352 



FRANCE. 



and half of the region inclosed in the great 

 bend of the Niger. Between Sierra Leone and 

 Portuguese Senegambia the French have a 

 strip of coast. Their possessions in this region 

 are about 130,000 square miles in extent, not 

 counting the indefinite claims to the east of 

 the Niger. The trade of Senegambia, which is 

 almost exclusively with France, now amounts 

 to 50,000,000 francs per annum, equally divided 

 between imports and exports. On the Guinea 

 coast France claims about 10,000 square miles 

 behind the stations of Grand Bassam, Assinie, 

 Grand Popo, Porto Novo, and Kotonere, from 

 which an export trade in cabinet- woods and 

 palm - oil is carried on. The exports from 

 Porto Novo alone are estimated at 1,000,000 

 francs a year, and the imports at an equal 

 amount. The practice of claiming the entire 

 interior back of occupied sections of the coast 

 has led to a rivalry between the French, whose 

 coast line faces the west, except the limited es- 

 tablishments on the Ivory and Gold Coasts, 

 and the British, whose possessions on the 

 Guinea coast, if extended into the interior, 

 will cut off the French from the regions lying 

 behind Senegambia, which they claim to in- 

 clude in their sphere of influence, and over a 

 part of which they assert, but have not yet 

 exercised, a protectorate. In this race the 

 British have at present the advantage in their 

 possession of the water-way of the Niger. 



The activity of the English on the Niger im- 

 pelled the French to push more vigorously the 

 project of extending their Senegambian prov- 

 inces so as to embrace the upper Niger and 

 Timbuctoo. When this scheme was first enter- 

 tained several expeditions were sent from St. 

 Louis to penetrate to the Niger, and 50 miles 

 were built of a railroad that was to extend 

 from Medina, on the middle Senegal, to Ba- 

 makou, on the npper Niger, a distance of over 

 300 miles. After sinking much capital and 

 losing many lives in fights with the natives 

 and by the diseases of the climate, the work was 

 stopped. In 1887 Lieut. Caron descended the 

 Niger in a gun-boat from Sansanding to Tim- 

 buctoo, where he was inhospitably received. 

 This is the precursor of other expeditions, 

 which will result in the annexation of Timbuc- 

 too, an important trading-center, but not the 

 only town in the western Soudan in which 

 a caravan trade is carried on with the north. 

 The work on the Senegal railroad is to be re- 

 sumed, and the project has been revived of 

 extending it through the Sahara so as to con- 

 nect Senegambia with Algeria. 



The French have lately been busy in extend- 

 ing their influence over the tribes of the inte- 

 rior behind the Gold Coast. One of the chiefs 

 near Lagos was seized and transported by the 

 British for listening to overtures of French 

 officers, one of whom subsequently visited 

 Abeokuta, a populous town in the kingdom of 

 Agbas, and made a treaty with several native 

 chiefs, which, except for the active measures 

 that were taken by the British, would have 



resulted in closing the roads to Lagos and di- 

 verting the entire trade of the river Ogoun to 

 Porto Novo. 



The French possessions in the Gaboon and 

 Congo regions have expanded greatly since 

 1884, until now the French Congo, the Ogowe", 

 and the Gaboon colonies have an area of 238,- 

 000 square miles that is conceded to France, 

 while her sphere of influence on the north of 

 the Congo reaches at present over at least 

 160,000 square miles more. The entire basin 

 of the Ogow6, and the Kwilu with its stations 

 were conceded by the Berlin Conference, while 

 her claim to the interior as far as the Mobangi, 

 which has been identified as the Welle, com- 

 prising the entire north bank of the river until 

 it cuts the 4th parallel of north latitude, has 

 been virtually admitted. The commercial value 

 of these acquisitions has been very slight up to 

 the present time. The entire trade of the 

 Gaboon is estimated not to exceed 10,000,000 

 francs per annum. The total trade of the 

 French dominions in Africa amounts to about 

 500,000,000 francs. Including Algeria and 

 Tunis, about 700,000 square miles, or nearly 

 one sixteenth of the entire surface of Africa, 

 are subject to France, with a population of 

 between 7,000,000 and 10,000,000 souls. 



The Marquesas Islands have been a French 

 protectorate since 1841. In September, 1888, 

 the French flag was hoisted and the islands 

 were taken possession of after severe fighting 

 between French marines and the natives. 



The New Hebrides convention released 

 France from an engagement, made in 1847, not 

 to annex Raiatea, Borabora, and Huahine, 

 called the Isles sous le Vent or the Leeward 

 Islands, of the Society Archipelago. In 1878 

 the French took possession of the principal cne 

 of the group, Raiatea, and since then the 

 French flag has floated over the island, but 

 only through the sufferance of Great Britain, 

 and, by virtue of a convention that had to bo 

 renewed annually, only for six months of each 

 year. The English and German residents, 

 hoping still to induce the British Government 

 to revoke its decision by fomenting native op- 

 position to the French occupation, stirred up a 

 rebellion against King Tamatoa, the ruler who 

 enjoyed French protection. After failing to 

 intimidate the rebels with cannon shots, the 

 officer in command of the naval force on Dec. 

 17, 1887 issued an ultimatum calling on the in- 

 habitants to submit to Tamatoa, and on the 

 refusal of several chiefs the gun-boat ''Scor- 

 pion " bombarded their villages and landed 

 troops. On March 16, the French flag was 

 raised on all the islands. Five days after the 

 annexation of Huahine the natives hostile to 

 French rule attacked a patrol, killing an officer 

 and two sailors. The disturbance was quelled, 

 and did not recur. In June the hostile natives 

 of Raiatea sent a demand that the French 

 should evacuate the island, to which the naval 

 commander replied by landing a company of 

 marines and a cannon. 



