

THF. STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



petual Defender" of Brazil. He proclaimed the 



rideiice of the country on September 7, 



institutional Emperor 



and Perpetual 1 ' r IiMh. fol- 



i. he abdicated the crown in 



favor of his only son. Dom Pedro II.. who reigned 



as emperor until November !,">. 1W). when. by 



iution. h- 'hi-oned. exil. 



Bra/il iblic under the titli 



l/nite'i i/il. A new constitution 



was adopted in Ivl. t, first president. 



. 1VH, by Viee-President 

 \lmirals Mello and Da (lama re- 

 Ilio dt- .Janeiro >everal times bom- 

 barded. Prudente dr Morars and Maiioel Vie- 

 torino Pereira elected president and vice-prc-i- 

 dent. 1V.M. In I'.(iti-(t7. Hra/il took t lie lead in 

 an effort to reach a better understanding among 

 the countrie> of North and South America. A 

 demonstration was given by the cilv ol 

 le .Janeiro, in 1908, to the United St 



. uidron. 



Brunswick) The House of. TheDuchy 

 of Brunswick, in Lower Saxony, was conquered by 

 Charlemagne, and governed afterward by counts 

 and dukes. Albert-A//o. .ManMii> of Italy, and 

 Lord of K>te. died in 10!7. and left by hi> wife, 

 nde the heiress of Guelph, Duke of Ca- 

 rinthia in Bavaria i. a son, Guelph, who was in- 

 vited into Germany by Imitza, his mother-in- 

 1 with all the possessions of his 

 -tepfather, Guelph of Bavaria. His de- 

 scendant. Henry the Lion, married Maud, 

 daughter of Henry II. of England, and is always 

 looked upon as the founder of the Brunswick 

 family. His dominions were very extensive; 

 but. having refused to assist the Emperor Fred- 

 erick Barbarossa in a war against Pope Alex- 

 ander III., through the emperor's resentment he 

 was proscribed at the Diet at Wurtzburg, in 

 1180. The Duchy of Bavaria was given to 

 Otho, from whom is descended the family of 

 Bavaria; the Duchy of Saxony to Bernard 

 under of the House of Anhalt; and 

 ier territories to different persons. On 

 this he retired to England; but, at the inter- 

 cession of Henry II., Brunswick and Luneburg 

 were restored to him. The House of Brunswick, 

 in 1 KM), divided into several branches. Bruns- 

 wick was included by Napoleon in the Kingdom 

 ol Westphalia, in 1806, but was restored to the 

 duke in 1815. 



Buccaneers. A celebrated association of 

 piratical adventurers, who. from the commence- 

 ment of the second quarter of the Sixteenth 

 Century to the end of the Seventeenth, main- 

 tained themselves in the Caribbean seas, at first 

 i.risals on the Spaniards, latterly 

 by a le.ss justifiable and indiscriminate piracy. 

 The name i> derived from the Caribbee boucan, a 

 term for preserved meat, smoke-dried in a pecu- 

 liar manner. The Buccaneers were also some- 

 times called " Brethren of the Coast." The arro- 

 gant assumption by the Spaniards of a divine 

 right sanctioned by the pope's bull to t he- 

 whole New World was not. of course, to be 

 tolerated by the enterprising mariners of Eng- 

 land and France; ana the enormous cruelties 

 practiced by them upon all foreign interlopers, 

 of which the history of that time is full, natur- 



ally led to an association for mutual defense 



among the adventurers of all other nations, but 



particularly among the English and French. 



The fundamental principles of the policy were 



Mutual alliance, and war with nil that 



-panish. The center of their predatory 



h'e was Tortuga. Their la>t great exploit was 



the capture of Carthagena. lti'J7. 



Bull Hun, or Hull's Run. A stream in 

 Virginia, dividing Fairfax and Prince William 

 counties, in the northeastern part of the State, 

 and flowing into the Occoqiian River, fourteen 

 miles from the Potomac. On its banks were 

 fought two of the most memorable battles dur- 

 ing' the Civil War. Alter a series of heavy skir- 

 mishes. .Inly lli-l'.t. iMil. the I'nion army, under 

 ( ieneral McDowell, was on the L'lst utterly 

 routed by the Confederates, under the command 

 of Generals .Beauregard and J. E. Johnston. 

 The Union loss was about 3,000 men, while that 

 of the Confederates was estimated at nearly 

 2,000 men. The former lost, in addition, twenty- 

 seven guns, besides an immense quantity of 

 small arms, ammunition, stores, provisions, and 

 accoutrements. On August 30, 1862, another 

 great battle was fought here between the I'nion 

 forces, commanded by General Pope, and the 

 Confederates, under Generals Lee, Longstreet, 

 and "Stonewall" Jackson, when the former 

 were again defeated with heavy loss. The three 

 battles of Groveton, Bull's Run, and Chant illy, 

 fought in three successive days, cost the I'nion 

 cause about . 20,000 men in killed, wounded, 

 missing, and prisoners, thirty guns, and .'>().()()() 

 small arms. The first battle of Bull Run is 

 sometimes known as the Battle of Mana 



Bunker's Hill, Battle of. A famous 

 engagement between American and British 

 troops, June 17, 1775. The former were com- 

 manded by Colonel Prescott and General Put- 

 nam, and the latter by General Howe. The 

 British loss in killed and wounded was l.o.Vl; 

 that of the Americans, 450. Although the latter 

 were driven from their position after their pow- 

 der was exhausted, and the victory remained 

 with the British, the moral effect of this first 

 battle on the Americans, and the heavy lose to 

 the enemy, made it equivalent to a victory for 

 the Continentals. On the ground where the 

 hottest of the battle was fought a granite obelisk, 

 220 feet in height, has been erected at a cost of 

 $100,000, raised by popular subscriptions. The 

 corner stone was laid by General La Kayette, 

 when on his visit to this country in 182."): it 

 was completed July, 1842, and, on the occasion 

 of its dedication, Daniel Webster delivered his 

 famous oration, generally regarded as his best 

 effort. 



Burma h. The Burmese Empire was found- 

 ed in the middle of the Eighteenth Century by 

 Alompra, the first sovereign of the dynasty, 

 which fell in the person of King Theebaw in 

 1886. In 1824, the British commenced hostil- 

 ities against Burmah, and captured Rangoon on 

 May 1 1th. Successive victories led to the cession 

 of Arracan in 1826. In 1852, further complica- 

 tions resulted in the cession of Pegu to the Brit- 

 ish Indian Empire. In 1885, King Theebaw, 

 relying upon French assistance, interfered with 

 a British trading company. The British Gov- 



