0 m. S.W. of St Thomas.
Its length is about 4 m., its breadth 2, and its area 6-3/4 sq. m.
Rising in some parts nearly 3000 ft. above the sea, it presents a
succession of beautiful valleys and steep mountains, covered with rich
woods and luxuriant vegetation. The inhabitants, some 3000 in number,
are negroes and profess belief in the Roman Catholic faith. The chief
town and residence of the governor is called St Antony (San Antonio de
Praia). The roadstead is tolerably safe, and passing vessels take
advantage of it in order to obtain water and fresh provisions, of which
Annobon contains an abundant supply. The island was discovered by the
Portuguese on the 1st of January 1473, from which circumstance it
received its name (= New Year). Annobon, together with Fernando Po, was
ceded to Spain by the Portuguese in 1778. The islanders revolted against
their new masters and a state of anarchy ensued, leading, it is averred,
to an arrangement by which the island was administered by a body of five
natives, each of whom held the office of governor during the period that
elapsed till ten ships touched at the island. In the latter part of the
19th century the authority of Spain was re-established.

ANNONA (from Lat. _annus_, year), in Roman mythology, the
personification of the produce of the year. She is represented in works
of art, often together with Ceres, with a _cornucopia_ (horn of plenty)
in her arm, and a ship's prow in the background, indicating the
transport of grain over the sea. She frequently occurs on coins of the
empire, standing between a _modius_ (corn-measure) and the prow of a
galley, with ears of corn in one hand and a _cornucopia_ in the other;
sometimes she holds a rudder or an anchor. The Latin word itself has
various meanings: (1) the produce of the year's harvest; (2) all means
of subsistence, especially grain stored in the public granaries for
provisioning the city; (3) the market-price of commodities, especially
corn; (4) a direct tax in kind, levied in republican times in several
provinces, chiefly employed in imperial times for distribution amongst
officials and the support of the soldiery.

In order to ensure a supply of corn sufficient to enable it to be sold
at a very low price, it was procured in large quantities from Umbria,
Etruria and Sicily. Almost down to the times of the empire, the care of
the corn-supply formed part of the aedile's duties, although in 440 B.C.
(if the statement in Li