ROGER JOSEPH, was born on the 18th of May 1711, at Ragusa, a sea-port on the coast of the Adriatic, and capital of a small republic of the same name, then under the protection of the Turks and the Venetians. It does not appear that our author gave any tokens of superior genius till he was sent to learn grammar and philosophy in the schools of the Jesuits, who were at that time the principal teachers in Ragusa, and indeed throughout all Italy. Amongst these shrewd observers his docility and obedience were sufficient to mark him out as a person likely to attain future eminence, and consequently to procure him particular attention. In his fifteenth year, after he had gone through the ordinary course of education, and when it was necessary to decide as to his future pursuits, application was made for his admission into the order; and, for the reasons just mentioned, this was readily complied with, and the subject of the present notice sent to Rome in the year 1725. On his arrival in the Eternal City he entered on his noviciate for admission into the order; but here his studies changed their character and direction, although they were still pursued with diligence. Christian morality, with the rules and constitutions of the order, claimed his attention for two years; after which he was instructed in rhetoric, and became well versed in general literature, particularly Latin poetry, which at that time was very much cultivated.

From the noviciate he was sent to the Roman college to study mathematics and physics; and it was in these sciences that his genius and abilities shone forth so conspicuously, and procured him the admiration of his supe- In the course of three years he was able to give private lessons in the mathematics; and he was then exempted from the operation of a law, by which the novices were bound to teach Latin and the belles-lettres for five years before they commenced the study of theology. This exemption was in consequence of his great predilection for the mathematics, of which he was soon afterwards made public professor. For this professorship he was eminently qualified, as, besides a thorough knowledge of all the modern productions in the science, he had acquired a classical severity of demonstration by studying the works of the ancient geometers; yet he conjoined with no obliging accommodation of his own habits to the deficiencies of his pupils, and for their benefit composed elementary treatises on arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. But notwithstanding the arduous duties of his situation, he found time to instruct and enlighten more than boys; for about this period he formed some of those refined and original notions which were destined to grow up into the system that afterwards became so celebrated. The animating spirit of discovery and invention led him to consider every portion of physical science; and indeed so versatile and vigorous was his mind, that we should be at a loss to specify any one portion which, within a few years, it did not comprehend, elucidate, and advance. In confirmation of this it will be sufficient to present our readers with an enumeration of the principal subjects to which he turned his attention, and concerning which he published dissertations while he continued in the professorship. These were, the transit of Mercury over the sun, the spots in the sun, the aurora borealis, the construction of spherical trigonometry, the figure of the earth, a new telescope to determine celestial objects, the ancient arguments for the rotundity of the earth, oscillating circles; on infinites and infinitely small quantities, the motion of bodies in unresisting spaces, the aberration of the fixed stars, the inequalities in terrestrial gravity; on astronomy, on the limits of certainty in astronomical observations; on the solid of greatest attraction, the cycloid, the logistic curve lines, the vis viva, the comets, light, the tides, the rainbow, the calculation of fractions, the centre of gravity, the moon's atmosphere, the law of continuity, lenses and dioptrical telescopes, the objective micrometer, and the divisibility of matter. Some of these are short, but all of them contain curious and valuable matter. It is only by perusing them that we are able to discover the gradual progress of his mind, and to understand the manner in which he arrived at that theory of natural philosophy which is now known by his name.

About this time a taste for philosophical poetry was very prevalent amongst the learned, and some of Bosovich's acquaintances had laboured in it with success. Of these we may mention Father Noceti, who wrote on the rainbow and the aurora borealis, and Benedict Stay, whose poems on the philosophy of Descartes, and on the more modern philosophy, are considered as excellent examples of Latin composition. Bosovich published the works of both with annotations and supplements, in which a splendid fund of information and learning is displayed.

By such undertakings his fame was widely diffused, and he became an object of general admiration. The learned societies of many countries in Europe conferred on him unsolicited honours, and several foreign princes invited him to their courts. His opinions on various subjects of civil architecture, topography, and hydrodynamics, were solicited by Pope Benedict XIV., John V. of Portugal, and others. These applications necessarily required his presence in different states of Europe, where he never failed to enhance his reputation, and often terminated disputes which, but for his judicious interference, might have had disagreeable consequences.

