BA RBUDA, or 13Enuuno, or BARBUTIIOS, one of the Caribbee islands in the West Indies, belonging to the Codrington family. It is about 21 miles long, and 12 broad, and is encircled with a rocky coast. The industry of the inhabitants supplies the neigh, bouring islands with cattle, sheep, towls, and corn ; and the soil is capable of yielding the various fruits and trees which are produced in the other \Vest India islands. The island abounds in serpents, some of which are very large, and others poisonous. The island is said to yield an annual revenue of R5000. Population 1500. West Long.61° 50', North Lat. 17° 49' 45". • (7r) BARCA,,a district of northern Africa, bounded on the north by the Mediterranean, on the south by the Sahara or Desert, on the east by Egypt, and on the west by the kingdom of Tripoli. It extends in length about 690 geographical miles, from 181 to 31 East Long. ; and in breadth about ISO miles, from 28 to 31 North Lat. The etymology of the name is ex tremely uncertai It has been explained as signify ing- " a blessing," and derived from the Arabic barac ,, to bless." Others have considered it as taken from Barca, a brother of queen Dido, who is supposed to have founded the city of Barca. The modern Arabs, however, are said to understand it as denoting " the place of hurricanes." In ancient history it formed a part of that immense tract of country, which bore the general name of Libya ; and was then divided into two provinces, which were called Libya Cyrenaica, and Libya Marmarica.
The modern state and history of Barca are very imperfectly known. It is described as a tract of dry barren sand, almost entirely destitute of vegetation, incapable of culture, and rarely yielding a spring of fresh water. A few spots of verdure, consisting chiefly of the different kinds of kali or glasswort, oc casionally relieve the eye of the traveller, and furnish a slender refreshment to his suffering camel. At long and dreary intervals are found some fertile places, called oases, or islands, where the towns and villages are situated, and where a little millet, maize, and sometimes abundance of dates are produced. In many of the more desert parts, the surface of the ground is covered with a saline crust ; and, in the regions towards the south, great quantities of pe trified wood of various forms and sizes, even large trunks of trees, particularly of oak, are found in the sand.
The principal towns along the coast of the Medi terranean are, Zoara, Soluk, Bernie, Bengasi, Tau eliira, Tolemata Ptolemais,) Barca, the capital of the country, Curin Cyrene,) Derna, Cape Luco (Pro montorium Cary onium,) Porto Mesulman (C'alabath mas,) Rameda, Bareton (Paralanium.) The inha bitants of these maritime places, in their general cha racter and customs, resemble the other natives of Bar bary. They profess the religion of Mahomet ; are considered as under the protection of the Porte ; and are tributary to the Basha of Tripoli or of Egypt, according as they approximate to either of these kingdoms ; but very little is known respecting their political state, or commercial intercourse.
The Barcan desert is separated from the Libyan, on the south, by a chain of rocky mountains, among which the most considerable towns and villages are situated ; and where the climate and soil are more fa vourable, than in any other part of the country. The
chief of these towns, which have been noticed by tra vellers, are, Mogara, Ummesogeir, Biljoradcck, Si wali, where very extensive ruins have been observed, and where the oracular temple of Jupiter Ammon is supposed to have been situated ; Mojabra, Mclidilla, and Augila, svhich is mentioned by Herpdotus as be ing ten days journey from the city of the A mmonians, and which has been remarkable, both in ancient and modern times, for the great abundance and superior flavour of its dates. The houses in these towns are generally placed on the side of the mountains, and have very much the appearance of caves in the rocks. The soil in their neighbourhood yields pomegranates, figs, olives, apricots, plantains, a little wheat, a con siderable quantity of rice of a reddish hue, but prin cipally dates, A few sheep, goats, asses, oxen, and camels, are kept by the natives ; but, for want of pasture, the cattle arc frequently supported by the fruit of the date tree. The inhabitants are engaged chiefly in agriculture and gardening ; and sometimes carry on a petty traffic with the Arab caravans from the cities on the coast, or with those which pass be tween Fezzan and Egypt. Some of them, by these means, acquire considerable wealth ; but they are in general remarkably poor and dirty. They are fre quently almost entirely naked ; and their dress, at most, consists only of a large wrapper of coarse wool len cloth. Sometimes, under this, they wear a cotton shirt with wide sleeves, reaching to the feet, a Tunisian cap of red worsted or cotton, character istic of the Mussulman, and slippers of • the same co lour. They subsist chiefly upon dates, rice, milk, flat cakes of unleavened bread, or thin sheets of paste, fried in the oil of the palm tree. They drink great quantities of a liquor made from the date tree, which they term date-tree 'water ; but which has often, in the state in which it is used, an inebriating quality.
Of the more central parts of Barca, scarcely any thing whatever is known. Few travellers have at tempted to explore its pathless wastes of barren and burning sand ; where they could have no other guide than the compass or the stars, and where they would be continually exposed to the cruel rapacity of the most savage and brutal of all the Arab race. The few wandering tribes who traverse these dismal regions, are described as peculiarly hideous in their aspect, ferocious in their manners, meagre and ravenous in their whole appearance. They are wretched and in digent in the extreme ; and subsist principally by plundering the date villages, and levying contribu tions from the caravans, which pass along the coast of the Mediterranean, or by the borders of Libya. They are almost continually engaged in these preda tory excursions ; and are said to commit the most atrocious acts of cruelty upon those, who fall into their hands. Yet, with all their exertions and ex pertness in robbery, they are said to be frequently in such a famishing state, As to pledge, or even sell, their own children, for the necessaries of life, to the Sici lian and other Christian traders, who occasionally come upon the coast. See Ancient Univ. Hist. vol. xviii. p. 228. Modern Univ. Hist. vol. xviii. p. 5] 8. Brown's Travels in Africa. Horncmann's Travels in Africa. (q)