BIAFRA, a tract of country on the coast of Western Africa, on a bay or bight of the same name. Lander, in descending the Niger, arrived in the Bight of Biafra, and thus left no doubt that the system of inter-ramified river-channels, extending from Benin to Biafra, constitutes the delta of that river. The Bight of Biafra, or Mafra, is the mo3t eastern part of the Gulf of Guinea, between Capes Formosa and Lopez; it contains the islands of Fernando Po, Prince’s, and St Thomas’s.

BIANCHINI, Francis, a learned Italian astronomer and antiquary, was born at Verona in 1662, of a noble and ancient family. He was educated at Padua, and devoted himself especially to mathematics and classics. In 1684 he went to Rome, and was made librarian to Cardinal Ottoboni, afterwards Pope Alexander VIII. He was made canon of Sta Maria de la Rotonda, and afterwards of St Lorenz·o in Damaso. His first work seems to have been a treatise directed against the Copernican system; it was published about 1680. In 1697 appeared the first and only volume of his Universal History, coming down to the close of the Assyrian empire. His later works, with the exception of the Hesperi et Phosphori nova Phaenomena, a series of observations on Venus, were chiefly upon the rui∏3 excavated on the Via Appia and Mount Palatine. He died in 1729

BIARRITZ, a watering-place in the south of France, in the department of Basses-Pyrénées, on the sea-coast about live miles south-west of Bayonne. From a mere fishing village, with a few hundred inhabitants, in the beginning of the century, it rose rapidly into a place of importance under the patronage of the late emperor Napoleon III. and the empress, with whom it was a favourite resort. Excellent bathing-ground is afforded by the Vieux Port and the various sheltered bays into which the cliffs of this part of the coast are carved by the swell of the Atlantic; and the irregular eminences and promontories supply attractive sites for the erection of villas. The climate is delightful and bracing; and the bareness of the neighbourhood has been considerably relieved by fir plantations. Except the ruins of the castle of Atalaye, the lighthouse of Port Hart, the Villa Eugénie, erected for the empress in 1855-1856, the new French church, the English Protestant church, and the casino, there is no building with special claim to notice; the bathing establishments, cafés, and hotels are matters of course, but these are at least not unworthy the fame of the town. Since 1863, when it was decided that the construction of a new port was a matter of public utility, large sums of money have been expended in the attempt to form a satisfactory breakwater, but the severity of the winter storms has frequently interrupted the work. The permanent population of Biarritz, according to the census of 1871, was 3164; and the autumn visitors are estimated at from 12,000 to 15,000.

See Russel], Biarritz and the Basque Countries, 1873.

BIAS, a native of Priene, one of the seven sages of Greece, was the son of Teutamus, and flourished about the middle of the 6th century b.c. He was one of the most eloquent speakers of his time, and is celebrated as having never used his talents for purposes of mere gain, but as having devoted them to the service of the injured and oppressed. Many stories are told illustrative of the nobility of his character in this and other respects. According to one of these, when his native town was taken by an enemy, and the inhabitants were carrying off whatever seemed to each most valuable, one of them, observing Bias without any burden, advised him to follow his example. “I am doing so,” said he, “for I carry all my valuables with me.” His fellow-citizens honoured him with a splendid funeral, and dedicated to him a sanctuary which they called Teutamium. He is said to have written an heroic poem on the affairs of the Ionians, in order to show them how they might be most prosperous. A great number of the short, pithy, ethical sayings or apophthegms characteristic of the Greek sages are ascribed to Bias. Of these a few specimens may be given—“Be slow to enter on an undertaking, but when you have begun, persevere to the end;” “Know, and then act;” “Hear much, speak little;” “Do not praise an unworthy man on account of his wealth;” “Take (i,e., gain your end) by persuasion, not by force;” “He is unfortunate who cannot bear misfortune;” “So order your affairs as if your life were to be both long and short.” Bias is the author of the famous and often imitated reproof to the impious sailors, who in the midst of a tempest were calling on the gods—“Be quiet,” said he, “lest the gods discover that you are here.” (Diog. Laert., i. 82-88; ...