FROM FORT LAMY TO THE TOGBAU HILLS 171 



nephew Kiari, who also turned upon Rabeh and defeated him 

 in December 1893 at Gilba to the south of Kukawa. Rabeh, 

 however, raUied his men and a few days later utterly routed 

 Kiari's forces and destroyed Kukawa, the capital of Bornu. 



After this, Rabeh made Dikwa his headquarters, for it 

 was the most central point from which he could rule his newly 

 acquired provinces. But this did not mark the goal of his 

 ambition, he was merely pausing to gather strength to 

 advance upon Kano, the rich capital of the West, where it 

 had ever been his dream to found his kingdom. At Dikwa, 

 which he fortified together with the three strategic points of 

 Gulfei, Karnak'Logone and Kusseri, he reorganised his army, 

 levying taxes on the people for its maintenance. His army, 

 including followers, when in the field numbered no less than 

 60,000 men. Each day Rabeh himself apportioned foraging 

 grounds to the different sections, and they fed off the country 

 like locusts. In all his military organisations he was assisted 

 by his son, Faderellah, who was also an able leader of men. 



In 1897 a source of danger arose for Rabeh, who was a 

 fanatic and a hater of the white man, in the appearance at 

 Lake Chad of the French Mission under Lieutenant Gentil. 

 Bringing his steamer by way of the Congo, Ubangui and Tomi 

 rivers, and thence carrying it in sections across country to 

 the Gribingi river, after great difficulties Gentil gained the 

 Shari, down which he steamed, making treaties with all the 

 chiefs on the way, including Gaourand, the Sultan of Baghirmi. 



It was a brilliant piece of work which Gentil accomplished, 

 but only by the skin of his teeth, for, although he never knew 

 it, he narrowly escaped being annihilated by Rabeh on his 

 way back from Chad. Rabeh coming from Dikwa with his 



