236 THE COLONIAL EXPANSION OF FRANCE 



from whieli they have l)een driven I)}' wars or slave trade; fourth, 

 the rapid building of roads. One, 560 miles lonj^, binds Timbuktu 

 with Dahome3', and another of 500 miles forms the chord of an arc 

 descril)ed 1)3' the bend of the Niger River. Miss Mary H. Kingsley, 

 the remarkable English lady traveler and scientist, has testified to 

 the beneficent influence of France upon that part of the Dark Conti- 

 nent. When the Senegal-Niger liailroad is finished and the Trans- 

 Saharan l)uilt, under the blessings of Pax Gallica, a life never dreamed 

 of will spring u}) in these territories. 



Tunis is one of the most successful colonies of the world. The 

 following facts concerning the work of France there are indisputable: 

 First, she has introduced a security of life never known before; 

 second, she has im})roved the finances; tliird, she has given a great 

 impetus to agriculture and brought Tunis in touch with tiie markets 

 of the world; fourth, she has greatly ameliorated the administration 

 of justice; fifth, she has given a great impetus to education ; in 1892 

 the budget for that purpose was between 160,000 and 180,000 francs ; 

 sixth, over 600 miles of railroad have been built. Roads have been 

 constructed upon a large scale. In fact this has been one character- 

 istic of the expansion of France in Madagascar, in Senegal, Algeria, 

 and Tunis. With the recent stupendous development of tlie auto- 

 mobile and its introduction into the colonies, the building of these 

 roads is of the greatest significance. Algeria is the most important 

 achievement of France because of the internal develo{)ment of that 

 colony and its organic relations with continental France. Algiers, 

 the former stronghold of African piracy, has become safer than Lon- 

 don, and Algeria as safe as France. Though colonization in South 

 Africa began in 1652, the Dutch and the British have not attracted 

 thither many more than 700,000 Europeans. In 70 years France 

 has drawn to North Africa 600.000 Europeans; and if she has had the 

 advantage of nearness she has not had that of rich minerals, which 

 are such demographic magnets. I have an absolute confidence not 

 only in the [)ower of Frenchmen to make the natives accept the pres- 

 ent regime as the will of Allah, but in the ultimate reconciliation of 

 both races. France has all along shown her genius to win to her 

 men of other nations and races. The Navarrese united to France 

 are most loyal, while those of Spain are still restless. Alsace, though 

 ethnographically Germanic, longs to return to France. Corsica, 

 though Italian, is attached to her Gallic conquerors. Savoy, after 

 some 40 years of union, displays an unquestionable loyalty. In 

 every French colony one sees signs of the growing attachment of the 



