BANCROFT 265 intermixed with sandstone and breccias, among which occur the washings of tin and gold The soil of Bunca is decidedly sterile. Besides tin mining, the only industry consists in the lim- ited cultivation of rice and of a few fruits and vegetables. The whole island is covered with forests, the marshy parts being impenetrable. The most valuable products of the forest for trade are eaglewood, ebony, and chiefly bees- wax. Of animals, there are two species of wild hog, the same as those of Java, which are very numerous, a stag, the pigmy deer or kanchil, and the Malayan bear. The princi- pal port is Minto or Muntok, formerly the seat of the Dutch governor (who now resides at Banca Kota), and of a small garrison ; it is situated on the shore of the safest roadstead on the straits of Banca, in lat. 2 S., Ion. 105 5' E., and contains about 3,000 inhabitants, chiefly Chinese. This island attracted no at- tention till the discovery of its tin in 1709. The sultan of Palembang endeavored to estab- lish a monopoly of it ; but the Dutch sent an expedition to force a treaty upon him, securing to themselves the right of preemption at a very small price. The island was occupied by the English during the Napoleonic reign in Hol- land, but restored to the Dutch after the res- toration of the house of Orange. The Dutch in 1818 restored the old sultan Badr-Oodin, whose treachery brought on a bloody war of two years, ending in 1821 with the triumph of the Dutch, who have since held the island. BANCROFT, Aaron, an American clergyman, born in Reading, Mass., Nov. 10, 1755, died in Worcester, Mass., Aug. 19, 1839. He was educated in the Calvinistic system, but was sub- sequently led to a belief more nearly resem- bling that of Arminius, Grotius, and Locke. When the American revolution broke out, he often took a place in a company of " minute men," and, though then a collegian, was a volunteer at Lexington and Bunker Hill. He graduated at Harvard college, studied theology, and began at once to preach. Of the next five years of his life, three were passed in Nova Scotia. In 1785 he was settled permanently in Worcester. Besides occasional sermons, chiefly in defence of religious liberty, he printed in 1800 a eulogy on Washington, and in 1807 a life of Washington, which was reprinted in England in 1808, and has been very widely cir- culated in the United States. In 1822 he pub- lished a volume of doctrinal sermons, directed chiefly against the dogma of unconditional election. His protest against Calvinism long preceded the rise of the Unitarians, and though in the latter part of his life he was presi- dent of the American Unitarian association, he would never discard the name or the system of Congregationalism. He was a doctor of di- vinity of Harvard college. BANCROFT, Edward, an English naturalist and physician, died in 1821. lie resided long in America, where he was intimately associated with Franklin and Priestley. He wrote an ' ' Essay on the Natural History of Guiana " (Lon- don, 1769), which contained much information at that time new, particularly an account of the woorali, or vegetable substance employed by the Indians to poison their arrows. He also published " Experimental Researches concern- ing Permanent Colors, and the Best Means of Procuring them" (2 vols. 8vo, 2d ed., London, 1813), which was translated into German. BANCROFT, George, an American historian and statesman, son of the Rev. Aaron Bancroft, born in Worcester, Mass., Oct. 3, 1800. He pursued his preparatory studies at Exeter, N. II., and in 1813 entered Harvard college, where he gave special attention to metaphysics and morals, and acquired a strong predilection for the writings of Plato. He graduated in 1817, and almost immediately started for the univer- sities of Germany. In Gottingen, where he remained for two years, he studied under the most learned professors of 'the time, includ- ing Eichhorn, Heeren, and Blumenbach, with nearly all of whom he had close personal ac- quaintan'ce. He applied himself to German, French, and Italian literature, the oriental lan- guages and the interpretation of the Scriptures, ecclesiastical and other ancient history, natural history, the antiquities and literature of Greece and Rome, besides pursuing a thorough course of Greek philosophy. He selected history as his special branch of study. Having received at Gottingen in 1820 the degree of doctor of philosophy, he repaired to Berlin, where he continued his studies, and became intimate with Schleiermacher, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Savi- gny, Lappenberg, Varnhagen von Ense, and other distinguished literary persons. He also carefully observed the administration of the Prussian government in many of its departments. In the spring of 1821 he began a journey through Germany and other parts of Europe. He had already in a Gottingen vacation seen Dresden, and had made the acquaintance of Goethe at Jena. At Heidelberg he spent some time in study with the historian Schlosser. In Paris he became acquainted with Cousin, Alexander von Humboldt, and Benjamin Constant. He passed a month in England, travelled on foot through Switzerland, and spent eight months in Italy, forming an acquaintance with Manzoni at Milan, and a friendship with Chevalier Bun- sen at Rome, where he also knew Niebuhr. In 1822 he returned to America, and accepted for one year the office of tutor of Greek in Har- vard university. During this year he preached several sermons, yet he seems not long to have entertained the thought of entering the cler- ical profession. In 1823, in conjunction with Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell, he established the Round Hill school at Northampton. He pub- lished at this time his translation of Heeren's "Politics of Ancient Greece," and a small vol- ume of poems, and ho was also busily meditat- ing and collecting materials for a history of the United States. In 1826 he delivered at Northampton an oration, in which he avowed
