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of mountains, and the glorious expanse of the Pacific was displayed to them. Three days later, they began to descend the mountains on the western side, and Vasco, arriving at the sea-shore, formally took possession of the ocean in the name of the Spanish monarch. He remained on the coast for some time, heard again of Peru, had the Pearl Islands pointed out to him, and set out for Darien. On the 18th January, 1514, he reached the town, and was received with the utmost joy. He at once sent messengers to Spain bearing presents, to give an account of his discoveries; but, unfortunately, these did not arrive till an expedition had sailed from Spain, under Don Pedro Arias de Avila (generally called Pedrarias, or Davila), to replace Vasco Nuñez, and to take possession of the colony. For some time after Pedrarias reached Darien Vasco was in great straits, but at length letters came from the king, announcing to him his satisfaction with his exploits, and naming him Adelantado, or admiral. Pedrarias was prevailed upon to be reconciled with Vasco, and gave him one of his daughters in marriage. Vasco then resolved to accomplish his grand project of exploring the western sea. With infinite labor materials for building ships were conveyed across the isthmus, and two brigantines were constructed. With these the adventurers took possession of the Pearl Islands, and, had it not been for the weather, would have reached the coast of Peru. This career of discovery was stopped by the jealousy of Pedrarias, who feared that Balboa would throw off his allegiance, and who enticed him to Acla by a crafty message. As soon as he had him in his power, he threw him into prison, had him tried for treason, and forced the judge to condemn him to death. The sentence, to the grief of all the inhabitants, was carried into execution on the public square of Acla in 1517.

BALBRIGGAN, a seaport of Ireland, in the county of Dublin and parish of Balrothery, 18 miles N.N.E. of the capital. The harbor, though dry at low tides, has a depth of 14 feet at high-water springs, and affords a good refuge from the E. or S.E. gales. It is formed by a pier 600 feet long, with a lighthouse at its extremity, in 53° 37′ N. lat., 6° 12′ W. long. A viaduct of eleven arches crosses the harbor. The town has considerable manufactures of cottons and hosiery, and is much frequented as a wateringplace in summer. Population in 1871, 2332.

BALDE, JAKOB, a modern Latin poet of considerable repute, was born at Ensisheim in Alsace in 1603, and died in 1668. He entered the Society of the Jesuits in 1624, and for the greater part of his life acted as court-preacher and professor of rhetoric at Munich. His Latin poems were very numerous, and those in imitation of Horace are particularly successful. Although Balde has received some attention since Herder translated several of his best pieces, and although some of his poems are by no means deficient in lightness, grace, and skilful versification, it would be a mistake to look upon him as a poet of high rank. A collected edition of his works in 4 vols. was published at Cologne in 1650; a more complete edition in 8 vois., at Munich, 1729. Extracts have been given by Orelli, 1805, 1818; and some detached poems have been published by

Cronica dei Matematici is an abridgment of a larger work, on which he had bestowed twelve years of labor, and which was intended to contain the lives of more than two hundred mathematicians. His life has been written by Affò, Mazzuchelli, and others.

BALDINGER, ERNEST GOTTFRIED, a German physician of considerable eminence, and the author of a great number of medical publications, was born near Erfurt, 13th May, 1738. He studied medicine at Erfurt, Halle, and Jena, and in 1761 was entrusted with the superintendence of the military hospitals connected with the Prussian encampment near Torgau. He published, in 1765, a dissertation on the diseases of soldiers, which met with so favorable a reception that he published an enlarged edition, under the title of Treatise on the Diseases that prevail in Armies, Langensalza, 1774, 8vo. In 1768 he became professor of medicine at Jena, whence he removed, in 1773, to Göttingen, and in 1785 to Marburg, where he died of apoplexy on the 21st of January, 1804. Among his pupils were Akermann, Sömmering, and Blumenbach. Some eighty-four separate treatises are mentioned as having proceeded from his pen, in addition to numerous papers scattered through various collections and journals.

