THE FEENCH SOUDAN. 
43 
he wrote “ will be to create, at the proper time whenever the orders to 
that effect may be given, a line of posts, at intervals of some thirty 
leagues between Medina and Bammako, or some other neighbouring 
locality which may appear more convenient to establish a commercial 
base and entrepot on the Niger river.” 
Poor Lieut. Mage, who afterwards was drowned in a shipwreck off 
Cape Finistere, accomplished his mission in a remarkable manner. He 
fixed upon the village of Kita as one of the points where a convenient 
post might be established, and he returned to Saint Louis, 1 after hav¬ 
ing lived, under compulsion, at Segou for more than two years, under 
the protection of Ahmadou, the son of the celebrated Mussulman chief 
El Hadj Omar (the ruler of the Soudan). The contemporary history 
of the Soudan is wholly involved in that of this powerful chieftain El 
Hadj Omar and his family, and it is necessary, in order to understand 
all that has been done in this country for the last fourteen years, to 
possess some little acquaintance with this dynasty of Toucouleur. 
El Hadj Omar was a Toucouleur, that is to say, he belonged to that 
population which inhabits the Senegalian Fouta, which race is a cross 
between the Peuhls and the people of the middle and upper Senegal. 
Omar was born at Aloar, a village not far from the present French post 
of Podor (just above the delta of the Senegal), and, as his name indi¬ 
cates, has made the pilgrimage to Mecca, on his return from whence he 
settled in Senegambia, and fixed his residence in the Fouta-Hjalon, 
where he soon acquired a high reputation as a marabout—fanatic saint 
or fakir. About 1848 he moved eastwards to Dinguiray (on the higher 
waters of the Niger), and there he began to assemble some of the 
“ faithful ” as military followers. When he had recruited a following 
strong enough, he constructed the fortress of Koundian, in the neigh¬ 
bourhood and on the left bank of the Bating river (which is the highest 
tributary of the Senegal), due north of Dinguiray, and half-way 
between that village and Medina, which might serve him as a base for 
his contemplated raids and conquests. Dinguiray is in some measure 
a vassalage of Fouta-Djalon, and Koundian belonged by right to Omar, 
being his property. Having completed his fortress, Omar at once 
commenced to summon the faithful to war against the unbeliever and 
proclaimed a “ jehad.” To his appeal all the available warriors of the 
neighbouring regions readily answered, and taking up their arms placed 
themselves under his command; and, in 1854, at the head of 12,000 
combatants, he commenced his campaigns by conquering Bambouk and 
several independent provinces on the banks of the upper Senegal. In 
less than three years the whole of that country situated between the 
middle Senegal and the upper waters of the Niger had submitted to 
him, and he established himself at Nioro, the capital of Kaarta, the 
country which commands the commercial line projected by General 
Faidherbe between the French colony of Senegal and the Niger river. 
Having attained to this high position, influence, and power so rapidly, 
Omar now believed himself strong enough to attack the French, who, 
at the instigation of General Faidherbe had by this time pushed for- 
1 Saint Louis, the capital town of the colony of Senegal, near the southern mouth of the delta of 
that riyer, north of Cape de Verde. 