He was employed to correct the maps of the papal dominions, and to measure a degree of the meridian passing through them. In this operation he was assisted by an English Jesuit named Christopher Maire. An account of their expedition was printed at Rome and Paris, and is interspersed with some curious anecdotes concerning the opinions which the peasants of the Apennines, formed of them, and the operations which they had to perform; but it is chiefly valuable on account of the detail which is given of their observations.

In the year 1757 he was sent to Vienna by the republic of Lucca, to settle some differences which had arisen concerning the draining of a lake, in which the grand duke of Tuscany, the emperor Francis I., and that republic, were concerned; and it was after he had succeeded in the object of his mission to that city that he published there his *Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis* in 1758.

Another occasion for his mediating powers soon presented itself, and more nearly interested him, as it concerned his native city of Ragusa. The British government having suspected that some ships of war had been fitted out in that port for the service of France, and that its neutrality had thus been infringed, this suspicion alarmed the senate of Ragusa, and required speedy removal, more especially as the consequences might have been extremely prejudicial to their commerce. Bosovich, who had often been successful in similar missions for other powers, appeared to them the fittest person to be intrusted with this. Accordingly, having been nominated by his countrymen, he repaired to London, where he effected the object of his mission with honour to himself and satisfaction to his native state. He visited the Royal Society, which received him with distinguished marks of respect; and he soon afterwards complimented it with an excellent Latin poem on the solar and lunar eclipses. This was in the year 1760. Bosovich was invited by the Royal Society to be of the party of their members about to proceed to America in order to observe the transit of Venus over the sun's disc. But the nature of his embassy, and the necessity of returning home, prevented his accepting the invitation. Soon after his return from this embassy, he was appointed by the senate of Milan to the mathematical chair in the university of Pavia, with the superintendence of the observatory of the royal college of Brera. He continued in this situation for six years, when the empress queen appointed him professor of astronomy and optics in the Palatine schools of Milan, and also requested that he would continue his attention to the observatory. This he expected to prove the most agreeable part of his life. Admired by the learned, beloved by his friends, and having an adequate income, with a sound and vigorous constitution, he promised to himself happy because useful days, in the tranquil cultivation of the sciences. But a cloud long impending now burst over his head, in the edict for the abolition of his order, which took place in the year 1773. No exemption from the edict could be procured; all who held offices were dismissed; and Bosovich sought refuge in the city of Paris. Thither indeed he was invited by Turgot, through whose means he was made one of the directors of optics for the sea service, and received a pension; but it would seem that his situation proved disagreeable to him; nor is this to be wondered at, considering the peculiar circumstances which had induced him to take up his residence in the French capital. He remained there, however, for ten years, on the expiry of which he set out for Bassano, in the republic of Venice, and there published, in five vo- Boscovich having quarto, a collection of the works which he had completed in Paris. The following is a pretty accurate enumeration of their contents: A new instrument for determining the refracting and diverging forces of diaphanous bodies; a demonstration of the falsehood of the Newtonian analogy between light and sound; the algebraic formulae regarding the foci of lenses, and their applications for calculating the sphericity of those which are to be used in achromatic telescopes; the corrections to be made in ocular lenses, and the error of the sphericity of certain glasses; the causes which hinder the exact union of the solar rays by means of the great burning glasses, and the determination of the loss arising from it; the method of determining the different velocities of light passing through different media by means of two dioptric telescopes, one common, the other of a new kind, containing water between the objective glass and the place of the image; a new kind of objective micrometers; the defects and inutility of a dioptric telescope proposed and made at Paris, which gives two images of the same object, the one direct, the other inverse, with two contrary motions of movable objects; masses floating in the atmosphere, as hail of an extraordinary size, seen on the sun with the telescope, and resembling spots; the astronomical refractions, with various methods for determining them; different methods for determining the orbits of comets and of the new planet, with copious applications of these doctrines to other astronomical subjects, and still more generally to geometry and to the science of calculation; the errors, rectifications, and use of quadrants, sextants, astronomical sectors, the meridian line, telescopes called transit instruments, the meridian, and the parallactic machine; the trigonometrical differential formulas, which are of so much use in astronomy; the use of the micrometrical rhombus, extended to any oblique position whatsoever; the error arising from refractions in using the astronomical ring for a sun-dial, and the correction to be made; the appearing and the disappearing of Saturn's ring; methods of determining the rotation of the sun by means of the spots; the greatest exactness possible in determining the length of a pendulum oscillating every second of mean time by the comparison of terrestrial and celestial gravity; a compend of astronomy for the use of the marine, containing the elements of the heavenly motions, and of the astronomical instruments, to be explained to a prince in the course of one month; a method for determining the altitudes of the poles with the greatest exactness, by means of a gnomon alone, where other instruments are not to be had; the determination of the illuminated edge of the moon to be observed on the meridian; a method of using the retrograde return of Venus to the same longitude, for determining the less certain elements of her orbit; a method for correcting the elements of a comet, of which the longitude of the node is given, and the inclination of the orbit has been nearly found; another method for the same purpose, and for finding the elliptical orbit, when the parabolic one does not agree with observation; a method for correcting the elements of a planet by three observations; the projection of an orbit inclined in the plane of the ecliptic; the projection of an orbit inclined in any other plane; the calculation of the aberration of the stars, arising from the successive propagation of light; and some beautiful theorems belonging to triangles, which are of great use in astronomy, reduced to the most simple demonstrations.

