Vol. XIII, No. 4 



WASHINGTON 



April, 1902 



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RECENT FRENCH EXPLORATIONS IN 



AFRICA 



By Dr. Charles Rabot, Editor of "La Geographie" 



THE closing of the nineteenth 

 century and the beginning of the 

 twentieth are noted for impor- 

 tant explorations in Africa by the French 

 Government. In order to establish be- 

 yond dispute her sovereignty over the 

 hinterland of her colonies, and to con- 

 nect the scattered members of her colo- 

 nial empire in Africa, France has been 

 directing a number of military and civil 

 expeditions whose results have greatly 

 enriched our geographical knowledge of 

 the northern half of the continent. 



The regions in which the French have 

 been specially active belong to three dif- 

 ferent zones : in the north, the Sahara ; 

 then passing southward, the Sudan or the 

 higher basin of the Niger ; and, thirdly, 

 the tropical forest stretching from Guinea 

 across the middle and lower basins of 

 the Niger to the Kongo and beyond, 

 the forest in the interior giving way to 

 a land of dense brush. 



The most famous of the French ex- 

 peditions in Africa is that of Colonel 

 Marchand. Its object was political — to 

 pre /ent England from realizing her long- 

 cherished plan of an African Empire 



stretching from Cape to Cairo. The 

 Marchand expedition started from the 

 Upper Ubangi for the east, while an- 

 other expedition, commanded by Mar- 

 quis de Bonchamp, then M. Michel, ad- 

 vancing from Abyssinia toward the west, 

 was to meet him at the Nile. If this 

 scheme failed politically, from a geo- 

 graphic point of view it was a magnificent 

 success. The Marchand expedition, 

 which, besides its chief, included seven 

 officers, has obtained a very careful map 

 of the entire region, in large part pre- 

 viously unknown, which stretches across 

 Africa between the parallels of 5 and 

 io° north latitude. Lieutenant Com- 

 mander Dye, the astronomer of the 

 party, determined the position of 75 

 points between Bangui, in the Kongo 

 basin, and Jibuti, on the Red Sea. A 

 large map on the scale of 1 : 3,000,000 

 will soon be published by the officers of 

 the expedition, showing the country 

 explored by them, but no account of 

 this expedition has yet been published 

 by any member of the party. 



No less worthy of admiration than 

 their cartographic achievements are the 



