tions, and the skill of the French engineers, they were again strengthened. In October 1778 it surrendered a second time to the British under Sir Hector Monro, after a defence highly honorable to the governor M. de Bellecombe. The garrison now consisted of 3000 men, of whom 900 were Europeans; the besieging army amounted to 10,500 men, of whom 1500 were Europeans. At the peace of 1783 it again devolved to the French, but, on the breaking out of hostilities, surrendered to the British army on the 23d of August 1793. On this occasion the garrison consisted of 900 soldiers, and 1500 armed inhabitants.

At the peace of Amiens it was restored, the inhabitants being then estimated at 25,000, the revenue at 40,000 pagodas per annum, and the extent of sea coast five miles. On this event Buonaparte seems to have formed expectations of raising it to its ancient splendor, and sent out an establishment of great magnitude under general de Caen. Whatever were his plans they were all frustrated by the short duration of the peace, as Pondicherry was once more and finally occupied by the British in 1803; the French admiral Linois only escaping with his ships.

Travelling distance from Madras, 100 miles; from Seringapatam 260; from Hyderabad 452; from Delhi 1400; from Calcutta 1130; from Nagpoor 773; from Poonah 707.

PO ́NENT, adj. Ital. ponente. Western.
Thwart of these, as fierce

Forth rushed the levant and the ponent winds Eurus and Zephyr. Milton's Paradise Lost. PO'NIARD, n. s. Fr. poignard; Lat. pugio. A dagger; a short stabbing weapon.

She speaks poniards, and every word stabs.

Shakspeare.

Melpomene should be represented, in her right hand a naked poniard. Peacham on Drawing.

Pontards hand to hand Be banished from the field, that none shall dare With shortened sword to stab in closer war.

Dryden.

She thought to stab herself, but then she had
The dagger close at hand, which made it awk-
ward-

For eastern stays are little made to pad,
So that a poniard pierces if 'tis stuck hard.
Byron.

PONK, n. s.
Of this word I know not the
original,' says Johnson; qu. PUNK, which see.
A nocturnal spirit; a hag.

Ne let the ponk, nor other evil sprights, Ne let mischievous witches. Spenser. PONS-DE-TOMMIERES (St.), a post-town in the department of Herault, France, and the principal place of a subprefecture, having an inferior court of justice, an agricultural society, and a communal college, with 5600 inhabitants. It is situated in a charming valley, surrounded by mountains on the right bank of the Jaur. The church and most of the houses are built of marble, dug out of the quarries in the vicinity. The Jaur is supplied from a fine spring, which rises in the town under a lofty rock, and falls into a vast natural basin of considerable depth. On the right is a church built in the time of Charlemagne, which is in a good state of preservation;

on the left, on the height, is a gothic tower, and the whole forms a most beautiful picture for the

artist.

The manufactures consist chiefly in cloths for the Levant trade, and caps; there are also woolspinning-mills, tanyard, and hydraulic saw-miils. There is a fine walk at the meeting of the roads to Castres and Salvetar. This town is seventysix miles west of Montpelier, thirty-seven E. S. E. of Castres, and 594 south of Paris, by Alby and Cahors.

PONT A BASCULE, is a bridge which is supported by an axle-tree that runs through its centre, and is lifted up on each side as occasion requires. Pont à coulisse, a sliding or shifting bridge. This bridge is used for the purpose of conveying troops, on foot, across a fosse or a river of moderate breadth. It must be very light and portable; constructed with boards, and measuring about six feet in breadth. The planks are numbered, so that the instant it is found necessary to effect a passage, they may be put together by means of running grooves. When the planks are thus arranged, the pontoneers, to whom these matters are always entrusted, throw two thick beams across the fosse or river, so as to be parallel to each other, and about five feet asunder, to allow the floor or platform half a foot on each side. Small iron wheels or casters are fixed underneath the two sides of the floor or platform, in such a manner that the whole may be instantly slided into the deep grooves that have been previously made in the transverse beams. This construction is extremely simple.

