r 88 



WEST AFRICA. 



of Ilo, from which point the river Niger is the 

 boundary up to the Dallul Mauri. The British 

 did practically nothing to establish their power 

 in northern Nigeria after taking over the country 

 from the British Niger Company. The native sol- 

 diery that was recruited and trained for the pur- 

 pose was called off to the Ashantee war, and the 

 Government had to face a general movement of 

 rebellion among the coast tribes. The Anglo- 

 French boundary, according to the terms of the 

 convention, should have been laid down within 

 two years, but no steps were taken to carry out 

 this provision, and in that region nothing was 

 done to develop English authority or influence, 

 unless, as the French suspected, the English made 

 a secret alliance with Rabah, the Arab slave- 

 raiding conqueror who laid waste one country 

 after another in the Central Soudan and was hold- 

 ing sway over Bagirmi and Bornu when the French 

 routed his army near the Shari. Fadelallah, 

 Rabah's son, was able to hold together the chiefs 

 who followed the fortunes of his father and still 

 defied the French in the Shari province until Capt. 

 Robillot, in February, 1901, defeated him and his 

 brother Niebe, killing a great many of his men 

 and capturing his camp. The French lost 2 killed 

 and 25 wounded. Fadelallah, pursued by the 

 French column, fled 300 miles into Bornu. He 

 rallied a considerable force, and entered into com- 

 munications with the British. Major McClintock 

 with a small force proceeded from Ibi, on the 

 Binue, and negotiated a treaty by which Fadelal- 

 lah was to be recognized as Emir of Bornu under 

 British protection. The absence of Sir Frederick 

 Lugard in England prevented the consummation 

 of any arrangement at this time. While another 

 expedition under the command of Capt. McCarthy 

 Morrough was preparing to visit him again at 

 Bergama and formally install him as ruler of 

 Bornu, a company of spahis and infantry under 

 Capt. Dangerville once more crossed German ter- 

 ritory west of the Shari, and penetrated into 

 Bornu, and on Aug. 23 attacked Fadelallah in his 

 camp, routed his forces, and killed him. Two 

 days later his brother and the rest of the chiefs 

 surrendered to the French. The actual ruler of 

 Bornu, whose seat was Begra on Lake Chad, 

 Kuka, the former capital, which had 100,000 in- 

 habitants, having been destroyed by Rabah, paid 

 tribute to the French. While British power was 

 unknown, the French were exceedingly active in 

 the region about Lake Chad. The Foureau ex- 

 pedition and the one under Capt. Joalland and 

 Lieut. Meynier passed through Bornu and were 

 aided by the hereditary sultan, whom the French 

 had enabled to gain the throne by their overthrow 

 of Rabah. On Dec. 20, 1900, the third military 

 district in French West Africa was constituted, 

 and the Chamber voted 550,000 francs for the 

 occupation of this district between the Niger and 

 Lake Chad and the establishment of military 

 posts at Say, Zinder, Maradi, and Koni, although 

 the two latter places are within the British 

 sphere. Col. Perez, who went out as commandant 

 of the new territory, was instructed to reach his 

 post without traversing British territory. He 

 succeeded in reaching Zinder by following the cir- 

 cumference of the Socoto circle, and his experience 

 demonstrated the impracticability of this route 

 between Say and Zinder, since it crosses two 

 desert tracts infested by Tuareg robbers. The 

 French desire a revision of the convention of 1898, 

 which will give them not only a better route, 

 but which, in return for adequate compensation 

 elsewhere, will transfer to their sphere the whole 

 of Bornu, which they have redeemed from oppres- 

 sion and where their effective influence has been 



developed as a result of their establishing their 

 power in the Shari delta at the cost of heavy sacri- 

 fices. Gauranga, the Sultan of Bagirmi, although 

 he was rescued from Rabah's oppressions by the 

 French, who have made their rule light, exacting 

 only a nominal tribute, is not altogether pleased 

 with the exchange of a Mohammedan for an in- 

 fidel overlord, and still less with the loss of the 

 rich Shari delta, which he was obliged to cede 

 formally to France and which is covered with 

 French military posts. The tract between the 

 Shari and the Logon he has to give up to the 

 Germans, and this loss he ascribes likewise to the 

 French, since in the Soudan all Europeans are re- 

 garded as Frenchmen. 



In Kanem, a country tributary to Wadai, situ- 

 ated on the northeast shore of Lake Chad, Capt. 

 Joalland set up a sultan, Alifa Serab, who was 

 devoted to the French. He had soon to defend his 

 protege against the Aulad Sulimans and Tubbus, 

 Bedouin tribes that were adherents of El Senussi, 

 the mahdi of the central Soudan, which immedi- 

 ately rose against the friend of unbelievers. Mo- 

 hammed es Senussi, another vassal of Wadai, re- 

 ceived a French mission in Ndele, his capital, 

 and signed a treaty of commerce and protection, 

 but did not attempt to throw off his allegiance to 

 the Sultan of Wadai, to whom he pays tribute in 

 slaves and ivory. Ibrahim, who succeeded his 

 father Yussuf as Sultan of Wadai in 1898 through 

 the influence of the Vizier Djerma, the elder 

 brother Abdelasiz being thrown into prison, where 

 his eyes were put out, tried afterward to remove 

 the vizier. The latter thereupon entered into a 

 conspiracy to put Achmed, Yussuf 's brother, upon 

 the throne. Some of the chief men of the country 

 were won over, among them the Aghib el Mo- 

 hammed, the commander-in-chief, through whom 

 Achmed obtained possession of a large quantity of 

 war material stored three days' journey from 

 Abesha. Two of Ibrahim's generals, Yassin and* 

 Satty, were murdered. The members of the sect 

 of the Sheik Senussi were hostile to Ibrahim, who 

 was not on as good terms with its head as his 

 father had been. El Senussi sent envoys to the 

 Sultan Ibrahim to induce him to enter into a 

 league to oppose with force the advance of the 

 Europeans to Lake Chad. The proposed alliance 

 was not effected. The Sheik Senussi showed 

 secret activity and assembled a great number of 

 his nomadic adherents in the Guru oases. Ibra- 

 him was a weak and unpopular ruler whose offi- 

 cials oppressed the people of the country and 

 plundered the merchants from Tripoli. The result 

 of the civil war was his downfall. In May he was 

 reported to have fallen into the hands of Achmed 

 and to have been either killed or deprived of sight. 

 Wadai is still the most populous and powerful of 

 the states of the central Soudan. Before it was 

 overrun by Rabah's horde Bagirmi as well as 

 Kanem sent tribute to Abesha. The area of 

 Wadai is 172,000 square miles, and the popula- 

 tion was estimated by Nachtigal at 2,600,000. 

 The Arab traders of Wadai exchanged salt and 

 manufactured goods for ivory, slaves, ostrich- 

 feathers, and copper, sending their caravans as 

 far south as Dar Banda and as far west as Bornu. 

 There is an active trade with Tripoli. The politi- 

 cal power is in the hands of the negro Mabas, who 

 dwell in the northeastern part of Wadai. The 

 Sultan had an army of 7,000 men, which he em- 

 ployed in collecting tribute in slaves, horses, cat- 

 tle, honey, and grain from the provinces and 

 vassal states. Kanem has an area of 30,000 

 square miles and a population of about 100,000. 

 The Aulad Suliman Arabs, who muster 1,000 

 fighting men, have kept the Kanem people in sub- 



