THE FRENCH SOUDAN. 
51 
the field many Belgian breech-loading rifles, chassepots, half-a-dozen 
“ Gras ” rifles of native manufacture, and quantities of cartridges. The 
following day another fight ensued, at the u marigot ” of Hiamanko, 
which placed the French in possession of Bissandougou, the most 
ancient residence of Samory, a town where the Malinka chieftain had 
started on his first campaign. Samory acted here in the same way he 
had done at Kankan, leaving only ruins behind him, having burnt 
everything. 
Pursuit under these circumstances was rendered impossible and the 
campaign was therefore brought to an end for the season, with the in¬ 
tention of recommencing operations against Samory again a few months 
later, starting from Kankan as a base, where for the time being, two 
companies of tirailleurs under Captain Besan^on remained to hold the 
post. 
The Campaign of 1891-92. 
Colonel Achinard having just served for three successive seasons in 
the Soudan, it fell to the turn of Lieut.-Colonel Humbert to continue 
the arduous task of carrying on the operations already commenced. 
Samory had reformed his troops during the rainy season; from 
Sierra Leone, where the trade in arms was exceedingly brisk—the 
Brussels convention not having, so far, been put into execution—cara¬ 
vans transported into Ouassoulou, to the Almamy, hundreds of breech¬ 
loading and repeating rifles, with millions of cartridges; Samory, now 
stronger than ever, was well prepared to dispute, foot by foot, every 
advance by the French columns within his states. 
Lieut.-Colonel Humbert reached Kayes on the 9th October, 1891. 
He first organised a scientific mission which, under the orders of the 
Commanding Engineer Marmier, was about to survey for a prolonga¬ 
tion of the railway, from Bafoulabe as far as Kita and the Niger. 
Having made all arrangements for this civil work, he proceeded to or¬ 
ganise his column which was concentrated at Kankan by the 6th 
January, 1892. 
Operations against Samory. 
On the 9th January the column set out on its march. It included a 
total of 1004 combatants, of whom 144 were Europeans, together with 
2084 non-combatants and 338 animals. 
The artillery was composed of four mountain guns of 8Q cm ; and there 
were 32 Lebel rifles, and 900 men were armed with “ Gras ” rifles. The 
French at first followed up the same route towards Sanankoro by which 
the former expedition had marched, and on the 11th January they first 
encountered Samory’s troops, at the marigot of Sombiko. This affair 
was even more hotly contested than that at Diamanko in the previous 
April. The Africans had made a great progress in proficiency from a 
military point of view. Their bugle calls, identical with those of the 
French, sounding “ Cease firing ” or the “ Assembly,” were so close as 
even to deceive the French soldiers themselves. The audacity of 
Samory’s men had also increased in proportion to the improvement of 
their armament. 
However, the impetuosity and dash of the French tirailleurs soon 
