FROM THE SHARI TO THE UBANGUI 211 



wrists and legs. They colour their heads and bodies with 

 paint which they make out of the red earth. 



Their huts, which are dirty, are scattered over the 

 farms where they grow Indian corn, tobacco, and beans. We 

 found beads and salt were the trade goods most in demand. 



On September 30 we reached Fort Crampel, a small 

 French station under the Civil Administration whose head- 

 quarters are at Bangi ; its northern boundary rests on the 

 left bank of the Bamingi that divides it from the Territoire 

 du Chad which is under the Military Administration. The 

 station is named after the explorer Crampel, who led a 

 mission from the Congo to Lake Chad and was betrayed 

 by some of his own men into the hands of the Sultan 

 Senoussi's emissaries and murdered at Kuti in the province of 

 Darunga in April 1891. The rifles and ammunition be- 

 longing to the mission were given by the Sultan to Rabeh, 

 whose son Faderellah had married his daughter. How far 

 Senoussi was responsible for the murder of Crampel is not 

 known, but he is a shifty fellow and the French find it neces- 

 sary to keep an armed force at N'dele. Although he gave his 

 allegiance to Gentil on the latter's return journey from Lake 

 Chad in 1898, yet in the following year he secretly informed 

 Rabeh of Gentil's movements down the Shari to Kusseri. 



At Fort Crampel there is a small factory belonging to the 

 Nana Company, which trades in rubber and ivory. Rubber 

 vines grow abundantly in the " marigots," or tropical belts 

 that line the numerous streams in this part of the French 

 Congo ; a really rich country, very different to the barren 

 Territoire du Chad, which is useless for colonising and un- 

 productive of any trade. 