BALDINUCCI, FILIPPO, a distinguished Italian writer on the history of the arts, was born at Florence about 1624, and died in 1696. His chief work is entitled Notizie de Professori del Disegno da Cimabue in quà (dal 1260 sino al 1670), and was first published in six vols. 4to, 16811728. The capital defect of this work is the attempt to derive all Italian art from the schools of Florence. A good edition is that by Ranalli (5 vols. 8vo, Florence, 184547). Baldinucci's whole works have been published in fourteen vols. at Milan, 1808-12. BALDOVINETTI, ALESSIO, was a distinguished painter of Florence in the 15th century, whose works have now become very scarce. Hogarth takes him as a type of those obscure artists to whom the affected amateurs of his time were wont to ascribe old paintings-""Tis a fine piece of Alessio Baldovinetti, in his third manner." His father, Baldovinetti, belonged to a merchant family of good standing and fortune. Alessio was born in 1422, and took to painting, according to Vasari, against his father's desire. His art was distinguished rather for study than for genius. It represents completely some of the leading characters of the Florentine school in that age. It was an age of diligent schooling and experiment, in which art endeavored to master more of the parts and details of nature than she had mastered heretofore, and to improve her technical means for their representation. Among the parts of nature especially studied in the 15th century, were landscape and natural history, the particulars of scenery, and the characters of birds, beasts, and plants. Alessio Baldovinetti surpassed all his contemporaries in attention to these matters. În Vasari's words, you see in his paintings "rivers, bridges, stones, grasses, fruits, roads, fields, cities, castles, arenas, and an infinity of suchlike things." From this quality of his art it has been guessed, without sufficient cause, that he was the pupil of Paolo Uccelli, the first Florentine master who devoted himself to such matters. For the rest, this extreme care and minuteness renders his manner somewhat BALDI, BERNARDINO, a distinguished mathematician hara. Like many other painters of his time, he treats and miscellaneous writer, was descended of a noble family draperies, hair, and such parts, with a manner that shows at Urbino, in which city he was born on the 6th of June, the influence of the goldsmith, and is more proper to metal 1533. He pursued his studies at Padua with extraor- work than to painting. His principal extant works are a dinary zeal and success, and is said to have acquired, dur- nativity in the church of the Annunziati, an altar-piece, ing the course of his life, no fewer than sixteen languages, No. 24, in the gallery of the Uffizi, and another, No. 2, in though according to Tiraboschi, the inscription on his tomb the gallery of ancient pictures in the Academy of Arts at limits the number to twelve. The appearance of the plague Florence. The great work of his life was a series of frescoes at Padua obliged him to retire to his native city, whence from the Old Testament in the chapel of the Gianfigliazzi he was, shortly afterwards, called to act as tutor to Fer- family in the church of Sta Trinita, containing many inrante Gonzaga, from whom he received the rich abbey of teresting contemporary portraits; but these were lestroyed Guastalla. He held office as abbot for twenty-five years, about 1760. He also designed a likeness of Dante for the and then retired to his native town. In 1612 he was cathedral of Florence in 1465. His technical experiments employed by the duke as his envoy to Venice, where he were of the same nature as those made by his contempodistinguished himself by the congratulatory oration he raries-Pesellino, Pollaiuolo, and Domenico Veniziano, who delivered before the Venetian senate on the election of the endeavored to find out an oil medium at Florence before new doge, Andrea Memmo. Baldi died at Urbino on the Antonello da Messina had brought to Venice the secrets of 12th of October, 1617. He was, perhaps, the most uni- the Flemish practice. Vasari relates how Alessio thought versal genius of his age, and is said to have written up- he had made a great discovery with the mixture of yolk of wards of a hundred different works, the chief part of which egg and heated vernice liquida, but how the work so painted have remained unpublished. His various works give sat- presently became discolored. He understood mosaic as isfactory evidence of his abilities as a theologian, mathe-well as painting, and between 1481 and 1484 was engaged matician, geographer, antiquary historian, and poet. The in repairing ancient mosaics, first in the church of San

various editors.

Miniato, next in the baptistery at Florence. He is said to have instructed Dominico Ghirlandaio (see BIGORDI) in this art. He died on the 29th of August, 1499, within two years and a half of the completion of his frescoes in the Gianfigliazzi chapel. (Vasari, ed. Lemonnier, vol. iv. pp. 101-107; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Hist. of Painting in Italy, vol. ii. pp. 372-381.) (s. c.) BALDUINUS, JACOBUS, a distinguished professor of civil law in the university of Bologna. He was by birth a Bolognese, and is reputed to have been of a noble family. He was a pupil of Azo, and the master of Odofredus, of Hostiensis, and of Jacobus de Ravanis, the last of whom has the reputation of having first applied dialectical forms to legal science. His great fame as a jurist caused him to be elected podestà of the city of Genoa, where he was entrusted with the reform of the laws of the republic. He died at Bologna in 1225, and has left behind him some treatises on Procedure, which have the merit of being the

earliest of their kind.

