Nightingale, Inaccessible and Gough islands, for the purpose of working the guano deposits, was granted by the British government.
Gough Island.—Gough Island or Diego Alvarez lies in the South Atlantic in 40° 20′ S., 9° 44′ W., and is 250 m. S.S.E. of Tristan da Cunha and some 1500 m. west by south of Cape Town. It is of volcanic origin, is rugged and mountainous, the highest peak rising to 4380 ft. The island is about 8 m. long by 4 m. broad and has an area of 40 sq. m. Precipitous cliffs, from 200 to 1000 ft. high, characterize the coast. They are divided by picturesque valleys, which, in some instances, have been cut down to sea-level and afford landing-places. Streams fall over the cliffs into the sea in fine cascades. The island is visited by vast numbers of penguins and contains valuable guano deposits. It is also the home of numerous seals. The rainfall is heavy and vegetation abundant. The island is believed to have been discovered by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Originally called Diego Alvarez, it derives its other name from a Captain Gough, the commander of a British ship which visited it in 1731. It has been claimed as a British possession since the annexation of Tristan da Cunha. In 1904 Gough Island was visited by the Antarctic exploring ship “Scotia” of the Bruce expedition, which discovered a rich marine fauna, two new buntings and three new species of plants. It has no permanent population.
A comprehensive account of Tristan da Cunha appeared in The Cape Times (January–March 1906), in a series of articles by W. Hammond Tooke, the commissioner sent to the islands by the Cape government in 1904. See also Transactions of the Linnean Society for 1819 (contains a report of an ascent of the summit by Captain Dugald Carmichael in 1817); A. Earle, Narrative of a . . . Residence in New Zealand . . . together with a Journal of a Residence in Tristan d’Acunha (London, 1832); Mrs K. M. Barrow, Three Years in Tristan da Cunha (London, 1910); H. N. Moseley, Notes by a Naturalist on the “Challenger” (new ed., London, 1892); F. and G. Stoltenhoff “Two Years on Inaccessible,” in Cape Monthly Mag. (December 1873). Among papers relating to Tristan da Cunha published by the British government, see especially reports issued in 1897, 1903, 1906—which gives a detailed account of the island and islanders—and 1907. For the discovery of Tristan see The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque (Hakluyt Society’s Series, 1875, vol. 53). For Gough Island, see R. N. R. Brown of the “Scotia” expedition, “Diego Alvarez or Gough Island,” in Scottish Geog. Mag. (August 1905); Brown and others, “The Botany of Gough Island,” in Journ. Linnean Soc. (Botany) (1905), and The Voyage of the “Scotia” ch. xii. (London, 19G6). The Africa Pilot, pt. ii. (5th ed., 1901), contains descriptions both of Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island.
TRISTAN L’HERMITE, FRANÇOIS (1601–1655), French dramatist, was born at the chateau de Soliers in the Haute Marche about 1601. His adventures began early, for he killed his enemy in a duel at the age of thirteen, and was obliged to flee to England. The story of his childhood arid youth he embroiders in a burlesque novel, the Page disgracié. He was in succession poet to Gaston d’Orleans, to the duchesse de Chaulnes and the duke of Guise. He died on the 7th of September 1655. His first tragedy, Mariamne (1636), was also his best. It was followed by Penthée (1637), La Mori de Sénèque (1644), La Mort de Crispe (1645) and the Parasite (1653). He was also the author of some admirable lyrics. Three of his best plays are printed in the Théâtre français of 1737.
TRITHEMIUS, JOHANNES (1462–1516), German historian and divine, was born at Trittenheim on the Moselle, on the 1st of February 1462. His name was originally “von Heidenberg,” but according to the fashion of the times he adopted the name of his birthplace. After an unhappy childhood, he studied at Heidelberg, and at the age of twenty entered the Benedictine monastery of Sponheim near Kreuznach, of which, in 1485, he became abbot. He established an excellent library, and
through his strict discipline and consummate scholarship soon raised the monastery to an educational institution of a high order. In 1506 he resigned, and was appointed soon after abbot of the monastery of St Jakob at Würzburg; and in this city he died on the 13th of December 1516. Trithemius was, though an accomplished scholar, untrustworthy as a chronicler, and his Annates hirsaugienses (1514), Annates de origine Francorum, as well as his Chronologia mystica (1516) are, on this account, of doubtful value. More reliance can, however, be
placed on his De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis (1494) and the Catalogus illustrium virorum Germaniae (1491). He also wrote a fanatical book against sorcery, Antipalus maleficiorum (1508).
