercial importance.
The dog, the cat, the pig, the domestic fowl (which is not very obviously related to the bantam of the woods), the buffalo, a smaller breed than that met with in the Malayan Peninsula, and in some districts bullocks of the Brahmin breed and small horses, are the principal domestic animals. The character of the country and the nomadic habits of many of the natives of the interior, who rarely occupy their villages for more than a few years in succession, have not proved favourable to pastoral modes of life. The buffaloes are used not only in agriculture, but also as beasts of burden, as draught-animals and for the saddle. Horses, introduced by Europeans and owned only by the wealthier classes, are found in Banjermasin and in Sarawak. In British North Borneo, and especially in the district of Tempasuk on the north-west coast, Borneo ponies, bred originally, it is supposed, from the stock which is indigenous to the Sulu archipelago, are common.
Flora.—The flora of Borneo is very rich, the greater portion of the surface of the island being clothed in luxuriant vegetation. The king of the forest is the tapan, which, rising to a great height without fork or branch, culminates in a splendid dome of foliage. The official seats of some of the chiefs are constructed from the wood of this tree. Iron-wood, remarkable for the durability of its timber, is abundant; it is used by the natives for the pillars of their homes and forms an article of export, chiefly to Hong-Kong. It is rivalled in hardness by the kâyu těmběsu. In all, about sixty kinds of timber of marketable quality are furnished in more or less profusion, but the difficulty of extraction, even in the regions situated in close proximity to the large waterways, renders it improbable that the timber trade of Borneo will attain to any very great dimensions until other and easier sources of supply have become exhausted. Palm-trees are abundant in great variety, including the nîpah, which is much used for thatching, the cabbage, fan, sugar, coco and sago palms. The last two furnish large supplies of food to the natives, some copra is exported, and sago factories, mostly in the hands of Chinese, prepare sago for the Dutch and British markets. Gutta-percha (gětah pěrcha in the vernacular), camphor, cinnamon, cloves, nutmegs, gambir and betel, or areca-nuts, are all produced in the island; most of the tropical fruits flourish, including the much-admired but, to the uninitiated, most evil-smelling durian, a large fruit with an exceedingly strong outer covering composed of stout pyramidal spikes, which grows upon the branches of a tall tree and occasionally in falling inflicts considerable injuries upon passers-by. Yams, several kinds of sweet potatoes, melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, pineapples, bananas and mangosteens are cultivated, as also are a large number of other fruits. Rice is grown in irrigated lands near the rivers and in the swamps, and also in rude clearings in the interior; sugar-cane of superior quality in Sambas and Montrado; cotton, sometimes exported in small quantities, on the banks of the Negara, a tributary of the Barito; tobacco, used very largely now in the production of cigars, in various parts of northern Borneo; and tobacco for native consumption, which is of small commercial importance, is cultivated in most parts of the island. Indigo, coffee and pepper have been cultivated since 1855 in the western division of Dutch Borneo. Among the more beautiful of the flowering plants are rhododendrons, orchids and pitcher-plants—the latter reaching extraordinary development, especially in the northern districts about Kinabalu. Epiphytous plants are very common, many that are usually independent assuming here the parasitic character; the Vanda lowii, for example, grows on the lower branches of trees, and its strange pendent flower-stalks often hang down so as almost to reach the ground. Ferns are abundant, but not so varied as in Java.
Population.—The population of Borneo is not known with any approach to accuracy, but according to the political divisions of the island it is estimated as follows:—
| Dutch Borneo | 1,130,000 |
| British North Borneo | 200,000 |
| Sarawak | 500,000 |
| Brunei | 20,000 |
No effective census of the population has ever been taken, and vast areas in Dutch Borneo and in British North Borneo remain unexplored, and free from any practical authority or control. In Sarawak, owing to the high administrative genius of the first raja and his successor, the natives have been brought far more completely under control, but the raja has never found occasion to utilize the machinery of his government for the accurate enumeration of his subjects.
Dutch Borneo is divided for administrative purposes into two divisions, the western and the south and eastern respectively. Of the two, the former is under the more complete and effective control. The estimated population in the western division is 413,000 and in the south and eastern 717,000. Europeans number barely 1000; Arabs about 3000, and Chinese, mainly in the western division, over 40,000. In both divisions there is an average density of little more than 1 to every 2 sq. m. The sparseness of the population throughout the Dutch territory is due to a variety of causes—to the physical character of the country, which for the most part restricts the area of population to the near neighbourhood of the rivers; to the low standard of civilization to which the majority of the natives have attained and the consequent disregard of sanitation and hygiene; to wars, piracy and head-hunting, the last of which has not even yet been effectually checked among some of the tribes of the interior; and to the aggression and oppressions in earlier times of Malayan, Arab and Bugis settlers. Among the natives, more especially of the interior, an innate restlessness which leads to a life of spasmodic nomadism, poverty, insufficient nourishment, an incredible improvidence which induces them to convert into intoxicating liquor a large portion of their annual crops, feasts of a semi-religious character which are invariably accompanied by prolonged drunken orgies, and certain superstitions which necessitate the frequent procuration of abortion, have contributed to check the growth of population. In Sambas, Montrado and some parts of Pontianak, the greater density of the population is due to the greater fertility of the soil, the opening of mines, the navigation and trade plied on the larger rivers, and the concentration of the population at the junctions of rivers, the mouths of rivers and the seats of government. Of the chief place in the western division, Pontianak has about 9000 inhabitants; Sambas about 8000; Montrado, Mampawa and Landak between 2000 and 4000 each; and in the south and eastern division there are Banjermasin with nearly 50,000 inhabitants; Marabahan, Amuntai, Negara, Samarinda and Tengarung with populations of from 5000 to 10,000 inhabitants each. In Amuntai and Martapura early Hindu colonization, of which the traces and the influence still are manifest, the fertile soil, trade and industry aided by navigable rivers, have co-operated towards the growth of population to a degree which presents a marked contrast to the conditions in the interior parts of the Upper Barito and of the more westerly rivers. Only a very small proportion of the Europeans in Dutch Borneo live by agriculture and industry, the great majority of them being officials. The Arabs and Chinese are engaged in trading, mining, fishing and agriculture. Of the natives fully 90% live by agriculture, which, however, is for the most part of a somewhat primitive description. The industries of the natives are confined to such crafts as spinning and weaving and dyeing, the manufacture of iron weapons and implements, boat- and shipbuilding, &c. More particularly in the south-eastern division, and especially in the districts of Negara, Banjermasin, Amuntai and Martapura, shipbuilding, iron forging, gold- and silversmith’s work, and the polishing of diamonds, are industries of high development in the larger centres of population.
Races.—The peoples of Borneo belong to a considerable variety of races, of different origin and degrees of civilization. The most important numerically are the Dyaks, the Dusuns and Muruts of the interior, the Malays, among whom must be counted such Malayan tribes as the Bajaus, Ilanuns, &c., the Bugis, who were originally immigrants from Celebes, and the Chinese. The Dutch, and to a minor extent the Arabs, are of importance on account of their political influence in Dutch Borneo, while the British communities have a similar importance in Sarawak and in British North Borneo. Accounts of the Malays, Dyaks and Bugis are given under their several headings, and some information concerning the Dusuns and Muruts will be found in the section below, which deals with British North Borneo. The connexion of the Chinese with Borneo calls for notice here. They seem to have been the first civilized people who had dealings with Borneo, if the colonization of a portion of the south-eastern corner of the island by Hindus be excepted. The Chinese annals speak of tribute paid to the empire by Pha-la on the north-east coast of the island as early as the 7th century, and later documents mention a Chinese colonization in the 15th century. The traditions of the Malays and Dyaks seem to confirm the statements, and many of the leading families of Brunei in north-west Borneo claim to have Chinese blood in their veins, while the annals of Sulu record an extensive Chinese immigration about 1575. However this may be, it is certain that the flourishing condition of Borneo in the 16th and 17th centuries was largely due to the energy of Chinese settlers and to trade with China. In the 18th century there was a considerable Chinese population settled in Brunei, engaged for the most part in planting and exporting pepper, but the consistent oppression of the native rajas destroyed their industry and led eventually to the practical extirpation of the Chinese. The Malay chiefs of other districts encouraged immigration from China with a view to developing the mineral resources of their territories, and before long Chinese settlers were to be found in considerable numbers in Sambas, Montrado, Pontianak and elsewhere. They were at first forbidden to engage in commerce or agriculture, to carry firearms, to possess or manufacture gunpowder. About 1779 the Dutch acquired immediate authority over all strangers, and thus assumed responsibility for the control of the Chinese, who presently proved themselves somewhat troublesome. Their numbers constantly increased and were reinforced by new immigrants, and pushing inland in search of fresh mineral-bearing areas, they contracted frequent intermarriages with the Dyaks and other non-Mahommedan natives. They brought with them from China their aptitude for the organization of secret societies which, almost from the first, assumed the guise of political associations. These secret societies furnished them with a machinery whereby collective action was rendered easy, and under astute leaders they offered a formidable opposition to the Dutch government. Later, when driven into the interior and eventually out of Dutch territory, they cost the first raja of Sarawak some severe contests before they were at last reduced to obedience. Serious disturbances among the Chinese are now in Borneo matters of ancient history, and to-day the Chinaman forms perhaps the most valuable element in the civilization and development of the island, just as does his fellow in the mining states of the Malayan Peninsula. They are industrious, frugal and intelligent; the richer among them are excellent men of business and are peculiarly equitable in their dealings; the majority of all classes can read and write their own script, and the second generation acquires an education of an European type with great facility. The bulk of the shopkeeping, trading and mining industries, so long as the mining is of an alluvial character, is in Chinese hands. The greater part of the Chinese on the west coast are originally drawn from the boundaries of Kwang-tung and Kwang-si. They are called Kehs by the Malays, and are of the same tribes as those which furnish the bulk of the workers to the tin mines of the Malay Peninsula. They are a rough and hardy people, and are apt at times to be turbulent. The shopkeeping class comes mostly from Fuh-kien and the coast districts of Amoy. They are known to the Borneans as Ollohs.
History.—As far as is known, Borneo never formed a political unity, and even its geographical unity as an island is a fact unappreciated by the vast majority of its native inhabitants. The name of Kalamantan has been given by some Europeans (on what original authority it is not possible now to ascertain) as the native name for the island of Borneo considered as a whole; but it is safe to aver that among the natives of the island itself Borneo has never borne any general designation. To this day, among the natives of the Malayan Archipelago, men speak of going to Pontianak, to Sambas or to Brunei, as the case may be, but make use of no term which recognizes that these localities are part of a single whole. The only archaeological remains are a few Hindu temples, and it is probable that the early settlement of the south-eastern portion of the island by Hindus dates from some time during the first six centuries of our era. There exist, however, no data, not even any trustworthy tradition, from which to reconstruct the early history of Borneo. Borneo began to be known to Europeans after the fall of Malacca in 1511, when Alphonso d’Albuquerque despatched Antonio d’Abreu with three ships in search of the Molucca or Spice Islands with instructions to establish friendly relations with all the native states that he might encounter on his way. D’Abreu, sailing in a south-easterly direction from the Straits of Malacca, skirted the southern coast of Borneo and laid up his ships at Amboyna, a small island near the south-western extremity of Ceram. He returned to Malacca in 1514, leaving one of his captains, Francisco Serrano, at Ternate, where Magellan’s followers found him in 1521. After Magellan’s death, his comrades sailed from the Moluccas across the Celebes into the Sulu Sea, and were the first white men who are known to have visited Brunei on the north-west coast of Borneo, where they arrived in 1522. Pigafetta gives an interesting account of the place and of the reception of the adventurers by the sultan. The Molucca Islands being, at that time, the principal objective of European traders, and the route followed by Magellan’s ships being frequently used, Borneo was often touched at during the remainder of the 16th century, and trade relations with Brunei were successfully established by the Portuguese. In 1573 the Spaniards tried somewhat unsuccessfully to obtain a share of this commerce, but it was not until 1580, when a dethroned sultan appealed to them for assistance and by their agency was restored to his own, that they attained their object. Thereafter the Spaniards maintained a fitful intercourse with Brunei, varied by not infrequent hostilities, and in 1645 a punitive expedition on a larger scale than heretofore was sent to chastise Brunei for persistent acts of piracy. No attempt at annexation followed upon this action, commerce rather than territory being at this period the prime object of both the Spaniards and the Portuguese, whose influence upon the natives was accordingly proportionately small. The only effort at proselytizing of which we have record came to an untimely end in the death of the Theatine monk, Antonio Ventimiglia, who had been its originator. Meanwhile the Dutch and British East India Companies had been formed, had destroyed the monopoly so long enjoyed by the Portuguese, and to a less extent the Spaniards, in the trade of the Malayan Archipelago, and had gained a footing in Borneo. The establishment of Dutch trading-posts on the west coast of Borneo dates from 1604, nine years after the first Dutch fleet, under Houtman, sailed from the Texel to dispute with the Portuguese the possession of the Eastern trade, and in 1608 Samuel Blommaert was appointed Dutch resident, or head factor, in Landak and Sukedana. The first appearance of the British in Borneo dates from 1609, and by 1698 they had an important settlement at Banjermasin, whence they were subsequently expelled by the influence of the Dutch, who about 1733 obtained from the sultan a trading monopoly. The Dutch, in fact, speedily became the predominant European race throughout the Malay Archipelago, defeating the British by superior energy and enterprise, and the trading-posts all along the western and southern coasts of Borneo were presently their exclusive possessions, the sultan of Bantam, who was the overlord of these districts, ceding his rights to the Dutch. The British meanwhile had turned their attention to the north of the island, over which the sultan of Sulu exercised the rights of suzerain, and from him, in 1759, Alexander Dalrymple obtained possession of the island of Balambangan, and the whole of the north-eastern promontory. A military post was established, but it was destroyed in 1775 by the natives under the dâto’, or vassal chiefs, who resented the cession of their territory. This mishap rendered a treaty, which had been concluded in 1774 with the sultan of Brunei, practically a dead letter, and by the end of the century British influence in Borneo was to all intents and purposes at an end. The Dutch also mismanaged their affairs in Borneo and suffered from a series of misfortunes which led Marshal Daendels in 1809 to order the abandonment of all their posts. The natives of the coasts of Borneo, assisted and stimulated by immigrants from the neighbouring islands to the north, devoted themselves more and more to organized piracy, and putting to sea in great fleets manned by two and three thousand men on cruises that lasted for two and even three years, they terrorized the neighbouring seas and rendered the trade of civilized nations almost impossible for a prolonged period. During the occupation of Java by the British an embassy was despatched to Sir Stamford Raffles by the sultan of Banjermasin asking for assistance, and in 1811 Alexander Hare was despatched thither as commissioner and resident. He not only obtained for his government an advantageous treaty, but secured for himself a grant of a district which he proceeded to colonize and cultivate. About the same time a British expedition was also sent against Sambas and a post established at Pontianak. On the restoration of Java to the Dutch in 1816, all these arrangements were cancelled, and the Dutch government was left in undisputed possession of the field. An energetic policy was soon after adopted, and about half the kingdom of Banjermasin was surrendered to the Dutch by its sultan in 1823, further concessions being made two years later. Meanwhile, George Müller, while exploring the east coast, obtained from the sultan of Kutei an acknowledgment of Dutch authority, a concession speedily repented by its donor, since the enterprising traveller was shortly afterwards killed. The outbreak of war in Java caused Borneo to be more or less neglected by the Dutch for a considerable period, and no effective check was imposed upon the natives with a view to stopping piracy, which was annually becoming more and more unendurable. On the rise of Singapore direct trade had been established with Sarawak and Brunei, and it became a matter of moment to British merchants that this traffic should be safe. In 1838 Sir James Brooke, an Englishman, whose attention had been turned to the state of affairs in the Eastern Archipelago, set out for Borneo, determined, if possible, to remedy the evil. By 1841 he had obtained from the sultan of Brunei the grant of supreme authority over Sarawak, in which state, on the sultan’s behalf, he had waged a successful war, and before many years had elapsed he had, with the aid of the British government, succeeded in suppressing piracy (see [Brooke, Sir James]; and [Sarawak]). In 1847 the sultan of Brunei agreed to make no cession of territory to any nation or individual without the consent of Great Britain. Since then more and more territory has been ceded by the sultans of Brunei to the raja of Sarawak and to British North Borneo, and to-day the merest remnant of his once extensive state is left within the jurisdiction of the sultan. The treaty in 1847 put an end once for all to the hopes which the Dutch had cherished of including the whole island in their dominions, but it served also to stimulate their efforts to consolidate their power within the sphere already subjected to their influence. Gunong Tebur, Tanjong, and Bulungan had made nominal submission to them in 1834, and in 1844 the sultan of Kutei acknowledged their protectorate, a treaty of a similar character being concluded about the same time with Pasir. The boundaries of British and Dutch Borneo were finally defined by a treaty concluded on the 20th of June 1891. In spite of this, however, large areas in the interior, both in Dutch Borneo and in the territory owned by the British North Borneo Company, are still only nominally under European control, and have experienced few direct effects of European administration.
British North Borneo or Sabah
Sabah is the name applied by the natives to certain portions of the territory situated on the north-western coast of the island, and originally in no way included the remainder of the country now owned by the British North Borneo Company. It has become customary, however, for the name to be used by Europeans in Borneo to denote the whole of the company’s territory, and little by little the more educated natives are insensibly adopting the practice.
History.—As has been seen, the British connexion with northern and north-western Borneo terminated with the 18th century, nor was it resumed until 1838, when Raja Brooke set out for Brunei and Sarawak. The island of Labuan (q.v.) was occupied by the British as a crown colony in 1848, and this may be taken as the starting-point of renewed British relations with that portion of northern Borneo which is situated to the north of Brunei. In 1872 the Labuan Trading Company was established in Sandakan, the fine harbour on the northern coast which was subsequently the capital of the North Borneo Company’s territory. In 1878, through the instrumentality of Mr (afterwards Sir) Alfred Dent, the sultan of Sulu was induced to transfer to a syndicate, formed by Baron Overbeck and Mr Dent, all his rights in North Borneo, of which, as has been seen, he had been from time immemorial the overlord. The chief promoters of this syndicate were Sir Rutherford Alcock, Admiral the Hon. Sir Harry Keppel, who at an earlier stage of his career had rendered great assistance to the first raja of Sarawak in the suppression of piracy, and Mr Richard B. Martin. Early in 1881 the British North Borneo Provisional Association, Limited, was formed to take over the concession which had been obtained from the sultan of Sulu, and in November of that year a petition was addressed to Queen Victoria praying for a royal charter. This was granted, and subsequently the British North Borneo Company, which was formed in May 1882, took over, in spite of some diplomatic protests on the part of the Dutch and Spanish governments, all the sovereign and territorial rights ceded by the original grants, and proceeded under its charter to organize the administration of the territory. The company subsequently acquired further sovereign and territorial rights from the sultan of Brunei and his chiefs in addition to some which had already been obtained at the time of the formation of the company. The Putatan river was ceded in May 1884, the Padas district, including the Padas and Kalias rivers, in November of the same year, the Kawang river in February 1885, and the Mantanani islands in April 1885. In 1888, by an agreement with the “State of North Borneo,” the territory of the company was made a British protectorate, but its administration remained entirely in the hands of the company, the crown reserving only control of its foreign relations, and the appointment of its governors being required to receive the formal sanction of the secretary of state for the colonies. In 1890 the British government placed the colony of Labuan under the administration of the company, the governor of the state of North Borneo thereafter holding a royal commission as governor of Labuan in addition to his commission from the company. This arrangement held good until 1905, when, in answer to the frequently and strongly expressed desire of the colonists, Labuan was removed from the jurisdiction of the company and attached to the colony of the Straits Settlements. In March 1898 arrangements were made whereby the sultan of Brunei ceded to the company all his sovereign and territorial rights to the districts situated to the north of the Padas river which up to that time had been retained by him. This had the effect of rounding off the company’s territories, and had the additional advantage of doing away with the various no-man’s lands which had long been used by the discontented among the natives as so many Caves of Adullam. The company’s acquisition of territory was viewed with considerable dissatisfaction by many of the natives, and this found expression in frequent acts of violence. The most noted and the most successful of the native leaders was a Bajau named Mat Saleh (Mahomet Saleh), who for many years defied the company, whose policy in his regard was marked by considerable weakness and vacillation. In 1898 a composition was made with him, the terms of which were unfortunately not defined with sufficient clearness, and he retired into the Tambunan country, to the east of the range which runs parallel with the west coast, where for a period he lorded it unchecked over the Dusun tribes of the valley. In 1899 it was found necessary to expel him, since his acts of aggression and defiance were no longer endurable. A short, and this time a successful campaign followed, resulting, on the 31st of January 1900, in the death of Mat Saleh, and the destruction of his defences. Some of his followers who escaped raided the town of Kudat on Marudu Bay in April of the same year, but caused more panic than damage, and little by little during the next years the last smouldering embers of rebellion were extinguished. At the present time, though effective administration of the more inaccessible districts of the interior cannot be said to have been established even yet, the pacification of the native population is to all intents and purposes complete. The Tambunan district, the last stronghold of Mat Saleh, is now thoroughly settled. It is some 500 sq. m. in extent, and carries a population of perhaps 12,000.
Geography.—The state of North Borneo may roughly be said to form a pentagon of which three sides, the north-west, north-east and east are washed by the sea, while the remaining two sides, the south-west and the south, are bordered respectively by the Malayan sultanate of Brunei, and by the territories of the raja of Sarawak and of the Dutch government. The boundary between the company’s territory and the Dutch government is defined by the treaty concluded in June 1891, of which mention has already been made.
The total area of the company’s territory is estimated at about 31,000 sq. m., with a coast-line of over 900 m. The greater portion is exceedingly hilly and in parts mountainous, and the interior consists almost entirely of highlands with here and there open valleys and plateaus of 50 to 60 sq. m. in extent. On the west coast the mountain range, as already noted, runs parallel with the seashore at a distance from it of about 15 m. Of this range the central feature is the mountain of Kinabalu, which is composed of porphyritic granite and igneous rocks and attains to a height of 13,698 ft. Mount Madalon, some 15 or 20 m. to the north, is 5000 ft. in height, and inland across the valley of the Pagalan river, which runs through the Tambunan country and falls into the Padas, rises the peak of Trus Madi, estimated to be 11,000 ft. above sea-level. The valley of the Pagalan is itself for the most part from 1000 to 2000 ft. above the sea, forming a string of small plateaus marking the sites of former lakes. From the base of Trus Madi to the eastern coast the country consists of huddled hills broken here and there by regions of a more mountainous character. The principal plateaus are in the Tambunan and Kaningau valleys, in the basin of the Pagalan, and the Ranau plain to the eastward of the base of Kinabalu. Similar plateaus of minor importance are to be found dotted about the interior. The proximity of the mountain range to the seashore causes the rivers of the west coast, with the single exception of the Padas, to be rapid, boulder-obstructed, shallow streams of little value as means of communication for a distance of more than half a dozen miles from their mouths. The Padas is navigable for light-draught steam-launches and native boats for a distance of nearly 50 m. from its mouth, and smaller craft can be punted up as far as Rayoh, some 15 m. farther, but at this point its bed is obstructed by impassable falls and rapids, which are of such a character that nothing can even be brought down them. Even below Rayoh navigation is rendered difficult and occasionally dangerous by similar obstructions. The other principal rivers of the west coast are the Kalias, Kimanis, Benoneh, Papar, Kinarut, Putatan, Inaman, Mengkabong, Tampasuk and Pandasan, none of which, however, is of any great importance as a means of communication. There is a stout breed of pony raised along the Tampasuk, which is also noted for the Kalupis waterfall (1500 ft.), one of the highest in the world, though the volume of water is not great. Here also are the principal Bajau settlements. Throughout the Malayan Archipelago the words Bâjau and pěrômpak (pirate) are still used as synonymous terms. At the northern extremity of the island Marudu Bay receives the waters of the Marudu which rises on the western side of Mount Madalon. On the east coast the principal rivers are the Sugut, which rises in the hills to the east of Kinabalu and forms its delta near Torongohok or Pura-Pura Island; the Labuk, which has its sources 70 m. inland and debouches into Labuk Bay; and the Kinabatangan, the largest and most important river in the territory, which is believed to have its rise eastward of the range of which Trus Madi is the principal feature, and is navigable by steamer for a considerable distance and by native boats for a distance of over 100 m. from its mouth. Some valuable tobacco land, which, however, is somewhat liable to flood, and some remarkable burial-caves are found in the valley of the Kinabatangan. The remaining rivers of the east coast are the Segamah, which rises west of Darvel Bay, the Kumpong, and the Kalabakang, which debouches into Cowie Harbour. Taking it as a whole, the company’s territory is much less generously watered than are other parts of Borneo, which again compares unfavourably in this respect with the Malayan states of the peninsula. Many of the rivers, especially those of the west coast, are obstructed by bars at their mouths that render them difficult of access. Several of the natural harbours of North Borneo, on the other hand, are accessible, safe and commodious. Sandakan Harbour, on the north-east coast (5° 40′ N., 118° 10′ E.), runs inland for some 17 m. with a very irregular outline broken by the mouths of numerous creeks and streams. The mouth, only 2 m. across, is split into two channels by the little, high, bluff-like island of Barhala. The depth in the main entrance varies from 10 to 17 fathoms, and vessels drawing 20 ft. can advance half-way up the bay. The principal town in the territory, and the seat of government (though an attempt has been unsuccessfully made to transfer this to Jesselton on the west coast), is Sandakan, situated just inside the mouth of the Sarwaka inlet. At Silam, on Darvel Bay, there is good anchorage; and Kudat in Marudu Bay, first surveyed by Commander Johnstone of H.M.S. “Nigeria” in 1881, is a small but useful harbour.
