41 
THE FRENCH SOUDAN 
UP TO DATE.-NOVEMBER, 1893. 
Compiled from the French accounts in 66 Le Temps 99 
(with permission•) 
- 
BY 
CAPTAIN S. P. OLIVER, latefB.A^ ^ g £ . 
X 
PART I. 
'S' F/, ‘TES T 0* 
The French Soudan is that vast territory which comprises the upper 
valleys and basins drained by those great rivers the Niger and the 
Senegal. To the west it is bounded by the French colony of Senegal 
and to the south-west by Portuguese Guinea, by Fouta-Djalon—a 
dependency of the colony French Guinea—and the British colony of 
Sierra Leone. Towards the south the frontier of the French Soudan 
meets that of Liberia (the exact determination of the limits of this 
boundary is yet to be settled, whenever the convention between that 
country and the French Government may be carried out.) Due south 
lies the Ivory Coast, and to the south-east the British possessions of 
the Gold Coast. Towards the east, as also to the north the delimita¬ 
tions of the French Soudan are not yet defined and must long remain 
thus indefinable and uncertain. But a few years ago they did not 
extend beyond the Niger, but since the recent campaigns of Colonels 
Achinard, Combes and Humbert, they have been carried much further 
to the east and north. Indeed, a French military post is now estab¬ 
lished at Bandiagara, the capital of the Macina country; whilst to the 
north the French possession reaches the confines of the Sahara desert; 
so that the Soudan, at the present day, forms one of the most extensive 
and important of the French colonies. From Bakel on the Senegal, to 
Bandiagara on the same line of latitude, 15° N., the distance extends 
over a thousand kilometres. From Nioro on the edge of the northern 
desert, to Kissidougou on the Sierra Leone frontier, it is not less than 
700 kilometres. 
The acquisition of this vast domain has been long and arduous, but 
the results are glorious; and the marine troops of our French neigh¬ 
bours have distinguished themselves by their steady and persevering 
intrepidity when encountering the forces of a fanatical enemy which 
2. VOL. XXI. 6 
