Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/197

 The Arguin Bank terminates at Cape Mirik, about 100 miles south-east of Cape Blanco, near which a breach in the dunes indicates the approach to the dangerous roadstead of Portendik, the old Port of Addi, which enjoyed a certain importance till 1857, the English, when restoring Senegal to France, having reserved the right of trading in these waters. But this right having been relinquished in exchange for the station of Albreda, at the mouth of the Gambia, Portendik has

lost all commercial value, and Saint-Louis remains the only outport: for the whole seaboard from Cape Blanco to the mouth of the Senegal.

But the capital depends itself on its maritime port of Gorée-Dakar, which has the advantage of lying in deep water under the shelter of Cape Verd, and which is now connected with Saint-Louis by the three fortified stations of Lompul, Mboro, and Mbijen. By the Convention of 1861 the whole coast was declared French territory; next year a second route was opened farther inland, and in 1885 the railway was completed which henceforth connects Saint-Louis with its natural port on the Gulf of Gorée. In the intervening fertile region of Cayor lie several large centres of population, such as Mpal, surrounded by plantations of ground-nuts, Luga farther south, and Mdand, the old capital of the kingdom of Cayor.