half of the year by violent N.E. winds, and also lie full in the path of the numerous typhoons that rush up the Strait of Formosa. Meteorological observations taken by the Japanese during a period of three years show that the annual average number of stormy days is 237. The anchorage is at Mako (Makyū or Makun) on the principal island of Penghu. The chief industry is fishing (whence the old Spanish name which has come into general use) and dried fish are exported.
PESCARA, FERNANDO FRANCESCO DAVALOS, Marquis of (1489–1525), Italian condottiere, was born at Naples, his family being of Spanish origin. Rodrigo (Ruy) Lopez Davalos, his great-grandfather, a noble of Toledo, who had taken an active part in the civil wars of Castile in the reign of John II. (1407–1454), had been driven into exile, and died at Valencia. Iñigo (Ignatius), his son, entered the service of Alphonso of Aragon and Naples, followed his master to Italy, and there, making an advantageous marriage with a lady of the family of Aquino, was created marquis of Pescara. His son Alphonso, who succeeded him in the marquisate, married a lady of the Sicilian branch of the Spanish family of Cardona, and when he was treacherously killed, during a French invasion of Naples, his only son Fernando, or Ferrante, was a child in arms. At the age of six the boy was betrothed to Vittoria Colonna (q.v.), daughter of the general Fabrizio Colonna, and the marriage was celebrated in 1509. His position as a noble of the Aragonese party in Naples made it incumbent on him to support Ferdinand the Catholic in his Italian wars. In 1512 he commanded a body of light cavalry at the battle of Ravenna, where he was wounded and taken prisoner by the French. Thanks to the intervention of one of the foremost of the French generals, the Italian J. J. Trivulzio, who was his connexion by marriage, he was allowed to ransom himself for 6000 ducats. He commanded the Spanish infantry at the battle of La Morta, or Vicenza, on the 7th of October 1513. It was on this occasion that he called his men before the charge to take care to step on him before the enemy did if he fell. From the battle of Vicenza in 1513, down to the battle of La Bicocca on the 29th of April 1522, he continued to serve in command of the Spaniards and as the colleague rather than the subordinate of Prosper Colonna. It was only by the accident of his birth at Naples that Pescara was an Italian. He considered himself a Spaniard, spoke Spanish at all times, even to his wife, and was always surrounded by Spanish soldiers and officers. His opinion of the Italians as fighting men was unfavourable and was openly expressed. After the battle of La Bicocca Charles V. appointed Prosper Colonna commander-in-chief Pescara, who considered himself aggrieved, made a journey to Valladolid in Spain, where the emperor then was, to state his own claims. Charles V., with whom he had long and confidential interviews, persuaded him to submit for the time to the superiority of Colonna. But in these meetings he gained the confidence of Charles V. His Spanish descent and sympathies marked him out as a safer commander of the imperial troops in Italy than an Italian could have been. When Francis I. invaded Italy in 1524 Pescara was appointed as lieutenant of the emperor to repel the invasion. The difficulties of his position were very great, for there was much discontent in the army, which was very ill paid. The tenacity, patience and tact of Pescara triumphed over all obstacles. His influence over the veteran Spanish troops and the German mercenaries kept them loyal during the long siege of Pavia. On the 24th of February 1525 he defeated and took prisoner Francis I. by a brilliant attack Pescara’s plan was remarkable for its audacity and for the skill he showed in destroying the superior French heavy cavalry by assailing them in flank with a mixed force of harquebusiers and light horse. It was believed that he was dissatisfied with the treatment he had received from the emperor, and Girolamo Morone, secretary to the duke of Milan, approached him with a scheme for expelling French, Spaniards and Germans alike from Italy, and for gaining a throne for himself. Pescara may have listened to the tempter, but in act he was loyal. He reported the offer to Charles V. and put Morone into prison. His health however had begun to give way under the strain of wounds and exposure, and he died at Milan on the 4th of November 1525. Pescara had no children; his title descended to his cousin the marquis del Vasto, also a distinguished imperial general.