Climate and Population.—The climate of North Borneo is tropical, hot, damp and enervating. The rainfall is steady and not usually excessive. The shade temperature at Sandakan ordinarily ranges from 72° to 94° F. The population of the company’s territory is not known with any approach to accuracy, but is estimated, somewhat liberally, to amount to 175,000, including 16,000 Chinese. Of this total about three-fourths are found in the districts of the west coast. The seashore and the country bordering closely on the west coast are inhabited chiefly by Dusuns, by Kadayans, by Bajaus and Ilanuns—both Malayan tribes—and by Brunei Malays. The east coast is very sparsely populated and its inhabitants are mostly Bajaus and settlers from the neighbouring Sulu archipelago. The interior is dotted with infrequent villages inhabited by Dusuns or by Muruts, a village ordinarily consisting of a single long hut divided up into cubicles, one for the use of each family, opening out on to a common verandah along which the skulls captured by the tribe are festooned. It has been customary to speak of these tribes as belonging to the Dyak group, but the Muruts would certainly seem to be the representatives of the aboriginal inhabitants of the island, and there is much reason to think that the Dusuns also must be classed as distinct from the Dyaks. The Dusun language, it is interesting to note, presents very curious grammatical complications and refinements such as are not to be found among the tongues spoken by any of the other peoples of the Malayan Archipelago or the mainland of south-eastern Asia. Dusuns and Muruts alike are in a very low state of civilization, and both indulge inordinately in the use of intoxicating liquors of their own manufacture.
Settlements and Communication.—The company possesses a number of small stations along the coast, of which Sandakan, with a population of 9 500, is the most important. The remainder which call for separate mention are Lahat Datu on Darvel Bay on the east coast; Kudat on Marudu Bay and Jesselton on Gaya Bay on the west coast. A railway of indifferent construction runs along the west coast from Jesselton to Weston on Brunei Bay, with a branch along the banks of the Padas to Tenom above the rapids. It was originally intended that this should eventually be extended across the territory to Cowie Harbour (Sabuko Bay) on the east coast, but the extraordinary engineering difficulties which oppose themselves to such an extension, the sparse population of the territory, and the failure of the existing line to justify the expectations entertained by its designers, combine to render the prosecution of any such project highly improbable. Sandakan is connected by telegraph with Mempakul on the west coast whence a cable runs to Labuan and so gives telegraphic communication with Singapore. The overland line from Mempakul to Sandakan, however, passes through forest-clad and very difficult country, and telegraphic communication is therefore subject to very frequent interruption. Telegraphic communication between Mempakul and Kudat, via Jesselton, has also been established and is more regularly and successfully maintained. The only roads in the territory are bridle-paths in the immediate vicinity of the company’s principal stations. The Sabah Steamship Company, subsidized by the Chartered Company, runs steamers along the coast, calling at all the company’s stations at which native produce is accumulated. A German firm runs vessels at approximately bi-monthly intervals from Singapore to Labuan and thence to Sandakan, calling in on occasion at Jesselton and Kudat en route. There is also fairly frequent communication between Sandakan and Hong-Kong, a journey of four days’ steaming.
Products and Trade.—The capabilities of the company’s territory are only dimly known. Coal has been found in the neighbourhood of Cowie Harbour and elsewhere, but though its quality is believed to be as good as that exported from Dutch Borneo, it is not yet known whether it exists in payable quantities. Gold has been found in alluvial deposits on the banks of some of the rivers of the east coast, but here again the quantity available is still in serious doubt. The territory as a whole has been very imperfectly examined by geologists, and no opinion can at present be hazarded as to the mineral wealth or poverty of the company’s property. Traces of mineral oil, iron ores, copper, zinc and antimony have been found, but the wealth of North Borneo still lies mainly in its jungle produce. It possesses a great profusion of excellent timber, but the difficulty of extraction has so far restricted the lumber industry within somewhat modest limits. Gutta, rubber, rattans, mangrove-bark, edible nuts, guano, edible birds’-nests, &c., are all valuable articles of export. The principal cultivated produce is tobacco, sago, cocoanuts, coffee, pepper, gambier and sugar-canes. Of these the tobacco and the sago are the most important. Between 1886 and 1900 the value of the tobacco crop increased from £471 to £200,000.
As is common throughout Malayan lands, the trade of North Borneo is largely in the hands of Chinese shopkeepers who send their agents inland to attend the Tamus (Malay, těmu, to meet) or fairs, which are the recognized scenes of barter between the natives of the interior and those of the coast. At Sandakan there is a Chinese population of over 2000.
Administration.—For administrative purposes the territory is divided into nine provinces: Alcock and Dewhurst in the north; Keppel on the west; Martin in the centre; Myburgh, Mayne and Elphinstone on the east coast; and Dent and Cunliffe in the south. The boundaries of these provinces, however, are purely arbitrary and not accurately defined. The form of government is modelled roughly upon the system adopted in the Malay States of the peninsula during the early days of their administration by British residents. The government is vested primarily in the court of directors appointed under the company’s charter, which may be compared to the colonial office in its relation to a British colony, though the court of directors interests itself far more closely than does the colonial department in the smaller details of local administration. The supreme authority on the spot is represented by the governor, under whom are the residents of Kudat, Darvel Bay and Keppel, officers who occupy much the same position as that usually known by the title of magistrate and collector. The less important districts are administered by district magistrates, who also collect the taxes. The principal departments, whose chiefs reside at the capital, are the treasury, the land and survey, the public works, the constabulary, the medical and the judicial. The secretariat is under the charge of a government secretary who ranks next in precedence to the governor. Legislation is by the proclamation of the governor, but there is a council, meeting at irregular intervals, upon which the principal heads of departments and one unofficial member have seats. The public service is recruited by nomination by the court of directors. The governor is the chief judge of the court of appeal, but a judge who is subordinate to him takes all ordinary supreme court cases. The laws are the Indian Penal and Civil Procedure Codes and Evidence Acts, supplemented by a few local laws promulgated by proclamation. There is an Imam’s court for the trial of cases affecting Mahommedan law of marriage, succession, &c. The native chiefs are responsible to the government for the preservation of law and order in their districts. They have restricted judicial powers. The constabulary numbers some 600 men and consists of a mixed force of Sikhs, Pathans, Punjabi Mahommedans, Dyaks and Malays, officered by a few Europeans. There is a Protestant mission which supports a church—the only stone building in the territory—and a school at Sandakan, with branches at Kudat, Kaningau and Tambunan. The Roman Catholic mission maintains an orphanage, a church and school at Sandakan, and has missions among the Dusuns at several points on the west coast and in the Tambunan country. Its headquarters are at Kuching in Sarawak. The Chinese have their joss-houses and the Mahommedans a few small mosques, but the vast majority of the native inhabitants are pagans who have no buildings set apart for religious purposes.
Finance and Money.—The principal sources of revenue are the licences granted for the importation and retailing of opium, wine and spirits, which are in the hands of Chinese; a customs duty of 5% on imports; an export tax of 5% on jungle produce; a poll-tax sanctioned by ancient native custom; and a stamp duty. A land revenue is derived from the sale of government lands, from quit rents and fees of transfer, &c. Judicial fees bring in a small amount, and the issue and sale of postage and revenue stamps have proved a fruitful source of income. The people of the country are by no means heavily taxed, a large number of the natives of the interior escaping all payment of dues to the company, the revenue being for the most part contributed by the more civilized members of the community residing in the neighbourhood of the company’s stations. There are bank agencies in Sandakan, and the company does banking business when required. The state, which has adopted the penny postage, is in the Postal Union, and money orders on North Borneo are issued in the United Kingdom and in most British colonies and vice versa. Notes issued by the principal banks in Singapore were made current in North Borneo in 1900. There is also a government note issue issued by the company for use within the territory only. The currency is the Mexican and British dollar, the company issuing its own copper coin—viz. cents and half cents. It is proposed to adopt the coinage of the Straits Settlements, and measures have been taken with a view to the accomplishment of this. In the interior the principal medium of exchange among the natives is the large earthenware jars, imported originally, it is believed, from China, which form the chief wealth both of tribes and individuals.
(H. Cl.)
Authorities.—Among early works may be mentioned, S. Blommaert, Discours ende ghelegentheyt van het eylandt Borneo int Jear 1609; Hachelyke reystogt van Jacob Jansz. de Roy na Borneo en Atchin in het jaar 1691; Beeckman, Visit to Borneo, 1718, in J. Pinkerton’s General Collections (1808-1814); F. Valentijn in Ond en Nieuw Oost Indiën (Dordrecht, 1724-1726). See also H. Keppel, Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. “Dido” (London, 1846); R. Mundy, Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes (London, 1848); F.S. Marryat, Borneo, &c. (1848); P.J. Veth, Borneo’s Westerafdeeling (Zalt-Bommel, 1854 and 1856); S. Müller, Reizen en onderzoekingen in den Indischen Archipel (Amsterdam, 1857); C. Bock, Head-hunters of Borneo (London, 1881), and Reis in Oost en Zuid-Borneo (The Hague, 1887); J. Hatton, The New Ceylon, a Sketch of British North Borneo (London, 1882); F. Hatton, North Borneo (London, 1885); T. Posewitz, Borneo ... Verbreitung der nutzbaren Mineralien (Berlin, 1889), Eng. trans., Borneo; its Geology and Mineral Resources (London, 1892); J. Whitehead, Exploration of Mount Kini Balu (London, 1893); Mrs W.B. Pryor, A Decade in Borneo (London, 1894); H. Ling Roth, The Natives of Sarawak and North Borneo (London, 1896); G.A.F. Molengraaf, Geologische Verkinningstochten in Centraal Borneo (Leiden, 1900, Eng. trans. 1902); A.W. Niewenhuis, In Centraal Borneo (Leiden, 1901), and Quer durch Borneo (Leiden, 1904), &c.; W.H. Furness, Home Life of Borneo Head-hunters (London, 1902); O. Beccari, Nelle Foreste di Borneo (Florence, 1902), Eng. trans., Wanderings in the Great Forests of Borneo (London, 1904); D. Cator, Everyday Life among the Head-hunters (London, 1905). For geology, besides the works of Posewitz and Molengraaf already cited, see R.B. Newton in Geol. Mag., 1897, pp. 407-415, and Proc. Malac. Soc., London, vol. v. (1902-1903), pp. 403-409. A series of papers on the palaeontology of the island will be found in the several volumes of the Samml. Geol. R. Mus., Leiden.
BORNHOLM, an island in the Baltic Sea, 22 m. S.E. of the Swedish coast, belonging to Denmark, lying on 15° E., and between 55° and 55° 18′ N., and measuring 24 m. from S.E. to N.W. and 19 (extreme) from E. to W. Pop. (1901) 40,889. The surface is generally hilly; the scenery is fine in the north, where the cliffs reach a height of 135 ft., and the granite hill of Helligdomsklipper dominates the island. Besides freestone, exported for building, limestone, blue marble, and porcelain-clay are worked. A little coal is found and used locally, but it is not of good quality. Oats, flax and hemp are cultivated. The inhabitants are employed in agriculture, fishing, brewing, distillation and the manufacture of earthenware. Weaving and clock-making are also carried on to some extent. The capital is Rönne (115 m. by sea from Copenhagen), and there are five other small towns on the island—Svanike, Neksö, Hasle, Allinge, and Sandvig. A railway connects Rönne with Neksö (22 m. E. by S.), where a bust commemorates J.N. Madvig, the philologist, who was born there in 1804 (d. 1886). Blanch’s Hotel, 10 m. N. of Rönne, is the most favoured resort on the island, which attracts many visitors. On the north-west coast are the ruins of the castle of Hammershus, which was built in 1158, and long served as a state prison; while another old castle, erected by Christian V. in 1684, and important as commanding the entrance to the Baltic, is situated on Christiansö, one of a small group of islands 15 m. E. by N. The island of Bornholm has had an eventful history. In early times it was long the independent seat of marauding Vikings. In the 12th century it became a fief of the archbishop of Lund. In 1510 it was captured by the Hanseatic League, in 1522 it came under Danish sway, and in 1526 it was made directly subject to the city of Lübeck. In 1645 the Swedes took it by storm, and their possession of it was confirmed by the peace of Roskilde in 1658; but the sympathies of the people were with Denmark, and a popular insurrection succeeded in expelling the Swedish forces, the island coming finally into the possession of Denmark in 1660.
BORNIER, HENRI, Vicomte de (1825-1901) French poet and dramatist, was born at Lunel (Hérault) on the 25th of December 1825. He came to Paris in 1845 With the object of studying law, but in that year he published a volume of verse, Les Premières Feuilles, and the Comédie Francaise accepted a play of his entitled Le Mariage de Luther. He was given a post in the library of the Arsenal, where he served for half a century, becoming director in 1889. In 1875 was produced at the Théâtre Français his heroic drama in verse, La Fille de Roland. The action of the play turns on the love of Gérald, son of the traitor Ganelon, for the daughter of Roland. The patriotic subject and the nobility of the character of Gérald, who renounces Berthe when he learns his real origin, procured for the piece a great success. The conflict between honour and love and the grandiose sentiment of the play inevitably provoked comparison with Corneille. The piece would indeed be a masterpiece if, as its critics were not slow to point out, the verse had been quite equal to the subject. Among the numerous other works of M. de Bornier should be mentioned: Dimitri (1876), libretto of an opera by M.V. de Jonciêres; and the dramas, Les Noces d’Allila (1880) and Mahomet (1888). The production of this last piece was forbidden in deference to the representations of the Turkish ambassador. Henri de Bornier was critic of the Nouvelle Revue from 1879 to 1887. His Poésies complètes were published in 1894. He died in January 1901.
BORNU, a country in the Central Sudan, lying W. and S. of Lake Chad. It is bounded W. and S. by the Hausa states and N. by the Sahara. Formerly an independent Mahommedan sultanate it has been divided between Great Britain, Germany and France. To France has fallen a portion of northern Bornu and also Zinder (q.v.), a tributary state to the north-west, while the south-west part is incorporated in the German colony of Cameroon. Three-fourths of Bornu proper, some 50,000 sq. m., forms part of the British protectorate of Nigeria.
Bornu is for the most part an alluvial plain, the country sloping gradually to Lake Chad, which formerly spread over a much larger area than it now occupies. The Komadugu (i.e. river) Waube—generally known as the Yo—and its tributaries rise in the highlands which, beyond the western border of Bornu, form the watershed between the Niger and Chad systems, and flow north and east across the plains to Lake Chad, the Yo in its last few miles marking the frontier between the French and British possessions. In the south-west a part of Bornu drains to the Benue. The rivers are intermittent, and water in southern Bornu is obtained only from wells, which are sunk to a great depth. The vast plain of Bornu is stoneless, except for rare outcrops of ironstone, and consists of the porous fissured black earth called “cotton soil” in India, alternating with, or more probably overlaid by, sand. Throughout the flat country water is apparently found everywhere at a depth of 54 ft., corresponding to the level of Chad. Towards Damjiri in the north-west the country becomes more broken, hilly and timbered. In the south limestone is found near Gujba and also along the Gongola tributary of the Benue. A forest of red and green barked acacia, yielding the species of gum most valuable in the market, extends from the Gongola to Gujba. Immense baobabs (Adansonia digitata), fine tamarinds and a few trees of the genus Ficus are met with in the south. North of Maifoni (latitude 12° N.) the baobab ceases, except at Kuka, where extensive plantations have been made, and its place is taken by the Kigelia and also by a very handsome species of Diospyros. North of Kuka is a dense belt of Hyphaene palm with fine tamarinds and figs. Cotton and indigo grow wild, and afford the materials for the cloths, finely dyed with blue stripes, which form the staple fabric of the country. On the shores of Lake Chad the cotton grown is of a peculiarly fine quality. Rice and wheat of excellent quality are raised, but in small quantities, the staple food being a species of millet called gussub, which is made into a kind of paste and eaten with butter or honey. Ground-nuts, yams, sweet potatoes, several sorts of beans and grains, peppers, onions, water-melons and tomatoes are grown. Of fruit trees the country possesses the lime and fig.
Wild animals, in great numbers, find both food and cover in the extensive districts of wood and marsh. Lions, giraffes, elephants, hyenas, crocodiles, hippopotami, antelopes, gazelles and ostriches are found. The horse, the camel and the ox are the chief domestic animals; all are used as beasts of burden. The country abounds with bees, and honey forms one of the chief Bornuese delicacies.
The climate, especially from March to the end of June, is oppressively hot, rising sometimes to 105° and 107°, and even during most of the night not falling much below 100°. In May the wet season begins, with violent storms of thunder and lightning. In the end of June the rivers and lakes begin to overflow, and for several months the rains, accompanied with sultry weather, are almost incessant. The inhabitants at this season suffer greatly from fevers. In October the rains abate; cool, fresh winds blow from the west and north-west; and for several months the climate is healthy and agreeable.
Inhabitants.—The inhabitants, of whom the great majority profess Mahommedanism, are divided into Negroes and those of mixed blood, i.e. Negro and Berber, Arab or other crossing. The total population of British Bornu is estimated at 500,000. The dominant tribe, called Bornuese, Berberi or Kanuri, a Negro race with an infusion of Berber blood, have black skins, large mouths, thick lips and broad noses, but good teeth and high foreheads. The females add to their want of beauty by extensive tattooing; they also stain their faces with indigo, and dye their front teeth black and their canine teeth red. The law allows polygamy, but the richest men have seldom more than two or three wives. The marriage ceremonies last for a whole week, the first three days being spent in feasting on the favourite national dishes, and the others appropriated to certain symbolical rites. A favourite amusement is the watching of wrestling matches. A game bearing some resemblance to chess, played with beans and holes in the sand, is also a favourite occupation.
The pastoral districts of the country are occupied by the Shuwas, who are of Arab origin, and speak a well-preserved dialect of Arabic. Of the date of their immigration from the East there is no record; but they were in the country as early as the middle of the 17th century. They are divided into numerous distinct clans. Their villages in general consist of rudely constructed huts, of an exaggerated conical form. Another tribe, called La Salas, inhabits a number of low fertile islands in Lake Chad, separated from the mainland by fordable channels.
The Bornuese are noted horsemen, and in times of war the horses, as well as the riders, used to be cased in light iron mail. The Shuwas, however, are clad only in a light shirt, and the Kanembu spearmen go almost naked, and fight with shield and spear. It is indispensable to a chief of rank that he should possess a huge belly, and when high feeding cannot produce this, padding gives the appearance of it. Notwithstanding the heat of the climate, the body is enveloped in successive robes, the number indicating the rank of the wearer. The head likewise is enclosed in numerous turbans. The prevailing language in Bornu is the Kanuri. It has no affinity, according to Heinrich Barth, with the great Berber family. A grammar was published in 1854 by S.W. Koelle, as well as a volume of tales and fables, with a translation and vocabulary.
The towns in Bornu, which have populations varying from 10,000 to 50,000 or more, are surrounded with walls 35 or 40 ft. in height and 20 ft. in thickness, having at each of the four corners a triple gate, composed of strong planks of wood, with bars of iron. The abodes of the principal inhabitants form an enclosed square, in which are separate houses for each of the wives; the chief’s palace consists of turrets connected together by terraces. These are well built of a reddish clay, highly polished, so as to resemble stucco; the interior roof, though composed only of branches, is tastefully constructed. Maidugari, which in 1908 became the seat of the native government, is a thriving commercial town some 70 m. south-west of Lake Chad. The former capital, Kuka (q.v.), and Ngornu (the town of “blessing”), are near the shores of Lake Chad. On the Yo are still to be seen extensive remains of Old Bornu or Birni and Gambarou or Ghambaru, which were destroyed by the Fula about 1809. Dikwa, the capital chosen by Rabah (see below), lies in the German part of Bornu.
History.—The history of Bornu goes back to the 9th century A.D., but its early portions are very fragmentary and dubious. The first dynasty known is that of the Sefuwa or descendants of Sef, which came to the throne in the person of Dugu or Duku, and had its capital at Njimiye (Jima) in Kanem on the north-east shores of Lake Chad. The Sefuwa are of Berber origin, the descent from Sef, the Himyaritic ruler, being mythical. From this Berber strain comes the name Berberi or Ba-Berberche, applied by the Hausa to the inhabitants of Bornu. Mahommedanism was adopted towards the end of the 11th century, and has since continued the religion of the country. From 1194 to 1220 reigned Selma II., under whom the power of the kingdom was greatly extended; and Dunama II., his successor was also a powerful and warlike prince. In the following reigns the prosperity of the country began to diminish, and about 1386 the dynasty was expelled from Njimiye, and forced to seek refuge in the western part of its territory by the invasion of the Bulala. Mai Ali (I.) Ghajideni, who founded the city of Birni, rendered his country once more redoubtable and strong. His successor, Idris II., completely vanquished the Bulala and subjugated Kanem; and under Mahommed V., the next monarch, Bornu reached its highest pitch of greatness. At this period Zinder became a tributary state. A series of for the most part peaceful reigns succeeded till about the middle of the 18th century, when Ali (IV.) Omarmi entered upon a violent struggle with the Tuareg or Imoshagh. Under his son Ahmed (about 1808) the kingdom began to be harassed by the Fula, who had already conquered the Hausa country. Expelled from his capital by the invaders, Ahmed was only restored by the assistance of the fakir Mahommed al-Amin al-Kanemi, who, pretending to a celestial mission, hoisted the green flag of the Prophet, and undertook the deliverance of his country. The Fula appear to have been taken by surprise, and were in ten months driven completely out of Bornu. The conqueror invested the nearest heir of the ancient kings with all the appearance of sovereignty—reserving for himself, however, under the title of sheik, all its reality. The court of the sultan (shehu) was established at New Bornu, or Birni, which was made the capital, the old city having been destroyed during the Fula invasion; while the sheik, in military state, took up his residence at the new city of Kuka. Fairly established, he ruled the country with a rod of iron, and at the same time inspired his subjects with a superstitious notion of his sanctity. His zeal was peculiarly directed against moral or religious offences. The most frivolous faults of women, as talking too loud, and walking in the street unveiled, rendered the offender liable to public indictment, while graver errors were visited with the most ignominious punishments, and often with death itself. Kanemi died in 1835, and was succeeded by his son, Sheik Omar, who altogether abolished the nominal kingship of the Sefuwa.
During Omar’s reign, which lasted about fifty years, Bornu was visited by many Europeans, who reached it via Tripoli and the Sahara. The first to enter the country were Walter Oudney, Hugh Clapperton and Dixon Denham (1823). They were followed in 1851-1855 by Heinrich Barth. Later travellers included Gerhard Rohlfs (1866) and Gustav Nachtigal. All these travellers were well received by the Kanuri, whose power from the middle of the 19th century began to decay. This was foreseen by Barth; and Nachtigal, who in 1870 conveyed presents sent by King William of Prussia, in acknowledgment of the sheik’s kindness to many German explorers, writes thus in December 1872:
“The rapid declension of Bornu is an undeniable and lamentable fact. It is taking place with increasing rapidity, and the boundless weakness of Sheik Omar—otherwise so worthy and brave a man—must bear almost all the blame. His sons and ministers plunder the provinces in an almost unheard-of manner; trade and intercourse are almost at a standstill; good faith and confidence exist no more. The indolence of the court avoids military expeditions, and anarchy and a lack of security on the routes are the consequences.... Thus the sheik and the land grow poorer and poorer, and public morality sinks lower and lower.”
After the visit of Nachtigal the country was visited by no European traveller until 1892, when Colonel P.L. Monteil resided for a time at Kuka during his great journey from the Senegal to Tripoli. The French traveller noticed many signs of decadence, the energy of the people being sapped by luxury, while a virtual anarchy prevailed owing to rivalries and intrigues among members of the royal family. The chief of Zinder had ceased to pay tribute, and the sultan was not strong enough to exact it by force. At the same time a danger was threatening from the south-east, where the negro adventurer Rabah, once a slave of Zobeir Pasha, was menacing the kingdom of Bagirmi. After making himself master of the fortified town of Manifa, Rabah proceeded against Bornu, defeating the army of the sultan Ahsem in two pitched battles. In December 1893 Ahsem fled from Kuka, which was entered by Rabah and soon afterwards destroyed, the capital being transferred to Dikwa in the south-east of the kingdom. These events ruined for many years the trade between Tripoli and Kuka by the long-established route via Bilma. Rabah had raised a large, well-drilled army, and proved a formidable opponent to the French in their advance on Lake Chad from the south. However in 1900 he was killed at Kussuri near the lower Shari, by the combined forces of three French expeditions which had been converging from the Congo, the Sahara and the Niger.
