POMPEY'S PILLAR 



PONIATOWSKI 



307 



sundered by a yet wider gulf, which no bridge could 

 span. Poinpey now returned to the aristocratic 

 party, whose great desire was to check Ceesar's 

 views, and strip him of his command. Ca?sar was 

 ordered to lay down his office and return to Rome, 

 which he consented to do, provided Pompey, who 

 had an army near Home, would do the same. The 

 senate insisted on an unconditional resignation, 

 and ordered him to disband his army by a certain 

 day, otherwise he would be declared a public enemy. 

 To this resolution two of the tribunes in vain 

 objected ; they therefore left the city and cast 

 themselves on Ciesar for protection. It was on 

 tliis memorable occasion that he crossed the Rubi- 

 con, and thus defied the senate and its armies, 

 which were under Pompey's command. The events 

 of the civil war which followed have already been 

 recorded in the life of Cfesar. It remains only to 

 mention that, after being finally defeated at Phar- 

 salia in 48, Pompey escaped to Egypt, where, 

 by order of the king's ministers, he was treacherously 

 murdered by one of his former centurions as he was 

 landing from his boat. His head was cut off, and 

 afterwards presented to Ciesar on his arrival in 

 Egypt. But the magnanimous Caesar ordered the 

 execution of the murderer of Pompey. The body 

 lay on the beach for some time, until it was buried 

 by a freedman, Philippus, who had accompanied 

 his master to the shore. 



Pornpey's younger son, Sextus, by his third wife, 

 endeavoured after his father's death to prolong the 

 struggle with C.-esar. He secured a large fleet, 

 manned largely by slaves and political exiles, and, 

 occupying Sicily, ravaged the coasts of Italy. But 

 in 36 B.C. he was defeated at sea by Agrippa, and 

 next year was slain at Mitylene. 



Pompey's Pillar, a celebrated column stand- 

 ing on an eminence about 1 800 feet south of the walls 

 of Alexandria. It is a red granite monolith, of the 

 Corinthian order, 73 feet high, or with pedestal, 98 

 feet 9 inches ; circumference, 29 feet 8 inches. On 

 the summit is a circular depression for the base of a 

 statue. The Greek inscription on the base shows it 

 to have been erected by Publius, prefect of Egypt, 

 in honour of the Emperor Diocletian, supposedly to 

 record his conquest of Alexandria, 296 A. D. The pop- 

 ular name was erroneously applied by old travellers. 



Ponani, a seaport town of British India, in the 

 district of Malabar, 30 miles S. of Calicut. Pop. 

 12,241, mostly Mohammedans. 



Potiapl. See CAHOLINK 'SLANDS. 



Ponce, a seaport of Porto Rico, the second in 

 im|)ortance, about 45 miles SW. of San Juan. The 

 harbour in spacious. Pop. (1899)32,612. The depart- 

 ment produces sugar, cocoa, tobacco, oranges, &c. 



Ponce de Leon, FRAY Luis, a celebrated 

 Spanish poet, was Dorn in 1527, probably at 

 Granada. He studied at Salamanca, entered the 

 order of St Augustine, and liecame professor of 

 Theology there in 1561. His translation and inter- 

 pretation of the Song of Solomon brought him five 

 years' imprisonment from the tribunal of the In- 

 quisition at Valladolid. Released at length and 

 reinstated in his chair, he quietly resumed his 

 lectures with the words : ' As we observed in our 

 'last discourse.' In 1580 he published a satisfac- 

 torily orthodox Latin commentary on the Song of 

 Solomon, later his De loa Nombrns de Christo 

 (1583-85) and La Perfer.ta Canada (1583), full 

 of imagery, eloquence, and enthusiasm, and both 

 in prose. Shortly Wore his death, which occurred 

 in August 1591, he had lieen appointed general of 

 his order. His poetical remains were first pub- 

 lished by Quevedo at Madrid in 1631, under the 

 title Obras Propria* y Traduciones. The latter con- 

 sist of translations from Virgil's Eclogues and the 

 Georgia, the Odet of Horace, and the Psalms. 



