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GREENWICH  Town in Kent (England), on the right bank of the Thames, 4.34 miles (7 km) S-E from Saint-Paul’s cathedral in London; pop. 469,370. It is particularly famous for its hospital for sailors and its observatory, whose longitude is the only one allowed on English charts. The hospital, opened in 1705, stands on the site of a former royal palace called house of Greenwich, Placentia or The Pleasaunce; it is used today as a hospital for sailors wounded in times of war, the former residents having obtained in 1865 the right to live elsewhere. The observatory was built by Charles II. Greenwich has very important factories.

Extract from the Trousset encyclopedia, 1886 - 1891.

KANO  city in central Africa, capital of a province of the same name in Hausa, 12° N. latitude and 6° 20′ E. longitude. Pop. approximately 40,000, composed of slaves for almost one half. Its 32.8 feet high (10 m) clay wall forms a loop more than 15.52 miles long (25 km). cotton fabric dyed in various colors is the main good available for trade. leather, goatskins, sandals, dyed sheepskins, kola nuts and ivory feature among the other goods for export. 5000 slaves are exported every year. The province of Kano includes a broad and fertile district, with a population of more than 500,000.

Extract from the Trousset encyclopedia, 1886 - 1891.

— Very well, Louise, to prove to you how fondly I love you, I will do one thing, I will see Madame; I will make her revoke her sentence, I will compel her to do so.
— Compel? Oh! no, no.
— True; you are right. I will bend her.
Louise shook her head.
— I will entreat her, if it be necessary, said Louis. Will you believe
in my affection after that?
Louise drew herself up.
— Oh, never, never, shall you humiliate yourself on my account; sooner, a thousand times,
would I die.
Louis reflected, his features assumed a dark expression. …Read more »

GECKO s. (onomatop. call of this animal). Herpet. Family of nocturnal saurians which includes more than sixty species, living in warm climates and having habits and traits as distinct in form and structure as those of crocodiles or chameleons. The common gecko (platydactylus guttatus, Cuv.) can be found in Asia and its archipelagoes; it is 9.84 inches (25 cm) long, the tail counting for half of this length. It is of a mainly blackish gray colour, with whitish spots. The gecko which can be found on West Indian walls is hemidactylus mabouia, Cuv. It is approximately 4.72 inches (12 cm) long, greyish and marbled with brown, with the posterior half of the tail ringed …Read more »

GUAVA TREE s. Bot. genus of myrtaceae, which includes several species of trees growing in America and in the East Indies. psidium guaiava, of which several species are cultivated, is a small tree from 9.84 to 16.4 feet (3 to 5 m) high., seldom can it grow up to 23 feet (7 m). Its fruit, of a bright yellow colour, have a strong fragrance and contain a yellowish or reddish pulp which has an acidulous flavour. The guava tree, which grows in abundance in …Read more »

Thrysis–who for his Annette dear
Made music with his flute and voice,
Which might have roused the dead to hear,
And in their silent graves rejoice–
Sang once the livelong day,
In the flowery month of May,
Up and down a meadow brook,
While Annette fish’d with line and hook.
But ne’er a fish would bite;
So the shepherdess’s bait
Drew not a fish to its fate …Read more »

Come on, Felix, come on, my dear Félicie, let’s continue our journey. We will travel through Africa; from which side shall we step in? I notice that it is almost completely surrounded by water. However it is not an island. Put the chart in front of you, we must take a look at it; because without charts, studying geography is a waste of time and effort. Ah! Felix put his finger on the small path which leads from Asia to Africa. This only passage, which is pressed on one side by the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, and on the other by those of the Red Sea - or Arabian Gulf - is called the isthmus of Suez; it is only fifty (eighty kilometers) miles wide. Thus Africa is a peninsula, the largest in the world, and …Read more »