BALDUR, one of the most interesting figures of the Scandinavian mythology, was the son of Odin and Frigg, His name (from baldr, the foremost or pre-eminent one) denoted his supreme excellence and beauty. In the Gylfeginning we read that he was so amiable that all loved him, so beautiful that a light seemed to shine about him, and his face and hair were for ever refulgent. He was the mildest, wisest, and most eloquent of the Esir; and when he pronounced a judgment it was infallible. His dwelling was in Brejdablik (far-sight), where nothing impure could come, and where the most obscure question could be explained. The wonderful legend of his death is first dimly recorded in the Voluspa, the grandest and most ancient of Eddaic poems, and more fully in the younger Edda. Baldur was visited by evil dreams, and felt his life to be in danger. His mother, Frigg, took oath of all things in the world, animal, vegetable, and mineral, that they should not slay her son. The gods being then secure, found pastime in setting the good Baldur in their midst, and in shooting or hurling stones at his invulnerable body. Then Loki, the evil god, took on him the form of a woman and went to Frigg in Fensal. From Frigg he learned that of all things in the earth but one could injure Baldur, and that was a little tree westward from Valhal, that was too young to take the oath. Thither went Loki and found the plant; it was the mistletoe. He plucked it up, fashioned it into an arrow, and went back to the Esir. They were still in a circle, shooting at Baldur; and outside the ring stood the blind god Höder, of whom Loki asked wherefore he did not shoot. When Höder had excused himself because of his blindness, Loki offered to aim for him, and Höder, shooting the arrow of mistletoe, Baldur suddenly fell, pierced and dead. No such misfortune had ever yet befallen gods or men; there was long silence in heaven, and then with one accord there broke out a loud noise of weeping. The Esir dared not revenge the deed, because the place was holy, but Frigg, rushing into their enidst, besought them to send one to Hel to fetch him back. Hel promised to let him go if all things in heaven and earth were unanimous in wishing it to be so; but when inquiry was made, a creature called Thökt was found in the cleft of a rock that said, "Let Hel keep its booty." This was Loki, and so Baldur came not back to Valhal. His death was revenged by his son Vale, who, being only one night old, slew Höder; but Loki fled from the revenge of the gods. In Baldur was personified the light of the sun; in his death the quenching of that light in winter. In his invulnerable body is expressed the incorporeal quality of light; what alone can wound it is mistletoe, the symbol of the depth of winter. It is noticeable that the Druids, when they cut down this plant with a golden sickle, did so to prevent it from wounding Baldur again. According to the Völuspa, Baldur will return, after Ragnarök, to the new heavens and the new earth; so the sun returns in spring to the renovated world. In the later versions it was no ordinary season, but the Fimbul winter, which no summer follows, which Baldur's death prefigured. It must not be overlooked that the story of Baldur is not merely a sun-myth, but a personification of that glory, purity, and innocence of the gods which was believed to have been lost at his death, thus made the central point of the whole drama of the great Scandinavian mythology. Baldur has been also considered, in relation to some statements of Saxo Grammaticus, to have been a god of peace, - peace

attained through warfare; this theory has been advanced by Weinhold with much ingenuity. Several myths have been cited as paralleling the story of the death of Baldur; those of Adonis and of Persephone may be considered as the most plausible. (E. W. G.)

BALDUS, an eminent professor of the civil law, and also of the canon law, in the university of Perugia. He came of the noble family of the Ubaldi; and his two brothers, Angelus de Ubaldis and Petrus de Ubaldis, were almost of equal eminence with himself as jurists. He was born in 1327, and studied civil law under Bartolus at Perugia, where he was admitted to the degree of doctor of civil law at the early age of seventeen in 1344. Fredericus Petrucius of Siena is said to have been the master under whom he studied canon law. Upon his promotion to the doctorate he at once proceeded to Bologna, where he taught law for three years; after which he was advanced to a professorial chair at Perugia, which he occupied for thirtythree years. He taught law subsequently at Pisa, at Florence, at Padua, and at Pavia, at a time when the schools of law in those universities disputed the palm with the school of Bologna. Baldus has not left behind him any works which bear out the great reputation which he acquired amongst his contemporaries. This circumstance may be in some respects accounted for by the active part which he took in public affairs, and by the fame which he acquired by his consultations, of which five volumes have been published by Diplovataccius. Baldus was the master of Peter Beaufort, the nephew of Pope Clement VI., who became himself Pope under the title of Gregory XI., and whose immediate successor, Urban VI., summoned Baldus to Rome to assist him by his consultations against the antipope Clement VII. Cardinal de Zabarella and Paulus de Castro were also amongst his pupils. His Commentary on the Liber Fendorum is considered to be one of the best of his works, which have been unfortunately left by him for the most part in an incomplete state.

