THE FRENCH SOUDAN, 
137 
flotilla, was anxious for his force to have an opportunity of distinguish¬ 
ing itself ; and, instead of a pre-arranged movement between the 
combined military and naval contingents being concerted by their 
respective leaders, Lieutenant Boiteux had pushed on with his boats 
for Koriome, the port of Timbuctou, which large town lies at some 
little distance from the left bank of the Niger. The river had been 
surveyed as far as this point by Lieutenant Caron, of the Niger , in 
August, 1887, and therefore the ground was well known. 
Timbuctou was, till lately, ruled by a djemaa , or association of mer¬ 
chants, but latterly this corporation had been suppressed by different 
chiefs, who were supported by the Touaregs ; although Alimsar, the 
great Touareg chief, did not care to concern himself with the petty mer¬ 
cantile affairs of the town, but it was rightly surmised that the Touaregs 
of the neighbourhood would assume an aggressive attitude on the ap¬ 
proach of a French army of occupation. Lieutenant Boiteux would 
hardly act without some support from land forces, and it is suggested by 
the correspondent of “ Le Temps” that there may have been in the 
vicinity some French detachments under Colonel Joffre, who is known to 
have been exploring north of the Niger for the railway extension from 
Bafoulabe, and these troops may possibly have been co-operating with 
the flotilla. At all events, it appears that M. Aube, Lieutenant Boiteux* s 
second in command on the gunboat Mage, was sent with a landing party, 
composed almost entirely of native Laptots, to reconnoitre Kabara, 
outside Timbuctou ; and, on reaching Mopti, Colonel Bonnier reports 
that he heard of this party having been cut up by the Touaregs in 
the plain of Kabara on the 28th December, 1893, when he at once 
pushed on his main column, which entered, without resistance, the 
great mart of the Sahara, the key of the desert extending to Tunis 
and Algiers, the mysterious city of Timbuctou, on the 10th January, 
1894. No further complications or movements against this easy occu¬ 
pation were anticipated by the officer commanding the column, for 
deputations from the surrounding tribes were arriving to give in their 
submission; but it is added that this occupation, indeed the whole 
movement on Timbuctou, was ordered by Colonel Bonnier and M. 
Boiteux without, if not in defiance of, orders from M. Albert Grodet, 
the Civil Governor of the Soudan ; and it is said that Colonel Bonnier 
had already been ordered back to France, but that he effected this coup 
previous to.leaving the country. In Senegal likewise, the Governor, 
M. de Lamothe, has been in conflict with General Caronnat, command¬ 
ing the troops; and this dualism between the civil and military 
authorities has led to unfortunate results, although the Home Govern¬ 
ment has signalled its determination to uphold the supreme position of 
the civil authority by annulliug a notable ordre du jour issued by the 
General on the 23rd December, 1893. Nevertheless, the tricolor flies 
in Timbuctou, and the Civil Governor of the Soudan will hardly be 
able to draw back now that the possession of that important capital 
has been effected so easily. Besides, the prestige which must accrue 
to the French army throughout all Mahomedan Africa is a most im¬ 
portant consideration, apart from the material wealth which a hold on 
the centre of trade, where the food products of the rich Niger valley 
