FRANCE. 



became commander of the forces of the King of 

 Hi- next set up as an independent 

 ruler, and conquered one country after another, 

 until, in is?s, his influence extended over the 

 whole of the upper Niger. But for the arrival 

 df i tic French in 1882 he would have been mas- 

 ti-r of all the country down to the Senegal river. 

 He came into collision with the French imme- 

 diately, and, ufter several encounters, Gen. 

 Paidherbe gained the victory over him, and 

 re made ly which he gave up a slice 

 of territory that he claimed, and, so the French 

 MIV. accepted a protectorate. This he has al- 

 denied. The French Government was 

 compelled to encounter the costs of bringing 

 him to submisMon, for in no other way could its 

 political supremacy be established or commer- 

 cial relations extended in the Soudan. Samo- 

 ry i- described as a monster of cruelty, who 

 o'.vrd the rapidity of his conquests to his practice 

 of burning prisoners of war by the hundred in 

 fierv trenches. Through English traders he is 

 said to have supplied himself with 2,000 repeat- 

 ing rifles and abundant ammunition when the 

 French began t heir campaign against him in the 

 licLrinning of 1892. 



Lieut.-Col. Humbert, commander-in-chief in 

 the Soudan, crossed the Niger with a strong 

 column on Jan. 1, reached Kankan on Jan. G, 

 and on the following day put to flight Samory's 

 force that held the route of Ombacuela. Leaving 

 Kankan on the 9th, he delivered battle on the 

 llth against the marigot or marabout of Som- 

 beke. killing 150 and wounding 300, and on the 

 same day fought the marigot of Biamako. The 

 French losses were an officer, a European gun- 

 ner, and 8 men killed, and 2 captains and 43 

 men wounded. Marching straight upon Bissan- 

 dugu. Samory's capital, the French shelled the 

 place and drove the enemy out. Samory retired 

 to the hilly country south of Bissandugu, where 

 Col. Humbert established his headquarters, send- 

 ing out detachments, which met with varying 

 success, one being beaten and losing several 

 prisoners. On Jan. 23 Col. Humbert set out for 

 Sanankoro, Samory's principal stronghold, 50 

 miles south of Bissandugu and near the bank of 

 the river Milo. The country that he traversed 

 was remarkably rich, though it had been devas- 

 tated by Samory. Samory's sofas endeavored to 

 (heck them twice on the "first day, and were re- 

 pelled with heavy losses. On the 24th, Samory, 

 at the head of a band of 500 men. gave the French 

 a stiff fight for 3 hours back of the village of 

 Forangugu, and killed 4 Senegal tirailleurs and 

 wounded (i men. On the 25th the French drove 

 the enemy out of Sanankoro by a long fusillade, 

 and compelled them to abandon also another 

 fort called Keruan and retire to the oppo-ite 

 bank. The French loss was 2 spahis killed and 

 2 wounded. After remaining nere some weeks 

 for the purpose of winning the confidence of the 

 inhabitants, the French commander again ad- 

 vanced against Samory, who had established 

 himself in a fortified position in Tonkore, a 

 country that he had annexed in 1881, with a 

 large force, for after each defeat he had no diffi- 

 culty in recruiting a fresh army. The rifles that 

 he had lost in the previous engagements were re- 

 placed by a fresh supply brought by a caravan 

 from Sierra Leone. The French took the posi- 



tion, but Samory escaped with a part of his 

 troops. Col. Humbert's command wan in a pre- 

 carious situation, remote from the base of sup- 

 plies, and it was only with the aid of the' re-en- 

 forcements and fresh stores authori/ed \,\ the 

 ( 'ham her that the French were enabled to hold 

 the positions that they had taken, without 

 luring on the pursuit of their resourceful enemy 

 into more distant parts. 



M. Lamadou and Capt. Kenny, who were se- 

 lected as French and English commissioners to 

 demarcate the boundary between Sierra I^eone 

 and the Rivieres du Sud, set out from the start- 

 ing-point of the disputed boundarv, on the 

 Mahila river, on Dec. 15, 1891. When they 

 came to Dakar serious differences arose, the two 

 commissions separated, and each proceeded to 

 survey the line which it considered the true 

 boundary. The French commissioners advanced 

 into Kong and made a treaty with the Deam- 

 maras, which secured to France the direct route 

 by the river Isi to the coast. Pushing on toward 

 the Niger through a country desolated by Samo- 

 ry's raids, they heard that a force was advanc- 

 ing to fight them, whereupon they were deserted 

 by their porters, and after many hardships they 

 reached Benty, through the Comor valley, on 

 April 12, 1892, having gone six hundred miles 

 on foot. The English and French chief com- 

 missioners returned to Europe and joined the 

 commission at Paris which was endeavoring to 

 work out a diplomatic settlement of the bound- 

 ary difficulty on the Gold Coast. 



'in August, 1892, the partial administrative 

 and political autonomy granted to the French 

 Soudan in the previous year was made complete, 

 except that the chief commander is required to 

 send copies of his reports to the Governor of 

 Senegal and keep him informed in regard to 

 matters relating to the general situation of the 

 colony. The chief commander, who receives all 

 instruct ions direct from the Under Secretary of 

 the Colonies, will not henceforth be required to 

 conduct military operations, but will commit 

 this task to other officers, while he devotes his 

 chief attention to the political organization and 

 pacification of the territories that have been 

 added to the possessions of France during a long 

 period of military action. Lieut.-Col. A rchinard 

 was sent out iii the summer to take the com- 

 mand of the French Soudan, with instructions 

 to suppress Samory at any cost. \Vhen the 

 work of conquest is concluded and civil admin- 

 istration instituted, and after the boundaries <.f 

 the new possessions are fairly determined, the 

 whole of French Senegambia is to be united in a 

 general government like that of Indo-China. 



Oabnn and the French Congo. Separated 

 from the French possessions in northwest, rn 

 Africa by the British territories of Sierra Leone 

 and the Niger and the German territoi 

 Togo and Cameroons on the coast region, and in 

 the interior by the va-t Hinterland, into which 

 each of the three powers is striving to extend its 

 influence l>\ every channel, is the great block of 

 French territory divided from the Congo State 

 on the southeast by the Congo and Mobangi 

 from Bra/./aville to the fourth degree of north 

 latitude, where the recognized limit of the Congo 

 State ends. Aline running due ea>t from the 

 mouth of the Cainpo river divides Gabun from 



