PONCE. 231 PONCHIELLI. hills three miles from the south coast, and is well built, with clean macadamized streets, and houses chieily of stuccoed brick or stone. The principal squares are the Plaza Principal and the Plaza de las Delicias, separated by the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and" both containing gardens. Among other buildings are a Protestant church built of iron, several asylums and hospitals, one of which is new and modern, and two theatres, the Teatro de la Perla being the best on the island. The city had. in 1900. forty-two public and seven private schools. The streets and some of the houses are now lighted by electricity, and the city has a good water supply brought by an aqueduct more than three miles long, and piped into the houses. Two main highroads connect Ponce with San .Juan and Arecibo on the north coast, and a railroad runs west to Yanco. about 20 miles. An electric street railroad has recently replaced the horse-tramway leading to the harbor of Playa de Ponce, a spacious bay accessible to vessels drawing 25 feet, and provided with wharves. Here are the custom house and the chief commercial houses. This is the principal commercial port of the island, and. in 1000, .589 vessels of 500,652 tons entered. The chief exports are cotfee, sugar, molasses, rum, and tobacco. Population, in 1899, 27.952; of the municipal district, 55.477. PONCE DE LEON, pdn'tha dA la-on'. Fray Liis. See Leox, Fhay Lris de. PONCE DE LEON, Ju.x (C.14G0-1521) . A Spanish Governor of Porto Rico and discoverer of Florida. He was born at San Servas. in the Kingdom of Leon. After serving as page to a tutor of the royal family, .Juan Ponce in 1493 went to America on the second vovage of Colum- bus. In 1508 he went to Porto Rico and in 1510 was empowered to conquer the island, of which he became Governor. He rapidly acquired a considerable fortune there, so that when Diego Columbus appointed a successor to him. Ponce was able to fit out three ships with which he started, March 3. 1513, to investigate some stories of a marvelous island named Bimini which the Indians said contained a spring which had wonderful curative properties. There is little in the original narratives to substantiate the legend that this was a Tountain of Perpetual Youth' that Ponce was in search of. On ilarch 27th land was sighted. He landed, not far from the mouth of Saint .Johns River, and on April 8th, on Easter Sunday (Spanish Pascua Florida ) , took possession of the country. A month later, May 8th, having explored the coast carefully and having had two unsuccessful encounters with the natives, he doubled the point of the peninsula and started up the western coast. Proceeding to the neighborhood of Pen- saeola B.ay, he then returned to the Florida Keys, and crossed to Cuba. From there he sailed to the Bahamas, where he was on July 25th. and after two months more of cruising" about the Bahamas reached home September 21, 1513. Ponce immediately took ship for Spain, where he .secured permission to conquer and colonize the island, as he supjiosed it to he, of Florida. Rpturning in 1515. he was delaved by the neces- sity of conquering the Caribs from Guadeloupe who were overrunning Porto Rico, and who in- flicted several severe defeats upon the Spaniards It was not until 1521 that he was again ready to start for Florida. With two ships, carrying two hundred men, he proceeded to a harbor, probably Charlotte Harbor or thereabouts, where he landed and prepared to build a settlement. The natives, however, attacked the white men so fiercely that they were soon compelled to reembark. A storm separated the vessels, one of which made its way to 'era Cruz, where it arrived just in season to assist Cortfe at a criti- cal period in his conquest. Ponce, who had been dangerously wounded in the knee by the Indians. started back to Porto Rico in the" other vessel, but he died before arriving there. Consult Harrisse, Discovery of yorlh America (London, 1892). PONCELET, poNsTa', .Jean- Victor (1788- 1867). A French engineer and mathematician, born in Metz. From 1807 to 1810 he attended the Ecole Polvteehnique. where he studied under Monge. In 1812 he entered the army as lieutenant of engineers, and was made juisoner on the retreat of the French from Mos- cow. He was taken to Saratov, on the Volga, where, away from all scientific assistance, he laid the foundations of projective geometry. On his retuni to Metz (1814)' he continued his in- vestigations. He found, however, no recognition in the Paris Academy, and therefore published his contributions in Crelle's Journal. In 1829 he collected these essays in the Traitc des proprietis projectives des figures (1822; 2d ed., 2 vols.. 1865-66). He then turned his attention to ap- plied mechanics and published several works on the subject. In 1835 he became professor of applied mechanics at Paris, and in 1848 he was raised to the rank of general. In 1851 he went to London as president of a commission to the International Exhibition, and later published a report upon his mission. Machines et oiitils ap- propries aux arts textiles (3 vols.. 1854-62). in the Collection des travaux de la commission fran- eaise, which is of great importance in the history of technical science. He published in more coni- ])lete form the work which he began at Saratov in the Applications d'analyse et de geometric (1862-64). Poncelet is the real fo'under of modern geometry, and had a very strong in- fluence on German goemetry, although he found little recognition in France. Some of his other works are: Sur les roues hydrauliques verticales (1826) : Theorie des effets mccaniques de la tur- bine Fourneyron (1838); Experiences hydrau- liques, jointly with Lebros (1832) ; Introduction a la mecanique industrielle. phi/sique ou experi- mcntnle (1829; 3d ed. 1870 1 German trans. 1841-45) : Cours de mecanique appliqu^e aux Machines (1845; 3d ed. 1874-76; German trans. 1845-49). Consult: Didion. Xotice sur la vie et les ourrages du general Poncelet (Paris. 1869) ; Bertrand, "Eloge historique de Poncelet," in the Memoires de VAcad6mie des Sciences (ib., 1879). PONCHIELLI, ponTce-el'le. Amilcake (1834- 86 1. An Italian composer, born at Paderno Fa.solaro. near Cremona. He was one of the most important Itiilian composers of the nine- teenth century, and although little known to the world at large, was regarded by his countrymen as second only to Verdi. He was educated at the Conservatory of Jlilan. and made his debut as a composer with / promessi sposi (1856). Other operas were La savojarda (1861); Roderica
