Jump to content

Page:EB1911 - Volume 03.djvu/328

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
  
BANDANA—BANDER ABBĀSI
311

the Dutch attacked and expelled their British rivals. In 1654 they were compelled by Cromwell to restore Run, and to make satisfaction for the massacre of Amboyna; but the English settlers not being adequately supported from home, the island was retaken by the Dutch in 1664. They remained in undisturbed possession until 1796, when the Banda Islands were taken by the British. They were restored by the treaty of Amiens in the year 1800, again captured, and finally restored by the treaty of Paris concluded in 1814.

BANDANA, or Bandanna, a word probably derived through the Portuguese from the Hindustani bāndhnū, which signified a primitive method of obtaining an effect in dyeing by tying up cloth in different places to prevent the particular parts from receiving the dye. The name was given to richly coloured silk handkerchiefs produced by this process, of which bright colours were characteristic. Bandanas are now commonly made of cotton and produced in Lancashire, whence they are exported. The effect is also produced by a regular process in calico printing, in which the pattern is made by discharging the colour.

BANDELIER, ADOLPH FRANCIS ALPHONSE (1840–), American archaeologist, was born in Bern, Switzerland, on the 6th of August 1840. When a youth he emigrated to the United States. After 1880 he devoted himself to archaeological and ethnological work among the Indians of the south-western United States, Mexico and South America. Beginning his studies in Sonora (Mexico), Arizona and New Mexico, he made himself the leading authority on the history of this region, and—with F. H. Cushing and his successors—one of the leading authorities on its prehistoric civilization. In 1892 he abandoned this field for Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, where he continued ethnological, archaeological and historical investigations. In the first field he was in a part of his work connected with the Hemenway Archaeological Expedition and in the second worked for Henry Villard of New York, and for the American Museum of Natural History of the same city. Bandelier has shown the falsity of various historical myths, notably in his conclusions respecting the Inca civilization of Peru. His publications include: three studies “On the Art of War and Mode of Warfare of the Ancient Mexicans,” “On the Distribution and Tenure of Lands and the Customs with respect to Inheritance among the Ancient Mexicans,” and “On the Social Organization and Mode of Government of the Ancient Mexicans” (Harvard University, Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Annual Reports, 1877, 1878, 1879); Historical Introduction to Studies among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico, and Report on the Ruins of the Pueblo of Pecos (1881); Report of an Archaeological Tour in Mexico in 1881 (1884); Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of the South-western United States (1890–1892, 2 vols.); Contributions to the History of the South-western Portion of the United States carried on mainly in the years from 1880 to 1885 (1890),—all these in the Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America, American Series, constituting vols. i.-v.; “The Romantic School of American Archaeologists” (New York Historical Society, 1885); The Gilded Man (El Dorado) and other Pictures of the Spanish Occupancy of America (1893); and a report On the Relative Antiquity of Ancient Peruvian Burials (American Museum of Natural History, Bulletin, v. 30, 1904). He also edited The Journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca . . . from Florida to the Pacific, 1528–1536 (1905), translated into English by his wife.

BANDELLO, MATTEO (1480–1562), Italian novelist, was born at Castelnuovo, near Tortona, about the year 1480. He received a very careful education, and entered the church, though he does not seem to have prosecuted his theological course with great zeal. For many years he resided at Mantua, and superintended the education of the celebrated Lucrezia Gonzaga, in whose honour he composed a long poem. The decisive battle of Pavia, which gave Lombardy into the hands of the emperor, compelled Bandello to fly; his house at Milan was burnt and his property confiscated. He took refuge with Cesare Fregoso, an Italian general in the French service, whom he accompanied into France. In 1550 he was raised to the bishopric of Agen, a town in which he resided for many years before his death in 1562. Bandello wrote a number of poems, but his fame rests entirely upon his extensive collection of Novelle, or tales (1554, 1573), which have been extremely popular. They belong to that species of literature of which Boccaccio’s Decameron and the queen of Navarre’s Heptameron are, perhaps, the best known examples. The common origin of them all is to be found in the old French fabliaux, though some well-known tales are evidently Eastern, and others classical. Bandello’s novels are esteemed the best of those written in imitation of the Decameron, though Italian critics find fault with them for negligence and inelegance of style. They have little value from a purely literary point of view, and many of them are disfigured by the grossest obscenity. Historically, however, they are of no little interest, not only from the insight into the social life of the period which they afford, but from the important influence they exercised on the Elizabethan drama. The stories on which Shakespeare based several of his plays were supplied by Bandello, probably through Belleforest or Paynter.

BANDER ABBĀSI (also Bender Abbas, and other forms), a town of Persia, on the northern shore of the Persian Gulf in 27° 11′ N., and 56° 17′ E., forming part of the administrative division of the “Persian Gulf ports,” whose governor resides at Bushire. It has a population of about 10,000, an insalubrious climate and bad water.

Bander Abbāsi was called Gombrun (Gombroon, Gamaroon; Cambarão, Comorão of Portuguese writers) until 1622, when it received its present name (the “port of Abbas”) in honour of the reigning shah, Abbas I., who had expelled the Portuguese in 1614, and destroyed the fort built by them in 1612. The English, however, were permitted to build a factory there, and about 1620 the Dutch obtained the same privilege. On the capture of the island of Hormuz (Ormus) in 1622 by the English and Persians a large portion of its trade was transferred to Bander Abbāsi. During the remainder of the 17th century the traffic was considerable, but in the 18th prosperity declined and most of the trade was removed to Bushire. In 1759 the English factory was destroyed by the French, and though afterwards re-established it has long been abandoned. The ruins of the factory and other buildings lie west of the present town. About 1740 Nadir Shah granted the town and district with the fort of Shamil and the town of Mināb, together with the islands of Kishm, Hormuz (Ormus) and Lārak, to the Arab tribe of the Beni Ma‛īni in return for a payment of a yearly rent or tribute. About 40 years later Sultan bin Ahmad, the ruler of Muscat, having been appealed to for aid by the Arab inhabitants of the place against Persian misrule, occupied the town, and obtained a firman from the Persian government confirming him in his possession on the condition of his paying a yearly rent of a few thousand tomans. The islands were considered to be the property of Muscat. In 1852 the Persians expelled the Muscat authorities from Bander Abbāsi and its district, but retired when Muscat agreed to pay an increased rent. By a treaty concluded between Persia and Muscat in 1856 it was stipulated that Bander Abbāsi town and district and the islands were to be considered Persian territory and leased to Muscat at an annual rent of 14,000 tomans (£6000). The treaty was to have been in force for twenty years, but in 1866 the Persians took advantage of the assassination of Seyed Thuweini, the sultan of Muscat, to instal as governor of Bander Abbāsi and district a nominee of their own who agreed to pay a rent of 20,000 tomans per annum. Further difficulties arising between Persia and Muscat, and the ruler of the latter, then in possession of a powerful fleet, threatening to blockade Bander Abbāsi, the Persian government solicited the good offices of the British government, and the lease was renewed for another eight years upon payment of 30,000 tomans per annum (then about £12,000). This was in 1868. In the same year, however, the sultan of Muscat was expelled by a successful revolt, and the Persian government, in virtue of a clause in the lease allowing them to cancel the contract if a conqueror obtained possession of Muscat, installed their own governor at Bander Abbāsi and