618 
P L A 
convents of the Francifcans, Dominicans, Auguftines, 
the fathers of Mercy, and the college of Jefuits, are 
fpacious buildings, with fplendid churches. Here are 
alfo two nunneries, and an univerfity dedicated to St. 
Francis Xavier, the reClor of which is always a Jefuit: 
and alfo two other colleges, in which lectures of all kinds 
are read. The magiftracy confifts of regidores, who are 
perfons of the firft diftin&ion, with a corregidor at their 
head ; from thefe are annually chofen two ordinary 
alcaldes for fuperintending the police. Plata was erected 
into a biflioprick in 1551, and in the year 1608 was raifed 
to a metropolis. The jurifdiCtion of this city includes 
the imperial town of Potosi, which fee. Lat 19. 40. S. 
Ion. 66. 46. W. 
The provinces on the Rio de la Plata, though inde¬ 
pendent of Spain for the laft 14 years, have not as yet 
adopted a liable fyftem of government. Great difputes 
have at different times arifen between the partifans of a 
central general government, and that of a federal 
union of independent provinces. The great point was, 
in what province the national Congrefs Ihould meet in 
June laft. There feems now almoft an unanimous 
feeling in favour of Buenos Ayres, and there the 
national body is expeCted foon to aflemble. 
PLA'TA, (La), a fmall ifland in the Pacific Ocean, 
near the coaft of Peru. Lat. 1. 10. S. 
PLA'TA, (La), or Selajlian del Oro, a town of South- 
America, in the province of Popayan : fixty miles eaft 
of Popayan, and feventy-five fouth-weft of Neyva. Lat. 
a. 50. N. Ion. 75. E. 
PLA'TA KE' YS, a large fand-bank among the Bahama 
iflands, about 40 miles north of Hifpaniola. 
PLATzE'A, in ancient geography, an ifland of the 
Mediterranean, on the coaft of Lybia, whither, according 
to Herodotus, the Cyrenians lent a colony, It was 
fituated on the coaft of the Giligames, in the midway 
between that coaft and the ifle of Aphrodifias. Scylax 
places it on the coaft of Marmarica. 
PLATAL'Ai, a town of Greece, in Boeotia. Homer 
writes this name in the lingular Ylhctfcau, Plataea ; but 
the hiftorians write it IlAaJaiai, Plataea;. It was fituated 
on the river Afopus; and feems to have derived its name 
from Platea, the daughter of an ancient king of the 
country, who had given his own name to the river 
Afopus. 
The firft military exploit of the Plataeans, of which we 
have any knowledge, occurred at Marathon, where they 
effectually aided the Athenians; they afterwards dif- 
tinguifhed tbemfelves on many occafions ; but, after 
having experienced the calamities of many wars, and 
having been frequently driven from their city and re¬ 
covered it, their ruin was accelerated by Philip, after his 
victory in the battle of Cheronsea. Near the walls of this 
city was the tomb of thofe Plataeans who had fallen in 
combating againll the Perlians. The other Greeks had alfo a 
common fepulchre ; and the Athenians and Lacedae¬ 
monians had another apart for themfelves. Jupiter 
Liberator had an altar near the common burying-place of 
the Greeks;both the robes and the ftatueof the god were 
of white marble. The Plataeans inllituted games, which 
they celebrated every fifth year, on which occafion they 
ran armed before the altar of Jupiter. The temple of 
Juno was very fplendid and highly ornamented ; her 
llatue was of an extraordinary lize, and executed by 
Praxiteles of Pentelician marble. Minerva had alfo a 
temple at Plataea, which had been ereCted of the fpoils 
gained from the Perfians in the battle of Marathon. 
Herftatue was the work of Phidias, and was not iefs in 
fize than that of bronze in the citadel at Athens. In 
this city was alfo the tomb of Leitus, the only Boeotian 
chief who returned from the fiege of Troy. 
As to the battles wherein the Plataeans were concerned, 
fee thearticle Greece, vol.viii. p.854,864, 875,934. Mr. 
Hobhoufe, in the year 1810, had an opportunity of 
vifiting the fields of battle both of Marathon and Plataea. 