and

very practicable in war. The sliding bridges may also be used to advantage in crossing rives even of large dimensions. They are then double. and united in the middle by means of two piles. or strong stakes of wood, driven into the bed of the river, and upon which the transverse beams can rest from each side. It is here necessary to observe,' says major James, that in a war of posts, and in a broken and mountainous country, an ingenious and active officer may, at the head of a body of pontoneers, be of the greatest setvice to a general, and even sometimes determine the issue of a battle. When the Austrian and French armies first met, near the memorable vil lage of Marengo, a large detachment of Buom parte's army would have been drowned in the Scrivia, had it not been for the presence of mind and the activity of the officer who commanded a body of pontoneers. The republican troops. having been thrown into disorder, were flying in all directions; and, as the Scrivia had been con siderably swollen by the rain which fell the preceding night, they would have been cut off: but ponts a coulisse, or sliding bridges, with the assistance of some boats, were hastily established. and they not only escaped the pursuit of the victorious Austrians, but added to the strength of the French army, which had also given way. For the particulars of this transaction see Berthier's Report.

PONTAGE, n. s. Lat. pons, pontis, a bridge. Duty paid for the reparation of bridges.

In right of the church, they were formerly by the common law discharged from pontage and murage.

Aylife.

PONT-A-MOUSSON, a post-town of the department of the Meurthe, France, the chief place of a canton in the arrondissement of Nancy, containing 7000 inhabitants. It stands at the foot of Mount Mousson, in a fine vale surrounded with fruitful hills, on the Moselle River, which divides it into two parts; that on the left bank is large, well built, and airy, and has a beautiful public square surrounded by arcades. In the neighbourhood there are two mineral springs of a chalybeate quality, which are held in some estimation. This is the native place of marshal Duroc, who died on the field of honor on the 23d of May, 1813. Here are manufactures of coarse cloth, caps, pipes, earthenware, and chamois leather; besides an important factory for the making of beet-root sugar, some dye-houses, tan-yards, &c. The trade consists in grain, wine, brandy, vegetables, wood, fir-planks, &c. This town is situated twenty-one miles N. N.W. of Nancy, and twenty-two south of Metz.

PONTARLIER, a post-town, and the chief place of an arrondissement of the same name, in the department of the Doubs, France, having a lower court of judicature and a communal college, with 4200 inhabitants. This town stands pleasantly on the river Doubs, in the midst of the Jura mountains; it is regularly built, the streets are clean and airy, and the style of the houses very elegant. Situated on the frontiers of the kingdom, at a short distance from the most convenient pass into Switzerland, it is the first mart for commerce between this republic and France. The entrance to this pass is much frequented, and defended by a castle built on an almost inaccessible rock, called the fort of Joux. The manufactures of the place consist of wooden utensils, scythes, steel goods, &c. They have also forges, flatting mills, refining and blast furnaces, and hydraulic sawmills. Their trade is chiefly in corn, wine, brandy, grocery, butter, cheese, horses, cattle, marble, gypsum, flint, turf, &c. The fine cheese called Grayere cheese is made in the neighbouring mountains. Pontarlier is forty-five miles south-east of Besançon, thirty east of Salins, sixty north-east of Lous-le-Saulnier, and 339

south-east of Paris.

PONTANUS (John Jovian), a learned Spanish historian, born in 1426. He was preceptor and secretary to Alphonsus V. king of Arragon. He wrote the History of the Wars of Ferdinand I. and John of Anjou; and died in 1503, aged seventy-seven.

PONTANUS or DUPONT (Peter), a learned grammarian of Bruges, who flourished in the beginning of the sixteenth century; and, though he lost his sight in his thirteenth year, acquired a high degree of erudition. He taught the Belles Lettres at Paris with great reputation, and published several valuable works.

PONT-AUDENIER, a post-town, and the principal place of an arrondissement of the same name in the department of the Eure, France, having an inferior court of justice, and a chamber of commerce, with about 5500 inhabitants. It is pleasantly situated in a fertile country, at the foot of a mountain, and near some beautiful meadows, on the left bank of the Rille, which is

navigable here and forms a small port. It is surrounded with walls and ditches filled with running water, and is generally well built; the streets are fine, and the public places very pleasant. The manufactures consist of printed linens, caps, and glue; there are cotton spinningmills, tan-yards, producing highly esteemed leather, paper-mills, &c., and a trade is carried on in these articles, as well as cotton, velvet, flax, elder, corn, and cattle. It is fifty-one miles north-west of Evreux, thirty-six E. N. E. of Rouen, fifteen E. S. E. of Honfleur, and 121 north-west of Paris.

