830 



WEST AFRICA. 



the bend of the Niger and beyond that river were 

 still left ownerless. The agents of the Niger Com- 

 pany were busy in these regions, and when it was 

 claimed in 1890 that the Emperor of Sokoto had 

 accepted British protection, the French Govern- 

 ment agreed on a line running from Say on the 

 Niger to Barrua on Lake Chad, as a limit by which 

 French development from Algeria in the north, as 

 well as British development from the Nigerian ter- 

 ritories in the south, should be bounded. The same 

 agreement provided for the appointment of an An- 

 glo-French Commission to which should be intrust- 

 ed the task of determining the respective spheres of 

 influence of the two countries in the region which 

 extends to the west and to the south of the middle 

 and upper Niger. This commission met in 1892. 

 The Dahomey war, which occurred in the same 

 year, rendered unacceptable to France the proposi- 

 tion to divide the two spheres by a line drawn 

 from Say to the point where the western bound- 

 ary of the Gold Coast is intersected by 8 of north 

 latitude. When negotiations were resumed in 1894 

 a prolongation of the frontier of Lagos and Da- 

 homey northward to the middle Niger was dis- 

 cussed, but England would not accept this delimi- 

 tation unless it was accompanied by a settlement of 

 other questions pending between the two countries. 

 The proceedings were resumed once more in 1896, 

 when England proposed a line from Ilo on the mid- 

 dle Niger down to the extreme point of the bound- 

 ary already agreed upon between Lagos and Da- 

 ho'mey, thus including in the British sphere the 

 Bussa territory and the sultanate of Borgu, over 

 which a protectorate had been declared on Jan. 1, 

 1895. The French, who had been active in these 

 regions and had established a military post at Fort 

 Arenberg, opposite Bajibo, laid claim to the whole 

 right bank of the Niger nearly down to the conflu- 

 ence of the Benue, restricting the Hinterland of 

 Lagos to 8 of north latitude. The British com- 

 missioners rejected this proposal, asserting that 

 Gando, Borgu, Mossi, and other countries west of 

 the Niger were dependencies of Sokoto or were 

 British by virtue of separate treaties with their 

 rulers. The French had learned to doubt all the 

 treaties made by the Niger Company, asserting that 

 the original treaty with Sokoto conferred trading 

 rights only ; that Sokoto's extent had been magni- 

 fied so as to include independent countries as large 

 as itself; and that the company's agents claimed to 

 have made treaties with rulers when they had been 

 dealing with vassals or rebels. As the countries in 

 the bend of the Niger were the Hinterland of Sen- 

 gal and of the French colonies on the Guinea coast 

 as well as of the British colonies, they insisted on 

 the doctrine of effective possession. The Royal 

 Niger Company, which had always been unwilling 

 to imperil its dividends by incurring heavy mili- 

 tary or political expenses, determined to recover 

 lost ground. It organized a military force, and in 

 1897 began a war of conquest against the native 

 tribes which was carried up to the territory occu- 

 pied by the French on the Niger. Crossing the 

 river, a British force threatened Fort Arenberg, and 

 induced the small garrison of blacks to evacuate it 

 by asserting that it was a part of Bajibo, a British 

 station. The object of the French advance into 

 this region directly in the rear of Lagos was to ob- 

 tain a port on the lower Niger, an outlet for the in- 

 terior of Dahomey and the French annexations in 

 the middle and upper Niger below the rapids of 

 Bussa, above which for more than 600 miles the 

 river was not navigable. The French Government, 

 fearing a collision between the Niger Company's 

 forces and its own, requested that pending the dis- 

 cussion of frontier lines troops should not be sent 

 into the territory under dispute. The British Gov- 



ernment promised that the troops of the Niger 

 Company should not advance beyond 9'' of north lat- 

 itude. This undertaking did not prevent the French 

 from occupying fresh posts in the region west of 

 the Niger or the British from fitting out expedi- 

 tions from the Gold Coast and Lagos. In order to 

 deal with the new crisis thus precipitated the An- 

 glo-French Commission renewed its sittings in No- 

 vember. 1897. One of the charges that the French 

 brought against the British was that they supplied 

 their enemies with arms. The British had entered 

 into a temporary alliance with Samory, the chief of 

 the predatory Sofas, with whom the French had 

 long been at war. In the early part of 1897 Lieut. 

 Francis B. Henderson went up from the Gold Coast 

 to Wa and Bona, where a colored agent named Fer- 

 guson, who was afterward killed, had already con- 

 cluded treaties, and after a battle with the Sofas 

 went to Samory's camp and arranged a treaty with 

 the robber chieftain. 



The Sultan of Sokoto, whom the English regarded 

 as Emperor of all the Mohammedan states of the 

 Niger, was inclined to repudiate the British protec- 

 torate. The ruler of Nupe had denied it, but was 

 brought to terms early in 1897; and now the Brit- 

 ish threatened a campaign against Sokoto, which 

 was menaced also by Rabah, the conqueror of Ba- 

 girmi and Bornu, who had established his residence 

 in the city of Kano, previously subject to Sokoto. 

 After the British campaign against Nupe and Ilorin 

 the Sultan of Sokoto refused the subsidy of 3,000 

 offered by the Niger Company, and tried to get up 

 a league to fight the British. The rapid develop- 

 ment of the military power of the Niger Company 

 caused him to change his mind, and as the result 

 of months of negotiation he declared his acceptance 

 of the British alliance early in 1898. 



Bonduku, which the English troops from the Gold 

 Coast had taken and shortly afterward' evacuated, 

 was occupied by a French force under the direction 

 of M. Clozel before the close of 1897. The activity 

 of the British Niger Company on the upper reaches 

 of the lower Niger, where the French had occupied 

 Bussa and the whole country over which a British 

 protectorate had been declared on Jan. 1, 1895, was 

 hindered by the necessity of subduing the hostile 

 tribes in the original protectorate. Thus a vigorous 

 campaign was carried on against thelbouzas on the 

 borders of the delta, between Benin city and the 

 river, who were accused of practicing human sacri- 

 fices. For this reason the officials of the company 

 willingly promised not to disturb the French in Bussa" 

 and waited for the Imperial Government to come to 

 their aid with new military forces. Lieut. Breton- 

 net, commanding the first expedition sent out from 

 Dahomey, had marched to the west of Niki, whose 

 King was very jealous of Europeans, and reached 

 Ilo and thence marched along the bank of the Niger 

 in February, 1897, down to Bussa, where the French 

 were welcomed by the King, whom they aided in a 

 long war waged upon him by his rival Cora with 

 bands raised in Wa and Borgu. The Bariba chiefs, 

 through whose country the French marched, were 

 then friendly; but afte'r Capt. Baud and Capt. Vei* 

 iiH'orsch arrived later to occupy their country they 

 aided the King of Borgu in his resistance. Lieut. 

 Bret on net, after the other officers had occupied 

 Borgu, provided for keeping up the line of posts 

 from Kiama to Bussa and up the river to Ilo. Niki 

 was not captured by the French without seven- 

 fighting. The French force of 150 men advancing 

 northward from Carnotville under Major Ricort, 

 after several encounters with the King's troops, en- 

 tered the capital on Nov. 30, 1897, after which tin- 

 King's arrny disbanded, all the Baribas in the region 

 capitulated, and the French troops, joined by those 

 that marched down from the north by way of Wa- 



