Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/220

 200 BACHMAN BACKGAMMON Dietionnaire general den lettres, den beaux arts et des sciences morales et politiques (2 vols., 1862-'3). Among his historical works are: La, guerre de cent an* (1852), Mahomet et les Arabes (1853), and Les hommes illustres de France (Rouen, 1867). BACHMAN, John, an American naturalist and clergyman, born in Dutchess county, N. Y., Feb. 4, 1790. In 1815 he became pastor of the Lutheran church in Charleston, 8. C. He was a collaborator of Audubon, and the principal author of the work on the quadrupeds of North America. He has published several other writ- ings, including a "Defence of Luther" (1853), " Characteristics of Genera and Species as ap- plicable to the Doctrine of the Unity of the Human Race" (1854), and essays contributed to the " Medical Journal of South Carolina." BACK, Sir George, an English navigator, born at Stockport, Nov. 6, 1796. He entered the royal navy in 1808, was for five years a French ; prisoner of war, subsequently served on the Trent, Lieutenant Commander John Franklin, and accompanied Capt. David Buchan on an expedition to Spitzbergen. In 1819 he accom- panied Sir John Franklin's expedition from the western shore of Hudson bay to the north- ern coast of America, near the Coppermine river. The party reached Fort Enterprise in July, 1820, and determined to winter there, while Mr. Back returned to Fort Chipewyan (a distance of 500 miles), to obtain fresh sup- plies. He acquitted himself of this duty after undergoing the most terrible hardships from cold and hunger, and rejoined his party in March, 1821. The expedition returned to York Fac- tory in 1822, and early in 1825 Lieut. Back joined Franklin's second expedition, designed to cooperate with Beechey and Parry in their efforts to discover from opposite quarters the northwest passage. He penetrated as far as lat. 70 24' N., Ion. 149 37' W. ; and on Frank- lin's setting out from Great Bear lake, on the return of the expedition, he was left in charge of the remaining officers and men at Fort Franklin. On the breaking up of the ice he started for York Factory, and thence set sail for England, where he arrived in 1827. In 1833 he took charge of the party sent out in search of Sir John Ross, and was exposed to hardships and perils no less appalling than on the previous expeditions. Receiving intelli- gence of Ross's safety, he returned home in 1835, obtained his post rank, and in June, 1836, took command of the Terror on a fresh Arctic voyage, but without accomplishing anything. He was knighted in 1837, and made rear ad- miral in 1857. He has published a " Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition," &c. (London, 1836), and a " Narrative of the Expedition in H. M. ship Terror" (1838). BACKGAMMON, a game, believed to be of English origin, played with dice and 30 pieces called men, upon a board or table peculiarly divided and marked. Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Bacon mention it under the name of "tables."' The mime backgammon is supposed by some to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon words bcec, back, and gamone, a game; by others, from the Welsh bac,/i, little, and c/immon, a battle. The game is played as follows : The men, 15 of which are black and 15 white, in shape like those used in draughts, are arranged, as shown in the cut, on a board each quarter of which is marked with six lines, alternately white and black or red and black. Each of these quarters is called a table ; those marked A and B, in which the game begins, are the inner tables, the others the outer. The num- ber of lines across which a player is allowed to move his men is decided by the dice ; and the ob- ject of the player having the white men, for in- stance, is to move those of his men which are in his opponent's table (A) through the tables C and D, and finally into his own inner table B ; at the same time endeavoring also to bring into that table all his other men, wherever on Backgammon Board. the board they may be placed. The player having the black pursues a similar course in moving his men gradually around to his inner table A. Neither player can, no matter what throw he makes with the dice, place his men on a line already occupied by more than one of his opponent's pieces. Should only one of these, however, be found on a line to which he has otherwise the right to move, he can " take up " this solitary man, that is, remove him from the board, and oblige his adversary to begin with him anew in the furthest table from his own inner one. When a player has brought all his men safely into his inner table, he may begin to "throw off" his pieces, that is, remove from the board a man standing on any point the number of which lie throws. Should he throw doublets, he may remove four from the point indicated by them. The player who by this means first rids himself of all his men, wins the game. Should he win it before his opponent brings all his men into his inner table, he is said to "gammon" him; if before