See Silbernagel, J. Trithemius (1868; 2nd ed., 1885); Schneegans. Abt Joh. Trithemius und Kloster Sponheim (1882); and F. X. Wegele, in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie.
TRITON, in Greek mythology, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite,
the personification of the roaring waters. According to
Hesiod (Theog. 930), he dwelt with his parents in a golden
palace in the depths of the sea. The story of the Argonauts
places his home on the coast of Libya. When the Argo was
driven ashore on the Lesser Syrtes the crew carried the vessel
to Lake Tritonis, whence Triton, the local deity, guided them
across to the Mediterranean (Apollonius Rhodius iv. 1552).
He was represented as human down to the waist, with the tail
of a fish. His special attribute was a twisted seashell, on which
he blew to calm or raise the waves. Its sound was so terrible,
when loudly blown, that it put the giants to flight, who imagined
it to be the roar of a mighty wild beast (Hyginus, Poet. astronom.
ii. 23). When Misenus, the trumpeter of Aeneas, challenged him
to a contest of blowing, Triton in his jealousy flung him into the
sea. In course of time Triton became the name for individuals
of a class, like Pan and Silenus, and Tritons (male and
female) are mentioned in the plural, usually as forming the
escort of marine divinities. The beings called Centauro-Tritons
or Ichthyocentaurs were of a triple nature, with the forefeet of a
horse in addition to the human body and fish tail. Pausanias
(ix. 21) gives a detailed description of the ordinary Triton. It
is probable that the idea of Triton owes its origin to the
Phoenician fish-deities.
See Preller, Griechische Mythologie (4th ed., 1894); F. R. Dressler, Triton und die Tritonen (Wurzen, 1892).
TRIUMPH (triumphus), amongst the ancient Romans, the
highest honour bestowed upon a victorious general. Originally
it was only granted on certain conditions, which were subsequently
relaxed in special cases. Only those who had held the
office of dictator, consul or praetor were entitled to the distinction;
the war must have been brought to a definite conclusion,
resulting in an extension of the boundaries of the state; at least
5000 of the enemy must have been slain; the victory must have
been gained over a foreign enemy, victories in civil war or over
rebels not being counted. The power of granting a triumph
rested with the senate, which held a meeting outside the city
walls (generally in the temple of Bellona) to consider the claims
put forward by the general. If they were considered satisfactory
special legislation was necessary to keep the general in possession
of the imperium on his entry into the city. Without this, his
command would have expired and he would have become a
private individual the moment he was inside the city walls,
and would have had no right to a triumph. Consequently
he remained outside the pomoerium until the special ordinance
was passed; thus Lucullus on his return from Asia waited outside
Rome three years for his triumph.
The triumph consisted of a solemn procession, which, starting from the Campus Martius outside the city walls, passed through the city to the Capitol. The streets were adorned with garlands, the temples open, and the procession was greeted with shouts of Io triumphe! At its head were the magistrates and senate, who were followed by trumpeters and then by the spoils, which included not only arms, standards, statues, &c., but also representations of battles, and of the towns, rivers and mountains of the conquered country, models of fortresses, &c. Next came the victims destined for sacrifice, especially white oxen with gilded horns. They were followed by the prisoners who had not been sold as slaves but kept to grace the triumph; when the procession reached the Capitol they were taken off to prison and put to death. The chariot which carried the victorious general (triumphator) was crowned with laurel and drawn by four horses. The general was attired like the Capitoline Jupiter in robes of purple and gold borrowed from the treasury of the god; in his right hand he held a laurel branch, in his left an ivory sceptre surmounted by an eagle. Above his head the golden crown of Jupiter was held by a slave who reminded him in the midst of his glory that he was a mortal man. Last came the soldiers shouting Io triumphe and singing