By an Anglo-French agreement of 1898 the tributary state of Zinder in the north had been included in the French sphere, and after the defeat of Rabah French military expeditions occupied both the German and British portions of Bornu, but in 1902 on the appearance of British and German expeditions the French withdrew to their own country east of the Shari. The British placed on the throne of Bornu Shehu Garbai, a descendant of the ancient sultans, and Kuka was again chosen as the capital of the state. From that date British Bornu has been under administrative control. It has been divided into East and West Bornu, the line of division being fixed approximately at longitude 12°, and placed under the administration of a resident. Maifoni and Kuka were selected for British stations in the east, and Damjiri and Gujba in the west. Garrisons are quartered at these points. The province has been mapped, and a network of tracks available for wheeled transport has been made through it. Water communication with the Benue and Niger has been opened through the Gongola river. The shehu, who took the oath of allegiance to the British crown on the occasion of his formal installation in November 1904, is maintained in all local dignity as a native chief, and co-operates loyally with the British administration. Peace has prevailed in Bornu since the British occupation, and it is estimated that the population has increased by immigration to about 50% more than it was in 1902. The people are industrious. Extensive areas are being brought under cultivation, and taxes are collected without difficulty. Owing to its increasing commercial importance, the native capital was in 1908 transferred to Maidugari (see also [Nigeria]: History; and [Rabah]).
Authorities.—Heinrich Barth’s Travels in North and Central Africa (1857, new ed., London, 1890) contains an exact picture of the state in the period (c. 1850) preceding its decay. The earlier Travels of Denham and Clapperton (London, 1828) may also be consulted, as well as Rohlfs, Land und Volk in Afrika (Bremen, 1870); Nachtigal, Sahara und Sudan, vol. i. (Berlin, 1879); and Monteil, de St.-Louis à Tripoli par le lac Tchad (Paris, 1895). For later information consult Lady Lugard’s A Tropical Dependency (London, 1905), and the Annual Reports, from 1900 onward, on Northern Nigeria, issued by the Colonial Office, London.
(F. L. L.)
BORODIN, ALEXANDER PORFYRIEVICH (1834-1887), Russian musical composer, natural son of a Russian prince, was born in St Petersburg on the 12th of November 1834. He was brought up to the medical profession, and in 1862 was appointed assistant professor of chemistry at the St Petersburg academy of medicine. He wrote several works on chemistry, and took a leading part in advocating women’s education, helping to found the school of medicine for women, and lecturing there from 1872 till his death. But he is best known as a musician. His interest in music was indeed stimulated from 1862 onwards by his friendship with Balakirev, and from 1863 by his marriage with a lady who was an accomplished pianist; but in his earlier years he had been proficient both in playing the piano, violin, ’cello and other instruments, and also in composing; and during life he did his best to pursue his studies in both music and chemistry with equal enthusiasm. Like other Russian composers he owed much to the influence of Liszt at Weimar. His first symphony was written in 1862-1867; his opera Prince Igor, begun in 1869, was left unfinished at his death, and was completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazounov (1889); his symphonic sketch, “In the Steppes” (1880) is, however, his best-known work. Borodin also wrote a second symphony (1871-1877), part of a third (orchestrated after his death by Glazounov), and a few string quartets and some fine songs. His music is characteristically Russian, and of an advanced modern type. He died suddenly at St Petersburg, on the 28th of February 1887.
BORODINO, a village of Russia, 70 m. W. by S. of Moscow, on the Kolotscha, an affluent of the river Moskva, famous as the scene of a great battle between the army of Napoleon and the Russians under Kutusov on the 7th of September 1812. Though the battle is remembered chiefly for the terrible losses incurred by both sides, in many respects it is an excellent example of Napoleon’s tactical methods. After preliminary fighting on the 5th of September both sides prepared for battle on the 6th, Napoleon holding back in the hope of confirming the enemy in his resolution to fight a decisive battle. For the same reason the French right wing, which could have manoeuvred the Russians from their position, was designedly weakened. The Russian right, bent back at an angle and strongly posted, was also neglected, for Napoleon intended to make a direct frontal attack. The enemy’s right centre near the village of Borodino was to be attacked by the viceroy of Italy, Eugene, who was afterwards to roll up the Russian line towards its centre, the so-called “great redoubt,” which was to be attacked directly from the front by Ney and Junot. Farther to the French right, Davout was to attack frontally a group of field works on which the Russian left centre was formed; and the extreme right of the French army was composed of the weak corps of Poniatowski. The cavalry corps were assigned to the various leaders named, and the Guard was held in reserve. The whole line was not more than about 2 m. long, giving an average of over 20 men per yard. When the Russians closed on their centre they were even more densely massed, and their reserves were subjected to an effective fire from the French field guns. At 6 A.M. on the 7th of September the French attack began. By 8 A.M. the Russian centre was driven in, and though a furious counter-attack enabled Prince Bagration’s troops to win back their original line, fresh French troops under Davout and Ney drove them back again. But the Russians, though they lost ground elsewhere, still clung to the great redoubt, and for a time the advance of the French was suspended by Napoleon’s order, owing to a cavalry attack by the Russians on Eugene’s extreme left. When this alarm was ended the advance was resumed. Napoleon had now collected a sufficient target for his guns. A terrific bombardment by the artillery was followed by the decisive charge of the battle, made by great masses of cavalry. The horsemen, followed by the infantry, charged at speed, broke the Russian line in two, and the French squadrons entered the gorge of the great redoubt just as Eugene’s infantry climbed up its faces. In a fearful mêlée the Russian garrison of the redoubt was almost annihilated. The defenders were now dislodged from their main line and the battle was practically at an end. Napoleon has been criticized for not using the Guard, which was intact, to complete the victory. There is, however, no evidence that any further expenditure of men would have had good results. Napoleon had imposed his will on the enemy so far that they ceded possession of Moscow without further resistance. That the defeat and losses of the Russian field army did not end the war was due to the national spirit of the Russians, not to military miscalculations of Napoleon. Had it not been for this spirit, Borodino would have been decisive of the war without’the final blow of the Guard. As it was, the Russians lost about 42,000 men out of 121,000; Napoleon’s army (of which one-half consisted of the contingents of subject allies-Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Holland, &c.) 32,000 out of 130,000 (Berndt, Zahl im Kriege). On the side of the French 31 general officers were killed, wounded or taken, and amongst the killed were General Montbrun, who fell at the head of his cavalry corps, and Auguste Caulaincourt, who took Montbrun’s place and fell in the mêlée in the redoubt. The Russians lost 22 generals, amongst them Prince Bagration, who died of his wounds after the battle, and to whose memory a monument was erected on the battle-field by the tsar Nicholas I.
BOROLANITE, one of the most remarkable rocks of the British Isles, found on the shores of Loch Borolan in Sutherlandshire, after which it has been named. In this locality there is a considerable area of granite rich in red alkali felspar, and passing, by diminution in the amount of its quartz, into quartz-syenites (nordmarkites) and syenites. At the margins of the outcrop patches of nepheline-syenite occur; usually the nepheline is decomposed, but occasionally it is well-preserved; the other ingredients of the rock are brown garnet (melanite) and aegirine. The abundance of melanite is very unusual in igneous rocks, though some syenites, leucitophyres, and aegirine-felsites resemble borolanite in this respect. In places the nepheline-syenite assumes the form of a dark rock with large rounded white spots. These last consist of an intermixture of nepheline or sodalite and alkali-felspar. From the analogy of certain leucite-syenites which are known in Arkansas, it is very probable that these spots represent original leucites which have been changed into aggregates of the above-named minerals. They resemble leucite in their shape, but have not yet been proved to have its crystalline outlines. The “pseudo-leucites,” as they have been called, measure one-quarter to three-quarters of an inch across. The dark matrix consists of biotite, aegirine-augite and melanite. Connected with the borolanite there are other types of nepheline-syenite and pegmatite. In Finland, melanite-bearing nepheline rocks have been found and described as Ijolite, but the only other locality for melanite-leucite-syenite is Magnet Cove in Arkansas.
(J. S. F.)
BORON (symbol B, atomic weight 11), one of the non-metallic elements, occurring in nature in the form of boracic (boric) acid, and in various borates such as borax, tincal, boronatrocalcite and boracite. It was isolated by J. Gay Lussac and L. Thénard in 1808 by heating boron trioxide with potassium, in an iron tube. It was also isolated at about the same time by Sir H. Davy, from boracic acid. It may be obtained as a dark brown amorphous powder by placing a mixture of 10 parts of the roughly powdered oxide with 6 parts of metallic sodium in a red-hot crucible, and covering the mixture with a layer of well-dried common salt. After the vigorous reaction has ceased and all the sodium has been used up, the mass is thrown into dilute hydrochloric acid, when the soluble sodium salts go into solution, and the insoluble boron remains as a brown powder, which may by filtered off and dried. H. Moissan (Ann. Chim. Phys., 1895, 6, p. 296) heats three parts of the oxide with one part of magnesium powder. The dark product obtained is washed with water, hydrochloric acid and hydrofluoric acid, and finally calcined again with the oxide or with borax, being protected from air during the operation by a layer of charcoal. Pure amorphous boron is a chestnut-coloured powder of specific gravity 2.45; it sublimes in the electric arc, is totally unaffected by air at ordinary temperatures, and burns on strong ignition with production of the oxide B2O3 and the nitride BN. It combines directly with fluorine at ordinary temperature, and with chlorine, bromine and sulphur on heating. It does not react with the alkali metals, but combines with magnesium at a low red heat to form a boride, and with other metals at more or less elevated temperatures. It reduces many metallic oxides, such as lead monoxide and cupric oxide, and decomposes water at a red heat. Heated with sulphuric acid and with nitric acid it is oxidized to boric acid, whilst on fusion with alkaline carbonates and hydroxides it gives a borate of the alkali metal. Like silicon and carbon, very varying values had been given for its specific heat, until H.F. Weber showed that the specific heat increases rapidly with increasing temperature. By strongly heating a mixture of boron trioxide and aluminium, protected from the air by a layer of charcoal, F. Wöhler and H. Sainte-Claire Deville obtained a grey product, from which, on dissolving out the aluminium with sodium hydroxide, they obtained a crystalline product, which they thought to be a modification of boron, but which was shown later to be a mixture of aluminium borides with more or less carbon. Boron dissolves in molten aluminium, and on cooling, transparent, almost colourless crystals are obtained, possessing a lustre, hardness and refractivity near that of the diamond. In 1904 K.A. Kühne (D.R.P. 147,871) described a process in which external heating is not necessary, a mixture of aluminium turnings, sulphur and boric acid being ignited by a hot iron rod, the resulting aluminium sulphide, formed as a by-product, being decomposed by water.
Boron hydride has probably never been isolated in the pure condition; on heating boron trioxide with magnesium filings, a magnesium boride Mg3B2 is obtained, and if this be decomposed with dilute hydrochloric acid a very evil-smelling gas, consisting of a mixture of hydrogen and boron hydride, is obtained. This mixture burns with a green flame forming boron trioxide; whilst boron is deposited on passing the gas mixture through a hot tube, or on depressing a cold surface in the gas flame. By cooling it with liquid air Sir W. Ramsay and H.S. Hatfield obtained from it a gas of composition B3H3. The mixture probably contained also some BH3 (W. Ramsay and H.S. Hatfield, Proc. Chem. Soc., 17, p. 152). Boron fluoride BF3 was first prepared in 1808 by Gay Lussac and L. Thénard and is best obtained by heating a mixture of the trioxide and fluorspar with concentrated sulphuric acid. It is a colourless pungent gas which is exceedingly soluble in water. It fumes strongly in air, and does not attack glass. It rapidly absorbs the elements of water wherever possible, so that a strip of paper plunged into the gas is rapidly charred. It does not burn, neither does it support combustion. A saturated solution of the gas, in water, is a colourless, oily, strongly fuming liquid which after a time decomposes, with separation of metaboric acid, leaving hydrofluoboric acid HF·BF3 in solution. This acid cannot be isolated in the free condition, but many of its salts are known. Boron fluoride also combines with ammonia gas, equal volumes of the two gases giving a white crystalline solid of composition BF3·NH3; with excess of ammonia gas, colourless liquids BF3·2NH3 and BF3·3NH3 are produced, which on heating lose ammonia and are converted into the solid form.
Boron chloride BCl3 results when amorphous boron is heated in chlorine gas, or more readily, on passing a stream of chlorine over a heated mixture of boron trioxide and charcoal, the volatile product being condensed in a tube surrounded by a freezing mixture. It is a colourless fuming liquid boiling at 17-18° C, and is readily decomposed by water with formation of boric and hydrochloric acids. It unites readily with ammonia gas forming a white crystalline solid of composition 2BCl3·3NH3.
Boron bromide BBr3 can be formed by direct union of the two elements, but is best obtained by the method used for the preparation of the chloride. It is a colourless fuming liquid boiling at 90.5° C. With water and with ammonia it undergoes the same reactions as the chloride. Boron and iodine do not combine directly, but gaseous hydriodic acid reacts with amorphous boron to form the iodide, BI3, which can also be obtained by passing boron chloride and hydriodic acid through a red-hot porcelain tube. It is a white crystalline solid of melting point 43 C.; it boils at 210° C., and it can be distilled without decomposition. It is decomposed by water, and with a solution of yellow phosphorus in carbon bisulphide it gives a red powder of composition PBI2, which sublimes in vacuo at 210° C. to red crystals, and when heated in a current of hydrogen loses its iodine and leaves a residue of boron phosphide PB.
Boron nitride BN is formed when boron is burned either in air or in nitrogen, but can be obtained more readily by heating to redness in a platinum crucible a mixture of one part of anhydrous borax with two parts of dry ammonium chloride. After fusion, the melt is well washed with dilute hydrochloric acid and then with water, the nitride remaining as a white powder. It can also be prepared by heating borimide B2(NH)3; or by heating boron trioxide with a metallic cyanide. It is insoluble in water and unaffected by most reagents, but when heated in a current of steam or boiled for some time with a caustic alkali, slowly decomposes with evolution of ammonia and the formation of boron trioxide or an alkaline borate; it dissolves slowly in hydrofluoric acid.
Borimide B2(NH)3 is obtained on long heating of the compound B2S3·6NH2 in a stream of hydrogen, or ammonia gas at 115-120° C. It is a white solid which decomposes on heating into boron nitride and ammonia. Long-continued heating with water also decomposes it slowly.
Boron sulphide B2S3 can be obtained by the direct union of the two elements at a white heat or from the tri-iodide and sulphur at 440° C., but is most conveniently prepared by heating a mixture of the trioxide and carbon in a stream of carbon bisulphide vapour. It forms slightly coloured small crystals possessing a strong disagreeable smell, and is rapidly decomposed by water with the formation of boric acid and sulphuretted hydrogen. A pentasulphide B2S5 is prepared, in an impure condition, by heating a solution of sulphur in carbon bisulphide with boron iodide, and forms a white crystalline powder which decomposes under the influence of water into sulphur, sulphuretted hydrogen and boric acid.
Boron trioxide B2O3 is the only known oxide of boron; and may be prepared by heating amorphous boron in oxygen, or better, by strongly igniting boric acid. After fusion the mass solidifies to a transparent vitreous solid which dissolves readily in water to form boric acid (q.v.); it is exceedingly hygroscopic and even on standing in moist air becomes opaque through absorption of water and formation of boric acid. Its specific gravity is 1.83 (J. Dumas). It is not volatile below a white heat, and consequently, if heated with salts of more volatile acids, it expels the acid forming oxide from such salts; for example, if potassium sulphate be heated with boron trioxide, sulphur trioxide is liberated and potassium borate formed. It also possesses the power of combining with most metallic oxides at high temperatures, forming borates, which in many cases show characteristic colours. Many organic compounds of boron are known; thus, from the action of the trichloride on ethyl alcohol or on methyl alcohol, ethyl borate B(OC2H5)3 and methyl borate B(OCH3)3 are obtained. These are colourless liquids boiling at 119° C. and 72° C. respectively, and both are readily decomposed by water. By the action of zinc methyl on ethyl borate, in the requisite proportions, boron trimethyl is obtained, thus:—2B(OC2H5)2 + 6Zn(CH3)2 = 2B(CH3)3 + 6Zn < { CH3 / OC2H5 } as a colourless spontaneously inflammable gas of unbearable smell. Boron triethyl B(C2H5)3 is obtained in the same manner, by using zinc ethyl. It is a colourless spontaneously inflammable liquid of boiling point 95° C. By the action of one molecule of ethyl borate on two molecules of zinc ethyl, the compound B(C2H5)2·OC2H5 diethylboron ethoxide is obtained as a colourless liquid boiling at 102° C. By the action of water it is converted into B(C2H5)2·OH, and this latter compound on exposure to air takes up oxygen slowly, forming the compound B·C2H5·OC2H5·OH, which, with water, gives B(C2H5)·(OH)2. From the condensation of two molecules of ethyl borate with one molecule of zinc ethyl the compound B2·C2H5·(OC2H5)5 is obtained as a colourless liquid of boiling point. 112° C. Boron triethyl and boron trimethyl both combine with ammonia.
The atomic weight of boron has been determined by estimating the water content of pure borax (J. Berzelius), also by conversion of anhydrous borax into sodium chloride (W. Ramsay and E. Aston) and from analysis of the bromide and chloride (Sainte-Claire Deville); the values obtained ranging from 10.73 to 11.04. Boron can be estimated by precipitation as potassium fluoborate, which is insoluble in a mixture of potassium acetate and alcohol. For this purpose only boric acid or its potassium salt must be present; and to ensure this, the borate can be distilled with sulphuric acid and methyl alcohol and the volatile ester absorbed in potash.
BOROUGH [Burrough, Burrowe, Borrows], STEVEN (1525-1584), English navigator, was born at Northam in Devonshire on the 25th of September 1525. In 1553 he took part in the expedition which was despatched from the Thames under Sir Hugh Willoughby to look for a northern passage to Cathay and India, serving as master of the “Edward Bonaventure,” on which Richard Chancellor sailed as pilot in chief. Separated by a storm from the “Bona Esperanza” and the “Bona Confidentia,” the other two ships of the expedition, Borough proceeded on his voyage alone, and sailing into the White Sea, in the words of his epitaph, “discouered Moscouia by the Northerne sea passage to St Nicholas” (Archangel). In a second expedition, made in the “Serchthrift” in 1556, he discovered Kara Strait, between Novaya Zemlya and Vaygach island. In 1560 he was in charge of another expedition to Russia, and, probably in 1558, he also made a voyage to Spain. At the beginning of 1563 he was appointed chief pilot and one of the four masters of the queen’s ships in the Medway, and in this office he spent the rest of his life. He died on the 12th of July 1584, and was buried at Chatham. His son, Christopher Borough, wrote a description of a trading expedition made in 1579-1581 from the White Sea to the Caspian and back.
His younger brother, William Borough, born in 1536, also at Northam, served as an ordinary seaman in the “Edward Bonaventure” on her voyage to Russia in 1553, and subsequently made many voyages to St Nicholas. Later he transferred his services from the merchant adventurers to the crown. As commander of the “Lion” he accompanied Sir Francis Drake in his Cadiz expedition of 1587, but he got himself into trouble by presuming to disagree with his chief concerning the wisdom of the attack on Lagos. He died in 1599. He was the author of A Discourse of the Variation of the Compas, or Magneticall Needle (1581), and some of the charts he made are preserved at the British Museum and Hatfield.
BOROUGH (A.S. nominative burh, dative byrig, which produces some of the place-names ending in bury, a sheltered or fortified place, the camp of refuge of a tribe, the stronghold of a chieftain; of. Ger. Burg, Fr. bor, borc, bourg), the term for a town, considered as a unit of local government.
History of the English Borough.—After the early English settlement, when Roman fortifications ceased to shelter hostile nations, their colonies and camps were used by the Anglo-Saxon invaders to form tribal strongholds; nevertheless burhs on the sites of Roman colonies show no continuity with Roman municipal organization. The resettlement of the Roman Durovernum as the burh of the men of (East) Kent, under a changed name, the name “burh of the men of Kent,” Cant-wara-byrig (Canterbury), illustrates this point. The burh of the men of West Kent was Hrofesceaster (Durobrivae), Rochester, and many other ceasters mark the existence of a Roman camp occupied by an early English burh. The tribal burh was protected by an earthen wall, and a general obligation to build and maintain burhs at the royal command was enforced by Anglo-Saxon law. Offences in disturbance of the peace of the burh were punished by higher fines than breaches of the peace of the “ham” or ordinary dwelling. The burh was the home of the king as well as the asylum of the tribe, and there is reason to think that the boundary of the borough was annually sanctified by a religious ceremony, and hence the long retention of a processional perambulation. Possibly the “hedge” or “wall” of the borough gave it, besides safety, a sanctity analogous to that enjoyed by the Germanic assembly while gathered within its “hedge,” which the priests solemnly set up when the assembly gathered, and removed when it was over. While the “peace” of the Germanic assembly was essentially temporary, the “peace” of the burh was sacred all the year round. Its “hedge” was never removed. The sanctity of the burh was enjoyed by all the dwellings of the king, at first perhaps only during his term of residence. Neither in the early English language nor in the contemporary Latin was there any fixed usage differentiating the various words descriptive of the several forms of human settlement, and the tribal refuges cannot accordingly be clearly distinguished from villages or the strongholds of individuals by any purely nomenclative test. It is not till after the Danish invasions that it becomes easier to draw a distinction between the burhs that served as military strongholds for national defence and the royal vills which served no such purpose. Some of the royal vills eventually entered the class of boroughs, but by another route, and for the present the private stronghold and the royal dwelling may be neglected. It was the public stronghold and the administrative centre of a dependent district which was the source of the main features peculiar to the borough.
Many causes tended to create peculiar conditions in the boroughs built for national defence. They were placed where artificial defence was most needed, at the junction of roads, in the plains, on the rivers, at the centres naturally marked out for trade, seldom where hills or marshes formed a sufficient natural defence. The burhs drew commerce by every channel; the camp and the palace, the administrative centre, the ecclesiastical centre (for the mother-church of the state was placed in its chief burh), all looked to the market for their maintenance. The burh was provided by law with a mint and royal moneyers and exchangers, with an authorized scale for weights and measures. Mercantile transactions in the burhs or ports, as they were called when their commercial rather than their military importance was accentuated, were placed by law under special legal privileges in order no doubt to secure the king’s hold upon his toll. Over the burh or port was set a reeve, a royal officer answerable to the king for his dues from the burh, his rents for lands and houses, his customs on commerce, his share of the profits from judicial fines. At least from the 10th century the burh had a “moot” or court, the relation of which to the other courts is matter of speculation. A law of Edgar, about 960, required that it should meet three times a year, these being in all likelihood assemblies at which attendance was compulsory on all tenants of the burghal district, when pleas concerning life and liberty and land were held, and men were compelled to find pledges answerable for their good conduct. At these great meetings the borough reeve (gerefa) presided, declaring the law and guiding the judgments given by the suitors of the court. The reeve was supported by a group of assistants, called in Devon the “witan,” in the boroughs of the Danelaw by a group of (generally twelve) “lawmen,” in other towns probably by a group of aldermen, senior burgesses, with military and police authority, whose office was in some cases hereditary. These persons assisted the reeve at the great meetings of the full court, and sat with him as judges at the subordinate meetings which were held to settle the unfinished causes and minor causes. There was no compulsion on those not specially summoned to attend these extra meetings. At these subordinate jurisdictional assemblies, held in public, and acting by the same authority as the annual gathering of all the burh-wara, other business concerning borough administration was decided, at least in later days, and it is to these assemblies that the origin of the town council may in many cases be ascribed. In the larger towns the division into wards, with a separate police system, can be traced at an early time, appearing as a unit of military organization, answerable for the defence of a gate of the town. The police system of London is described in detail in a record of 930-940. Here the free people were grouped in associations of ten, each under the superintendence of a headman. The bishops and reeves who belonged to the “court of London” appear as the directors of the system, and in them we may see the aldermen of the wards of a later time. The use of the word bertha for ward at Canterbury, and the fact that the London wardmoot at a later time was used for the frankpledge system as well as for the organization of the muster, point to a connexion between the military and the police systems in the towns. At the end of the 9th and beginning of the 10th century there is evidence of a systematic “timbering” of new burhs, with the object of providing strongholds for the defence of Wessex against the Danes, and it appears that the surrounding districts were charged with their maintenance. In charters of this period a “haw,” or enclosed area within a burh, was often conveyed by charter as if it were an apanage of the lands in the neighbourhood with which it was conveyed; the Norman settlers who succeeded to lands in the county succeeded therewith to houses in the burhs, for a close association existed between the “thegns” of the shire and the shirestow, an association partly perhaps of duty and also of privilege. The king granted borough “haws” as places of refuge in Kent, and in London he gave them with commercial privileges to his bishops. What has been called the “heterogeneous” tenure of the shirestow, one of the most conspicuous characteristics of that particular type of borough, was further increased by the liberty which some burgesses enjoyed to “commend” themselves to a lord of their own choosing, promising to that lord suit and service and perhaps rent in return for protection. Over these burgesses the lords could claim jurisdictional rights, and these were in some cases increased by royal grants of special rights within certain “sokes.” The great boroughs were honeycombed with sokes, or areas of seignorial jurisdiction, within which the royal reeve’s authority was greatly restricted while that of the lord’s reeve took precedence. Even the haws, being “burhs” or strongholds within a stronghold, enjoyed a local “peace” which protected from official intrusion. Besides heterogeneity of tenure and jurisdiction in the borough, there was also heterogeneity of status; there were burh-thegns and cnihts, mercatores, burgesses of various kinds, the three groups representing perhaps military, commercial and agricultural elements. The burh generally shows signs of having been originally a village settlement, surrounded by open fields, of which the borough boundary before 1835 will suggest the outline. This area was as a rule eventually the area of borough jurisdiction. There is some evidence pointing to the fact that the restriction of the borough authority to this area is not ancient, but due to the Norman settlement. The wide districts over which the boroughs had had authority were placed under the control of the Norman castle which was itself built by means of the old English levy of “burh-work.” The borough court was allowed to continue its work only within its own immediate territory, and, to prevent conflict, the castle was placed outside the borough. Losing their place in the national scheme of defence, the burgess “cnihts” made commerce their principal object under the encouragement of the old privileges of the walled place.
