BOSTON TEA-PARTY, the insurgent American colonists who, disguised as Indians, boarded, on Dec. 16, 1773, three English ships laden with tea, and hurled several hundred chests of it into Boston harbour, “making it black with unexpected tea.”

BOSWELL, JAMES, the biographer of Johnson, born at Edinburgh, showed early a penchant for writing and an admiration for literary men; fell in with Johnson on a visit to London in 1763, and conceived for him the most devoted regard; made a tour with him to the Hebrides in 1773, the “Journal” of which he afterwards published; settled in London, and was called to the English bar; succeeded, in 1782, to his father’s estate, Auchinleck, in Ayrshire, with an income of L1600 a year.  Johnson dying in 1784, Boswell’s “Life” of him appeared five years after, a work unique in biography, and such as no man could have written who was not a hero-worshipper to the backbone.  He succumbed in the end to intemperate habits, aggravated by the death of his wife (1740-1795).

BOSWELL, SIR ALEXANDER, son and heir of the preceding, an antiquary; mortally wounded in a duel with James Stuart of Dunearn, who had impugned his character, for which the latter was tried, but acquitted (1775-1822).

BOSWORTH, a town in Leicestershire, near which Richard III. lost both crown and life in 1485, an event which terminated the Wars of the Roses and led to the accession of the Tudor dynasty to the throne of England in the person of Henry VII.

BOSWORTH, JOSEPH, an Anglo-Saxon scholar, born in Derbyshire; became professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford; was the author of an Anglo-Saxon Grammar and Dictionary (1789-1876).

BOTANY BAY, an inlet in New South Wales, 5 m.  S. of Sydney; discovered by Captain Cook in 1770; so called, by Sir Joseph Banks, from the variety and beauty of its flora; was once an English convict settlement.

BOTH, JOHN AND ANDREW, Flemish painters of the 17th century, the former a landscape and the latter a figure painter; worked frequently on the same canvas.

BOTHNIA, a prov. of Sweden, divided into E. and W. by a gulf of the name.

BOTHWELL, a village in Lanarkshire, on the Clyde, 8 m.  SE. of Glasgow; scene of a battle between Monmouth and the Covenanters in 1679.

BOTHWELL, JAMES HEPBURN, Earl of, one of the envoys sent in 1560 to convey Mary, Queen of Scots, from France home; was made Privy Councillor the year after; had to flee to France for an act of conspiracy; was recalled by Mary on her marriage with Darnley; was a great favourite with the queen; was believed to have murdered Darnley, though when tried, was acquitted; carried off Mary to Dunbar Castle; pardoned; was made Duke of Orkney, and married to her at Holyrood; parted with her at Carberry Hill; fled to Norway, and was kept captive there at Malmoee; after ten years of misery he died, insane, as is believed (1525-1577).

BOTOCUDOS, a wandering wild tribe in the forests of Brazil, near the coast; a very low type of men, and at a very low stage of civilisation; are demon-worshippers, and are said to have no numerals beyond one.