BALDWIN, THOMAS, a celebrated English prelate of the 12th century, was born of obscure parents at Exeter, where, in the early part of his life, he taught a grammar school. After this he took orders, and was made archdeacon of Exeter; but he resigned that dignity, and became a Cistercian monk in the monastery of Ford in Devonshire, of which, in a few years, he was made abbot. In the year 1180 he was consecrated bishop of Worcester. In 1184 he was promoted to the see of Canterbury, and by Urban III. was appointed legate for that diocese. He laid the foundation of a church and monastery in honor of Thomas à Becket at Hackington, near Canterbury, for secular priests; but being opposed by the monks of Canterbury and the Pope, he was obliged to desist. Baldwin then laid the foundation of the archiepiscopal palace at Lambeth. In 1189 he crowned King Richard I. at Westminster, and two years later, after making a pilgrimage through Wales to preach the Crusade, followed that prince to the Holy Land, where he died at the siege of Ptolemais or St. Jean d'Acre. Giraldus Cambrensis, who accompanied him in an expedition through Wales, says he was of moderate habits and of an extremely mild disposition. He wrote various tracts on religious subjects, some of which were collected and published by Bertrand Tissier in 1662.

BALE, JOHN, Bishop of Ossory, in Ireland, was born at Cove, near Dunwich in Suffolk, in November, 1495. He was educated in the monastery of the Carmelites at Norwich, and afterwards at Jesus College, Oxford. He belonged at first to the Roman Catholic Church, but was converted to the Protestant religion by Thomas Lord Wentworth. On the death of Lord Cromwell, the favorite of Henry VIII., who had protected him from the persecutions of the Romish clergy, he was obliged to take refuge in Flanders, where he continued eight years. Soon after the accession of Edward VI. he was recalled; and being first presented to the living of Bishop's Stocke (Bishopstoke), in Hampshire, he was nominated in 1552 to the see of Ossory, in Ireland. During his residence there he was remarkably assiduous in propagating the Protestant doctrines, but with little success, and frequently at the hazard of his life. On the accession of Queen Mary the tide of opposition became so powerful that, to avoid assassination, he embarked for Holland; and, after various vicissitudes, reached Basel in Switzerland, where he continued till the accession of Queen Elizabeth. After his return to England

he was, in 1560, made prebendary of Canterbury, where he died in November, 1563, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. Bale is noted as being one of the last (though not the last, as has sometimes been said) of those who wrote miracle-plays. Several of his are extant, and a list of titles of about twenty is given by Collier (ii. 238). They are remarkable for the determination they manifest to introduce and inculcate the doctrines of the Reformed religion. The best of his historical plays, Kynge Johan, has been published by the Camden Society, 1838. Of his numerous other works the most noted is his collection of British biography, entitled Illustrium Majoris Britannia Scriptorum Catalogus, a Japheto sanctissimi Noah filio ad An. Dom. 1559. This work was first published in quarto in 1548, and afterwards, with various additions, in folio, in 1557-59. Although slightly inaccurate, it is still a work of great value for the minute notices it gives of writers, concerning whom little is otherwise known. A selection

from his works was published in 1849 by the Parker Society, containing the Examinations of Cobham, Thorpe, and Anne Askew, and the Image of the two Churches. Bale's style is frequently coarse and violent, and his truthfulness has been sometimes challenged.

BALEARIC ISLANDS, a remarkable group in the western part of the Mediterranean Sea, lying to the S. and E. of Spain, between 38° 40′ and 40° 5' N. lat., and between 1° and 5° E. long. The name, as now employed, includes not only the ancient Insula Baleares (Major and Minor), but also the Pityuse or Pine Islands, as the two more western were called. The origin of the name Baleares is a mere matter of conjecture, and the reader may choose any of the derivations usually offered with about an equal chance of not being right. On the other hand, it is obvious that the modern Majorca (or, in Spanish, Mallorca) and Minorca (in Spanish, Menorca) are obtained from the Latin Major and Minor, through the Byzantine forms Macopika and

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Mivopina; while Iviza is plainly the older Ebusus, a name | of, probably, Carthaginian origin. The Ophiusa of the Greeks (Colubraria of the Romans) is now known as For

mentera.

Majorca. Majorca is the largest island of the group, having an area of 1430 square miles. Its shape is that of a trapezoid, with the angles directed to the cardinal points; and its diagonal, from Cape Grozer in the W. to Cape Pera in the E., is about sixty miles. On the N.W. the coast is highly precipitous, but on the other sides it is low and sloping. On the N.E. there are several considerable bays, of which the chief are those of Alcudia and Poltenza; while on the S.W. is the still more important bay of Palma. No fewer than twelve ports or harbors are enumerated round the island, of which may be mentioned Andraix, Soller, and Porto Colom. In the N.W. Majorca is traversed by a chain of mountains running parallel with the coast, and attaining its highest elevation in Silla de Torillas, 4600 feet above the sea. Towards the south and east the surface is comparatively level, though broken by isolated peaks of considerable height. The northern mountains afford great protection to the rest of the island from the violent gales to which it is exposed, and render the climate remarkably mild and pleasant, while the heats of summer are tempered by the sea-breezes. The scenery of Majorca is varied and beautiful, with all the picturesqueness of outline that usually belongs to a limestone formation. Some of the valleys, such as those of Valdemoza and Soller, with their luxuriant vegetation, are delightful resorts.

