WEST AFRICA. 



88] 



gadugu, Parna, Konkodiri. Kandi, Sori, and Bue, re- 

 mained in undisputed possession of I'araku. N'iki, 

 Shori, and Kiama, as well as Lafagon and Bussa on 

 the Niger of the whole of Borgu, in fact, as well as 

 of Mossi andGunna until a British force marched 

 up from Lagos to challenge their rights at Borea 

 and seized the country south of that place. From 

 Say, which was occupied by troops of the French 

 Soudan, a line of French posts, including Bikini, 

 Karamama, Ilo, Gamba, and Lafagon, occupied the 

 right bank of the Niger down to Bussa. The 

 French, advancing from the north, took possession 

 of Wagadugu, the capital of Mossi, the King of 

 which country accepted French protection. After 

 Niki, the capital of Borgu, was occupied the old 

 King died, and his eldest son was installed as King. 

 The new King's brother fled to the English and per- 

 suaded them that he was the rightful King, and was 

 anxious to cede the country to them if they would 

 establish him on the throne. Col. McCallum pro- 

 claimed this pretender King of Borgu on March 9. 

 Col. Northcott, who commanded the column sent 

 from the Gold Coast, reached Wa, capital of Dag- 

 arti, Feb. 1, 1898, and found it in the possession 

 of the French, who had driven the Sofas out of 

 this country and occupied the towns devastated by 

 them. It was guarded by a small black force, and 

 when the English commander ordered the blacks to 

 withdraw they did so. He raised the English flag 

 in the adjacent village of Nasa and at Wa. Lieut. 

 Caudrelier, commander of the French troops, ar- 

 riving shortly afterward, demanded that the British 

 withdraw. When they refused he hoisted the French 

 flag at Wa again alongside of theirs. In the back 

 country of Lagos another French force, coming 

 southward from Niki, came into contact with a 

 British outpost at Borea, Feb. 9, and ordered the 

 negro sergeant in command to haul down the 

 British flag. Meeting with a refusal, he encamped 

 his force about three miles from the town. About 

 the same time it was reported that a French expe- 

 dition had crossed the Niger and advanced 100 

 miles into the territory reserved for British influ- 

 ence by the Say-Barua agreement, and was at Ar- 

 gungu, on the border of Gando ; that the Sultan of 

 Sokoto had forbidden the party to advance into his 

 dominion ; and that the agent general of the Royal 

 Niger Company, William "Wallace, was fitting out 

 a force To expel' the French. The British minister 

 at Paris asked for an explanation, and M. Ilanotaux 

 denied that a French expedition had entered So- 

 koto or the British sphere, but later he explained 

 that it was an expedition fitted out by Prince 

 d'Arenberg; that Capt, Casamajou, its commander, 

 had disobeyed the positive orders of the French 

 Government in passing south of the Say-Barua line. 

 The French Minister of the Colonies immediately 

 sent orders for him to move northward. Major 

 Lugard, with 100 British officers and an equal num- 

 ber of non-commissioned officers, left England for 

 the Niger in the first part of 1898 to organize two 

 imperial battalions of native troops, each about 

 1,200 strong, one of Hausas raised at Lagos and one 

 of Yorubas recruited in the Niger territory. In- 

 dian engineers were dispatched from Madras. Not- 

 counting these new formations, there were in the 

 Niger territories and the Lagos and Cold Coast 

 Hinterland between 5,000 and 6,000 British troops, 

 all natives except the officers. In moving troops 

 up from Ashanti, the British officers disturbed the 

 commerce of the Gold Coast for some time by im- 

 pressing carriers, traders, and all the natives who 

 could be caught into the service of transporting 

 supplies up country. The British and French forces, 

 seeking to' put into practice the theory of effective 

 possession and to occupy as many points as possible 

 in the bend of the Niger, divided into small parties 



which rushed through the country, raising a flag 

 over every village where one was "not already dis- 

 played. The -oldiers of both nation., had received 

 positive orders not under any circim. 

 upon any provocation to accept 'a conflict. It hap- 

 pened several linu-s that an English detachment, 

 finding a place occupied by the French, man l..-d 

 on and raised the British Hate at a jxmit fur 

 north. In the same manner. French parties pawed 

 by points that wen- found to be in Briti-h 

 cupation and established posts beyond. Ileni 

 two countries had stations dotted over the map 

 in inextricable confusion. The KnglUh man-h'-d 

 through the neutral /.one established in March. 

 1888, between their Gold Coast Hinterland ami that 

 of German Togoland, established a line of commu- 

 nications through Yeji and Salaga, and north of 

 the /.one raised the I.ritish Hag at (iumlmga and 

 Bawku. When the German Government made an 

 earnest protest, they withdrew from the neutral 

 territory. A Franco-German convention fixing the 

 boundary line between Dahomey and Togoluml, 

 leaving to France everything north of 11 of lati- 

 tude, went into effect on Jan. lv!. l v 



The British headquarters on the Niger. established 

 at Lokoja. where the Benue enters the Niger, by 

 Lieut.-Col. Pilcher, after the arrival of Col. Lugard. 

 were moved up to Jebba, close to the principal scene 

 of the scramble, where the French held Bussa, on 

 the Niger, and a line of communications through 

 Kiama and Ashigire to Niki. while a short div 

 away the English were spread out from I>eaba to 

 Okuta, Here, and Iioiva. which was disputed by the 

 French and was on the line of French communica- 

 tions from Niki through Shori toCarnotville. in the 

 north of Dahomey. The English had reached Boria 

 from Lagos through Saki and llesha. to the east of 

 which, between it and Jcbba. far to the south of their 

 other posts, the French had planted their flag at 

 Kishi. The Yoruba regiment, raised at Ibadan by 

 Col. Lugard. departed for the Niger before th> 

 ginning of March, and the Niger regiment was al- 

 ready at Jebba. These new troops established >trong 

 posts on the west bank at Fort Goldie and Lt-aba. 



Lieut.-Col. McCallum, the Governor of I>agos, 

 reached Okuta, the main British post in tin 

 puted district on the Niger, on March 11. With 

 500 West Indian and Hausa troops on the frontier 

 and 1,000 more in reserve, besides friendly Baribas 

 and other native irregulars at command, the British 

 military force in this region was greatly superior to 

 the French, even before the arrival of the new im- 

 perial troops at Jebba. In the back country of the 

 Gold Coast also the British gradually developed a 

 superior force and were able to put :>.n(Hi men into 

 the field Hausas. West Indians. Fan tee police, and 

 friendly Koran/as. The regular force of the Niger 

 Company, about 1.000 strong, was enlarged b. 

 cruiting more Yorubas and men from the bc>t triU-s 

 on the Niger. The Lagos troops found admirable 

 auxiliaries in the Baribas who had not come to 

 terms with the French. and had been exj elled from 

 Niki and those of the country occupied l>y them- 

 selves. They took !> < -sion of the important Ba- 



riba town Of Bode. As they held Ile>ha ami S 

 already, and the northern towns of Ben' and Okuta. 

 the Baribas accepted an alliance. Col. McCallum 

 arranged a peace between the prince, whom he had 

 proclaimed Kiiiii of Niki. and the King of Yoruba, 

 an old enemy of Borgu. The isolated French 

 of Kishi. a'Yoruba town, wa- \MvMed from the 

 French in May by the instrumentality of the native 

 population, which drove out the small garrison and 

 admitted an English force. The French, after pro- 

 testing against the occupation of the town by the 

 British, established a post outside of the town walk 

 and hoisted the French flag. 



