228 BOS 
was now in fight. The admiral took his glafs, and from 
la is fuperior power of eye, or perhaps from previous in¬ 
formation, faid, that the failor was nfiftaken, and that 
what he faw was the grand French fleet. The teaman, 
however, perfifted. The admiral defired fome others of 
his crew to look through the glafs; who all, with their 
brains heated with the profpedt of a prize, declared, that 
what they faw was the St. Domingo fleet. He nobly re¬ 
plied, “ Gentlemen, yon fltall never fay that I have flood 
in the way of your enriching yourfelves : 1 fubmit to you ; 
but remember, when you find your miflake, you mud 
Hand by me.” Tire miflake was foon difeovered, and the 
admiral, by Inch an exertion of manoeuvres as the fervice 
lias not often feen, faved his fliip. 
In 1759, being appointed to command in the Medi¬ 
terranean, he arrived at Gibraltar, y. here hearing that 
the Toulon fleet, under M. de la Clue, had parted the 
Straits, in order to join that at Bred, he got under fail, 
and on the 18th of Augufl faw, purfued, and engaged, 
the enemy. His fliip, the Namur, of ninety guns, loling 
Iter main-mart, he fliifted his flag to the Newark ; and, 
after a fliarp engagement, took three large fliips, and 
burnt two in Lagos-bay, and the fame year arrived at 
Spithead with his prizes and 2000 prifoners. On Decem¬ 
ber 8, 1760, lie was appointed general of the marines with 
a (alary of 3000I. per annum, and was alfo fworn one of 
the privy-council. In January 1760, he failed from the 
bay of Qmberon, with a filial 1 fquadron, in order to watch 
the motions and diftrefs the commerce of the French; but 
was driven back, before the end of that month, to Spit- 
head, by rtrefs of weather. However, he failed again on 
the 6th of February ; arid, meeting with a feries of tem- 
pertuous weather, was forced into Plymouth, with his lit¬ 
tle fleet very much (battered ; and the Families, a ninety- 
gup (hip, perifhed. He was, in the courfe of the enfuing 
liimme'r, alternately with Sir Edward Hawke, commander 
in Quiberon-bay, where, having no objed to exert his 
military talents, he (hewed his benevolence to mankind by 
p'o(felling himfelf of a frnall ifland near the river Vannes, 
and cultivating and planting it with vegetables for the ufe 
of the men afflided with fcorbutic diforders. That was 
the laft public fervice done by this great officer, who was 
cut off by a bilious fever on January jo, 1761. He lies 
interred in the parifli-church of St. Michael at Penkevil, 
in Cornwall, where a monument of ex-quifite workman- 
fliip, deligned by Mr. Adam, and executed by Mr. Ryf- 
bfiack, is erected to his memory. No greater teflimony of 
the merit of admiral Bofcawen can be given than that af¬ 
forded by the late lord Chatham, when prime minifter of 
this country : “ When 1 apply,” faid he, “ to other offi¬ 
cers refpeding any expedition I may chance to projed, 
they always raife difficulties;—you always find expe¬ 
dients.” Of lord Chatham admiral Bofcawen (aid, “ He 
alone can carry on the war, and he alone fliouid be per¬ 
mitted to make the peace.” 
BOSCAW'EN's ISLAND, an ifland in the Southern 
Pacific Ocean, about three leagues in circumference. Lat. 
15. 50. S. Ion. 175. to. W. Greenwich. 
BOSCH (Jacob Vanden), @ painter of Hill life, born 
at Amfterdani in 1636. He painted all his objects after 
nature, and imitated every fort of fruit with, fo great 
truth and delicacy, with fuch natural and tranfparent co¬ 
lours, that they appeared delicious, and almoff real. He 
died in 1676. 
BOSCHA'ERTS (Thomas Willebos), an eminent Fle- 
milh painter, born at Berg in 1513. The crayon and the 
pencil were the delight of his infancy. At twelve years 
of age he drew his own portrait with aftoniflting die el. 
The prince,of Orange was fo great an admirer of his pic¬ 
tures, that lie bought them all up, and fent for the artift 
to the Hague, where he employed hint many years in em- 
bellifliing his palace. This painter dirtinguilhed himfelf 
in .allegory and rich colouring. 
BOS'CHI, Bosch, or Bosco, a town of Italy, in the 
Akxandrin : five miles eart from Alexandria. 
BOS 
BOS'COBEL, a village in Shropfliire, where Charles II. 
was concealed in an oak from his purfuers, after the bat¬ 
tle of Worcerter : eleven miles N. N. E. of Bridgnorth. 
