B U C 



BUG 



•pphiiJinr !.;•« va wriur. " Hispoftlcnl chsn^er," fay« rfgion of Alia, lying between the river Jihon to tl.e weft. 



a very coinprtenl jiidiff, " (lands extremely h't;h ; yet his 

 merit <locs not confiil ?i> n-iich in fuShinity or lofty flights 

 of ihe imngliialion, as in fpkr.ilmir of diction, and harmony 

 «id variety of virlification. He wrote in alnoll every 

 fpecies of compofition. His " Pfalms" are in ahnoit all 

 kinds of mtafure, and fome of them exquilitely bcautifni. 

 In trajjedy, he is charged with w:i!it of elevation, and with 

 familiarity of (Ivie approacliing to tiie comic. Hi^ d'daftic 

 poem" On the Sphere," is elegant but unequal. His odes, 

 epijjrams, Hitires, eulogies, and mifeellaiieoiis peces, p-ilTi-fs 

 nieiit of x-nrious kinds, not without many dcttfts. They 

 (htw, however, extreme faeility in the ufc of lan>juage, and 

 an inexliaiillible vein of poetical exprtffion." As a pott, 

 fajs Mr. James Crawford, he imitr.ttd Virgil in heroics, Ovid 

 in elegiacs, Lucretius in philofcphy, Seneca in tragedies, 

 Martial in epigrams, Horace and Juvenal in fatires. As an 

 hiftorian, he is faid to have combined the brevity of Sal! nil 

 with the elegance and perfpiculty of Livy. He has been 

 cliarged, however, with an inclination to fable in his narra- 

 tive, and with an undue attachment to the party with which 

 lie was connefled. Of his dialogue " De Jure Rcgni," it 

 has been faid, that, notwithftanding fome objcftionable ftn- 

 timenls and invcftivcs, it contains rational principles of 

 government ; that it difplays uncommon acutencfs and ex- 

 tent of knowledge ; and that it was cilcnlated to enforce 

 found maxims of civil policy, at a period in which they were 

 little underftood. Of his " Scots Hillory," written in his old 

 age, archbifhop Spotfwood fays, it was written with fuch 

 ji^dgment and eloquence, that no country can (hew a better ; 

 thouglihe add?, that Buchanan isju'Uy blamed forfiding with 

 the factions of the time. Tlie celcb^-attd Thuanus obferves, 

 that although, according to the genius of his nation, he 

 fometimcs inveighs againll crowned heads with feverity, yet 

 this work is written with fo much purity, fpirit, and judg- 

 ment, that it does not appear to be the pioduftion of a man 

 who had palTcd all his days in the dult of a fchool, but of 

 one who had been all his life-time coiiverfant in the moll 

 important affairs of Hate. Of Buclianan's hiftory, Dr. Ro- 

 bertfon fays, (Hift. of Scotland, vol. i. p. 5, 8vo'.) that " if 

 his accuracy and impartiality had been, in any degree, equal 

 to the elegance of his tf.fle, and to the purity and vigour 

 of his ftyle, his hillory might be plsced on a level with the 

 moll adtnired compnfitions of the ancients. But, inllead of 

 rejefling the improbable tales of the chronicle writers, he 

 was at the utmoll pains to adorn them ; and hath clothed, 

 with all the beauties and graces of fiftion, thofe legends, 

 which formerly had only its wildnefs and extravagance." 

 Thefe two works, as Mr. Mackenzie informs us, were con- 

 demned in Scotland by adl of parliament. " The hsppy 

 genius of Buchanan," fays the celebrated hi^orian juil cited 

 (Hill, of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 302.), " equally formed to ex- 

 cel in profe and in verfe, more various, more original, and 

 more elegant, than that of almoft any other modern who 

 writes in Latin, reflefts, with regard to this particular, the 

 greatcft lullre on his country." Of his different works 

 many editions have fcparately appeared ; and a complete 

 coUeftion of them was publilhed at Edinburgh, in 17 14, in 

 2 vols. fol. and reprinted at Leyden, in 1725, in 2 vols. 4to. 

 Biog. Brit. 



To the memory of this truly great man an obelilk lOO 

 feet high was eredlcd by fubfcription, in 17S8, at Killearr, 

 the place of his nativity, dcfigncd by Mr. J. Craig, nephew 

 to the celebrated poet *rhomfon. 



BUCHAN-NESS, in Geography, the eaflernmoft h«ad- 

 knd in Scotland. N. lat. 57'' 30'. W. long. 1° 46'. 

