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 PORTUGUESE

312

POSITIVISM

over the city but subordinate to the Patriarch of the East Indies at Goa. A force of 2730 men of the first Une form the colonial army and the policing of the rivers and harbours is done by flotillas of gunboats. The custom houses are subordinate to that of Lou- rengo Marques. Primary schools exist in the principal centres, but very little has been done for education. Mat:gh.*.m, Portuguese East Africa and Zambesia (London, 1910); Vasconcellos, As Colonias Portuguezas (2nd ed., Lisbon, 1903).

Edgar Prestage.

Portuguese West Africa, the name usually given to the Province of Angola. It has a coast line of 1015 miles from the Congo to the Cunene Rivers and an area of 490,525 sq. miles, including the territories of Cabinda, I\Iolendo, and Massabi, on the coast north of the Congo. These are surrounded by the French Congo, while the rest of the province is bounded by Belgian, British, and German territory. The Congo was first entered by Diego Cam in 148-4, who erected a pillar in token of occupation, and with him was Martin Behaim the cosmographer. Ever since it has belonged to Portugal, except for a period of Dutch domination (1640-48), the Hollanders being exijelled by Admiral Correa de Sd e Bene\'ides. Only in recent years has this great territory been explored, and even now the whole of it is not effectively occupied, though military expeditions from the mother-countrj' have conquered the most warlike tribes, and a chain of fortified posts keeps them in subjection. The coast is low, and a sandy, barren plain stretches some way inland; beyond this the pro\-ince is mountainous and very fertile. St. Paul de Loanda, the capital, has an anchorage ground of 1700 acres; Benguella, Mossa- medes, and Porto Alexandre are good ports; while the only drawback to Lobito, the terminus of the new rail- way, is that it lacks jiotable water, as does the Bahia dos Tigres, which could otherwise shelter 5000 vessels in its 63,000 acres of water, as deep as 117 feet. The province is irrigated by the Rivers Chiloango, Congo, and Cuanza, while the Zambesi skirts its south-east frontier. The coast abounds in fish, and the territory in minerals, such as malachite, iron, petroleum, salt, lead, and sulphur, but its principal wealth lies in coffee (of which Loanda ex-ported 4112 tons in 1894), india- rubber, gum, wax, and ivory, which are sent to Portu- gal and exchanged for cotton and woollen goods and wine. Formerly Angola depended for its prosperity almost entirely on the slave trade, and during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries many thousands of natives were transported annually to Brazil. The native population is reckoned at four millions; their religion is Fetichism, and they include a great variety of races. There is only a small proportion of whites.

For administrative purposes the province is divided into six districts, and then into concdhos. Their names are Congo, Loanda, Benguella, Mossamedes, Huilla, and Lunda. The governor-general possesses civil and military attributes and resides at Loanda, while each district has a subordinate governor. For purposes of justice there are five conwrcas, each with a judge; and a tribunal of second instance, composed of five judges, sits at Loanda. Each comarca has a commercial tri- bunal of first instance, and each parish a judge of the people, appointed annually. The military establish- ment consists of an army of 3200 men, partly Euro- pean, partly native. For ecclesiastical purposes the province is subject to the Bishop of Loanda, and be- longs to the Lisbon Province.

The Province of Guinea, another West African possession of Portugal, comprising 4450 sq. miles, is surrounded by French posses,sions, and its coast is cut up by innumerable inlets. It is a low-lying and well- watered territorj-, the chief rivers being the Cacheo, Mansoa, and Geba. The climate is unhealthful for Europeans. The soil is generally of great fertility, and the province is fit for plantations on a large scale. Its

products are tobacco, sugar, india-rubber, wax, and leather, which are exported through the commercial centres of Geba, Bissau, Farin, and Bolama.

The population numbers about 67, (XX) and belongs to ten races, subdivided into many tribes. There are very few whites resident. The country has one con- celho, that of Bolama, the seat of government, and is divided otherwise into four military commands. It is generally in a state of war, the natives being turbulent. A vicar-general and six missionary rectors form the religious staff of the pro\dnce, and these latter are also professors of primary instruction.

De Vasconcellos, As Colanias Portuguezas (2nd ed., Lisbon, 1903); CoucEiBO, Angola (Lisbon, 1910).

Edgar Prestage.

Port Victoria (Australia). See Northern Ter- ritory, Prefecture Apostolic of.

Port Victoria, Diocese of (Portus Victori.e Seychellarum), comprises the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean. With their dependencies, these eighty-nine islands, the principal of which are Mah(^', Praslin, Silhouette, Curieuse, and La Digue, cover an area of 148^2 sq. miles. The French oc- cupied the islands about 1742, but they were captured by the British in 1794, and were formally ceded to Great Britain in 1848. Port ^'ictoria, the capital of Mah6 and situated on the north-eastern side of the island, is the seat of the colonial government, the present governor being Walter Edward Davidson, C.M.G. In December, 1909, the estimated popula- tion of the islands was 22,409. Both Catholic and Church of England primary schools are aided by the State. The principal exports are vanilla, cocoa- nuts, cocoa-nut oil, tortoise-shell, soap, and guano. The double cocoa-nut known as Coco de Mcr is grown in Mahe and Praslin, while Aldabra, a dependencj' about 680 miles from Mahe, is famous for enormous land tortoises. By a Papal Decree of 26 November, 1852, the Seychelles were separated from the Diocese of Port Louis and made a prefecture Apostolic, to which a Decree of 6 December, 1854, joined the Amirantes and Agalega Islands, likewise separated from Port Louis. The first prefect Apostolic was the Right Reverend Jeremias Paglietti, who as a mission- ary had laboured successfully in the region for many years. In 1863 the mission was confided to the Capuchins, and was made a vicariate Apostolic on 31 Aug., 1880. As the Diocese of Port Victoria (erected 14 July, 1892), it was a suffragan of Colombo, Ceylon, but by a Decree of 3 June, 1899, it became directly subject to the Holy See. The present bishop is the Right Reverend Bernard Thomas Clarke, O.M.Cap. (b. at London, 12 November, 1856; made titular Bishop of Tingis, 19 March, 1902, and Vicar Apostohc of Arabia). On 10 June, 1910, he was transferred to Port Victoria, where he succeeded Bishop Marc Hudrisier (b. at Faverges, France, 27 Julv, 1848; became Bishop of Port Victoria, 21 July, 1892; d. Feb., 1910). Besides Capuchins there are in the diocese Marist Brothers and Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny. There are 18 ecclesiastical residences, 18 churches or chapels, 1 infirmary, 24 schools with 2170 pupils, 2 colleges with 215 students, 2 orphanages with 67 orphans.

Missiones Calholica (Rome, 1907); Statesman's Year Book (1911); Battaxdier, Ann. pont (Paris, 1911).

Blanche M. Kelly.

Posen. See Gnesen-Posen, Archdiocese op.

Positivism, a system of philosophical and re- ligious doctrines elaborated by Auguste Comte. As a philosophical system or method. Positivism denies the validity of metaphysical speculations, and main- tains that the data of sense experience are the only object and the supreme criterion of human knowl- edge; as a religious system, it denies the existence of a personal God and takes humanity, "the great