BOSCO'I, or Bosci, in ecciefiaftical hirtory, a tribe of 
monks in Palefline, who fed on grafs dike the beads of 
the field. The word is Greek, 0 oewoi, q. d. grazers; 
formed from fioo-zv, pafco, I feed. The Bofcoi are ranked 
among the number of Adamites, not fo much on account 
of their habit, as food. They took no care about provi- 
fion ; but, when eating-time came, or any of them was 
hungry, went into the fields, with each his knife in iiis 
hand, and gathered and ate What he could find. 
BCS'COVICH (Jofeph Roger), a celebrated geome¬ 
trician and artronomer, born at Ragufa the 18th of May, 
1711, and died at Milan the xa*h of February, 1787 ; en¬ 
tered in 1725 of the fociety of Jefus, and was IbccelTi vely 
profeflor of mathematics at Rome, at Pavia, and at Milan. 
The jefuits having been fuppre'Ied in Italy in 1773, the 
patrons he had in France invited him to Paris. By their 
filtered he obtained the title of director of the optical iti- 
flruments of the marine, with a penfion of 8000 livres ; 
this was an inducement to him to extend his refearches 
towards the nevveft and mod difficult part of optics, the 
theory of achromatic glafl'es. It employs a third part of 
five volumes quarto, which he puhliflied in 1783 ; con¬ 
taining new and important obfervations. He quitted Paris 
in 1783, to have his works printed in Italy. He retired 
to Milan, where lie was held in high confideration till his 
death. The emperor charged him with infpeding the 
commiflion for meafuring a degree in Lombardy. The 
abbe Bofcovich was known to be expert in fuch operations. 
In 1750, the cardinal Valenti, having given orders for 
meafuring degrees in Italy, this artronomer undertook the 
bulinefs conjointly with father Maire. The refult of it 
was a work in quarto, trariflated into French, and printed 
at Paris in 1770. Another work of the abbe Bofcovich, 
publifhed in 1758 and 1763, is upon the different laws of 
nature, and that of attraction, conlidered as a confequence 
of an univerfal law, to which he recurs with'no' lefs fa- 
gacitv than depth of knowledge in mathematics and me- 
taphyfics. Few men have ever brought the'ffe two fciences 
into fo exquifite and ufeful a conjunction. Yet he had 
none of that barrennefs of fancy which nfually accompa¬ 
nies a great proficiency in them. Poetry filled up much 
of his time. His Latin poem on eclipfes, De Solis ac 
Lftiire defedibus, which was firfl printed in London, is as 
remarkable for the elegance of its rtyle, as for the talent 
of putting into harmonious verfe the mod intricate mat¬ 
ters of theory and calculation. The abbe Bofcovich, al¬ 
ways amiable in company, to which he willingly reforted, 
contpofed verfes with the greatert facility, and his ready 
genius dictated them to him in the courfe of converfation, 
for the entertainment of his friends of both fexes ; for the 
mort inflexible virtue of every fpecies was never any im¬ 
pediment with him in the agreeable difplay of fecial qua¬ 
lities. He had travelled in all parts of Europe, and even 
in Turkey. The narrative of this laft expedition was 
printed firfl in French, and afterwards in Italian. 
BO.S'CUS, f. \bofco , Ital. hois, Fr.J An ancient word, 
(Vilifying all manner of wood. Bofcus Is divided into 
high-wood or timber, hautbois ; and coppice or under¬ 
woods, [ib-bofcits, fub-bois ; but the high-wood is properly 
called jia/tus, and in Fleta we read it maenmiiim. Cam ana 
Ca'ccla de mortvo bofeo. Pat. 10 Henry VI. 
BO'SEA,/ the Goluw-rod Tree; [from Bcfe, a 
fenator of l.eipfic.] In botany, a genus of the clafs pen- 
tandria, order digynia. The generic .characters are—Ca¬ 
lyx: perianthium five-leaved, equaL; leaflets roundilh, 
concave, ered, thinner at the edge. Corolla: none. Sta¬ 
mina : filaments five, Tubulate, longer than the calyx ; 
antherte Ample. Piftillum : germ ovate-oblong, cufpi- 
date; flyie none 5 fligtnas two. Pericarpium : berry glo¬ 
bular, one-ce!led. Seed : one, round, acuminate.— EJfcn- 
iial Character. Calyx, five-leaved. Corolla, none. Berry 
one-feeded. 
Only 
