BORKELO, a ftrong town in the United Provin. Borkelo ces, in the county of Zutphen, feated on the river Borkel, in E. Long. 6. 30. N. Lat. 52. 15. verfant in military affairs, was an officer of confiderable rank in the army, made the camp his fchool, and formed all his ideas from what he had feen performed in the field. His ftyle is roughly noble, full of fire and fpirit, and there are a few prints etched by his own hand. Towards the close of his life he retired to the Jefuits convent in Rome, where he is faid to have taken fanctuary to rid his hands of an ill bargain he had got of a wife; but happily furviving her, he lived in great efteem and honour till after the year 1675. BORIA, a small town of Spain, in the kingdom of Arragon. W. Long. 2. 2. N. Lat. 41. 50. BÖRING, in a general fenfe, the art of perforating, or making a hole through any folid body. BORING of Water-pipes. The method of boring water-pipes is as follows. The poles of alder, which is a very ufeful wood in making pumps, water-pipes, &c. being laid on horfes or traffels of a foot height, to reft the augre upon while they are boring, they fet up a lath to turn the leaft end of the poles, to fit them to the cavities of the great end of the others. They turn the fmall ends of the poles about five or fix inches in length, to the fize they intend to bore the bigger ends about the fame depth, viz. five or fix inches. This is defigned to make a joint to fhut each pair of poles together, the concave part being the female part, and the other the male of the joint. In turning the male part, they turn a channel in it, or a fmall groove at a certain diftance from the end; and in the female part they bore a small hole to fit over this channel. This being done, they bore the poles through; and to pre vent them from boring out at the fide, they stick great nails at each end to be a guide in boring. It is ufual, however, to bore them at both ends, fo that if a pole be crooked one way, they can bore it through and not fpoil it. BORING, in farriery, a cruel and abfurd method of treating a wrenched fhoulder. See FARRIERY, f xxiii. 7. BORING, in mineralogy, a method of piercing the earth with scooping irons, which being drawn back at proper times, bring up with them famples of the different ftrata through which they have paffed; by the examination of which the fkilful mineralogift will be able to guess whereabouts a vein of ore may lie, or whether it will be worth while to open a mine there or no. BORIQUEN, one of the Caribbee iflands in North America, near that of Porto Rico. The English formerly had a fettlement there, but were driven away by the Spaniards. It is at prefent without inhabitants, though agreeable and fertile; the air being wholesome, and the water good. There are a great number of land-crabs, whence fome have called it Crab island. W. Long. 64. 35. N. Lat. 18. o. BORISTHENES, (anc. geog.), the largest river of Sarmatia Europea, thus defcribed by Mela, who copies verbatim from Herodotus: "It runs through a cognominal people, is the most pleafant of all the rivers of Scythia, and calmer than all of them in its courfe, and very agreeable to drink it feeds very rich paftures, and produces large fish of the best flavour, and without bones: it comes a great way, rifing from fprings unknown; its courfe is a diftance of 40 days, and fo far it is navigable." It is now called the Dnieper or Nieper. BORLASE (Dr Edmund), an eminent phyfician and English writer in the 17th century, was the fon of Sir John Borlafe, mafter of the ordnance, and one of the Lord Juftices of Ireland in 1643. He ftudied in Dublin college, and afterwards at the univerfity of Leyden, at which laft place he took the degree of doctor of phyfic. He afterwards practifed phyfic with great fuccefs in the city of Chefter, and was incorporated doctor of the faculty in the univerfity of Oxford. Among the books which he wrote and published are the following. 1. Latham Spaw in Lancashire, with fome remarkable cafes and cures performed by it. 2. The reduction of Ireland to the crown of England. 3. The hiftory of the Irish rebellion. 4. Brief reflections on the earl of Caftlehaven's memoirs, &c. He died after the year 1682. BORLASE (William), a very ingenious and learned writer, was of an ancient family in Cornwall, and born at Pendeen, in the parish of St Juft. Feb. 2. 1695-6. He was put early to school at Penzance, and in 1709. removed to Plymouth. March 1712-13, he was entered of Exeter college, Oxford; and, June 1719, took a master of arts degree. In 1720, he was ordained a prieft; and, in 1722, inftituted to the rectory of Ludgvan in Cornwall. In 1732, the lord chancellor King prefented him to the vicarage of St Juft, his native parish; and this, with the rectory aforefaid, were all the preferments he ever had. In the parish of Ludgvan were rich copper works, which abound with mineral and metallic foffils; and these, being a man of an active and inquifitive turn, he collected from time to time, and thence was led to ftudy at large the natural hiftory of his native county.. He was ftruck at the fame time with the numerous monuments of remote antiquity that are to be met with in Cornwall; and, enlarging therefore his plan, he determined to gain as accurate an acquaintance as poffible with the Druid