FHANCE. 



291 



necessary for the safety of Tunis and the pro- 

 tection of the Bey's dynasty. Slavery is practi- 

 cally abolished in Tunis. The buying or selling 

 of slaves lias Urn completely suppressed MH.V 

 the French occupation. The Be.y of Tunis un- 

 der the pres-ure that the Knijlish (iovernmcnt 

 brought to bear in 1841, prohibited the export of 

 . and in 1843 proclaimed the emancipation 

 of all imported .slaves, and in 1846 the abolition 

 of male slavery. These edicts had not the 

 slightest effect, and in 1875 the English (i.iv- 

 cnimciit interfered again, and obtained a treaty 

 whereby the Bey engaged to have the declara- 

 tion of 1846 observed. It was not till the French 

 came that the slave trade was effectually sup- 

 pressed. On May ','!, 1890, the Bey issued H de- 

 cree declaring that slavery exists no longer, and 

 that any slave, irrespective of nationality or 

 color, can apply to a magistrate to obtain his 

 freedom at any time. Another decree requires 

 the masters to provide any slave living with 

 them, male or female, with liberation papers, 

 which the slaves must carry with them and pro- 

 duce whenever an official calls for them. An 

 order issued in April, 1891, requires all cadis to 

 icijiiire any slave that they see to produce his 

 emancipation papers, or to punish the master if 

 they are not forthcoming. The only slaves still 

 existing are therefore such as remain voluntarily 

 in that condition, which they can abandon at 

 their option. 



French West Africa. The area of Senegal 

 and Kivieres du Sud is about 140,000 square 

 miles, and of the French Soudan 54,000 square 

 miles, not including protectorates. By the 

 Anglo-French agreement of Aug. 5, 1890, the 

 French sphere embraces all the territories south 

 of Algeria and Tunis lying to the north of a line 

 drawn from Sav, on the middle Niger, to Barrawa, 

 on Lake Chad. Westward of Say and to the 

 northward of Dahomey, Ashanti, and Togoland 

 is a region about 50,000 square miles in extent 

 that has not been parceled out ; and to the east 

 of Lake Chad the native empires of Bornu, Ba- 

 girmi, and Wadai, the region south of them as far 

 as the Welle, and the desert to the north as far 

 as the bounds of Tripoli and Egypt have not yet 

 been brought into political relations of any kind 

 with Kuropeaii powers. The French Sahara be- 

 tween Algeria and Lake Chad has an area of 

 about 1,000,000 square miles, but it is mostly 

 desert, and is inhabited by warlike and un- 

 friendly tribes. Including Sokoto and other 

 protectorates attached to Senegal and the French 

 Soudan and those on the Bight of Benin that 

 are attached to the Rivieres du Sud, the area in 

 West Africa claimed by France has an extent of 

 about 550,000 square miles. The coast line, be- 

 ginning at Cane Blanco in the north, is only 

 broken by the British settlements of Gambia and 

 Portuguese Guinea until it reaches Sierra Leone. 

 Farther south the French sphere has an outlet 

 in i he Gold Coast settlements, and the French 

 are ambitious to connect their settlements on 

 the Bight of Benin with their possessions on the 

 middle and upper Niger by annexing all or a 

 great part of the Hinterland of the British Gold 

 Coast and German Togoland. 



The annexed countries dependent on Senegal 

 are Walo, North Cayor, Toro, Dimar, and 

 Damga. The country occupied by the colony 



of Senegal includes the coast between the Sene- 

 gal and (iambiii and the banks of the Senegal. 

 The chief town and seat of government 

 Louis, which has 20,000 inhabitants. The total 

 population of Senegal, according to a ci-n.-us 

 taken in 1892, is 1.097,000, of which numb. 

 000 inhabit self-governing communes, 51,000 

 territories under direct French administration, 

 927,000 territories of immediate protectorate, and 

 80,000 territories of political protectorate. There 

 are 6,000 Europeans, half of them French. The 

 Governor-General of Senegal is assisted by a 

 Colonial Council. The colony has 164 mil<s" < f 

 railways on the coast. India rubber, ground 

 nuts, gum, woods, and skins are exported, and 

 food, drinks, and cloths are importea. The im- 

 ports in 1889 were valued at 29,000,000 francs, 

 and the exports at 16,500,000 francs. The local 

 budget for 1891 was 3,018,646 francs. The ex- 

 penditure of France is set down at 6,044,999 

 francs for 1892. The native population is essen- 

 tially agricultural. 



The Kivieres du Sud, which was constituted 

 a separate colony in 1890, has a population of 

 47,551 in the coast settlements. Administra- 

 tively connected with it are the settlements on 

 the Gold Coast and the Bight of Benin. In the 

 French budget for 1892 the sum of 33,000 francs 

 is appropriated for this colony and its depend- 

 encies, called French Guinea. A telegraph 

 cable connects the capital, Conakry, with Sene- 

 gal. The French settlements on the Gold Coast 

 are Grand Bassam, Assinie, Grand Lahou, and 

 Jackeville. On the Bight of Benin are Grand 

 Popo, Agoue, Porto Novo, and Kotonu, and other 

 points occupied on the coast of Dahomey (see 

 DAHOMEY). A stretch of 100 miles of coast be- 

 tween the Gold Coast settlements and Liberia 

 was occupied in 1891. The imports of the Gold 

 Coast in 1890 were 2,810,000 francs; those of 

 the Bight of Benin settlements, 3,489,894 francs. 



The French Soudan embraces the annexed 

 territories and protectorates on the upper and 

 middle Niger and the upper Senegal. The 

 annexed territories, which are mostly situated on 

 the Senegal, have a population of about 360.000. 

 The protectorates have an estimated area of 230.- 

 000 square miles, and a population of 2,500,000. 

 The French Soudan is administered from Kay. , 

 on the Senegal, by a military commandant, who 

 has formerly acted under the direction of the Gov- 

 ernor-General of Senegal. A railroad has been 

 built from Kayes to Bafoulaba, 94 miles in the 

 direction of the Niger. The local revenue is 

 about 400.000 francs. In the budget of 1892 the 

 appropriation for the Soudan is 4,502,728 francs, 



Lieut. L. Mizon, in 1891, succeeded after seri- 

 ous misadventures in reaching Sokoto by way of 

 the Benue. The officials of the British Roval 

 Niger Company threw obstacles in the way of his 

 ascending, anc\ when he was attacked by tne 

 Patanis and was wounded with others of the 

 party, he suspected that representatives of the 

 company were responsible, probably not by 

 direct incitement, but by allowing the savages to 

 understand by various intimations that the 

 Frenchmen were on no good errand and had no 

 friends. Mizon's wounds were dressed by the 

 company's surgeon, and when he was well again, 

 leaving his steamer and cargo, which the com- 

 pany had sequestrated, he pressed on into 