After the publication of these works, our author quitted Bassano, and went to Rome to visit the companions of his youth. From Rome he proceeded to Milan, where he revised some of his own works; and prepared for publication the two last volumes of Stay's poems. His death took place on the 13th of February 1767, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.

Besides the different works above mentioned, Boscovich wrote several others on various subjects, as on the project of turning the navigation to Rome from Fiumicino to Maccaresi; on two torrents in the territory of Perugia; on the bulwarks of the river Ponaro; on the river Sidone in the territory of Placentia; on the bulwarks of the Po; on the harbours of Ancona, of Rimini, of Magna Vacca, and Savona; besides some others, almost all of which were printed. For an account of the system developed in the Theoria Philosophiae Naturatis, see the article Physics.

BOSHUANÁS, called by some BICHUANAS, or BERJUANAS, a numerous people, or rather race, who occupy an extensive territory in Southern Africa. Their country is bounded on the south by the Cape Colony, on the east by the Caffre territory, on the north by the Makoos, and other tribes bordering on the Portuguese settlement of Mozambique. The western limit is partly unknown, partly composed of extensive deserts.

Down to the commencement of the present century, this people were entirely unknown to Europeans. Mr Barrow, indeed, in his second journey into the country of the Caffres, obtained some notices respecting them. In 1801, while the settlement laboured under a severe scarcity of cattle, two gentlemen belonging to it, Messrs Truffer and Sommerville, set out on an expedition, with the view of procuring a supply. Having passed, first the Great Karroo or Arid Desert, then the Snowy Mountains, and the territory of the rude Bojesmans, they arrived at an extensive pastoral plain watered by the ample stream of the Orange river, and inhabited by the Koras or Koranas, who appeared considerably superior to any of the other Hottentot tribes. Here they met with a Boshuan, and received from him such accounts as induced them to accompany him to his own country. They soon passed the frontier, and entered on a fertile and finely-watered territory, where, after a few days' journey, they were surprised to find, in the heart of this rude and unknown region of Africa, what might almost be termed a city. The houses and streets of Lattakoo were built and arranged in a manner decidedly superior to any hitherto seen in the southern districts of this great continent. The king, a venerable old man, received them with kindness, and they became to all the natives objects of friendly curiosity. These people appeared to our travellers not only to have made considerable progress in the arts and in civilization, but to live together in a patriarchal simplicity and harmony, which almost realized the fabled pictures of the golden age.

