Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/586

 482 NOBTH-WEST AI'EICA. Thanks also to their support, the Spaniards have become, since the end of the year 1884, the nominal masters of the entire strip of coastlands which stretch for a space of about 480 miles, between Capes Bojador and Blanco. Through their influence Spain hopes perhaps to be able to penetrate into the interior, and thus attract the caravan trade towards its new settlements on the Atlantic seaboard. Four stations have already been founded on this coast, one at Villa Cisneros, in the Erguibats peninsula, another farther east on the shore of the Rio de Oro inlet, and one each on the C intra and Del Oeste creeks. But hitherto all these Spanish settlements have remained little more than obscure fishing villages, less important even than were formerly similar establishments founded in the same districts by the fishermen of the Canary Islands. At that time the waters were crowded with fishing smacks in the neighbourhood of Cape Bojador, and especially about Angra dos Ruyvos, or " Roach Bay."