Seychelles
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Seychelles. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
sa-shel', an archipelago of thirty-four islands in the Indian Ocean a few hundred miles northeast of Madagascar. Many are mere uninhabited rocks. The larger islands produce fine timber, vanilla, and a certain cocoanut that is not found elsewhere. The inhabitants are Africans. The group belongs to Great Britain . The Seychelles have present interest for Americans from the exhibition of a gigantic 450-pound tortoise at the St. Louis World's Fair. This venerable tortoise is known to be 150 years old, and is thought to be a century older. It is a representative of a race well nigh extinct. It is held in high esteem by the natives, but they were induced to loan the old settler to the fair, where he was greatly admired, and gave many schoolchildren a ride on his broad back. See Galapagos ; Tortoise
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a group of about 90 islands in the Indian Ocean; between lat. 3° 40′ and 5° 35' S., and lon. 55° 15′ and 56° E. They were first occupied by the French, and were ceded to the British in 1814. The settlers are mostly of French extraction. The largest island is Mahé, the majority of the others being mere rocks. With the exception of two consisting of coral, they are composed of granite piled up in huge masses, and terminating in peaks. Most of them are covered with verdure, and yield good timber. Cotton, coffee, cocoa, spices, tobacco, maize, rice, and tropical fruits are cultivated; and cocoanut oil, soap, vanilla, etc., exported. Pop. (1918) 24,572.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Aiton's wrote in 1910 that "the group belongs to Great Britain," and Collier's noted the 1814 cession from France, the islands were a minor dependency administered from Mauritius until 1903 and counted 24,572 people in 1918. Seychelles became an independent republic in 1976, and after a 1977 coup led by France-Albert Rene it was a one-party state until multiparty elections resumed in 1993; the population is now well over 100,000, and Seychellois Creole sits beside English and French as an official language. The copra, vanilla and spices Collier's listed have been displaced by tourism and tuna, which have given the country one of the highest incomes per head in Africa. The "certain cocoanut that is not found elsewhere" is the coco de mer, still growing wild only on Praslin and Curieuse, while the giant tortoises that so impressed the St. Louis fair crowds survive chiefly on Aldabra, now a protected UNESCO World Heritage site.
Written for this edition, 2026.