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FRANCE. 



Adamawa, with the sultan of which he made a 

 commercial treaty. Sultan Zubir told him that 

 an agent of the English company named Mack- 

 intosh had sent word to him that Mizon was 

 coming to supply the Sultan of Amoka, Zubir's 

 enemy, with carbines. Lieut. Mizon made in- 

 quiries at Yolaand Garua, and obtained evidence 

 that confirmed this statement. Had he pro- 

 ceeded to Yola at the expected time his party 

 would have been assassinated. He found that 

 the Patanis, instead of being punished, were re- 

 warded with gifts after their murderous attack 

 on the French party. On these grounds Lieut. 

 Mizon brought several charges against the Niger 

 Company, which he accused of resorting to 

 treacherous and illegal practices for the circum- 

 vention of French and German political and 

 commercial competition. The Niger, which is 

 declared to be an international river by the treaty 

 of Berlin, they close to all vessels except their own, 

 by making regulations preventing foreigners 

 from landing at other than stated points, or from 

 holding intercourse with the natives, or procur- 

 ing fuel for their steamers from the woods along 

 the banks, which they claim, without justice, to 

 be their private property. The company is ac- 

 cused of forcibly insuring respect for its flag, 

 and allowing it to be understood, in contraven- 

 tion of duties imposed by the treaty of Berlin, 

 that it was indifferent to the respect shown to 

 other flags, which in Africa is an instigation to 

 pillage and assassination. The attack of the 

 Patanis on the river Forcados was the result of 

 this policy, and one of the officers of the com- 

 pany had said that he had brought it on himself 

 by disregarding the company's regulations. On 

 Aug. 9, 1892, Lieut. Mizon left Paris on a new 

 expedition to the central Soudan by the same 

 route on which before he had encountered treach- 

 ery and danger of assassination only in the re- 

 gions where the sovereignty and influence of the 

 Niger Company were in operation. He emerged 

 before at Comasa, M. de Brazza's station on a 

 branch of the Sangha, having made the journey 

 of 434 miles from Yola, through an unknown 

 country, with no escort except 8 Pahouins, with- 

 out firing a shot. The treaties which he arranged 

 with native chiefs encourage the hope that the 

 French have entertained of uniting their great 

 possessions of Algeria, Senegambia, and the 

 Congo, and of making Lake Chad and the Shari 

 basin their own. Commandant Monteil, who ex- 

 plored the region between Say, on the Niger, 

 and Barrua, on Lake Chad, visited Kano and 

 Kouka, the chief towns of Bornu. 



Capt. Menard set out from Grand Bassam, 

 and, after exploring an unknown part of the 

 banks of the Niger, reached Kong, where he 

 spent some time cementing the friendly and 

 commercial relations which had been arranged 

 previously by Capt. Binger. Taking a south- 

 westerly route thence, he reached Sakhala on 

 Dec. 2, 1891, and there fitted out a caravan for 

 Benty. He left Sakhala on Dec. 29, and when 

 he came to the capital of Fakuru Bemba, chief 

 of Kaladian, a vassal of Dracokoro, King of the 

 Bambarras, he found him at war with the people 

 of Seguela, who had revolted and called in the 

 aid of Sekuba, one of Sarnory's generals, who 

 had occupied and fortified the town of Borutu. 

 Samory was aiming at the conquest of the whole 



Bambarras country, and Capt. Menard was com- 

 pelled to give what aid he could to the Bam- 

 barra chief against the principal enemy of the 

 French. He took up a position with his 10 

 Senegalese soldiers in a fort near Seguela. Fa- 

 kuru Bemba, being hard pressed, took to flight 

 without giving thought to his ally. Sarnory's 

 people were determined to kill the Frenchman, 

 who sent away 5 Senegalese who were left, the 

 others having been killed in defending the bag- 

 gage, and sold his life dearly, shooting 29 of his 

 assailants before he was overpowered. His head 

 was cut off and sent to Samory. 



Capt. Menard's fate was similar to that of M. 

 Crampel, who was killed in April, 1891. in his 

 expedition from the French Congo to the Sou- 

 dan, not by negroes, but by Mussulman Arabs, 

 led by a certain Snoussi. M. Biscarrat, who had 

 marched to Crampel's aid with some Senegalese, 

 was attacked and slain, on May 25, and here 

 also the guards were spared by the Mussulmans, 

 who said they would kill the whites, but had no 

 quarrel with the negroes. M. Nebout, one of 

 Crampel's lieutenants, retreated with the rear 



fuard to Brazzaville. The Arabs took from the 

 'rench expedition many breech-loading and re- 

 peating rifles, besides 32,000 cartridges. 500 kilo- 

 grammes of powder, and revolvers with their 

 ammunition. Another French expedition led by 

 M. Fourneau, who pursued a route parallel to 

 that of M. Crampel, was compelled to return, 

 owing to the hostility of the natives. The 

 French authorities were not ready to attempt 

 punitive operations in so remote a region. They 

 sent out an expedition under M. Dybowsky to 

 find traces of M. Crampel, and recovered some 

 of his papers. M. Dybowsky founded a station 

 in 6 of north latitude, on the upper Kemo, the 

 northern tributary of the Ubangi, and in the 

 summer of 1892 M. Maistre was sent out to con- 

 tinue his work, accompanied by 5 other Euro- 

 peans and a force of 95 Senegalese and 150 

 Kroumen. M. Maistre intended to ascend the 

 Kemo in a northwesterly direction and-penetrate 

 into the Chad basin. Dybowsky established 

 friendly relations and concluded many treaties 

 with the negroes of the Ubangi region, owing to 

 a victory he achieved over the Mussulmans who 

 had long levied blackmail on the indigenous in- 

 habitants. He had a force of 43 Senegal rifle- 

 men and 62 other followers. The chiefs of the 

 Dakuas and of the Mussulman Ngapus received 

 him kindly, and the camp of the Arabs was 

 pointed out, which he surprised at night. The 

 robbers fled, leaving their plunder, including 

 Crampel's documents. He pursued them for a 

 week, and then returned and destroyed their 

 fortifications. 



Of all the enemies of France in West Africa, 

 the most important, more formidable than Be- 

 hanzin, the King of Dahomey, or than Ahmadu, 

 has been Samory, the sultan over a great part of 

 the region of the upper Niger, who threw off his 

 allegiance to Ahmadu and gained by conquest 

 a kingdom which he organized in 10 provinces 

 and 162 districts before the coming of the French, 

 and which he rules with the prestige of a con- 

 queror, while the great empire established by 

 Ahmadu's father, El-Haj-Omar, has shrunk to a 

 fraction of its former dimensions. Samory was 

 a trader before he won fame as a warrior and 



