PERNAMBUCO, or Recife, a city and seaport of Brazil and the chief town of the extensive province of Pernambuco. As it is situated on the coast in 8° 3' 27" S. lat. and 34° 50' 14" W. long. (Fort Picao), not far from the point where the continent begins to trend towards the south-west, it is naturally the first port visited by steamers from Lisbon to Brazil. The reef, which can be traced more or less distinctly along the Brazilian seaboard for several hundred miles, rises at Pernambuco into a perfectly straight artificial-looking Avail, 3} miles long, Avith even sides and a smooth and almost level top from 30 to 60 yards in width. It is of a hard pale-coloured sandstone, breaking Avith a very smooth fracture; and a tough layer of calcareous matter, generally several inches thick, produced by the successive growth and death of the small shells of Serpnlae with some feAv barnacles and nullipores, proves so effectual a protection of the outer surface that though it is exposed to the full force of the Avaves of the open Atlantic the oldest pilots know of no tradition of change in its appearance. The belt of water within the reef is about a mile in Avidth and forms a safe but rather shallow harbour; vessels drawing 19∣ feet can enter, and there is abundant room for mooring along the shore and reef, but mail-steamers usually anchor in the roads and discharge by means of lighters. Sir John HaAvkshaw’s scheme for the improvement of the harbour (1874) was rejected by the Government as too costly; but extensive dredging operations are being prosecuted. The city of Pernambuco lies 1oav, and is surrounded by a swampy stretch of country, with no high ground nearer than the hill on Avhich Olinda is built, 8 miles to the north. It used to be considered the most pestilential of ...

PERNAU, in Russian Pernoff, a seaport town and watering-place of European Russia, in the government of Livonia, is situated in 58° 23' N. lat. and 24° 30' E. long., 155 miles north of Riga, on the left bank of the Pernau or Pernova, which about half a mile farther down enters the Bay of Pernau, the northern arm of the Gulf of Riga. The town proper is well and regularly built, and contains two public gardens and two public parks (Salon Park and Bade Park), a town-house, a hospital, and a public library. On the right side of the river lies the suburb of Bremerseite. The harbour is small, and the depth of water on the bar under 10 feet. The exports, which consist mainly of flax (to Great Britain, France, and Portugal), linseed (to Germany), mats, and cereals, had a value of 8,220,421 silver roubles in 1880, and of 5,427,465 in 1881 (a bad year). The population was 6690 in 1863, 9525 in 1867, and 12,918 in 1881.

Founded on the right side of the river in 1255 by one of the bishops of Oesel, Pernau, with its walls and castle, soon became a flourishing place. In the 16th century it was occupied in succession by the Swedes, the Poles, and the knights of the Teutonic order. After 1599 the Poles transferred the town to the left side of the river; and in 1642 the Swedes, who had been in possession since 1617, strengthened it with regular fortifications. In 1710 it was besieged and taken by the Russians, and the fortress is now demolished.

PERNE, Andrew (1519-1589), a notable character in 16th-century history, was born at East Bilney in Norfolk in 1519. He received his education at St John’s College, Cambridge, was afterwards a fellow of Queens’ College, and finally master of Peterhouse in the same university. He is best known as a remarkable example of the tergiversation in reference to religious profession which, owing to the sudden changes in the prescribed theological belief of the state, was only too common in his age. In the reign of Henry VIII. he defended the adoration of saint’s, but subsequently abandoned this doctrine in the reign of Edward VI., and became distinguished as an active promulgator of Reformation tenets. In the reign of Mary he subscribed the Roman Catholic articles, and when the remains of Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagius, —two Protestant professors in the university—were exhumed and burnt, he preached on the occasion. He was reλvarded for his subservience by being promoted to the deanery of Ely. Notwithstanding this discreditable compliance, he succeeded in gaining Elizabeth’s favour on her accession; he signed the grace for restoring the names of Bucer and Fagius in the lists of honours and dignities from which they had been expunged; and he was elected by the university to the office of vice-chancellor. He thus, like Symond Symonds, the vicar of Bray, was twice a Papist and twice a Protestant. During the remainder of his career he was known as a moderate supporter of Church of England doctrine against the Puritan party. “What bishop or politician in England,” asks Gabriel Harvey, “was so great a temporizer as he?” The wags of the university invented a verb, perno, which, they declared, meant, “I rat,” “I change often.” Yet the satirist, ...