529 he obtained the royal sanction he
set sail from Spain with three ships in 1531, and on his arrival at Peru
found a civil war raging between the two sons of the emperor, who had
just died; Pizarro saw his opportunity; approached Atahualpa, the
victorious one, now become the reigning Inca, with overtures of peace,
was admitted into the interior of the country; invited him to a banquet,
had him imprisoned, and commenced a wholesale butchery of his subjects,
upon which he forced Atahualpa to disclose his treasures, and then put
him perfidiously to death; his power, by virtue of the mere terror he
inspired, was now established, and he might have continued to maintain
it, but a contest having arisen between him and his old comrade Almagro,
whom after defeating he put to death, the sons and friends of the latter
rose against him, seized him in his palace at Lima, and took away his
life (1476-1541).

PLAGUE, THE, is a very malignant kind of highly contagious fever,
marked by swellings of the lymphatic glands. From the development of
purple patches due to subcutaneous haemorrhages the European epidemic of
1348-50 was called the Black Death. A quarter of the European population
perished on that occasion. Other visitations devastated London in 1665,
Northern Europe 1707-14, Marseilles and Provence 1720-22, and South-East
Russia 1878-79. The home of the Plague was formerly Lower Egypt, Turkey,
and the shores of the Levant. From these it has been absent since 1844.
Its home since then has been in India, where it has assumed epidemic form
1836-38 and 1896-99.

PLAIN, THE, the name given to the Girondists or Moderate party in
the French National Convention, in contrast with THE MOUNTAIN
(q. v.) or JACOBIN PARTY.

PLANCHE, JAMES ROBINSON, antiquary and dramatist, born in London, of
French descent; author of a number of burlesques; an authority on
heraldry and costumes; he produced over 200 pieces for the stage, and
held office in the Heralds' Court (1796-1880).

PLANETOIDS, the name given to a number of very small planets
revolving between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, originally called
Asteroids, all of recent discovery, and the list, amounting to some 400,
as yet made of them understood to be incomplete. They are very difficult
of discovery, many of them from the smallness of their size and their
erratic movements.

PLANETS, bodies resembling the earth and of different sizes, which
revolve in elliptical orbits r