THE BAGIRIMI 145 



not stop short of utter extermination. All through 

 that waste human bones are to be found, barely 

 covered by the thin soil, and in the bed of the 

 Yo river heaps of skeletons lie as the corpses were 

 thrown then, one on the top of the other. Such was 

 the position when, in 1897, a French expedition, under 

 the command of M. Gentil, penetrated to the Bagirimi 

 kingdom, on a voyage of exploration down the Shari 

 to Lake Chad. His object was to enter into alliance 

 with the chiefs of important peoples, and Gauaronga 

 was only too glad to make a treaty which promised 

 him protection against Rabeh. The French, however, 

 were not in sufficient force to wage a campaign there 

 and then, and in due course returned to France to 

 organise a suitable expedition. 



But none of these manoeuvres had escaped Babeh, 

 and no sooner was Gentil gone than he took vengeance 

 on all the native tribes who had shown friendship to 

 the white man. Foremost in importance and first to 

 meet his anger was Gauaronga, who, realising his 

 impotence to defend the country against his all-power- 

 ful foe, himself burnt his capital of Massenia rather 

 than that it should fall into the hands of his enemy. 



Together with his large retinue and armies Gaua- 

 ronga fled down the Shari to Kouno, where for tw^o 

 years he and his people lived in ever - increasing 

 misery. Babeh had devastated the country round, 

 and for that reason raids on neighbouring pagan 

 tribes, once Gauaronga's main source of wealth be- 

 cause of the unlimited supply of slaves taken there, 

 were now unproductive. Famine ensued, and many of 

 his subjects, particularly the foreign element of Tri- 

 politans, Fezzanese, and Wadaians, hated Gauaronga 



K 



