854 



WEST AFRICA. 



posts along the western boundary, where the fron- 

 tier was not yet demarcated, opposite similar 

 posts held by French troops, and to occupying the 

 Niger from Ho northward. The forts were gar- 

 risoned with British troops, of which there were 

 two battalions, three batteries, and a company of 

 engineers, besides a large number of officers and 

 noncommissioned officers for the native troops. 



The Gold Coast colony proper has an area of 

 about 15,000 square miles, with a population esti- 

 mated at 1,473,882. There are about 500 whites. 

 The protectorate behind the colony is the King- 

 dom of Ashantee, now controlled by the British 

 resident commissioner at Kumassi. It has an 

 area of about 31,000 square miles. There are 626 

 miles of telegraphs. The exports are caoutchouc, 

 palm oil and kernels, and woods. The revenue of 

 the colony in 1897 was 237,857; expenditure, 

 406,370; imports, 910,540; exports, 857,- 

 793. There are many gold mines, some of which 

 are now worked by modern methods. A railroad 

 from Seccondee to the gold mines of Tarquah is 

 being built, and this will probably be continued 

 to Kumassi. Another line from Accra to the 

 Volta has been authorized, and for these railroads 

 and for an improved landing at Seccondee and 

 harbor works at Accra the Imperial Parliament 

 has authorized loans amounting to 676,000. 

 The Ashantees have been restless because they 

 have no king. Capt. Donald Stewart, in exploring 

 the back country about Warn with Hausa 

 troops, had several encounters with the inhab- 

 itants, who objected to compulsory labor on tele- 

 graphs and to the house tax. The Ashantees, who 

 formerly numbered 25,000 at Kumassi, all left 

 when the English took the place, which now has 

 only 2,000 inhabitants. Domestic slavery and 

 slave dealing are common still, although slaves 

 are told by the British that they can leave their 

 masters if they will. Searches for the buried gold 

 of King Prempeh have proved fruitless, and the 

 indications are that the hoards were stolen by 

 the chiefs without the King's knowledge. 



Sierra Leone, including the island of Sherbro 

 and annexed territories back of the old colony, 

 has an area of 30,000 square miles and about 250,- 

 000 inhabitants. The area of the colony proper 

 is 4,000 square miles, with 74,835 inhabitants, in- 

 cluding 224 whites. Freetown, which is the head- 

 quarters of the British troops in West Africa, has 

 30,033 inhabitants. The exports are palm ker- 

 nels, caoutchouc, kola nuts, ginger, ground nuts, 

 copal, benni seed, and hides. The revenue in 1897 

 was 106,008; expenditure, 111,667; imports, 

 457,389; exports, 400,748. The rebellion in 

 1898 disturbed the normal course of trade. The 

 imports were 606,348 and exports 290,991 in 

 value. The revenue was 117,682, the largest 

 ever collected, in spite of the native rising, which 

 affected some of the ordinary sources of revenue. 

 The expenditure was 121,112, which was also 

 unusually large on account of the insurrection. 

 Of the imports, five sixths came from Great Brit- 

 ain, which took about half the exports. A rail- 

 road from Freetown to Moyamba, opened in May, 

 1899, for 30 miles to Songotown, and extended 

 to Rotofunk before the end of the year, has been 

 built with the aid of a loan of 310,000 guaran- 

 teed by the British Government. Columns of 

 troops marched through the country that was the 

 scene of the rebellion, to overawe the natives, 

 who showed no disposition, however, to renew the 

 disturbances in 1899. All the chiefs were brought 

 down to the coast as prisoners. The people re- 

 built their towns and planted crops. Sir David 

 Chalmers, the special commissioner appointed to 

 inquire into the causes of the rising and report on 



the administration of the colony and of the pro- 

 tectorate, condemned the imposition of the hut 

 tax in the protectorate, which was the cause of 

 the rebellion, and recommended the restoration of 

 the chiefs, who should be intrusted with the ordi- 

 nary administration and police work under su- 

 pervision, rather than the frontier police. The 

 commissioner suggested that the subjects of a 

 protectorate have rights, and it should be a work 

 of forbearance and patience, rather than of over- 

 powering force, to instruct them that they have 

 duties and obligations toward the protecting 

 power. By the encouragement of agriculture and 

 industry and of missionary teaching, and by wise 

 and sympathetic government on fixed principle! 

 of justice, he believed that the gradual raising of 

 the level of civilization and the increase of popu- 

 .lation and industry would result in enough rev- 

 enue for all needs, whereas endeavors to compel 

 revenue by shortsighted and unsuitable means 

 must result in failure. Sir Frederickk Cardew, the 

 Governor, defended his policy, and Mr. Cham- 

 berlain rejected the recommendations of the spe- 

 cial commissioner. He decided to retain the h<>u~ 

 tax at the original amount of 5s. a house, giving 

 the Governor power to remit it where he thinks 

 it is excessive, and giving the poorer natives the 

 option of paying it in labor. He conitnendi-il the 

 opinion of the Governor that "the exn.iM of 

 force, peremptory, rapid, and inflexible. \va^ tin- 

 element to be relied on," and approved all tin- 

 actions of the district commissioners and other 

 European officers whom Sir David rhsilnirr-. <>n< 

 Chief Justice of Sierra Leone, charged with acting 

 with oppressive severity, with making am-N 

 illegally, and with other breaches of the protect - 

 orate ordinance. Of the prisoners arrested utter 

 the suppression of the insurrection, 1~1 were con- 

 demned to death. Bai Bureh, the leader of the 

 rebellion, was deported. The punitive expedition 

 under Col. E. R. P. Wooden t<>. which man -hed 

 through the Timani and Mendi country in live 

 columns, not only destroyed 40 villages in tin- 

 country that was lately in rebellion, but marched 

 into unexplored regions of the hinterland a tin 

 concentrating at Waima, and in order to impress 

 the ignorant natives, especially the powerful <.i--i 

 tribe, with the strength and mobility <>f tin- 1'iit 

 ish forces, destroyed most of the stockaded towns. 

 the natives having already de-tn.yed their >t<>tes 

 of rice and grain and cut all their bridges. The 

 punitive operations were followed by a proclama- 

 tion of amnesty throughout the province- of (he 

 protectorate where the hut tax was confined. The 

 Colonial Secretary decided to impose a hut tax 

 in the colony too, in order to remove the inequal- 

 ity of which the people of the protectorate < 0111 

 pfained. A hut tax was formerly collected in 

 Sierra Leone, but it was repealed by Sir John 

 Pope Hennessy, whose policy was as popular among 

 the Sierra Leoneans as that of Sir Frederick k Car- 

 dew has been unpopular. The colony itself has 

 been declining, owing to the competition of the 

 French Government and people in their neigh- 

 boring possessions. Since by agreement with 

 France a hinterland containing 1,000.000 inhabit 

 ants has been secured, which produces rice, rub- 

 ber, kola, gum, palm kernels and oil in abun- 

 dance, the light railroad that has been built i* 

 expected to develop a considerable commerce, and 

 already the trade is increasing. Simultaneously 

 with the operations in the north one of the new 

 West African regiments and the frontier police 

 advanced into the Kissi country on the Liberian 

 frontier. The chiefs resisted the invasion, finally 

 making their submission after a great number of 

 their people had been killed and 50 