Lord Caledon, then governor of the Cape, on receiving this interesting intelligence, determined to follow out the career of discovery thus opened. He dispatched Dr Cowan and Lieutenant Denovan, with a party of twenty, to endeavour to penetrate through the territory of the newly-discovered people, and if possible to reach the coast at Mozambique and Sofala, by which they would throw important light on a very considerable extent of the geography of Africa. The travellers experienced at Lattakoo the same friendly reception as their precursors; they then arrived at the residence of a chief called Makkrakka, who afforded them a still more cordial welcome. A letter was received from them, dated from the residence of this chief, in about 24° south latitude, in which they described the country as increasing in beauty and fertility, and as watered by a noble river flowing to the westward. Makkrakka sent forward his own brother to recommend them to the Wanketzens, the tribe immediately to the northward. Here they met at first with a reception altogether favourable; but this treacherous people, seeing them thrown Bosmanas off their guard, determined upon an attack, for the purpose of seizing all their property. The expedition imprudently separated into three parties, one of which went to bathe, while another remained in charge of the waggons; and a third of the cattle. The natives having attacked successively these three bodies, succeeded too fully in their atrocious design, and entirely cut off the English.

The government at the Cape did not for some time obtain any intelligence respecting this party, and the first rumour of the disaster arrived by way of Mozambique. No official mission has since been dispatched; yet several travellers, animated by liberal curiosity, or the benevolent desire of communicating to the natives the truths of the gospel, have penetrated even deeper into the interior of this region than those now mentioned. Dr Lichtenstein, after an extensive survey of the country of the Caffres, ventured, not without some apprehension, to Lattakoo, but met with a perfectly friendly reception. Being solicited, however, to give aid with fire-arms in a war against Makrakka, the traveller, unwilling to involve himself in these interior African contests, wisely took the first opportunity of returning, after gaining, however, a good deal of information. In 1813, the Reverend Mr Campbell, at the request of the Missionary Society, and with a view to promote its objects, ventured on an expedition into this territory. Although the dispositions of the people were not altogether such as he could have wished, he had no personal cause of complaint. Lattakoo was found (a change not uncommon in Africa, and consequent upon a schism among its inhabitants) to have been transported about sixty miles from its former situation. It appeared also diminished in size, not containing above 1500 houses and 8000 inhabitants. Although unable to effect any conversions, he obtained, with some difficulty, permission for missionaries to settle here, and a promise of good treatment. In 1820 he returned and found the establishment in a tolerably flourishing state. The missionaries had neat houses and gardens built for their use, with a chapel capable of containing 400 persons, though it was very thinly attended. Mr Campbell penetrated northwards to Mashow, Meribohway, and Kurrechane, towns larger than Lattakoo, and governed by separate chiefs. Mr Burchell afterwards, in the course of an extensive tour through Southern Africa, penetrated beyond Lattakoo, and westward to Bakarrikari, on the confines of the Great Desert.

We have thus, from a succession of intelligent travellers, very satisfactory information respecting this country, and the tribes by which it is inhabited.

The Boshuamas are proved, both by their form and language, to belong to the same race with the Caffres; but their persons are less vigorous; and in the male sex less strikingly handsome; yet many of their females possess a great share of beauty. Although they are not on the whole so fine and manly a race, yet they have made a greater progress in the useful and even ornamental arts. Agriculture is carried on with considerable diligence; though, as is too common in barbarous tribes, its labours are devolved entirely on the female sex, who have the additional task of building the houses and fashioning the furniture and dress. The men, on the other hand, take the entire charge of the cattle, which constitutes their chief wealth. Cultivation is confined to the spaces surrounding their towns, which are built on heights for the purpose of defence; and the cattle are driven out every morning to feed, often at a considerable distance, and brought back at night within the circuit of the inclosures. The habitations are neat and commodious, being encircled with substantial walls of earth or stone; and some parts are moulded into pillars, or other ornamental shapes, and carefully painted. At Kurrechane iron and copper were smelted in large furnaces of clay; and they had Boshuamas well constructed vessels of earthenware for holding their grain and stores. The men are dressed chiefly in skins, often prepared with considerable ingenuity; whilst those of wild animals are thrown over their shoulders for ornament. The ladies of rank wear ample mantles, profusely embellished with beads, rings, and various species of ornaments. Makaitshoah, the beautiful wife of the king of Lattakoo, appeared to Dr Lichtenstein, having her robe trimmed with rich furs, a large bundle of cats tails hanging from the left shoulder, and one arm loaded with no less than seventy-two copper rings; the display of which appeared to be an object of peculiar pride.

