440 
THE FRENCH SOUDAN. 
of Sub-Lieutenant Aube, of the Mage, and also to inflict a severe 
punishment by carrying off by way of fine the Touareg cattle. Such 
reprisals have frequently been taken in South Algeria and in the 
Soudan, and are the usual methods employed in dealing with nomad 
populations. 
Although the official despatches containing the full details of the 
march of Colonel Joffre to Timbuctou have not yet been made public, 
a resume of his operations was sent to Paris by Governor Grodet at 
Kayes, by telegraph, on the 26th February, 1894, which will serve to 
elucidate the course of his march, although the names of the places 
mentioned are not marked on the official map :— 
“ Governor, to Colonial Department, Paris. 
Kayes, 26th February, 1894. 
u The second column, under the orders of Commandant Joffre, was composed of 
one company and a half of tirailleurs, a squadron of Spahis, 30 auxiliary Spahis, 
two guns (Mountain, 80 mm ). It included besides all the horses and mules of the 
first column. It followed the track by land, passing by Sansanding, Moninpe, 
Kampala, Lere, Soumpe and Goundam. Its operations were as follows :— 
The 27th December, passage of the Niger ( i.e . from Segou to north hank). 
The march was often delayed by the difficulty of renewing the large amount of 
corn and forage, necessary for 250 horses and 1000 natives, in a ruined and 
hostile country, and also by the inundations of the Niger, which were exceptionally 
high this year between Lere and Timbuctou. 
The column halted at Kampala from the 7 th to 10th January for the purpose 
of obtaining supplies of corn; it arrived at Soumpe on the 16th, having turned 
aside, through the bush, to avoid the country inundated by the Niger, without 
finding any inhabited places. 
Nioukou, the chief of the Niafounke canton, had insulted and threatened our 
envoys. On the 20th January we marched on Niafounke with one company of 
tirailleurs, the cavalry and artillery. But we found ourselves impeded by a 
e marigot,’ two kilometres in breadth and three feet deep, which surrounded the 
village. 400 warriors were in line in front of the village. At our first opening 
fire they charged us, some of them reaching within three yards of our line, in a 
quarter of an hour 100 were killed by our fire, the others took to and the 
village was taken. No loss on our side. 
At Micore and Atta, we found the villages evacuated by the inhabitants, who 
had carried off all the canoes. Captain Pouydebat, after a night’s march, arrived 
on the 26th January, at daybreak, before Goundam, on the left [right?] bank of 
the stream, but he was unable to take the boats by surprise, the Touareg, warned 
beforehand, being at Goundam, on the other bank of the river, which is 300 yards 
in breadth and has a rapid current. 
Captain Prost, with a squadron of Spahis and half a company of tirailleurs, 
then in rear, proceeded towards Tinghirma on the Niger, where he arrived, after 
a march by night of ten hours, and collected a quantity of corn and four boats. 
The villagers, who resisted, lost about 30 men. We had one tirailleur wounded. 
The boats, manned by our men, arrived on the 31st, in the evening, at Goun¬ 
dam ; the sight of them produced much commotion among the Touareg, who 
assembled near the point where we must disembark; they were dispersed by a 
few rounds of shell, and fled during the night. The last had disappeared by the 
morning of the 1st February, when we commenced crossing the stream. 
On the 2nd February, the flotilla (of gunboats), warned by one of our scouts 
who had been able to reach it, arrived at Goundam. It assisted the passage of 
