FRANCE. 



331 



supplied munitions was exhausted, and ho was 

 nil i>(T from the coast and was descried by the 

 chiefs of southern Dahomey, who willingly ac- 

 cepted the I'Yench (lag. The French built, roads, 

 and commerce and production resumed their 

 normal course. The blockade of t lie const, which 

 had lasted six months, was raised on Dec. 19, 

 1892. The campaign against Behanzin cost 9,000,- 

 000 francs, and 5,000,000 francs more were esti- 

 mated to be necessary to complete the organiza- 

 tion of the conquered country. In the north 

 the Dahorneyans still continued to attack the 

 French outposts, and the populations from Yo- 

 ruba to Togoland acknowledged in some sort the 

 supremacy of the king. German traders estab- 

 lished at Whydah were expelled on the charge of 

 selling repeating rifles, cannon, and ammunition 

 to Behanzin to enable him to begin the war 

 anew, as was an English trader of Porto Novo 

 for giving him information and encouragement. 

 King Behanzin addressed a manifesto to all 

 civilized nations protesting that the French 

 governors Bayol and Ballot had begun hos- 

 tilities without provocation. Gen. Dodds was 

 called home to report on the situation. Just 

 before he set out, Behanzin, who had been told 

 that his life would be spared if he surrendered, 

 offered his submission on condition that he 

 should be allowed to reside at Cana or Abomey 

 in a manner suited to his former royal rank. 

 The general replied that a residence would be 

 given him in Senegal or elsewhere, but not in 

 Dahomey. The French Government proposed 

 to maintain an army of 2,000 or 3,000 men in 

 Dahomey until the ex-king was vanquished and 

 the country pacified. There was much dissatis- 

 faction in France on account of the duration 

 and costliness of the operations, and the minis- 

 ters were gratified when Behanzin showed an in- 

 clination to treat; but when Gen. Dodds ar- 

 rived, in May, he dissuaded them from discussing 

 terms with the wily savage. Behanzin organ- 

 ized another army, and several skirmishes took 

 place, in one of which 3 French officers were 

 severely wounded, one of them mortally. Jn 

 June Behanzin announced his intention of send- 

 ing some of his principal chiefs and counselors 

 as plenipotentiaries to conclude a peace with the 

 authorities in Paris, writing to President Carnot 

 that he had twice been the victim of the treach- 

 ery of the French troops. Later he asked for a 

 safe conduct to negotiate in person with Col. 

 Dumas, the French commander, who looked for 

 him in vain on July 25. Gen. Dodds returned 

 to Dahomey with large re-enforcements, and in 

 October resumed the aggressive. Behanzin's 

 envoys <et out from Acheribe in September, and 

 arrived in Paris on Nov. 10, departing again on 

 Nov. 16, when they found that there was no 

 chance of being received by the President or the 

 ministers. Gen. Dodds and Col. Dumas ad- 

 vanced at the head of separate columns as soon 

 as the floods abated. Behanzin fell back from 

 Acheribe to the Ueme, and Gen. Dodds sailed 

 up that river to Xaganado, Behanzin's intrenched 

 camp. All the tribes of the country occupied 

 made their submission. The chiefs and fetich 

 men who had clung to Behanzin, including his 

 brothers and uncles, made terms, surrendering 4 

 Krupp cannon, a machine gun, and 460 maga- 

 zine rifles. Behanzin, with the remnant of nis 



army, fled into the jungle, and a small force WM 

 sent to pursue him, while Gen. Dodd.s encamped 

 at /lino ii. 



The Race for Lake Chad. After the sfgn- 

 irii, r of the Anglo-French agreement of 1890 

 Lieut. Mi/on set out on an expedition for Lake 

 Chad by way of the Benue river, Commandant 

 Monteil left St. Louis for the same goal, and 

 Paul Crarnpel started northward from the 

 French Congo. Crampel was killed by the na- 

 tives. Mizon, finding it impossible to reach 

 Lake Chad, turned his face southward after 

 sojourning some time with the Sultan of Yola, 

 and effected a junction with Lieut, de Brazza on 

 the Sangha river. Commandant Monteil, with 

 Adjutant Badaire, reached Segu.on the upper Ni- 

 ger, on Dec. 20, 1890, and struck across the great 

 bend of the river for Say, which he reached on 

 Aug. 19, 1891. having made a treaty with the 

 powerful Chief Ibrahima of Uro Guelajio, whose 

 friendship secured for him a favorable reception 

 at Say and a treaty with the local chief. Trav- 

 ersing Kabbi, the ruler of which has for his capi- 

 tal the fortified town of Argungu, with 20,000 

 inhabitants, he arrived on Oct. 18 at Sokoto, 

 when he made a treaty with the sultan, although 

 this kingdom is included in the British sphere. 

 Delayed at Kano some months, he entered Bornu 

 in March, 1892, passed through Kargin, Bosari, 

 and Kililua, encountering many difficulties, was 

 received by the Sheikh Malara Adam at Kuka 

 on April 12, and spent four months on the 

 shores of Lake Chad. In August he set out 

 across the Sahara, and after a journey of severe 

 hardship emerged at Tripoli late in 1892. 



After the assassination of Crampel, M. Dy- 

 bowski continued the work of extending French 

 influence northward from the Ubangi. From 

 a station established by him on the Kemo, one 

 of the affluents of the Ubangi, M. Maistre set 

 out with 5 European companions and a force of 

 natives in July, 1892, followed for a part of the 

 way Mizon's route in the opposite direction, en- 

 tered Bagirmi, traversed the southern part of 

 that country, made treaties with chiefs on the 

 Shari and the Logone, reached Adamawa after 

 encountering many difficulties and having some 

 battles, and emerged at the mouth of the Niger 

 in March, 1893. 



Lieut. Mizon left France in August, 1892, to 

 return to Adamawa at the head of a consider- 

 able expedition of an ostensible scientific and 

 commercial character. When he arrived at the 

 mouth of the Niger, with two river steamers 

 containing among other stores 2 mountain fjtms. 

 a Hotchkiss gun, 150 rifles, and 100 revolvers, 

 the officials of the British N'iirrr Company would 

 not let him proceed, on the grounds that the 

 pasxi.u'e of such large munitions of war under 

 the charge of an uncontrolled adventurer would 

 be a breach of the Brussels act, and calculated to 

 do mischief to the natives beyond the company's 

 territory; that it would be unpatriotic and un- 

 fair to a friendly power to facilitate such an ex- 

 pedition, inasmuch as Lieut. Mizon had claimed 

 credit for his intention to prevent the extension 

 of the English and German spheres ; and that, 

 as the company had displeased Mohammedan 

 emirs by refusing to furnish thorn with arms or 

 to assist them in slave raids against the pagan 

 tribes, and by forcibly preventing such raids, it 