In regard to their political situation, they have kings who rule with a species of patriarchal authority, and chiefly by means of influence and persuasion. When any affair of great importance is to be decided, a petteo, or general assembly of the chiefs and warriors, is summoned. These assemblages are carried on in a peculiar, and even extravagant style. The chiefs on their way indulge in strange gestures and gambols. Before entering on deliberation they commonly join in a song, whilst the principal orator often strikes up a dance. Every speech is prefaced by three tremendous howls or yells, sometimes imitating the cries of animals, while several of the attendants dance in unison. As the debate proceeds, the female citizens form an exterior circle, and by loud cheers or derisive laughter express their sense of the observations made by the speakers.

The distinctions of wealth, and even of rank, are pretty strongly marked in this society; yet they have little influence on the general train of social intercourse. Matetebe, or Mattivi, the chief whom the travellers call king, was seen seated on the ground smoking and exchanging pipes with the most ordinary citizens. He does not interfere in private quarrels, even when they proceed to bloodshed; this is considered to be an affair between individuals. He waits till his arbitration is called for, and then proceeds, often in a very summary manner, executing with his own hand the sentence pronounced.

A considerable degree of internal union and harmony prevails among these tribes. Their manners, making no pretensions to any high refinement, are neither coarse nor boisterous; their general deportment is frank and cordial, and a kind and friendly spirit towards one another seems to prevail. But the intercourse of different states with each other forms a complete scene of violence and rapine. Commandos, or forays, to carry off the cattle of their neighbours, and kill all who oppose them, form their most favourite employment. They seem to consider themselves born for this purpose; and the number of cattle which they have carried off, and of men whom they have slain, is through life their highest boast. Dr Lichtenstein even states, that on returning from a successful expedition they celebrate a horrid feast, in which each produces a portion of the flesh of his slaughtered enemy, which he roasts and devours. Towards strangers their behaviour has been generally friendly and hospitable. Mr Campbell's party were indeed astonished, on arriving at one of the towns, to see the warriors rushing forth to meet them, brandishing their battle-axes, painted red, and dressed in the skins of wild beasts; but this soon proved to be only a form of barbarous welcome. After the first ceremony was over, however, they began actively to beg, and even to pilfer tobacco, a European luxury of which they soon became excessively fond. The missionaries have been always well treated, but have never made much progress in their main object. Engrossed by their tumultuary occupations of pasturage and war, this people seem to have a peculiar apathy towards all spiritual and abstract ideas. They seen also, from Mr Burchell's observation, to be familiar with all the forms of superstition prevalent among an ignorant people.

In advancing northwards into the interior, the country seems to improve, becoming more populous, while the people are more industrious, and better skilled in the arts. Mashow, beautifully situated on a hill, was estimated to contain 10,000 or 12,000 inhabitants; and it was surrounded by twenty-nine villages, within a circuit of twenty miles of cultivated territory. Kurrechane, still larger and more handsomely built, was supposed to contain 16,000 or 17,000 people.

This country was exposed in 1823 to a most disastrous invasion, from a predatory and ferocious race called the Mantatees, or "wanderers." They were in fact a collected multitude of different Caffre tribes, flying before the attack of the Zoulas, who had formed a domination on the coast of Natal. The invaders were estimated at 40,000 warriors, almost naked, armed with clubs, spears, and battle-axes, and having their legs adorned with numerous brass rings. They succeeded in sacking Kurrechane; and, after being repulsed from another town, advanced upon Lattakoo, where they spread the most deadly consternation; the inhabitants not being possessed of courage sufficient to enable them to face such a formidable attack. They received, however, the aid of a party of Griqua Hottentots, who had learned from Europeans the use of fire-arms; and after an obstinate conflict turned to flight this immense multitude, and obliged them to retreat within the Caffre territory.