B O N H I L L — B O N N Horse Fair” (1853), one of the two replicas of which is in the National Gallery, London, the original being in the United States (see Plate); and “ Hay Harvest in Auvergne” (1855). She was “decorated” with the Legion of Honour by the Empress Eugenie, and was subsequently promoted to the rank of “ officer ” of the order. After 1867, Rosa Bonheur exhibited but once in the salon, in 1899, a few weeks before her death. She lived quietly at her country house at By, near Fontainebleau, where, for some years she had held gratuitous classes for drawing. She left at her death a considerable number of pictures, studies, drawings, and etchings, which were sold by auction in Paris in the spring of 1900. (h. Fr.) Bon hill. See Alexandria. Boni (Bonj6), a vassal state belonging to the government of Celebes and its dependencies (Dutch East Indies), on the south-west peninsula of Celebes (q.v.), on the Gulf of Boni. Its area is 2548 square miles. The chief products are rice, tobacco, coffee, cotton, and sugar - cane, none of them important exports. The buffaloes and horses of this state are highly-esteemed breeds. The trade, shipping, and fishery, are in a state of decline. The chief town, Boni, lies 80 miles north-east of Macassar. For the wars in Boni, see Perelaer, De Bonische expeditien, 1859-60, Leiden, 1872; and Meyers, in the Militaire Spectator (1880). Bonifacio^ a coast town in the arrondissement of Sartine, Corsica, 42 miles in direct line S.E. of Ajaccio, on the railway from Bastia. Cork-cutting, an industry of recent growth, employs in a single factory 200 persons, producing annually 50 millions of corks. Population (1881), 2790; (1896), 3191, (comm.) 3587. Bonin Islands, called by the Japanese Ogasawarajima, a chain of small islands stretching nearly due north and south, a little to the east of 142° E. long., and from 26° 35' to 27° 45' N. lat. They number twenty, according to Japanese investigations, and have a coast-line of 174’65 miles long and a superficies of 28‘82 square miles. Only ten of them have any appreciable size, and these are named—commencing from the north—Mukoshima (Bridegroom Island), Nakadachi-shima (Go-between Island1), Yome-shima (Bride Island), Ototo-jima (Youngerbrother Island), Ani-shima (Elder-brother Island), Chichijima (Father Island), Haha-jima (Mother Island), Mei-jima (Niece Island), Ani-jima (Elder-sister Island), and Imotojima (Younger-sister Island). European geographers have been accustomed to divide the islands into three groups for purposes of nomenclature, calling the northern group the Parry Islands, the central the Beechey Islands, and the southern the Coffin, or Bailey Islands. The second largest of all, that is to say Chichi-jima (Father Island), in Japanese cartography, was called “Peel Island” in 1827 by Captain Beechey, and the same officer gave the name of “ Stapleton Island ” to the Ototo-jima of the Japanese, and that of “ Buckland Island ” to their Ani-jima. To complete this account of Captain Beechey’s nomenclature, it may be added that he called a large bay on the south of Peel Island “ Fitton Bay,” and a bay on the south-west of Buckland Island “Walker Bay.”2 Port Lloyd, the chief anchorage (situated on Peel Island), is considered by Commodore Perry—who visited the islands in 1853 and .strongly urged the establishment of a United States ■coaling station there—to have been formerly the crater of a volcano from which the surrounding hills were thrown 1 Referring to the Japanese custom of employing a go-between to arrange a marriage. 2 These details are taken from The .Bonin Islands by Russell Robertson, formerly H.B.M. Consul in Yokohama, who visited the islands in 1875.
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up, the entrance to the harbour being a fissure through which lava used to pour into the sea. The islands are, indeed, plainly volcanic in their nature. History.—The diversity of nomenclature indicated above suggests that the ownership of the islands was for some time doubtful. According to Japanese annals they were discovered towards the close of the 16th century, and added to the lief of a Daimyo, Ogasawa Sadayori, whence the name “ Ogasawara-jima.” They were also calledibwim-Jima (corruptedby foreigners into “Bonin”) because of their being without (hu) inhabitants [nin). Effective occupation did not take place, however, and communications with the islands ceased altogether in 1635, as was a natural consequence of the Japanese 3Government’s veto against the construction of sea-going vessels. In 1728 fitful communication was restored by the then representative of the Ogasawara family, only to be again interrupted until 1861, when an unsuccessful attempt was made to establish a Japanese colony at Port Lloyd. Meanwhile, Captain Beechey having visited the islands in the Blossom, having assigned names to some of them, and having published a description of their features, a small party consisting of two British subjects, two American citizens, and a Dane, sailed from the Sandwich Islands for Port Lloyd in 1830, taking with them some Hawaiian natives. These colonists hoisted the British flag on Peel Island (Chichi-jima), and settled there. When Commodore Perry arrived in 1853, there were on Peel Island thirty-one inhabitants, four being English, four American, one Portuguese, and the rest natives of the Sandwich Islands, the Ladrones, &c.; and when Mr Russell Robertson visited the place in 1875, the colony had grown to sixty-nine, of whom only five were pure whites. Mr Robertson found them without education, without religion, without laws, and without any system of government, but living comfortably on clearings of cultivated land. English was the language of the settlers, and they regarded themselves as a British colony. But (in 1861) the British Government renounced all claim to the islands in recognition of Japan’s right of possession. There is now regular steam communication; the affairs of the islands are duly administered, and the population has grown to 4519. There are no mountains of any considerable height in the Ogasawara Islands, but the scenery is hilly with occasional bold crags. The vegetation is almost tropically luxuriant, palms, wild pineapples, and ferns growing profusely, and the valleys being filled with wild beans and patches of taro. Mr R. Robertson catalogues a number of valuable timbers that are obtained there, among them being Tremana, cedar, rose-wood, iron-wood (red and white), box-wood, sandal, and wliite oak. The kekop tree, the orange, the laurel, the juniper, the wild cactus, the curry plant, wild sage, and celery flourish. No minerals have yet been discovered. The shores are covered with coral; earthquakes and tidal waves are frequent, the latter not taking the form of bores, but of a sudden steady rise and equally sudden fall in the level of the sea; the climate is rather tropical than temperate, but sickness is almost unknown among the residents. (p by.) Bonn, a town of Prussia, in the Rhine province, 21 miles by rail S. by E. from Cologne, on the left bank of the Rhine. The river is here crossed by a fine bridge (1896-98), 1417 feet in length, flanked by an embankment two miles long, above and parallel with which is the Coblenzer Strasse, with beautiful villas and pretty gardens reaching down to the Rhine. There is a new railway station, which is not only commodious, but also a handsome structure. The minster was restored in 1875 and following years, and in 1890-94 was adorned with paintings by Martin. The “ Stiftskirche ” has been rebuilt, 1879-84. “Der alte Zoll,” commanding a magnificent view of the Seven Mountains, is the only remaining bulwark of the old fortifications, the Sternthor having been lately removed in order to open up better communication with the rapidly increasing western suburbs and the terminus of the light railway to Cologne. The Roman Catholic archiepiscopal theological college, beautifully situated on an eminence overlooking the river, dates from 1892, and the provincial museum of antiquities from 1889-93. In 1889 a museum of Beethoven relics, &c., wTas opened in the house in which the musician was born. There are further a municipal museum, arranged in a private house since 1882, the academic art museum (1884), with some classic originals, a creation of F. G. 3
The Bonius are 500 miles from the main island of Japan.