Besides the great co-operative strongholds in which many lords had burgesses, there were small boroughs held by a single lord. In many cases boroughs of this “seignorial” type were created upon the royal estates. Out of the king’s vill, as a rule the jurisdictional centre of a hundred, there was sometimes created a borough. The lines of division before Domesday Book are obscure, but it is probable that in some cases, by a royal grant of jurisdiction, the inhabitants of a populous royal vill, where a hundred court for the district was already held, were authorized to establish a permanent court, for the settlement of their disputes, distinct from the hundred court of the district. Boroughs of this type with a uniform tenure were created not only on the king’s estates but also on those of his tenants-in-chief, and in 1086 they were probably already numerous. A borough was usually, though perhaps not invariably, the companion of a Norman castle. In some cases a French “bourg” was created by the side of an English borough, and the two remained for many generations distinct in their laws and customs: in other cases a French “bourg” was settled by the side of an English village. A large number of the followers of the Norman lords had been almost certainly town-dwellers in their own country, and lost none of their burghal privileges by the migration. Every castle needed for its maintenance a group of skilled artisans, and the lords wished to draw to the castle gates all kinds of commodities for the castle’s provision. The strength of the garrison made the neighbourhood of the castle a place of danger to men unprotected by legal privilege; and in order to invite to its neighbourhood desirable settlers, legal privileges similar to those enjoyed in Norman or English boroughs were guaranteed to those who would build on the plots which were offered to colonists. A low fixed rental, release from the renders required of villeins, release from the jurisdiction of the castle, and the creation of a separate borough jurisdiction, with or without the right to choose their own officers, rules fixing the maximum of fees and fines, or promising assessment of the fines by the burgesses themselves, the cancelling of all the castellan’s rights, especially the right to take a forced levy of food for the castle from all within the area of his jurisdiction, freedom from arbitrary tallage, freedom of movement, the right to alienate property and devise land, these and many other privileges named in the early seignorial charters were what constituted the Norman liber burgus of the seignorial type. Not all these privileges were enjoyed by all boroughs; some very meagre releases of seignorial rights accompanied the lord’s charter which created a borough and made burgesses out of villeins. However liberal the grant, the lord or his reeve still remained in close personal relation with the burgesses of such places, and this character, together with the uniformity of their tenure, continued to hold them apart from the boroughs of the old English type, where all varieties of personal relationship between the lords and their groups of tenants might subsist. The royal charters granting the right to retain old customs prevented the systematic introduction into the old boroughs of some of the incidents of feudalism. Rights of the king took precedence of those of the lord, and devise with the king’s consent was legal. By these means the lords’ position was weakened, and other seignorial claims were later evaded or contested. The rights which the lords failed to keep were divided between the king and the municipality; in London, for instance, the king obtained all escheats, while the borough court secured the right of wardship of burgess orphans.
From Norman times the yearly profit of the royal boroughs was as a rule included in the general “farm” rendered for the county by the sheriff; sometimes it was rendered by a royal farmer apart from the county-farm. The king generally accepted a composition for all the various items due from the borough. The burgesses were united in their efforts to keep that composition unchanged in amount, and to secure the provision of the right amount at the right time for fear that it should be increased by way of punishment. The levy of fines on rent arrear, and the distraints for debt due, which were obtained through the borough court, were a matter of interest to the burgesses of the court, and first taught the burgesses co-operative action. Money was raised, possibly by order of the borough court, to buy a charter from the king giving the right to choose officers who should answer directly to the exchequer and not through the sheriff of the county. The sheriff was in many cases also the constable of the castle, set by the Normans to overawe the English boroughs; his powers were great and dangerous enough to make him an officer specially obnoxious to the boroughs. Henry I. about 1131 gave the London citizens the right to choose their own sheriffs and a justiciar answerable for keeping the pleas of the crown. In 1130 the Lincoln citizens paid to hold their city in chief of the king. By the end of the 12th century many towns paid by the hand of their own reeves, and John’s charters began to make rules as to the freedom of choice to be allowed in the nomination of borough officers and as to the royal power of dismissal. In Richard I.’s reign London imitated the French communes in styling the chief officer a mayor; in 1208 Winchester also had a mayor, and the title soon became no rarity. The chartered right to choose two or more citizens to keep the pleas of the crown gave to many boroughs the control of their coroners, who occupied the position of the London justiciar of earlier days, subject to those considerable modifications which Henry II.’s systematization of the criminal law had introduced. Burgesses who had gone for criminal and civil justice to their own court in disputes between themselves, or between themselves and strangers who were in their town, secured confirmation of this right by charter, not to exclude the justices in eyre, but to exempt themselves from the necessity of pleading in a distant court. The burgess, whether plaintiff or defendant, was a privileged person, and could claim in this respect a “benefit” somewhat similar to the benefit of clergy. In permitting the boroughs to answer through their own officers for his dues, the king handed over to the boroughs the farming of his rents and a large number of rights which would eventually prove to be sources of great profit.
No records exist showing the nature of municipal proceedings at the time of the first purchase of charters. Certain it is that the communities in the 12th century became alive to the possibilities of their new position, that trade received a new impulse, and the vague constitutional powers of the borough court acquired a new need for definition. At first the selection of officers who were to treat with the exchequer and to keep the royal pleas was almost certainly restricted to a few rich persons who could find the necessary securities. Nominated probably in one of the smaller judicial assemblies, the choice was announced at the great Michaelmas assembly of the whole community, and it is not till the next century that we hear of any attempt of the “vulgus” to make a different selection from that of the magnates. The “vulgus” were able to take effective action by means of the several craft organizations, and first found the necessity to do so when taxation was heavy or when questions of trade legislation were mooted (see [Gilds]). The taxation of the boroughs in the reign of Henry II. was assessed by the king’s justices, who fixed the sums due per capita; but if the borough made an offer of a gift, the assessment was made by the burgesses. In the first case the taxation fell on the magnates. In the levy per communam the assessment was made through the wardmoots (in London) and the burden fell on the poorer class. In Henry II.’s reign London was taxed by both methods, the barones majores by head, the barones minores through the wardmoot. The pressure of taxation led in the 13th century to a closer definition of the burghal constitutions; the commons sought to get an audit of accounts, and (in London) not only to hear but to treat of municipal affairs. By the end of the century London had definitely established two councils, that of the mayor and aldermen, representing the old borough court, and a common council, representing the voice of the commonalty, as expressed through the city wards. The choice of councillors in the wards rested probably with the aldermen and the ward jury summoned by them to make the presentments. In some cases juries were summoned not to represent different areas but different classes; thus at Lincoln there were in 1272 juries of the rich, the middling and the poor, chosen presumably by authority from groups divided by means of the tax roll. Elsewhere the several groups of traders and artisans made of their gilds all-powerful agencies for organizing joint action among classes of commons united by a trade interest, and the history of the towns becomes the history of the struggle between the gilds which captured control of the council and the gilds which were excluded therefrom. Many municipal revolutions took place, and a large number of constitutional experiments were tried all over the country from the 13th century onward. Schemes which directed a gradual co-optation, two to choose four, these six to choose more, and so in widening circles from a centre of officialdom, found much favour throughout the middle ages. A plan, like the London plan, of two companies, alderman and council, was widely favoured in the 14th century, perhaps in imitation of the Houses of Lords and Commons. The mayor was sometimes styled the “sovereign” and was given many prerogatives. Great respect was paid to the “ancients,” those, namely, who had already held municipal office. Not till the 15th century were orderly arrangements for counting “voices” arrived at in a few of the most highly developed towns, and these were used only in the small assemblies of the governing body, not in the large electoral assemblies of the people.
In London in the 13th century there was a regular system for the admission of new members to the borough “franchise,” which was at first regarded not as conferring any form of suffrage but as a means to secure a privileged position in the borough court and in the trade of the borough. Admission could be obtained by inheritance, by purchase or gift, in some places by marriage, and in London, at least from 1275, by a municipal register of apprenticeship. The new freeman in return for his privileges was bound to share with the other burgesses all the burdens of taxation, control, &c., which fell upon burgesses. Personal service was not always necessary, and in some towns there were many non-resident burgesses. When in later times admission to this freedom came to be used as means to secure the parliamentary franchise, the freedom of the borough was freely sold and given. The elections in which the commons of the boroughs first took interest were those of the borough magistrates. Where the commons succeeded for a time in asserting their right to take part in borough elections they were rarely able to keep it, not in all cases perhaps because their power was feared, but sometimes because of the riotous proceedings which ensued. These led to government interference, which no party in the borough desired. The possibility of a forfeiture of their enfranchised position made the burgesses on the whole fairly submissive. In the 13th century London repeatedly was “taken into the king’s hand,” subjected to heavy fines and put under the constable of the Tower. In the 15th century disturbances in the boroughs led to the issue of new constitutions, some of which were the outcome of royal charters, others the result of parliamentary legislation. The development of the law of corporations also at this time compelled the boroughs to seek new charters which should satisfy the now exacting demands of the law. The charters of incorporation were issued at a time when the state was looking more and more to the borough authorities as part of its executive and judicial staff, and thus the government was closely interested in the manner of their selection. The new charters were drafted in such a way as to narrow the popular control. The corporations were placed under a council and in a number of cases popular control was excluded altogether, the whole system being made one of co-optation. The absence of popular protest may be ascribed in part to the fact that the old popular control had been more nominal than real, and the new charter gave as a rule two councils of considerable size. These councils bore a heavy burden of taxation in meeting royal loans and benevolences, paying per capita like the magnates of the 12th century, and for a time there is on the whole little evidence of friction between the governors and the governed. Throughout, popular opinion in the closest of corporations had a means of expression, though none of execution, in the presentments of the leet juries and sessions juries. By means of their “verdicts” they could use threats against the governing body, express their resentment against acts of the council which benefited the governing body rather than the town, and call in the aid of the justices of assize where the members of the governing body were suspected of fraud. Elizabeth repeatedly declared her dislike of incorporations “because of the abuses committed by their head rulers,” but in her reign they were fairly easily controlled by the privy council, which directed their choice of members of parliament and secured supporters of the government policy to fill vacancies on the borough bench. The practice in Tudor and Stuart charters of specifying by name the members of the governing body and holders of special offices opened the way to a “purging” of the hostile spirits when new charters were required. There were also rather vaguely worded clauses authorizing the dismissal of officers for misconduct, though as a rule the appointments were for life. When under the Stuarts and under the Commonwealth political and religious feeling ran high in the boroughs, use was made of these clauses both by the majority on the council and by the central government to mould the character of the council by a drastic “purging.” Another means of control first used under the Commonwealth was afforded by the various acts of parliament, which subjected all holders of municipal office to the test of an oath. Under the Commonwealth there was no improvement in the methods used by the central government to control the boroughs. All opponents of the ruling policy were disfranchised and disqualified for office by act of parliament in 1652. Cases arising out of the act were to be tried by commissioners, and the commissions of the major-generals gave them opportunity to control the borough policy. Few Commonwealth charters have been preserved, though several were issued in response to the requests of the corporations.
In some cases the charters used words which appeared to point to an opportunity for popular elections in boroughs where a usage of election by the town council had been established. In 1598 the judges gave an opinion that the town councils could by by-law determine laws for the government of the town regardless of the terms of the charter. In the 18th century the judges decided to the contrary. But even where a usage of popular election was established, there were means of controlling the result of a parliamentary election. The close corporations, though their right to choose a member of parliament might be doubtful, had the sole right to admit new burgesses, and in order to determine parliamentary elections they enfranchised non-residents. Where conflicts arose over the choice of a member, and two selections were made, the matter came before the House of Commons. On various occasions the House decided in favour of the popularly elected candidate against the nominee of the town council, on the general principle that neither the royal charter nor a by-law could curtail this particular franchise. But as each case was separately determined by a body swayed by the dominant political party, no one principle was steadily adhered to in the trial of election petitions. The royal right to create boroughs was freely used by Elizabeth and James I. as a means of securing a submissive parliament. The later Stuarts abandoned this method, and the few new boroughs made by the Georges were not made for political reasons. The object of the later Stuarts was to control the corporations already in existence, not to make new ones. Charles II. from the time of his restoration decided to exercise a strict control of the close corporations in order to secure not only submissive parliaments, but also a pliant executive among the borough justices, and pliant juries, which were impanelled at the selection of the borough officers. In 1660 it was made a rule that all future charters should reserve expressly to the crown the first nomination of the aldermen, recorder and town-clerk, and a proviso should be entered placing with the common council the return of the member of parliament. The Corporation Act of 1661 gave power to royal commissioners to settle the composition of the town councils, and to remove all who refused the sacraments of the Church of England or were suspected of disaffection, even though they offered to take the necessary oaths. Even so the difficulty of securing submissive juries was again so great in 1682 that a general attack on the borough franchises was begun by the crown. A London jury having returned a verdict hostile to the crown, after various attempts to bend the city to his will, Charles II. issued a quo warranto against the mayor and commonalty in order to charge the citizens with illegal encroachments upon their chartered rights. The want of a sound philosophical principle in the laws which were intended to regulate the actions of organized groups of men made it easy for the crown judges to find flaws in the legality of the actions of the boroughs, and also made it possible for the Londoners to argue that no execution could be taken against the mayor, commonalty and citizens, a “body politic invisible”; that the indictment lay only against every particular member of the governing body; and that the corporation as a corporation was incapable of suffering a forfeiture or of making a surrender. The judges gave a judgment for the king, the charters were forfeited and the government placed with a court of aldermen of the king’s own choosing. Until James II. yielded, there was no common council in London. The novelty of the proceedings of Charles II. and James II. lay in using the weapon of the quo warranto systematically to ensure a general revocation of charters. The new charters which were then granted required the king’s consent for the more important appointments, and gave him power to remove officers without reason given. Under James II. in 1687 six commissioners were appointed to “regulate” the corporations and remove from them all persons who were opposed to the abolition of the penal laws against Catholics. The new appointments were made under a writ which ran, “We will and require you to elect” (a named person). When James II. sought to withdraw from his disastrous policy, he issued a proclamation (October 17, 1688) restoring to the boroughs their ancient charters. The governing charter thenceforth in many boroughs, though not in all, was the charter which had established a close corporation, and from this time on to 1835 the boroughs made no progress in constitutional growth. The tendency for the close corporation to treat the members of the governing body as the only corporators, and to repudiate the idea that the corporation was answerable to the inhabitants of the borough if the corporate property was squandered, became more and more manifest as the history of the past slipped into oblivion. The corporators came to regard themselves as members of a club, legally warranted in dividing the lands and goods of the same among themselves whensoever such a division should seem profitable. Even where the constitution of the corporation was not close by charter, the franchise tended to become restricted to an ever-dwindling electorate, as the old methods for the extension of the municipal franchise by other means than inheritance died out of use. At Ipswich in 1833 the “freemen” numbered only one fifty-fifth of the population. If the electorate was increased, it was increased by the wholesale admission to the freedom of voters willing to vote as directed by the corporation at parliamentary elections. The growth of corruption in the boroughs continued unchecked until the era of the Reform Bill. Several boroughs had by that time become insolvent, and some had recourse to their member of parliament to eke out their revenues. In Buckingham the mayor received the whole town revenue without rendering account; sometimes, however, heavy charges fell upon the officers. Before the Reform era dissatisfaction with the corporations was mainly shown by the number of local acts of parliament which placed under the authority of special commissioners a variety of administrative details, which if the corporation had not been suspected would certainly have been assigned to its care. The trust offered another convenient means of escape from difficulty, and in some towns out of the trust was developed a system of municipal administration where there was no recognized corporation. Thus at Peterborough the feoffees who had succeeded to the control of certain ancient charities constituted a form of town council with very restricted powers. In the 17th century Sheffield was brought under the act “to redress the misemployment of lands given to charitable uses,” and the municipal administration of what had been a borough passed into the hands of the trustees of the Burgery or town trust.
The many special authorities created under act of parliament led to much confusion, conflict and overlapping, and increased the need for a general reform. The reform of the boroughs was treated as part of the question of parliamentary reform. In 1832 the exclusive privileges of the corporations in parliamentary elections having been abolished and male occupiers enfranchised, the question of the municipal franchise was next dealt with. In 1833 a commission inquired into the administration of the municipal corporations. The result of the inquiry was the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which gave the municipal franchise to the ratepayers. In all the municipal corporations dealt with by the act, the town council was to consist of a mayor, aldermen and councillors, and the councils were given like powers, being divided into those with and those without a commission of the peace. The minutes were to be open to the inspection of any burgess, and an audit of accounts was required. The exclusive rights of retail trading, which in some towns were restricted to freemen of the borough, were abolished. The system of police, which in some places was still medieval in character, was placed under the control of the council. The various privileged areas within the bounds of a borough were with few exceptions made part of the borough. The powers of the council to alienate corporate property were closely restricted. The operations of the act were extended by later legislation, and the divers amendments and enactments which followed were consolidated in the Municipal Corporations Act 1882.
(M. Bat.)
Irish Boroughs.—In Ireland the earliest traces of burghal life are connected with the maritime settlements on the southern and eastern coast. The invasion of Henry II. colonized these Ostman ports with Anglo-Norman communities, who brought with them, or afterwards obtained, municipal charters of a favourable kind. The English settlement obviously depended on the advantages which the burgesses possessed over the native population outside. Quite different from these were the new close boroughs which during the plantation of Ulster James I. introduced from England. The conquest was by this time completed, and by a rigorous enforcement of the Supremacy and Uniformity Acts the existing liberties of the older boroughs were almost entirely withdrawn. By the new rules published (in terms of the Act of Settlement and Explanation) in 1672 resident traders were permitted to become freemen, but neither this regulation nor the ordinary admissions through birth, marriage and apprenticeship succeeded in giving to Ireland free and vigorous municipalities. The corrupt admission of non-resident freemen, in order to outvote the ancient freeholders in parliamentary elections, and the systematic exclusion of Roman Catholics, soon divorced the “commonalty” from true local interests, and made the corporations, which elected themselves or selected the constituency, dangerously unpopular.
Scottish Boroughs.—In Scotland burghs or burrows are divided into royal burghs, burghs of regality and burghs of barony. The first were erected by royal charter, and every burgess held direct of the crown. It was, therefore, impossible to subfeu the burgh lands,—a distinction still traceable in modern conveyancing. Where perhaps no charter ever existed, the law on proof of immemorial possession of the privileges of a royal burgh has presumed that a charter of erection once existed. The charter gave power to elect provost, bailies and council, a power long exercised under the act of 1469, which directed the new council to be chosen annually by the retiring council, and the magistrates by both councils. The jurisdiction of these magistrates, which was specially reserved in the act of 1747 abolishing heritable jurisdictions, was originally cumulative with, and as large as, that of the sheriff. It is now confined to police offences, summary ejections, orders for interim aliment (for prisoners), payment of burgh dues and delivery of title deeds. Three head courts were held in the year, at which all burgesses were obliged to attend, and at which public business was done and private transactions were ratified. There were three classes of burgesses—burgesses in sua arte, members of one or other of the corporations; burgesses who were gild brothers; and simple burgesses. The Leges Burgorum apparently contemplate that all respectable inhabitants should have the franchise, but a ceremony of admission was required, at which the applicant swore fealty and promised to watch and ward for the community, and to pay his “maill” to the king. These borough maills, or rents, and the great and small customs of burghs, formed a large part of the royal revenue, and, although frequently leased or feued out for a fixed duty, were on the accession of James I. annexed to the crown as an alimentary fund. Burgh customs still stand in the peculiar position of being neither adjudgeable nor arrestable; they are therefore bad security. The early charters contain the usual privileges of holding a market, of exemption from toll or tribute, and that distraint will be allowed only for the burgess’s own debts. There was also the usual strife between the gildry and the craftsmen, who were generally prohibited from trading, and of whom dyers, fleshers and shoemakers were forbidden to enter the gildry. Deacons, wardens and visitors were appointed by the crafts, and the rate of wages was fixed by the magistrates. The crafts in Scotland were frequently incorporated, not by royal charter, but, as in the case of the cordiners of Edinburgh, by seals of cause from the corporation. The trade history of the free burghs is very important. Thus in 1466 the privilege of importing and exporting merchandise was confined to freemen, burgesses and their factors. Ships were directed to trade to the king’s free burghs, there to pay the customs, and to receive their cocquets or custom-house seals; and in 1503 persons dwelling outside burghs were forbidden to “use any merchandise,” or to sell wine or staple goods. An act of 1633, erroneously called a Ratification of the privileges of burghs, extended these privileges of buying and selling to retail as well as wholesale trade, but restricted their enjoyment to royal burghs. Accordingly, in 1672, a general declaratory act was passed confirming to the freemen in royal burghs the wholesale trade in wine, wax, silk, dyeing materials, &c., permitting generally to all persons the export of native raw material, specially permitting the burgesses of barony and regality to export their own manufactures, and such goods as they may buy in “markets,” and to import against these consignments certain materials for tillage, building, or for use in their own manufactures, with a general permission to retail all commodities. This extraordinary system was again changed in 1690 by an act which declared that freemen of royal burghs should have the sole right of importing everything by sea or land except bestial, and also of exporting by sea everything which was not native raw material, which might be freely exported by land. The gentry were always allowed to import for their personal consumption and to export an equal quantity of commodities. The act mentions that the royal burghs as an estate of the kingdom contributed one-sixth part of all public impositions, and were obliged to build and maintain prison-houses. Some of these trade privileges were not abolished till 1846.
In the north of Scotland there was an association of free burghs called the Hanse or Ansus; and the lord chamberlain, by his Iter, or circuit of visitation, maintained a common standard of right and duties in all burghs, and examined the state of the “common good,” the accounts of which in 1535 were appointed to be laid before the auditors in exchequer. The chamberlain latterly presided in the Curia Quatuor Burgorum (Edinburgh, Berwick, Stirling, Roxburgh), which not only made regulations in trade, but decided questions of private right (e.g. succession), according to the varying customs of burghs. This court frequently met at Haddington; in 1454 it was fixed at Edinburgh. The more modern convention of royal burghs (which appeared as a judicial persona in the Court of Session so late as 1839) probably dates from the act of James III. (1487, c. 111), which appointed the commissioners of burghs, both north and south, to meet yearly at Inverkeithing “to treat of the welfare of merchandise, the good rule and statutes for the common profit of burghs, and to provide for remeid upon the skaith and injuries sustained within the burghs.” Among the more important functions of this body (on whose decrees at one time summary diligence proceeded) were the prohibition of undue exactions within burghs, the revisal of the “set” or mode of municipal election, and the pro rata division among the burghs of the parliamentary subsidy required from the third estate. The reform of the municipalities, and the complete representation of the mercantile interests in the united parliament, deprived this body of any importance.
Burghs of regality and of barony held in vassalage of some great lordship, lay or ecclesiastical, but were always in theory or in practice created by crown grant. They received jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters, generally cumulative with that of the baron or the lord of regality, who in some cases obtained the right of nominating magistrates. Powers to hold markets and to levy customs were likewise given to these burghs.
The Scottish burghs emerged slowly into political importance. In 1295 the procurators of six burghs ratified the agreement for the marriage of Edward Baliol; and in 1326 they were recognized as a third estate, granting a tenth penny on all rents for the king’s life, if he should apply it for the public good. The commissioners of burghs received from the exchequer their costages or expenses of attending parliament. The burghs were represented in the judicial committee, and in the committee on articles appointed during the reign of James V. After the Reformation, in spite of the annexation of kirk lands to the crown, and the increased burdens laid on temporal lands, the proportion of general taxation borne by the burghs (viz. 1s. 6d.) was expressly preserved by act 1587, c. 112. The number of commissioners, of course, fluctuated from time to time. Cromwell assigned ten members to the Scottish burghs in the second parliament of Three Nations (1654). The general practice until 1619 had been, apparently, that each burgh should send two members. In that year (by an arrangement with the convention of burghs) certain groups of burghs returned one member, Edinburgh returning two. Under art. 22 of the treaty of Union the number of members for royal burghs was fixed at fifteen, who were elected in Edinburgh by the magistrates and town council, and in the groups of burghs by delegates chosen ad hoc.
(W. C. S.)
See C. Gross, Bibliography of British Municipal History (1897), which contains all needful references up to that date; F.W. Maitland, Township and Borough (1898); A. Ballard, Domesday Boroughs (1904); M. Bateson, Borough Customs (1904-1906); S. and B. Webb, English Local Government (3 vols., 1906-1908). For the character of the modern Scottish burgh see Mabel Atkinson, Local Government in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1904), where other works are mentioned.
BOROUGHBRIDGE, a market town in the Ripon parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England; 22 m. N.W. of York on a branch of the North Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 830. It lies in the central plain of Yorkshire, on the river Ure near its confluence with the Swale. It is in the parish of Aldborough, the village of that name (q.v.), celebrated for its Roman remains, lying a mile south-east.
