# Portendick

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{{Infobox settlement
|official_name = Portendick
|native_name = Porto d'Arco
|image_skyline = 
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|pushpin_map = Mauritania
|pushpin_label_position =bottom
|pushpin_mapsize        = 300
|pushpin_map_caption    =Location in Mauritania
|subdivision_type = [Country](/source/Countries_of_the_world)
|subdivision_type1 = [Region](/source/Regions_of_Mauritania)
|subdivision_name = 25px [Mauritania](/source/Mauritania)
|subdivision_name1 = [Trarza](/source/Trarza)
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'''Portendick''' is an abandoned coastal city in western [Mauritania](/source/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](/source/Ouad_Naga_Department) of [Trarza Region](/source/Trarza_Region).

Founded by the Dutch in 1721 after the French capture of [Arguin](/source/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](/source/gum_arabic) trade. It was the site of a major battle during the [Char Bouba war](/source/Char_Bouba_war) between [Arab](/source/Arab) Hassan and [Berber](/source/Berbers) [Zawaya](/source/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](/source/Acacia_senegal)'' groves far to the south, closer to the commercial outlet of [Saint-Louis](/source/Saint-Louis%2C_Senegal) on the [Senegal River](/source/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](/source/Great_Britain) traders would still purchase gum there, particularly when France and the [Emirate of Trarza](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Portendick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portendick) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portendick?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.