[1] _Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist._ vol. x. (seventh series), p. 309.
BONHAM, a town and the county-seat of Fannin county, Texas, U.S.A.,
about 14 m. S. of the Red river, in the north-east part of the state,
and 70 m. N. of Dallas. Pop. (1890) 3361; (1900) 5042 (1223 being
negroes); (1910), 4844. It is served by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas,
and the Texas & Pacific railways. Bonham is the seat of Carlton College
(Christian), a woman's college founded in 1867; and its high school is
one of the best in the state. It is a trading and shipping centre of an
extensive farming territory devoted to the raising of live-stock and to
the growing of cotton, Indian corn, fruit, &c. It has large cotton gins
and compresses, a large cotton mill, flour mills, canning and ice
factories, railway repair shops, planing mills and carriage works. The
town was named in honour of J.B. Bonham, a native of South Carolina, who
was killed in the Alamo. The first settlement here was made in 1836. The
town was incorporated in 1850, and was re-incorporated in 1886.
BONHEUR [MARIE ROSALIE], ROSA (1822-1899), French painter, was born at
Bordeaux on the 22nd of March 1822. She was of Jewish origin. Jacques
Wiener, the Belgian medallist, a native of Venloo, says that he and
Raymond Bonheur, Rosa's father, used to attend synagogue in that town;
while another authority asserts that Rosa used to be known in common
parlance by the name of Rosa Mazeltov (a Hebrew term for "good luck,"
_Gallice_ Bonheur). She was the eldest of four children, all of whom
were artists--Auguste (1824-1884) painted animals and landscape;
Juliette (1830-1891) was "honourably mentioned" at the exhibition of
1855; Isidore, born in 1827, was a sculptor of animals. Rosa at an early
age was taught to draw by her father (who died in 1849), and he,
perceiving her very remarkable talent, permitted her to abandon the
business of dressmaking, to which, much against her will, she had been
put, in order to devote herself wholly to art. From 1840 to 1845 she
exhibited at the salon, and five times received a prize; in 1848 a medal
was awarded to her. Her fame dates more especially from the exhibition
of 1855; from that time Rosa Bonheur's works were much sought after in
England, where collectors and public galleries competed eagerly for
them. What is chiefly remarkable and admirable in her work is that, like
her contemporary, Jacques Raymond Brascassat (1804-1867), she represents
animals as they really are, as she saw them in the country. Her gift of
accurate observation was, however, allied to a certain dryness of style
in painting; she often failed to give a perfect sense of atmosphere. On
the other hand, the anatomy of her animals is always faultlessly true.
There is nothing feminine in her handling; her treatment is always manly
and firm. Of her many works we may note the following:--"Ploughing in
the Nivernais" (1848), in the Luxembourg gallery; "The Horse Fair"
(1853), one of the two replicas of which is in the National Gallery,
London, the original being in the United States; and "Hay Harvest in
Auvergne" (1835). She was decorated with the Legion of Honour by the
empress Eugenie, and was subsequently promoted to the rank of "officer"
of the order. After 1867 Rosa Bonheur exhibited but once in the salon,
in 1899, a few weeks before her death. She lived quietly at her country
house at By, near Fontainebleau, where for some years she had held
gratuitous classes for drawing. She left at her death a considerable
number of pictures, studies, drawings and etchings, which were sold by
auction in Paris in the spring of 1900. (H. Fr.)
BONHEUR DU JOUR, the name for a lady's writing-desk, so called because,
when it was introduced in France about 1760, it speedily became
intensely fashionable. The bonheur du jour is always very light and
graceful; its special characteristic is a raised back, which may form a
little cabinet or a nest of drawers, or may simply be fitted with a
mirror. The top, often surrounded with a chased and gilded bronze
gallery, serves for placing small ornaments. Beneath the writing surface
there is usually a single drawer. The details vary greatly, but the
general characteristics are always traceable. The bonheur du jour has
never been so delicate, so charming, so coquettish as in the quarter of
a century which followed its introduction. The choicer examples of the
time are inlaid with marqueterie, edged with exotic woods, set in gilded
bronze, or enriched with panels of Oriental lacquer.