About half a mile to the west of Boroughbridge there are three upright stones called the Devil’s Arrows, which are of uncertain origin but probably of the Celtic period. The manor of Boroughbridge, then called Burc, was held by Edward the Confessor and passed to William the Conqueror, but suffered so much from the ravages of his soldiers that by 1086 it had decreased in value from £10 to 55 s. When the site of the Great North Road was altered, towards the end of the 11th century, a bridge was built across the Ure, about half a mile above the Roman bridge at Aldborough, and called Burgh bridge or Ponteburgem. This caused a village to spring up, and it afterwards increased so much as to become a market town. In 1229 Boroughbridge, as part of the manor of Aldborough, was granted to Hubert de Burgh, but was forfeited a few years later by his son who fought against the king at Evesham. It then remained a royal manor until Charles I. granted it to several citizens of London, from whom it passed through numerous hands to the present owner. The history of Boroughbridge during the early 14th century centres round the war with Scotland, and culminates with the battle fought there in 1321. When in 1317 the Scots invaded England, they penetrated as far south as Boroughbridge and burnt the town. Boroughbridge was evidently a borough by prescription, and as such was called upon to return two members to parliament in 1299. It was not represented again until 1553, when the privilege was revived. The town was finally disfranchised in 1832. In 1504 the bailiff and inhabitants of Boroughbridge received a grant of two fairs, and Charles II. in 1670 created three new fairs in the borough, on the 12th of June, the 5th of August and the 12th of October, and leased them to Francis Calvert and Thomas Wilkinson for ninety-nine years.
BOROUGH ENGLISH, a custom prevailing in certain ancient English boroughs, and in districts attached to them (where the lands are held in socage), and also in certain copyhold manors (chiefly in Surrey, Middlesex, Suffolk and Sussex), by which in general lands descend to the youngest son, to the exclusion of all the other children, of the person dying seised and intestate. Descent to the youngest brother to the exclusion of all other collaterals, where there is no issue, is sometimes included in the general definition, but this is really a special custom to be proved from the court-rolls of the manor and from local reputation—a custom which is sometimes extended to the youngest sister, uncle, aunt. Generally, however, Borough English, apart from specialties, may be said to differ from gavelkind in not including collaterals. It is often found in connexion with the distinct custom that the widow shall take as dower the whole and not merely one-third of her husband’s lands.
The origin of the custom of Borough English has been much disputed. Though frequently claimed to be of Saxon origin, there is no direct evidence of such being the case. The first mention of the custom in England occurs in Glanvil, without, however, any explanation as to its origin. Littleton’s explanation, which is the more usually accepted, is that custom casts the inheritance upon the youngest, because after the death of his parents he is least able to support himself, and more likely to be left destitute of any other support. Blackstone derived Borough English from the usages of pastoral life, the elder sons migrating and the youngest remaining to look after the household. C.I. Elton claims it to be a survival of pre-Aryan times. It was referred to by the Normans as “the custom of the English towns.” In the Yearbook of 22 Edward IV. fol. 32b it is described as the custom of Nottingham, which is made clear by the report of a trial in the first year of Edward III. where it was found that in Nottingham there were two districts, the one the Burgh-Fraunçoyes, the other the Burgh-Engloyes, where descent was to the youngest son, from which circumstance the custom has derived its name. On the European continent the custom of junior-rights is not unknown, more particularly in Germany, and it has by some been ascribed to the jus primae noctis (q.v.). It is also said to exist amongst the Mongols.
See also [Gavelkind]; [Inheritance]; [Primogeniture]; [Tenure]; Blackstone’s Commentaries; Coke’s Institutes; Comyn’s Digest of the Law; Elton’s Origin of English History; Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law.
BORROMEAN ISLANDS, a group of four islands on the W. side of Lago Maggiore off Baveno and Stresa. The southernmost, the Isola Bella, is famous for its château and terraced gardens, constructed by Count Vitaliano Borromeo (d. 1690). To the N.W. is the Isola dei Pescatori, containing a fishing village; and to the N.E. of this the Isola Madre, the largest of the group, with a château and garden; and to the N. again, off Pallanza, is the little Isola S. Giovanni.
BORROMEO, CARLO (1538-1584), saint and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, son of Ghiberto Borromeo, count of Arona, and Margarita de’ Medici, was born at the castle of Arona on Lago Maggiore on the 2nd of October 1538. When he was about twelve years old, Giulio Cesare Borromeo resigned to him an abbacy, the revenue of which he applied wholly in charity to the poor. He studied the civil and canon law at Pavia. In 1554 his father died, and, although he had an elder brother, Count Federigo, he was requested by the family to take the management of their domestic affairs. After a time, however, he resumed his studies, and in 1559 he took his doctor’s degree. In 1560 his uncle, Cardinal Angelo de’ Medici, was raised to the pontificate as Pius IV. Borromeo was made prothonotary, entrusted with both the public and the privy seal of the ecclesiastical state, and created cardinal with the administration of Romagna and the March of Ancona, and the supervision of the Franciscans, the Carmelites and the knights of Malta. He was thus at the age of twenty-two practically the leading statesman of the papal court. Soon after he was raised to the archbishopric of Milan. In compliance with the pope’s desire, he lived in great splendour; yet his own temperance and humility were never brought into question. He established an academy of learned persons, and published their memoirs as the Noctes Vaticanae. About the same time he also founded and endowed a college at Pavia, which he dedicated to Justina, virgin and martyr. On the death of his elder brother Federigo, he was advised to quit the church and marry, that his family might not become extinct. He declined the proposal, however, and became henceforward still more fervent in exercises of piety, and more zealous for the welfare of the church. Owing to his influence over Pius IV., he was able to facilitate the final deliberations of the council of Trent, and he took a large share in the drawing up of the Tridentine catechism (Catechismus Romanus).
On the death of Pius IV. (1566), the skill and diligence of Borromeo contributed materially to suppressing the cabals of the conclave. Subsequently he devoted himself wholly to the reformation of his diocese, which had fallen into a most unsatisfactory condition owing to the prolonged absences of its previous archbishops. He made a series of pastoral visits, and restored decency and dignity to divine service. In conformity with the decrees of the council of Trent, he cleared the cathedral of its gorgeous tombs, rich ornaments, banners, arms, sparing not even the monuments of his own relatives. He divided the nave of the church into two compartments for the separation of the sexes. He extended his reforms to the collegiate churches (even to the fraternities of penitents and particularly that of St John the Baptist), and to the monasteries. The great abuses which had overrun the church at this time arose principally from the ignorance of the clergy. Borromeo, therefore, established seminaries, colleges and communities for the education of candidates for holy orders. The most remarkable, perhaps, of his foundations was the fraternity of the Oblates, a society whose members were pledged to give aid to the church when and where it might be required. He further paved the way for the “Golden” or “Borromean” league formed in 1586 by the Swiss Catholic cantons of Switzerland to expel heretics if necessary by armed force.
In 1576, when Milan was visited by the plague, he went about giving directions for accommodating the sick and burying the dead, avoiding no danger and sparing no expense. He visited all the neighbouring parishes where the contagion raged, distributing money, providing accommodation for the sick, and punishing those, especially the clergy, who were remiss in discharging their duties. He met with much opposition to his reforms. The governor of the province, and many of the senators, apprehensive that the cardinal’s ordinances and proceedings would encroach upon the civil jurisdiction, addressed remonstrances and complaints to the courts of Rome and Madrid. But Borromeo had more formidable difficulties to struggle with, in the inveterate opposition of several religious orders, particularly that of the Humiliati (Brothers of Humility). Some members of that society formed a conspiracy against his life, and a shot was fired at him in the archiepiscopal chapel under circumstances which led to the belief that his escape was miraculous. The number of his enemies was increased by his successful attack on his Jesuit confessor Ribera, who with other members of the college of Milan was found to be guilty of unnatural offences. His manifold labours and austerities appear to have shortened his life. He was seized with an intermittent fever, and died at Milan on the 4th of November 1584. He was canonized in 1610, and his feast is celebrated on the 4th of November.
Besides the Nodes Vaticanae, to which he appears to have contributed, the only literary relics of this intrepid and zealous reformer are some homilies, discourses and sermons, with a collection of letters. His sermons, which have little literary merit, were published by J.A. Sax (5 vols., Milan, 1747-1748), and have been translated into many languages. The record of his episcopate is to be found in the two volumes of the Acta Ecclesiae Mediolanensis (Milan, 1599). Contrary to his last wishes a memorial was erected to him in Milan cathedral, as well as a statue 70 ft. high on the hill above Arona, by his admirers who regarded him as the leader of a Counter-Reformation.
His nephew, Federigo Borromeo (1564-1631), was archbishop of Milan from 1595, and in 1609 founded the Ambrosian library in that city.
See G.P. Giussano, Vita di S. Carlo Borromeo (1610, Eng. ed. by H.E. Manning, London, 1884); A. Sala, Documenti circa la vita e la gesta di Borromeo (4 vols., Milan, 1857-1859); Chanoine Silvain, Histoire de St Charles Borromée (Milan, 1884); and A. Cantono, Un grande riformatore del secolo XVI (Florence, 1904); article “Borromäus” in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie (Leipzig, 1897).
BORROMINI, FRANCESCO (1599-1667), Italian architect, was born at Bissone in 1599. He was the chief representative of the style known in architecture as “baroque,” which marked a fearless and often reckless departure from the traditional laws of the Renaissance, and often obtained originality only at the cost of beauty or wisdom. One of the main opponents of this style was Barocchio (q.v.). Borromini was much employed in the middle of the 17th century at Rome. His principal works are the church of St Agnese in Piazza Navona, the church of La Sapienza in Rome, the church of San Carlino alle Fontane, the church of the Collegio di Propaganda, and the restoration of San Giovanni in Laterano. He died by his own hand at Rome in 1667. Engravings of his chief compositions are to be found in the posthumous work, Francisci Borromini opus Architectonicum (1727).
BORROW, GEORGE HENRY (1803-1881), English traveller, linguist and author, was born at East Dereham, Norfolk, on the 5th of July 1803, of a middle-class Cornish family. His father was a recruiting officer, and his mother a Norfolk lady of French extraction. From 1816 to 1818 Borrow attended, with no very great profit, the grammar school at Norwich. After leaving school he was articled to a firm of Norwich solicitors, where he neglected the law, but gave a great deal of desultory attention to languages. He was encouraged in these studies by William Taylor, the friend of Southey. On the death of his father, in 1824 he went to London to seek his fortune as a literary adventurer. In 1826 he published a volume of Romantic Ballads translated from the Danish. Engaged by Sir Richard Phillips, the publisher, as a hack-writer at starvation wages, his experiences in London were bitter indeed. His struggles at last became so dire that if he would escape Chatterton’s doom, he must leave London and either return to Norwich and share his mother’s narrow income, or turn to account in some way the magnificent physical strength with which nature had endowed him. Determining on the latter of these courses, he left London on tramp. As he stood considerably more than 6 ft. in height, was a fairly trained athlete, and had a countenance of extraordinary impressiveness, if not of commanding beauty—Greek in type with a dash of the Hebrew—we may assume that there had never before appeared on the English high-roads so majestic-looking a tramp as he who, on an afternoon in May, left his squalid lodging with bundle and stick to begin life on the roads. Shaping his course to the south-west, he soon found himself on Salisbury Plain. And then his extraordinary adventures began. After a while he became a travelling hedge-smith, and it was while pursuing this avocation that he made the acquaintance of the splendid road-girl, born at Long Melford workhouse, whom he has immortalized under the name of Isopel Berners. He was now brought much into contact with the gipsies, and this fact gave him the most important subject-matter for his writings. For picturesque as is Borrow’s style, it is this subject-matter of his, the Romany world of Great Britain, which—if his pictures of that world are true—will keep his writings alive. Now that the better class of gipsies are migrating so rapidly to America that scarcely any are left in England, Borrow’s pictures of them are challenged as being too idealistic. It is unfortunate that no one who knew Borrow, and the gryengroes or horse-dealers with whom he associated, and whom he depicted, has ever written about him and them. Full of “documents” as is Dr Knapp’s painstaking biography, it cannot be said to give a vital picture of Borrow and his surroundings during this most interesting period of his life. It is this same peculiar class of gipsies (the gryengroes) with whom the present writer was brought into contact, and he can only refer, in justification of Borrow’s descriptions of them, to certain publications of his own, where the whole question is discussed at length, and where he has set out to prove that Borrow’s pictures of the section of the English gipsies he knew are not idealized. But there is one great blemish in all Borrow’s dramatic scenes of gipsy life, wheresoever they may be laid. This was pointed out by the gentleman who “read” Zincali for Mr Murray, the publisher:—
“The dialogues are amongst the best parts of the book; but in several of them the tone of the speakers, of those especially who are in humble life, is too correct and elevated, and therefore out of character. This takes away from their effect. I think it would be very advisable that Mr Borrow should go over them with reference to this point, simplifying a few of the terms of expression and introducing a few contractions—don’ts, can’ts, &c. This would improve them greatly.”
It is the same with his pictures of the English gipsies. The reader has only to compare the dialogues between gipsies given in that photographic study of Romany life, In Gipsy Tents, by F.H. Groome, with the dialogues in Lavengro and The Romany Rye, to see how the illusion in Borrow’s narrative is disturbed by the uncolloquial locutions of the speakers. It is true, no doubt, that all Romanies, especially perhaps the English and Hungarian, have a passion for the use of high-sounding words, and the present writer has shown this in his remarks upon the Czigany Czindol, who is said to have taught the Czigany language to the archduke Joseph, often called the “Gipsy Archduke.” But after all allowance is made for this racial peculiarity, Borrow’s presentation of it considerably weakens our belief in Mr and Mrs Petulengro, Ursula, and the rest, to find them using complex sentences and bookish words which, even among English people, are rarely heard in conversation. As to the deep impression that Borrow made upon his gipsy friends, that is partly explained by the singular nobility of his appearance, for the gipsies of all countries are extremely sensitive upon matters of this kind. The silvery whiteness of the thick crop of hair which Borrow retained to the last seemed to add in a remarkable way to the nobility of his hairless face, but also it gave to the face a kind of strange look “not a bit like a Gorgio’s,” to use the words of one of his gipsy friends. Moreover, the shy, defiant, stand-off way which Borrow assumed in the company of his social equals left him entirely when he was with the gipsies. The result of this was that these wanderers knew him better than did his own countrymen.
Seven years after the events recorded in Lavengro and The Romany Rye Borrow obtained the post of agent to the Bible Society, in which capacity he visited St Petersburg (1833-1835) (where he published Targum, a collection of translations), and Spain, Portugal and Morocco (1835-1839). From 1837 to 1839 he acted as correspondent to the Morning Herald. The result of these travels and adventures was the publication, in 1841, of Zincali, or The Gypsies in Spain, the original MS. of which, in the hands of the present writer, shows how careful was Borrow’s method of work. In 1843 appeared The Bible in Spain, when suddenly Borrow became famous. Every page of the book glows with freshness, picturesqueness and vivacity. In 1840 he married Mary Clarke, the widow of a naval officer, and permanently settled at Oulton Broad, near Lowestoft, with her and her daughter. Here he began to write again. Very likely Borrow would never have told the world about his vagabond life in England as a hedge-smith had not The Bible in Spain made him famous as a wanderer. Lavengro appeared in 1851 with a success which, compared with that of The Bible in Spain, was only partial. He was much chagrined at this, and although Lavengro broke off in the midst of a scene in the Dingle, and only broke off there because the three volumes would hold no more, it was not until 1857 that he published the sequel, The Romany Rye. In 1844 he travelled in south-eastern Europe, and in 1854 he made a tour with his step-daughter in Wales. This tour he described in Wild Wales, published in 1862. In 1874 he brought out a volume of ill-digested material upon the Romany tongue, Romano Lavo-lil, or Word-book of the Gypsy Language, a book which has been exhaustively analysed and criticized by Mr John Sampson. In the summer of 1874 he left London, bade adieu to Mr Murray and a few friends, and returned to Oulton. On the 26th of July 1881 he was found dead in his house at Oulton, in his seventy-ninth year.
Borrow was indisputably a linguist of wide knowledge, though he was not a scholar in the strict sense. The variety of his attainments is shown by his translation of the Church of England Homilies into Manchu, of the Gospel of St Luke into the Git dialect of the Gitanos, of The Sleeping Bard from the Cambrian-British, and of Bluebeard into Turkish. But it is not Borrow’s linguistic accomplishments that have kept his name fresh, and will continue to keep it fresh for many a generation to come. It is his character, his unique character as expressed, or partially expressed, in his books. Among all the “remarkable individuals” (to use his favourite expression) who during the middle of the 19th century figured in the world of letters, Borrow was surely the most eccentric, the most whimsical, and in many ways the most extraordinary. There was scarcely a point in which he resembled any other writer of his time. With regard to Lavengro and The Romany Rye, there has been very much discussion as to how much Dichtung is mingled with the Wahrheit in those fascinating books. Had it not been for the amazingly clumsy pieces of fiction which he threw into the narrative, few readers would have doubted the autobiographical nature of the two books. Such incidents as are here alluded to shed an air of unreality over the whole. It has been said by Dr Knapp that Borrow never created a character, and that to one who thoroughly knows the times and Borrow’s writings the originals are easily recognizable. This is true, no doubt, as regards people whom he knew at Norwich, and indeed generally as regards those he knew before the period of his gipsy wanderings. It must not be supposed, however, that such a character as the man who “touched” to avert the evil chance is in any sense a portrait of an individual with whom he had been brought into contact. The character has so many of Borrow’s own eccentricities that it might rather be called a portrait of himself. There was nothing that Borrow strove against with more energy than the curious impulse, which he seems to have shared with Dr Johnson, to touch the objects along his path in order to save himself from the evil chance. He never conquered the superstition. In walking through Richmond Park with the present writer he would step out of his way constantly to touch a tree, and he was offended if the friend he was with seemed to observe it. Many of the peculiarities of the man who taught himself Chinese in order to distract his mind from painful thoughts were also Borrow’s own.
(T. W.-D.)
BORSIPPA (Barsip in the Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions; Borsif in the Talmud; mod. Birs or Birs-Nimrud), the Greek name of an ancient city about 15 m. S.W. of Babylon and 10 m. from Hillah, on the Nahr Hindieh, or Hindieh canal, formerly known as “the Euphrates of Borsippa,” and even during the Arabic period called “the river of Birs.” Borsippa was the sister city of Babylon, and is often called in the inscriptions Babylon II., also the “city without equal.” Its patron god was Nebo or Nabu. Like Babylon Borsippa is not mentioned in the oldest inscriptions, but comes into importance first after Khammurabi had made Babylon the capital of the whole land, somewhere before 2000 B.C. He built or rebuilt the temple E-Zida at this place, dedicating it, however, to Marduk (Bel-Merodach). But although Khammurabi himself does not seem to have honoured Nebo (q.v.), subsequent kings recognized him as the deity of E-Zida and made him the son of Marduk (q.v.). Each new year his image was taken to visit his father, in Babylon, who in his turn gave him escort homeward, and his temple was second in wealth and importance only to E-Saggila, the temple of Marduk in Babylon. As with Babylon, so with Borsippa, the time of Nebuchadrezzar was the period of its greatest prosperity. In general Borsippa shared the fate of Babylon, falling into decay after the time of Alexander, and finally in the middle ages into ruins. The site of the ancient city is represented by two large ruin mounds. Of these the north-westerly, the lower of the two, but the larger in superficial area, is called Ibrahim Khalil, from a ziara, or shrine, of Abraham, the friend of God, which stands on its highest point. According to Arabic lore, based on Jewish legends, at this spot Nimrod sought to throw Abraham into a fiery furnace, from which he was saved by the grace of God. Excavations were first conducted here by the French Expédition Scientifique en Mésopotamie in 1852, with small result. In 1879 and 1880 Hormuzd Rassam conducted more extensive, although unsystematic, excavations in this mound, finding a considerable quantity of inscribed tablets and the like, now in the British Museum; but by far the greater part of this ruin still remains unexplored. The south-westerly mound, the Birs proper, is probably the most conspicuous and striking ruin in all Irak. On the top of a hill over 100 ft. high rises a pointed mass of vitrified brick split down the centre, over 40 ft. high, about which lie huge masses of vitrified brick, some as much as 15 ft. in diameter, and also single enamelled bricks, generally bearing an inscription of Nebuchadrezzar, twisted, curled and broken, apparently by great heat. Jewish and Arabic tradition makes this the Tower of Babel, which was supposed to have been destroyed by lightning. Excavations conducted here by Sir Henry Rawlinson in 1854 showed it to be the stage tower or ziggurat, called the “house of the seven divisions of heaven and earth,” of E-Zida, the temple of Nebo. On a large platform rose seven solid terraces, each smaller than the one below it, the lowest being 272 ft. square and 26 ft. high. Each of these terraces was faced with bricks of a different colour. The approach to this ziggurat was toward the north-east, and on this side lay also the principal rooms of the temple of which this was the tower. These rooms were partly excavated by Hormuzd Rassam in 1879-1880. In its final form this temple and tower were the work of Nebuchadrezzar, but from the clay cylinders found by Sir Henry Rawlinson in two of the corners of the tower it appears that he restored an incomplete ziggurat of a former king, “which was long since fallen into decay.” Some of the best authorities believe that it was this ambitious but incomplete and ruinous ziggurat, existing before the time of Nebuchadrezzar, which gave occasion to or afforded local attachment for the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel.
Authorities.—H.C. Rawlinson, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1860); J. Oppert, Expédition scientifique en Mésopotamie (Paris, 1863); F. Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies? (Leipzig, 1881); J.P. Peters, Nippur (New York and London, 1896); H. Rassam, Asshur and the Land of Nimrod (London and New York, 1897); M. Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Boston, 1898); see also [Babylon], [Babel].
(J. P. Pe.)
BORT, or Boart, an inferior kind of diamond, unfit for cutting but useful as an abrasive agent. The typical bort occurs in small spherical masses, of greyish colour, rough or drusy on the surface, and showing on fracture a radiate crystalline structure. These masses, known in Brazil as bolas, are often called “shot bort” or “round bort.” Much of the bort consists of irregular aggregates of imperfect crystals. In trade, the term bort is extended to all small and impure diamonds, and crystalline fragments of diamond, useless as gem-stones. A large proportion of the output of some of the South African mines consists of such material. This bort is crushed in steel mortars to form diamond powder, which is largely used in lapidaries’ work.
BORY DE SAINT-VINCENT, JEAN BAPTISTE GEORGE MARIE (1780-1846), French naturalist, was born at Agen in 1780. He was sent as naturalist with Captain Nicholas Baudin’s expedition to Australia in 1798, but left the vessel at Mauritius, and spent two years in exploring Réunion and other islands. Joining the army on his return, he was present at the battles of Ulm and Austerlitz, and in 1808 went to Spain with Marshal Soult. His attachment to the Napoleonic dynasty and dislike to the Bourbons were shown in various ways during 1815, and his name was consequently placed on the list of the proscribed; but after wandering in disguise from place to place he was allowed quietly to return to Paris in 1820. In 1829 he was placed at the head of a scientific expedition to the Morea, and in 1839 he had charge of the exploration of Algeria. He died on the 23rd of December 1846. He was editor of the Dictionnaire classique d’histoire naturelle, and among his separate productions were:—Essais sur les Îles Fortunées (1802); Voyage dans les Îles d’Afrique (1803); Voyage souterrain, ou description du plateau de Saint-Pierre de Maestricht et de ses vastes cryptes (1821); L’Homme, essai zoologique sur le genre humain (1827); Résumé de la géographie de la Péninsule (1838).
BORZHOM, a watering-place of Russian Transcaucasia, in the government of Tiflis, and 93 m. by rail W. of the city of Tiflis. Pop. (1897) 5800. It is situated at an altitude of 2750 ft. in the Borzhom gorge, a narrow rift in the Little Caucasus mountains, and on the Kura. Its warm climate, its two hot springs (71½°-82° Fahr.) and its beautiful parks make it a favourite summer resort, and give it its popular name of “the pearl of Caucasus.” The bottled mineral waters are very extensively exported.
BOS, LAMBERT (1670-1717), Dutch scholar and critic, was born at Workum in Friesland, where his father was headmaster of the school. He went to the university of Franeker (suppressed by Napoleon in 1811), and was appointed professor of Greek there in 1704; after an uneventful life he died at Franeker in 1717. His most famous work, Ellipses Graecae (1702), was translated into English by John Seager (1830); and his Antiquitates Graecae (1714) passed through several editions. He also published Vetus Testamentum, Ex Versione lxx. Interpretum (1709); notes on Thomas Magister (1698); Exercitationes Philologicae (1700); Animadversiones ad Scriptores quosdam Graecos (1715); and two small treatises on Accents and Greek Syntax.
BOSA, a seaport and episcopal see on the W. coast of Sardinia, in the province of Cagliari, 30 m. W. of Macomer by rail. Pop. (1901) 6846. The height above the town is crowned by a castle of the Malaspina family. The cathedral, founded in the 12th century, restored in the 15th, and rebuilt in 1806, is fine. There are some tanneries, and the fishing industry is important, but the coral production of Sicily has entirely destroyed that of Bosa since 1887. The district produces oil and wine. The present town of Bosa was founded in 1112 by the Malaspina, 1½ m. from the site of the ancient town (Bosa or Calmedia), where a well-preserved church still exists. The old town is of Roman origin, but is only mentioned by Pliny and Ptolemy, and as a station on the coast-road in the Itineraries (Corp. Inscr. Lat. x. 7939 seq.). One of the inscriptions preserved in the old cathedral records the erection of four silver statues, of Antoninus Pius, his wife Faustina and their two sons.
