FRANCE. 



335 



inhabitants. Fort de France, the political capi- 

 tal, with 14,000 inhabitants, was half destroyed 

 by a fire on June 22, 1890. Guiana is a penal 

 colony. There are about 8,500 inhabitants in 

 the town of Cayenne and 12,000 in the interior, 

 besides savage tribes in the mountains. The 

 number of convicts is about 3,500 in the peni- 

 tentiaries and at large. The local budget was 

 2,003,374 in 1888 and the French expenditure 

 was 1,597,805 francs. St. Pierre and Miquelon 

 had 5,992 inhabitants in 1887. The catch of 

 codfish was valued at 13,439,532 francs, and the 

 total exports at 18,230,272 francs. 



New Caladonia, in the Pacific, is a penal col- 

 ony, having an area of 6,000 square miles, one 

 third of which has been alloted to natives and 

 colonists, leaving only about 600 square miles of 

 land suitable for cultivation. The population in 

 1887 was 62,752. of which number 5,585 were 

 colonists, 3,476 officials and military, 41,874 na- 

 tives, 1,825 imported laborers, 2,515 liberated 

 convicts, and 7,477 convicts under sentence. The 

 local revenue in 1888 was 2,109,626 francs, and 

 the grant from the French Government in 1890 

 was 2,377,000 francs. Wheat, Indian corn, and 

 other cereals are cultivated, as well as coffee, 

 sugar, cocoa-nuts, cotton, and other sub-tropical 

 products. There are about 120,000 cattle in the 

 island. Copper, nickel, cobalt, and coal have 

 been found. The imports amounted in 1887 to 

 8,052,378 francs, and the exports to 2,406,475 

 francs. In the same region of the ocean France 

 possesses the Loyalty Islands, the Isle of Pines, 

 and the uninhabited Huron and Chesterfield 

 groups of guano islands. The Loyalty Islands 

 have an area of 730 square miles. There are 

 also the Uvea or Wallis Islands, with an area of 

 39 square miles and 3.500 inhabitants, and the 

 Isles sous le Vent, annexed in 1888. The French 

 establishments in Oceanica consist of the Society 

 Islands, the Marquesas, Tuamotu, Gambier, and 

 Tubuai groups, with the island of Rapa, and the 

 Howe Islands. Tahiti, the chief of the Society 

 Islands, is 412 square miles in area, and Moorea, 

 the second largest, 50 square miles, the former 

 containing 11,200 and the latter 1,600 inhabit- 

 ants. The expenditure of the local administra- 

 tion in 1888 was 1,077,998 francs; that of the 

 French Government, 795,866 francs. The total 

 imports in 1887 amounted to 3,099,167 francs, 

 and the exports, consisting of copra, cotton, 

 sugar, coffee, pearls, and shells, to 3,215,045 

 francs. Northwest of the group France possesses 

 Raiatea and Tubuai-Moru, Huahine, Bora-Bora, 

 and other scattered islands. In the summer of 

 1890 war ships bombarded two villages in Hua- 

 hine, and a landing party reduced the inhabitants 

 to submission. An attempt to subjugate the re- 

 bellious inhabitants of Raiatea was less success- 

 ful, as they fled to the mountains. 



The French possessions and protected territo- 

 ries in Africa had in 1876 a total extent of 283,- 

 450 square miles. The expansion of Algeria and 

 the acquisition of Tunis, Madagascar, and the 

 Congo region swelled this dominion to 861,600 

 square miles before 1888, and this area has been 

 more than trebled by the accessions in the Sa- 

 hara, the Western Soudan, and the regions of 

 the Niger and upper Senegal, announced since 

 then and confirmed by international agreement. 

 In 1890 the French colonies, protectorates, and 



acknowledged sphere of influence had an extent 

 of 2,800,248 square miles, more territory than is 

 actually claimed by any other power and nearly 

 one fourth of the entire surface of the continent. 



The colony of Senegal or Senegambia has a 

 coast line from Cape Blanco in the north, though 

 this boundary is disputed, to the northern limit 

 of Liberia, broken by the districts belonging to 

 Great Britain and Portugal. The boundaries 

 between the French possessions and the English 

 colonies of Sierra Leone and Gambier were set- 

 tled by a diplomatic arrangement made at Paris 

 on Aug. 10, 1889. The settled coast region has 

 an area of 14,600 square miles, not including the 

 territory of the Southern Rivers, which was set 

 apart from Senegal in January, 1890, and placed 

 under the administration of the Lieuten ant-Gov- 

 ernor of Senegal, residing at Konakry, on the 

 Dubreka river, whose authority extends to the 

 settlements on the Gold Coast. The population 

 of Senegal is 181,600, and that of the Southern 

 Rivers district 43,898, 1,470 of the total being 

 whites. In the rear of Senegal is the French 

 Soudan, of which 50,600 square miles, with 283,- 

 660 inhabitants, had been annexed before 1890 

 and 97,300 square miles, with 299,580 inhabit- 

 ants, had been taken under French protection 

 through treaties with the native rulers- St. 

 Louis, the capital of Senegal, has 20,000 inhabit- 

 ants. The chief exports are gum, ground-nuts, 

 India-rubber, woods, and skins, the total value 

 in 1889 having been 16,500,000 francs. The cul- 

 tivated area in 1886 was 1,653,000 acres and the 

 value of the product was 15,658,000 francs. The 

 revenue in 1889 was 2,782,474 francs, not count- 

 ing the expenditure of the French Government, 

 which was 7,639,309 francs. There are 164 miles 

 of railroad on the coast, and a line is building 

 from Medina, the head of navigation on the Sen- 

 egal, to the Niger, of which 74 miles have been 

 built, reaching Bafulabe. The French have en- 

 deavored to join their settlements on the Guinea 

 coast to the territories acquired on the upper 

 Niger. In Ashantee and Mossi the British 

 have forestalled them, leaving only Dahomey 

 and the country beyond, in which the British 

 Niger Company is seeking to gain a foothold. 

 The occupation of Kotonu and the war with the 

 King of Dahomey have revived the traditional 

 claims to that country (see DAHOMEY). The pos- 

 sessions on the Gold Coast consist of Grand Bas- 

 sam and Assinie, Grand Popo and Agoue, Porto 

 Novo and Kotonu. Although placed under the su- 

 pervision of the Lieutenant-Governor of Senegal, 

 they are separate colonies with an autonomous 

 administration. Since Jan. 1, 1890, they have been 

 divided into two distinct colonies, one embrac- 

 ing the western settlements on the Gold Coast and 

 the other the group on the Bight of Benin. The 

 area of French territory in Guinea is about 9,000 

 square miles. Porto Novo is separated from the 

 English colony of Lagos by a line from Agarrah 

 creek to the coast. The Gold Coast exports to 

 France in 1888 were 1,229,670 francs in value. 



For more than thirty years French adminis- 

 trators have pursued the purpose of extending 

 the Algerian and Senegambian territories until 

 they joined in an uninterrupted domain reach- 

 ing from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, and 

 more recently the idea has been conceived of a 

 continuous belt binding the acquisitions on the 



