B Y R 



172 



B Y 



Byron, O n account of their being so high in the bay, he com- 

 """ V""' pletely accomplished his object, by destroying the 

 whole squadron, consisting of three frigates, besides 

 20 schooners, sloops, and small privateers. 



Captain Byron was equally fortunate in a voyage 

 of discovery, which was undertaken at the desire of 

 f his majesty, in order to ascertain whether there were 

 any islands lying in the Pacific Ocean, between the 

 southern tropic and the equator. He sailed in the 

 Dolphin of 24 guns, which was completely fitted up 

 for the occasion, in the beginning of July 1764, ha- 

 ving in company the Tamer sloop of war, commanded 

 by Captain Mouatt ; and it was the discoveries which 

 he accomplished in this voyage, which led to the dis- 

 patch of Captains Wallis and Carteret shortly after- 

 wards to the same hemisphere. In the account of 

 this expedition, the existence of a race of men, of a 

 stature very superior to the common standard, on the 

 coast of Patagonia, is stated with great confidence ; 

 and has given rise to much doubt and discussion. 

 " One of them," says the Commodore, " who after- 

 wards appeared to be a chief, was of a gigantic sta- 

 ture, and seemed to realize the tales of monsters in 

 a human shape : he had the skin of some wild beast 

 thrown over his shoulders, as a Scotch Highlander 

 wears his plaid, and was painted so as to make the 

 most hideous appearance I ever beheld : round one 

 eye was a large circle of white, a circle of black sur- 

 rounded the other, and the rest of his face was 

 streaked with paint of different colours : I did not 

 measure him ; but if I may judge of his height by 

 the proportion of his stature to my own, it could 

 not be much less than seven feet." But we must 

 defer entering upon this controversy at present, and 

 must refer for a particular account of this people to 

 the article PATAGONIA. Commodore Byron return- 

 ed to England in 1 766, and In 1769 was appointed to 

 the government of Newfoundland, which he held till 

 1775. In that year, having risen through the suc- 

 cessive ranks of admiral of the blue, the white, and 

 the red, he was dispatched with a squadron to Ame- 

 rica, to oppose the French fleet under Count d'Es- 

 taign. Here, however, his evil genius attended him. 

 His fleet was dispersed in a storm ; and even after he 

 had reached the object of his destination, he was un- 

 able to effect any thing decisive, owing to his being 

 encumbered with a fleet of transports, and the supe- 

 rior sailing of the enemy. Disgusted with his ill for- 

 tune, he resigned his station, leaving the command 

 with Rear-admiral Parker ; and, retiring from the 

 service, he never would accept of any other ap- 

 pointment. He was, however, raised to the rank of 

 vice-admiral of the white in 1779, and died, at the 

 age of 73, on the 10th of April 1786. 



Admiral Byron was an officer of the first talents 

 and respectability ; and though his exertions often 

 failed of their merited success, their failure was ne- 

 ver attributed either to his want of skill, bravery, or 

 perseverance. He served his country with undaunt- 

 ed courage in every quarter of the world for 45 years ; 

 and, during that time, was much beloved and esteemed 



for the inestimable qualities of his heart, and his kind- 

 ness and humanity to those whom he commanded. 

 See Ballantyne's edition of Byron's Narrative, con- ] 

 taining a well written life of the author, to which 

 we have been indebted for the principal facts in this 

 article. (jp) 



BYSSUS, a genus of plants of the class Crypto - 

 gamia, and order Alga. See CRYPTOOAMIA. 



BYSSUS, or BYSSUM, the name of a fibrous sub- 

 stance produced in Egypt, India, Judea, and at Elis, 

 and employed by the ancients in the formation of 

 fine garments. 



Some writers suppose that the byssus of the an- 

 cients was the silken threads of the pinna marina. 

 Bochart imagines that it was a kind of fine flax, while 

 others consider it to be a cotton, or a mixture of linen 

 and cotton. See Foster de Bysso Antiquorum, LoncJ. 

 1776; Osbeck's Voyage to China, vol. i. p. 383; and 

 Mcm.Acad.Par.I712.p.20. See also COTTON, (w) 



BYSTROPOGON, a genus of plants of the class 

 Didynamia, and order Gymnospermia. See BOTANY, 

 p. 242. 



BYZANTIUM, an ancient city of Thrace, situ- 

 ated on the Bosphorus, N. Lat. 41, E. Long. 29. 

 It stood on a promontory of a nearly triangular form, 

 commanding, to the right, a view of the Propontis, 

 or sea of Marmora ; in front, the narrow channel of 

 the Bosphorus, with the cities of Chalcedon and 

 Chrysopolis, on the Asiatic coast ; and to the left, 

 fertile eminences, and a gulf, which retreating in- 

 land not less than six English miles, served for 

 a most commodious harbour. The river Lycus, 

 formed by the conflux of two small streams, fell 

 into it, and this harbour was altogether so ex- 

 cellent, that it is at this day, according to some, 

 called the Porte by way of eminence ; -j- and was 

 universally considered as combining more of the 

 advantages of strength, convenience, and beauty, 

 than any other harbour in the world. So much 

 was this the case, that the inhabitants of Chal- 

 cedon, on the Asiatic side of the strait, were deno- 

 minated by the oracle the blind, caeci, (Tacit. An. 

 b. xii. c. 63. ) because their founders had, a short 

 time before the building of Byzantium, (when they 

 had their choice of the two sides,) been so stupid or 

 blind as to prefer the Asiatic. The harbour, at its 

 mouth, was only about 500 yards broad, but in most 

 other places a mile, and capable of floating vessels of 

 any size. / 



Byzantium occupied the place where the capital 

 of the eastern empire afterwards stood, and where 

 the capital of the Turkish empire now stands. About 

 seven miles to the north of the city, viz. at the place 

 where stood the celebrated temple of Mercury, and 

 where Darius connected the two continents by a 

 bridge of boats, the channel of the Bosphorus was 

 so narrow, that two persons, placed the one in Eu- 

 rope and the other in Asia, could easily make them- 

 selves heard by one another. The citadel stood on 

 the point of the promontory. The walls of the city 

 were built of huge square stones, so skilfully jointed 



J- Others, however, give a different account. " The offices of all the Viziers are in the same court or division of the pa- 

 laee ; the entrance of which is through a lofty gate-way, called the Babi Homayon (imperial gate), translated by Europeans 

 the Sublime Porte." Mirza Abu Taleb's Travels, vol. ii. p. 2*1. 