BOSBOOM-TOUSSAINT, ANNA LOUISA GEERTRUIDA (1812-1886), Dutch novelist, was born at Alkmaar in north Holland on the 16th of September 1812. Her father, named Toussaint, a local chemist of Huguenot descent, gave her a fair education, and at an early period of her career she developed a taste for historical research, fostered, perhaps, by a forced indoor life, the result of weak health. In 1851 she married the Dutch painter, Johannes Bosboom (1817-1891), and thereafter was known as Mrs Bosboom-Toussaint. Her first romance, Almagro, appeared in 1837, followed by the Graaf van Devonshire (The Earl of Devonshire) in 1838; the Engelschen te Rome (The English at Rome) in 1840, and Het Huis Lauernesse (The House of Lauernesse) in 1841, an episode of the Reformation, translated into many European languages. These stories, mainly founded upon some of the most interesting epochs of Dutch history, betrayed a remarkable grasp of facts and situations, combined with an undoubted mastery over her mother tongue, though her style is sometimes involved, and not always faultless. Ten years (1840-1850) were mainly devoted to further studies, the result of which was revealed in 1851-1854, when her Leycester in Nederland (3 vols.), Vrouwen van het Leycestersche Tydperk (Women of Leicester’s Epoch, 3 vols.), and Gideon Florensz (3 vols.) appeared, a series dealing with Robert Dudley’s adventures in the Low Countries. After 1870 Mrs Bosboom-Toussaint abandoned historical romance for the modern society novel, but her Delftsche Wonderdokter (The Necromancer of Delft, 1871, 3 vols.) and Majoor Frans (1875, 3 vols.) did not command the success of her earlier works. Major Frank has been translated into English (1885). She died at the Hague on the 13th of April 1886. Her novels have been published there in a collected edition (1885-1888, 25 vols.).
BOSC, LOUIS AUGUSTIN GUILLAUME (1759-1828), French naturalist, was born at Paris on the 29th of January 1759. He was educated at the college of Dijon, where he showed a taste for botany, and he followed up his studies in Paris at the Jardin des Plantes, where he made the acquaintance of Mme M.J.P. Roland. At the age of eighteen he obtained a government appointment, and he rose to be one of the chief officials in the postal department. Under the ministry of J.M. Roland in 1792 he also held the post of superintendent of prisons, but the violent outbreaks of 1793 drove him from office, and compelled him to take refuge in flight. For some months he lay concealed at Sainte-Radégonde, in the forest of Montmorency, barely subsisting on roots and vegetables. He was enabled to return to Paris on the fall of Robespierre, and under the title Appel à l’impartiale postérité par la citoyenne Roland published a manuscript Mme Roland had entrusted to him before her execution. Soon afterwards he set out for America, resolving to explore the natural riches of that country. The immense materials he gathered were never published in a complete form, but much went to enrich the works of B.G.E. de Lacépède, P.A. Latreille and others. After his return, on the establishment of the Directory, he was reinstated in his old office. Of this he was again deprived by the coup d’état of 1799, and for a time he was in great destitution; but by his copious contributions to scientific literature he contrived to support himself and to lay the foundations of a solid reputation. He was engaged on the new Dictionnaire d’histoire naturelle, and on the Encyclopédie méthodique, he edited the Dictionnaire raisonné et universel d’agriculture, and was one of the editors of the Annales de l’agriculture française. He was made inspector of the gardens at Versailles, and of the public nurseries belonging to the ministry of the interior. The last years of his life were devoted to an elaborate work on the vine, for which he had amassed an immense quantity of materials, but his death at Paris on the 10th of July 1828 prevented its completion.
BOSCÁN ALMOGAVER, JUAN (1490?-1542), Spanish poet, was born about the close of the 15th century. He was a Catalan of patrician birth, and, after some years of military service, became tutor to the duke of Alva. His poems were published in 1543 at Barcelona by his widow. They are divided into sections which mark the stages of Boscán’s poetical evolution. The first book contains poems in the old Castilian metres, written in his youth, before 1526, in which year he became acquainted with the Venetian ambassador, Andrea Navagiero, who urged him to adopt Italian measures, and this advice gave a new turn to Boscán’s activity. The remaining books contain a number of pieces in the Italian manner, the longest of these being Hero y Leander, a poem in blank verse, based on Musaeus. Boscán’s best effort, the Octava Rima, is a skilful imitation of Petrarch and Bembo. Boscán also published in 1534 an admirable translation of Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano. Italian measures had been introduced into Spanish literature by Santillana and Villalpando; it is Boscán’s distinction to have naturalized these forms definitively, and to have founded a poetic school.
The best edition of his poems is that issued at Madrid in 1875 by W.J. Knapp; for his indebtedness to earlier writers, see Francesco Flamini, Studi di storia literaria italiana e straniera (Livorno, 1895).
BOSCASTLE, a small seaport and watering-place in the Launceston parliamentary division of Cornwall, England, 5 m. N. of Camelford station on the London & South-Western railway. Pop. (civil parish of Forrabury, 1901) 329. The village rises steeply above a very narrow cove on the north coast, sheltered, but difficult of access, vessels having to be warped into it by means of hawsers. A mound on a hill above the harbour marks the site of a Norman castle. The parish church of St Symphorian, Forrabury, also stands high, overlooking the Atlantic from Willapark Point. The tower is without bells, and the tradition that a ship bearing a peal hither was wrecked within sight of the harbour, and that the lost bells may still be heard to toll beneath the waves, has been made famous by a ballad of the Cornish poet Robert Stephen Hawker, vicar of Moorwinstow. The coast scenery near Boscastle is severely beautiful, with abrupt cliffs fully exposed to the sea, and broken only by a few picturesque inlets such as Crackington Cove and Pentargan Cove. Inland are bare moors, diversified by narrow dales.
BOSCAWEN, EDWARD (1711-1761), British admiral, was born on the 19th of August 1711. He was the third son of Hugh, 1st Viscount Falmouth. He early entered the navy, and in 1739 distinguished himself at the taking of Porto Bello. At the siege of Cartagena, in March 1741, at the head of a party of seamen, he took a battery of fifteen 24-pounders, while exposed to the fire of another fort. On his return to England in the following year he married, and entered parliament as member for Truro. In 1744 he captured the French frigate “Médée,” commanded by M. de Hocquart, the first ship taken in the war. In May 1747 he signalized himself in the engagement off Cape Finisterre, and was wounded in the shoulder with a musket-ball. Hocquart again became his prisoner, and the French ships, ten in number, were taken. On the 15th of July he was made rear-admiral and commander-in-chief of the expedition to the East Indies. On the 29th of July 1748 he arrived off Fort St David’s, and soon after laid siege to Pondicherry; but the sickness of his men and the approach of the monsoons led to the raising of the siege. Soon afterwards he received news of the peace, and Madras was delivered up to him by the French. In April 1750 he arrived in England, and was the next year made one of the lords of the Admiralty, and chosen an elder brother of the Trinity House. In February 1755 he was appointed vice-admiral, and in April he intercepted the French squadron bound to North America, and took the “Alcide” and “Lys” of sixty-four guns each. Hocquart became his prisoner for the third time, and Boscawen returned to Spithead with his prizes and 1500 prisoners. For this exploit, he received the thanks of parliament. In 1758 he was appointed admiral of the blue and commander-in-chief of the expedition to Cape Breton, when, in conjunction with General Amherst, he took the fortress of Louisburg, and the island of Cape Breton—services for which he again received the thanks of the House of Commons. In 1759, being appointed to command in the Mediterranean, he pursued the French fleet, commanded by M. de la Clue, and after a sharp engagement in Lagos Bay took three large ships and burnt two, returning to Spithead with his prizes and 2000 prisoners. The victory defeated the proposed concentration of the French fleet in Brest to cover an invasion of England. In December 1760 he was appointed general of the marines, with a salary of £3000 per annum, and was also sworn a member of the privy council. He died at his seat near Guildford on the 10th of January 1761.
BOSCH (or Bos), JEROM (c. 1460-1518), the name generally given, from his birthplace Hertogenbosch, to Hieronymus van Aeken, the Dutch painter. He was probably a pupil of Albert Ouwater, and may be called the Breughel of the 15th century, for he devoted himself to the invention of bizarre types, diableries, and scenes of the kind generally associated with Breughel, whose art is to a great extent based on Bosch’s. He was a satirist much in advance of his time, and one of the most original and ingenious artists of the 15th century. He exercised great influence on Lucas Cranach, who frequently copied his paintings. His works were much admired in Spain, especially by Philip II., at whose court Bosch painted for some time. One of his chief works is the “Last Judgment” at the Berlin gallery, which also owns a little “St Jerome in the Desert.” “The Fall of the Rebellious Angels” and the “St Anthony” triptych are in the Brussels museum, and two important triptychs are at the Munich gallery. The Lippmann collection in Berlin contains an important “Adoration of the Magi,” the Antwerp museum a “Passion,” and a practically unknown painting from his brush is at the Naples museum.
BOSCOVICH, ROGER JOSEPH (1711?-1787), Italian mathematician and natural philosopher, one of the earliest of foreign savants to adopt Newton’s gravitation theory, was born at Ragusa in Dalmatia on the 18th of May 1711, according to the usual account, but ten years earlier according to Lalande (Éloge, 1792). In his fifteenth year, after passing through the usual elementary studies, he entered the Society of Jesus. On completing his noviciate, which was spent at Rome, he studied mathematics and physics at the Collegium Romanum; and so brilliant was his progress in these sciences that in 1740 he was appointed professor of mathematics in the college. For this post he was especially fitted by his acquaintance with recent advances in science, and by his skill in a classical severity of demonstration, acquired by a thorough study of the works of the Greek geometricians. Several years before this appointment he had made himself a name by an elegant solution of the problem to find the sun’s equator and determine the period of its rotation by observation of the spots on its surface. Notwithstanding the arduous duties of his professorship he found time for investigation in all the fields of physical science; and he published a very large number of dissertations, some of them of considerable length, on a wide variety of subjects. Among these subjects were the transit of Mercury, the Aurora Borealis, the figure of the earth, the observation of the fixed stars, the inequalities in terrestrial gravitation, the application of mathematics to the theory of the telescope, the limits of certainty in astronomical observations, the solid of greatest attraction, the cycloid, the logistic curve, the theory of comets, the tides, the law of continuity, the double refraction micrometer, various problems of spherical trigonometry, &c. In 1742 he was consulted, with other men of science, by the pope, Benedict XIV., as to the best means of securing the stability of the dome of St Peter’s, Rome, in which a crack had been discovered. His suggestion was adopted. Shortly after he engaged to take part in the Portuguese expedition for the survey of Brazil, and the measurement of a degree of the meridian; but he yielded to the urgent request of the pope that he would remain in Italy and undertake a similar task there. Accordingly, in conjunction with Christopher Maire, an English Jesuit, he measured an arc of two degrees between Rome and Rimini. The operations were begun towards the close of 1750, and were completed in about two years. An account of them was published in 1755, entitled De Litteraria expeditione per pontificam ditionem ad dimetiendos duos meridiani gradus a PP. Maire et Boscovich. The value of this work was increased by a carefully prepared map of the States of the Church. A French translation appeared in 1770. A dispute having arisen between the grand duke of Tuscany and the republic of Lucca with respect to the drainage of a lake, Boscovich was sent, in 1757, as agent of Lucca to Vienna, and succeeded in bringing about a satisfactory arrangement of the matter. In the following year he published at Vienna his famous work, Theoria philosophiae naturalis redacta ad unicam legem virium in natura existentium, containing his atomic theory (see [Molecule]). Another occasion for the exercise of his diplomatic ability soon after presented itself. A suspicion having arisen on the part of the British government that ships of war had been fitted out in the port of Ragusa for the service of France, and that the neutrality of Ragusa had thus been violated, Boscovich was selected to undertake an embassy to London (1760), to vindicate the character of his native place and satisfy the government. This mission he discharged successfully, with credit to himself and satisfaction to his countrymen. During his stay in England he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He soon after paid this society the compliment of dedicating to it his Latin poem, entitled De Solis et Lunae Defectibus (London, 1764). This prolix composition, one of a class which at that time was much in vogue—metrical epitomes of the facts of science—contains in about five thousand lines, illustrated by voluminous notes, a compendium of astronomy. It was for the most part written on horseback, during the author’s rides in the country while engaged in his meridian measurements. The book is characterized by G.B.J. Delambre as “uninstructive to an astronomer and unintelligible to any one else.”
On leaving England Boscovich travelled in Turkey, but ill-health compelled him soon to return to Italy. In 1764 he was called to the chair of mathematics at the university of Pavia, and this post he held, together with the directorship of the observatory of Brera, for six years. He was invited by the Royal Society of London to undertake an expedition to California to observe the transit of Venus in 1769; but this was prevented by the recent decree of the Spanish government for the expulsion of the Jesuits from its dominions. The vanity, egotism and petulance of Boscovich provoked his rivals and made him many enemies, so that in hope of peace he was driven to frequent change of residence. About 1770 he removed to Milan, where he continued to teach and to hold the directorship of the observatory of Brera; but being deprived of his post by the intrigues of his associates he was about to retire to his native place, when the news reached him (1773) of the suppression of his order in Italy. Uncertainty as to his future led him to accept an invitation from the king of France to Paris, where he was naturalized and was appointed director of optics for the marine, an office instituted for him, with a pension of 8000 livres. He remained there ten years, but his position became irksome, and at length intolerable. He continued, however, to devote himself diligently to the pursuits of science, and published many remarkable memoirs. Among them were an elegant solution of the problem to determine the orbit of a comet from three observations, and memoirs on the micrometer and achromatic telescopes. In 1783 he returned to Italy, and spent two years at Bassano, where he occupied himself with the publication of his Opera pertinentia ad opticam et astronomiam, &c., which appeared in 1785 in five volumes quarto. After a visit of some months to the convent of Vallombrosa, he went to Milan and resumed his literary labours. But his health was failing, his reputation was on the wane, his works did not sell, and he gradually sank a prey to illness and disappointment. He fell into melancholy, imbecility, and at last madness, with lucid intervals, and died at Milan on the 15th (13th) of February 1787. In addition to the works already mentioned Boscovich published Elementa universae matheseos (1754), the substance of the course of study prepared for his pupils; and a narrative of his travels, entitled Giornale di un viaggio da Constantinopoli in Polonia, of which several editions and a French translation appeared. His latest labour was the editing of the Latin poems of his friend Benedict Stay on the philosophy of Descartes, with scientific annotations and supplements.
(W. L. R. C.)
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, or Bosnia-Herzegovina, two provinces formerly included in European Turkey, which now, together with Dalmatia, form the southernmost territories of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The name Herzegovina is also written Hertzegovina, Hertsegovina or, in Croatian, Hercegovina. In shape roughly resembling an equilateral triangle, with base uppermost, Bosnia and Herzegovina cover an area of 19,696 sq. m., in the north-west of the Balkan Peninsula. They are bounded N. and N.W. by Croatia-Slavonia; W. and S.W. by Dalmatia; S.E. by Montenegro and the Sanjak of Novibazar; and N.E. by Servia. Opposite to the promontory of Sabbioncello, and at the entrance to the Bocche di Cattaro, the frontier of Herzegovina comes down to the Adriatic; but these two strips of coast do not contain any good harbour, and extend only for a total distance of 14½ m. Bosnia is altogether an inland territory.
1. Physical Features.—Along the Dalmatian border, and through the centre of Bosnia, runs the backbone of the Dinaric Alps, which attain their greatest altitudes (6000-7500 ft.) near Travnik, Serajevo and Mostar. There are numerous high valleys shut in among the mountains of this range; the most noteworthy being the plain of Livno, which lies parallel to the Dalmatian border, at a height of 500 ft. above the sea. The zone of highlands throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina reaches a mean altitude of 1500 ft., while summits of more than 4000 ft. occur frequently. To the north-east of the Dinaric Alps extends a region of mountain, moor and forest, with deeply sunk alluvial basins, which finally expand into the lowlands of the Posavina, or Vale of the Save, forming the southernmost fringe of the Hungarian Alföld. Bosnia belongs wholly to the watershed of the Save, and its rivers to the Danubian system, no large stream finding a way to the Adriatic. The Save flows eastward along the northern frontier for 237 m. It is joined by four main tributaries, the Drina, Bosna, Vrbas and Una. The Drina is formed on the Montenegrin frontier by the united streams of the Tara and Piva; curving north-eastwards past Visegrad, it marches for 102 m. with Servian territory, and falls into the Save at Racha, after a total course of 155 m. The Bosna issues from many springs near Serajevo, and winds for 107 m. northward, through a succession of fertile glens, reaching the Save 1 m. west of Samac. Farther west, the Vrbas cuts a channel through the Dinaric Alps, and, after passing Jajce and Banjaluka, meets the Save 94 m. from its own headwaters. The Una rises on the Croatian border, and, after skirting the Plješevica Planina, in Croatia, turns sharply to the north-east; serving as a frontier stream for 37 m. before entering the Save at Jasenovac. Its length is 98 m. At Novi it is joined by the Sana, a considerable affluent.
Herzegovina, which lies south of Bosnia, in a parallelogram defined by Montenegro, Dalmatia, the Dinaric Alps, and an irregular line drawn from a point 25 m. west-north-west of Mostar to the bend of the river Narenta, differs in many respects from the larger territory. Its mountains, which belong to the Adriatic watershed, and form a continuation of the Montenegrin highlands, are less rounded and more dolomitic in character. They descend in parallel ridges of grey Karst limestone, south-westwards to the sea; their last summits reappear in the multitude of rocky islands along the Dalmatian littoral. As in the peaks of Orjen, Orobac, Samotica and Veliki Kap, their height often exceeds 6000 ft. West of the Narenta, their flanks are in places covered with forests of beech and pine, but north-east of that river they present for the most part a scene of barren desolation. Their monotony is varied only by the fruitful river-valleys and poljes, or upland hollows, where the smaller towns and villages are grouped; the districts or cantons thus formed are walled round by a natural rampart of limestone. These poljes may be described as oases in what is otherwise a desert expanse of mountains. The surface of some, as notably the Mostarsko Blato, lying west of Mostar, is marshy, and in spring forms a lake; others are watered by streams which disappear in swallow-holes of the rock, and make their way by underground channels either to the sea or the Narenta. The most conspicuous example of these is the Trebinjcica, which disappears in two swallow-holes in Popovopolye, and after making its way by a subterranean passage through a range of mountains, wells up in the mighty source of Ombla near Ragusa, and hurries in undiminished volume to the Adriatic. The Narenta, or Neretva, is the one large river of Herzegovina which flows above ground throughout its length. Rising on the Montenegrin border, under the Lebrsnik mountains, it flows north-westwards at the foot of the Dinaric Alps; and, near Konjica, sweeps round suddenly to the south, and falls into the Adriatic near Metkovic, after traversing 125 m. North of Mostar, it cleaves a passage through the celebrated Narenta defile, a narrow gorge, 12 m. long, overshadowed by mountains which rise on either side and culminate in Lupoglav (6796 ft.) on the east, and Cvrstnica (7205 ft.) on the west.
2. Geology and Minerals.—Geologically, the highlands of Bosnia and Herzegovina are to be regarded, in both their orographic and tectonic character, as a continuation of the South Alpine calcareous belt. Along the west frontier there appear broad and strongly marked zones of Cretaceous limestone, alternating with Jurassic and Triassic, joined by a strip of Palaeozoic formations running from the north-west corner of Bosnia. Next, proceeding from this region in an easterly direction, are the Neogene freshwater formations, filling up the greatest part of the north-east of Bosnia, as also a zone of flysch intermingled with several strips of eruptive rock. In the south-east of Bosnia the predominant formations are Triassic and Palaeozoic strata with red sandstone and quartzite. Along the whole northern rim of Bosnia, as also in the fluvial and Karst valleys (poljes), are found diluvial and alluvial formations, interrupted at one place by an isolated granite layer. Bosnia is rich in minerals, including coal, iron, copper, chrome, manganese, cinnabar, zinc and mercury, besides marble and much excellent building stone. Among the mountains, gold and silver were worked by the Romans, and, in the middle ages, by the Ragusans. After 1881 the Mining Company of Bosnia began to develop the coal and iron fields; and from 1886 its operations were continued by the government. Valuable salt is obtained from the pits at Dolnja Tuzla, and the southern part of Herzegovina yields asphalt and lignite. Mineral springs also abound, and those of Ilidže, near Serajevo, have been utilized since the days of the Romans; but the majority remained unexploited at the beginning of the 20th century.
3. Climate.—In climate Bosnia differs considerably from Herzegovina. In both alike the scirocco, bringing rain from the south-west, is a prevalent wind, as well as the bora, the fearful north-north-easter of Illyria, which, sweeping down the lateral valleys of the Dinaric Alps, overwhelms everything in its path. The snow-fall is slight, and, except on a few of the loftier peaks, the snow soon melts. In Bosnia the weather resembles that of the south Austrian highlands, generally mild, though apt to be bitterly cold in winter. In Serajevo the mean annual temperature is 50° Fahr. Herzegovina has more affinity to the Dalmatian mountains, oppressively hot in summer, when the mercury often rises beyond 110° Fahr. The winter rains of the Karst region show that it belongs to the sub-tropical climatic zone.
4. Fauna.—In 1893 the bones of a cave-bear (Ursus spelaeus) were taken from a cavern of the Bjelasnica range, in Herzegovina, a discovery without parallel in the Balkan Peninsula. Of existing species the bear, wild-boar, badger, roe-deer and chamois may occasionally be seen in the remotest wilds of mountain and forest. Hares are uncommon, and the last red-deer was shot in 1814; but wolves, otters and squirrels abound. Snipe, woodcock, ducks and rails, in vast flocks, haunt the banks of the Drina and Save; while the crane, pelican, wild-swan and wild-goose are fairly plentiful. The lammergeier (Gypaëtus barbatus) had almost become extinct in 1900; but several varieties of eagle and falcon are left. Falconry was long a pastime of the Moslem landlords. The destruction of game, recklessly carried out under Turkish rule, is prevented by the laws of 1880, 1883 and 1893, which enforced a close time, and rendered shooting-licences necessary. The list of reptiles includes the venomous Vipera ammodytes and Pelias berus, while scorpions and lizards infest the stony wastes of the Karst. In the museum at Serajevo there is a large entomological collection, including the remarkable Pogonus anophthalmus, from the underground Karst caves. The caves are rich in curious kinds of fish, Paraphoxinus Gethaldii, which is unknown elsewhere, Chondrostoma phoximus, Phoxinellus alepidatus and others, which are caught and eaten by the peasantry. In Herzegovina, although many of the high mountain tarns are unproductive, the eel-fisheries of the Narenta are of considerable value. Leech-gathering is a characteristic Bosnian industry. The streams of both territories yield excellent trout and crayfish; salmon, sturgeon and sterlet, from the Danube, are netted in the Save.
5. Flora.—Serajevo museum has a collection of the Bosnian flora, representing over 3000 species; among them, the rare Veronica crinita, Pinus leucodermis, Picea omorica and Daphne Blagayana. About 50% of the occupied Forests. territory is clothed with forest. “Bosnia begins with the forest,” says a native proverb, “Herzegovina with the rock”; and this account is, broadly speaking, accurate, although the Bosnian Karst is as bare as that of Herzegovina. Below the mountain crests, where only the hardiest lichens and mosses can survive, comes a belt of large timber, including many giant trees, 200 ft. high, and 20 ft. in girth at the level of a man’s shoulder. Dense brushwood prevails on the foothills. There are three main zones of woodland. Up to 2500 ft. among the ranges of northern Bosnia, the sunnier slopes are overgrown by oaks, the shadier by beeches. Farther south, in central Bosnia, the oak rarely mounts beyond the foothills, being superseded by the beech, elm, ash, fir and pine, up to 5000 ft. The third zone is characterized by the predominance, up to 6000 ft., of the fir, pine and other conifers. In all three zones occur the chestnut, aspen, willow (especially Salix laurea), hornbeam, birch, alder, juniper and yew; while the mountain ash, hazel, wild plum, wild pear and other wild fruit trees are found at rarer intervals. Until 1878 the forests were almost neglected; afterwards, the government was forced to levy a graduated tax on goats, owing to the damage they inflicted upon young trees, and to curtail the popular rights of cutting timber and fir-wood and of pasturage. These measures were largely successful, but in 1902 the export of oak staves was discontinued owing to a shortage of supply.
