Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/412

BAR of the mission established at Borneo. It is almost the only work giving an account of that island. He died in 1741.  BARBOSA,, born at Lisbon in 1480. He travelled all through India, visited the Moluques islands, and was Magellan's companion and historiographer in his circumnavigation of the world. He was murdered by the natives in the island of Zebu in the year 1521.—A. C. M.  BARBOSA-MACHADO,, born at Lisbon in 1682; a distinguished member of the Historical Academy of Lisbon. He is the author of a Latin work, entitled "Bibliotheca Lusitana," of great literary merit, being, says Ticknor, "one of the amplest and most important works of literary biography and bibliography ever published." He died at Lisbon in 1770.—A. C. M.  BARBOT,, an English voyager, who lived in the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1699 he visited New Calabria, and several parts of the coast of Africa.  BARBOT,, a French voyager. He was obliged to leave France at the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and came to England. He wrote a "Description of the Western Part of Africa and the adjacent Countries."  BARBOT,, Vicomte, a French general, born at Toulouse, 2nd April, 1770; died 17th February, 1839. He was at first employed as adjutant to the army on the coasts of Brest and Cherbourg; and acted in this capacity from 1805 to 1811, when he was elevated to the rank of field-marshal.  BARBOTAN,, Comte de, a French general, born about 1719; died 11th April, 1794. He represented the noblesse of Dax in the States General of 1789; and becoming afterwards a member of the extreme right in the constituent assembly, he was accused of conspiracy, and brought before the tribunal of Gers, by which he was acquitted. Dubarran, however, annulled that judgment; and Barbotan was brought before the revolutionary tribunal, condemned, and executed.—G. M.  BARBOU. The name of a distinguished family of printers. The first of them published in 1539, at Lyons, a remarkable edition of the works of Clement Marot. His son, published at Limoges in 1580, a beautiful edition of Cicero's Epistles to Atticus. In 1746 published a neat edition of Latin classics. The last of the family was, who died in 1808. <section end="412H" /> <section begin="412I" />BARBOU-DESCOURIÈRES,, a French general, born 23rd November, 1761; died at Paris, 8th February, 1816. He entered the army in 1779, as a volunteer in the regiment of Artois, and took part in the expedition of St. Domingo. On his return, having signalized himself at the battle of Fleurus, he was, on the 7th September, 1794, raised to the rank of general of brigade. In 1798 he was nominated general of division. In 1814 he obtained the order of chevalier of St. Louis, and grand-officer of the legion of honour.—G. M. <section end="412I" /> <section begin="412J" />BARBOUR,, archdeacon of Aberdeen in the latter part of the fourteenth century. He is supposed to have been born about the year 1316; but nothing is known of his parentage or birthplace. On the 10th of August, 1357, Edward III. of England, on the application of David, king of Scotland, granted a safe conduct to Archdeacon Barbour, with three scholars in his company, going to study at the university of Oxford. Barbour must have been at this time a man of mature age, for he was in the same year appointed by the bishop of his diocese, one of the commissioners who were to meet at Edinburgh, for the purpose of deliberating about the ransom of King David from his prison in England. In 1364, another safe conduct was granted to Barbour, with four horsemen in his company, to pass through England, to study at Oxford, or elsewhere, as he might think proper. Next year, and again in 1368, he was allowed to pass through England to France. On the latter occasion for the purpose of study. In 1373 Barbour was clerk of audit of the king's household, and also one of the auditors of the exchequer. The latter office he held on other two occasions—in 1382, and again in 1384. It is uncertain at what time he began the composition of the great national poem which has perpetuated his name; but it appears, from his own statement, that in the year 1375 he had composed about two-thirds of the work. In 1377, probably on the completion of the poem, a donation of ten pounds was paid to him by command of the king. Next year he received another mark of royal favour, in the grant of twenty shillings yearly from the rents or burrow-mails of the city of Aberdeen forever, and his assignees whomsoever, with permission to dispose of it in mortmain. This power of assignation he exercised immediately in favour of