B R E 



436 



B R E 



Brava 

 Brld 



which blow" very strong during the rainy seasons. 

 The bay of Fucrno is the best of the three, but 

 is less frequented than the bay of Ferriere only 

 because less known. See Sir George Staunton's Em- 

 bassy to China, vol. i. p. 136., and Peuchet Diclion- 

 naire, &c. (L) 



BRAVA, supposed to have been the Essinet of Pto- 

 lemy, is a small independent state of Africa, lying 

 between the coasts of Zanguebar and Ajan. It is un- 

 der the protection of the Portuguese, to whom it 

 pays an annual tribute of 400 pounds weight of gold, 

 and is said to have been first established by seven 

 brothers, who had been driven from Arabia Felix by 

 the tyranny of their sovereign. The capital stands 

 on a beautiful bay at the mouth of a river, about 100 

 miles south west of Magadoxo, and most convenient- 

 ly situated for commerce. It is well built and strong- 

 ly fortified, and was formerly considered as one of 

 the most celebrated and best frequented marts on that 

 coast. But having resisted the payment of their tri- 

 bute, the Portuguese admiral, Tristran de Cugna, 

 laid siege to the city in 1508, which, after a severe 

 and bloody conflict, was taken, plundered, and burnt 

 to the ground. From that time Brava ha* never been 

 able to recover its former eminence as a place of trade. 

 . It is still, however, inhabited by many wealthy mer- 

 chants, who carry on a considerable traffic in gold, 

 silver, silk, cotton and other cloths, elephants 

 teeth, and various kinds of drugs, particularly amber- 

 gris, which is very plentiful on the coast of Brava. 

 The people generally dress in the Portuguese man- 

 ner, and consume great quantities of European com- 

 modities. North Lat. 1 10', East Long 44. See 

 Peuchet Dictionnaire, %c. (L) 



BREACH. See GUNNEKY, and MILITARY TAC- 

 TICS. 



BREAD, a nutritive substance, made of corn or 

 other farinaceous vegetables, ground into flour or 

 meal, and kneaded with water, generally with the 

 addition of leaven or yeast. 



However indispensible bread may now appear as 

 an article of food, the art of baking was by no 

 means an early discovery ; and even at present there 

 are some savage nations to whom it is altogether 

 unknown. The fertility ascribed by the poets to 

 the golden age, when the earth spontaneously offered 

 corn and every thing necessary to the subsistence and 

 comfort of man, is only so far fabulous, as they as- 

 sign to one spot, or to every portion of the globe, the . 

 blessings which were scattered up and down through 

 rarious and remote parts of its whole extent. It is 

 perfectly evident, that no cultivation could create a 

 single grain ; and of course, that every species of corn 

 must have originally been the spontaneous produc- 

 tion of some region of the earth. Yet as these corns, 

 previous to .Cultivation, would grow in small quanti- 

 ties, their importance as articles of food, might long 

 escape observation ; and mankind would in the mean- 

 time subsist on the more obvious and plentiful, though 

 less nutritious vegetables, which were within their 

 reach. According to the prevailing traditions of al- 

 most evtry country, acorns and berries appear to 

 have constituted the chief vegetable food of the pri- 

 mzval race of men. This state of simplicity and ig- 

 norance continued for several ages, till, according to 



the obscure intimations of the Grecian fabulists, Bn 

 Ceres descended from heaven, to direct mankind to * 

 the use of corn, and to teach them the art of agri- 

 culture. Pliny informs us, (Nat. Hist. 1. xviii. c. 7.) 

 that barley was the only species of corn at first used 

 for food ; and even after the method of reducing it 

 to flour had been discovered, it was long before men 

 attained the art of baking it into bread. 



At first, they seem to have contented themselves 

 with boiling their flour or meal into a kind of por- 

 ridge or pudding ; and when at length they became 

 acquainted with the method of kneading it into dough, 

 their bread was nothing more than a kind of tough 

 unleavened cake. The baking of these cakes, in- 

 stead of being left to any particular set of men, as a 

 distinct profession, was one of the principal concerns 

 of the matrons. In those rude ages, when the prince 

 himself slaughtered the lamb, which was to supply 

 his table, the most dignified ladies did not disdain to 

 employ their fair hands in kneading the dough. In 

 this first stage of the art of baking, the use of ovens 

 was unknown ; and the cake, when properly knead- 

 ed, was toasted either on a warm- hearth, or on a 

 gridiron. 



Owns were first invented in the East. Their con- 

 struction was understood by the Jews, the Greeks, 

 and the Asiatics, among whom baking was practised 

 as a distinct profession. In this art, the Cappado- 

 cians, Lydians, and Phoenicians, are said to have par- 

 ticularly excelled. It was not till about 580 years 

 after the foundation of Rome, that these artisans 

 passed into Europe. The Roman armies, on their 

 return from Macedonia, brought Grecian bakers with 

 them into Italy. As these bakers had handmills 

 beside their ovens, they still continued to be called 

 pistons, from the ancient practice of bruising the corn 

 in a mortar; and their bakehouses were denominated 

 pislorias. In the time of Augustus there were no 

 fewer than 329 public bakehouses in Rome ; almost 

 the whole of which were occupied by Greeks, who 

 long continued the only persons in that city acquaint- 

 ed with the art of baking good bread. 



In nothing, perhaps, is the wise and cautious po- 

 licy of the Roman government more remarkably dis- 

 played, than in the regulations, which it imposed on 

 the bakers within the city. We have already obser- 

 ved, (see BAKING,) that to the foreign bakers, who 

 came to Rome with the army from Macedonia, a 

 number of freedmen were associated, forming toge- 

 ther an incorporation from which, neither they nor 

 their children could separate, and of which even 

 those who married the daughters of bakers were ob- 

 liged to become members. To this incorporation 

 were given all the mills, utensils, slaves, animals, 

 every thing, in short, which belonged to the former 

 bakehouses. In addition to these, they received 

 considerable portions of land ; and nothing was with- 

 held, which could assist them in pursuing, to the best 

 advantage, their labours and their trade. The prac- 

 tice of condemning criminals and slaves, for petty of- 

 fences, to work in the bakehouse, was still continued ; 

 and even the judges of Africa were bound to send 

 thither every five years, such persons as had incurred 

 that kind of chastisement. The bakehouses were 

 distributed throughout the fourteen divisions of the 