6. Agriculture.—In 1895, according to the agricultural survey, the surface of Bosnia and Herzegovina was laid out as follows:—
| Acres. | |
| Plough-land. | 2,355,499 |
| Garden-ground. | 103,040 |
| Meadow. | 739,200 |
| Vineyards. | 12,598 |
| Pasture. | 1,875,840 |
| Forest. | 5,670,619 |
| Unproductive. | 210,998 |
Apart from the arid wastes of the Karst, the soil is well adapted for the growing of cereals, especially Indian corn; olives, vines, mulberries, figs, pomegranates, melons, oranges, lemons, rice and tobacco flourish in Herzegovina and the more sheltered portions of Bosnia. Near Doboj, on the Bosna, there is a state sugar-refinery, for which beetroot is largely grown in the vicinity. Pyrethrum cinerariaefolium is exported for the manufacture of insect-powder, and sunflowers are cultivated for the oil contained in their seeds. The plum-orchards of the Posavina furnish prunes and a spirit called šlivovica, shlivovitsa or sliwowitz. This district is the headquarters of a thriving trade in pigs. Poultry, bees and silkworms are commonly kept. On the whole agriculture is backward, despite the richness of the soil; for the cultivators are a very conservative race, and prefer the methods and implements of their ancestors. Many improvements were, nevertheless, introduced by the government after 1878. Machinery was lent to the farmers, and free grants of seed were made. Model farms were established at Livno and at Gačko, on the Montenegrin border; a school of viticulture near Mostar; a model poultry-farm at Prijedor, close to the Croatian boundary; a school of agriculture and dairy farming at Ilidže; and another school at Modric, near the mouth of the Bosna, where a certain number of village schoolmasters are annually trained, for six weeks, in practical husbandry. Seed is distributed, and agricultural machinery lent, by the government. To better the breeds of live-stock, a stud-farm was opened near Serajevo, and foreign horses, cattle, sheep and poultry are imported.
7. Land Tenure.—The zadruga, or household community, more common in Servia (q.v.), survives to a small extent in Bosnia and Herzegovina; but, as a rule, the tenure of land resembles the system called métayage. At the time of the Austrian occupation (1878) it was regulated by a Turkish enactment[1] of the 12th of September 1859. Apart from gardens and house-property, all land was, according to this enactment, owned by the state; in practice, it was held by the Moslem begs or beys (nobles) and agas (landlords), who let it to the peasantry. The landlord received from his tenant (kmet) a fixed percentage, usually one third (tretina), of the annual produce; and, of the remaining two thirds, the cash equivalent of one tenth (desetina) went to the state. The amount of the desetina was always fixed first, and served as a basis for the assessment of the tretina, which, however, was generally paid in kind. At any time the tenant could relinquish his holding; but he could only be evicted for refusing to pay his tretina, for wilful neglect of his land or for damage done to it. The landlord was bound to keep his tenants’ dwellings and outhouses in repair. Should he desire to sell his estates, the right of pre-emption belonged to the tenants, or, in default, to the neighbours. Thus foreign speculators in land were excluded, while a class of peasant proprietors was created; its numbers being increased by the custom that, if any man reclaimed a piece of waste land, it became his own property after ten years. The Turkish land-system remained in force during the entire period of the occupation (1878-1908). It had worked, on the whole, satisfactorily; and between 1885 and 1895 the number of peasants farming their own land rose from 117,000 to 200,000. One conspicuous feature of the Bosnian land-system is the Moslem Vakuf, or ecclesiastical property, consisting of estates dedicated to such charitable purposes as poor-relief, and the endowment of mosques, schools, hospitals, cemeteries and baths. It is administered by a central board of Moslem officials, who meet in Sarajevo, under state supervision. Its income rose to £25,000 in 1895, having quadrupled itself in ten years. The Vakuf tenants were at that time extremely prosperous, for their rent had been fixed for ten years in advance on the basis of the year’s harvest, and so had not risen proportionately to the value of their holdings.
8. Industries and Commerce.—Beside agriculture, which employed over 88% of the whole population in 1895, the other industries are insignificant. Chief among them are weaving and leather and metal work, carried on by the workmen in their own houses. There are also government workshops, opened with a view to a higher technical and artistic development of the house industry. More particularly, chased and inlaid metallic wares, bez (thin cotton) and carpet-weaving receive government support. Besides the sugar-refinery already mentioned, there were in 1900 four tobacco factories, a national printing-press, an annular furnace for brick-burning, an iron-foundry and several blast-furnaces, under the management of the state. Among the larger private establishments there existed in the same year seven breweries, one brandy distillery, two jam, two soap and candle factories, two building and furniture works, a factory for spinning thread, one iron and steel works, one paper and one ammonia and soda factory, and one mineral-oil refinery.
In respect of foreign trade Bosnia and Herzegovina were in 1882 included in the customs and commercial system of Austria-Hungary, to the extinction of all intermediate imposts. Since 1898 special statistics have been drawn up respecting their trade also with Austria and Hungary. According to these statistics the most important articles of export are coal and turf, fruit, minerals, soda, iron and steel, and cattle. Other articles of export are chemicals, dyeing and tanning stuffs, tobacco, sugar-beet and kitchen-salt. The imports consist principally of food stuffs, building materials, drinks, sugar, machinery, glass, fats, clothes, wooden and stone wares, and various manufactured goods.
There is a national bank in Serajevo, which carries on a hypothecary credit business and manages the wholesale trade of the tobacco factories. There are savings banks in Banjaluka, Bjelina and Brčka.
9. Communications.—The construction of carriage-roads, wholly neglected by the Turks, was carried out on a large scale by the Austrians. Two railways were also built, in connexion with the Hungarian state system. One crosses the Una at Kostajnica, and, after skirting the right bank of that river as far as Novi, strikes eastward to Banjaluka. The other, a narrow-gauge line, crosses the Save at Bosna Brod, and follows the Bosna to Serajevo, throwing out branches eastward beyond Dolnja Tuzla, and westward to Jajce and Bugojno. It then pierces through the mountains of northern Herzegovina, traverses the Narenta valley, and runs almost parallel with the coast to Trebinje, Ragusa and the Bocche di Cattaro. Up to this point the railways of the occupied territory were complete in 1901. A farther line, from Serajevo to the frontiers of Servia and Novibazar, was undertaken in 1902, and by 1906 782 m. of railway were open. Small steamers ply on the Drina, Save and Una, but the Bosna, though broad from its very source, is, like the Vrbas, too full of shallows to be utilized; while the Narenta only begins to be navigable when it enters Dalmatia. All the railway lines, like the postal, telegraphic and telephonic services, are state property. In many of the principal towns there are also government hotels.
Serajevo, with 41,543 inhabitants in 1895, is the capital of the combined provinces, and other important places are Mostar (17,010), the capital of Herzegovina, Banjaluka (14,812), Dolnja Tuzla (11,034), Travnik (6626), Livno (5273), Visoko(5000), Foča (4217), Jajce (3929) and Trebinje (2966). All these are described in separate articles.
10. Population and National Characteristics.—In 1895 the population, which tends to increase slowly, with a preponderance of males over females, numbered 1,568,092. The alien element is small, consisting chiefly of Austro-Hungarians, gipsies, Italians and Jews. Spanish is a comomon language of the Jews, whose ancestors fled hither, during the 16th century, to escape the Inquisition. The natives are officially described as Bosniaks, but classify themselves according to religion. Thus the Roman Catholics prefer the name of Croats, Hrvats or Latins; the Orthodox, of Serbs; the Moslems, of Turks. All alike belong to the Serbo-Croatian branch of the Slavonic race; and all speak a language almost identical with Servian, though written by the Roman Catholics in Latin instead of Cyrillic letters. A full account of this language, and its literature, is given under [Servia] and [Croatia-Slavonia]. To avoid offending either “Serbs” or “Croats,” it is officially designated “Bosnisch.” In some parts of Herzegovina the dress, manners and physical type of the peasantry are akin to those of Montenegro. The Bosnians or Bosniaks resemble their Servian kinsfolk in both appearance and character. They have the same love for poetry, music and romance; the same intense pride in their race and history; many of the same superstitions and customs. The Christians retain the Servian costume, modified in detail, as by the occasional use of the turban or fez. The “Turkish” women have in some districts abandoned the veil; but in others they even cover the eyes when they leave home. Polygamy is almost unknown, possibly because many of the “Turks” are descended from the austere Bogomils, who were, in most cases, converted to Islam, but more probably because the “Turks” are as a rule too poor to provide for more than one wife on the scale required by Islamic law. In general, the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina are sober and thrifty, subsisting chiefly on Indian corn, dried meat, milk and vegetables. Their houses are built of timber and thatch, or clay tiles, except in the Karst region, where stone is more plentiful than wood. Family ties are strong, and the women are not ill-treated, although they share in all kinds of manual labour.
11. Government.—At the time of the Austrian annexation in 1908, the only remaining token of Ottoman suzerainty was that the foreign consuls received their exequatur from Turkey, instead of Austria; otherwise the government of the country was conducted in the name of the Austrian emperor, through the imperial minister of finance at Vienna, who controlled the civil service for the occupied territory. Its central bureau, with departments of the interior, religion and education, finance and justice, was established at Serajevo; and its members were largely recruited among the Austrian Slavs, who were better able than the Germans to comprehend the local customs and language. A consultative assembly, composed of the highest ecclesiastical authorities, together with 12 popular representatives, also met at Serajevo. For administrative purposes the country was divided into 6 districts or prefectures (kreise), which were subdivided into 49 subprefectures (bezirke).
Every large town has a mayor and deputy mayor, appointed by the government, and a town council, of whom one third are similarly appointed, while the citizens choose the rest; a proportionate number of councillors representing each religious community. To ensure economy, the decisions of this body are supervised by a government commissioner. The commune is preserved, somewhat as in Servia (q.v.), but with modified powers. Each district has its court of law, where cases are tried by three official judges and two assessors, selected from the leading citizens. The assessors vote equally with the judges, and three votes decide the verdict. Except where the litigants and witnesses are German, the Serbo-Croatian language is used. An appeal, on points of law alone, may be carried to the supreme court in Serajevo, and there tried by five judges without assessors. In cases not involving a sum greater than 300 florins (£25), no appeal will lie; and where only 50 florins (£4 : 3 : 4) are in question, the case is summarily decided at the Bagatelle Gericht, or court for trifling cases. The number of lawyers admitted to practice is strictly limited. As far as possible, the Turkish law was retained during the period of occupation; all cases between Moslems were settled in separate courts by Moslem judges, against whom there was an appeal to the supreme court, aided by assessors. All able-bodied males are liable, on reaching their 21st year, for 3 years’ service with the colours, and 9 years in the reserve. The garrison numbers about 20,000 Austrian troops, and there are 7100 native troops. The principal military stations are Bjelina, Zvornik, Višegrad, Goražda, Foča, Bilek, Avtovac and Trebinje, along the eastern frontier; Mostar and Stolac in the south; Livno in the west; and Bihać in the north.
12. Religion.—In 1895 43% of the population were Orthodox Christians, 35% Moslems and 21% Roman Catholics. The patriarch of Constantinople is the nominal head of the Orthodox priesthood; but by an arrangement concluded in 1879, his authority was delegated to the Austrian emperor, in exchange for a revenue equal to the tribute previously paid by the clergy of the provinces; and his nominations for the metropolitanate of Serajevo, and the bishoprics of Dolnja Tuzla, Banjaluka and Mostar require the imperial assent. Under Turkish rule the communes chose their own parish priests, but this right is now vested in the government. The Roman Catholics have an archbishop in Serajevo, a bishop in Mostar and an apostolic administrator in Banjaluka. Serajevo is also the seat of the Jewish chief rabbi; and of the highest Moslem ecclesiastic, or reis-el-ulema, who with his council is nominated and paid by the government. The inferior Moslem clergy draw their stipends from the Vakuf. Considerable bitterness prevails between the rival confessions, each aiming at political ascendancy, but the government favours none. In order to conciliate even the Moslems, who include the bulk of the great landholders and of the urban population, its representatives visit the mosques in state on festivals; grants are made for the Mecca pilgrimage; and even the howling Dervishes in Serajevo are maintained by the state.
13. Education.—Education for boys and girls between the ages of seven and fifteen is free, but not compulsory. The state supports primary schools (352 in 1905), where reading, writing, arithmetic and history are taught; and separate instruction is given by the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Jewish and Moslem clergy. There are also various private schools, belonging to the different religious communities. These receive a grant from the government, which nevertheless encourages all parents to send their children to its own schools. One of the earliest and best-known private schools is the orphanage at Serajevo, founded in 1869 by two English ladies, Miss Irby and Miss Mackenzie. In the Moslem schools, which, in 1905, comprised 855 mektebs or primary schools, and 41 madrasas or high schools, instruction is usually given in Turkish or Arabic; while in Orthodox schools the books are printed in Cyrillic characters.
For higher education there were in 1908 three gymnasia, a real-school at Banjaluka, a technical college and a teachers’ training-college at Serajevo, where, also, is the state school for Moslem law-students, called scheriatschule from the sheri or Turkish code; and various theological, commercial and art institutes. Promising pupils are frequently sent to Vienna University, with scholarships, which may be forfeited if the holders engage in political agitation.
14. Antiquities.—Up to 1900 no traces of palaeolithic man had been discovered in Bosnia or Herzegovina; but many later prehistoric remains are preserved in Serajevo museum. The neolithic station of Butmir, near Ilidže, was probably a lake-dwellers’ colony, and has yielded numerous stone and horn implements, clay figures and pottery. Not far off, similar relics were found at Sobunar, Zlatište and Debelobrdo; iron and bronze ornaments, vessels and weapons, often of elaborate design, occur in the huts and cemeteries of Glasinac, and in the cemetery of Jezerine, where they are associated with objects in silver, tin, amber, glass, &c. Among the numerous finds made in other districts may be mentioned the discovery, at Vrankamer, near Bihac, of 98 African coins, the oldest of which dates from 300 B.C. Many vestiges of Roman rule survive, such as roads, mines, ruins, tombs, coins, frescoes and inscriptions. Such remains occur frequently near Bihac, Foca, Livno, Jajce and Serajevo; and especially near the sources of the Drina. The period between the downfall of Roman power, late in the 5th century, and the growth of a Bosnian state, in the 11th, is poorer in antiquities. The later middle ages are represented by several monasteries, and many castles, such as those of Dervent, Doboj, Maglaj, Žepče and Vranduk, on the Bosna; Bihać, on the Una; Prijedor and Kljuć, on the Sana; and Stolac, Gabela, Irebinje and Konjica, in Herzegovina. The bridge across the Narenta, at Konjica, is said to date from the 10th century. A group of signs carved on some rocks near Višegrad have been regarded as cuneiform writing, but are probably medieval masonic symbols. In a few cases, such as the Begova Džamia at Serajevo, the Foča mosques and the Mostar bridge, the buildings raised by the Turks are of high architectural merit. More remarkable are the tombstones, generally measuring 6 ft. in length, 3 in height and 3 in breadth, which have been supposed to mark the graves of the Bogomils. These are, as a rule, quite unadorned, a few only being decorated with rude has-reliefs of animals, plants, weapons, the crescent and star, or, very rarely, the cross.
15. History.—Under Roman rule Bosnia had no separate name or history, and until the great Slavonic immigration of 636 it remained an undifferentiated part of Illyria (q.v.). Owing to the scarcity of authoritative documents, Formation of the Banate. it is impossible to describe in detail the events of the next three centuries. During this period Bosnia became the generally accepted name for the valley of the Bosna (ancient Basanius); and subsequently for several outlying and tributary principalities, notably those of Soli, afterwards Tuzla; Usora, along the south-eastern bank of the Save; Donji Kraj, the later Krajina, Kraina or Turkish Croatia, in the north-west; and Rama, the modern district of Livno. The old Illyrian population was rapidly absorbed or expelled, its Latin institutions being replaced by the autonomous tribal divisions, or Županates, of the Slavs. Pressure from Hungary and Byzantium gradually welded these isolated social units into a single nation, whose ruler was known as the Ban (q.v.). But the central power remained weak, and the country possessed no strong natural frontiers. It seems probable that the bans were originally viceroys of the Croatian kings, who resumed their sovereignty over Bosnia from 958 to 1010. Thenceforward, until 1180, the bans continued subject to the Eastern empire or Hungary, with brief intervals of independence. The territory now called Herzegovina was also subject to various foreign powers. It comprised the principalities of Tribunia or Travunja, with its capital at Trebinje; and Hlum or Hum, the Zachlumia of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who gives a clear picture of this region as it was in the 10th century.[2]
The schism between Eastern and Western Christendom left Bosnia divided between the Greek and Latin Churches. Early in the 12th century a new religion, that of the Bogomils (q.v.), was introduced, and denounced as heretical. Religious controversies. Its converts nevertheless included many of the Bosnian nobles and the ban Kulin (1180-1204), whose reign was long proverbial for its prosperity, owing to the flourishing state of commerce and agriculture, and the extensive mining operations carried on by the Ragusans. An unusually able ruler, connected by marriage with the powerful Servian dynasty of Nemanya, and by treaty with the republic of Ragusa,[3] Kulin perceived in the new doctrines a barrier between his subjects and Hungary. He was compelled to recant, under strong pressure from Pope Innocent III. and Béla III. of Hungary; but, despite all efforts, Bogomilism incessantly gained ground. In 1232 Stephen, the successor of Kulin, was dethroned by the native magnates, who chose instead Matthew Ninoslav, a Bogomil. This event illustrates the three dominant characteristics of Bosnian history: the strength of the aristocracy; the corresponding weakness of the central authority, enhanced by the lack of any definite rule of inheritance; and the supreme influence of religion. Threatened by Pope Gregory IX. with a crusade, Ninoslav was baptized, only to abjure Christianity in 1233. For six years he withstood the Hungarian crusaders, led by Kaloman, duke of Croatia; in 1241 the Tatar invasion of Hungary afforded him a brief respite; and in 1244 peace was concluded after a Bosnian campaign against Croatia. A renewal of the crusade proving equally vain, in 1247 Pope Innocent III. entered into friendly negotiations with the ban, whose country was for the moment an independent and formidable state. The importance attached to its conversion is well attested by the correspondence of Pope Gregory IX. with Ninoslav and various Bosnian ecclesiastics.[4]
On the death of Ninoslav in 1250, vigorous efforts were made to exterminate the Bogomil heresy; and to this end, Béla IV., who appeared as the champion of Roman Catholicism, secured the election of his nominee Prijesda to the Period of Hungarian supremacy. banate. Direct Hungarian suzerainty lasted until 1299, the bans preserving only a shadow of their former power. From 1299 to 1322 the country was ruled by the Croatian princes, Paul and Mladen Šubić, who, though vassals of Hungary, reunited the provinces of Upper and Lower Bosnia, created by the Hungarians in order to prevent the growth of a dangerous national unity. A rising of the native magnates in 1322 resulted in the election of the Bogomil, Stephen Kotromanić, last and greatest of the Bosnian bans.
At this period the Servian empire had reached its zenith; Hungary, governed by the feeble monarch, Charles Robert of Anjou, was striving to crush the insurgent magnates of Croatia; Venice, whose commercial interests were Stephen Kotromanic. imperilled, desired to restore peace and maintain the balance of power. Dread of Servia impelled Kotromanic to aid Hungary. In an unsuccessful war against the Croats (1322-26), from which Venice derived the sole advantage, the ban appears to have learned the value of sea-power; immediately afterwards he occupied the principality of Hlum and the Dalmatian littoral between Spalato and the river Narenta. Ragusa furnished him with money and a fleet, in return for a guarantee of protection; commercial treaties with Venice further strengthened his position; and the Vatican, which had instigated the Croats to invade the dominions of their heretical neighbour (1337-40), was conciliated by his conversion to Roman Catholicism. Defeated by the Servian tsar Dushan, and driven to ally himself with Servia and Venice against Louis I. of Hungary, Kotromanic returned to his allegiance in 1344. Four years later his influence brought about a truce between Hungary and the Venetians, who had agreed with Bosnia for mutual support against the Croats; and in 1353, the year of his death, his daughter Elizabeth was married to King Louis.
Stephen Tvrtko, the nephew and successor of Kotromanić, was a minor, and for thirteen years his mother, Helena, acted as regent. Confronted by civil war, and deprived of Hlum by the Hungarians, she was compelled to acknowledge Establishment of the Bosnian kingdom. the suzerainty of Stephen Dushan, and afterwards of Louis. But in 1366 Tvrtko overcame all opposition at home, and forthwith embarked on a career of conquest, recapturing Hlum and annexing part of Dalmatia. The death of Stephen Dushan, in 1356, had left his empire defenceless against the Hungarians, Turks and other enemies; and to win help from Bosnia the Servian tsar Lazar ceded to Tvrtko a large tract of territory, including the principality of Tribunia. In 1376 Tvrtko was crowned as “Stephen I., king of Bosnia, Servia, and all the Sea-coast,” although Lazar retained his own title and a diminished authority. The death of Louis in 1392, the regency of his widow Elizabeth, and a fresh outbreak in Croatia, enabled Tvrtko to fulfil his predecessor’s designs by establishing a maritime state. With Venetian aid he wrested from Hungary the entire Adriatic littoral between Fiume and Cattaro, except the city of Zara; thus adding Dalmatia to his kingdom at the moment when Servia was lost through the Ottoman victory of Kossovo (1389). At his coronation he had proclaimed his purpose to revive the ancient Servian empire; in 1378 he had married the daughter of the last Bulgarian tsar; and it is probable that he dreamed of founding an empire which should extend from the Adriatic to the Black Sea. The disaster of Kossovo, though fatal to his ambition, did not immediately react on Bosnia itself; and when Tvrtko died in 1391, his kingdom was still at the summit of its prosperity.
Kotromanić and Tvrtko had known how to crush or conciliate their turbulent magnates, whose power reasserted itself under Dabisa (Stephen II., 1391-1398), a brother of Tvrtko. Sigismond of Hungary profited by the disorder that Decline of the Bosnian kingdom. ensued to regain Croatia and Dalmatia; and in 1398 the Turks, aided by renegade Slavs,[5] overran Bosnia. Ostoja (Stephen III., 1398-1418), an illegitimate son of Tvrtko, proved a puppet in the hands of Hrvoje Vukčić, duke of Spalato, Sandalj Hranić,[6] and other leaders of the aristocracy, who fought indifferently against the Turks, the Hungarians, the king or one another. Some upheld a rival claimant to the throne in Tvrtković, a legitimate son of Tvrtko, and all took sides in the incessant feud between Bogomils and Roman Catholics. During the reigns of Ostojić (Stephen IV., 1418-1421) and Tvrtković (Stephen V., 1421-1444) Bosnia was thus left an easy prey to the Turks, who exacted a yearly tribute, after again ravaging the country, and carrying off many thousands of slaves, with a vast store of plunder.
The losses inflicted on the Turks by Hunyadi János, and the attempt to organize a defensive league among the neighbouring Christian lands, temporarily averted the ruin of Bosnia under Thomas Ostojić (Stephen VI., 1444-1461). Turkish conquest. Hoping to gain active support from the Vatican, Ostojic renounced Bogomilism, and persecuted his former co-religionists, until the menace of an insurrection forced him to grant an amnesty. His position was endangered by the growing power of his father-in-law, Stephen Vukcic, an ardent Bogomil, who had united Tribunia and Hlum into a single principality. Vukčić—or Cosaccia, as he is frequently called by the contemporary chroniclers, from his birthplace, Cosac—was the first and last holder of the title “Duke of St Sava,” conferred on him by the emperor Frederick III. in 1448; and from this title is derived the name Herzegovina, or “the Duchy.” Hardly had the king become reconciled with this formidable antagonist, when, in 1453, the death of Hunyadi, and the fall of Constantinople, left Bosnia defenceless against the Turks. In 1460 it was again invaded. Venice and the Papacy were unable, and Hungary unwilling, to render assistance; while the Croats proved actively hostile. Ostojic died in 1461, and his successor Tomašević (Stephen VII., 1461-1463) surrendered to the Turks and was beheaded. Herzegovina, where Vukčić offered a desperate resistance, held out until 1483; but apart from the heroic defence of Jajce, the efforts of the Bosnians were feeble and inglorious, many of the Bogomils joining the enemy. From 1463 the greater part of the country submitted to the Turks; but the districts of Jajce and Srebrenica were occupied by Hungarian garrisons, and organized as a separate “banate” or “kingdom of Bosnia,” until 1526, when the Hungarian power was broken at Mohács. In 1528 Jajce surrendered, after repelling every attack by the Turkish armies for 65 years.
The fall of Jajce was the consummation of the Turkish conquest. It was followed by the flight of large bodies of Christian refugees. Many of the Roman Catholics withdrew into Croatia-Slavonia and south Hungary, where they ultimately fell again under Ottoman dominion. Others found shelter in Rome or Venice, and a large number settled in Ragusa, where they doubtless contributed to the remarkable literary development of the 16th and 17th centuries in which the use of the Bosnian dialect was a characteristic feature. Some of the most daring spirits waged war on their conquerors from Clissa in Dalmatia, and afterwards from Zengg in maritime Croatia, where they formed the notorious pirate community of the Uskoks (q.v.). There was less inducement for the Orthodox inhabitants to emigrate, because almost all the neighbouring lands were governed by Moslems or Roman Catholics; and at home the peasants were permitted to retain their creed and communal organization. Judged by its influence on Bosnian politics, the Orthodox community was relatively unimportant at the Turkish conquest; and its subsequent growth is perhaps due to the official recognition of the Greek Church, as the representative of Christianity in Turkey. The Christian aristocracy lost its privileges, but its ancient titles of duke (vojvod) and count (knez) did not disappear. The first was retained by the leaders who still carried on the struggle for liberty in Montenegro; the second was transferred to the headmen of the communes. Many of the Franciscans refused to abandon their work, and in 1463 they received a charter from the sultan Mahomet II., which is still preserved in the monastery of Fojnica, near Travnik. This toleration of religious orders, though it did not prevent occasional outrages, remained to the last characteristic of Turkish policy in Bosnia; and even in 1868 a colony of Trappist monks was permitted to settle in Banjaluka.
