THE FRENCH SOUDAN. 
125 
tion on the part of all liis men. Colonel Combes was enabled to cause 
the enemy immense losses in men, horses, rice, honey, and Kola nuts, 
provisions which largely assisted the food supply of the French natives, 
soldiers, and bearers, and also enabled the regulation rations of the 
white troops to be improved by abundant distributions of rice. 
From Gueleba the column marched towards the south-east towards 
the Nafana, a country thickly wooded with the strong vegetation of 
the tropics, a country covered with jungle impassable except where the 
narrow pathways under the trees seemed at times almost indistinguish¬ 
able, and apparently inextricable. In addition it may be noted that 
this difficult country is inhabited by a black race almost savage, and 
intersected by deep streams, full of water throughout the year, for it 
rains here for 10 months out of the 12. 
This Nafana country was entirely traversed from north to south, and 
a region was arrived at wholly unknown to Europeans (where the in¬ 
habitants build their huts up in the trees, for the purpose, as we may 
suppose, of being out of reach of inundations), and the fighting through¬ 
out was incessant. The great danger for the French was their liability 
to be fired upon, anywhere and everywhere, from an enemy totally 
hidden in the luxuriant vegetation. 
After having caused as much damage as possible to the enemy the 
column retraced its steps. During this fantastic march the French 
troops fought in 14 actions, on all of which occasions the enemy 
suffered severe losses. They marched nearly 900 kilometres, crossed 
172 (marigots ), nullahs with steep banks and full of water, 13 large 
rivers, and re-entered the post of Kerouane on the 33rd day, on the 
10th March, 1893, without having lost a single European. They 
had two men of the Foreign Legion wounded, four tirailleurs and 
Spahis killed, and 15 natives wounded. It was a remarkable exploit, 
a veritable epic ! The Sofas were stupified with astonishment and 
fear, whilst they still more firmly believed that Coumbo was the very 
devil indeed. 
Minor Operations against Samory. 
Whilst Colonel Combes was thus pursuing in the east the bands 
which Samory commanded in person, Captain Briquelot was operating 
in the upper valley of the Niger against the bands of the “ elder 
Bilali.” 
After his first day’s march in the enemy’s country Captain Briquelot 
was obliged to leave his guns in a post, on account of the delays which 
they occasioned in such a difficult country, where it is imperative to 
make rapid marches to be successful. 
After the fights of Douako and of Yalinkoro (on the 14th and 24th 
January, 1893), Bilali and his bands were driven out to the south, 
towards the Kissi, whither the small column pursued them, again giving 
them a beating on the 3rd February at Bambaya. Bilali, turned out 
of this place, thoroughly disabled and disheartened, would then have 
taken refuge in the thick forests to the west of the Kissi, but he was 
prevented by so doing by the inhabitants, who, rising at the approach 
of the French, attacked the demoralised Sofas and massacred them in 
large numbers in their villages wherever scattered groups of them had 
