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 TRINIDAD ire harbor at the foot of well wooded hills id two heights crowned by forts, besides which the port is defended by numerous forti- ications which extend for about a mile along the shore. The inner harbor is landlocked, and has the advantage over all other harbors of India of being accessible to all descriptions of ships during both monsoons. The inhabi- tants are mostly of Tamil origin, from the S. E. coast of India. The trade is of little im- portance, but precious stones are found in the neighborhood in considerable quantities. The Portuguese were the first European nation to form a settlement at Trincomalee. They were expelled by the Dutch, who were in turn driven out by the British in 1782 ; but an insufficient garrison having been left for its defence, it was captured by the French, who restored it to the Dutch. In 1795 the British again cap- tured it after a siege of three weeks, and it has since remained in their possession. TRINIDAD, one of the British West India islands, at the mouth of the gulf of Paria, off the N. E. coast of Venezuela, opposite the N. mouth of the Orinoco, between lat. 10 and 11 N. and Ion. 61 and 62 W.; length N. and S. about 50 m., average breadth 35 m. ; area, 1,755 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 109,638. Its N. W. and S. W. extremities are within 7 and 13 m. respectively of the continent. There is excellent anchorage between the island and the mainland, and there are several good harbors. It is crossed by three ranges of hills from W. to E., extending through the centre, and bordering the S. and N. coasts, the northern range attaining an elevation of 3,000 ft. There are level and undulating tracts in the valleys, but in some places the surface is considerably broken, and it is drained by rivers with nu- merous tributaries. Much of Trinidad appears to have been formed by the mud deposited by the Orinoco. The mountains consist of clay and mica slate; and quartz, pyrites, arsenic, alum, sulphate of copper, graphite, and sulphur are found. In a volcanic district on the W. coast there is a celebrated asphalt lake. (See ASPHALTUM, and BITUMEN.) At Port of Spain, the capital, the temperature ranges between 74 and 86 in summer, and 70 and 81 in winter. The annual fall of rain is 65 inches; the island is beyond the range of hurricanes. The soil is fertile, and the elevated parts are covered with dense forests. The chief produc- tions are sugar cane, coffee, and cacao; and cotton, indigo, tobacco, nutmegs, cinnamon, and cloves are raised. The indigenous animals are two species of small deer, the opossum, armadillo, porcupine, ant bear, sloth, muskrat, tiger cat, two species of lizards, and numer- ous monkeys. Fish are abundant. The set- tlements are chiefly on the N. W. coast and in the adjacent valley. A considerable trade is carried on with the United States in lumber and provisions. Trinidad is a crown colony, under a governor with executive and legisla- tive councils. The island was discovered by TRINITY 869 Columbus in July, 1498, occupied by the Span- iards in the 16th century, captured by the French in 1676, but soon restored, and taken by the British in 1797. TRINITY (Gr. rpiaq, Lat. trinitas), a term of Christian theology denoting the coexistence in the Godhead of three persons, distinguished from each other as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the Trinity is held by the Roman Catholic church, and by most of the Protestant and eastern churches. The doctrine, it is contended, is contained in all its constitutive elements in the Scriptures, and was gradually drawn up into a systematic statement as the necessity occurred of preserving or vindicating it in its integrity and purity. Supplementary to the ecclesiastical form of the dogma itself are cer- tain theological explanations, throwing on it a fuller light, derived from the teachings of early councils, the writings of the great church fathers, or the accepted scientific language of the schools. These regard the mode of ori- gination of the second and third persons, the relations existing between the persons in the Trinity, and their distinctive characteristics and appellations. "While the word Trinity is not to be found in the Bible, and while no passage can be adduced from the Old Testa- ment in which the doctrine of the Trinity or its equivalent is distinctly and explicitly for- mulated, many texts have been quoted even by the earliest Christian writers which point to the existence of some form of plurality in the Godhead. These texts, however, being suscep- tible of various interpretations, are not pro- duced as proving peremptorily the doctrine of a Trinity, but as foreshadowing the clear and distinct revelation believed to have been made in the New Testament. From it two large classes of texts are quoted as arguments for establishing the doctrine : those in which Fa- ther, Son, and Holy Spirit are mentioned in connection, and those in which these three sub- jects are mentioned separately, and in which their nature and mutual relation are more par- ticularly described. The disputes about the tri- personality of the Godhead date from the apos- tolic age, and were occasioned chiefly by the prevalence of the Hellenistic and Gnostic the- osophies. Theophilus, bishop of Antioch m the 2d century, used the word rptdc, and its equivalent trinitas was first employed by Ter- tullian in the 3d century. During the ante- Nicene period there was uninterrupted con- troversy about this doctrine, principally in the East, and many opinions were proscribed by the church as heretical. Among them were those of the Ebionites, who regarded Jesus as a mere man; of the Sabellians, according to whom the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost were only the different forms in which the one God reveals himself to men ; of the Arians, who taught that the Son was not coeternal with the Father, but created by him before the world, and therefore subordinate and in-