\\ K>T AFRICA. 



B89 



of the protectorate. In the first week disturbances 

 broke out in the Ronietta district, where insurgent 

 bands captured Kwalu and advanced across the 

 colonial frontier. Many traders, white and colored. 

 many native missionaries and Christian natives, and 

 at Rotifunk some of the American missionaries ..f 

 the United Brethren in Christ, were massacred be- 

 fore they could be rescued by the gunboats that 

 were sent to bring away traders, missionaries, and 

 officials from dangerous positions on the coast. On 

 the island of Sherbro and at other places within the 

 colony the natives rose and murdered Sierra Leone 

 traders and missionaries, more than 200 people alto- 

 gether, and sacked and burned the factories. At 

 Shengay the headquarters of the American mission 

 were burned. 



The Timanis resumed aggressive tactics after the 

 Mendis rebelled. The insurgents invaded Kwellu, 

 close to Freetown, and in that city a force of volun- 

 teers was enrolled to guard against a rising in the 

 town or the suburbs. From Mano, on the border 

 of Liberia, to Bendu, which the rebels burned to 

 the ground, the whole country was devastated. 



The American missionaries murdered at Rotifunk 

 were Miss May Archer, Miss Marietta Hatfield, 

 Miss Ella Schenk, and Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Cain. 

 At Taiama, Mr. and Mrs. McGrew, American mis- 

 sionaries, were murdered on May 8. All British 

 and American missionaries who could escape took 

 refuge in Freetown, and were urged by the Govern- 

 or to return to their homes. The mfssionaries ap- 

 pear to have been murdered partly to strike terror 

 into the other English-speaking people, and partly 

 because the natives have a strong feeling against 

 missionaries on account of their opposition to the 

 customs of fetichism and sacrifice. In the north, 

 only one missionary, Rev. W. J. Humphrey, was 

 killed, and that was because he resisted the insur- 

 gents. Additional naval forces and West Indian 

 troops from Lagos were hurried to the scene of con- 

 flict. It was estimated that 1,500 traders were 

 massacred. Columns of troops were speedily organ- 

 ized for the relief of outlying posts, and the punish- 

 ment of the rebels as far as possible. These opera- 

 tions were suspended at the beginning of August, 

 when the rains had rendered the roads impassable. 

 Before the end of May the Kwellu district was in 

 the possession of the British, who destroyed the na- 

 tive towns. They retook Rotifunk, and extended 

 their occupation until the rebellious chiefs were 

 ready to sue for peace. Bompeh, the chief strong- 

 hold of the Mendis, was captured on June 13 as the 

 result of a sanguinary battle in which the insurgent 

 natives suffered nearly all the loss. At Shemgeh 

 and elsewhere, whenever the rebels resumed their 

 depredations, a column marched in and destroyed 

 their villages and plantations. While operations 

 were suspended during the rainy season, Sir David 

 P. Chalmers, who once was Chief Justice of Sierra 

 Leone, was sent out by the Imperial Government as 

 a special commissioner to inquire whether the in- 

 surrection was caused by the imposition of the hut 

 tax and the steps taken to enforce it ; it having been 

 stated that a direct tax of this kind is peculiarly 

 obnoxious to the customs and feelings of the natives 

 of Sierra Leone, and that much offense had been 

 given by the brutal and insulting way in which the 

 collection of the tax was carried out by the native 

 police. He was directed to report whether in the 

 circumstances of the protectorate it was necessary 

 or expedient to impose the tax. In regard to the 

 later general rising he was instructed to inquire 

 into the operations of secret societies, into tin- 

 alleged incitements of the Freetown press, and of 

 traders and others in the colony. The instructions 

 also embraced an inquiry into the scheme of admin- 

 istration adopted for the protectorate, as well as the 



best method of raising revenue, and into the desir- 

 ability of reimposing direct taxation in the c. 

 For the larger operations planned for I- 

 special regiment was recruited in the WM | ; 

 and placed under the orders of Col. K. K. H. U 

 gate, with Lieut. -Co), (i. (i. Cunningham in x 

 command A detachment of artillery and a -< 

 of engineers were attached to th command, 

 it was intended to use gunboats in all th- riv. r>nd 

 nek-, and land marines to operate throughout the 

 coast district*. Operations against the rebels were 

 renewed in Septeml)er. The native troops, divided 

 into six columns, marched in parallel lines through 

 the protectorate, while the marines scounil the coast 

 districts. The rebellion had entirely Mil.i<|.-<l. ami 

 Bai Bureh and the other rebel chiefs" were deli . 

 up to the British. 



Anglo-French Delimitation Agreement. In 

 the times of the slave trade the European <-"ui 



g-sed only trading-posts on the coast. Great 

 ritain retained her stations afterward chiefly as 

 bases for com bat in;: the -lave trade, wtii;.- ;t...se of 

 Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands Ml mi 

 cay. In 1865 the British Government contemplated 

 abandoning its possessions except a naval station 

 at Sierra Leone. After having, in 1861. acquired 

 the Dutch posts on the Gold Coast and established 

 an administration at Lap*. Liverpool and Ham- 

 burg merchants built up a trade in \\V-t Africa, 

 chiefly in gin and firearms. France in Senegambia 

 was the first to organize a military and civil jower 

 in these regions. The occupation of Togoland and 

 Cameroons by Germany in 1884 stimulated the 

 British to extend their sphere of activity, princi- 

 pally by means of the chartered Company of the 

 Niger, organized in 1885, which bought out the 

 French merchants established on the river, sup- 

 planted the incipient German trade, made treaties 

 with the native chiefs controlling the navigable 

 waters of the Niger, and established tolls and tariff* 

 that secured to itself a practical monopoly of the 

 trade. In the Berlin- African conference' of 

 the Niger was declared an international stream, but 

 the regulation of navigation was left to Great 

 Britain. At the same conference the conditions 

 governing the acquisition of African teiritories were 

 laid down. For establishing suzerain rights on the 

 coast effective occupation was declared necessary. 

 The Hinterland behind the coast territories was re- 

 garded as belonging presumptively to these. Great 

 Britain proposed that effective possession should be 

 required in the interior also, but France objected. 

 French activity in the rear of Sierra Leone and 

 Gambia had already circumscribed the Hinterland 

 of these British colonies. Germany subsequently 

 renounced the ambition to acquire vast territories 

 in the interior of A frica. assigning the Hinterland 

 of the Cameroons to France, which had already 

 conquered powerful Mohammedan states in the 

 Soudan, and aimed to unite in a continuous empire 

 Algeria and Tunis in the north, the French Congo 

 in the south, and the coast territories of S-negwn- 

 bia, French Guinea, the Ivory Coa-t.nnd I>Hh. : 

 as well as to extend this empire eastward across the 

 continent to the Nile valley. Dahomey. Fut* Jal- 

 lon,andthe states of the French Svudnn. Timbi. 

 on the Niirer. Kong, and other territorio won' ac- 

 quired at t he cost of much blood and treasure. The 

 British subjugated Ashanti. but left to the Niger 

 Company the main task of forestalling tl 

 in the regions of the middle and u| : N and 



Lake Chad. The delimitation of the colonies of 

 Gambia and Sierra Leone having Uvu arranged in 

 ISS'l. a boundary was also settled Mwecii the Brit- 

 ish Gold Coa>t and the French I \ory Coast, and one 

 between Lagos and Dahomey: both ending at 9' of 

 north latitude, U-yond which the vast regions in 



