733 



BUCENTAtfR BUCHAN*. 



which there vrrrc large lit nl> on the M:ni<l. They 

 sold the hides to the mariners who landed on the 

 coast, and, because they did not boil the flesh, but 

 roasted it before the fire, like the American savages, 

 they were called buccaneers. Without a captain, 

 without laws, without the society of women, these 

 hunters lived in the rudest state of nature, associating 

 two by two, and enjoying in common all that they had 

 taken in the chase or acquired by robbery. The 

 Spaniards, who could not conquer them, determined 

 to extirpate all the cattle on the island, and thus ob- 

 liged the buccaneers either to cultivate the land as 

 husbandmen, or to join the other freebooters on the 

 island of Tortugas. These bold adventurers attacked, 

 in small numbers and with small means, but with an 

 intrepidity which bade defiance to danger, not only 

 single merchant vessels, but several of them together, 

 and sometimes armed ships. Their common mode of 

 attack was by boarding. They directed their efforts 

 especially against the Spanish ships which sailed for 

 Europe laden with the treasures of America. By the 

 repeated losses which they suffered, the Spaniards 

 were nt last so discouraged, that they seldom offered 

 a serious resistance. It happened once that a ship 

 of the buccaneers fell in with two Spanish gal- 

 leons, each of which had sixty cannon and 1500 

 men on board. To escape was impossible, and the 

 pirates could not think of surrender. Their captain, 

 Laurent, made a short speech to them, sent one of 

 his men to the powder room with orders to set fire to 

 it upon the first sign which he should give him, and 

 then placed his men in order of battle on each side. 

 " We must sail between the enemy's ships," cried he 

 to his crew, " and fire upon them to the right and 

 left." This manoeuvre was executed with extraordi- 

 nary rapidity. The fire of the pirate killed so many 

 people, on board both ships, that the Spaniards were 

 struck with a panic, and let him escape. The Span- 

 ish commander was afterwards put to death on ac- 

 count of the disgrace which he had brought upon his 

 nation. Their frequent losses greatly reduced the 

 trade of the Spaniards with America. The buccaneers 

 now began to land on the coast, and to plunder the 

 cities. Their manner of dividing the booty was 

 remarkable. Every one who had a share in the 

 expedition swore that he had reserved nothing of the 

 plunder. A false oath was of extremely rare occur- 

 rence, and was punished by banishment to an unin- 

 habited island. The wounded first received their 

 share, which was greater according to the severity of 

 their wounds. The remainder was divided into equal 

 parts, and distributed by lot. The leader received 

 more than the others only when he had particularly 

 distinguished himself. Those who had perished in 

 the expedition were not forgotten. Their part was 

 given to their relations or friends, and, in default of 

 them, to the poor and to the church. Religion was 

 strangely blended with their vices, and they always 

 began their enterprises with a prayer. The wealth 

 which they acquired was spent in gambling and de- 

 bauchery, for it was the principle of these adventurers 

 to enjoy the present and not care for the future. 

 The climate and their mode of life gradually dimin- 

 ished their number, and the vigorous measures of 

 the British and French governments at last put an 

 end to their outrages, which had, perhaps, been pur- 

 posely tolerated. From this band of pirates arose the 

 French settlements on the western half of St Domingo. 

 In the beginning of the 18th century, the piracies of 

 the buccaneers had entirely ceased. An account of 

 their mode of life, and of many of their deeds, is to 

 be found in the 10th volume of RaynaPs History of 

 the two Indies, and in the 2d volume of Archenholz's 

 Historical Writings. 

 BCCENTAUR, in mythology ; a monster, half man 



and half ox or ass. The splendid galley in which 

 the doge of Venice annually sailed over the Adriatic 

 on Ascension-Day also bore this name. Dropping a 

 ring into the sea, he espoused it in the name of the 

 republic*, with the words Desponsamus te, mare, in 

 signum vert perpetuiquc dominii. The custom origi- 

 nated in 1176, when the doge, having refused to 

 deliver up the pope, who liad taken refuge in Venire, 

 to the emperor, encountered and defeated the impe- 

 rial fleet which was sent to reduce the Venetians. 



BUCEPHALUS; the horse of Alexander the Great, 

 which he bought for thirteen talents (about 2,500). 

 Philonicus, a Thessalian, offered to sell him to king 

 Philip ; but Philip, who considered the price tno 

 great, commanded the unmanageable steed to be led 

 away, when the young Alexander offered to mount 

 him. He leaped up, in fact, and, to the astonishment 

 of all, the horse obeyed him, and willingly submitted 

 to his guidance, though he had never before obeyed 

 a rider. Alexander, from this circumstance, con- 

 ceived such an affection for him, that he never rode 

 upon any other horse ; and Bucephalus, also, when 

 caparisoned for battle, endured no other rider. He 

 died of a wound, and Alexander caused him to l>e 

 buried near the Hydaspes, and built, over his grave, 

 a city, which he called Bucephala. 



BUCER, Martin ; born 1491, at Schlettstadt, in Al- 

 sace. He died in the office of professor of theology 

 at Cambridge, 1551. At the time of the reformation, 

 he left the Dominican order, and became a convert 

 to Lutheranism. He was, at first, preacher at the 

 court of Frederic, the elector of the Palatinate, after- 

 wards in Strasburg, and at the same time professor in 

 the university there for twenty years, till king Ed- 

 ward VI. of England, at the suggestion of archbishop 

 Cranmer, invited him to Cambridge. In 1557, queen 

 Mary caused his bones to be burned, to show her 

 detestation of Protestantism. The cardinal Contarini 

 called him the most learned divine among the here- 

 tics. He wrote a commentary on the Psalms, under 

 the name of Aretius Filinus. His first wife had been 

 a nun in her youth. After her death, he married 

 again. 



BUCHAN; a district of Scotland, lying partly in 

 Aberdeenshire, and partly in Banffshire. It gives a 

 title to the noble family of Erskines, earls of Mar. 



BUCHAN, William, M. D., a popular medical writer, 

 was born in 1729, at Ancrum, in Roxburghshire. 

 Being destined by his friends for the church, he re- 

 paired to Edinburgh, to study divinity. At the uni- 

 versity he spent nine years, studying any thing rather 

 than theology. At this period of his life, mathematics 

 and botany were among his favourite pursuits. Finally, 

 he devoted himself wholly to medicine. He enjoyed, 

 at this time, the friendship of the illustrious Gregory, 

 whose liberal maxims are believed to have had great 

 influence over his future life. Before taking his de- 

 gree, he was induced, by the invitation of a fellow- 

 student, to settle in practice for some time in York- 

 shire. While established in that district, he became 

 physician to the Ackworth foundling hospital, in 

 which situation he laid the foundation of that know- 

 ledge of the diseases of children, which afterwards 

 appeared so conspicuous in his writings. He after- 

 wards removed to Sheffield, where he appears to have 

 spent the years between 1762 and 1766. He then 

 commenced practice at Edinburgh, and for several 

 years was very well employed, though it was allowed 

 that he might have enjoyed much more business, if 

 his convivial habits had not distracted so much of his 

 attention. Having for a considerable time directed his 

 attention to a digest of popular medica. knowledge, 

 he published, in 1769, his work entitled, " Domestic 

 Medicine ; or, the Family Physician being an at- 

 tempt to render the Medical Art more generally 