BONI (_Bone_), a vassal state of the government of Celebes, Dutch East
Indies, in the south-west peninsula of Celebes, on the Gulf of Boni.
Area, 2600 sq. m. It produces rice, tobacco, coffee, cotton and
sugar-cane, none of them important as exports. The breeds of buffaloes
and horses in this state are highly esteemed. The chief town, Boni, lies
80 m. N.E. of Macassar, and 2-1/2 m. from the east coast of the peninsula.
The native race of Bugis (q.v.), whose number within this area is
about 70,000, is one of the most interesting in the whole archipelago.
Boni was once the most powerful state of Celebes, all the other princes
being regarded as vassals of its ruler, but its history is not known in
detail. In 1666 the rajah Palakkah, whose father and grandfather had
been murdered by the family of Hassan, the tyrant of Sumatra, made
common cause with the Dutch against that despot. From that date till the
beginning of the 19th century Dutch influence in the state remained
undisputed. In 1814, however, Boni fell into the hands of the British,
who retained it for two years; but by the European treaties concluded on
the downfall of Napoleon it reverted to its original colonizers. Their
influence, however, was resisted more than once by the natives. An
expedition in 1825, under General van Geen, was not fully successful in
enforcing it; and in 1858 and the following year two expeditions were
necessary to oppose an attempt by the princess regent towards
independence. In 1860 a new prince, owning allegiance to the Dutch, was
set up. As in other native states in Celebes, succession to the throne
in the female line has precedence over the male line.
For the wars in Boni, see Perelaer, _De Bonische expeditien,
1859-1860_ (Leiden, 1872); and Meyers, in the _Militaire Spectator_
(1880).
BONIFACE, SAINT (680-754), the apostle of Germany, whose real name was
Wynfrith, was born of a good Saxon family at Crediton or Kirton in
Devonshire. While still young he became a monk, and studied grammar and
theology first at Exeter, then at Nutcell near Winchester, under the
abbot Winberht. He soon distinguished himself both as scholar and
preacher, and had every inducement to remain in his monastery, but in
716 he followed the example of other Saxon monks and set out as
missionary to Frisia. He was soon obliged to return, however, probably
owing to the hostility of Radbod, king of the Frisians, then at war with
Charles Martel. At the end of 717 he went to Rome, where in 719 Pope
Gregory II. commissioned him to evangelize Germany and to counteract the
influence of the Irish monks there. Crossing the Alps, Boniface visited
Bavaria and Thuringia, but upon hearing of the death of Radbod he
hurried again to Frisia, where, under the direction of his countryman
Willibrord (d. 738), the first bishop of Utrecht, he preached
successfully for three years. About 722 he visited Hesse and Thuringia,
won over some chieftains, and converted and baptized great numbers of
the heathen. Having sent special word to Gregory of his success, he was
summoned to Rome and consecrated bishop on the 30th of November 722,
after taking an oath of obedience to the pope. Then his mission was
enlarged. He returned with letters of recommendation to Charles Martel,
charged not only to convert the heathen but to suppress heresy as well.
Charles's protection, as he himself confessed, made possible his great
career. Armed with it he passed safely into heathen Germany and began a
systematic crusade, baptizing, overturning idols, founding churches and
monasteries, and calling from England a band of missionary helpers,
monks and nuns, some of whom have become famous: St Lull, his successor
in the see at Mainz; St Burchard, bishop of Wurzburg; St Gregory, abbot
at Utrecht; Willibald, his biographer; St Lioba, St Walburge, St Thecla.
In 732 Boniface was created archbishop. In 738 for the third time he
went to Rome. On his return he organized the church in Bavaria into the
four bishoprics of Regensburg, Freising, Salzburg and Passau. Then his
power was extended still further. In 741 Pope Zacharias made him legate,
and charged him with the reformation of the whole Frankish church. With
the support of Carloman and Pippin, who had just succeeded Charles
Martel as mayors of the palace, Boniface set to work. As he had done in
Bavaria, he organized the east Frankish church into four bishoprics,
Erfurt, Wurzburg, Buraburg and Eichstadt, and set over them his own
monks. In 742 he presided at what is generally counted as the first
German council. At the same period he founded the abbey of Fulda, as a
centre for German monastic culture, placing it under the Bavarian Sturm,
whose biography gives us so many picturesque glimpses of the time, and
making its rule stricter than the Benedictine. Then came a theological
and disciplinary controversy with Virgil, the Irish bishop of Salzburg,
who held, among other heresies, that there were other worlds than ours.
