Africa

and its hinterland have already been stated in connexion with German

Togoland. On the western frontier it marches with the French colony of the

Ivory Coast, and in July 1893, after an unsuccessful attempt to achieve the

same end by an agreement concluded in 1889, the frontier was defined from

the neighbourhood of the Tano lagoon and river of the same name, to the 9th

degree of north latitude. In August 1896, following the destruction of the

Ashanti power and the deportation of King Prempeh, as a result of the

second Ashanti campaign, a British protectorate was declared over the whole

of the Ashanti territories and a resident was installed at Kumasi. But no

northern limit had been fixed by the 1893 agreement beyond the 9th

parallel, and the countries to the north—Gurunsi (Grusi), Mossi and Gurma—-

were entered from all sides by rival British, French and German

expeditions. The conflicting claims established by these rival expeditions

may, however, best be considered in connexion with the struggle for

supremacy on the middle Niger and in the Chad region, to which it is now

necessary to turn.

A few days before the meeting of the Berlin conference Sir George Goldie

had succeeded in buying up all the French interests on the lower Niger. The

British company's influence had at that date been extended by treaties with

the native chiefs up the main Niger stream to its junction with the Benue,

and some distance along this latter river But the great Fula states of the

central Sudan were still outside European influence, and this fact did not

escape attention in Germany. German merchants had been settled for some

years on the coast, and one of them, E. R. Flegel, had displayed great

interest in, and activity on, the river. He recognized that in the densely

populated states of the middle Niger, Sokoto and Gando, and in Bornu to the

west of Lake Chad, there was a magnificent field for Germany's new-born

colonizing zeal. The German African Company14 and the German Colonial

Society listened eagerly to Flegel's proposals, and in April 1885 he left

Berlin on a mission to the Fula states of Sokoto and Gando. But it was

impossible to keep his intentions entirely secret, and the (British)

National African Company had no desire to see the French rivals, whom they

had with so much difficulty dislodged from the river, replaced by the even

more troublesome German. Accordingly Joseph Thomson, the young Scottish

explorer, was sent out to the Niger, and had the satisfaction of concluding

on the 1st of June 1885 a treaty with ``Umoru, King of the Mussulmans of

the Sudan and Sultan of Sokoto,'' which practically secured the whole of

the trading rights and the control of the sultan's foreign relations to the

British company. Thomson concluded a similar treaty with the sultan of

Gando, so as to provide against the possibility of its being alleged that

Gando was an independent state and not subject to the suzerainty of the

sultan of Sokoto. As Thomson descended the river with his treaties, he met

Flegel going up the river, with bundles of German flags and presents for

the chiefs. The German government continued its efforts to secure a footing

on the lower Niger until the fall of Prince Bismarck from power in March

1890, when opposition ceased, and on the failure of the half-hearted

attempt made later to establish relations with Gando from Togoland, Germany

dropped out of the competition for the

The Niger Company granted a charter.

western Sudan and left the field to France and Great Britain. After its

first great success the National African Company renewed its efforts to

obtain a charter from the British government, and on the 10th of July 1886

the charter was granted, and the company became ``The Royal Niger Company,

chartered and limited.'' In June of the previous year a British

protectorate had been proclaimed Over the whole of the coast from the Rio

del Rey to the Lagos frontier, and as already stated, on the 13th of

January 1886 the Lagos settlements had been separated from the Gold Coast

and erected into a separate colony. It may be convenient to state here that

the western boundary of Lagos with French territory (Dahomey) was

determined in the Anglo-French agreement of the 10th of August 1889, ``as

far as the 9th degree of north latitude, where it shall stop.'' Thus both

in the Gold Coast hinterland and in the Lagos hinterland a door was left

wide open to the north of the 9th parallel.

Notwithstanding her strenuous efforts, France, in her advance down the

Niger from Senegal, did not succeed in reaching Sego on the upper Niger, a

considerable distance above Timbuktu, until the winter of 1890-1891, and

the rapid advance of British influence up the river raised serious fears

lest the Royal Niger Company should reach Timbuktu before France could

forestall her. It was, no doubt, this consideration that induced the French

government to consent to the insertion in the agreement of the 5th of

August 1890, by which Great Britain recognized France's protectorate over

Madagascar, of the following article:

The Government of Her Britannic Majesty recognizes the sphere of

influence of France to the south of her Mediterranean possessions up to a

line from Say on the Niger to Barrua on Lake Chad, drawn m such a manner as

to comprise in the sphere of action of the Niger Company all that fairly

belongs to the kingdom of Sokoto; the line to be determined by the

commissioners to be appointed.

The commissioners never were in fact appointed, and the proper meaning to

be attached to this article subsequently became a subject of bitter

controversy between the two countries. An examination of the map of West

Africa will show what possibilities of trouble were left open at the end of

1890 by the various agreements concluded up to that date. From Say on the

Niger to where the Lagos frontier came to an abrupt stop in 9 deg. N. there

was no boundary line between the French and British spheres of influence.

To the north of the Gold Coast and of the French Ivory Coast colony the way

was equally open to Great Britain and to France, while the vagueness of the

Say-Barrua line left an opening of which France was quick to avail herself.

Captain P. L. Monteil, who was despatched by the French government to West

Africa in 1890, immediately after the conclusion of the August agreement,

did not hesitate to pass well to the south of the Say-Barrua line, and to

attempt to conclude treaties with chiefs who were, beyond all question,

within the British sphere. Still farther south, on the Benue river, the two

expeditions of Lieutenant Mizon—in 1890 and 1892—failed to do any real harm

to British interests. In 1892 an event happened which had an important

bearing on the future course of the dispute.

French advance Timbuktu.

After a troublesome war with Behanzin king of to the native state of

Dahomey, France annexed some portion of Dahomeyan territory on the coast,

and declared a protectorate over the rest of the kingdom. Thus was removed

the barrier which had up to that time prevented France from pushing her way

Nigerwards from her possessions on the Slave Coast, as well as from the

upper Niger and the Ivory Coast. Henceforth her progress from all these

directions was rapid, and in particular Timbuktu was occupied in the last

days of 1893.

In 1894 it appears to have been suddenly realized in France that, for the

development of the vast regions which she was placing under her protection

in West Africa, it was extremely desirable that she should obtain free

access to the navigable portions of the Niger, if not on the left bank,

from which she was excluded by the Say-Barrua agreement, then on the right

bank, where the frontier had still to be fixed by international agreement.

In the neighbourhood of Bussa there is a long stretch of the river so

impeded by rapids that navigation is practically impossible, except in

small boats and at considerable risk. Below these rapids France had no

foothold on the river, both banks from Bussa to the sea being within the

British sphere. In 1890 the Royal Niger Company had concluded a treaty with

the emir and chiefs of Bussa (or Borgu); but the French declared that the

real paramount chief of Borgu was not the king of Bussa, but the king of

Nikki, and three expeditions were despatched in hot haste to Nikki to take

the king under French protection. Sir George Goldie, however, was not to be

baffled. While maintaining the validity of the earlier treaty with Bussa,

he despatched Captain (afterwards General Sir) F.D. Lugard to Nikki, and

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