There are quarries of marble, of various grains and colorsthose of Santagny, in the partido of Manacor, being espe cially celebrated; while lead, iron, and cinnabar have also been obtained. Coal of a jet-like character is found at Benisalem, where works were commenced in 1836, at Selva, where it has been mined since 1851, near Santa Maria, and elsewhere. It is used in the industrial establishments of Palma, and in the manufacture of lime, plaster, and bricks, in the neighborhood of the mines,-a considerable quantity being also exported to Barcelona. The inhabitants are principally devoted to agriculture, and most of the arable land of the islands is under cultivation. The mountains are terraced; and the old pine woods have in many places given place to the olive, the vine, and the almond tree, to fields of wheat and flax, or to orchards of figs and oranges. For the last-mentioned fruits the valley of Soller is one of the most important districts, the produce being largely transmitted to France, and realizing about £25,000 per annum. The oil harvest is very considerable, and Inca is the centre of the oil district. The wines are light but excellent, especially the Muscadel and Montona. The agricultural methods of the islands are still somewhat primitive, but the introduction of machinery indicates improvement, as well as the drainage, by an English company, of a marsh and lake, 8000 acres in extent, near the town of Alcudia. During the summer there is often great scarcity of water; but, according to a system handed down by the Moors, the rains of autumn and winter are collected in enormous reservoirs, which contain sufficient water to last through

the dry season; and on the payment of a certain rate, |
each landholder in turn has his fields flooded at certain
intervals. Mules are used in the agriculture and traffic of
the island. The cattle are small, but the sheep are large
and well fleeced. Pigs are largely reared, and exported
to Barcelona. There is abundance of poultry and of small
game. A good deal of brandy is made and exported.
Excellent woollen and linen cloths are woven. The silk-
worm is reared, and its produce manufactured; and canvas,
rope, and cord are largely made, from both native and
foreign materials. The average value of the imports of
the island is £550,000, and the exports amount to rather
more. The roads are excellent, the four principal being
those from Alcudia, Manacor, Soller, and Andraix to the
capital. A railway is in course of construction from Palma
by Inca to Alcudia, and the stock is all held by Mallorquins.
A telegraphic line passes from Palma to Valencia, and
there is regular steam communication with Barcelona and
Alicante. A Majorcan bank has been established, and a
credit association for the development of the resources of
the island. The people are industrious and hospitable,
and pique themselves on their loyalty and orthodoxy.
They are often but poorly educated, and their superstition
is great; crime, however, is rare. Vaccination is common
throughout the island, except in the cities, the women
often performing the operation themselves when medical
assistance cannot be got. Castilian is spoken by the
upper and commercial classes; the lower and agricultural
employ a dialect resembling that of the Catalans, with
whom, also, their general appearance and manners connect
them. Besides the towns already mentioned, Lluchmayor
and Campos are places of considerable size; and the castle
of Belbez near Palma, which was he former residence of
the kings, is worthy of notice. Population of the island,
204,000.
Minorca, the second of the group in size, is
Minorca.
situated 27 miles E.N.E. of Majorca. It has
an area of 260 square miles, and extends about 35 miles in
length. The coast is deeply indented, especially on the
north, with numerous creeks and bays,-that of Port Mahon
being one of the finest in the Mediterranean, if not the
best of them all, as the couplet of Andrea Doria quaintly
puts it-

"Junio, Julio, Agosto, y puerto Mahon

"

