THE FRENCH SOUDAN. 
437 
a short distance from the piles of arms, having been quickly cut down, a party of 
horsemen at the same time foil upon the staff quartered in an open space, which 
rendered access to them more easy. The oxen let loose by the Touaregs con¬ 
tributed still more to the horrible disorder of this critical moment. 
Captain Nigotte, in charge of the topography, sleeping at head-quarters, was 
the only one of the staff able to escape, -with a sword-cut on his head; fortunately 
not a very severe wound. He rejoined the detachment guarding the cattle, 
together with several other fugitives, and has been able.to return here with that 
detachment. 
Our reconnaissances, which I have not been able to advance very far, on account 
of the security of the place, immediately surrounded by horsemen, hovering in 
small groups and flying before the least demonstration, have been able to recover 
and bring in several more tirailleurs; others have returned singly, but mostly 
without arms or ammunition. All the staff 1 has fallen, and the regiment lost 
Commandant Hugny, Captain Tassard, and Lieutenant Bouverot. Europeans— 
Sergeant Etesse, 5th company; Sergeant Gabriel, lltli company. Natives— 
Sergeant Samla Diakate, 5th company, and 61 tirailleurs; of whom, 41 of the 5th 
company and 20 of the lltli; 2 corporals of the 5th and 4 of the lltli; 95 rifles 
and 10,000 cartridges. 
I await with impatience the column of Colonel Joffre, which ought to be not far 
from the theatre of the tragedy, at three days’ march from here. I have taken 
all precautions possible, and everyone is on the look-out; the sanitary state is 
good, in spite of many cases of diarrhoea; my Sergeant-Major has been seriously 
ill for the last three weeks, and is incapable of moving in spite of his good-will. 
I fear I shall have to send him back. I have given, provisionally, the command 
of what remains of the 5th company to Lieutenant Franz of my company. . .** 
The Occupation of Timbuctou. 
The former Government Lad, it appears, been warned of the projects 
which the staff of the military Commandant of the French Soudan con¬ 
templated carrying out against Timbuctou, and the details of which 
campaign had already been fully arranged. As the Government had 
declared in the Chamber that the period of important military expedi¬ 
tions had terminated, now that the reports of the senior officer in the 
Soudan had indicated the progress of general pacification, after the last 
campaigns undertaken against Ahmadou and Samory had come to an 
end; the then Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, M. Delcasse, 
substituted a Civil Governor for the supreme charge of the colony in 
place of the military Commandant. 
M. Albert Grodet was appointed during the latter part of November 
last, and he duly arrived out at the chief seat of the colony, at Kayes, 
about Christmas. His first act was to inform himself of the general 
situation, and to obtain from the various Commanding Officers a know¬ 
ledge of the disposition of the troops. He learned, not without some 
difficulty, that Colonel Joffre of the Engineers, instead of continuing 
his survey for the railway between the upper Senegal River and the 
Niger, had proceeded to Segou, where he was to take charge of a 
column. He likewise learned that Lieut.-Colonel Bonnier, after having 
inflicted a defeat on the bands of Sofas, under Samory, in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Tenetou (a town situated on the Baoule, an affluent on the 
1 Lieut.-Colonel Bonnier, Commanding; Captain Livrelli, Marine Artillery ; Captain Sensarric 
and Lieutenant Gamier, Marine Infantry ; and Doctor Grail, Colonial Service. 
