BELUJISTAN-BEMBO. 



493 



commands completely the entrance from the Catte- 

 gat. The sound between Zealand and the Swedish 

 coast is preferred for all large vessels. 



BELUJISTAN, or BELUCHISTAN ; a country in Asia, 

 situated on the north-west of the peninsula of Hindo- 

 stan, formerly belonging to Persia, now connected 

 with Cabulistan. It comprehends, in its most exten- 

 sive acceptation, all the space between Ion. 58 and 

 67 E. ; lat. 24 and 30 N. It extends from the 

 country of the Afghans on the north to the Indian 

 ocean, and from the provinces of Laristan and Ker- 

 man on the west to that of Sind on the east. It 

 contains six principal divisions : 1. Jhalawan and 

 Sarawan, with the district of Kelat ; 2. Macran and 

 Les; 3. Kohistan, that is, the mountainous region 

 west of the Desert ; 4. the Desert ; 5. Cach Ganda- 

 vah and the district of Herrend Dajel ; 6. the pro- 

 vince of Sind. It is very mountainous. Many of the 

 mountains are of great height, covered with snow. 

 In the plains, the heat is very great; in summer, 

 water is generally scarce. The rivers are the Poo- 

 ralle Muktoo, Dast, Nughor, Sinroo, and Sudgee. 

 The desert of Belujistan is three hundred miles long, 

 and upwards of two hundred broad, consisting of 

 waves of sand, extremely difficult to be traversed. 

 The minerals are gold, silver, lead, iron, copper, tin, 

 rock salt, alum, saltpetre, and sulphur. The soil 

 produces grain , cotton, indigo, madder, and assafoetida. 

 The Belooches,or Balojes, consist of three tribes the 

 Beluches, the Brahuis, the Dehwars. They are war- 

 like and semi-barbarous. They live a pastoral life, 

 and are of the Mohammedan religion. Little was 

 known of this country till Mr Pottinger, and some 

 other enterprising officers in the East India company's 

 service, explored it in 1809 and 1810. 



BELVEDERE (Ital. fine sight. See Bellevue.) The 

 name of buildings in Italy destined for the enjoyment 

 of prospects. The name is also given to the small 

 cupolas on houses, which are ascended for the sake 

 of fresh air, or of the view which they afford. Many 

 of the buildings in Rome are furnished with such 

 cupolas ; yet the term belvedere is generally applied 

 only to those on the palaces of the rich. In France, 

 the name bellevue is given to small country-seats, in 

 a simple style, or to arched bowers at the end of a 

 garden or park, intended for the enjoyment of fresh 

 air, or as places of shelter against the burning sun. 

 This is the name also of apart of the Vatican, where 

 the famous statue of Apollo is placed, which, on this 

 account, is called Jlpollo Belvedere. 