Authorities.—The life of Pescara was written in Latin by Paolo Giovio, and is included in the Vitae illustrium vivorum, printed at Basel 1578. Giovio’s Latin Life was translated by L. Domenichi, the translator of his other works, and published at Florence, 1551. The Spanish Historia del fortissimo y prudentissimo capitan Don Hernando de Avalos, by El Maestro P. Vallés (Antwerp, 1553), is also a translation of Giovio. See also Mignet, Rivalité de François Iᵉʳ et de Charles Quint (Paris, 1875), which gives references to all authorities. (D. H.)
PESCARA, a river of Italy, formed by the confluence of the Gizio and Aterno, and flowing into the Adriatic at the small town of Pescara. This town occupies the site of the ancient Aternum, the terminus of the Via Claudia Valeria, and up to 1867 a fortress of some importance. The railway from Sulmona follows the Pescara valley and joins the coast line to Brindisi at Pescara. In this valley, 22 m. from the sea, was the site of the ancient Interpromium, a town belonging probably to the Paeligni; and not far off is the very fine Cistercian abbey church of S. Clemente di Casauria, founded by the emperor Louis II. in 871. The present building belongs to the 12th century. The sculptures of the portals, the pulpit, the Paschal candelabrum, &c., and the bronze doors of this period are important. The chronicle of the abbey, of the end of the 12th century, is in the Bibliothèque nationale at Paris.
See V. Bindi, Monumenti degli Abruzzi (Naples, 1889), pp. 405 sqq.; P. L. Calore in Archivio storico dell' arte (Rome, 1891), iv. 9 sqq.
PESCHIERA SUL GARDA, a fortress of Venetia, Italy, in
the province of Verona, on an island in the Mincio at its outlet
from the lake of Garda, 77 m. by rail E. of Milan. It was one
of the famous fortresses of the Quadrilateral, the chief bulwark
of the Austrian rule in Italy until 1866 (Mantua, Legnago and
Verona being the other three) and has played a prominent part
in all the campaigns conducted in north Italy, more especially
during the Napoleonic wars. It was taken by the Piedmontese
from the Austrians, after a gallant defence by General Rath
lasting six weeks, on the 30th of May 1848, and since that date
has been in Italian hands.
PESCIA, a town of Tuscany, Italy, in the province of Lucca, from which it is 15 m. E.N.E. by rail, 203 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), 12,400 (town); 18,000 (commune). The cathedral, restored in 1693, contains the fine chapel of the Turini family, built for Baldassare Turini (d. 1540) by Giuliano di Baccio of Florence, with his tomb by Raffaello da Montelupo. The town also has some buildings by Lazzaro Buggiano, the pupil and adoptive son of Brunelleschi. It has silk and paper manufactures.
PESETA, a silver coin and unit of value, the Spanish equivalent of the French, Belgian and Swiss franc, the Italian lira and the Greek drachma in the Latin monetary union. The peso (Lat. pensum, weight), of which peseta is a diminutive, was a Spanish coin of gold, peso de oro, or silver, peso de plata, once current in Spain and her colonies, and now the name of a silver coin of many South American states. The peso is also the name of the Mexican dollar.
PESHAWAR, a city of British India, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province, giving its name to a district. The city is situated near the left bank of the river Bara, 11 m. from Jamrud at the entrance of the Khyber Pass, the railway station being 1588 m. north-west of Calcutta; pop. (1901), 95,147. Two miles west of the native city are the cantonments, forming the principal military station of the North-West Frontier Province. Peshawar lies within a horseshoe ring of hills on the edge of the mountain barrier which separates India from Afghanistan, and through it have passed nearly all the invaders from the north. The native quarter is a huddle of flat-roofed houses within mud walls, crowded along narrow, crooked alleys, there is but one fairly wide street of shops. Here for many centuries the Povindahs, or Afghan travelling merchants, have brought their caravans from Kabul, Bokhara and Samarkand every autumn. They
