Nigeria, on the west
bank of the Niger, in 10 deg. 9' N., 4 deg. 40' E. It is situated just above the
rapids which mark the limit of navigability of the Niger by steamer from
the sea. Here in 1806 Mungo Park, in his second expedition to trace the
course of the Niger, was attacked by the inhabitants, and drowned while
endeavouring to escape. During 1894-1898 its possession was disputed by
Great Britain and France, the last-named country acknowledging by the
convention of June 1898 the British claim, which carried with it the
control of the lower Niger. It is now the capital of northern Borgu (see
NIGERIA, and BORGU).

BUSSACO (or BUSACO), SERRA DE, a mountain range on the frontiers of the
Aveiro, Coimbra, and Vizeu districts of Portugal, formerly included in the
province of Beira. The highest point in the range is the Ponta de Bussaco
(1795 ft.), which commands a magnificent view over the Serra da Estrella,
the Mondego valley and the Atlantic Ocean. Luso (pop. 1661), a village
celebrated for its hot mineral springs, is the nearest railway station, on
the Guarda-Figueira da Foz line, which skirts the northern slopes of the
Serra. Towards the close of the 19th century the Serra de Bussaco became
one of the regular halting-places for foreign, and especially for British,
tourists, on the overland route between Lisbon and Oporto. Its hotel, built
in the Manoellian style--a blend of Moorish and Gothic--encloses the
buildings of a secularized Carmelite monastery, founded in 1268. The
convent woods, now a royal domain, have long been famous for their cypress,
plane, evergreen oak, cork and other forest trees, many of which have stood
for centuries and attained an immense size. A bull of Pope Gregory XV.
(1623), anathematizing trespassers and forbidding women to approach, is
inscribed on a tablet at the main entrance; another bull, of Urban VIII.
(1643), threatens with excommunication any person harming the trees. In
1873 a monument was erected, on the southern slopes of the Serra, to
commemorate the battle of Bussaco, in which the French, under Marshal
Massena, were defeated by the British and Portuguese, under Lord
Wellington, on the 27th of September 1810.

BUSSY, ROGER DE RABUTIN, COMTE DE (1618-1693), commonly known as
BUSSY-RABUTIN, French memoir-writer, was born on the 13th of April 1618 at
Epiry, near Autun. He represented a family of distinction in Burgundy (see
SEVIGNE, MADAME DE), and his father, Leonor de Rabutin, was