BAN 



244 



BAP 



Bantam. 



land; Henry's Britain, vol. vii. p. 139 144. Buch- 

 anan's Iterum Scoticarum Ilistoria, cap. 97. (i) 



BANTAM, a seaport town, and the capital of a 



ingdom in the north-west extremity of the island of 



"latavia or Java. It is situated at the foot of a moun- 

 tain, from which issues three rivers, one of which pas- 

 ses through the town, while the other two inclose it. 

 The town of Bantam, which resembles an immense 

 grove of cocoa nut trees, has no walls or forts ex- 

 cepting fort Diamond, which contains the royal resi- 

 dence. Each of the streets which compose the town 

 is built with straw and rose wood, and is surrounded 

 with a plantation of cocoa nut trees. The river of 

 Bantam, which is very shallow, is about 175 feet wide 

 at its mouth ; and the bay of the same name affords a 

 commodious and secure anchorage. 



Before the inhabitants of the East were visited by 

 the rapacious merchants of Europe, Bantam was one 

 of the most commercial cities in the Indies. The 

 Arabs, the Turks, the Moors, the Chinese, and al- 

 most all the Asiatic nations, resorted to this celebra- 

 ted rendezvous. The Portuguese were the first Eu- 

 ropeans that traded with this city ; and the English 

 afterwards established a factory in it, and for a long 

 time carried on a lucrative commerce. Another esta- 

 blishment was formed by the Dutch, but they did 

 not succeed so well as the English in gaining the af- 

 fections of the natives. 



The transference of the trade of the Dutch to the 

 neighbouring province of Jacatra, which they had 

 conquered, and where they built the town of Bata- 

 via ; the removal of the English to Hindostan and 

 China ; the ruin of the bay by the coral shoals and 

 the detritus of the mountains ; and the destruction of 

 a considerable part of the town by fire, all conspired 

 to reduce the opulence and the commerce of Bantam. 

 The power of its king diminished with the commer- 

 cial importance of his capital ; and in employing the 

 aid of the Dutch against the other kings of Java, he 

 lost his own independence. With the form of royalty he 

 resides as a kind of state prisoner in the Dutch fort, 

 surrounded with female attendants. When he ap- 

 pears in public, he is attended by his Bantam life 

 guards, and likewise by a body of Dutch troops from 

 the garrison. None of the life guards are admitted 

 within the fortress ; and neither his subjects nor his 

 children are allowed to approach him without the 

 permission of the Dutch officer. 



The king of Bantam maintains a body of native 

 troops, and several armed vessels, for supporting his 

 authority over a territory in the south part of the 

 island of Sumatra. His subjects in Sumatra and Java, 

 tell to the king, at a low price, the pepper which 

 they collect ; and this valuable commodity is again de- 

 livered to the Dutch at? price somewhat advanced. 



Before the trade of this kingdom was monopolised 

 by the Dutch, the Bantamesc exported about three 

 million pounds of pepper annually ; and in the year 

 1751, when the kingdom came under the authority of 

 the Dutch, an annual tribute of 100 bhars of pepper, 

 7 500 pounds weight, was paid by the king to 

 the Dutch East India Company. 



The kingdom of Bantam in Java, is about 100 



miles in circumference ; but the dominion of the king 



J; over the province of Succadana in Borneo, 



the southern part of Sumatra, and all the islands in Bantry 

 the streights of Sunda, from Prince's island to Hog's 

 island. 



II 

 Baptism. 



Stavorinus, who, along with some of his fellow tra- 

 vellers, was invited to an entertainment by the king 

 of Bantam, mentions a very singular custom. While 

 the king sat at table, he relieved himself by frequent 

 eructations, and as if it had been a piece of wit, or 

 an exhibition of skill, he was imitated by all the rest 

 of the company. This strange practice, in which his 

 Dutch visitors would not likely be very expert, is 

 considered by his majesty as a pleasing indication of 

 the excellence of his fare, and of the good appetite 

 of his guests. 



The kingdom of Bantam is the least populous of 

 any of the kingdoms of Java. It contains only about 

 5000 families, or about 22,000 inhabitants. From 

 the thick forests and deep morasses, the climate is 

 unhealthy, and the mortality great. East Long. 

 106, South Lat. 6 30'. A full account of the 

 ancient commerce of Bantam will be found in Peu- 

 chet's Diet, de la Geog. Commerq. and copious de- 

 tails respecting the manners of the people, in Stavori- 

 nus's Voyages, vol. i. p. 57 ; and Staunton's Embassy 

 to China,.\o\. i. p. 296. (sr) 



BANTRY Bay, or Bkakhavex, a large bay in 

 the county of Cork, on the south-west coast of Ire- 

 land, about 26 miles long, and from 3 to 5 miles 

 broad. It is reckoned one of the finest bays in the 

 world, and affords a secure anchorage for ships. See 

 Cork, (j) 



BANYAN Tree, a celebrated tree which grows 

 in the East, and whose branches strike downwards 

 and take root. By this means the tree, supported by 

 a variety of trunks, often extends over an immense 

 space. An excellent drawing of it may be seen in 

 Hodge's Travels in India, (j) 



BAOBAB, or Bahobab, the name of a huge 

 tree which grows on the west coast of Africa, from 

 the Niger to the kingdom of Benin. The circum- 

 ference of its trunk is generally between seventy and 

 eighty feet, though the height of the trunk seldom 

 exceeds twelve feet. The branches, which are re- 

 markably thick, shoot out horizontally to the length 

 of fifty or sixty feet, and their extremities, being bent 

 to the ground by their own weight, they form a he- 

 mispherical mass of foliage about 130 feet in diame- 

 ter. The decayed trunks of the Baobab are hol- 

 lowed out into burying-places by the negroes, for 

 their poets and musicians. The bodies are thus pre- 

 served perfectly dry, and resist putrefaction as if 

 they had been embalmed. A full account of this 

 tree will be found in a paper in the Mem. Acad. Par. 

 for 1701, p. 218 ; Hilt. p. 77, by Adanson. (*) 



BAPTISM, derived from the Greek verb Bx- 

 IZu, to dip or tinge, is the initiatory rite in the 

 Christian religion. Though the words of our Sa- 

 viour, recorded in Matth. xxiii. 19. are allowed to 

 be the foundation of this ordinance, yet various opi- 

 nions have been entertained respecting its origin. 

 Whilst some maintain, that it was never practised Origin of 

 before the mission of John the Baptist, others affirm, baptism, 

 that we ought to look for its origin among the an- 

 cient ceremonies of the Jews. Without entering 

 the barren field of controversy, we may be allowed 