BELZONI, Giambattista, that is, John Baptist ; an 

 enterprising traveller, was born at Padua, and edu- 

 cated at Rome. He was destined for the monastic 

 life, but left the city when it was occupied by the 

 French armies, and, in 1803, went to England, where 

 he acted the parts of Apollo and Hercules, at Astley's 

 amphitheatre. Here he acquired, besides an ac- 

 quaintance with the English language, much know- 

 ledge of the science of hydraulics, the study of which 

 had been his chief occupation in Rome, and which 

 afterwards carried him to Egypt. He left England, 

 after a residence of nine years, accompanied by his 

 wife (who faced the Arabs with the courage of an 

 Amazon), and took his way through Portugal, Spain, 

 and Malta, to Egypt. There he lived from 1815 to 

 1819, at first as a dancer, till he won the favour of 

 the pacha, who made use of his services. B., though 

 often alone amidst the rude inhabitants of the coun- 

 try, kept them in awe by his extraordinary stature 

 and strength. He succeeded in opening, not only 

 the pyramid of Ghiza, which had been already open- 

 ed, in the seventeenth century, by Pietrodella Valle, 

 and to which the French, during their expedition to 

 Egypt, could not find the entrance, but also a second, 

 known by the name of Ccphrenes, and several cata- 



combs near Thebes, especially one, in a fine state of 

 preservation, in the valley of Biban el Molook, 

 which is considered to be the mausoleum of Psam- 

 mis (400 B. C.) The drawings which he has fur- 

 nished of these antiquities are the most exact which 

 we possess. In the year 1816, his perseverance and 

 skill succeeded in transporting the bust of Jupiter 

 Memnon, together with a sarcophagus of alabaster, 

 found in the catacombs, from Thebes to Alexandria, 

 from whence they came to the British museum. On 

 the first of August, 1817, he opened the temple of 

 Ipsambul, near the second cataract of the Nile, 

 which two Frenchmen, Cailliaud and Drovetti (the 

 French consul-general), had discovered the year be- 

 fore, but had not succeeded in opening. B. disco- 

 vered a subterraneous temple in its ruins, which, 

 until that time, had been unknown. He then visited 

 the coasts of the Red sea, and the city of Berenice, 

 and made an expedition into the Oasis of Jupiter 

 -Ammon. His journey to Berenice was rewarded by 

 the discovery of the emerald mines of Zubara. B. 

 refuted Cailliaud's assertion, that he had found the 

 famous Berenice, the great emporium of Europe and 

 India, by subsequent investigations on the spot, and 

 by the actual discovery of the ruins of that great city, 

 four days' journey from the place which Cailliaud had 

 taken for Berenice. B.'s Narrative of the Operations 

 and recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, 

 Tombs, and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia ; and of 

 a Journey to the Coast of the Red Sea, in Search ot 

 Berenice ; also of another to the Oasis of Jupiter 

 Ammon (London, 1820) ; accompanied by a folio vol. 

 of forty-four copper-plates ; was received with 

 general approbation. Padua, his native city, requited 

 his present of two Egyptian statues from Thebes, 

 with a medal by Manfredini. (Concerning the. 

 models, which B. placed in Bullock's museum, see 

 Museum.) In the year 1823, this enterprising tra- 

 veler had made preparations for passing from Benin 

 to Houssa and Timbuctoo, when he died, at Gato, on 

 his way to Benin, December 3, 1823. He believed 

 the Nile and Niger to be different streams, and that 

 the Niger empties its waters into the Atlantic ocean ; 

 opinions which have eventually been proved to be cor- 

 rect. The following inscription was placed over his 

 grave : 



" Here lie the remains of 



G. BELZONI, 

 Who was attacked with dysentery at Benin, 



(On his way to Houssa and Timbuctoo,' 1 

 On the 26th of November, and died at this place, 



December 3, 1823. 



The gentleman who placed this inscription over the grave 

 of this intrepid and enterprising traveler, hopes that 

 every European visiting this spot will cause the ground 

 to be cleared, and the fence round the grave to be re- 

 paired, if necessary." 



BEMBO, Pietro ; one of the most celebrated of the 

 Italian scholars, that adorned the 16th century ; was 

 born at Venice, in 1470. He very early learned the 

 Latin, and afterwards, at Messina, under the direc- 

 tion of Lascaris, the Greek language ; after which he 

 returned to his native country, and there published 

 a small treatise on mount Etna. In. compliance 

 with the will of his father, he entered upon the 

 career of public business, but, soon conceiving a dis- 

 like for it, he devoted himself to science and the 

 theological profession. At Ferrara, where he com- 

 pleted his philosophical studies, he entered into a 

 connexion with Ercole Strozzi, Tibaldeo, and parti- 

 cularly with Sadoleto. From Ferrara he returned tc 

 Venice, where a literary society had been established, 

 in the house of the printer Aldus Manutius. B. be- 

 came one of its principal members, and, for some 

 time, took pleasure in correcting the beautiful edi- 

 tions which proceeded from this celebrated press. 

 After visiting Rome, he went, in 1506, to the court 



