036 
PER 
PER 
fes. The triumphs of the French marine were few in his 
time; he however commanded in the fuccefsful attempt 
to deftroy the Englifh fettlements in Hudfon’s Bay, in 
1782. On that occafion he gave a fignal proof of his con- 
llderate humanity; for, reflecting that the Englifh who 
had fled into the woods would be expofed by the deftruc- 
tion of their fettlements to perifti through want, or by 
the hands of the favages, he left them a fupply of provi- 
fions and arms upon his departure. 
On the reftoration of peace, it was refolved by the 
French miniftry that a voyage of difcovery fliould be un¬ 
dertaken to fupply what had been left defective in the 
voyages of the illuftrious Cook and his aflociates. Louis 
XVI. himfelf drew up the plan of the intended expedition 
with great intelligence; and La Peroufe was the perfon 
fixed upon to condudl it. With two frigates, la Boufl'ole 
and l’Aftrolabe, the firft under his own command, the 
fecond under that of M. de Langle, but fubjeCt to his 
orders, he failed from Breft in Auguft: 1785. They 
touched at Madeira and Teneriffe, and in November an¬ 
chored on the coafl: of Brazil. Thence they proceeded 
round Cape Horn into the South Sea, and in February 
1786 call anchor in the Bay of Conception, on the coafl: 
of Chili. At this time, fo well had the means of preferv- 
ing health been employed, they had not a man fick. The 
fliips reached Eafter-ifland in the month of April; and 
thence failed, without touching at any land, to the Sand- 
wich-iflands. On June 23, they anchored on the Ame¬ 
rican coafl: in lat. 58. 37. and landed on an ifland to ex¬ 
plore the country and take obfervations. At this place 
M. Peroufe ha’d the misfortune of having two boats 
wrecked, with the lofs of all their crews. Thence he ran 
down to California, and in September anchored in the bay 
of Monterey; whence they took their departure acrofs 
the Pacific Ocean, and in January 1787 arrived in Macao- 
roads. In February they reached Manilla, which they 
quitted in April, {haping their courfe for the iflands of 
Japan. Palling the coafts of Corea and Japan, they fell in 
with Chinefe Tartary in lat. 42. 30. and ran to the north¬ 
ward. They anchored in a bay of the ifland of Saghalien ; 
and thence proceeded up the (hallow channel between 
that ifland and the continent, as far as lat. 51. 29. Re¬ 
turning thence, they reached the fouthern extremity of 
Saghalien in Auguft, and pafled a ftrait between it and 
Jeflo (fince named Peroufe Strait) into the North Pacific. 
On September 6, they anchored in the harbour of St. 
Peter and St. Paul, in Kamtfchatka. The fliips having 
been refitted, they fet fail, September 30, for the fouth- 
ward ; and, crofting the line, arrived in December at the 
group called by Bougainville the Navigator’s Iflands. 
Anchoring in the Bay of Maouna, they met with a friend¬ 
ly reception from the numerous natives, and began to take 
in refrefhments. A party of fixty-one, under the command 
of M. de Langle, went afhore to procure frefh water, when 
a moft unfortunate occurrence took place. The natives, 
confiding in their numbers and perfonal ftrength, were 
refolved to make prize of the boats, and without the leaft 
provocation commenced an attack with clubs and ftones, 
in which M. de Langle and eleven more loft their lives, 
the reft efcaping with great difficulty. The humane for¬ 
bearance, which was the principle of conduct during the 
whole voyage, appears to have been carried to an extreme 
on this occafion, and to have produced the cataftrophe. 
Quitting this polluted fpot without any fruitlefs at¬ 
tempts at vengeance, Peroufe proceeded to New Holland, 
and arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788, juft at the 
time when governor Phillip with the whole Englifh co¬ 
lony was leaving it for the new fettlement at Port Jackfon. 