Virgil must have been a most remarkable man; in spite of his leanings
toward science he held his own against Boniface, and was canonized after
his death. Boniface was more successful in France. There a certain
Adalbert or Aldebert, a Frankish bishop of Neustria, had caused great
disturbance. He had been performing miracles, and claimed to have
received his relics, not from Rome like those of Boniface, but directly
from the angels. Planting crosses in the open fields he drew the people
to desert the churches, and had won a great following throughout all
Neustria. Opinions are divided as to whether he was a Culdee, a
representative of a national Frankish movement, or simply the charlatan
that Boniface paints him. At the instance of Pippin, Boniface secured
Adalbert's condemnation at the synod of Soissons in 744; but he, and
Clement, a Scottish missionary and a heretic on predestination,
continued to find followers in spite of legate, council and pope, for
three or four years more.
Between 746 and 748 Boniface was made bishop of Mainz, and became
metropolitan over the Rhine bishoprics and Utrecht, as well as over
those he had established in Germany--thus founding the pre-eminence of
the see of Mainz. In 747 a synod of the Frankish bishops sent to Rome a
formal statement of their submission to the papal authority. The
significance of this act can only be realized when one recalls the
tendencies toward the formation of national churches, which had been so
powerful under the Merovingians. Boniface does not seem to have taken
part in the anointing of Pippin as king of the Franks in 752. In 754 he
resigned his archbishopric in favour of Lull, and took up again his
earliest plan of a mission to Frisia; but on the 5th of June 754 he and
his companions were massacred by the heathen near Dockum. His remains
were afterwards taken to Fulda.
St Boniface has well been called the proconsul of the papacy. His
organizing genius, even more than his missionary zeal, left its mark
upon the German church throughout all the middle ages. The missionary
movement which until his day had been almost independent of control,
largely carried on by schismatic Irish monks, was brought under the
direction of Rome. But in so welding together the scattered centres and
binding them to the papacy, Boniface seems to have been actuated by
simple zeal for unity of the faith, and not by a conscious political
motive.
Though pre-eminently a man of action, Boniface has left several literary
remains. We have above all his Letters (_Epistolae_), difficult to date,
but extremely important from the standpoint of history, dogma, or
literature; see Dummler's edition in the _Monumenta Germaniae
historica_, 1892. Besides these there are a grammar (_De octo partibus
orationibus_, ed. Mai, in _Classici Auctores_, t. vii.), some sermons of
contested authenticity, some poems (_Aenigmata_, ed. Dummler, _Poetae
latini aevi Carolini_, i. 1881), a penitential, and some _Dicta
Bonifacii_ (ed. Nurnberger in _Theologische Quartalschrift_, Tubingen,
vol. 70, 1888), the authenticity of which it is hard to prove or to
refute. Migne in his _Patrologia Latina_ (vol. 89) has reproduced the
edition of Boniface's works by Giles (London, 1844).
There are very many monographs on Boniface and on different phases of
his life (see Potthast, _Bibliotheca medii aevi_, and Ulysse
Chevalier's _Bibliographie_, 2nd ed. for indications), but none that
is completely satisfactory. Among recent studies are those of B.
Kuhlmann, _Der heilige Bonifatius, Apostel der Deutschen_ (Paderborn,
1895), and of G. Kurth, _Saint Boniface_ (2nd ed., 1902). W. Levison
has edited the _Vitae sancti Bonifatii_ (Hanover, 1905).
(J. T. S.*)
BONIFACE (_Bonifacius_), the name of nine of the popes.
