HUELVA (the

See also:

• ANCIENT
• ANCIENT (also spelt ANTIENT; derived, through the Fr. ancien, old, from the late Lat. antianum, from ante, before)

ancient Onuba, Onoba, or Onuba Aestuaria)  , the capital of the Spanish province of Huelva, about 10 m. from the Atlantic Ocean, on the left bank of the river Odiel, and on the Seville-Huelva, Merida-Huelva and Rio Tinto-Huelva railways, the last-named being a narrow-gauge line . Pop . (1900) 21,357 . Huelva is built on the western shore of a triangular peninsula formed by the estuaries of the Odiel and Tinto, which meet below the town . It is wholly modern in character and appearance, and owes its prosperity to an ever-increasing transit trade in copper and other ores, for which it is the port of shipment . After 1872, when the famous Rio Tinto copper mines were for the first time properly exploited, it progressed rapidly in size and wealth . Dredging operations removed a great part of the sandbanks lining the navigable main channel of the Odiel, and deepened the water over the bar at its mouth; new railways were opened, and port works were undertaken on a large scale, including the construction of extensive quays and two piers, and the installation of modern appliances for handling cargo . Many of these improvements were added after 1900 . Besides exporting copper, manganese and other minerals, which in 1903 reached 2,750,000 tons, valued at more than £1,500,000, Huelva is the headquarters of profitable sardine, tunny and bonito fisheries, and of a trade in grain, grapes, olives and cork . The copper and cork industries are mainly in British hands, and the bulk of the imports, which consist chiefly of coal, iron and steel and machinery, comes from Great Britain . Foodstuffs and Australian hardwood are also imported . Huelva was originally a Carthaginian trading-station, and afterwards a Roman colony; but it retains few memorials of its past, except the Roman aqueduct, repaired in modern times, and the colossal statue of Columbus .

This was erected in 1892 to commemorate the

fourth centenary of his voyage to the new world in 1492-1493, which began and ended in the village of San Palos de la Frontera on the Tinto . Columbus resided in the neighbouring monastery of Santa Maria la Rabida after his original plans for the voyage had been rejected by King John II. of Portugal in 1484 . An exact reproduction of this monastery was erected in 1893 at the World's Fair, Chicago, U.S.A., and was afterwards converted into a sanatorium . Higher up the Tinto, above San Palos, is the town of Moguer (pop . 8455), which exports large quantities of oil and wine . HU$RCAL OVERA, a town of south-eastern Spain, in the province of Almeria, on the Lorca-Baza railway, and between two branches of the river Almanzora . Pop . (1900) 15,763 . Huercal Overa is the chief town of a thriving agricultural district, largely dependent for its prosperity on the lead mining carried on among the surrounding highlands .