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GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS. (AFRICA.) 



mission, take over the command, investigate the 

 charges, and, if these were proved, to place Capt. 

 Voulet and Capt. Chanoine under arrest. In the 

 execution of these orders Col. Klobb, who was 

 accompanied by a young lieutenant named Meu- 

 nier and a small escort, marched to Binder, on 

 the Niger. On July 10 he received news of the 

 mission, and dispatched four men of his escort 

 with a message to its chiefs. The message was 

 delivered on the evening of July 12, and on the 

 following morning Capt. Voulet, according to the 

 account of the survivors, sent the messengers 

 back to Col. Klobb with a letter, bidding them at 

 the same time inform the colonel that he was 

 about to move to the next village to obtain 

 water. Col. Klobb showed the letter to Lieut. 

 Meunier, and at once sent a second communica- 

 tion to Capt. Voulet, who received it on the even- 

 ing of July 13. Capt. Voulet immediately called 

 his native noncommissioned officers together and 

 told them that the colonel was coming to set 

 free the prisoners he had given his men. He 

 asked them whether they would obey the colonel 

 or fire upon him. They said they would take 

 their orders from the captain, and then went 

 among their men and instructed them to fire when 

 they got the command. Capt. Voulet sent a 

 second letter and a third, in which he declared 

 that he would not give up his command; that 

 he had GOO rifles under his orders; and that he 

 would treat his superior officer as an enemy if 

 he continued to advance. Col. Klobb gave orders 

 that if the mutineers fired their fire was not to 

 be returned. When the two forces were about 

 150 yards apart, Capt. Voulet being the only 

 officer present with the mutineers, he called out 

 to Col. Klobb that he knew well enough who 

 was before him and that there was no mistake, 

 but that he would fire if the colonel advanced. 

 The colonel answered that he would advance, but 

 that in no circumstances would he fire, and he 

 repeated his orders to this effect in the hearing 

 of Voulet. The chief of the mutineers formed 

 up his men and ordered them to fire three volleys 

 and then to fire independently. Col. Klobb and 

 Lieut. Meunier were both wounded the latter 

 fatally at the first discharge. The second volley 

 killed the colonel, but not until he had again 

 forbidden his men to return the fire and ordered 

 the survivors to report at the nearest French 

 post. Capt. Voulet seems to have completed 

 his butchery by a bayonet charge. Happily, the 

 bush was at hand, and the native escort of the 

 murdered officers knew how to avail themselves 

 of it. By Aug. 3 the survivors had made their 

 way back to Garu, on the Niger, where they were 

 met by Lieut. Cornu, whose dispatch has just 

 reached Paris." 



The cruelties charged against Voulet and Cha- 

 noine, which led to the sending of Col. Klobb, 

 are so horrible as to be almost past belief. Fol- 

 lowing is a part of the statement credited to an 

 officer who had left their mission: "On Jan. 8, 

 1899, a native who was met by some soldiers de- 

 clared that he did not know the road toward 

 the east. He was brought before Capt. Voulet, 

 who ordered his head to be cut off. Reconnoiter- 

 ing parties sent out on the night of Jan. 8 were 

 ordered to capture his village, kill all the natives 

 who resisted, bring away the rest as captives, 

 and take the heads. On the morning of Jan. 9 

 a reconnoitering party returned to camp with 

 250 oxen, 500 sheep, 28 horses, and 80 prisoners. 

 Some of the soldiers having been killed or wound- 

 ed, Capt. Voulet said that an example must be 

 made. He ordered 20 women, mothers with young 

 children and babes, to be killed with lances at 



a few hundred yards from the camp. Their bodies- 

 were afterward found by the post commander at 

 Say. On the same day a soldier who had ex- 

 pended 124 cartridges in a skirmish had his brains 

 blown out, by order of Capt. Voulet, for having 

 wasted his ammunition. On Jan. 13 the mission 

 burned Sansanne-Hausa, a city of 10,000 inhabit- 

 ants and an active commercial center. On the 

 14th 3 spahis, a regular soldier, and 2 auxiliaries 

 charged a native, who, in defending himself, 

 wounded the regular. The auxiliaries, being 

 armed only with lances, did not dare to pursue 

 the native. For this negligence they were shot 

 without trial as soon as they returned to camp,, 

 by order of Capt. Chanoine. An entire village 

 was burned. At Libore, on the 17th, 2 prisoners 

 were brought in and taken before Capt. Voulet, 

 who ordered them to be shot. At the same time 

 2 soldiers brought 2 freshly cut hands to the chief 

 of the mission. From that time forward the 

 practice of cutting off the hands of the massa- 

 cred natives became general. All the men who 

 brought these sanguinary evidences of murder to 

 the officers' mess table were rewarded. On the 

 24th Capt. Chanoine lost by surprise 6 spahis 

 killed in an engagement. Pursuing the aggressors,, 

 he came across the inhabitants of a neighboring 

 village, who had taken refuge in the brushwood.. 

 He made 20 prisoners, cut off the heads of 10 of 

 them and had them stuck on poles. During the 

 march of the mission Sergeant-Major Laury and 

 some of the soldiers armed with staves struck 

 those who did not march quickly. The carriers, 

 recruited by chance, were in many cases old and 

 feeble. Some fell out, and the soldiers cut off 

 their heads. Sometimes Sergeant-Major Laury 

 executed them himself with his revolver. All 

 these acts were committed in a peaceful country 

 where the inhabitants were not hostile to the 

 mission." 



A journey by M. Fourneau through the less 

 known lands of French Congo led from Wesso, 

 on the upper Sauga, Feb. 14, 1899, to the Gabun, 

 June 10, through at first a sparsely populated,, 

 swampy region abounding in elephants; after- 

 ward through a wilderness, where rubber trees 

 were abundant, and among villages of the Ba- 

 kotas. They reached the divide between the 

 Congo and Ogowe systems, examined the Mam- 

 bili, an affluent of the Mossaka, the Ivindo, the 

 Abombe, the Jadie, the Niona, and the Bokowe. 

 M. Fourneau favors the establishment of a rapid- 

 transit route from the Gabun either to the Sauga 

 by way of the valley of the Jadie or to the Mos- 

 saka by way of the valley of the Mambili. 



A journey across the Sahara south of Algeria 

 was undertaken by F. Foureau as explorer and 

 Count Lamy as military commander, and at last 

 accounts was proceeding successfully, though 

 fears for its safety had been entertained. The 

 expedition consisted of 180 Algerian soldiers, be- 

 sides the officers, and carried 1,000 camels. From 

 southern Algeria the way led by Temassinin, 

 across the Tassili plateau, the western portion of. 

 which is 5,700 feet in height. The region is essen- 

 tially volcanic. The divide between Atlantic and 

 Mediterranean waters is 4,690 feet high. The 

 route by way of the Air oasis, which was taken 

 by the expedition, is said not to have been trav- 

 ersed before since 1849, when it was taken by 

 Barth. At last accounts the explorers had reached 

 Lake Chad. 



Dr. F. Weisgerber has made a journey through 

 the interior of Morocco, visiting places rarely or 

 never seen by Europeans; and Dr. Theodor 

 Fischer explored the valley of the Tensift river 

 in Morocco, heretofore almost unknown. 