BONIFACE I., bishop of Rome from 418 to 422. At the death of Pope
Zosimus, the Roman clergy were divided into two factions, one of which
elected the deacon Eulalius, and the other the priest Boniface. The
imperial government, in the interests of public order, commanded the two
competitors to leave the town, reserving the decision of the case to a
council. Eulalius having broken his ban, the emperor Honorius decided to
recognize Boniface, and the council was countermanded. But the faction
of Eulalius long continued to foment disorders, and the secular
authority was compelled to intervene.
BONIFACE II., pope from 530 to 532, was by birth a Goth, and owed his
election to the nomination of his predecessor, Felix IV., and to the
influence of the Gothic king. The Roman electors had opposed to him a
priest of Alexandria called Dioscorus, who died a month after his
election, and thus left the position open for him. Boniface endeavoured
to nominate his own successor, thus transforming into law, or at least
into custom, the proceeding by which he had benefited; but the clergy
and the senate of Rome forced him to cancel this arrangement.
BONIFACE III. was pope from the 15th of February to the 12th of November
606. He obtained from Phocas recognition of the "headship of the church
at Rome," which signifies, no doubt, that Phocas compelled the patriarch
of Constantinople to abandon (momentarily) his claim to the title of
oecumenical patriarch.
BONIFACE IV. was pope from 608 to 615. He received from the emperor
Phocas the Pantheon at Rome, which was converted into a Christian
church.
BONIFACE V., pope from 619 to 625, did much for the christianizing of
England. Bede mentions (_Hist. Eccl._) that he wrote encouraging letters
to Mellitus, archbishop of Canterbury, and Justus, bishop of Rochester,
and quotes three letters--to Justus, to Eadwin, king of Northumbria, and
to his wife Aethelberga. William of Malmesbury gives a letter to Justus
of the year 625, in which Canterbury is constituted the metropolitan see
of Britain for ever.
BONIFACE VI. was elected pope in April 896, and died fifteen days
afterwards.
BONIFACE VII. was pope from August 984 to July 985. His family name was
Franco. In 974 he was substituted by Crescentius and the Roman barons
for Benedict VI., who had been assassinated. He was ejected by Count
Sicco, the representative of the emperor Otto II., and fled to
Constantinople. On the death of Otto (983) he returned, seized Pope John
XIV., threw him into prison, and installed himself in his place.
(L. D.*)
BONIFACE VIII. (Benedetto Gaetano), pope from 1294 to 1303, was born of
noble family at Anagni, studied canon and civil law in Italy and
possibly at Paris. After being appointed to canonicates at Todi (June
1260) and in France, he became an advocate and then a notary at the
papal court. With Cardinal Ottoboni, who was to aid the English king,
Henry III., against the bishops of the baronial party, he was besieged
in the Tower of London by the rebellious earl of Gloucester, but was
rescued by the future Edward I., on the 27th of April 1267. Created
cardinal deacon in 1281, and in 1291 cardinal priest (SS. Sylvestri et
Martini), he was entrusted with many diplomatic missions and became very
influential in the Sacred College. He helped the ineffective Celestine
V. to abdicate, and was himself chosen pope at Naples on the 24th of
December 1294. Contrary to custom, the election was not made unanimous,
probably because of the hostility of certain French cardinals. Celestine
attempted to rule in extreme monastic poverty and humility; not so
Boniface, who ardently asserted the lordship of the papacy over all the
kingdoms of the world. He was crowned at Rome in January 1295 with great
pomp. He planned to pacify the West and then recover the Holy Land from
the infidel; but during his nine years' reign, so far from being a
peacemaker, he involved the papacy itself in a series of controversies
with leading European powers. Avarice, lofty claims and frequent
exhibitions of arrogance made him many foes. The policy of supporting
the interests of the house of Anjou in Sicily proved a grand failure.
The attempt to build up great estates for his family made most of the
Colonna his enemies. Until 1303 he refused to recognize Albert of
Austria as the rightful German king. Assuming that he was overlord of
Hungary, he declared that its crown should fall to the house of Anjou.