Ivica

agriculture, all branches of industry are comparatively
neglected. The principal exports are wheat, cattle, cotton-
stuffs, and shoes. An excellent road, constructed in 1713-15
by Brigadier Kane, to whose memory a monument was
erected at the first milestone, runs through the island from
S.E. to N.W., and connects Port Mahon with Ciudadela,
passing by Alayor, Mercadal, and Ferrerias. Ciudadela,
which was the capital of the island till Mahon was raised
to that position by the English during their occupancy of
the island, still possesses considerable remains of its former
importance. Population of the island, 39,000.
Iviça, Iviza, or, in Spanish, Ibiza, the Ebusus
of the ancients, lies 50 miles S.W. of Majorca,
and about 60 from Cape San Martin on the coast of Spain,
between 38° 50' and 39° 8′ N. lat., and between 1° 14' and
1° 38′ E. long. Its greatest length from N.E. to S.W. is
about 25 miles, and its greatest breadth about 13. The
coast is indented by numerous small bays, the principal of
which are those of San Antonio on the N.W., and of Iviza
on the S.E. coast. Of all the Balearic group, Iviza is the
most varied in its scenery and the most fruitful. The hilly
parts are richly wooded. It was on one of the summits
called Campsey that one of the stations in the celebrated
measurement of an arc of the meridian was placed. The
climate is for the most part mild and agreeable, though the
hot winds from the African coast are sometimes troublesome.
Oil, corn, and fruits (of which the most important are the
common fig, the prickly pear, the almond, and the carob-
bean) are the principal productions of the island; but the
inhabitants are rather indolent, and their modes of culture
are very primitive. Hemp and flax are also grown. There
are numerous salt-pans along the coast, which were formerly
worked by the Spanish Government, but are now in the
hands of a joint-stock company. Carob-beans, almonds,
charcoal, and lead are the other articles of export, to which
may be added stockings of native manufacture. The imports
are rice, flour, and sugar, woollen goods, and cotton. The
capital of the island, and, indeed, the only town of much
importance,-for the population is remarkably scattered,—
is Iviza or La Ciudad, a fortified town on the S.E. coast, con-
sisting of a lower and upper portion, and possessing a good
harbor. The population of the island is about 21,000, of
whom 5500 are resident in the capital.

Formen

tera.

South of Iviza lies the smaller and more irregular island of Formentera, which is said to derive its name from the production of wheat. It is situated between 1° 22′ and 1° 37' E. long. With Iviza it agrees both in general appearance and in the character of its productions, but it is altogether destitute of streams. Goats and sheep are found in the mountains, and the coasts are greatly frequented by flamingoes. The last station in the measurement of the arc of the meridian was in this island.

There are several smaller islands in the Bal

Smaller

earic group, such as Cabrera, or Goat Island, islands.
and Conejera, or Rabbit Island, south of Majorca,
but none of them are of any size or importance except
Cabrera, which is full of caverns, and is used as a place of
banishment. In 1808 it was the scene of a deed of gross
barbarity-a large number of Frenchmen being landed on
the island, and almost allowed to perish for want of food.
Of the origin of the early inhabitants of the Bal-
earic Islands nothing is certainly known, though
History.
Greek and Roman writers refer to Boeotian and Rhodian settle-
ments. According to general tradition the natives, from what-
ever quarter derived, were a strange and savage people till they
received some tincture of civilization from the Carthaginians,
who early took possession of the islands, and built themselves
cities on their coasts. Of these cities, Mahon, the most import-

Los mejores puertos del Mediterraneo son "June, July, August, and Port Mahon are the best harbors of the Mediterranean." The ports Addaya, Fornelle, Ciudadela, and Nitja may also be mentioned. The surface of the island is uneven, flat in the south and rising irregularly towards the centre, where the mountain El Toro-probably so called from the Arabic Tor, a height, though the natives have a legend of a toro or bull-has an altitude of 5250 feet. Owing to want of shelter from mountains, the climate is not so equable as that of Majorca, and the island is exposed in autumn and winter to the violence of the north winds. The soil of the island is of very unequal quality; that of the higher districts being light, fine, and fertile, and producing regular harvests without much labor or cultivation, while that of the plains is chalky, scanty, and alike unfit for pasture and the plough. Some of the valleys have a good alluvial soil; and where the hills have been terraced, they are cultivated to the summit. The wheat and barley raised in the island are sometimes sufficient for home consumption; there is rarely a surplus. The Hedysarum coronarium, or zulla, as it is called by the Spaniards, is largely cultivated for fodder. Wine, oil, potatoes, legumes, hemp, and flax are produced in moderate quantities; fruit of all kinds, including melons, pomegranates, figs, and almonds, is abundant. ant, still retains the name which it derived from the family of Mago. About twenty-three years after the destruction of CarThe moniato, or sweet potato, is grown and exported to thage the Romans accused the people of the islands with piracy, Algeria. The caper plant is common throughout the and sent against them Q. Cæcilius Metellus, who soon reduced island, growing on ruined walls. Horned cattle, sheep, them to obedience, settled amongst them 3000 Roman and Spangoats, &c., are reared, and the island abounds with smallish colonists, founded the cities, of Palma and Pollentia, and game. Stone of various kinds is plentiful; a soft stone, easily quarried, and acquiring hardness by exposure, is used for building. In the district of Mercadal and in Mount Santa Agueda are found marbles and porphyries superior to those of Italy, and lime and slate are also abundant. Lead, copper, and iron might be worked were it not for the scarcity of fuel. There are manufactures of the wool, hemp, and flax of the island; and formerly there was a good deal of boat-building; but, with the exception of

