PEL 
511 
PEL 
of the Englifti; we trull with no remote view of enflaving 
the people, or of driving them from their native country. 
The following is the fequel of the adventure here al¬ 
luded to. The two veffels called the Panther and Endea¬ 
vour, under the command of Capt. M'Cluer, were fitted 
out for a voyage to the Pelew iflands, to acquaint Abba 
Thulle the king with the death of his favourite fon Lee 
Boo. On the 24th of Augull, 1790, Capt. M'Cluer 
failed from Bombay, having on-board Meflrs. White and 
Wedgeborough, who had been fhipwrecked with Capt. 
Wilfon, and were much edeemed by the king of thofe 
iflands, at which he arrived in January 1791. Abba 
Thulle, the king, received them with demonflrations of 
joy, as Englifhmen of whom he had previoufly found 
reafon to entertain a very favourable opinion. The pre- 
fents which the company fent to Abba Thulle were land¬ 
ed with all convenient fpeed. Thefe confided of a con- 
fiderable quantity of live flock, fuch as cows, bulls, 
ewes, rams, goats, pigs, and poultry, together with arms, 
ammunition, and packages of hardware, comprifing a 
number of articles which could not fail to be of lingular 
advantage to the natives. The grateful king was ado- 
nifhed at the meaning of all thi^; and, being informed 
that it was a fmall acknowledgment for his generous 
treatment of the crew of the Antelope when wrecked on 
his coaft, he expreffed his regret that it was not in his 
power to have done more. 
With the nature and fituation of thefe iflands, as well 
as the amiable and engaging manners of the natives, 
Capt. M‘Cluer was lo well pleafed, that he confidered 
them as a paradife, where he could fpend with pleafure 
the remainder of his days. The Panther failed in the 
month of February from the Pelew iflands for China, the 
Endeavour remaining behind till her return, which hap¬ 
pened on the 10th of June the fame year. Having vifited 
thefe iflands a third time, after a furvey of the coafl of 
New Guinea, Capt. M'Cluer formally fignified to the of¬ 
ficers of the Panther his intention of refigning the com¬ 
mand of the expedition, and remaining on the ifland. 
To render his new fituation as comfortable as poflible, 
he requefled from Mr. Wedgeborough about twenty nnif- 
kets with bayonets, twelve piflols, twelve pole-axes, two 
wall-pieces, fufil and piflol ammunition, an anvil, bellows, 
frame-faw, flanding vice, &c. After a confutation with 
the other officers, it was agreed to fend him thefe ar¬ 
ticles, on condition that they fhould be accounted for by 
his attorneys, if the Eafl India Company fhould not be 
fatisfied with the meafure. This relblution was carried 
into effedl in the month of February 1793. Scarcely, 
however, had he been fifteen months in his new fettle- 
ment, when he became impatient to abandon it ; and he 
foon after fet fail for Macao. He returned to the Pelew 
iflands in the year 1795, for the purpofe of removing his 
family ; and, failing from thence to Bombay, he touched 
at Bencoolen, where he met with a frigate bound for 
Bombay, into which he put a part of his family with fix 
Pelew women, failing himfelf with the other natives to¬ 
wards Bengal, from which lafl place he fet fail fome time 
after; but neither he nor any of his crew have been fince 
heard of. The iflands lie between lat. 6. 54. and 8. ta. 
N. and between Ion. 134. 5. and 134. 40. E. 
PELF, f. [in low Lat. pelfra, not known whence de¬ 
rived.] Money ; riches ; in contempt.—The thought of 
this doth pafs all worldly pelf. Sidney. 
I read thee rafh and heedlefs of thyfelf, 
To trouble my Hill feat and heaps of precious pelf. Sp. 
To the poor if he refus’d his pelf, 
He us’d them full as kindly as himfelf. Swift. 
Pelfray feems to have been the old original word.— 
Indulgences, beades, pardons, pilgremages, and fuche 
other pelfray. Crammer's Anfwer to Gardiner. 
PEL'HAM, a town of North America, in Maflachu- 
fetts: twelve miles north-eafl of Northampton.—A town 
of New Hampfhire: thirty-fix miles north of Boflon. 
Vol. XIX. No. 1321. 
PEL'HAM. See Perouain. 
