/ 
512 P I R 
fuch people, not being better informed, were not worthy 
of punifliment. 
The bufinefs was brought to a fpeedier conclufion. 
It had been a cuftom with the populace in Chinefe fea- 
ports to take advantage of an emperor’s death, and plun¬ 
der the city ; foreign Tailors were never behind hand in 
aflifting them, and on them they laid the blame. But 
to prevent this an edift was palled, ordering every ftranger 
to quit the country, immediately upon the news of the 
emperor’s demife, on pain of capital punilhment. The 
Portuguefe vefTels at Canton refufed to obey this ediff ; 
and a fort of war took place with them, till they were 
glad to efcape as they could. Thome Pires reached 
Canton juft after this difturbance, and fared the worfe 
for it. He and all his people were thrown into prifon; 
and all Ihips which touched at Canton were ranfacked 
and plundered, under the plea of fearching for Por¬ 
tuguefe. 
The original hiftorians of Portuguefe India fuppofe 
that Pires died in prifon. Fernam Mendes Pinto fays, 
however, that in the city of Sampitay he met a daughter 
of the unfortunate man, who told him that»her father 
and the other Portuguefe, twelve in number, were fo tor¬ 
tured, that five died in confequence; the furvivors were 
banilhed into different parts of the empire feparate from 
each other. This city had been the place of his exile; 
here he had married, had converted his wife and many 
of her neighbours, and brought up his children as Chrif- 
tians, teaching them the Pater Nofterin Portuguefe, and 
calling them by Portuguefe names, that they might 
be recognized by his countrymen, if chance (hould ever 
bring any to thofe parts. By her account he lived twenty- 
feven years in banilhment. Such was the fate of the firft 
European embaffy to China, and fuch the iffue of the 
firft attempt of the Europeans to trade with that country. 
Gen. Biog\ 
PIRETIB'BI, a lake of Canada : 240 miles north of 
Quebec. Lat. 51. N. Ion. 69. 40. E. 
PIR'GIA, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Carimania: 
112 miles fouth-weft of Cogni. 
PIR'GO, a town of Albania : twenty miles north of 
Valono, at the mouth of the river Polonia. 
PIR'GO. See Pyrgo. 
PIRHA'LA, a town of Hindooftan, in Lahore : 108 
miles north-weft of Lahore. Lat. 32. 36. N. Ion. 71. 56. E. 
PI'RI, a province of Africa, in the north part of the 
kingdom of Loango. 
PIR'IAC, a town of France, in the department of the 
Lower Loire, on the fea-coaft : nine miles north-weft of 
Guerande. 
PIRIA'TIN, a town of Ruffia, in the government of 
Kiev: fixty-eight miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Kiev. Lat. 51. 
18. N. Ion. 32. 42. E. 
PI'RIG, a town on the fouth coaft of the ifland of Lu- 
£on. Lat. 13. 39. N. Ion. 122. 24. E. 
PIRIGA'RA,/. in botany. See Gustavia. 
PI'RIN’S I'SLAND, an ifland near the coaft of Africa, 
in the mouth of the river Olibato, eaftward of Cape Lo¬ 
pez Gonfalvo, about five miles in circumference. 
PIRIOU'TI, a town of Thibet: lixty miles eaft of 
Panitou. 
PIRIPE'A,/. in botany. See Buchnera elongata. 
PIRIQUE'TA. See Turnera. 
PIR'ITON, or Pirton, a village in Hertfordshire, to 
the weft of Ickleford, and north-weft of Hitchin. There 
is a hill near the church moated in, where was a caftle, 
either of the Saxons or Normans. 
