French Conquest of the Sahara 



77 



as soon as they spied a caravan to fall 

 upon it to rob and massacre. Often, too, 

 they were wont to attack the tribes of 

 the extreme south of Algeria, who had 

 already submitted to French influences. 



After the disaster to the Flatters 

 mission in 1881 and several other out- 

 rages committed by the Touaregs, the 

 French military authorities had post- 

 poned for a while all further desire to 

 penetrate into the Sahara and remained 

 simply on the defensive. 



During this period of official inac- 

 tion, M. Foureau accomplished a series 

 of very fruitful expeditions in the 

 desert regions south of Algeria. From 

 1883 to 1897 ne traveled no less than 

 13,200 miles, of which 9,600 were in 

 regions entirely unknown. 



Not only did M. Foureau notably 

 augment our geographic knowledge by 

 this journey, but he inaugurated a 

 mode of traveling which has been very 

 fruitful for the exploration of the Sa- 

 hara. Instead of being accompanied 

 by a heavy caravan, li!ie preceding mis- 

 sions, this traveler adopted the mode of 

 life and transport of the natives, taking 

 with him only a few faithful Arabs. 

 His little troop was mounted on ' ' me- 

 haris," used by the Touaregs-— rapid 

 camels, which are to the ordinary cam- 

 els of the caravan what race-horses are 

 to cart horses. Thanks to the mobility 

 of his caravan, M. Foureau could per- 

 form long raids without being attacked 

 by the Touaregs. Meanwhile, from 

 1890 to 1892, a French officer, Colonel 

 Monteil, accomplished the crossing of 

 the Sahara from Tchad to Tripoli by 

 the caravan route. 



The French, however, had never aban- 

 doned the idea of a junction of Algeria 

 to the Sudan. In 1896 a member of 

 the Geographical Society, M. Renoust 

 des Orgeries, encouraged this idea by 

 giving the society $50,000 to organize 

 an expedition to carry out this program, 

 and in 1899 M. Foureau received per- 

 mission to traverse the Sahara and to 



make his way through the desert to the 

 French possessions in Central Africa. 

 To ensure the safety of his caravan and 

 to compel a respect for the French flag 

 from the brigands of the Sahara, the 

 government gave M. Foureau a numer- 

 ous military escort, commanded by 

 Major Lamy. 



This Foureau expedition started from 

 Ouargla (in South Algeria) at the end 

 of October, 1898, and a year later (No- 

 vember 2, 1899) arrived at Zinder, at 

 the northeast extremity of French Su- 

 dan. In the April following, after 

 having gone round I^ake Tchad by the 

 north and east, the expedition had ef- 

 fected a junction with the French troops 

 upon the Chari, the principal affluent 

 of the Tchad. 



The march of the expedition was very 

 slow and painful in consequence of the 

 enormous caravan track behind it. Part 

 of its camels soon succumbed to the 

 fatigues of the journey, and it was im- 

 possible to purchase new beasts of bur- 

 den from the nomads. The Touaregs, 

 confident of their strength, threw them- 

 selves at various times against the little 

 troop ; but, having learned in these en- 

 counters that they could not be victori- 

 ous, they abandoned active hostilities 

 and limited themselves to creating a 

 complete dearth of supplies around the 

 explorers. It was only through the 

 energies of M. Foureau and of the mili- 

 tary chiefs that the expedition was able 

 to get along at all. 



The slowness of this journey has had 

 very favorable results from the scientific 

 point of view. It has permitted M. Fou- 

 reau to acquire a very complete knowl- 

 edge of the country and to collect a very 

 rich harvest of observations of interest 

 to all fields of geography. A great 

 work setting forth these scientific obser- 

 vations is in course of publication and 

 is being offered to all important geo- 

 graphic societies. 



The Foureau mission opens a new era 

 in the French penetration of the Sahara. 



