PORTUGUESE GUINEA, a northwest African colony on the Atlantic Coast, extending from the Cacheco River southward to Katafine, and eastward to long. 13° W., its boundaries on all its land sides, fixed by the convention of 12 May 1886, being the French Senegambian pos sessions. The climate is very hot and unhealth ful for Europeans. The Bissagos archipelago with other islands off the coast belong to the colony, which has a total area of 14,440 square miles. The capital and chief port is Bulama on Bulama Island; other trading ports are Bis sao, Bubah, Geba and Cacheo. The coast is indented by the estuary of the Rio Grande River with its numerous deltaic islands; the colony from the eastern mountains westward lies on both sides of the river and is mainly an alluvial plain covered with tropical forests and vegetation. Rice and millet are cultivated.
The chief commercial products, largely con trolled by the French, are rubber, ivory, hides, oil-seed and wax; the annual exports amount to over $6,000,000; the imports to $1,500,000. There is a small coasting trade, 150 vessels with an aggregate of 57,007 tons, entering the ports in one year. There is fine hunting, elephants and hippopotami being still common. The col ony is administered by a Portuguese governor and counciL The military force numbers about 250. The colony is non-supporting, the revenue being less than the expenditure. The United States in 1870 as umpire settled the ing disputes between Great Britain and Por tugal over this territory in favor of the latter. The population, almost wholly native blacks, is estimated at about 1,000,000. Consult Machat, J., du SucP (Paris 1906).