PIRITH'OUS, in fabulous hiftory, a fon of Ixion and 
the cloud, or, according to others, of Dia, the daughter 
of Deioneus. Some make him fon of Dia by Jupiter, who 
affumed the fhape of a horfe whenever he paid his addref- 
fes to his iniftrefs. He was king of the Lapithae, and as 
an ambitious prince he wifhed to become acquainted 
with Thefeus, king of Athens, of whofe fame and ex¬ 
ploits he had heard fo many reports. To fee him, and at 
P I R 
the fame time to be a witnefs of his valour, he refolved to 
invade his territories. Thefeus immediately met him 011 
the borders of Attica, but at the fight of one another the 
two enemies did not begin the engagement, but (truck 
with the appearance of each other, they ftepped between 
the holtile armies. Their meeting was like that of the 
moft cordial friends, and Pirithous, by giving Thefeus 
his hand as a pledge of his fincerity, promifed to repair 
all the damages which his hoftilities in Attica might have 
occafioned. From that time, therefore, the two monarchs 
became the moft intimate and the moft attached of friends, 
fo much, that their friendfhip, like that of Oreltes and 
Pylades, became proverbial. Pirithous fome time after¬ 
wards married Hippodamia, and invited not only the 
heroes of his age but alfo the gods tlvemfelves, and his 
neighbours the Centaurs, to celebrate his nuptials. Mars 
was the only one of the gods who was not invited; and, 
to punilh this negleft, the god of war was determined to 
raife a quarrel among the guefts, and to difturb the fefti- 
vity of the entertainment. Eurythio.n, captivated with 
the beauty of Hippodamia, and intoxicated with wine, 
attempted to offer violence to the bride, but he was pre¬ 
vented by Thefeus and immediately killed. This irri¬ 
tated the reft of the Centaurs ; the conteft became gene¬ 
ral ; but the valour of Thefeus, Pirithous, Hercules, and 
the reft of the Lapithae, triumphed over their enemies.’ 
See Lapithus. The death of Hippodamia left Piri¬ 
thous very difconfolate; and he refolved, with his friend 
Thefeus, who had likewife loft his wife, never to marry 
again, except to a goddefs, Or one of the daughters of the 
gods. This determination occafioned the rape of Helen 
by the two friends; the lot was drawn, and it fell to the 
(hare of Thefeus to have the beautiful prize. Pirithous 
upon this undertook with his friend to carry away Pro- 
ferpine and to marry her. They defeended into the infer¬ 
nal regions; but Pluto, who was apprized of their machi¬ 
nations to difturb his conjugal peace, (topped the two 
friends and confined them there. Pirithous was tied to 
his father’s wheel, or, according to Hyginus, he was de¬ 
livered to the furies to be continually tormented. His 
punilhment, however, was (hort; and, when Hercules vi- 
fited the kingdom of Pluto, he obtained from Proferpine 
the pardon of Pirithous, and brought him back to his 
kingdom fafe and unhurt. 
PIRITU', a fmall ifland in the Caribbean Sea, near the 
coaft of South America. Lat. 10. 10. N. Ion. 65. 26. W. 
PI'RITZ, a town of Hinder Pomerania. This was the 
firft town of Pomerania that embraced Chriftianity, and 
likewife the firft that embraced the doftrines of Luther: 
thirty-two miles north of Cuftrin, and eleven fouth of 
Stargard. Lat. 53.13.N. Ion. 15.4. E. 
PIRLI'PO, a town of European Turkey, in Macedo¬ 
nia : twenty miles north-north-eaft of Toli. 
PIRMAKAN', a town of Bengal: fifteen miles fouth- 
weft of Purneah. 
PIRMASEN'S, a town of the grand duchy of Hefle: 
twelve miles fouth-eaft of Deux Ponts, and eighteen weft 
of Landau. 
PIR'NA, a town of Saxony, in the margravate of 
Meiffen. Its fituation on the Elbe renders it commer¬ 
cial : eleven miles fouth-eaft of Drefden, and fixty north 
of Prague. Lat, 50.58. N. Ion. 13. 56. E. 
PIR'NITZ, or Botnitz, a town of Moravia, in the 
circle of Iglau : ten miles fouth-eaft of Iglau. 
PIROGU'IS, /. A name given by the Americans to 
their war-boats, which were a fort of canoes, fo large as 
to carry 40 or 50 men. 
PI'ROM, or Tuicce, an ifland in the Red Sea. Lat. 
15. N. Ion. 42. 40. E. 
PIROM AL'LI (Paul), an Italian Dominican monk in 
the 161h century, whofe labours have contributed to¬ 
wards the promotion of Oriental literature, was a native 
of Calabria. He was fent as a miflionary into the Eaft, 
and was Stationary for a confiderable time in Armenia, 
where he is (aid to have converted great numbers of the 
Eutychians 