PONCHARTRAIN, a lake of Louisiana, United States, about thirty-five miles long from east to west, twenty-five broad, and in general from twelve to twenty feet deep. It communicates with Lake Borgne on the south-east, Lake Maurepas on the north-west, and the city of New Orleans by Bayou St. John on the south. It is surrounded by marshes, and the landing, on account of the mud, is in many places difficult.

PONT DE BATEAUX, French, is a bridge of boats. When a river is either too broad, too deep, or too rapid, to allow stone or pile-work to be used, a number of boats or barges must be moored and lashed together, at given distances, over the whole breadth of the river; and, when this has been done, a solid floor or platform is constructed on them, for the passage of cannons, waggons, &c. Pont à fleur d'eau, French, a bridge which lies upon the surface of the water. It is generally made for the purpose of keeping up a communication with the different works in a fortified place, when the ditches are filled with water. The bridge is raised upon wooden trestles.

PONT DE FASCINES, French, a bridge made of hurdles or fascines. It is generally six toises in breadth, and is used at sieges when the fosses are filled with water. When the besiegers have resolved to storm a breach, the approach to which is interrupted by water, they throw one, two, or three beds of fascines across, fastened together and kept steady by means of wooden piles. Stones and earth are next thrown upon the fascines, to keep them steady in the water. An epaulement is then made towards the side of the revêtement of the place, and the bridge is finally constructed with thick planks. The epaulement serves to protect the workmen or artificers from the fire of the besieged.

PONT DE CORDES, French, a bridge of ropes, or a bridge constructed with ropes A French writer says, I have not been able to discover, in any work, not even in the Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, a description of this bridge; yet it is well known that by the means of this construction (which owes its origin to two Catalonian priests, and to which we are indebted for the knowledge of a passage over the Legra) the count d'Harcourt gained a victory over the Spaniards in the plain of Lorens, on the 22d of June, 1745. These bridges are made with strong ropes, twisted and interwoven together; and are extremely useful in passing deep ravines and hollows.

PONT D'OR, French, in military affairs, is a figurative expression which the French use, when they suffer an enemy whom they have de

ented to retire without molestation. Hence, faire un pont d'or à son ennemi, to suffer your enemy to escape. Pont-tournant is a moveable bridge, of the nature of a draw-bridge, with this difference, that it turns upon a pivot, and goes entirely round. Pont de joncs is a bridge made up of large trusses of rushes or willows that grow in marshy spots, or upon the banks of a river. These are bound together, and, with planks thrown upon them, serve to afford a passage over fosses. &c. Pont de sortie, a sallybridge. Pont dormant, a wooden bridge, generally laid upon the fosse of a fortified town, for the purpose of maintaining a constant communication between the main body of the place and the outworks and country round. These bridges are not thrown entirely across the fosses, but terminate within twelve or fifteen feet of the revêtement; the space thence is supplied by draw-bridges. When the pont dormant is very long a swing bridge is constructed in the centre of it. When the ditches are wet, and so constantly supplied with water that the depth is generally the same, bridges of boats may be used instead of ponts dormans. And, in cases of attack, floating bridges may be substituted in lieu of both.

PONT-DU-GARD, about sixteen miles northeast of Nimes on the road to Avignon, France, one of the finest remains of ancient architecture in the world, is situated in a narrow defile, where the Gard rolls its impetuous torrent in the midst of a silent solitude. It is a Roman aqueduct, intended to convey water from the fountain of Eurus, and composed of three rows of arcades rising one over another along an extent of 600 feet, and 160 feet high. The first row stretches over the whole breadth of the valley, and consists of six arches, under one of which flows the Gardon; the second is formed of eleven arches; the third has thirty-five arches, and supports the canal or aqueduct, which is six feet broad by as many in depth. It is constructed in the Tuscan style, with astonishing solidity and admirable lightness; the enormous masses of stone being supported merely by their own weight and exact equilibrium, without the least cement with the exception of the upper extremities, it is in such perfect preservation that it might comparatively be accounted of recent erection.

