A large canoe. This word, from the Sp. Piragua, assumes curious forms.
1629. There were six Peryagoes, which are huge great trees formed as your Canowes, but so laid out on the sides with boords, they will seeme like a little Gally.—Capt. John Smith, ‘Works,’ (1884), p. 901. (Stanford Dict.).
1697. A Fleet of Pereagoes laden with Indian Corn, Hog, and Fowls.—Dampier, ‘Voyages,’ (1698), i. 40. (N.E.D.)
1719. This at length set me upon thinking whether it was not possible to make myself a canoe or periagua, such as the natives of those climates make, even without tools, or, as I might say, without hands—viz., of the trunk of a great tree.—‘Robinson Crusoe,’ i. 161. (Nares.)
1770. I will carry Sally Nicholas in the green chair to Newquarter, where your periagua (how the —— should I spell that word?) will meet us.—Thomas Jefferson to John Page, Feb. 21.
1773. A Petty Augre, which came with Sand took him off.—Boston Evening Post, Feb. 1.
1785. To be sold at Private Sale, a Pettiaguer, 55 feet long.—Georgia Gazette, March 3.
1799. We met two large periogues from New Orleans.—F. Cuming, ‘Sketches of a Tour,’ p. 329, Appendix.
1801. Whitsol, being out upon an excursion one day near the Allegheny, discovered two men in a perogue for Pittsburgh.—Lancaster (Pa.) Journal, Sept. 5.
1801. Having purchased a pirogue, or large canoe, he put Jack and the other negroes he had purchased on board.—Mass. Spy, Sept. 30.
1805. We intend continuing our voyage in the canoes and a perogue of skins, the frame of which was prepared at Harper’s Ferry.—Letter from Capt. Merriwether to Thomas Jefferson, April 7: The Balance, Aug. 13, p. 261/2.
1806. From thence upwards [the Missouri] may be navigated by batteaux and periaugers.—Mass. Spy, Nov. 12.
1806. Having completed four Perogues and a small Canoe, we gave our Horses in charge.—Penna. Intelligencer, Nov. 18.
1818. We Americans must have a navy. We are forming two pirogues out of large poplars, with which we propose to navigate the Wabash.—Birkbeck, ‘Letters from Illinois,’ p. 94. (Phila.).
1820. [The Ohio] is navigated by Steam Boats, Barges, Flat Boats or Arks, Skiffs, Pirogues, Rafts, &c.—Western Review, Jan. (Lexington, Ky.).
1821. The pettiauger schrs. Glory Ann, &c. were all lost on Rockaway Beach.—Mass. Spy, Sept. 12.
1826. In another place are pirogues of from two to four tons burthen, hollowed sometimes from one prodigious tree, or from the trunks of two trees united, and a plank rim fitted to the upper part.—T. Flint, ‘Recollections,’ p. 14.
1828. His horror may be imagined, when he saw two proas or periogues full of the most ugly and inhuman looking savages, rowing past the cove.—T. Flint, ‘Arthur Clenning,’ i. 169.
1828. Some enterprising skipper who owns a little pettiauger, or some hardy quarrier, has erected his little cot.—J. K. Paulding, ‘The New Mirror for Travellers,’ p. 99.
1840. Getting into a periogue, I paddled off to a part of the Green River where there was sand and clay, that might serve for soap.—Knick. Mag., xvi. 162 (Aug.).
1847. [He was] as tight as a Jersey oyster perryauger on a mud flat at low water.—W. T. Porter, ed., ‘A Quarter Race in Kentucky,’ etc., p. 192.
1853. A well-manned little keel-boat or pierrogue might have accomplished the voyage.—Daily Morning Herald, St. Louis, June 23.
