Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/878

 848 TRAPPISTS TRAVANCORE of patient waiting, the mild firmness of the reformer and his exemplary life attracted a small number of followers. The chief centre of the reform, after La Trappe, was the Cis- tercian monastery of Tamie, near Faverges, in Upper Savoy. It adopted I)e Ranc6's rule in 1677, was suppressed during the French rev- olution, and, after various vicissitudes, was again taken possession of, Oct. 15, 1861, by a colony of Trappists from Grace-Dieu, near Be- san^on. The reform was approved by Inno- cent XI., but under certain restrictions. The monastic rule is noted for its severity. The members rise in the morning at 2 o'clock, and devote 12 hours a day to devotional exercises, and several hours to hard labor, mostly in the field. No worldly conversation is allowed ; when meeting, they salute each other with the solemn Memento mori ("Remember death"). Their scanty food consists of water and vege- tables ; meat, wine, and 'beer are entirely for- bidden. They sleep on a board, with a pillow of straw; and they never undress, not even in case of sickness. Hospitality is earnestly recommended; but it is also enjoined on the members to observe, in the exercise of hos- pitality, as much as possible the customary silence of the order and the simplicity of its mode of life. In 1789 the Trappists possessed, besides La Trappe and Tamie only one monas- tery in Tuscany and one in western Germany. When they were suppressed in France, Dom Augustin Lestrange, who is regarded as the second founder of the order, opened an estab- lishment at Fribourg in Switzerland, to which some of the monks repaired. The members of the other extinguished monasteries wan- dered through Europe for about 20 years, without finding a permanent abode. In 1817 the French government authorized the reopen- ing of La Trappe, and the order soon counted several flourishing establishments. It was es- pecially prosperous under the administration of the superior general Geramb (after 1825), one of the few Trappists who have won a rep- utation for authorship. In 1828, and again in 1830, the suppression of all the French estab- lishments of the order was decreed by the government, but in neither case was the de- cree executed. Since 1870 the Trappists have ceased to exist legally in Italy and Switzer- land, and in 1874 they were suppressed in the German empire. In 1803 a colony of Trap- pists led by Lestrange himself settled at Pigeon Hill, near Conewago, Pa. ; in the autumn of 1805 they removed to Kentucky, thence to Florissant near St. Louis in 1808, and in 1809 to a farm 6 m. N. on the Illinois shore of the Mississippi. In 1813 they went to Tracadie in Nova Scotia, where they still exist. In 1848 Trappists from La Meilleraye in France set- tled at Gethsemane, Ky., 14 m. S. E. of Bards- town ; a second establishment (now New Mel- leray abbey) has since been founded in Iowa, 12 m. from Dubuque. Both of these have been raised to the rank of abbeys, the abbots wearing [ the mitre. An offshoot of the order of Trap- pists is the congregation of u Trappist Preach- ers," founded about 1845 by the abbe" Muard, at Avallon, France, which connects home mis- sionary labors with the observance of a Trap- pist mode of life. The first convent of Trap- pist nuns was founded in 1692 in France. TRAS OS MOBiTES, a N. E. province of Por- tugal, bordering on Spain and the provinces of Beira and Minho ; area, 4,289 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 365,833. It is the most mountainous part of the kingdom. The Douro constitutes its S. E. and S. boundary, and it is watered by its affluents the Sabor, Tua, and Tamega. It is now divided into the two districts oi Villareal and Bragan^a. Capital, Braganc. a. TRASS. See POZZUOLANA. TRAVMCORE, a subsidiary native state of British India, occupying the S. W. extremity of the great Indian peninsula, terminating on the south in Cape Comorin, and bounded N. by the native state of Cochin and the district of Coimbatore in Madras, E. by the Madras districts of Madura and Tinnevelli, and S. and W. by the Indian ocean; area, 6,653 sq. m. ; pop. about 1,400,000. The capital is Trivan- drum, on a small river in the S. part of the state, about a mile and a half from the sea; other important towns are Aleppi, Quilon, and Anjengo, all on the coast. The surface slopes seaward from the Western Ghauts, which form its E. boundary, and at the N. E. corner reach an altitude of upward of 8,000 ft. ; and the country is generally hilly, eleva- ted, and well wooded, except on the coast. A large portion of the coast is low and sandy and fringed with cocoanut palms, but in the south the heights approach the sea and form a bolder shore. There is a good roadstead at Aleppi, and sincp 1871 Kolachul, near Cape Comorin, has been used as a port by the coffee planters, whose large ships have there found safe anchorage in still water. Travancore is drained by numerous westward -flowing streams, whose waters form extensive shallow lagoons or backwaters parallel with the coast. The largest river is the Perryaur, in the north, about 140 m. long, which is known as the Al- wye near the sea. The rainfall of the western half of the country exceeds 100 inches per an- num, but it is not more than 52 inches among the mountains or at Cape Comorin. The cli- mate is hot but not unhealthf ul ; at the capital the temperature rarely exceeds 90 at any time, or 75 during the S. W. monsoon, when the most rain falls. The soil is nearly everywhere productive, and very rich in the lowlands, where excellent rice is raised. The most val- uable crops are coffee, which is very success- fully cultivated in the hills, cocoanuts, areca nuts, and pepper, all of which are largely ex- ported; ginger, cinnamon, nutmegs, indigo, and cardamoms are also grown. The forests furnish timber for export in great abundance and variety. Cinchona plantations have been established under government auspices. The