WEST AFRICA. 



831 



the British Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and Gambia 

 isolated enclaves. To check this plan the British 

 subjugated the Ashantis behind the Gold Coast 

 in 1896 and the Royal Niger Company began to 

 organize an army. Germany, in February, 1896, 

 recognized the French claim to Bagirmi and defi- 

 nitely accepted the Shari as the limit of the Ger- 

 man sphere in the region of Lake Chad. Political 

 and military undertakings having exhausted the 

 resources of the Niger Company and the situa- 

 tion becoming critical on the frontiers, the Brit- 

 ish Government bought out the chartered com- 

 pany, and on June 14, 1898, concluded a more 

 definite and complete agreement with France, 

 which after long negotiations over details was 

 ratified on June 13, 1899. The spheres of France 

 and Great Britain, both east and west of the 

 Niger, are delimited in this convention. Be- 

 tween the British Gold Coast protectorate and 

 the French Ivory Coast the line is continued 

 from the terminal point of the frontier laid down 

 in the convention of July 21, 1893, which was at 

 the point on the river Volta where it is inter- 

 sected by the parallel of 9 of north latitude. 

 It ascends this river northward to its intersection 

 by the parallel of 11 of north latitude, then 

 turns to the east, diverging so as to leave Sa- 

 peliga to Great Britain. The boundary between 

 Dahomey and the British colony of Lagos was 

 delimited in 1895 from the sea to the intersection 

 of the river Ocpara by the parallel of 9 of north 

 latitude. The boundary between the French and 

 English spheres proceeds from that point in a 

 northerly direction until it meets the river Niger 

 10 miles above Gere, runs up the Niger 7 miles, 

 then continues northward, following the Dallul 

 Mauri, to a point 100 miles from the city of So- 

 koto, from which it follows the arc of a circle 

 with that radius eastward round that city on the 

 north until its second intersection with the paral- 

 lel of 14 of north latitude, whence it runs due 

 east 70 miles, then south to 13 20' of north lati- 

 tude, then east again 250 miles, then north to 14 

 of north latitude, then east to the meridian that 

 passes 35' east of the town of Kuka on Lake 

 Chad, and then follows this meridian to the 

 shore of the lake. The French effort to obtain 

 access through their own territory to the mari- 

 time Niger was frustrated, but the British Gov- 

 ernment agreed to lease for thirty years to 

 France for commercial purposes a piece of land 

 on the right bank of the Niger, between Lealaba 

 and the confluence of the Moussa and Niger, and 

 one on one of the mouths of the Niger and to 

 extend for that period the same treatment as 

 regards river navigation and tariff and fiscal 

 irtatters to French as to British persons and mer- 

 chandise. The line between British Nigeria and 

 German Cameroons is continued from a point on 

 the Binue 5 miles below the confluence of the 

 Faro in a straight line to the intersection of the 

 parallel of 10 of north latitude with the meridian 

 of 13 of east longitude, and thence to a point 

 on Lake Chad east of the town of Kuka. The 

 boundary between German Togoland and Da- 

 homey, by the agreement of July 23, 1897, be- 

 tween France and Germany is the river Mona up 

 to 7 of north latitude and on the north the 

 parallel of 11 of north latitude and the White 

 Volta as far as 10 of north latitude. In the 

 Anglo-German negotiations the Salaga country 

 behind Togoland and the Gold Coast was left 

 undivided for a long time and was treated as a 

 neutral zone until an agreement was reached on 

 Nov. 14. 1899, fixing the Daka river as the di- 

 viding line up to 9 of north latitude, the line 

 to be drawn beyond that point by a mixed com- 



mission in such manner as to leave Yendi and 

 Chakosi on the German and Mauprusi and Gam- 

 baga on the English side. On March 29, 1901, 

 an agreement between France and Spain was rati- 

 fied reducing the area that Spain claimed south 

 of Morocco, leaving the entire Sahara in the 

 French sphere, from the western frontier of 

 Egypt to the Spanish coast strip at Rio de Oro. 

 In compensation France conceded the Spanish 

 claim to the coast district on the Bight of Biafra 

 from the boundary of the German Cameroons to 

 the, Rio Muni, with a boundary inland at 11 20' 

 east of Greenwich. In the same agreement 

 France secured the right of preemption to all 

 the Spanish territories in West Africa and the 

 islands adjacent to the coast. 



French Possessions. Including the Sahara, 

 with an estimated area of 1,544,000 square miles, 

 the French possessions, stretching from the 

 Congo and Ubangi to the borders of Algeria, 

 Tunis, and Tripoli and from the Atlantic to the 

 Egyptian frontier, have a total area estimated 

 at 3,050,000 square miles, and an estimated popu- 

 lation of 23,380,000.. The administration of 

 French West Africa w r as reorganized on Jan. 1, 

 1900. The boundaries of Senegal, the Ivory Coast, 

 French Guinea, and Dahomey were extended, and 

 the Soudan was placed under a military admin- 

 istration independent of the civil administra- 

 tion of Senegal, but under the political direc- 

 tion of the Governor of Senegal, who is Gov- 

 ernor-General of French West Africa. The colony 

 of Senegal, where a French settlement has 

 existed since 1637, now extends inland 900 miles, 

 to within the bend of the Niger. Under the 

 direct administration of the Governor are the 

 communes of St. Louis, Dakar, Goree, and Ru- 

 fisque, which have a total population of 42.200. 

 Local administrators are placed over 9 circles 

 which have a population of 61,000. The territory 

 under immediate French protection and control 

 has an area of about 1,000,000 square miles, but 

 the total area of the colony and protectorate is. 

 200,000 square miles, with 3,200,000 inhabitants, 

 including the new circles of Kayes, Kita, Sata- 

 dugu, Bammuko, Segu, Jenne, Nioro, Gumba, 

 Sokolfo, and Buguni. Scattered among the dis- 

 tricts under French administrators are some na- 

 tive states w T hose friendly chiefs have been left 

 undisturbed. These have a population of 80,000. 

 The colony sends a Deputy to the French Cham- 

 ber. The Governor in 1902 was N. E. Ballay, re- 

 siding at St. Louis, which has a population of 

 20,000. The military force in 1900 was 2,600 

 men, of whom 1,180 were natives. The Govern- 

 ment maintains 9 elementary schools in the 4 

 towns, with 67 teachers and 1,986 pupils, of whom 

 568 are girls; also schools of agriculture and 

 horticulture. The natives can weave and make 

 pottery and jewelry, and they cultivate millet, 

 corn, and rice, and keep cattle, sheep, goats, and 

 camels. The local revenue in 1901 was 4,644.730 

 francs, and expenditure the same. The produc- 

 tion of earthnuts in 1900 was 140,000 tons. Co- 

 conuts, kola, rubber, gums, and castor-oil are 

 other products. Gold, silver, mercury, and cop- 

 per are found. Earthnuts, gums, and rubber are 

 the chief exports. The total value of imports in 

 1900 was 46,805,000 francs, and of exports 4-J.- 

 925,000 francs. The ports were visited by 352 

 vessels, of 460,227 tons. A railroad, 163 miles, 

 long, connects Dakar with St. Louis and Ru- 

 fisque, and one from Kayes, the head of naviga- 

 tion on the Senegal river, had been built through 

 to Bamaku on the navigable Niger, 357 miles, in 

 the beginning of 1902, and was pushed through 

 to Timbuktu in the autumn. A graving dock has 



