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SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA
direction from south to north close to the mainland. Towards the middle, however, it is pierced by a channel, the so-called bar of Corimba, through which light craft gain access to the bay. The northern extremity of this sandy rampart thus forms a long, low-lying island, whose shores are often flooded by the stormy
Fig. 11. — Southern spit of Loanda Angola.
waves of the Atlantic. Such is the islet of Loanda, on which the Portuguese founded their first settlement in the year 1576, at a time when they did not yet venture to establish factories on the mainland. The island, on which stood seven libatus, or native villages, was otherwise a place of exceptional importance for its inhabitants, constituting a sort of treasury where they collected the cowries