the dean and chapter of Aberdeen, under the condition that they should say a yearly mass for his soul. This gift was made expressly as a reward for his services in composing "The Book of the Gests of King Robert Bruce." In 1388 another pension was granted to him by Robert II. of ten pounds sterling yearly for his life, payable out of the great customs of Aberdeen. It has been conjectured that this mark of royal bounty was conferred upon the poet for another work, called "The Brute," having for its subject the royal race of Stewart, and deducing their origin from a fabulous prince of Troy named Brutus. This work is referred to in various passages of Wyntown's Chronicle; but it has unfortunately perished. The archdeacon appears to have died at an advanced age in 1395, probably on the 13th of March, the day on which a religious service for his soul was celebrated annually in the cathedral of Aberdeen, down to the Reformation. The reputation of Barbour, as a historian and poet, rests mainly upon his celebrated metrical history of King Robert Bruce. This noble work is equally valuable for the general authenticity of its details, many of which he must have received from eye-witnesses of the exploits, and for its fresh and graphic descriptions of character and manners, as well as of natural scenery, and of battles and sieges. He has delineated, with the hand of a master, the portraits of the great deliverer of Scotland, "hardy of heart and hand;" of his brother, the fiery, rash, and headstrong Edward; of the good Sir James Douglas, who was so worthy in his time, that his high price and bounty made his name renowned "in foreign lands;" of the sagacious Randolph, whose "trusty heart and loyal service were enhanced by his courteous and debonair manners, and shone out in his fair, pleasant, and broad countenance;" and of the worthy compeers of these noble patriots; and he gives us charming pictures of their manners, and modes of thinking, under all the varieties of their romantic fortunes. He was fortunate in the choice of a subject for his national epic, suggesting, as it does, "high actions and high passions," and narrating exploits, which have become "household words" among the people of Scotland in all succeeding ages. The adventures of the good king, and the various reverses of fortune in his eventful life, from his engagement with the Red Comyn, down to his "crowning mercy" at Bannockburn, and the complete expulsion of the English invaders from the country, are all narrated with great spirit, and in strains which come warm from the heart of the poet; while the various episodes, with which the old chronicler relieves his stern story of hardship and battle, give a very pleasing impression of the kind and humane character of the chivalrous monarch, and his little band of devoted friends, and throw not a little light on the gentle and affectionate disposition of their biographer himself. It is a proud thing, it has been justly said, to have given a subject for such an Odyssey, and to have had a poet worthy to celebrate it. Barbour's learning must have been great for the time, and he was evidently well read, both in the classical and the romantic literature of the day. His descriptive powers were of a high order, and, in the opinion of an accomplished critic, Thomas Warton, "he has adorned the English language, by a strain of versification, expression, and poetical images, far superior to the age." There are only two MS. copies of "The Bruce" known to be in existence, one in the Advocates' library, Edinburgh, written in 1489; the other in the library of St. John's college, Cambridge, penned in 1487. The earliest printed copy extant is dated Edinburgh, 1571.—(The Brus, printed for the Spalding Club; The Bruce, edited by Dr. Jamieson, Edinburgh, 1820, 4to; Irving's Lives of the Scottish Poets; The Pictorial History of Scotland.)—J. T. <section end="412J" /> <section begin="412K" />BARBULA, the name of a Roman family of the patrician order of Emilienus. The following are among the most remarkable persons of that family:—

. He became consul in the year 317 .—. He greatly distinguished himself in the contests with the Tarentines, who had invoked the aid of Pyrrhus against the Romans. He was not less successful against the Etruscans, and other enemies of the commonwealth.— or. He was partisan and friend of Marc Antony in the year 43 .—G. M. <section end="412K" /> <section begin="412Lnop" />BARCA,, a Spanish portrait and historical painter of the 18th century, who, like his master, Francisco de Gaya, was remarkable for his unruly style, full of fire and expression. Died very young, 1794.—R. M. <section end="412Lnop" />