he chief imports are food-stuffs, cotton and
woollen goods and hardware. Considerable quantities of coal come
from South Wales. Oxen, introduced from Europe and from South Africa,
flourish. There are sugar factories, where rum is also distilled and a
few other manufactures, but the prosperity of the province depends
on the "jungle" products obtained through the natives and from the
plantations owned by Portuguese and worked by indentured labour, the
labourers being generally "recruited" from the far interior. The trade
of the province, which had grown from about L800,000 in 1870 to
about L3,000,000 in 1905, is largely with Portugal and in Portuguese
bottoms. Between 1893 and 1904 the percentage of Portuguese as
compared with foreign goods entering the province increased from 43 to
201%, a result due to the preferential duties in force.

The minerals found include thick beds of copper at Bembe, and deposits
on the M'Brije and the Cuvo and in various places in the southern
part of the province; iron at Ociras (on the Lucalla affluent of the
Kwanza) and in Bailundo; petroleum and asphalt in Dande and Quinzao;
gold in Lombije and Cassinga; and mineral salt in Quissama. The native
blacksmiths are held in great repute.

_Communications._--There is a regular steamship communication between
Portugal, England and Germany, and Loanda, which port is within
sixteen days' steam of Lisbon. There is also a regular service between
Cape Town, Lobito and Lisbon and Southampton. The Portuguese line is
subsidized by the government. The railway from Loanda to Ambaca and
Malanje is known as the Royal Trans-African railway. It is of metre
gauge, was begun in 1887 and is some 300 m. long. It was intended to
carry the line across the continent to Mozambique, but when the line
reached Ambaca (225 m.) in 1894 that scheme was abandoned. The railway
had created a record in being the most expensive built in tropical
Africa--L8942 per mile. A railway from Lobito Bay, 25 m.N. of
Benguella, begun in 1904, runs towards the Congo-Rhodesia frontier. It
is of standard African gauge (3 ft. 6 in.) and is worked by an English
company. It is intended to serve the Katanga copper mines. Besides
these two main railways, there are other short lines linking the
seaports to their hinterland. Apart from the railways, communication
is by ancient caravan routes and by ox-wagon tracks in the southern
district. Riding-oxen are also used. The province is well supplied