This amazing monument of the genius of the Romans is supported by two mountains, which it unites for the purpose of continuing the pas sage of the waters. The sides and bottom of the aqueduct are covered with a cement extremely well preserved, even in the subterraneous parts, where it is entirely laid on the rock. It winds its course over mountains and rocks for full thirty miles, branching off into three conduits, one of which conveys the water to the amphitheatre at Nimes, the second to the fountain, and the third to the private houses. One of these channels is to be seen, almost entire, in a private enclosure. Besides these, there are some smaller that convey the water to several countryhouses in the neighbourhood. That part which is in the best state of preservation is between the Pont-du-Gard and Nimes, and which, from its running under ground, has suffered less dilapi

ones,

dation than others. You may go from one end to the other of the Pont-du-Gard, climbing up the declivity on the right bank of the Gardon, to reach the southern extremity of the aqueduct, at the place where it loses itself in the mountains. A modern bridge, forming the passage of the great road, abuts on the aqueduct, which it supports and by which it is supported in its turn. PONTE-CORVO, a town of the papal state, the capital of a small delegation, situated on the Garigliano. It is the see of a bishop, united to that of Aquino; and has a castle, cathedral, six churches, and 5200 inhabitants. Bernadotte, now king of Sweden, formerly bore the title of its prince. PONTEDERIA, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the hexandria class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the sixth order, ensatæ. The corolla is monopetalous, sexfid, bilabiate; there are three stamina inserted into the top, and three into the tube of the corolla; the capsule is bilocular.

PONTEFRACT, or POMFRET, an ancient borough and market town, in the liberty of the honor and parish of this name, in the wapentake of Osgoldcross, and West Riding of Yorkshire, 173 miles from London, forty-seven from Manchester, twenty-four from York, thirteen from Leeds, and nine from Wakefield. The town stands on a fine eminence, and is approached on every side by a considerable ascent, a little below the conflux of the rivers Aire and Calder. Authors disagree greatly respecting the derivation of its name; by some it is stated to have obtained the appellation Pomfret' from Porho ferre, on account of its fertile soil, but Camden asserts that it was changed by the Romans to Pontefract. The town is famous in history for its castle, in which king Richard II. was murdered or starved to death, and where the earls Rivers and Grey, Sir Thomas Vaughan and Sir Richard Hawse, were, by the machinations of the duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III., basely murdered. This celebrated castle was built about the year 1078 or 1080; and situated on an elevated rock, commanding extensive views of the surrounding scenery, and affording to the town, from its strength, every protection during the time of the civil wars. It occupied a space of more than six acres, and was considered the largest in England; few remains of it are now to be seen.

Pontefract was a burgh in the time of Edward the Confessor, from which period it has sent two members to parliament. The franchise is in the inhabitant householders. The government of the town is in a body corporate, consisting of a mayor, recorder, and twelve aldermen (all of whom are in the commission of the peace), with a common council consisting of twenty-four burgesses. The quarter-sessions for the borough are held in the court-house of the town-ball, a handsome modern building, erected at the joint expense of the corporation and the riding; in this building is the savings bank, and also the rotation office, where the magistrates hold their weekly sittings for the despatch of the magisterial business of the borough. At the top of the beast-market is a stately court-house, erecte a

PONTON, OF PONTOON, a kind of flat-bottomed boat, whose carcass of wood is lined, within and without, with tin, serving to lay bridges over rivers for the artillery and army to march across. The French pontoons, and those of most other powers, are made of copper on the outside: though they cost more at first, yet they last much longer than those of tin; and, when worn out, the copper sells nearly for as much as it cost at first; but, when ours are rendered useless, they sell for nothing. Our pontoons are twenty-one feet six inches long at top, and seventeen feet two inches at bottom, four feet nine inches broad, and depth within two feet three inches. The common pontoons will support a weight of 4000 or 5000 pounds. General Congreve's wooden pontoons are twenty-six feet long at top, twenty-three at bottom, two feet eight inches deep, and two feet three inches wide.

The PONTOON-CARRIAGE is made with two wheels only, and two long side-pieces, whose fore-ends are supported by a limber. It serves to carry the pontoon-boards, cross timbers, anchors, and every other thing necessary for making a bridge.

