elm 



FRANCE. 



317 



Unite, shells, rend, red it irresistible. The 

 cliain nf po-is IM-I ween Senegal and I lie Niger is 

 complete. Later operations against Ah- 

 wadon's vassal Samory cost greater sacrifice*, 

 il French oflicers'and more than 100 sol- 

 iicing wounded at tht! taking of Dieina. 

 nch dominion is to ho established on the 

 j.hore..f Lake Chad it can not wait for tin 1 build- 



; if the Trans-Sahara Railroad, which will run 

 ugh 1.500 niili-s of desert country and trav- 





to punish the savages burned a village. Farther 

 on he encountered large bands of hostile sav- 

 ages, and on May 10 the expedition was surprised 



in tin- night, many were killed, all fled cx< -i.t 

 the Senegalese .soldiers, and tin- leader, painfully 

 wounded, retreated with the remnant, constantly 

 fighting, ""til ho reached the friendly tril>e of 

 the Mokelos. His farthest point was in 6* 80* 

 of north latitude. The Lieutenant-governor at 

 Konakry in IHtl took formal possession of the 



e the land of the hostile Tuaregs, who are coast from St. Andreas to Cavally, nearly 200 



fanatical and irreconcilable foes of Christianity. 

 In the winter of 18l)0-'91 nine expeditions set 

 out from \arious points on the west coast for 



Chad. The most important was that of 

 Pi'.ul Crampel, who left Gabun with the object of 

 exploring the unknown regions of upper Ubangi 

 and Baghirmi. and establishing by right of prior 

 discovery and by treaty the desired link between 

 the French Congo and the Central Soudan to the 



f Adamawa, which is acknowledged to be 

 outside the French sphere and is left to be con- 

 tended for or divided between England and Ger- 

 many. The interior, behind the French, English, 

 and German possessions, from the Congo to Lake 

 Chad, is believed to be one of the most desirable 

 parts of Africa, and its situation is such that the 

 first of the three countries participating in the 

 race for Lake Chad that succeeds in conclud- 

 ing treaties with the native chiefs can round 

 off its dominions by annexing contiguous dis- 

 tricts, and thus cut off the others from the cen- 

 tral part of the continent. The aim of the 

 French was to annex the whole basin of the 

 Shari, including Bornu and Baghirmi, and extend 

 the Trans-Sahara railroad to Brazzaville by way 

 of the Mobangi river. Besides the Crampel ex- 

 pedition, one under M. Ponel, chief of the 

 French station at Bangui, explored the right 

 bank of the Mobangi, and M. Cholet's explora- 

 tions in the basin of the Sanga as far as the fourth 

 degree of north latitude were continued by one 

 of the agents of the Governor of the French 

 Congo. Lieut. Mizon, who set out by way of 

 the Binue for the purpose of concluding treaties 

 with chiefs to the east of the recognized British 

 sphere in Sokoto, was prevented from accom- 

 plishing his mission by the officers of the British 

 Niger Company, whose attitude encouraged the 

 natives to attempt to assassinate the members of 

 the expedition, and who first detained it until 

 the river was too low for the French steamer to 

 navigate, and then gave permission for it to 

 proceed onlv on condition that it should not go 

 by land. Two other expeditions set out from 

 Senegal for the upper Niger country. Lieut. 

 Crampel's expedition consisted of 6 white men 

 and 253 blacks. It followed the Mobangi route, 

 reaching Bangui on Sept. 25, 1890. The people 

 were much disturbed, and in pushing on into 

 the country of the cannibals he had many des- 

 perate battles with the natives. He explored 

 the tributaries of the Mobangi and made treaties 

 with the chiefs. On April 9. while an expedi- 

 tion under M. Dybowski was on the way to sup- 

 port Crampel, tne Crampel party was attacked 

 m the Matonga country, and only one European, 

 M. Nebout, and 11 Senegalese escaped massacre. 

 M. Kourneau, who led the expedition to explore 

 the Sanga valley, advanced up the Likelle tribu- 

 tary and the Sodi, where he was attacked, and 



miles, asserting that it has been French territory 

 for many years by virtue of long-exist ing treaties, 

 though a part of it has long been claimed by the 

 Liberians. The murder of two Frenchmen by 

 the blacks of Lahou, on the Gold Coast, was 

 avenged in May by a small expedition, which 

 defeated 1,200 warriors armed with modem 

 rifles. The French authorities deposed Dinah 

 Salifu, King of the Nalus, who visited the Paris 

 Exposition, on account of the tyranny and ex- 

 tortion that he practiced to enable him to imi- 

 tate European sovereigns. 



The Spanish Government has laid claim for 

 several years to a coast line of about 100 miles 

 from the Rio Campos to Cape Santa Clara, and, 

 on the Hinterland principle, to an area of about 

 50,000 square miles on the River Muni. Spanish 

 slave traders formerly used Corisco Island and 

 stations on the opposite coast as depots for 

 slaves to be shipped across the Atlantic, and in 

 1843 the local chiefs are said to have formerly 

 recognized Spanish sovereignty. The French 

 Government conceded the right of Spain to a 

 small patch of the coast around Cape St. John 

 and to Corisco Island, which is of little value, 

 and in 1891 a joint commission met in Paris for 

 the purpose of determining the extent of terri- 

 tory that the chiefs had the right to transfer to 

 Spain. The Spanish Government had rejected an 

 offer of the French to submit the decision to the 

 Pope or some other arbitrator. There was little 

 expectation of an agreement of the joint com- 

 mission, for the French delegates, while willing 

 to concede the El obey Islands, where Spain had 

 an agent, and the posts actually occupied, would 

 not admit even a colorable claim to the territo- 

 ries on the Muni and Benito rivers, or to a 

 Hinterland that would deprive France of a 

 great part of her Congo territory. In the ex- 

 treme north Spain disputed the French claim to 

 the desert region south of Morocco, claiming the 

 coast and 240,000 square miles, including the 

 route of the proposed Trans-Sahara Railroad. 



The Gabun and Congo territories, which are 

 administratively distinct, although continuous, 

 have a total area of 267,900 square miles, and a 

 population estimated at 186.500 for Gabun and 

 500,000 for the French Congo. A chain of 27 

 stations extends along the coast and up the 

 Igowe into the Congo region. Besides the mili- 

 tary there are 300 Europeans. The exports are 

 ivory, palm oil, caoutchouc, and ebony. The 

 planting of sugar-cane, vanilla, coffee, cotton, 

 and tobacco has been tried experimentally. For 

 the development of production and trade in this 

 region and in other parts of West Africa, as at 

 Grand Bossam and tne French Soudan, the Su- 

 perior Council for the Colonies, organized in 

 January, 1891, recommended the system of char- 

 tered companies. 



