332 



FRANCE. 



would be impolitic to allow Mizon to present 

 himself to these emirs as an ally possessing can- 

 non and rifles. The French Government protested 

 energetically against the closing to its explorers 

 of the Niger and Benue, which are free to the 

 navigation of all nations under the Berlin act. 

 Mizon, with his 6 European companions and a 

 force of Senegalese sharpshooters, proceeded up 

 the Benue to within 120 miles of Yola. There 

 his vessels grounded on a shoal, near the terri- 

 tory of the Sultan of Mud. He had to remain 

 there nine months, until the waters rose again. 

 He made a treaty with the Sultan of Muri, and 

 three weeks afterward, on Dec. 25, 1892, bom- 

 barded and captured the town of Kwana, be- 

 longing to the pagan enemies of the sultan. 

 He also established 2 factories in the sultan's 

 dominions. The Niger Company, though not on 

 friendly terms with the sultan, had once made 

 a commercial treaty with him and possessed a 

 post on the confines of his territory, which was 

 assumed to be included in the British sphere, on 

 the ground that he is a vassal of the Sultan of 

 Sokoto. They threatened to send a force as 

 soon as the waters rose to sink Mizon's ships, 

 destroy his factories, and seize his goods. The 

 British Government having made complaint that 

 Lieut. Mizon had raised the French flag within 

 the British sphere, a dispatch was sent from 

 Paris recalling Mizon, and directing Albert Ne- 

 bout, the second in command, to proceed with 

 the scientific and commercial expedition to Yola. 

 M. Hoelle was sent out later with full instruc- 

 tions and orders to relieve Mizon, but when he 

 arrived at Akassa the British officials, pleading 

 an order from the British Government forbid- 

 ding the passage of any Frenchman, refused 

 to let him ascend the river. This gave new 

 cause to the French Government to complain 

 against the violation of the neutrality of the 

 Niger. It seemed as though the English, in 

 transmitting the dispatch of recall and stopping 

 Hoelle, were aiming to keep the Mizon mission 

 out of Yola, and this was regarded as an un- 

 friendly act, because the Niger Company was in- 

 structed at the same time to give every facility 

 to a German expedition sent to forestall the 

 French in concluding a treaty with the Sultan 

 of Yola. Mizon, as soon as he had repaired his 

 vessels after the rains, did repair to Yola, and 

 afterward descended the Benue ; but he was 

 stopped, and his vessels and goods were confis- 

 cated, including the ivory that he had bought, 

 on which he refused to pay duty. M. de Brazza, 

 at Bania. stole a march on the German expe- 

 dition of Baron von Stetten by sending, in 

 December, 1892, M. Ponel, who reached Ada- 

 mawa and concluded treaties with the Emir of 

 Ngaundere and the Sultan of Yola. The 

 French protectorate over Yola was announced 

 to the British and German agents on Sept. 3, 

 1893. In the meantime Lieut, von Stetten had 

 come and made a treaty with the Sultan of Yola, 

 who promised to allow only German stations to 

 be established in his country. The Niger Com- 

 pany sent an armed force to Muri, which tore 

 down the French flag and demolished the fac- 

 tories, seizing their contents. All the members 

 of the French mission were summoned before 

 the company's tribunal to answer to charges of 

 opening factories without a license and of polit- 



ical interference in its territory, but they disre- 

 garded the summons. M. Ponel, on leaving Yola, 

 in April, sought to descend the Benue, but the 

 agents of the British Company refused to allow 

 him to buy food or hire boats, and therefore he 

 was obliged to retrace his steps to the Congo. 

 The German and British governments were 

 said to have agreed on a frontier northwest of 

 the Cameroons up to Lake Chad. 



Madagascar. France assumed a protector- 

 ate over the island of Madagascar by virtue of 

 a treaty of peace concluded with the Hova Gov- 

 ernment in 1885, which provided that a French 

 Resident should be maintained at Antananarivo, 

 attended by a guard, and should control foreign 

 relations. The Hova Government has never 

 acknowledged that the treaty established a 

 French protectorate. The protectorate was 

 recognized by Great Britain in the Anglo-French 

 agreement of Aug. 5, 1890, but in the Hova 

 capital British commercial and missionary 

 influences have predominated, and the political 

 relations between the Government and the 

 French Resident were suspended when the ex- 

 equatur question arose. The Queen's Govern- 

 ment insisted on granting exequaturs directly, 

 and refused to receive the application of the 

 German consul through the medium of the 

 French Resident in 1891. Queen Ranavalona 

 III was born in 1862, succeeded to the throne 

 in 1883, and married Rainilairivony. the Prime 

 Minister and Prince Consort. The Govern- 

 ment is an absolute monarchy, in which the 

 Prime Minister is the virtual ruler. 



The area of Madagascar is estimated at 228,- 

 500 square miles, and the population at 3,500,- 

 000. The Hovas, who have been the dominant 

 race for half a century, number about 1,000,000; 

 the Sakalavas, 1,000,000; the Betsileos, Sakaras, 

 Ontatiavas, and Bavas, 1,400,000 ; and Arab, 

 Creole, French, and other foreigners settled on 

 the coast, 100,000. Antananarivo, the seat of the 

 Hova Government, has 100,000 inhabitants. 

 About 20,000 per cent, of the Hovas, and a con- 

 siderable proportion of the neighboring tribes in 

 the center of the island, are Christians. The 

 revenue is derived from customs and a poll tax. 

 There is a standing army of some 20,000 men, 

 mostly armed with modern rifles. An English 

 military officer has the chief command ; an- 

 other commands the artillery, which is equipped 

 with rifled Armstrong cannon. 



The industries of the island are cattle-raising, 

 and the cultivation by the labor of African slaves 

 of rice, sugar, coffee, cotton, and sweet potatoes. 

 The people are skilled in the weaving of cloth 

 from silk, cotton, and the fiber of the rafia palm, 

 and in the working of copper and iron. The 

 island is covered with forests abounding in val- 

 uable woods. European companies are engaged 

 in cutting the timber on the northeast coast. 

 There are rich gold and copper mines, which 

 have recently been developed by English enter- 

 prise. Iron, galena, sulphur, and graphite are 

 found. The principal imports are cotton goods 

 from England, rum from Mauritius, hardware, 

 and crockery. The exports are hides and skins, 

 India rubber, rafia, wax, cattle, hemp, sugar, 

 lard, coffee, vanilla, copal, rice, and seeds. 



The French colony of Diego Suarez was 

 founded by the French at the north end of the 



