Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/511

Rh R E U R E U 493 The complete absence of natural harbours has all along been a great hindrance to the commercial development of Reunion. "Whenever a storm is observed to be brewing an alarm gun is fired, and the vessels in the roadsteads make off from the dangerous coast. Since 1848 an artificial harbour capable of containing forty vessels has been constructed at Pointc des Galets at the north- west corner of the island. The port is connected by rail with La Possession on the one hand and with the Riviere des Galets on the other, and thus communicates with the railway which was com- pleted in 1881 round the coast from St Pierre, by S"t Paul, St Denis, &c., to St Benoit, a distance of 83^ miles. This line is carried through a tunnel nearly 6^ miles long between La Possession and St Denis. The windward arrondissement or division of Reunion comprises the eight communes of St Denis, Ste Marie, Ste Suzanne, St Andre, St Benoit, Salazie, Ste Rose, and Plaine des Palmistes ; and the leeward division the six communes of St Paul, St Leu, St Louis, St Pierre, St Joseph, and St Philippe. St Denis, the capital of the island, lies on the north coast. It is built in the form of an amphitheatre and presents a most attractive appearance from the sea. Covering as a commune an area of 37,065 acres, it has a population of 30,835 according to the census of 1881, an increase of 18,000 since 1837. It has an abundant supply of pure water. Though the harbour is only an open roadstead, it has hitherto been the most frequented in the island. St Pierre, the chief town of the leeward arrondissement, has a communal area of 98,190 acres and a population of 27,748. Its artificial harbour, commenced in 1854 but afterwards interrupted, and resumed in 1881, has room for five or six vessels besides coasting craft. The population was 185,179 in 1872, 183,529 in 1878, and 170,734 in 1882. The males are largely in excess of the females (97,961 to 72,773 in 1882), owing to the number of agricultural labourers introduced from abroad for a term of years. Among the whites born on the island an infusion of alien blood is so com- mon that in Mauritius the phrase Bourbon white is applied to linen of doubtful cleanness ; the original settlers frequently married Malagasy wives. The name Petits Blancs is in Reunion given to a class of small farmers who lead an independent kind of life in the upper districts, supporting themselves by their garden-plots and hunting. By the beginning of the 18th century the number of Negro slaves in the island was 64,000, four times that of their masters ; they were all (to the number of 20,000) emancipated in 1848, and have gradually acquired a large measure of social equality with the Creoles. Various elements have been added to the popu- lation since the middle of the century -coolies from India in large numbers, Africans from the east coast, Chinese and Anamites, Malays, &c. The immigration of the Indian coolies is controlled by a convention between the British and French Governments of date July 1, 1881. Reunion is usually said to have been first discovered in April 1513 by Mascarenhas, whose name is still applied to the archipelago of which it forms a part ; but it seems probable that it must be identified with the island of Santa Apollonia discovered by Diego Fernandas Pereira on February 9, 1507. When in 1638 the island was taken possession of by Captain Gaubert or Gobert of Dieppe, it was still uninhabited ; a more formal annexation in the name of Louis XIII. was effected in 1643 by Pronis, agent of the "Compagnie des Indes" in Madagascar ; and in 1649 Flacourt, Pronis's more emi- nent successor, repeated the ceremony at La Possession, and changed the name from Mascarenhas to Bourbon. By decree of the Con- vention in 1793, Bourbon in turn gave place to Reunion, and, though during the empire this was discarded in favour of lie Bonaparte, and at the Restoration people naturally went back to Bourbon, it has remained the official designation since 1848. Between July 8, 1810, and April 6, 1815, the island was in the possession of England. It is now practically almost a department of France, sends a representative to the chamber of deputies, is governed by means of laws and not of decrees, and possesses a council-general and municipal councils elected by universal suf- frage. In the general budget for 1881 the expenditure amounted to 6,866,272 francs, including 1,916,143 contributed by the home Government; in 1883 the total was 7,468,426, iipwardsof 3,420,000 being for communal expenses. See, besides the works already mentioned, Demanet, Nouv. hist, de I'Afrique franjaise, 1767; Thomas, Essai de statistic/tie de Vile Bourbon, 1828; Dejean de la Batie, Notice sur We