 BUCHARIA, BuKHARiA, or Bokhara, an cxtcnfive 



fgion ol Alia, lying oetween ine river jjuuu i^ mc ncu, 

 and the dt fert of Cobi and other dtfei ts bordering on China, 

 to the ea!l. It is fuppofcd to derive its name from the city 

 of Bokhara (which fee) near the Jihon or ancient Oxus, 

 which was tlie emporium of the commerce carried on by 

 the Europeans in that q'lartcr; and afterwards extended to 

 the adjninintr country, beyond it. Bokhar, or Bnkhar, as 

 Ahul ;h izi Khan Informs us, was a Mun^l or Mogul word, 

 importing a " learned man ;" and as all thofe who formerly 

 \vi;Tied to be inilrufled in the languages and fciencf-s went, 

 for that pui pofe, into Bukharla, the name was originally grven 

 to it by the Moguls, who conquered this country in tiie time 

 of Ge'iighis Khan. This exlenfivc rtgion is divided into 

 two parts, called Great and Little Burharia, correfponding 

 to the fouthcrn diltrii^s of the two ancient Scythias, which 

 were fenarated by tlie ridge of mountains denominated the 

 " Imau's," and called by Sherefcddin the " Karangoutac" 

 mount;.ins. 



BucHARiA; Gnat, is that extenfive and important region 

 of Independent Tartary, which comprehends part of the 

 Touran or Turau of the ancient PerP.ans, and was chiefly 

 known to the Greeks and Romans by the names of Sogdiana 

 and Badlriana ; the former being the Arab " Maweral- 

 niihar," or country beyond the river, i.e. the Jihon or Oxus, 

 and correfponding to " Tranfoxana," the name anciently 

 given to thofe provinces which lay beyond this river ; while 

 Baflriana corrcfponds with Balk, and accordingly belongs to 

 Iran, and not to Touran. Major Rennell cautions us againll 

 confounding, as fome geographers have done, the modern 

 Bncharia with the ancient Baftria. Bucharia, he fays, is 

 fituated beyond the Oxus or Jihon, and is the country aw- 

 cijntly named " Sogdiana," from " Sogd" the valley, a 

 beautiful valley in which Samarcand (anciently Maracanda) 

 is fituated : wliereas Baftria or Baftriana lay on the fouth 

 of the Oxus, and comprehended the prefcnt provinces of 

 Balk and Gaur, and probably part of Korafan. 



Great Bucharia extends more than 700 Britifh miles in 

 length from north to fouth, by a medial breadth, if Fergana 

 be included, of about 350 ; thus rather exceeding Great 

 Britain in fize, but much inferior to the counti'y named Little 

 Bucharia. On the north it is bounded by the mountains of 

 Argun and Kara Tau ; on the weft by a defert, the river 

 Amu, and otlier deferts, which divide it from Kharafm and 

 Khorafan ; and on the fouth, if it be extended lo as to in- 

 clude Balk, by the mountains of Gaur or Paropamifus, and 

 the Hindooh Koh ; and on the eafl by the chain of Belur. 

 According to thefe boundaries, it is fituated between about 

 .^5° and 43'^ N. lat. aud between about 60° and 70° 

 E. long. The original population of this country was 

 Se-ythian ; and the natives. are ftill denomin?ted by the fame 

 Tartaric name of " Tadjiks," which the barbarous viftors 

 afCgned to the Perfians. The Perl'ian monarchs were often 

 engaged in wars with thofe of Touran, or the Scythians on 

 this fide and beyond the Imaus, whofe queen, Thomyris, is 

 faid to have (1 lin Cyrus in battle. After the progrefs of 

 Alexander as far as Cogcnd on the river Sihon (or ancient 

 Jaxartcs), this countiy became better known, being probably 

 the furtheft limit of his courfe towards the north. When 

 Genghis Khan died, A. D. 1227, he bequeathed Great Bu- 

 charia to his fecond fon Jagatay Khan, and it took the name 

 of Jaghatay or Zagatay in honour of its new proprietor : 

 which name it retained as long as the Khans dtfccnded from 

 him reigned in thefe parts. But in 149S, fultan Babur, a de- 

 fcendant ofTimur, was expelled wish hisMongulsfrom Great 

 Bucharia ; and the Tartarian viftors, called Ufbeks, eftablifhed 

 a powerful monarchy in the country. Succeflive Khans held 

 the fceptre from 1498 to n'ijS ; and fcon after this period 

 6 the 