PEL'HAM AR'SA, or Brent, Pelham Furneux, and 
Pelham Stokin, are three villages in Hertfordfhire, on 
the borders of EfTex, and near Saffron Walden, which 
have each their church. The firft is neared to Clavering, 
between Pelham Furneux and Cockenhatch. Pelham 
Furneux, to the fouth-eafl of Hormeads. Pelham Sto¬ 
kin lies a little to the ead of the latter. Thefe three 
villages were but one at the time of William the Con¬ 
queror. 
PELHES'TRE (Peter), a learned French writer in 
the department of ecclefiadical hidory, was a native of 
Rouen, where he was born about the year 1645. At a 
very early age he was infpired with the love of learning, 
and he devoted his whole life to dudious purfuits. In 
his courfe of reading, he did not confine himfelf to the 
perufal of fuch authors as are fanftioned with the appro¬ 
bation of the Catholic church, but alfo freely confulted 
the writings of Protedants. Having come to Paris at 
the age of feventeen or eighteen, M. de Perefixe, who 
was then archbifhop of that fee, fent for him, and faid, 
“ I am informed, fir, that you read the works of here¬ 
tics : are you fufficiently learned to venture on fuch a 
dangerous praftice ?” To which the young man replied, 
“ Your quedion, my lord, greatly embarrafies me: for, 
were I to anfwer in the affirmative, you might charge me 
with prefumptuous vanity ; and, fhould I fay that I have 
not fufficient learning, you would prohibit me from read¬ 
ing fuch books.” Pleafed with the ingenuity which he 
difcovered, the archbifhop laid him under no reftriftion. 
For fome time M. Pelhedre wore the ecclefiadical drefs, 
and officiated in the inferior clerical orders, particularly 
in Languedoc, as a miffionary for the converfion of pro¬ 
tedants to catholicifni. Afterwards he refumed the ha¬ 
bit of a layman, which he did not change upon his ap¬ 
pointment to the place of fub-librarian in the great con¬ 
vent of the Cordeliers at Paris. His motive for accept¬ 
ing of this pod, was the unredrained accefs which it gave 
him to a valuable library. He vifited modof the religious 
folitudes in France, and fpent fome time in that of Per- 
recy in the Charolois ; but he told his friends, that, were 
he to feclude himfelf entirely from the world, he fhould 
make choice of one of the principal monaderies on mount 
Athos, for the advantage of confulting the numerous 
Greek manufcripts which they poffefs. When he had 
any particular fubjedt in hand, it was ufual for him to 
fhut himfelf up in a room from which daylight was ex¬ 
cluded, and there, wrapped up in a coverlet, and feated 
in a large armed chair fluffed with draw, he applied in- 
ceflantly, day and night, excepting when nature called 
for red or refrefhment, till his labour was finifhed. He 
died fuddenly in 1710, when about 65 years of age. He 
was a man of prodigious reading, and particularly con- 
verfantin theological controverfy, and the knowledge of 
ecclefiadical authors. He wrote a fevere criticifm on va¬ 
rious paflages in M. Dupin’s Bibliotheque des Auteurs 
Ecclefiadiques, and filled all the margins of Cave’s Hif- 
toria Literaria with notes. The manufcripts of thefe 
performances are faid to have fallen into the hands of 
BenediSHnes, to whom they would prove ufeful in their 
editorial and critical undertakings. He was the author 
of the numerous additions and valuable notes to the fe- 
cond impreffion of Father Bonaventure’s “Treatife on 
the mod proper Method of Reading the Fathers of the 
Church,” 1697, in a large izmo. volume. He revifed 
the French verfion of “ the Letters of St. Paulinus,” pub- 
liflied in 8vo. under the name of Claude Fraffen, a Cor¬ 
delier, but really executed by Claude deSanteul, brother 
to the poet of that name ; and he was alfo for a long time 
a confiderable contributor to the “Memoires de Tre- 
voux.” 
PELI'ALA, in ancient geography, a town of Alia, in 
Mefopotamia, between Rhasfana and Alvanis. Ptolemy. 
PE'LIAS, an idand on thecoad of Sicily, in the vici¬ 
nity of the promontory of Drepanum. 
6 P 
PE'LIAS, 
