intimate friend) of Telamon. The two brothers, jealous of the athletic prowess of their step-brother Phocus, slew him; but the crime was discovered, and Peleus and Telamon were banished. Peleus took refuge in Phthia with his uncle Eurytion, who purified him from the guilt of murder, and gave him his daughter Antigone to wife, and a third of the kingdom as her dowry. Having accidentally killed his father-in-law at the Calydonian boar-hunt, Peleus was again obliged to flee, this time to Iolcus, where he was purified by Acastus. The most famous event in the life of Peleus was his marriage with the sea-goddess Thetis, by whom he became the father of Achilles. The story ran that both Zeus and Poseidon had sought her hand, but, Themis (or Prometheus or Proteus) having warned the former that a son of Thetis by Zeus would prove mightier than his father, the gods decided to marry her to Peleus. Thetis, to escape a distasteful union, changed herself into various forms, but at last Peleus, by the instructions of Chiron, seized and held her fast till she resumed her original shape, and was unable to offer further resistance. The wedding (described in the fine Epithalamium of Catullus) took place in Chiron’s cave on Mt Pelion. Peleus survived both his son Achilles and his grandson Neoptolemus, and was carried away by Thetis to dwell for ever among the Nereids.
See Apollodorus iii. 12, 15; Ovid, Metam. xi, Pindar, Isthmia, viii 70, Nemea, iv. 101; Catulus, lxiv.; schol. Apoll. Rhod. iv. 816; Euripides, Andromache, 1242–1260.
PELEW ISLANDS (Ger. Palauinseln, also Palao), a group of twenty-six islands in the western Pacific Ocean, between 2° 35′ and 9° N., and 130° 4′ and 134° 40′ E., belonging to Germany. They lie within a coral barrier reef, and in the south the islands are of coral, but in the north of volcanic rocks. They are well wooded, the climate is healthy, and the water-supply good. A few rats and bats represent the indigenous mammals, but the sea is rich in fish and molluscs; and Dr Otto Finsch (Journ. des Museum Godeffroy, 1875) enumerated 56 species of birds, of which 12 are peculiar to the group. The total area is 175 sq. m., the largest islands being Babeltop (Babelthuap, Baobeltaob and other variants), Uruktapi (Urukthopel), Korror, Nyaur, Peleliu and Eilmalk (Irakong). The population is about 3100. The natives are Micronesians, and are darker and shorter than their kinsmen, the Caroline Islanders. They usually have the frizzly hair of the Melanesians, and paint their bodies in brilliant colours, especially yellow. The men vary in height from 5 ft. to 5 ft. 5 in., the women from 4 ft. 9 to 5 ft. 2 in. The skull shows a strong tendency to brachycephalism. Two curious customs may be noted—the institution of an honourable order bestowed by the king, called klilt; and a species of mutual aid society, sometimes confined to women, and possessing considerable political influence There are five kinds of currency in the islands, consisting of beads of glass and enamel, to which a supernatural origin is ascribed.
The islands were sighted in 1543 by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, who named them the Arrecifos. The origin of the name Islas Palaos is doubtful. The islands were bought by Germany from Spain in 1899, and are administered together with the western Carolines, Yap being the administrative centre.
See K. Semper, Die Palau-Insetn (Leipzig, 1873); J. S. Kubary, Die sozialen Einrichtungen der Palauer (Berlin, 1885); A. A. Marche, Luçon et Palouan (Paris, 1887).
PELF, a term now chiefly used of money and always in a derogatory sense. The word originally meant plunder, pillage (O. Fr. pelfre, probably from Lat. pilare, to deprive of hair, pilus), and this significance is still kept in the related word “pilfer,” to make petty thefts.
PELHAM, the name of an English family, derived from Pelham in Hertfordshire, which was owned by a certain Walter de Pelham under Edward I., and is alleged to have been in the possession of the same family before the Norman conquest. The family dignities included the barony of Pelham of Laughton (1706–1768), the earldom of Clare (1714–1768), the dukedom of Newcastle (1715–1768), the barony of Pelham of Stanmer from 1762, the earldom of Chichester from 1801 and the earldom of Yarborough from 1837.