learning, and with the religion and customs of the ancient Britons, before their converfion to Chriftianity. In 1750 he was admitted a fellow of the Royal Society; and, in 1753, published. in folio at Oxford his "Antiquities of Cornwall;" a fecond edition of which was published, in the fame form, at London, 1769, with this title, "Antiquities, hiftorical and monumental, of the county of Cornwall;: confifting of feveral effays on the ancient inhabitants, Druid fuperftition, cuftoms and remains of the most remote antiquity in Britain, and the British ifles, ex-emplified and proved by monuments now extant in Cornwall and the Scilly iflands; with a vocabulary of the Corna-British language. Revifed, with feveral additions, by the author; to which is added a map of Cornwall, and two new plates." His next publication was, " Obfervations on the ancient and prefent fate of the islands of Scilly, and their importance to the trade of Great Britain; Oxf. 1756," 4to. This was the extenfion of a paper which had been read before the Royal Society in 1753. In 1758 came out his "Natural hiftory of Cornwall; Oxf." fol. After thefe publications, he fent a variety of foffils and remains of antiquity which he had deferibed in his works, to be repofited in the Afhmolean museum: 4 Borlace. Borneo. eaft, for many leagues together, is a ftinking morafs, Borneo Bormio mufeum: for which, and other benefactions of the BORMIO, a county depending on the republic of BORNEO, an island of Afia, in the Eaft Indies, and one of the three great Sunda islands. It is thought to be the largest island in the world, next to New Holland; being 1500 miles in circumference. It is feated under the equator, that line cutting it almoft through the middle. It is almoft of a circular figure; abounds with gold; and the fineft diamonds in the Indies are found in its rivers, being probably washed down from the hills by torrents. Here are also mines of iron and See Birds- tin, and loadftones. Birds neftst are to be had in this Nefts. island, which are eatable, and reckoned a great deliсасу. The beafts are, oxen, buffaloes, deer, goats, elephants, tigers, and monkeys. This ifland has fine rivers, especially towards the weft and fouth. In their monfoon from April to September, the wind is wefterly; and they have continual heavy rains, attended with violent ftorms of thunder and lightning. The rainy feafon continues for eight months of the year, and as during that time all the flat country near the coaft is overflowed, the air is rendered very unhealthful, and the inhabitants are forced to build their houfes on floats, which they make faft to trees. The houses have but one floor, with partitions made with cane; and the roofs are covered with palmetto leaves, the eaves of which reach within four or five feet of the bottom. The west and north-east fides of the island are almoft defart, and the eaft is but little known. The inland parts are very mountainous; and the fouth N° 50. The Portuguese, who first discovered Borneo, had arrived in the Indies above 30 years before they knew any thing of it more than the name, and its fituation, by reafon of their frequently paffing by its coaft. At laft one captain Edward Corril had ordered to examine it more narrowly; and being once acquainted with the worth of the country, they made frequent voyages thither. They found the coafts inhabited by Malayan Moors, who had certainly established themselves there by conqueft; but the original inhabitants ftill remain in the mountains, and are ftyled Beajus, which in the Malayan language fignifies a wild man. The most authentic account of thefe people is the following, which was extracted from the papers of father Antonio Ventimiglia, an Italian miffionary.. He was fent to Borneo from Macao, on board a Portuguese ship, converted great numbers to Christianity, and died on the ifland about the year 1691. The Beajus have no kings, but many little chiefs. Some are fubject to the Moorifh kings, and pay them tribute; but fuch as live far up the country, are altogether independent, and live according to their own customs. They are generally very fuperftitious, and much addicted to augury. They do not adore idols; but their facrifices of fweet wood and perfumes are offered to one God, who, they believe, rewards the just in heaven, and punishes the wicked in hell. They marry but one wife; and look upon any breach of conjugal faith, either in the man or woman, as a capital offence. The Beajus are naturally honeft and induftrious, and have a brotherly affection for one another. They have a notion of property, which yet does not render them covetous. They fow and cultivate their lands; but in the time of harvest, each reaps as much as will ferve his family, and the rest belongs to the tribe in common; by which means they prevent neceffity or difputes. With the Moors on the coafts the Portuguese for fome time carried on a confiderable trade, and at their request fettled a factory there; which, however, was afterwards furprifed and plundered by the Moors, who put most of the people to the fword. The moft confiderable river in Borneo is called Banjar, at the mouth of which our East India company have a factory. BORNHOLM, an ifland in the Baltic fea, to the BORNOU, a kingdom or province of Zaara in Bornou. |