BASILAN
sedueed to land under a false pretext, by the king of the island of ^ebu,
re treacherously murdered, with four-and-twenty of their companions. On this the
bpamsh ships set sail, and nothmg more was ever heard of Barbosa. The «inppila.r
knowledge which Pigafetta, who had never been himself in India, until he accompanied
Magellan, displays respecting it may, in some measure, be accounted for, when it is
considered that he was the shipmate of one so well informed as Barbosa.
BARON (NITSA). The island of Baron, the second in size of the few islands
Q?o!i,ern -0f Java’ forms Part Latitude south 3 8 32 , and longitude east 113° IS'. of the province of Besukie.
BARROS, JAO DE, the author of the classical history of the Portuguese dis-
covenes and conquests m India, was born in 1496, and died on the 20th of October,
1570 He had never visited any part of India, but placed in charge of the Indian
records, under the name of Feitor da casa da India, he had the best means of
i “ formation . and, for the time in which he lived, certainly made
a faithful and judicious use of his opportunities. His appointment to the charge of
the Indian records took place m 1532, only 34 years after the first arrival of the
A^VgUl6Se m mi. « a? , j 23/ £ er tlieir flrsfc appearance in the waters of the
« f t S i ^ 5 ecade of -De Barros History was published in 1552, and the
second, that which treats of the Indian Islands, in the following year. The third
was not published until ten years after the second, and the fourth and last was
posthumous. De Barros was 15 years of age when Malacca was conquered, and Java
and the Spice Islands discovered, and 20 at the time of Alboquerque’s death. He
may, therefore, be considered as a contemporary of Alboquerque, whose achievements
he narrates, and to stand pretty nearly m the same relation to him that the historian
Orme does to the English conqueror Clive.
BARUS. The name of a place on the western coast of Sumatra, situated about a
league up a small river, and within the territory of the nation of the Bataks, although
Baras itself be a Malay colony. At one time, it seems to have been a place of some
eminence for native trade ; but at present is chiefly known for giving its name to
the native camphor (kapur-barus), on which the Chinese set so high and, seemingly
so capricious a value. North latitude 1° 59' 35", east longitude 98° 23° 30".
BASHEE ISLANDS. The name of a cluster of islets to the north of the Babuyanes
Isles, at the northern end of Luzon. The celebrated Dampier and his bucca-
neeriDg^ comrades gave them this name when they visited them in 1687. “ These
islands, says Dampier, | having no particular names in the drafts, some or other of '
us made use of the seaman’s privilege to give them what names we pleased.
JLhree ot the islands were pretty large; the westernmost is the biggest. This the
Dutchmen who were among us called the Prince of Orange’s Island, in honour of
his present majesty. The other two great islands are about four or five leagues to
the eastward of this. _ The northernmost of them, where we first anchored, I called
the Luke of Grafton s Isle as soon as we landed on it, having married my wife out of
the duchess s family, and leaving her at Arlington House at my going abroad The
other great isle, our seamen called the Duke of Monmouth’s Island. Between
Monmouth and the south end of Orange Island, there are two small islands of
roundish form, lying east and west. The easternmost island of the two, our men
unanimously called Bashee Island, from a liquor which we drank there plentifullv
every day after we cameto an anchor at it/’ He adds, “ And, indeed, from the
plenty of this liquor (a kind of beer), and their plentiful use of it, our men called
these islands the Bashee Islands.” Most probably, however, all this is a mistake
°u- u the islands have native names, and the particular one
which he thinks was called after a native liquor, is in reality Basay, while the one he
names after his patron, the first Duke of Grafton, whose duchess condescended
to let the great navigator have one of her maid-servants for a wife, is that which
gives name to the whole group. (See Bat an and Batanes.)
BASILAN. A considerable island in the Sulu Sea, lying off the south-western
portion of the great island of Mindano, and parted from it by a strait known to
f t » ? * navigators by its own name. It lies between the latitudes of 6° 42' and
6 26 north and longitudes east 121" 5 0 'and 122=18'. Its length is about seven
leagues, its breadth four, and it is computed to have an area of 355 square geogra-
r u J™ ? ^ k ig h mountains passes through its length. The inhabitants
of Basilan, a scanty population, are of the same race and speak the same language as
the other inhabitants of the Sulu Islands; that is, a language partaking more of the
Philippine than the Malay long
the most prevailing PP s q{^ neighbouring
enjoyed the bad reputation Archipelago, was lately taken possession
■ 1 — «* « i p .— - 5
hoanga in Mindano. . .
Ti aBTST The name of one of the wild tribes of the interior of the Malay peninsula
inhabiting the country inland from fo s tv S te d
form and language they are Malays, and the learned M . . md ® bt dl th original,
Malay for their language, whereas the lattei nave men
peculiar idioms. „
BATAAN, one of the twenty provinces of the great ^ t h i i open sea,
consists of a peninsula, lying between the great Ba? f ( d probably con-
and has a coast line of 68 miles, and an inland 25^X m T ty it his the
s s w w h B B S ' * “ ■ m
various work, with the view of being eventually set at l erty In toW
the parties’ assessed to the
M M E being 8375, and their contribution 8375 reals of plate. Its
relative population gives 104 to the square mile.
BATAGr. An island about half a league off the north-eastern coast of S am a rth e
most northerly of the Philippine group, which goes under the designation of X3# »
or Bisaya. Its length and breadth are respectively two leagues and one leagu ,
living it an area of two leagues. On its south-west coast, and within the strait
which divides it from Samar, it has one village, forming a part of the district of
Palapag, in Samar.
BATAK One of the advanced nations of Sumatra, although among these the
lowest in the scale of civilisation. They are bounded to the north by the Achmese,
and to the south by the Malayan nation, the latter having encroached so much on
their coasts as to leave them little communication with the sea, either on the eastern
or western coast of the island, thus making them essentially an inland people. The
country of the Bataks lies in that part of Sumatra which is the narrowest, and where
the breadth does not exceed 100 miles. Its mountains are of no great elevation, the
lushest being from 4000 to 6500 feet only above the level of the sea. A portion of
the interior consists of an extensive plateau, but of what elevation is not stated. The
Dutch have of late years, extending their conquests into the interior of the island,
which no European nation had before attempted,-wrested two provinces in the heart
of their country from the Bataks, and the account they have pven of these is the only
reliable one we possess of the nature of theBatak country. Their names are Mandetmg
and P&rfcibi, and the first of them, although it has rugged and sterile portions has
also a series or chain of fertile valleys under culture of nee by irngation lying
between the mountains B&rapi and Mali. The first of these is about 5500 feet in
height, and judging by its name is probably volcanic, and being such may account for
the fertility of the valleys at its foot. The physical geography of the province of