Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1255

 DEPENDENCIES 1203

Portuguese Guinea- °° the coast of Senegambia, is bounded by the limits fixed by the convention of May 12, 1886, with France, and u entirely enclosed on the land side by French possessions. It includes the adjacent archipelago of Bijagoz, with the island of Bolama, in which the capital of the same name is sitnated. Estimated population, 289,000. The chief com- mercial products are rubber, wax, oil seeds, ivory, hid< ited public revenues for 1917-18, 723,418 escudos, and expenditures, 708,700 escudoa. Military force not less than 247 (143 natives). Imports in 1919, 4,661,404 escudos; exports. 4,327,272 escados. The chief port is Bissau. There are 100 miles of telegraph lines.

The islands of S. Thome and Principe, which are about 125 miles oil the coast of Africa, in the Gulf of Guinea, were discovered in 1471, and now constitute a province under a Governor. In 1914 the population of the two islands was 58,907 in S. Thome and 4,938 in Principe, and its distribution was as follows : whites, 1,570 ; natives, 57,337. The islands are hilly, the soil volcanic, and the vegetation rich and various. The chief commercial products are cacao, coffee, rubber and cinchona. Area of cacao plantations, 125,000 acres : production in 1916, 629,450 bags (of between 132 to 140 pounds). Estimated revenue for 1917-18, 1,370,737 escudos, and expenditure, 1,285,258 escudos. Military force, at least 240 men (1S1 natives-. Imports at S. Thome' and Principe (1919), 6,575.206 escudos ; exports, 18,759,705 escudos. On S. Thom£ a railway of 9 miles "s open for traffic.

Angola (Portuguese West Africa, with a coast-line of over

1,000 miles, is separated from French Congo by the boundaries a*- by the convention of May 12, 1886 ; from the Congo by those fixed by the convention of May 25, 1391 ; from British South Africa in accordance with the convention of June 11, 1891, and from South- west Africa in accordance with that of December 30, 1S86. The colony has belonged to the Portuguese since 1575, with the exception of the years 1641 to 1648, when it was held by the Dutch. It is under a High Commissioner, who resides at Loanda, and is vested with large powers; it is divided into nine districts: Congo, Guanza Norte, Guanza- Sul, Benguella, Mazico, Mossamedcs, Huila, Cubango, and Lunda. The capital is S. Paulo de Loanda, other important towns being Cabinda, Ambriz, Novo Redondo, Benguella, Mossamedes, and Port Alexander. The indigenous population numbered 2,124,361 in 1914. There are said to be 52 Government schools, and 7 municipal and 2 private schools, with altogether about 2,410 pupils. Various missions are at work in the countrv. The military force varies between 2,721 men (1,976 natives) and 4^731 (3,602 natives). Estimated revenue in 1917-18, 13,435,221 escudos, and expenditure 16,418.413 escudos. The chief products are coffee, rubber, wax, sugar (for rum distilleries), vegetable oils, coco-nuts, ivory, oxen and fish. Rubber supplies are now becoming exhausted ; cotton -growing, formerly remunerative, has been neglected but is now increasing ; tobacco is grown and manufactured for local consumption ; petroleum and asphalt are worked by a British syndicate. The province contains large quantities of malachite and copper, iron, petroleum, and salt. Gold has also been found. Imports, exclusive of Congo (1919), 10,208,893 escudos ; exports exclusive of Congo, 11,718,322 escudos. The chief imports of the province are textiles, and the chief exports are coffee and rubber. Dried fish are exported in considerable quantities. The trade is largely with Portugal. In 1914 there entered the port of Loanda, 195 vessels of