{{Infobox settlement |official_name = Portendick |native_name = Porto d'Arco |image_skyline = |imagesize = |image_caption = |image_flag = |image_seal = |image_map = |map_caption = |pushpin_map = Mauritania |pushpin_label_position =bottom |pushpin_mapsize = 300 |pushpin_map_caption =Location in Mauritania |subdivision_type = Country |subdivision_type1 = Region |subdivision_name = 25px Mauritania |subdivision_name1 = Trarza |subdivision_type2 = |subdivision_name2 = |established_title = |established_date = |government_type = |leader_title = |leader_name = |area_magnitude = |area_total_sq_mi = |area_total_km2 = |area_land_sq_mi = |area_land_km2 = |area_urban_sq_mi = |area_urban_km2 = |area_metro_km2 = |area_metro_sq_mi = |population_as_of= |population_footnotes = |population_total = |population_urban = |population_metro = |population_density_sq_mi = |population_density_km2 = |timezone = |utc_offset = |timezone_DST = |utc_offset_DST = |coordinates = {{coord|18|35|N|16|7|W|region:MR|display=inline,title}} |elevation_footnotes= |elevation_m = |elevation_ft = |postal_code_type = |postal_code = |area_code = |website = |footnotes = }} '''Portendick''' is an abandoned coastal city in western Mauritania.<ref>{{GEOnet2|32FA883040953774E0440003BA962ED3|Portendick}}</ref> The name is a corruption of the Portuguese name '''Porto d'Arco'''.{{sfn|Koltermann|Rebstock|2006|p=75}} It was located in the Ouad Naga Department of Trarza Region.
Founded by the Dutch in 1721 after the French capture of Arguin,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barry |first1=Boubacar |title=Le royaume du Waalo: le Sénégal avant la conquête |date=1972 |publisher=Francois Maspero |location=Paris |page=174}}</ref> Portendick was a significant port for the gum arabic trade. It was the site of a major battle during the Char Bouba war between Arab Hassan and Berber Zawaya tribes.<ref name="Cambridge 200">{{cite book |last1=Fage |first1=J.D. |last2=Gray |first2=Richard |last3=Oliver |first3=Roland Anthony |title=The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 4 |url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory04fage/page/200 |year=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-20413-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory04fage/page/200 200] }}</ref>
By the 19th century, however, trade from the port had massively declined. The advancing desert had moved the ''Acacia senegal'' groves far to the south, closer to the commercial outlet of Saint-Louis on the Senegal River. The area's arid, desert climate and lack of drinking water, a natural harbor, or a trading post contributed to the decline. Nevertheless British traders would still purchase gum there, particularly when France and the Emirate of Trarza were at war. In 1825 they formed the English Company of Portendick to formalize tax payments to the Emir. The French blockaded the port for a year in 1835, during another conflict with the Trarza, capturing several British merchant vessels.<ref>{{cite book|last=Webb|first=James L. A.|title=Desert Frontier: Ecological and Economic Change Along the Western Sahel, 1600-1850|year=1995|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|page=122}}</ref>
As of 1916, all that remained of the city was a small group of huts.<ref>{{cite book|title=East Atlantic Pilot|year=1916|publisher=United States Hydrographic Office}}</ref>
== Notes == {{reflist}}
== References == * {{Cite journal| doi = 10.3726/84520_75| volume = 7| last1 = Koltermann| first1 = Till| last2 = Rebstock| first2 = Ulrich| title = Die ältesten arabischen Briefe der Emire von Trarza (Mauretanien) : Dokumente der maurischen Bündnispolitik mit Holland und England 1721-1782| journal = Zeitschrift für Weltgeschichte 7 (2006), S. [75]-108| date = 2006-01-01}}
Category:Former populated places in Mauritania Category:Trarza region