BALSA BAMBROUGH. 



27i 



principal streets are very steep, and there is nothing 

 remarkable in the public buildings. Population in 

 1831, 3775, of which 1390 were in the Purt or sub- 

 urbs; total population in 1841, 3513. 



BALSA. "Balsa," which in Spanish nautical 

 language means Boat or raft, is the name bestowed 

 on a contrivance for landing passengers with safety 

 through a heavy turf. It is chiefly employed on 

 the coasts of South America, both East and West, 

 and exhibits a remarkable instance of the ingenuity 

 of the human mind in overcoming those obstacles 

 which nature has raised to the prosecution of its 

 pursuits. It is formed of two seal skins sewed up 

 so as to form large bags from seven to nine feet in 

 length ; these, being covered with a bituminous 

 substance so as to be perfectly air-tight, are inflated 

 by flexible tubes and secured by ligatures ; the 

 pipe is of sufficient length to reach the mouth of 

 the conductor of this frail bark, who is thus enabled 

 occasionally to replenish the bladders with air, 

 should any have escaped. The two are securely 

 fastened together at one end, which forms the 

 row of the vessel; the other ends are spread 

 bout four feet apart by a small plank, and the 

 raft completed with small sticks covered over with 

 matting. The manager of the balsa sits well for- 

 ward, with his passengers or goods close behind 

 him, and armed with a double-bladed paddle ap- 

 proaches the back of the surf, waiting for the high- 

 est wave, and contrives to keep his balsa on the 

 top of it with her bow towards the shore till she 

 is thrown up on the beach to the very extent that 

 the surf reaches, and the man immediately jumps 

 off to secure his balsa from returning with the sea, 

 when the passengers land without wetting the 

 soles of their shoes. The balsa will easily carry 

 three passengers besides the person who guides it, 

 and is employed in landing the cargoes from mer- 

 chant vessels where the violence of the surf, par- 

 ticularly on the shores of the Pacific, prevents the 

 possibility of European boats passing through it 

 without great danger. Along the coast of Peru, 

 which is almost entirely devoid of harbours, it is 

 the only vessel used for these purposes, and by 

 such frail means large bags of dollars and doub- 

 loons, and bars of silver and gold, are shipped off, 

 without the least apprehension of their safe con- 

 veyance. There is another balsa, more simple and 

 irore frail, used in crossing rivers, an account of 

 which is thus given by Mr Temple in his enter- 

 taining " Travels in Peru :" " Take a dried bul- 

 lock's hide, pinch up each of the four corners, put 

 a stitch with a thorn to keep those corners toge- 

 ther, and your boat is made. For use, place it 

 upon the water bottom downwards, then put one 

 foot immediately in the centre, and let the other 

 follow with the most delicate caution ; you are 

 now to shrink downwards, contracting your body 

 precisely in the manner in which, probably, in 

 your childhood, you have pressed a friar into a 

 snuff-box. When crouched down in the bottom, 

 sundry articles are handed in and ingeniously 

 deposited round you, until the balsa sinks to about 

 an inch or an inch and a half; it is then con- 

 sidered sufficiently laden. A naked peone, (guide) 

 now plunges into the stream, and, taking hold of 

 one corner of the balsa, a peone on the shore im- 

 parts a gentle impulse to your tottering bark, 

 while the person in the water, keeping hold of the 

 corner with one hand, strikes out with the other, 

 and swims away with you to the opposite bank." 

 BAMBROUGH, OR BAMBOROUGH, the 



name of a ward, parish, and village, in the county 

 of Northumberland. The ward is about seventeen 

 miles in length, and eight in breadth. The parish 

 comprises the chapelries of Beadnell and Lucker, 

 and the townships of Adderstone, Bambiough, 

 Bambrough-Castle, Bradford, Budle, Burton, El- 

 ford, Fleetham, Glororum, Hoppen, Mouson, Ne w- 

 ham, Newstead, Outchester, Retehwood, Shoston, 

 Spindlestone, North Sunderland, Swinhoe, Tuggal, 

 Warenton, and Warnford. Population of parish in 

 1831, 3949. The village was anciently a royal 

 borough and an important market-town, and in the 

 twenty-third of Edward I. returned two members 

 to parliament. It was originally called Bebbun- 

 bury, and gave name to an extensive district in the 

 neighbourhood called Bambroughshire, possessed of 

 certain privileges now obsolete. Population of 

 ward in 1841, 5931 ; parish, 4237 ; town, 375. 



BAMBROUGH or BAMBOROUGU-CAS- 

 TLE ; a township in the above parish. The name 

 is derived from its vicinity to the celebrated castle 

 of Bambrough, which stands on a high and rugged 

 triangular rock of basalt, projecting into the sea, 

 and accessible only from the south-east side. It 

 rises 150 feet above the water-mark. It is said to 

 have been erected about the middle of the sixth 

 century, by Ida, the first Anglo-Saxon king of 

 Northumberland. The following account of the 

 castle is from Pennant's Scotland. " This castle 

 and the manor belonging to it, was once the pro- 

 perty of the Fosters; but, on the forfeiture of 

 Thomas Foster, Esq., in 1715, for having joined 

 the Pretender, it was purchased by his uncle Lord 

 Crewe, bishop of Durham, and, with other consi- 

 derable estates, left vested in trustees, to be ap- 

 plied to unconfined charitable uses. Three of 

 these trustees are a majority; one of them makes 

 the place his residence, and blesses the coast by 

 his judicious and humane application of the pre- 

 late's generous bequest. He has repaired and ren- 

 dered habitable the great Norman square tower ; 

 the part reserved for himself and his family is a 

 large hall and a few smaller apartments ; but the 

 rest of the spacious edifice is allotted for purposes 

 which make the heart to glow with joy when 

 thought of. The upper part is an ample granary ; 

 from whence corn is dispensed to the poor with- 

 out distinction, even in the dearest time, at the 

 rate of 4s. a bushel; and the distressed for many 

 miles around, often experience the conveniency of 

 this benefaction. Other apartments are fitted up 

 for the reception of shipwrecked sailors; and bed- 

 ding is provided for thirty, should such a number 

 happen to be cast on shore at the same time. A 

 constant patrole is kept every stormy night along 

 this tempestuous coast, for above eight miles, the 

 length of the manor, by which means numbers of 

 lives have been preserved. Many poor wretches 

 are often found on the shore in a state of insensi- 

 bility, but by timely relief, are soon brought to 

 themselves. It often happens that ships strike on 

 the rocks in such a manner as to be capable of re- 

 lief, in case numbers of people could be suddenly 

 assembled : for that purpose a cannon is fixed on 

 the top of the tower, which is fired once, if the 

 accident happens in such a quarter; twice, if in 

 another; and three times if in such a place. By 

 these signals the country people are directed to 

 the spot they are to fly to, and by this means, fre- 

 quently preserve not only the crew, but even the 

 vessel; for machines of differaiii kinds are a'. ways 

 in readiness to heave ships out of their perilous 