introduced the cultivation of the olive. Besides valuable contingents of the celebrated Balearic slingers the Romans derived from their new conquest mules (from Minorca), edible snails, sinope, and pitch. Of their occupation numerous traces still exist, the most remarkable being the aqueduct at Pollentia. dals, and in 798 by the Moors. They became a separate MoorIn 423 A.D. the islands were taken possession of by the Vanish kingdom in 1009, which, becoming extremely obnoxious for piracy, was the object of a crusade directed against it by Pope Pascal II., in which the Catalans took the lead. This expedi

tion was frustrated at the time, but was resumed by Don Jaime, king of Aragon, and the Moors expelled in 1232. During their occupation the island was populous and productive, and an active commerce was carried on with Spain and Africa. Don Jaime conferred the sovereignty of the isles on his third son, under whom and his successors they formed an independent kingdom up to 1349, from which time their history merges in that of Spain. In 1521 an insurrection of the peasantry against the nobility, whom they massacred, took place in Majorca, and was not suppressed without much bloodshed. In the war of the Spanish Succession all the islands declared for Charles; the duke of Anjou had no footing anywhere save in the citadel of Mahon. Minorca was reduced by Count Villars in 1707; but it was not till June, 1715, that Majorca was subjugated, and meanwhile Port Mahon was captured by the English under General Stanhope in 1708. In 1713 the island was secured to them by the peace of Utrecht; but in 1756 it was invaded by a force of 12,000 French, who, after defeating the unfortunate Admiral Byng, captured Port Mahon. Restored to England in 1769 by the peace of Versailles the island remained in our possession till 1782, when it was retaken by the Spaniards. Again seized by the English in 1798, it was finally ceded to Spain by the peace of Amiens in 1803. When the French invaded Spain in 1808, the Mallorquins did not remain indifferent; the governor, D. Juan Miguel de Vives, announced, amid universal acclamation, his resolution to adhere to Ferdinand VII. At first the Junta would take no active part in the war, retaining the corps of volunteers that were formed for the defence of the island; but finding it quite secure, they transferred a succession of them to the Peninsula to reinforce the allies. Such was the animosity excited against the French when their excesses were known to the Mallorquins, that some of the French prisoners, conducted thither in 1810, had to be transferred with all speed to the island of Cabrera, a transference which was not effected before some of them had been killed.

Armstrong's Hist. of Minorca, 1756; Dameto's Hist. del reyno Balearico o de Mallorca; Hist. of Balearic Islands, London, 1716; Vincente Mut's Historia; Cleghorn's Diseases of Minorca, 1751; Wernsdorf, Antiquitates Balearics; Clayton's Sunny South, 1869; George Sand, in Revue des Deux Mondes, 1841; D'Hermilly, Hist. du Royaume de Minorque, Maestricht, 1777; "Balearic Islands," in Bates's Illustrated Travels, vol. i.; Die Balearen in Wort und Bild geschildert, Leipsic, 1871; "Klima der Balearen," in the Zeit. der Oesterr. Gesell. für Meteorologie, 1874; Juan Ramis, Antiguedades Celticas de la Isla de Menorca, Mahon, 1818; Pauli, “Ein monat auf den Balearen," in Das Ausland, 1873; Arago, De ma jeunesse, Euvres, vol. i.; Biot, Recueil d'Observations géodésiques, &c., 1821.

BALES, PETER, a famous caligraphist, and one of the first inventors of short-hand writing. He was born in 1547, and is described by Anthony Wood as a "most dextrous person in his profession, to the great wonder of scholars and others." We are also informed that "he spent several years in sciences among Oxonians, particularly, as it seems, in Gloucester Hall; but that study, which he used for a diversion only, proved at length an employment of profit." He is mentioned for his skill in micrography in Hollingshed's Chronicle, anno 1575. "Hadrian Junius," says Evelyn, "speaking as a miracle of somebody who wrote the Apostles' Creed and the beginning of St. John's Gospel within the compass of a farthing: what would he have said of our famous Peter Bales, who, in the year 1575, wrote the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, Decalogue, with two short prayers in Latin, his own name, motto, day of the month, year of the Lord, and reign of the queen, to whom he presented it at Hampton Court, all of it written within the circle of a single penny, inchased in a ring and borders of gold, and covered with a crystal so accurately wrought as to be very plainly legible; to the great admiration of her majesty, the whole privy council, and several ambassadors then at court?" Bales was likewise very dextrous in imitating handwritings, and about 1576 was employed by Secretary Walsingham in certain political manoeuvres We find him at the head of a school near the Old Bailey, London, in 1590, in which year he published his Writing Schoolmaster, in three Parts. In 1595 he had a great trial of skill with one Daniel Johnson, for a golden pen of £20 value, and won it; and a contemporary author further relates that he had also the arms of caligraphy given him, which are azure, a pen or. Bales died about the year 1610.