P L A 
In the former, he faw nothing, as far as the nature 0/ 
the ground is concerned, to contradict the aflertion of 
Herodotus, that the Perfian force exceeded a hundred 
thoufand men; but, when fpeaking of Plataea, his 
opinion is different : “ Notwithftanding the circum- 
ftantial account and the particular enumeration of the 
forces of the two nations engaged in the battle, given by 
Herodotus, no traveller who has feen the fcene of aCtion, 
which is to this day recognizable by mod undoubted 
figns, can fail to fufpeCt the Grecian hiftorian of fome 
exaggeration. The whole conflict mult have taken place 
on a triangular fpace, bounded by the road from Thebes 
into the pafs of Cithaeron, five miles, the bafe of 
Cithaeron, three miles, and the road from Plataea to 
Thebes, fix miles. The Greeks were 110,000 men; the 
Perfians, with their confederates, 350,000. But the moll 
fevere part of the aCtion, and in which, reckoning both 
Lacedemonians and Perfians, nearly 350,000 troops were 
engaged, was fought on the ravin, in marlhy fteep ground 
amongft the hills, where, notwithftanding the account 
informs us that the cavalry of Mardonius were the moll 
aCtive, it feems difficult to believe that a Angle fquadron 
of horfe could have manoeuvred. From Gargaphia to 
the Molois is but little more than a mile; and, according 
to the hiftorian, the whole of this immenfe body fought 
in lefs than that fpace, for Mardonius advanced into the 
hills to encounter Paufanias. I Ihould fuppofe that fuch 
an extent of ground would not contain fuch numbers, 
although ranged in the deeped order of which the ancient 
taCtics allowed ; and the Perfians did not advance in any 
order at all, but confufedly. The fifty thoufand allies 
of Mardonius and the Athenians might have fought in 
the plain between the Afopus and the foot of the hill, 
which, however, according to modern taCtics,. would 
not admit of even that number of troops to engage.” 
Dr. Holland vifited the fame fpot in the year 1813 5 and 
coincides in opinion with Mr. Hobhoufe as to the extra¬ 
ordinary exaggeration of numbers reported by Herodotus 
to have combated on that narrow plain. Dr. Holland 
found the outline of the walls diftinCl throughout. 
They are of the antient Greek ftruCture, having Hill 
in many places a height of twenty or twenty-five feet 
above the ground ; and their circumference is fomewhat 
more than a mile and a half. See Hobhoufe’s Journey 
through Albania, and Holland’s Travels in the Ionian 
Ifles. 
PLATALE'A, f. [from the Gr. 9rXarv?, flat, in 
allulion to the beak.] The Spoon-bill ; in ornithology, 
a genus of birds of the order grallae. Generic characters 
—Bill flattifh, long, thin; the tip dilated, orbicular, 
flat; noftrils minute, placed at the bafe of the bill; 
tongue fmall, pointed; feet four-toed, femi-palmate. 
This genus contains only three fpecies. 
1. Platalea leucorodia, the white or common fpoon- 
bill : body white, chin back; hind-head fubcrefted. 
The bill is black, brown, or fpotted ; iridsgrey ; lores, 
orbits, and naked dilatable chin, black; quill-feathers 
fometimes tipt with black; the legs are black. The 
common fpoon-bill weighs about three pounds and a half, 
and meafures two feet eight inches in length. Itinhabits 
from the Feroe iflands to the Cape of Good Hope; it is 
rarely feen in England. It lives on grafs, carices, the 
roots of reeds, ferpents, frogs, mufcles, and other fhell- 
fifti; but efpecially on fifties, which it often feizes from 
other birds. It makes its nefts in high trees, near to the 
fea, and lays three or four white eggs, fpeckled with pale 
red fpots. The fiefti of the young fpoon-bill is reckoned 
very good, little inferior to that of the goofe. 
The tongue, in this bird, is very fmall, of a triangular 
fliape, and not exceeding three lines in all : the oefophagus 
dilates as it defcends; and it is probably in this cavity 
that the bird detains and digefts the fmall mufcles and 
other fliell-filh, which are fwallowed, and the (hells re¬ 
jected after the pulp is decoded and extracted : the 
gizzard is lined with a callous membrane, as in the gra- 
nivorous 