His original poems are few, but they are among 

 the masterpieces of Spanish lyrical poetry. 



There are German monographs by Wilkens ( 1866 ) and 

 Keusch (1873) ; also a Spanish Life by Tejede (1863). 



Ponce de Leon, JUAN, the discoverer of 

 Florida, was born at San Servas, in Spain, in 

 1460, was a court page, served against the Moors, 

 and in 1502 sailed with Ovando to Hispaniola, and 

 became governor of the eastern part of the island. 

 In 1510 he obtained the government of Porto Rico, 

 and had conquered the whole island by 1512, when 

 he was deprived of his post. He then, broken in 

 health, set out on a quest for the fountain of 

 perpetual youth, and on 27th March 1512 found 

 Florida, landing a little to the north of where St 

 Augustine now stands. He secured the appoint- 

 ment of adelantado of the country, and, after- 

 staying on his way back to drive the Caribs out 

 of Porto Rico, he returned in 1521 to conquer his 

 new subjects ; in this, however, he failed, and lost 

 nearly all his followers. He retired to Cuba, and 

 died there in July from the wound of a poisoned 

 arrow. His remains and a monument are in San 

 Juan de Porto Rico. 



Poncho, an important article of male attire in 

 Chili, the Argentine Republic, and some other 

 parts of South America (see GAUCHOS). It con- 

 sists of a piece of woollen or alpaca cloth, 5 to 7 

 feet long, 3 to 4 feet broad, having in the middle a 

 slit through which the wearer' passes his head, so 

 that theponcho rests upon the shoulders and hangs 

 down before and behind. 



Pond. See WATER-SUPPLY. 



Pond. JOHN, astronomer-royal, was born In 

 London in 1767, studied at Cambridge, and suc- 

 ceeded Maskelyne as astronomer-royal in 1811. 

 His name is identified with numerous improve- 

 ments in the methods ami instruments of observa- 

 tion ; he translated Laplace's Syst&me, and pub- 

 lished a star catalogue and many valuable papers. 

 He died 7th September 1836. 



Pondicherry, the chief of the French settle- 

 ments in India, situated on the Coromandel Coast, 

 53 miles S. by W. of Madras City, is divided into 

 two parts by a canal, White (European) town 

 being next the sea. It has handsome streets, a 

 government house, a college, a lighthouse, and 

 a cotton-mill employing 1500 hands, besides native 

 dyeing establishments. Pop. 41,858. It exports 

 chiefly oil-seeds. The French colony of Pondi- 

 cherrv has an area of 115 sq. m. and a pop. of 

 140,945. The governor of Pondicherry is governor- 

 general of the French possessions in India. The 

 French first settled here in 1674. The Dutch took 

 the town in 1693, but restored it to the French in 

 1697. In 1748 Admiral Boscawen besieged Pondi- 

 cherry for two months, but was compelled to raise 

 the siege. Eyre Coote, however, took it in 1761, 

 yet it was restored to the French in 1763 with 

 reduced territory. It was once more taken by 

 the English under Sir Hector Monro in 1778, 

 and once more given back in 1783. In 1793 the 

 English again repossessed themselves of it, but it 

 was a third time restored to the French in 1816. 



Pondoland, a district of KafiYaria, on the 

 Natal frontier, South Africa, 65 miles long by 30 

 wide, was annexed to Cape Colony in 1884 and 

 1887, except East Pondoland, which (with a pop. of 

 200,000) was annexed in 1894. 



Pond-weed. See AQUATIC PLANTS. 



Pongwe. See PUNGWE 



PoniatOWSki, a princely family of Poland. 

 STANISLAS (1677-1762) joined Charles XII. of 

 Sweden in supporting Stanislas Leszczynski, and 

 was the chief instrument in saving the Swedish 

 king at Pnltowa. He held his administrative 



