Angola, in its wider sense, a Portuguese colony on the W. coast of South Africa, Lower Guinea, between lat, 7° 30' and 17° S. It was discovered by the Portuguese in 1488, and they have ever since held it, except from 1641 to 1648, when the capital and a portion of the colony were occupied by the Dutch. The government general of Angola, as claimed by the Portuguese, embraces an area of upward of 200,000 sq. m. The population is estimated by the Portuguese government at 2,000,000. The colony is divided into four districts, besides the Gimbandi country, which is likewise regarded as belonging to it: Ambriz, Angola proper, Benguela, and Mossamedes. The rule of the Portuguese is recognized between the in and near Angora was estimated at 1,000,-000. The yearly yield of wool is about 2,700,-000 lbs. The Angora goat was introduced into South Carolina in 1849, and still more were imported in 1863.

Koanza and the Dande only, the main part of Angola proper; outside of this territory they have isolated fortified places, and the native chiefs sustain the relation of more or less doubtful vassals. A line of forts which they intended to construct across the continent to connect with their colony of Mozambique in eastern Africa has never been completed, but the country in the interior has been explored to some extent. The soil is very fertile, and the vegetation is luxuriant; the fauna and flora are tropical. Along the rivers sugar cane is raised, and in the primitive forests excellent coffee is found. The climate is unhealthy along the coast. The mountains contain gold, iron, lead, and sulphur. Spring, the rainy season, begins in September. The most intelligent among the natives are the people of the district of Ambaca, most of whom are able to read and write. As roads are almost wholly wanting, the government employs carregadores (burden-carriers), who are furnished by the villages. In the district of Golungo-Alto the number of these carriers was estimated by Dr. Livingstone at 6,000. An army of 5,000 men, four war vessels, and the packet service consume nearly the entire revenue of the colony.

A Catholic bishop was appointed for Angola about the middle of the 16th century, and a large number of the natives were nominally received into the church; but since the expulsion of the Jesuits, the native churches have been to a large extent without priests, and the population has partly relapsed into paganism. In 1857 there were in the whole diocese only six priests, though the Christian population was estimated at 300,000. - The capital, Saint Paul de Loanda, on the coast of Angola proper, is the seat of the governor general and of the bishop; pop. 12,500, of whom 850 are whites, 2,500 mulattoes, and the remainder negroes. The chief coast towns of the three other districts are Ambriz, Sao Felipe de Benguela, and Mossamedes. (See Guinea.)