Here terminates all that is known of the voyage of this 
navigator, from the journal which he tranfmitted to 
France. He had many and important objeCls of refearch 
remaining; but U'as never more heard of. There can be 
little doubt that both the veffels perifhed by fhipwreck, 
probably with their whole crews. The intereft excited 
by their continued abfence caufed the National Aflembly 
an 1791 to decree that two (hips fliould be fent in fearch 
of them, and they accordingly failed under M. d’Entre- 
cafteaux; but the effort proved fruitlefs, and no certain 
information has ever been procured of their fate. In the 
fame year a decree pafled for the publication of the ac¬ 
counts fent home by Peroufe, at the national expenfe, 
and for the profit of his w'idow. Circumftances retarded 
the execution of this defign till 1798, when the “Voyage 
autour du Monde, par J. F. G. de la Peroufe, See. ” edited 
by M. L. A. Milet Mureau, appeared in 3 vols. 4to. with 
an atlas in folio. It is an interefting work, and has been 
twice tranflated into Englifh. The proper difeoveries of 
Peroufe are chiefly in the feas between China and Japan, 
and the latter and Tartary. Vo//, de Peroufe. 
PEROU'SE (La), Straits of, a narrow channel of the 
North Pacific Ocean, between the iflands of Saghalien 
and Jeflo. 
PERPENAG AR'DE, a town of Hindooftan : twenty 
miles fouth of Calicut. 
To PERPEN'D, v. a. [perpeiulo , Lat.] To weigh in the 
mind; to confider attentively.—Confider the different 
conceits of men, and duly perpend the imperfection of 
their difeoveries. Brown. 
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus; 
Perpend. S/iakefpeare's Hamlet. 
PERPEN'DER,/. [from the Lat. per, by, and pe/uleo, 
to hang.] Any thing hanging down in a ftraight line. 
A (lone fitted to the thicknefs of a wall; a coping-ftone. 
PERPEN'DICLE, f. [ perpendicule , Fr. perpendiculnm, 
Lat.] Any thing hanging down by a ftraight line. 
PERPENDIC'ULAR, adj. [perpendiculaire , Fr. perpen- 
dicularis, Lat.] Crofting any other line at right angles.— 
The angle of incidence is that angle, which the line, de- 
feribed by the incident ray, contains with the perpendicular 
to the reflecting or refraCling furface at the point of in¬ 
cidence. Newton's Optics. 
If in a line oblique their atoms rove, 
Or in a perpendicular they move; 
If fome advance not flower in their race, 
And fome more fwift, how could they be entangled ? 
Blaclimore. 
Cutting the horizon at right angles.—Some define the per¬ 
pendicular altitude of the higheft mountains to be four 
miles. Broivn's Vulg. Err. 
PERPENDIC'ULAR, f. in geometry, a line falling di- 
redly on another line, fo as to make equal angles on each 
fide ; called alfo a normal line.—From the very notion of 
a perpendicular, it follows that the perpendicularity is 
mutual; i. e. if a line be perpendicular to another, that 
other is alfo perpendicular to the firft. Chambers. —A line 
crofling the horizon at right angles.—Though the quan¬ 
tity of water thus rifing and falling be nearly conftant as 
to the whole, yet it varies in the feveral parts of the globe; 
by reafon that the vapours float in the atmofphere, and 
are not reftored down again in a perpendicular upon the 
fame precife trad of land. Woodward. —A level.—Her 
feet were placed upon a cube, to (hew liability; and in 
her lap (he held a perpendicular, or level, as the enfign of 
evennefsand reft. B.Jonfon. 
PERPENDICULARITY, f. The (late of being per¬ 
pendicular.—The meeting of two lines is the primary ef- 
fential mode or difference of an angle; the perpendicular¬ 
ity of thefe lines is the difference of a right angle. Watts's 
Logick. 
Perpendicularity of Plants, or the tendency which 
the Items of plants in general have to afeend, while their 
roots defeend, is a curious phenomenon, firft particularly 
noticed by M. Dodart, who laboured without much fuc- 
cefs to explain it; nor was M. de la Hire more happy in 
his theory on the fubjeCt, Dr. Darwin has, in our opi¬ 
nion, given the bell explanation. He fuppofes that the 
root is moft ftimulated by moifture, the afeending part of 
the plant by air; and that each extends itfelf in the di¬ 
rection in which it meets with its requifite ftimulus. 
This theory accounts, not only for the general direction 
