BUHI or BUJI. The name of one of several lakes in the volcanic province
of South Camarines, in the island of Luzon. It is about three miles long, and two
broad, and its neighbourhood is fertile and highly cultivated with rice, the abaca
banana, indigo, sesame, cacao, and sugar-cane. The lake is a rioh fishery; and on its
southern shore is a native town, of the same name, with 6 804 inhabitants. This
stands near the source of a river, also of the same name, which empties the surplus
water of the lake in the sea, in north latitude 13° 24', and east longitude 128° 25'.
BUITENZORG. The name of the country-palaee of the Dutch Governor-General
of India. The word is equivalent to the French Sans Souci. The native name of the
palace is Bogor, which, in Javanese, means a mat or carpet. Buitenzorg is in the country
of the Sundas, about 40 miles from Batavia, and 865 feet above the level of the sea.
The climate of the place is temperate, and the surrounding country at once fertile
and beautiful. Buitenzorg also gives name to a Dutch province of Java, having an
area of 1064 square miles, and which, by the census of 1847, contained a population
of 260,311; of which 662 were Europeans, 7462 Chinese, 172 slaves, and the rest
Sundas or natives of the country. By the census of 1850, this had risen to 281,896;
of which 545 were Europeans, 8135 Chinese, and 146 slaves.
BUKIT, in Malay, is “ a hill or mountain,” and equivalent to Gunung in Javanese.
Both words are of very frequent occurrence in the names of places.
BULACAN, anciently called Meeaiiayan, one of the 20 provinces of the island of
Luzon. The word means, literally, the sweet potato, convolvulus, batatas, in the
Tagala language. I t lies between north latitudes 14° 40' and 15°, and east longitudes
120° 36' and 121° 8'. I t is bounded by the province of Tondo to the south-east, by
Nueva Ecija to the east, by Pampanga to the north-west, and by the bay of Manilla,
to the length of six leagues, to the west. Its greatest extent from east to west is 30
geographical miles, and its greatest breadth, from north to south, 20. Its area is
about 575 geographical miles. I t is, therefore, one of the smallest provinces of the
Philippine Archipelago; but it is, at the same time, considered to be, beyond dispute,
the richest, the most agreeable, the most salubrious, and the best-cultivated of the
whole. The Spaniards call it “ the garden of the Philippines.”
Bulacan is mountainous to the east, being there penetrated by some spurs of the
eastern Cordillera of Caraballos. I t is rich in iron-ore, obtained with little labour
near the surface. The produce of the mines of Sampang-bacal yield an ore which is
said to give 90 per cent, of iron, equal in quality to that of Biscay in Spain. It has,
also, beds of mineral coal, and gold is obtained by washing the sands of the rivers.
Copper is supposed to exist in the mountains. At a place called Panig, there is an
accumulation of masses of alabaster, some of them ten yards in height, in which is
a curious grotto.
The province has many rivers, the most considerable of which are the Quingua, and
that of Pampanga, which disembogue in the bay of Manilla by several mouths. The
whole coast is a labyrinth of creeks, some of which are navigable for boats to a
considerable distance inland. I t has also several lakes, the most remarkable of which
is that of Hogonoy, an extensive sheet of water, in the season of the rains, from the
overflowing of the river of Pampanga; but in the opposite one, wholly dry, and an
immense meadow, covered with rich herbage, on which numerous herds of different
cattle, but especially of oxen, are pastured.
The mountainous parts of the province yield several kinds of useful timber for
house and ship building, and the shores of the creeks abound in the nipa-palm
(nipa fruticans), of which the leaves furnish the chief material for thatch, while from
the sap, and this is peculiar to the Philippines, is made palm wine, ardent spirits,
vinegar, and sugar. Bulacan, from the abundance of its flowering plants, is rich in
bees’-wax, the produce of wild bees. Its cultivated plants are rice, maiz of which
two, and sometimes three crops are produced yearly,—the sesame and ground-pulse,
both for the production of oil,—cotton, tobacco, sugar-cane, indigo, cacao, and coffee,
the last introduced for the first time in the year 1793. The fisheries of the
coast give employment to many persons, and the province has no fewer than 1500
looms for the manufacture of silk and cotton fabrics, the women appearing to be the
weavers, as in most rude countries of the East.