The Turkish triumph was the opportunity of the Bogomils, who thenceforth, assuming a new character, controlled the destinies of their country for more than three centuries. Bosnia was regarded by successive sultans as the Bosnia under Turkish rule. gateway into Hungary; hatred of the Hungarians and their religion was hereditary among the Bogomils. Thus the desire for vengeance and the prospect of a brilliant military career impelled the Bogomil magnates to adopt the creed of Islam, which, in its austerity, presented some points of resemblance to their own doctrines. The nominal governor of the country was the Turkish vali, who resided at Banjaluka or Travnik, and rarely interfered in local affairs, if the taxes were duly paid. Below him ranked the newly converted Moslem aristocracy, who adopted the dress, titles and etiquette of the Turkish court, without relinquishing their language or many of their old customs. They dwelt in fortified towns or castles, where the vali was only admitted on sufferance for a few days; and, at the outset, they formed a separate military caste, headed by 48 kapetans—landholders exercising unfettered authority over their retainers and Christian serfs, but bound, in return, to provide a company of mounted troops for the service of their sovereign. Their favourite pursuits were fighting, either against a common enemy or among themselves, hunting, hawking and listening to the minstrels who celebrated their exploits. Their yearly visits to Serajevo assumed in time the character of an informal parliament, for the discussion of national questions; and their rights tended always to increase, and to become hereditary, in fact, though not in law. In every important campaign of the Turkish armies, these descendants of the Bogomils were represented; they amassed considerable wealth from the spoils of war, and frequently rose to high military and administrative positions. Thus, in 1570, Ali Pasha, a native of Herzegovina, became grand vizier; and he was succeeded by the distinguished soldier and statesman, Mahomet Beg Sokolović, a Bosnian. Below the feudal nobility and their Moslem soldiers came the Christian serfs, tillers of the soil and taxpayers, whose lives and property were at the mercy of their lords. The hardships of their lot, and, above all, the system by which the strongest of their sons were carried off as recruits for the corps of janissaries (q.v.), frequently drove them to brigandage, and occasionally to open revolt.
These conditions lasted until the 19th century, and meanwhile the country was involved in the series of wars waged by the Turks against Austria, Hungary and Venice. In the Krajina and all along the Montenegrin frontier, External history 1528-1821. Moslems and Christians carried on a ceaseless feud, irrespective of any treaties concluded by their rulers; while the Turkish campaigns in Hungary provided constant occupation for the nobles during a large part of the 16th and 17th centuries. But after the Ottoman defeat at Vienna in 1683, the situation changed. Instead of extending the foreign conquests of their sultan, the Bosnians were hard pressed to defend their own borders. Zvornik fell before the Austro-Hungarian army in 1688, and the Turkish vali, who was still officially styled the “vali of Hungary,” removed his headquarters from Banjaluka to Travnik, a more southerly, and therefore a safer capital. Two years later, the imperial troops reached Dolnja Tuzla, and retired with 3000 Roman Catholic emigrants. Serajevo was burned in 1697 by Eugene of Savoy, who similarly deported 40,000 Christians. The treaties of Carlowitz (1699) and Passarowitz (1718) deprived the Turks of all the Primorje, or littoral of Herzegovina, except the narrow enclaves of Klek and Suttorina, left to sunder the Ragusan dominions from those of Venice. At the same time a strip of territory in northern Bosnia was ceded to Austria, which was thus able to control both banks of the Save. This territory was restored to Turkey in 1739, at the peace of Belgrade;[7] but in 1790 it was reoccupied by Austrian troops. Finally, in 1791, the treaty of Sistova again fixed the line of the Save and Una as the Bosnian frontier.
The reform of the Ottoman government contemplated by the sultan Mahmud II. (1808-1839) was bitterly resented in Bosnia, where Turkish prestige had already been weakened by the establishment of Servian autonomy under Moslem rebellions. Karageorge. Many of the janissaries had married and settled on the land, forming a strongly conservative and fanatical caste, friendly to the Moslem nobles, who now dreaded the curtailment of their own privileges. Their opportunity came in 1820, when the Porte was striving to repress the insurrections in Moldavia, Albania and Greece. A first Bosnian revolt was crushed in 1821; a second, due principally to the massacre of the janissaries, was quelled with much bloodshed in 1827. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29, a further attempt at reform was initiated by the sultan and his grand vizier, Reshid Pasha. Two years later came a most formidable outbreak; the sultan was denounced as false to Islam, and the Bosnian nobles gathered at Banjaluka, determined to march on Constantinople, and reconquer the Ottoman empire for the true faith. A holy war was preached by their leader, Hussein Aga Berberli, a brilliant soldier and orator, who called himself Zmaj Bosanski, the “Dragon of Bosnia,” and was regarded by his followers as a saint. The Moslems of Herzegovina, under Ali Pasha Rizvanbegovic, remained loyal to the Porte, but in Bosnia Hussein Aga encountered little resistance. At Kossovo he was reinforced by 20,000 Albanians, led by the rebel Mustapha Pasha; and within a few weeks the united armies occupied the whole of Bulgaria, and a large part of Macedonia. Their career was checked by Reshid Pasha, who persuaded the two victorious commanders to intrigue against one another, secured the division of their forces, and then fell upon each in turn. The rout of the Albanians at Prilipe and the capture of Mustapha at Scutari were followed by an invasion of Bosnia. After a desperate defence, Hussein Aga fled to Esseg in Croatia-Slavonia; his appeal for pardon was rejected, and in 1832 he was banished for life to Tribizond. The power of the Bosnian nobles, though shaken by their defeat, remained unbroken; and they resisted vigorously when their kapetanates were abolished in 1837; and again when a measure of equality before the law was conceded to the Christians in 1839. In Herzegovina, Ali Pasha Rizvanbegović reaped the reward of his fidelity. He was left free to tyrannize over his Christian subjects, a king in all but name. In 1840 he descended from his mountain stronghold of Stolac to wage war upon the vladika Peter II. of Montenegro, and simultaneously to suppress a Christian rising. Peace was arranged at Ragusa in 1842, and it was rumoured that Ali had concluded a secret alliance with Montenegro, hoping to shake off the suzerainty of the sultan, and to found an entirely independent kingdom. It is impossible to verify this charge, but during the troubled years that ensued, Ali pursued an elaborate policy of intrigue. He sent large bribes to influential persons at Constantinople; he aided the Turkish vali to repress the Christians, who had again revolted; and he supported the Bosnian nobles against reforms imposed by the vali. At last, in 1850, a Turkish army was despatched to restore quiet. Ali Pasha openly professed himself a loyal subject, but secretly sent reinforcements to the rebel aristocracy. The Turks proved everywhere successful. After a cordial reception by their commander Omer or Omar Pasha, Ali was imprisoned; he was shortly afterwards assassinated, lest his lavish bribery of Turkish officials should restore him to favour, and bring disgrace on his captor (March 1851).
The downfall of the Moslem aristocracy resulted in an important administrative change: Serajevo, which had long been the commercial centre of the country, and the jealously guarded stronghold of the nobles, superseded Travnik Condition of the serfs. as the official capital, and the residence of the vali. A variety of other reforms, including the reorganization of Moslem education, were introduced by Omer Pasha, who governed the country until 1860. But as the administration grew stronger, the position of the peasantry became worse. They had now to satisfy the imperial tax-farmers and excisemen, as well as their feudal lords. The begs and agas continued to exact their forced labour and one-third of their produce; the central government imposed a tithe which had become an eighth by 1875. Three kinds of cattle-tax, the tax for exemption from military service, levied on every newborn male, forced labour on the roads, forced loan of horses, a heavy excise on grapes and tobacco, and a variety of lesser taxes combined to burden the Christian serfs; but even more galling than the amount was the manner in which these dues were exacted—the extortionate assessments of tax-farmers and excisemen, the brutal licence of the soldiery who were quartered on recalcitrant villagers. A crisis was precipitated by the example of Servian independence, the hope of Austrian intervention, and the public bankruptcy of Turkey.
Sporadic insurrections had already broken out among the Bosnian Christians, and on the 1st of July 1875 the villagers of Nevesinje, which gives its name to a mountain range east of Mostar, rose against the Turks. Within Christian rising of 1875. a few weeks the whole country was involved. The Herzegovinians, under their leaders Peko Pavlović, Socica, Ljubibratić, and others, held out for a year against all the forces that Turkey could despatch against them.[8] In July 1876 Servia and Montenegro joined the struggle, and in April 1877 Russia declared war on the sultan.
The Austro-Hungarian occupation, authorized on the 13th of July 1878 by the treaty of Berlin (arts. 23 and 26), was not easily effected; and, owing to the difficulty of military operations among the mountains, it was necessary to Austro-Hungarian occupation, 1878-1908. employ a force of 200,000 men. Haji Loja, the native leader, was supported by a body of Albanians and mutinous Turkish troops, while the whole Moslem population bitterly resented the proposed change. The losses on both sides were very heavy, and, besides those who fell in battle, many of the insurgents were executed under martial law. But after a series of stubbornly contested engagements, the Austrian general, Philippovic, entered Serajevo on the 19th of August, and ended the campaign on the 20th of September, by the capture of Bihac in the north-west, and of Klobuk in Herzegovina. The government of the country was then handed over to the imperial ministry of finance; but the bureaucratic methods of the finance ministers, Baron von Hoffmann and Joseph de Szlávy, resulted only in the insurrection of 1881-82. Order was restored in June 1882, when the administration was entrusted to Benjamin von Kállay (q.v.), as imperial minister of finance. Kállay retained this position until his death on the 13th of July 1903, when he was succeeded by Baron Stephan Burian de Rajecz. During this period life and property were rendered secure, and great progress was achieved, on the lines already indicated, in creating an efficient civil service, harmonizing Moslem law with new enactments, promoting commerce, carrying out important public works, and reorganizing the fiscal and educational systems. All classes and creeds were treated impartially; and, although the administration has been reproached alike for undue harshness and undue leniency, neither accusation can be sustained. Critics have also urged that Kállay fostered the desire for material welfare at the cost of every other national ideal; that, despite his own popularity, he never secured the goodwill of the people for Austria-Hungary; that he left the agrarian difficulty unsolved, and the hostile religious factions unreconciled. These charges are not wholly unfounded; but the chief social and political evils in Bosnia and Herzegovina may be traced to historical causes operative long before the Austro-Hungarian occupation, and above all to the political ambition of the rival churches. Justly to estimate the work done by Kállay, it is only necessary to point to the contrast between Bosnia in 1882 and Bosnia in 1903; for in 21 years the anarchy and ruin entailed by four centuries of misrule were transformed into a condition of prosperity unsurpassed in south-eastern Europe.
It was no doubt natural that Austrian statesmen should wish to end the anomalous situation created by the treaty of Berlin, by incorporating Bosnia and Herzegovina into the Dual Monarchy. The treaty had contemplated the Austrian annexation. evacuation of the occupied provinces after the restoration of order and prosperity; and this had been expressly stipulated in an agreement signed by the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman plenipotentiaries at Berlin, as a condition of Turkish assent to the provisions of the treaty. But the Turkish reform movement of 1908 seemed to promise a revival of Ottoman power, which might in time have enabled the Turks to demand the promised evacuation, and thus to reap all the ultimate benefits of the Austrian administration. The reforms in Turkey certainly encouraged the Serb and Moslem inhabitants of the occupied territory to petition the emperor for the grant of a constitution similar to that in force in the provinces of Austria proper. But the Austro-Hungarian government, profiting by the weakness of Russia after the war with Japan, and aware that the proclamation of Bulgarian independence was imminent, had already decided to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina, in spite of the pledges given at Berlin, and although the proposal was unpopular in Hungary. Its decision, after being communicated to the sovereigns of the powers signatory to the treaty of Berlin, in a series of autograph letters from the emperor Francis Joseph, was made known to Bosnia and Herzegovina in an imperial rescript published on the 7th of October 1908. The Serb and Moslem delegates, who had started on the same day for Budapest, to present their petition to the emperor, learned from the rescript that the government intended to concede to their compatriots “a share in the legislation and administration of provincial affairs, and equal protection for all religious beliefs, languages and racial distinctions.” The separate administration was, however, to be maintained, and the rescript did not promise that the new provincial diet would be more than a consultative assembly, elected on a strictly limited franchise.
Bibliography.—G. Capus, A travers la Bosnie et l’Herzégovine (Paris, 1896) contains a detailed and fully illustrated account of the combined provinces, their resources and population. J. Asbóth, An Official Tour through Bosnia and Herzegovina (London, 1890) is valuable for details of local history, antiquities and topography: A. Bordeaux, La Bosnie populaire (Paris, 1904) for social life and mining. Much information is also contained in the works by Lamouche, Miller, Thomson, Joanne, Cambon, Millet, Hamard and Laveleye, cited under the heading [Balkan Peninsula]. See also B. Nikašinović, Bosnien und die Herzegovina unter der Verwaltung der österreich-ungarischen Monarchie (Berlin, 1901, &c.), and M. Oransz, Auf dem Rade durch Kroatien und Bosnien (Vienna, 1903). The best map is that of the Austrian General Staff. See also for geology, J. Cvijić, Morphologische und glaciale Studien aus Bosnien (Vienna, 1900); F. Katzer, Geologischer Führer durch Bosnien und Herzegovina (Serajevo, 1903); P. Ballif, Wasserbauten in Bosnien und Herzegovina (Vienna, 1896). Sport: “Snaffle,” In the Land of the Bora (London, 1897). Agriculture and Commerce: annual British consular reports, and the official Ergebnisse der Viehzahlungen (1879 and 1895), and Landwirtschaft in Bosnien und Herzegovina (1899). The chief official publications are in German. For antiquities, see R. Munro, Through Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia (Edinburgh, 1900); A.J. Evans, Illyrian Letters (London, 1878); W. Radimský, Die neolithische Station von Butmir (Vienna 1895-1898); P. Ballif, Römische Strassen in Bosnien und Herzegovina (Vienna, 1893, &c.). No adequate history of Bosnia was published up to the 20th century; but the chief materials for such a work are contained in the following books:—A. Theiner, Vetera monumenta historica Hungariam sacram illustrantia (Rome, 1860) and Vetera monumenta Slavorum Meridionalium (1. Rome, 1863; 2. Agram, 1875),—these are collections of Latin documents from the Vatican library; V. Makushev, Monumenta historica Slavorum Meridionalium (Belgrade, 1885); Y. Shafarik, Acta archivi Veneti spectantia ad historiam Serborum, &c. (Belgrade, 1860-1862); F. Miklosich, Monumenta Serbica (Vienna, 1858). Other important authorities are G. Lucio, De Regno Dalmatiae et Croatiae (Amsterdam, 1666); M. Orbini, Regno degli Slavi (Pesaro 1601); D. Farlatus and others, Illyricum Sacrum (Venice, 1751-1819); C. du Fresne du Cange, Illyricum vetus et novum (1746); M. Simek, Politische Geschichte des Königreiches Bosnien und Rama (Vienna, 1787). The best modern history, though valueless for the period after 1463, is by P. Coquelle, Histoire du Monténégro et de la Bosnie (Paris, 1895). See also V. Klaić, Geschichte Bosniens (Leipzig 1884). J. Spalaïkovitch (Spalajković), in La Bosnie et l’Herzégovine (Paris, 1897), give a critical account of the Austro-Hungarian administration.
(K. G. J.)
[1] This was soon modified in detail. Arrears of debt, for instance, were made recoverable for one year only, instead of the ten years allowed by Turkish law.
[2] De Administrando Imperio, 33 and 34. The names of Chulmia and Chelmo, applied to this region by later Latin and Italian chroniclers, are occasionally adopted by English writers.
[3] For the commercial and political relations of Ragusa and Bosnia, see L. Villari, The Republic of Ragusa (London, 1904).
[4] Given by Theiner, Vetera monumenta Hungariam ... illustrantia, 173-185.
[5] This is the first recorded instance of such an alliance. The Slavs were probably Bogomils.
[6] These magnates played a considerable part in the politics of south-eastern Europe; see especially their correspondence with the Venetian Republic, given by Shafarik, Acta archivi Veneti, &c.
[7] For details of these events see Umar Effendi, History of the War in Bosnia (1737-1739). Translated by C. Fraser (London, 1830).
[8] For the Christian rebellion and its causes, see A.J. Evans, Through Bosnia and Herzegovina on Foot (London, 1876); and W.J. Stillman, Herzegovina and the Late Uprising (London, 1877).
BOSPORUS, or Bosphorus (Gr. Βόσπορος = ox-ford, traditionally connected with Io, daughter of Inachus, who, in the form of a heifer, crossed the Thracian Bosporus on her wanderings). By the ancients this name, signifying a strait, was especially applied to the Bosporus Cimmerius (see below), and the Bosporus Thracius; but when used without any adjective it now denotes the latter, which unites the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmora and forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. The channel is 18 m. long, and has a maximum breadth at the northern entrance of 2¾ m., a minimum breadth of about 800 yds., and a depth varying from 20 to 66 fathoms in mid-stream. In the centre there is a rapid current from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmora, but a counter-current sets in the opposite direction below the surface and along the shores. The surface current varies in speed, but averages nearly 3 m. an hour; though at narrow places it may run at double this pace. The strait is very rarely frozen over, though history records a few instances; and the Golden Horn, the inlet on either side of which Constantinople lies, has been partially frozen over occasionally in modern times. The shores of the Bosporus are composed in the northern portion of different volcanic rocks, such as dolerite, granite and trachyte; but along the remaining course of the channel the prevailing formations are Devonian, consisting of sandstones, marls, quartzose conglomerates, and calcareous deposits of various kinds. The scenery on both sides is of the most varied and beautiful description, many villages lining each well-wooded shore, while on the European side are numerous fine residences of the wealthy class of Constantinople. The Bosporus is under Turkish dominion, and by treaty of 1841, confirmed by the treaty of Berlin in 1878 and at other times, no ship of war other than Turkish may pass through the strait (or through the Dardanelles) without the countenance of the Porte. (See also [Constantinople].)
BOSPORUS CIMMERIUS, the ancient name for the Straits of Kerch or Yenikale, connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov; the Cimmerii (q.v.) were the ancient inhabitants. The straits are about 25 m. long and 2½ m. broad at the narrowest, and are formed by an eastern extension of the Crimea and the peninsula of Taman, a kind of continuation of the Caucasus. This in ancient times seems to have formed a group of islands intersected by arms of the Hypanis or Kuban and various sounds now silted up. The whole district was dotted with Greek cities; on the west side, Panticapaeum (Kerch, q.v.), the chief of all, often itself called Bosporus, and Nymphaeum (Eltegen); on the east Phanagoria (Sênnája), Cepi, Hermonassa, Portus Sindicus, Gorgippia (Anapa). These were mostly settled by Milesians, Panticapaeum in the 7th or early in the 6th century B.C., but Phanagoria (c. 540 B.C.) was a colony of Teos, and Nymphaeum had some connexion with Athens—at least it appears to have been a member of the Delian Confederacy. The towns have left hardly any architectural or sculptural remains, but the numerous barrows in their neighbourhood have yielded very beautiful objects now mostly preserved in the Hermitage in St Petersburg. They comprise especially gold work, vases exported from Athens, textiles and specimens of carpentry and marquetry. The numerous terra-cottas are rather rude in style.
According to Diodorus Siculus (xii. 31) the locality was governed from 480 to 438 B.C. by the Archaeanactidae, probably a ruling family, who gave place to a tyrant Spartocus (438-431 B.C.), apparently a Thracian. He founded a dynasty which seems to have endured until c. 110 B.C. The Spartocids have left many inscriptions which tell us that the earlier members of the house ruled as archons of the Greek cities and kings of various native tribes, notably the Sindi of the island district and other branches of the Maitae (Maeotae). The text of Diodorus, the inscriptions and the coins do not supply sufficient material for a complete list of them. Satyrus (431-387), the successor of Spartocus, established his rule over the whole district, adding Nymphaeum to his dominions and laying siege to Theodosia, which was a serious commercial rival by reason of its ice-free port and direct proximity to the cornfields of the eastern Crimea. It was reserved for his son Leucon (387-347) to take this city. He was succeeded by his two sons conjointly, Spartocus II. and Paerisades; the former died in 342 and his brother reigned alone until 310. Then followed a civil war in which Eumelus (310-303) was successful. His successor was Spartocus III. (303-283) and after him Paerisades II. Succeeding princes repeated the family names, but we cannot assign them any certain order. We know only that the last of them, a Paerisades, unable to make headway against the power of the natives, called in the help of Diophantus, general of Mithradates VI. (the Great) of Pontus, promising to hand over his kingdom to that prince. He was slain by a Scythian Saumacus who led a rebellion against him. The house of Spartocus was well known as a line of enlightened and wise princes; although Greek opinion could not deny that they were, strictly speaking, tyrants, they are always described as dynasts. They maintained close relations with Athens, their best customers for the Bosporan corn export, of which Leucon I. set the staple at Theodosia, where the Attic ships were allowed special privileges. We have many references to this in the Attic orators. In return the Athenians granted him Athenian citizenship and set up decrees in honour of him and his sons. Mithradates the Great entrusted the Bosporus Cimmerius to his son Machares, who, however, deserted to the Romans. But even when driven out of his own kingdom by Pompey, Mithradates was strong enough to regain the Bosporus Cimmerius, and Machares slew himself. Subsequently the Bosporans again rose in revolt under Pharnaces, another of the old king’s sons. After the death of Mithradates (B.C. 63), this Pharnaces (63-47) made his submission to Pompey, but tried to regain his dominion during the civil war. He was defeated by Caesar at Zela, and on his return to Rome was slain by a pretender Asander who married his daughter Dynamis, and in spite of Roman nominees ruled as archon, and later as king, until 16 B.C. After his death Dynamis was compelled to marry an adventurer Scribonius, but the Romans under Agrippa interfered and set Polemon (14-8) in his place. To him succeeded Aspurgus (8 B.C.-A.D. 38?), son of Asander, who founded a line of kings which endured with certain interruptions until A.D. 341. These kings, who mostly bore the Thracian names of Cotys, Rhescuporis, Rhoemetalces, and the native name Sauromates, claimed descent from Mithradates the Great, and used the Pontic era (starting from 297 B.C.) introduced by him, regularly placing dates upon their coins and inscriptions. Hence we know their names and dates fairly well, though scarcely any events of their reigns are recorded. Their kingdom covered the eastern half of the Crimea and the Taman peninsula, and extended along the east coast of the Sea of Azov to Tanais at the mouth of the Don, a great mart for trade with the interior. They carried on a perpetual war with the native tribes, and in this were supported by their Roman suzerains, who even lent the assistance of garrison and fleet. At times rival kings of some other race arose and probably produced some disorganization. At one of these periods (A.D. 255) the Goths and Borani were enabled to seize Bosporan shipping and raid the shores of Asia Minor. With the last coin of the last Rhescuporis, A.D. 341, materials for a connected history of the Bosporus Cimmerius come to an end. The kingdom probably succumbed to the Huns established in the neighbourhood. In later times it seems in some sort to have been revived under Byzantine protection, and from time to time Byzantine officers built fortresses and exercised authority at Bosporus, which was constituted an archbishopric. They also held Ta Matarcha on the Asiatic side of the strait, a town which in the 10th and 11th centuries became the seat of the Russian principality of Tmutarakan, which in its turn gave place to Tatar domination.
The Bosporan kingdom is interesting as the first Hellenistic state, the first, that is to say, in which a mixed population adopted the Greek language and civilization. It depended for its prosperity upon the export of wheat, fish and slaves, and this commerce supported a class whose wealth and vulgarity are exemplified by the contents of the numerous tombs to which reference has been made. In later times a Jewish element was added to the population, and under its influence were developed in all the cities of the kingdom, especially Tanais, societies of “worshippers of the highest God,” apparently professing a monotheism which without being distinctively Jewish or Christian was purer than any found among the inhabitants of the Empire.
We possess a large series of coins of Panticapaeum and other cities from the 5th century B.C. The gold staters of Panticapaeum bearing Pan’s head and a griffin are specially remarkable for their weight and fine workmanship. We have also coins with the names of the later Spartocids and a singularly complete series of dated solidi issued by the later or Achaemenian dynasty; in them may be noticed the swift degeneration of the gold solidus through silver and potin to bronze (see also [Numismatics]).
See, for history, introduction to V.V. Latyshev, Inscrr. orae Septent. Ponti Euxini, vol. ii. (St Petersburg, 1890); art. “Bosporus” (2) by C.G. Brandis in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl. vol. iii. 757 (Stuttgart, 1899); E.H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks (Cambridge, 1907). For inscriptions, Latyshev as above and vol. iv. (St Petersburg, 1901). Coins: B. Koehne, Musée Kotschoubey (St Petersburg, 1855). Religious Societies: E. Schürer in Sitzber. d. k. pr. Akad. d. Wissenschaft zu Berlin (1897), i. pp. 200-227. Excavations: Antiquités du Bosphore cimmérien (St Petersburg, 1854, repr. Paris, 1892) and Compte rendu and Bulletin de la Commission Imp. Archéologique de St. Pétersbourg.

