ies
and of jests in Latin at the expense of the monks (1380-1459).

POINT DE GALLE (33), a town on a promontory in the SW. of Ceylon,
with a good harbour, and the great port of call for the lines of steamers
in the Eastern waters.

POISSON, SIMEON-DENIS, a celebrated French mathematician, born at
Pithiviers; was for his eminence in mathematical ability and physical
research raised to the peerage; wrote no fewer than 300 memoirs
(1781-1840).

POITIERS (34), the capital of the dep. of Vienne, 61 m. SW. of
Tours; has a number of interesting buildings, a university and large
library; in its neighbourhood Clovis defeated Alaric II. in 507, Charles
Martel the Moors in 732, and the Black Prince the troops of King John in
1356.

POITOU, formerly a province in France, lying S. of the Loire,
between the Vienne River and the sea; passed to England when its
countess, Eleanor, married Henry I., 1152; was taken by Philip Augustus
1205, ceded to England again 1360, and retaken by Charles V. 1369.

POLA (31), the chief naval station of Austria, 73 m. S. of Trieste,
in the Adriatic; the harbour is both spacious and deep; was originally a
Roman colony, and a flourishing seat of commerce.

POLAND, formerly a kingdom larger than modern Austro-Hungary, with a
population of 24 millions, lying between the Baltic and the Carpathians,
with Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Silesia on the W., and the Russian
provinces of Smolensk, Tchernigoff, Poltava, and Kherson on the E.; the
Dwina, the Memel, and the Vistula flowed through its northern plains; the
Dnieper traversed the E., the Dniester and the Bug rose in its SE.
corner. The country is fertile; great crops of cereals are raised; there
are forests of pine and oak, and extensive pasture lands; vast salt-mines
are wrought at Cracow; silver, iron, copper, and lead in other parts.
Poland took rank among European powers in the 10th century under
Mieczyslaw, its first Christian king. During the 12th and 13th centuries
it sank to the rank of a duchy. In 1241 the Mongols devastated the
country, and thereafter colonies of Germans and Jewish refugees settled
among the Slav population. The first Diet met in 1331, and Casimir the
Great, 1333-1370, raised the country to a high level of prosperity,
fostering the commerce of Danzig and Cracow. The dynasty of the Jagellons
united Lithuania to Poland, ended two centuries' contest with the
Teutonic knights, and yielded to the nobles such privilege