supposed to be ethnologically closely rela- to them. They are the so-called Kroomen, KROO Transylvania, which was promoted by Hpnte- rus, a disciple of Melanchthon, who is said to have been in intimate correspondence with Luther, and to have also established the earliest printing press here (1533), its first productions being the Augsburg Confession and Luther's writings. Here, too, the first paper mill was erected. Kronstadt was formerly surrounded by strong fortifications, which are now in ruins. Northeast of the town is a small citadel, situa- ted on the summit of an isolated hill, which was not without importance in the Hungarian war of 1848- '9. KROO, or Km, a negro race on the W. coast of Africa, whose territory extends from Cape Mesurado, on the right shore of the river St. Paul, to St. Andreas, a district generally known as the Pepper coast. According to a legend current among the Mandingos and Foolahs, the Kroos were driven by them out of the interior of central Africa. Their neighbors, the Avek- vom, who extend as far as the river Assinie, are ted who are employed as sailors, boatmen, store- men, and sometimes as mechanics, and in whom a traffic is carried on by the factors and ship- masters on the coast. (See LIBERIA.) KROTOSCHm (Pol. Krotoszyri), a town of Prussia, capital of a circle, in the province and 52 m. S. E. of the city of Posen ; pop. in 1871, 7,866, including over 2,000 Jews. It contains places of worship for Roman Cath- olics, Protestants, and Jews, and gives title to a mediatized principality which was conferred in 1819 upon Prince Thurn and Taxis, on the relinquishment of a portion of his postal mo- nopoly. The trade in wool is considerable, and cloth, chiccory, tobacco, and other articles are manufactured here. KROZET, or Crozet, a group of four small islands in the Indian ocean, between Kerguelen and Prince Edward islands, of volcanic origin, and composed chiefly of large rocks. Posses- sion island, the largest of the four, is 20 m. long and 10 m. broad, with three bays, of which America bay is most frequented by sealers, who subsist on albatross eggs and the flesh of the young albatross, on wild ducks, goats' flesh, and the tongue and flippers of the sea elephant. It contains some patches of land, and as the temperature is rarely very low, it is believed that potatoes and vege- tables would thrive. Penguin or Inaccessible island, a mere rock, derives its names from its inaccessibility, and from the abundance of penguins. Pigs' island, the most western of the group, which is less desolate, was so named from the pigs left there in 1834, which have increased to such an extent that they overrun the whole island, and afford abundant food for the sailors. The most eastern, in lat. 47 S., Ion. 48 E., is known as East island, and is about l^m. in diameter and 4,000 ft. high, with pre- cipices rising in some places perpendicularly from its shores. The Krozet islands were select- KRtDENER 57 ed in 1874 as an American and British station for the observation of the transit of Venus. KRiJDENER, Juliane de Vietinghoff, baroness, a Russian novelist and mystic, born in Riga, Nov. 21, 1764, died in Karasu-Bazar, Crimea, Dec. 25,. 1824. She was carefully educated in the house of her father, Baron Vietinghoff, one of the wealthiest proprietors in Livonia, and was early remarkable for intelligence and for a tendency to revery and melancholy. In 1777 she visited Paris with her parents, and on her return at the age of 18 was married to a Russian diplomatist, Baron Kriidener, whom in 1784 she accompanied to Venice and other cities of Italy, and afterward to Copenhagen and Paris; and in 1791 she made a journey through the south of France. Of a singularly naive and romantic character, she was guilty of numerous indiscretions, which led to a sep- aration from her husband in 1791. After an adventurous life, with a reputation for beau- ty and wit, in various cities of Europe, she went to Paris in 1803 with literary schemes. Her romance Valerie appeared in that year, marked by a vague melancholy and light and graceful style, which, with the support of her friends, secured it a brilliant success. Return- ing to Riga, and remaining for a time in retire- ment, she resolved to change her manner of life, and to devote herself solely to the con- version of sinners and the consolation of the wretched. In this pious design she was con- firmed by travelling in Germany, by correspon- dence with the Moravian Brethren, and by an acquaintance with the theosophist Jung-Stil- ling. Her correspondence for several years abounds in mystical effusions, more elegant though less profound than those of Mme. Guyon, and reveals her double tendency to illuminism and to worldly frivolity. At Paris in 1814 she held religious assemblies in her house, which were frequented by the most im- portant personages. Her spiritual exaltation assumed the character of prevision, and in a letter she foretold in vague terms the escape of Napoleon from Elba, his triumphant return to Paris, and the second exile of the Bourbons. This letter was communicated to the emperor Alexander of Russia, in whom it awakened great interest toward her, and whom she met at Heilbronn in May, 1815, and accompanied to Heidelberg, the headquarters of the allies, and after the battle of Waterloo to Paris. She was present at the grand review of the Russian army in the plain of Chalons, which she de- scribed under the title of the Camp des vertus (1815). The articles of the holy alliance are said to have been submitted to her revision. Her doctrines, agreeing with the forms of no Christian communion, caused several of the German states to forbid her residence in them. She passed the latter part of her life among the poor and the sick, manifesting an unwearied ardor, and joyously sacrificing herself for the solace of the wretched. In 1818 she returned to Russia, where the emperor continued his
