120 
THE FRENCH SOUDAN. 
the misery of those of Segou that they resolved to abandon the country 
and regain the regions of Segala and of the Bakhounou, situated on 
the left bank of the Mger, where formerly they had resided. This 
emigration, nevertheless, did not fail to partake of an insurrectionary 
character with regard to the new rulers of Segou, and almost at the 
same moment when the French Resident, Captain Briquelot, was in¬ 
formed of these incidents he heard of the assassination of Lieutenant 
Huillard, killed in an ambuscade which the Sambori Peuhls had placed 
to entrap him. Captain Briquelot did not lose a moment. Segou was 
denuded of troops, for Bodian had sent his contingents to aid in the 
defence of Sansanding ; nevertheless, he found it possible, with a small 
body of a hundred men, to bring in and bury the body of Lieutenant 
Huillard, and, moreover, to attack the Peuhl encampment at Boumouti, 
and put to flight the contingents there assembled. But the numbers 
were disproportioned ; the small troop of Captain Briquelot had five 
natives killed and 34 wounded, among whom were the only three 
European officers among them. It was, therefore, necessary to return 
to Segou, whilst the Peuhls were overrunning the whole country. 
The French communications were soon cut off for some little time, 
and Segou was blockaded like Sansanding. 
Colonel Humbert, who happened at this time to be in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Siguiri, returning to Kayes, at once sent Major Bonnier 
to take the direction of affairs in the north-east of the Soudan. 
Commandant Bonnier, like Captain Briquelot, thought it was most 
necessary to act with promptitude; he raised at Bammako an auxiliary 
company of tirailleurs, crossed the Niger on the 13th May and joined 
his column to the force which Captain Briquelot had brought from 
Segou, and which now amounted to 1000 of Bodian’s men. On the 
28th May he met the Peuhls, to the number of about 1000, cantoned 
at Nonguella, put them to rout, and pursued them. Catching them up 
again on the 3rd June at Ouo on the Baguie after a forced march of 
65 kilometres in 24 hours, he killed 100 of their men and made 
numerous prisoners. The Gueniekalary province, which lies to the 
south-west of Segou, was thus disembarrassed of the marauding bands 
which troubled it. 
This movement among the Peuhls, however, had been joined by the 
late rebellious insurgents of the Baninko, of Minianka, and it was at 
Ko'ila, at 70 kilometres to the east of Segou, in the centre of the 
province of Kaminiandougou, that the centre of the revolt was estab¬ 
lished. Commandant Bonnier having gone back to Segou after the 
affairs in Gueniekalary, departed again on the 19th June in order to 
attack Koila. The rapidity of his march enabled him to surprise the 
rebels massed in the town. The attack was delivered, and, although 
it cost the French some numbers of native casualties, killed and 
wounded, the rebels were forced to fly, leaving behind them over 100 
dead bodies and 500 or COO prisoners. Tranquility being thus secured 
in this quarter, Commandant Bonnier was able to lead his column to 
the relief of Mademba, who was still blockaded in Sansanding, where 
he arrived on the 20tli June. He was just in time, for El Hadj 
Bougouni, the chief of Mampala, who directed the operations against 