He humbled Eric VI. of Denmark, but was unsuccessful in the attempt to
try Edward I., the conqueror of Scotland, on the charge of interfering
with a papal fief; for parliament declared in 1301 that Scotland had
never been a fief of Rome. The most noted conflict of Boniface was that
with Philip IV. of France. In 1296, by the bull _Clericis laicos_, the
pope forbade the levying of taxes, however disguised, on the clergy
without his consent. Forced to recede from this position, Boniface
canonized Louis IX. (1297). The hostilities were later renewed; in 1302
Boniface himself drafted and published the indubitably genuine bull
_Unam sanctam_, one of the strongest official statements of the papal
prerogative ever made. The weight of opinion now tends to deny that any
part of this much-discussed document save the last sentence bears the
marks of an infallible utterance. The French vice-chancellor Guillaume
de Nogaret was sent to arrest the pope, against whom grave charges had
been brought, and bring him to France to be deposed by an oecumenical
council. The accusation of heresy has usually been dismissed as a
slander; but recent investigations make it probable, though not quite
certain, that Boniface privately held certain Averroistic tenets, such
as the denial of the immortality of the soul. With Sciarra Colonna,
Nogaret surprised Boniface at Anagni, on the 7th of September 1303, as
the latter was about to pronounce the sentence of excommunication
against the king. After a nine-hours' truce the palace was stormed, and
Boniface was found lying in his bed, a cross clasped to his breast; that
he was sitting in full regalia on the papal throne is a legend. Nogaret
claimed that he saved the pope's life from the vengeful Colonna.
Threatened, but not maltreated, the pope had remained three days under
arrest when the citizens of Anagni freed him. He was conducted to Rome,
only to be confined in the Vatican by the Orsini. He died on the 11th or
12th of October 1303, not eighty-six years old, as has commonly been
believed, but perhaps under seventy, at all events not over
seventy-five. "He shall come in like a fox, reign like a lion, die like
a dog," is a gibe wrongly held to be a prophecy of his unfortunate
predecessor. Dante, who had become embittered against Boniface while on
a political mission in Rome, calls him the "Prince of the new Pharisees"
(_Inferno_, 27, 85), but laments that "in his Vicar Christ was made a
captive," and was "mocked a second time" (_Purgatory_, 20, 87 f.).
AUTHORITIES.--Digard, Faucon and Thomas, _Les Registres de Boniface
VIII_ (Paris, 1884 ff.); Wetzer and Welte, _Kirchenlexikon_, vol. ii.
(2nd ed., Freiburg, 1883), 1037-1062; Herzog-Hauck,
_Realencyklopadie_, vol. iii. (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1897), 291-300,
contains an elaborate bibliography; J. Loserth, _Geschichte des
spateren Mittelalters_ (Munich, 1903), 206-232; H. Finke, _Aus den
Tagen Bonifaz VIII._ (Munster, 1902) is dreary but epoch-making;
_Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen_, Jahrgang 166, 857-869 (Berlin,
1904); R. Scholz, _Die Publizistik zur Zeit Philipps des Schonen und
Bonifaz VIII._ (Stuttgart, 1903); K. Wenck, "War Bonifaz VIII. ein
Ketzer?" in von Sybel's _Historische Zeitschrift_, vol. xciv. (Munich,
1905), 1-66. Special literature on _Unam Sanctum_: C. Mirbt, _Quellen
zur Geschichte des Papsttums_ (2nd ed., Tubingen, 1901), 148 f.;
_Kirchenlexikon_, xii. (1901), 229-240, an exhaustive discussion; H.
Finke, 146-190; J.H. Robinson, _Readings in European History_, vol. i.
(Boston, 1904), 346 ff. On _Clericis laicos_: Gee and Hardy,
_Documents Illustrative of English Church History_ (London, 1896), 87
ff. (W. W. R.*)
BONIFACE IX. (Piero Tomacelli), pope from 1389 to 1404, was born at
Naples of a poor but ancient family. Created cardinal by Urban VI., he
was elected successor to the latter on the 2nd of November 1389. In 1391
he canonized Birgitta of Sweden. He was able to restore Roman authority
in the major part of the papal states, and in 1398 put an end to the
republican liberties of the city itself. Boniface won Naples, which had
owed spiritual allegiance to the antipopes Clement VII. and Benedict
XIII. of Avignon, to the Roman obedience. In 1403 he ventured at last to
confirm the deposition of the emperor Wenceslaus and the election of
Rupert. Negotiations for the healing of the Great Schism were without
result. In spite of his inferior education, the contemporaries of
Boniface trusted his prudence and moral character; yet when in financial
straits he sold offices, and in 1399 transformed the annates into a
permanent tax. In 1390 he celebrated the regular jubilee, but a rather
informal one held in 1400 proved more profitable. Though probably not
personally avaricious, he was justly accused of nepotism. He died on the
1st of October 1404, being still under sixty years of age.
