Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/317

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

BARBARA BARBAROSSA 297 Barbadoes. stated to have been from 2,000 to 5,000, and the destruction of property 1,602,800. The principal articles of export are sugar, cotton, aloes, and arrowroot ; the imports are chiefly fish, beef, flour, cutlery, and cloths. In 1850 the imports were 734,358, exports 831,534; in 1860, imports 976,300, exports 1,345.- 400 ; in 1870, imports 1,026,221, exports 935,425. There are only four towns, of which Bridgetown, the capital, has about 25,000 in- habitants. The government consists of a gov- ernor, council, and house of assembly. The governor, appointed by the crown, is also gov- ernor general (since 1871) of the neighboring islands of Grenada, St. Vincent, Tobago, and St. Lucia. The council consists of 12 mem- bers, appointed by the crown, who hold office during the royal pleasure. The assembly con- sists of 24 delegates, elected annually by the people. Barbadoes was probably discovered varly in the 16th century by the Portuguese. When it was first visited by the English in 1605, it was uninhabited and covered with dense forests. The first English colony, con- sisting of 40 whites and 7 negroes, was founded in 1625. In 1665 the Dutch made a fruitless attempt to seize the island. In 1676, 1692, 1816, and 1825, plots were formed among the negroes to take possession. In 1788 the pop- ulation was 16,127 whites, 2,229 free colored, and 64,405 negroes. There appears to have been no increase in the white population for 75 years, while the colored or mixed portion has multiplied 15 fold. The abolition of sla- very in 1834 was effected without disorder. BARBARA, Saint, a virgin and martyr, hon- ored in the Greek and Roman Catholic church- es, and supposed to have suffered at Heliopolis in 306, or at Kicomedia in Bithynia in 235. According to the Aurea Legenda, she was born at Heliopolis in Egypt, of pagan parents; and her father, fearing she should be taken from him on account of her great beauty, con- fined her in a tower. In her seclusion she heard of the preaching of Origen, and wrote to him begging for instruction, whereupon he sent one of his disciples, who taught and bap- tized her. On learning this her father put her to death, and is said to have been immediately struck by lightning; for which reason the saint has been regarded as the patron of sailors in a storm, and of artillerymen. In art she is gen- erally represented with a tower. Her festival day is Dec. 4. BARBARELLI, Giorgio. See GIOBGIOKE. BARBAROSSA, the name given to two rene- gade Greek corsairs, and supposed to be a cor- ruption of Baba-rai*, father captain. I. Arndj, Hornsh, or llorok, horn at Mitylene (Lesbos) about 1474, executed in 1518. He acquired fame in the service of Egypt, Turkey, and Tu- nis, and with his brother became the terror of the Mediterranean. Invited by the emir of the Metidja, Selim Eutemi, in 1516, to aid him against the Spaniards, he made himself master of Algiers, Tenez, and Tlemcen, and murdered the emir, but was defeated by the troops of Charles V., besieged in Tlemcen, captured on his flight from that city, and put to death. II. Khair-ed-Din, brother and successor of. the pre- ceding, born about 1476, died in Constantino- ple in 1546. After his brother's death he obtained the assistance of the sultan Selim I. in recovering Algiers. Solyman I. putting him in command of his ileet, he fortified Algiers, and conquered Tunis and other territories for the Turks. After Charles V. retook Tunis in 1535, Barbarossa preyed upon the coast of