A PONTOON-BRIDGE is made of pontoons, slipped into the water, and placed about five or six feet asunder; each fastened with an anchor, when the river has a strong current, or to a strong rope that goes across the river, running through the rings of the pontoons. Each boat has an anchor, cable, baulks, and chests. The baulks are about five or six inches square, and twentytwo feet eight inches long. The chests are boards joined together by wooden bars, about three feet broad, and twelve feet long. The baulks are laid across the pontoons at some distance from one another, and the chests upon them joined close. One gang board twenty-two feet long, one foot wide, and two inches and a half thick.

PONTOPPIDAN (Erick), a Danish divine, born in the isle of Fulinen, in 1616. He was made bishop of Drontheim in Norway, and published several learned works, particularly a Grammar of the Danish Language. He died in 1678, aged sixty-two.

PONTOPPIDAN (Erick), a Danish historian, grand-nephew of the preceding, who became bishop of Bergen in Norway. He wrote, 1. A History of Norway; 2. A History of the Reformation in Denmark; and several other works.

PONT-ST.-ESPRIT, a small post-town of the department of the Gard, France, the chief place of a canton in the arrondissement of Uzès, containing rather more than 5000 inhabitants, stands on the right bank of the Rhone, and has a very convenient port. In general it is badly built, consisting of a few narrow and dirty streets. It is defended by an ancient citadel built by Louis XIII., to restrain the protestants. The town is remarkable chiefly for a bridge built over the Rhone of amazing boldness, length, and solidity; it is composed of twenty-six arches, nineteen of which are large and seven small; its length is 420 feet, and its breadth seventeen. It describes in its course several windings, owing to the difficulty that was found in laying the foundations. Commenced in 1265, under the reign of St.

Louis, it was finished in 1309 under that of Philip the Fair. The Rhone is in this place extremely rapid, and the currents, which set in front of the arches, draw the boats through with the swiftness of a dart. There is a trade carried on here in wines, oils, fruit, silk, &c., and considerable markets are held on Tuesday and Sa turday in every week. It is forty miles northeast of Uzès, and twenty-one north-west of Orange.

PONTUS, an ancient kingdom of Asia, originally a part of Cappadocia ; bounded on the cast by Colchis, on the west by the river Halys, on the north by the Euxine Sea, and on the south by Armenia Minor. Some derive the name of Pontus from the neighbouring sea, the Pontus Euxinus; others from a king named Pontus, who imparted his name both to the country and the sea but Bochart deduces it from the Phanician word botno, signifying a filberd, as if that nut abounded remarkably in this place. But this derivation seems to be very far fetched; and the common opinion, that the country derived its name from the sea, seems by far the most probable. The kingdom was divided into three parts, viz. 1. Pontus Cappadocius extending from Pontus Polemoniacus to Colchis, having Armenia Minor and the upper stream of the Euphrates for its southern boundary. 2. Pontus Galaticus, extending from the river Halys to the Thermodon. 3. Pontus Polemoniacus, from the Thermodon to the borders of Pontus Cappadocius.

This country and the adjacent provinces were, in different periods, under the dominion of the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians; the last whom divided Cappadocia into satrapies or governments. This regulation was effected in the reign of Darius the son of Hystaspes, and has been regarded as the date of the kingdom. The first king of this country whom we find mention ed in history is Artabazus, who had the crown bestowed on him by Darius Hystaspis. The next was Rhodobates, who reigned in the time of Darius Nothus. After him came Mithridates who, refusing to pay the usual tribute to the Persians, was defeated by Artaxerxes Mnemon but a peace was soon after concluded by the mediation of Tissaphernes. Besides this, we hear nothing of him, farther than that he was treacherously taken prisoner by Clearchus, afterwards tyrant of Heraclea, and obliged to pay a large sum for his ransom. Mithridates I. was succeeded by Ariobarzanes, who being appointed by Artaxerxes governor of Lydia, Ionia, and Phrygia, employed the forces that were under hus care in the extending of his own dominions, and subduing those of his natural prince. The king of Persia sent Autophrodates against him; but Ariobarzanes, having with great promises prevailed on Agesilaus and Timothæus the Athenian to come to his assistance, obliged Autophrodates to retire. He then rewarded Agesilaus with a great sum of money, and bestowed on Timethæus the cities of Sestos and Abydos, which be had lately taken from the Persians. He used his utmost endeavours to reconcile the Lacedemonians and Thebans; but, not being able to bring the latter to any reasonable terms, he assisted the