BOISTEROUS-BOKER.

vence (Louis XVIII.), he was elected a deputy to the states-general. While a member of the constituent national assembly, he was accused of a design to change the French monarchy into a Protestant republic. During the Reign of Terror, fear of the Mountain' kept him quiet; but, yielding to the solicitations of Tallien and Barère, he joined the conspiracy against Robespierre. Two months after the execution of the tyrant, he was elected sec. of the convention; and shortly afterward, a member of the committee of public safety. As director of the supply of provisions for Paris, he was exposed to popular hatred and great peril during the riotous and sanguinary proceedings of the 12th Germinal and 1st Prairial in the year 3 of the Republic; but firmness and presence of mind preserved him. He was afterward prés. of the Council of Five Hundred; was called into the senate by Napoleon; and made a peer by Louis XVIII. Through all the changes of the times, he maintained his early principles. His chief writings are, Recherches sur la Vie, les Ecrits, et les Opinions de Malesherbes, 1819, and Etudes Littéraires et Poétiques d'un Vieillard, 1825; but, in addition to these, he published numerous essays, pamphlets, and letters.

BOISTEROUS, a. boys'tér-йs [Scot. bustuous; OE. boistous, violent, large; boist, a threat: W. buyst, wild: Low Ger. buster, wild or fearful]: noisy; roaring; stormy; tumultuous; violent. BOIS TEROUSLY, ad. li. BOISTERDUSNESS, n. the state or quality of being boisterous; tumultuousness.-SYN. of 'boisterous': turbulent; tumultuous; noisy; impetuous; loud; roaring; violent; stormy; furious.

BOJADOR, boj-a-dōr', CAPE: headland on the w. coast of Africa, lat. 26 7 n., long. 14° 29 w., forming the w. extremity of the Jebel Khal (or Black Mountains), a rocky ridge running e. into the Sahara. In consequence of its extreme flatness, and the shoreward tendency of the currents, the coast, extending n. to Cape Nun, is one of the most dangerous that mariners have to encounter, and is frequently the scene of shipping casualties. The Portuguese doubled this cape, 1433, and from them it received its name B. C., signifying ‘a round cape.'

BOJANO, bo-ya' no: town in the province of Campobasso, Italy, 13 m. s. w. of the town of Campobasso. It has a cathedral and ancient remains. It has suffered greatly from earthquakes, especially in 1805. Many scholars have believed it to occupy the site of the famous Samnite city of Borianum. B. was captured by the Romans B.C. 311, 305, and 298. In the Social war the confederates made it their capital. Cæsar established here a military colony.— Pop. 3,500.

BOJAR: see BOIAR.

BOKER, bō'ker, GEORGE HENRY: poet: 1823, Oct. 61890, Jan. 2; b. Philadelphia. He graduated at Princeton 1843: studied law; was admitted to the bar, but never practiced. After several years of European travel, he pub. a volume of poems 1847, and 1848 a tragedy, Calamos.

BOKHARA.

which was acted in England at the time, and was resuscitated by Lawrence Barrett in the United States 1883. During the civil war he wrote many patriotic lyrics. B. was U. S. minister to Turkey 1872-76, and to Russia 1876-79. His first vol. of poems was The Lesson of Life (1847); among his volumes are: Poems of the War; Street Lyrics; The Book of the Dead. Of dramatic works, besides Calaynos, he wrote Anne Bolleyn; Leonore de Guzman; Francesca da Rimini; The Widow's Marriage.

BOKHARA boch-a' rá (i.e., Eastland), or USBEKISTAN, ôz-běk-is-tân': vassal state of Russia in central Asia; lat. 37° 41° n., long. 62°-72° e.; bounded n. by Turkestan, e. by the Pamir, s. by Afghanistan, w. by the Kara Kum desert; about 92,000 sq. m.; reigning sovereign (1803) Sayid Abdul Ahad, who succeeded his father 1885: principal towns, with pop., Bokhara 100,000, Karshi 25,000, Khuzar, Shahr-i-Sabz, Hissar, 10,000, Charjui, Karakul, and Kermine. Since the treaty of (1873) no foreigner can be admitted into B. without a Russian passport.