Bourbon, 1847 ; J. Mauran, Impressions dans un wy. de Paris a Bourbon, 1850 ; Maillard, Notes sur I'ile de la Reunion, 1862; Azema, Hist, de Vile Bourbon, 18fi2 ; Roussin, Album de Vile de la Reunion, 1867-69, and 1879 ; an elaborate article in Encyclopedie des Sciences Medicales ; Bionne, " La Reunion," in Exploration, 1879. Most maps are based on Maillard's; one by Paul Lepervanche in four sheets was published in 1885 by Dufrenoy. (H.A. W.) REUS, a town of Spain, in the province of Tarragona, is situated at the foot of a chain of hills in a fertile plain about four miles from the sea. It is connected by rail with Tarragona, 9J miles to the east, and with Lerida, 54J miles to the north-west. It consists of two parts, the old and the new, separated by the boulevard-like Calle Arrabal, which occupies the site of the old wall, some vestiges of which still remain : the old town centres in the Plaza del Mercado, from which narrow and tortuous lanes radiate in various directions ; the new dates from about the middle of the 18th century, and its streets are wide and straight. The public buildings have no special archi- tectural or historical interest, but the view from the tower of the church of San Pedro is exceptionally fine. Reus, next to Barcelona itself,- is the most flourishing manufac- turing centre in Catalonia, the staples being silk and cotton ; imitations of French wines are also extensively made, and the miscellaneous industries include tanning, distilling, and the like. The cotton factories exceed eighty in number, and one of them employs upwards of six hundred hands. Most of the traffic of Reus passes through the comparatively sheltered port of Salou, four miles distant. The population of Reus in 1877 was 27,595. The earliest records of Reus date from about the middle of the 13th century. Its modern prosperity is traced to about the year 1750, when a colony of English settled there and established a trade in woollens, leather, wine, and spirits. The principal incidents in its political history arose out of the occurrences of 1843, in con- nexion with which the " villa " became a " ciudad " and Generals Zurbano and Prim each received the title of count of Reus. REUSS is the name of two small sovereign principali- ties of the German empire, with a joint area of 440 square miles, forming part of the complex of Thuringian states, and consisting, roughly speaking, of two principal masses of territory, separated by the Neustadt district of the duchy of Saxe-Weimar. The more southerly and much the larger of the two portions belongs to the bleak moun- tainous region of the Frankenwald and the Voigtland, while the northern portion is hilly but fertile. The chief rivers are the Elster and Saale. About 37 per cent, of the total surface is occupied by forests, while 40 per cent. is under tillage and 19 per cent, in meadow and pasture. Since 1616 the lands of Reuss have been divided between an elder and a younger line (Reuss dlterer Linie and Reuss jungerer Linie) of the ancient princely house. The male members of both branches of the family all bear the name of Henry (Heinrich), the individuals being distinguished by numerals. In the older line the enumeration begins again when the number one hundred is reached, while in the younger house it opens and closes with the century. Thus the reigning prince of Reuss jungerer Linie, born in 1832, is styled Henry XIV., and he succeeded his father Henry LXVIL, born in 1789. The princes of Reuss are very wealthy, and their private domains comprise great part of the territory over which they rule. In the event of the extinction of either line, its possessions fall to the other. The troops of Reuss furnish a few companies to the seventh regiment of Thuringian infantry. RETJSS-GKEIZ, or REUSS ALTEKER LINIE, with an area of 122 square miles, belongs to the larger of the two main divisions above mentioned, within which it consists of three large and several smaller parcels of land, bordering on Saxony, Reuss jungerer Linie, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, and the Prussian exclave of Ranis. The soil is on the whole little favourable for agriculture, but cattle-rearing is carried on with some success. No less than 63 per cent, of the inhabitants are supported by industrial pursuits, the chief products of which are the woollen fabrics of Greiz, the capital, and the stockings of Zeulen- roda, both largely exported. The population of the prin- cipality in 1880 was 50,782, of whom only 450 were Roman Catholics and 60 Jews. The constitution of Reuss-Greiz dates from 1867, and provides for' a repre- sentative chamber of twelve members, of whom three are appointed by the prince, while two are elected by the nobles, three by the towns, and four by the rural districts.