764 RECENT CAMPAIGNS IN WEST AFRICA.

PortoNovo,ruled byKing Toffa,a negro chief under French protection, whom the King of Dahomeyclaimed as a vassal. He was driven out of the protectorate,and a peace waspatched up for a while. But he set to work to collect rifles, artillery, and ammunition, and in the African warfare, and who was just then on leave in Paris, was directed to proceed to Cotonou take command of the troops assembled there clear the protectorate of the enemy, and march on Abomey. Dodds was the grandson of an English trader, who had married a native early summer ot 1892, under the pretext that fugitives from justice weresheltered in the coast protectorate, and that he had a right to tribute from King Toffa, he again invaded the Porto Novo district. He declared hehadno quarrel with the French,butonly with their black proteges ; but this distinction had nopractical effect. The French came to the help of their ally, and Dahomey and France were at war.

For somedays there was no little anxiety about the safety of the French trading posts on the coast, Porto Novo, Cotonou, andGrand Popo, which were not fortified, and woman in the Gambia colony, He had spent nearly all his life in West Africa, and its deadly climate had no terrors for him. He set aboutorganising the expedition onthemostpractical lines, and it was a complete success.

Abomey is about seventy miles from the coast. To reach it the expedition would have to traversefirst the lowlands of the coast region,ala byrinth of mangrove swamps, lagoons, and creeks, thenthe forest region, passable onlyby narrow paths with here and there a clearing round a village. Beyond the forest and the marshes of Agrime the last stageofthecam-AHMADU, KING OF SEGU.

were held by small garrisons. But Behanzin made no attempt to rush the settlements, and they were rapidly entrenched and reinforced. There was already a shallow draft gunboat, the Topazc, on the lagoon behind Cotonou, into which the Oueme River runs. Two more were sent out to the colony, an armed launch, the Eclaircur, and a stern wheeler built byMessrs. Yarrow, and named the Opale. Colonel Dodds, anofficer whohad already-distinguishedhimselfin paign would be in the fertile,undulating plains in which stood Behanzin's capital. North of Abomey rise the hills that form the watershed between the streams flowing to the coast lagoons and the Niger basin. The army of Dahomey wasbelieved to number about 14,000 men, largely armed with modern weapons,and including a couple of thousand of the famous Amazonsof theroyal guard.

The French force concentrated at Cotonou