time Balfe also practised the violin, and was even bold enough to play in public one of Viotti's concertos, but, seemingly, without much success. He never seems to have studied systematically the fundamental principles of his art, and this want of rudimentary training has left the stamp of imperfection on all his works. Being in possession of a small but pleasant baritone voice, he chose the career of an operatic singer, and made his début in Der Freischütz, at Drury Lane, at the early age of sixteen. The following year he was taken to Rome by a wealthy family. In Italy he wrote his first dramatic work, a ballet, Perouse, first performed at the Scala theatre, Milan, in 1826. In the latter part of the same year he appeared as Figaro in Rossini's Barbiere, at the Italian Opera in Paris, at that time the scene of the unequalled vocal feats of such singers as Sontag, Malibran, Lablache, and others. Balfe's voice and training were little adapted to compete with such artists; he soon returned to Italy, where, during the next nine years, he remained singing at various theatres, and composing a number of operas, now utterly and justly forgotten. During this time he married the prima donna, Mälle. Luisa Roser, a lady of German birth, for whom one of his operas was written. He even made bold to disfigure, by interpolated music of his own, the works of Rossini, Donizetti, and other masters of established reputation. Fétis says that the public indignation, roused by an attempt at "improving" in this manner the opera Il Crociato by Meyerbeer, compelled Balfe to throw up his engagement at the theatre La Fenice in Venice. He returned to England, where, in 1835, his Siege of Rochelle was produced, and rapturously received at Drury Lane. Encouraged by his success, he produced a series of operas which for some time made him the most popular composer of the day. Amongst the works written for London we mention Amelia, or the Love-test (1838); Falstaff (with the incomparable Lablache as Sir John); Keolanthe; and the Bohemian Girl (1844). The last-mentioned work is generally considered to be his chef d'oeuvre; it carried its composer's name to Germany, where it was performed with considerable success at various theatres. Balfe in the meantime also wrote several operas for the Opéra Comique and Grand Opéra in Paris, of which we may mention those called Le Puits d'Amour, Les quatre Fils Aymon, and L'étoile de Seville. After a short period of success his popularity began to decline, and at the time of his death in 1870, most of his music had become antiquated. A posthumous work of his, The Talisman, the libretto of which is taken from Walter Scott's novel, was performed at the Italian Opera, Drury Lane, in 1874, with considerable success. The chief charm of his works consists in a certain easy, not to say trivial, melodiousness, such as may be readily accounted for by the composer's Irish nationality without the addition of individual genius of a higher kind He had also a certain instinct for brilliant orchestration, and for the coarser effects of operatic writing. Musical knowledge of a higher kind he never possessed, nor did he supply this want by the natural impulses of a truly refined nature. "To speak of Balfe as an artist is either to misuse the word or to permit its meaning to depend on temporary success, no matter how acquired." Such is the stern but not unjust verdict of the late Mr. H. F. Chorley, whose opinion of the detrimental effect of Balfe's success on the chances of establishing a real national opera," also appears to be correct. Balfe's claim to particular notice rests, indeed, less on the intrinsic merits of his works than on their undoubted success; and, most of all, on the fact of his being one of the few composers of British birth whose names are known beyond the limits of their own country. (F. H.)

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BALFOUR, SIR JAMES, of Pittendreich, at one time lord president of the Supreme Court in Scotland, an active and unscrupulous politician during the stormy period of the reign of Mary. He was originally educated for the church, and adopted the principles of the Reformers. With Knox and others he was condemned to the galleys on account of the part he had taken in the murder of Beaton, but after their release he abjured Protestantism, and speedily acquired great favor with the court, obtaining some considerable legal dignities. He was deeply implicated in the murder of Darnley, and drew up the bond which was signed by all the conspirators. As some reward for his services, he was made, by Mary, governor of Edinburgh Castle, a position in which he had a good opportunity for the exer. His voice was of great compass, his dramatic powers remarkable, his

BALFE, MICHAEL WILLIAM, was born, in 1808, at Limerick in Ireland. His musical gifts became apparent at an early age. The only instruction he received was from his father, and a musician of the name of Horn; and it seems to have been limited to a superficial training of the voice, and to some lessons on the pianoforte. At one [Louis (1794-1858), a Neapolitan basso of French ancestry. popularity constant.-AM. ED.] 2A musical critic (1808-72), born in Lancashire; an editor and librettist who wrote Modern German Music and Thirty Years' Recollections.

-AM. ED.

VOL. III.-112

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