(W. W. R.*)
BONIFACE OF SAVOY (d. 1270), archbishop of Canterbury, became primate in
1243, through the favour of Henry III., of whose queen, Eleanor of
Provence, he was an uncle. Boniface, though a man of violent temper and
too often absent from his see, showed some sympathy with the reforming
party in the English church. Though in 1250 he provoked the English
bishops by claiming the right of visitation in their dioceses, he took
the lead at the council of Merton (1258) in vindicating the privileges
of his order. In the barons' war he took the royalist side, but did not
distinguish himself by great activity.
See Matthew Paris, _Chronica Majora_; Francois Mugnier, _Les Savoyards
en Angleterre_ (Chambery, 1890).
BONIFACIO, a maritime town at the southern extremity of Corsica, in the
arrondissement of Sartene, 87 m. S.S.E. of Ajaccio by road. Pop. (1906)
2940. Bonifacio, which overlooks the straits of that name separating
Corsica from Sardinia, occupies a remarkable situation on the summit of
a peninsula of white calcareous rock, extending parallel to the coast
and enclosing a narrow and secure harbour. Below the town and in the
cliffs facing it the rock is hollowed into caverns accessible only by
boat. St Dominic, a church built in the 13th century by the Templars,
and the cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore which belongs mainly to the
12th century, are the chief buildings. The fortifications and citadel
date from the 16th and 17th centuries. A massive medieval tower serves
as a powder-magazine. The trade of Bonifacio, which is carried on
chiefly with Sardinia, is in cereals, wine, cork and olive-oil of fine
quality. Cork-cutting, tobacco-manufacture and coral-fishing are carried
on. The olive is largely cultivated in the neighbourhood and there are
oil-works in the town.
Bonifacio was founded about 828 by the Tuscan marquis whose name it
bears, as a defence against the Saracen pirates. At the end of the 11th
century it became subject to Pisa, and at the end of the 12th was taken
and colonized by the Genoese, whose influence may be traced in the
character of the population. In 1420 it heroically withstood a
protracted siege by Alphonso V. of Aragon. In 1554 it fell into the
hands of the Franco-Turkish army.
BONIFACIUS (d. 432), the Roman governor of the province of Africa who is
generally believed to have invited the Vandals into that province in
revenge for the hostile action of Placidia, ruling in behalf of her son
the emperor Valentinian III. (428-429). That action is by Procopius
attributed to his rival Aetius, but the earliest authorities speak of a
certain Felix, chief minister of Placidia, as the calumniator of
Bonifacius. Whether he really invited the Vandals or not, there is no
doubt that he soon turned against them and bravely defended the city of
Hippo from their attacks. In 432 he returned to Italy, was received into
favour by Placidia, and appointed master of the soldiery. Aetius,
however, resented his promotion, the two rivals met, perhaps in single
combat, and Bonifacius, though victorious, received a wound from the
effects of which he died three months later.
The authorities for the extremely obscure and difficult history of
these transactions are well discussed by E.A. Freeman in an article in
the _English Historical Review_, July 1887, to which the reader is
referred. But compare also Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire_, vol. iii. pp. 505-506, edited by J.B. Bury (London, 1897).