The inhabitants of Bulacan are, for the most part, of the Tagala nation, speaking
the language of this name. They are described as a simple, credulous, and religious
people, wholly under the government of their priests, whom they consult in every
concern of moment: they look also with reverence to the public authorities. The
white colour alone, say Spanish writers, is sufficient to secure respect, being that of the
men under whom they have advanced to civilisation. In their habits they are regular
and sober, but indolent and addicted to gaming. As among the Javanese, all buying
and selling is the province of the women.
In 1849, the total native population of the province of Bulacan was 213,498, of whom
38,961 were subject to the poll-tax, its total amounting to 389,610 reals of plate. Besides
these there were, in the same year, 15 Spaniards, 691 Spanish mestizos,and 9572 Chinese
mestizos, with 84 pure Chinese, making a total population of 223,860. The relative
population gives no less than 389 to the square mile, which is equal in density to
some of the most populous parts of Java. In 1799, the total population was only
83,671, and in 1818, it had risen to 125,021. In [fifty years’ time it had, therefore,
increased, if these figures can be relied on, by no less than 167 per cent.
BULACAN, the chief town of the province of the same name, situated on a creek
of the bay of Manilla, and distant from the city five and a half leagues. Bulacan contains
1832 houses, and a population of 11,292, of whom 2219 are subject to the
capitation-tax, the sum of which is 22,190 reals of plate. It was founded in 1572, or
about 50 years after the discovery of the Philippines, and is regularly laid out with
straight and ^ spacious streets. Many of the houses belonging to the Spanish and
Chinese mestizos are of stone and well built, but the majority are of wood or bamboo
thatched with nipa-leaf. The most remarkable buildings are the house of the chief
alcalde, the hotel of the wine and tobacco revenues, a preparatory school-house,
supported by the funds of the commune, a magnificent convent of the Augustines,
and a fine church built by the same fraternity. In the neighbourhood there are
many pleasant walks, and excellent roads connect it with the different parts of the
province it belongs to, as well as with the neighbouring ones.
BULOAN. The name of a lake in the island of Mindano, and territory of the
sultan of that island. It is laid down in the maps as being in north latitude 6° 40',
,a“ ® , J,°“gl*ude 124 3 8 described to be 12 leagues in circumference, and
represented to be connected with the larger lake of Linao.
BUNWUT. The name of a small island fronting the bay of Bongo, itself w ithin
the great bay of Ulano, on the southern side of the island of Mindano. It is about
two leagues in length and one in breadth, and has therefore an area of two leagues.
Latitude north 7 8', longitude east 124°. « 8
BURACAN. The name of a lake in the province of Pampanga, and island of
Luzon, formed by the perennial torrents which proceed from the neighbouring
h n iT T mr talr f ^ a y atI » abounds in and water-fowl, hood is richly cultivated with rice, sesame, and tobacco. and its neighbour,
J he name of a considerable island of the Philippine Archipelago,
rinef It^ om a ffis^ n / oon’ forminS Part of tbe province of South Camamountainous
ro lw .^ ,area of 22b square geographical miles, but its surface is
or textile banana ¡Sd if .Uneven; Ita phief products are rice, maiz, and the abaca,
” , ba° ana, and it is poorly cultivated and thinly inhabited, having but one
town and this, which is on the shore fronting Luzon, with no more than 602
inhabitants, being th e whole population of th e island. more t t a n 602
■ . T h e , “ am® of a Philippine palm, probably the Corypha
g b nga of botanists, and the G&bang of the Malays and Javanese. The Philippine
islanders make much use of the several parts of this palm. From the leaves they make
th e d°m • Sap vu . fUgar and a distilled spirit, from the pith a sago, and from
b0iled 111 ™ ter *ield a tbread a c°arse
BURIK. The name of one of the wild and independent tribes of the island of
S 3 £ aT h e T ; “kr h l A bt ;nhhabiting .th e n o rth*m p ^ ^ i w S S o i
as all the j i° / ,Bame brown-complexioned and lank-haired race
and thev?« elvlll.sed people of the Philippines. In their persons they are robust
hrr%ati<nm and rearhewh V T ^ ! 6 amount °f culture? for they r a i^ r ic e by
the body’ so as to represent the figure 7 r** Th°le °rf the upper Portion of
Spanish writers hav^umned to f h l a /=0atof'“ ail> « which slender feet some
islanders of the Pacific driven k , t conclusion that they are the descendahts of
•RTT« A a mi m ,driven by storms on the coast of Luzon.
and provhme o fA b ra °n e i °h h ^ e ? n d in d ePe n d e n t trib e s o f th e is la n d o f L u zo n ,
•a, neighbours o f th e Burik an d o th er similar tribes. Their locality