John de Pelham, who was one of the captors of John II. of France at Poitiers, acquired land at Winchelsea by his marriage with joan Herbert, or Finch. His son, John de Pelham (d. 1429), was attached to the party of John of Gaunt and his son Henry IV. In 1393 he received a life appointment as constable of Pevensey Castle, an honour subsequently extended to his heirs male, and he joined Henry on his invasion in 1399, if he did not actually land with him at Ravenspur. He was knighted at Henry’s coronation, and represented Sussex in parliament repeatedly during the reign of Henry IV., and again in 1422 and 1427. As constable of Pevensey he had at different times the charge of Edward, duke of York, in 1405; Edmund, earl of March, with his brother Roger Mortimer in 1406; James I. of Scotland in 1414; Sir John Mortimer in 1422, and the queen dowager, joan of Navarre, from 1418 to 1422. He was constantly employed in the defence of the southern ports against French invasion, and his powers were increased in 1407 by his appointment as chief butler of Chichester and of the Sussex ports, and in 1412 by the grant of the rape of Hastings. He was treasurer of England in 1412–1413, and although he was superseded on the accession of Henry V. he was sent in the next year to negotiate with the French court. He was included among the executors of the wills of Henry IV., of Thomas, duke of Clarence, and of Henry V. He died on the 12th of February 1429, and was succeeded by his son John, who took part in Henry V.’s expedition to Normandy in 1417.
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth Sir William Pelham (c. 1530–1587), third son of Sir William Pelham (d. 1538) of Laughton, Sussex, became lord justice of Ireland. He was captain of pioneers at the siege of Leith in 1560, and served at the siege of Havre in 1562, and with Coligny at Caen in 1563. He then returned to Havre, at that time occupied by English troops, and was one of the hostages for the fulfilment of its surrender to Charles IX. in 1564. After his return to England he fortified Berwick among other places, and was appointed lieutenant general of ordnance. He was sent to Ireland in 1579, when he was knighted by Sir William Drury, the lord justice. Drury died in October, and Pelham was provisionally made his successor, an appointment subsequently confirmed by Elizabeth. Alarmed by the proceedings of Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th earl of Desmond, and his brother John Desmond, he proclaimed the earl a traitor. Elizabeth protested strongly against Pelham’s action, which was justified by the sack of Youghal by Desmond. Thomas Butler, 10th earl of Ormonde, was entrusted with the campaign in Munster, but Pelham joined him in February 1580, when it was believed that a Spanish descent was about to be made in the south-west. The English generals laid waste northern Kerry, and proceeded to besiege Carrigafoyle Castle, which they stormed, giving no quarter to man, woman or child. Other strongholds submitted on learning the fate of Carrigafoyle, and were garrisoned by Pelham, who hoped with the concourse of Admiral Winter’s fleet to limit the struggle to Kerry. He vainly sought help from the gentry of the county, who sympathized with Desmond, and were only brought to submission by a series of “drives.” After the arrival of the new deputy, Lord Grey of Wilton, Pelham returned to England on the ground of health. He had retained his office as lieutenant-general of ordnance, and was now made responsible for debts incurred during his absence. Leicester desired his services in the Netherlands, but it was only after much persuasion that Elizabeth set him free to join the army by accepting a mortgage on his estates as security for his liabilities. The favour shown by Leicester to Pelham caused serious jealousies among the English officers, and occasioned a camp brawl in which Sir Edward Norris was injured. Pelham was wounded at Doesburg in 1586, and accompanied Leicester to England in 1587. Returning to the Netherlands in the same year he died at Flushing on the 24th of November 1587. His half-brother, Sir Edmund Pelham (d. 1606), chief baron of the exchequer in Ireland, was the first English judge to go on circuit in Ulster.
