chiefly great quantities of silver; and the Montana, the eastward slopes of the Andes, clad with valuable forests where the cinchona is cultivated, and the upland basins of the Ucayale River and the Upper Amazon, very fertile, with great coffee and cacao plantations and abundant rain; the chief articles of export are silver, nitre, guano, sugar, and wool.  Lima (200), the capital, is 8 m. inland from its port Callao (35); has an old cathedral, and is the chief centre of commerce; its principal merchants are Germans.  The government is republican; the ruling classes are of Spanish descent, but half of the population are Inca Indians and a quarter are half-castes.  From the 12th to the 16th centuries the Incas enjoyed a high state of civilisation and an extensive empire administered on socialistic principles; they attained great skill in the industries and arts.  The Spanish conqueror Pizarro, landing in 1532, overthrew the empire and established the colony; after three centuries of oppression Peru threw off the Spanish yoke in 1824.  The history of the republic has been one of continual restlessness, and a war with Chile 1879-84 ended in complete disaster; recovery is slowly progressing.

PERUGIA (17), Italian walled city on the right bank of the Tiber, 127 m. by rail N. of Rome, with a cathedral of the 15th century, some noteworthy churches, a Gothic municipal palace, picture gallery, university, and library; is rich in art treasures and antiquarian remains; it has silk and woollen industries; it was anciently called Perusia, and one of the cities of ancient Etruria, and in its day has experienced very varied fortunes; it was the centre of the Umbrian school of painting.

PERUGINO, his proper name VANNUCCI, Italian painter, born near Perugia, whence his name; studied with Leonardo da Vinci at Florence, where he chiefly resided; was one of the teachers of Raphael, painted religious subjects, did frescoes for churches that have nearly all perished, a “Christ giving the Keys to Peter” being the best extant; Ruskin contrasts his work with Turner’s; “in Turner’s distinctive work,” he says, “colour is scarcely acknowledged unless under influence of sunshine ... wherever the sun is not, there is melancholy and evil,” but “in Perugino’s distinctive work”—­to whom he therefore gives “the captain’s place over all”—­“there is simply no darkness, no wrong.  Every colour is lovely and every space is light; the world, the universe, is divine; all sadness is a part of harmony, and all gloom a part of light” (1446-1524).

PESCHIERA, one of the fortresses of the QUADRILATERAL (q. v.), on an island in the Mincio, 14 m.  W. of Verona.

PESHAWAR or PESHAWUR (84), a town on the Indian frontier, and centre of trade with Afghanistan, is 10 m. from the entrance of the Khyber Pass, on the Kabul River, and though ill-fortified is a bulwark of the empire, being provided with a large garrison of infantry and artillery.