BONIN ISLANDS, called by the Japanese OGASAWARA-JIMA, a chain of small
islands belonging to Japan, stretching nearly due north and south, a
little east of 142 E., and from 26 deg. 35' to 27 deg. 45' N., about 500
m. from the mainland of Japan. They number twenty, according to Japanese
investigations, and have a coast-line of 174.65 m. and a superficies of
28.82 sq. m. Only ten of them have any appreciable size, and these are
named--commencing from the north--Muko-shima (Bridegroom Island),
Nakadachi-shima (Go-between Island[1]), Yome-shima (Bride Island),
Ototo-jima (Younger-brother Island), Ani-shima (Elder-brother Island),
Chichi-jima (Father Island), Haha-jima (Mother Island), Mei-jima (Niece
Island), Ani-jima (Elder-sister Island) and Imoto-jima (Younger-sister
Island). European geographers have been accustomed to divide the islands
into three groups for purposes of nomenclature, calling the northern
group the Parry Islands, the central the Beechey Islands and the
southern the Coffin or Bailey Islands. The second largest of all,
Chichi-jima, in Japanese cartography was called Peel Island in 1827 by
Captain Beechey, and the same officer gave the name of Stapleton Island
to the Ototo-jima of the Japanese, and that of Buckland Island to their
Ani-jima. To complete this account of Captain Beechey's nomenclature, it
may be added that he called a large bay on the south of Peel Island
Fitton Bay, and a bay on the south-west of Buckland Island Walker
Bay.[2] Port Lloyd, the chief anchorage (situated on Peel Island), is
considered by Commodore Perry--who visited the islands in 1853 and
strongly urged the establishment of a United States coaling station
there--to have been formerly the crater of a volcano from which the
surrounding hills were thrown up, the entrance to the harbour being a
fissure through which lava used to pour into the sea. The islands are,
indeed, plainly volcanic in their nature.
_History._--The diversity of nomenclature indicated above suggests that
the ownership of the islands was for some time doubtful. According to
Japanese annals they were discovered towards the close of the 16th
century, and added to the fief of a Daimyo, Ogasawa Sadayori, whence the
name Ogasawara-jima. They were also called _Bunin-jima_ (corrupted by
foreigners into Bonin) because of their being without (_bu_) inhabitants
(_nin_). Effective occupation did not take place, however, and
communications with the islands ceased altogether in 1635, as was a
natural consequence of the Japanese government's veto against the
construction of sea-going vessels. In 1728 fitful communication was
restored by the then representative of the Ogasawara family, only to be
again interrupted until 1861, when an unsuccessful attempt was made to
establish a Japanese colony at Port Lloyd. Meanwhile, Captain Beechey
visited the islands in the "Blossom," assigned names to some of them,
and published a description of their features. Next a small party
consisting of two British subjects, two American citizens, and a Dane,
sailed from the Sandwich Islands for Port Lloyd in 1830, taking with
them some Hawaiian natives. These colonists hoisted the British flag on
Peel Island (Chichi-jima), and settled there. When Commodore Perry
arrived in 1853, there were on Peel Island thirty-one inhabitants, four
being English, four American, one Portuguese and the rest natives of the
Sandwich Islands, the Ladrones, &c.; and when Mr Russell Robertson
visited the place in 1875, the colony had grown to sixty-nine, of whom
only five were pure whites. Mr Robertson found them without education,
without religion, without laws and without any system of government, but
living comfortably on clearings of cultivated land. English was the
language of the settlers, and they regarded themselves as a British
colony. But in 1861 the British government renounced all claim to the
islands in recognition of Japan's right of possession. There is now
regular steam communication; the affairs of the islands are duly
administered, and the population has grown to about 4500. There are no
mountains of any considerable height in the Ogasawara Islands, but the
scenery is hilly with occasional bold crags. The vegetation is almost
tropically luxuriant--palms, wild pineapples, and ferns growing
profusely, and the valleys being filled with wild beans and patches of
taro. Mr Robertson catalogues a number of valuable timbers that are
obtained there, among them being Tremana, cedar, rose-wood, iron-wood
(red and white), box-wood, sandal and white oak. The kekop tree, the
orange, the laurel, the juniper, the wild cactus, the curry plant, wild
sage and celery flourish. No minerals have been discovered. The shores
are covered with coral; earthquakes and tidal waves are frequent, the
latter not taking the form of bores, but of a sudden steady rise and
equally sudden fall in the level of the sea; the climate is rather
tropical than temperate, but sickness is almost unknown among the
residents. (F. By.)