Only in the neighborhood of the rivers is cultivation possible. The rest of the soil of B. is composed of a stiff arid clay, interspersed with low sand-hills. B. belongs exclusively to the basin of the Sea of Aral. It has only three rivers of any importance-the Amu or Jihun (anciently the Oxus), the Zar-afshan, and the Kurshi. Entering B. at Kushtuppa, the Amu flows through the country w.n.w. to the Sea of Aral. Its banks in some parts are very fertile, especially in the neighborhood of Balkh. The Zar-afshan, which rises in the spurs of the Thianshan Mountains, after a course of about 200 m. issues into the plain near Samarcand, and thence fertilizes the district (Meeankal) to the city of Bokhara. Before reaching the city, it sends out a n. branch, which, after a fertilizing course of several miles, is absorbed in the sand. The s. branch passes B. to the n., and terminates in the lake of Kara-kool, a sheet of salt water about 25 m. in circumference, connected with the Amu by irrigating canals. The valley of the Zar-afshan is the richest as well as the most populous in Bokhara. The Kurshi has a course of about 60 m. before it is lost in the desert.

The climate of B. is moderate and healthful. Its geographical position secures B. the transit-trade between Russia and the s. of Asia. The rains usually begin and end with February. Violent sand-storms are frequent, and occasion ophthalmia among the inhabitants, who are also subject to the attacks of the guinea-worm, which penetrates the flesh, causing great pain and annoyance.

Minerals are not numerous in kind. The sands of the Oxus yield gold. Salt deposits are frequent. Alum and sulphur are found in the vicinity of Samarcand, and salammoniac in the mountainous districts. The other products include rice and cotton, wheat, barley, beet-root, vegetables, hemp-used only in the preparation of an intoxicating liquor called bhang-silk, fruits in immense abundance, and tobacco. The camel's thorn, a plant that grows luxuriantly in Samarcand and Kurshi, exudes a Saccharine gum or manna, extensively used as sugar.

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B. imports green tea, mostly from India, indigo, Dacca muslins, drugs, shawls, and kincobs; and exports raw silk and cotton. The religion is Mohammedan. The ameer has an army of 20,000 officers and men, of whom 4,000 are kept in the capital. All have been drilled by Russian officers and a large proportion armed with Russian rifles. The import of spirituous liquors, except for the use of the Russian embassy, is forbidden. A Russian railway extends from Charjui to Samarkand, and a telegraph line from Samarkand to the capital.

B. was conquered by the Arabs in the beginning of the 8th c., who were dispossessed, 1232, by Genghis Khan. It fell into the hands of Timur, 1303, and was taken by the Usbeks, 1505, and it has since remained under the same Turkish race. During the 18th c., the khans were characterized by the worst abominations of eastern vice and fanaticism; and Bokhara lost its pre-eminence among the khanates of Turkestan. The canals, which alone gave fertility to the country, were neglected; and large areas were again overspread by the desert; the population diminished; B. became a centre of corruption and anarchy. About 30 years ago, it was ruled by the Khan Nasrullah, a barbarous and incapable tyrant. It was he who caused, 1843, the murder of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly, who went on a mission to B. Dr. Wolff, who visited the country, 1844, with a view to ascertain their fate, narrowly escaped with his life, after a detention of some months. After the capture of Tashkend by the Russians 1865 (see TURKESTAN), a religious war was preached against the Russians, and the khan, Muzaffer-Eddin, was compelled to oppose them. He was defeated at the battle of Idjar, 1866, May 20; and Samarcand (q.v.), one of the most important cities of B., was taken 1868, May. The command of the upper course of the Zar-afshan, which fertilizes the central part of B., placed the khan entirely under the power of Russia. In 1868, July 30, a peace was concluded, by which Samarcand was ceded to the czar and stipulations were entered into, favorable to Russian trade. The treaty caused great dissatisfaction to the fanatic Mussulmans of B. They rose in rebellion, placing at their head Khan Abdul Malik Mirza, son and heir of the khan. The Russians, on the intercession of the khan, aided him; and in Oct. the rebels were defeated near Karchi. The rebel prince sought refuge in Afghanistan. Shere Ali, the ameer, gave him a warm welcome, and would have invaded Bokhara had he not been restrained by Lord Mayo, the Indian viceroy, who instructed him that England could not encourage him in any attack on his neighbors. While Shere Ali was meditating an invasion of B., Abdurrahman, a nephew of Shere Ali, who had married a daughter of the khan of B., endeavored to obtain Russian aid in invading Afghan Turkestan with a Bokharian army. But, in this case, Russia opposed the enterprise (see AFGHANISTAN). During the invasion of Khiva, 1873, the khan of B. efficiently assisted the Russians, and was rewarded by a large addition to his territory from the Khivan possessions on the right bank of the