RECENT CAMPAIGNS IN WEST AFRICA. 774 he brokeup the Tuareg bands in the neighbourhood, captured their cattle, and nearly exterminated tlae tribe that had massacredBonnier's column. By the end of March all resistance hadceased in tlae neighbourhood of Timbuctoo, and the success of Colonel Joffre's operations had restored the prestige of the French arms. But for his prompt action there might have been a widespread outbreak of Mohammedan fanaticism along the Niger, as the result of the disaster to Colonel Bonnier.

Company of Senegalese Tirailleurs and the other half of the nth. The disaster that followed is thus relatedby Captain Oliver:— "On the afternoon of January 14th a Tuareg camp was captured, with a large herd of cattle, andthe column then proceeded against another campof theTuaregs some distance further on, leaving a sectionof the nth and a section of the 5th Companies, under Sub -Lieutenant Sarda, guarding the camp and cattle. Towards nightfall the columnreachedan encampment at Dougoi, which was found empty andapparently evacuated. Here, at 4 a.m. on January 15th, the Tuaregs, who had assembled at a short distance, surprised tlae column asleep,and with an insufficient watch in the camp where they had taken up their quarters for the night, thoroughly knocked up with the fatigues of the march and their previous campaign. No outpost pickets or patrols appear to have been posted or organised. Closely followed by numbers of warriors on foot, the Tuareg horsemen appear to have dashedin among the piled arms and cut down the few sentriesbefore they could give the alarm. A party of horsemen at the same time made straight for the headquarters,which hadbeen fixed in an open space, thereby giving an easy access. A number of cattle let loose by the Tuaregs contributed yet further to the generalconfusion."

Though Timbuctoo was no longer what it was once reported to have been, a greatcity of 200,000 inhabitants,it was still valuable as the starting-point of numerous trade routes across the Sahara and through theNiger country,and its possession gave the French the recognised position of the dominant power on the upper course of the great river. The Tuaregs were for a while a source of difficulty. At first the officers in command at Timbuctoo wereordered to avoid any conflict with them. But the wild horsemen of the desert mistook this pacific policy for mere weakness, andbeganto raid the villages and drive off the flocks and herds of the villagers in the plain round the city. In August, 1895, Commandant Rejou, who was then Governor of Timbuctoo, began active operations against them. Small flying columns were employed for this purpose,and thenewlyraised native cavalry, the '!Soudanese Spahis," took an active anduseful partin the campaign, the result of which was the submission of the Tuareg chiefs of the districtearly in1896.

CaptainNigotte,of the staff,slightly wounded with a swordcut, was tlae only white man who escaped. With a few Senegalese fugitives he reached Lieutenant Sarda's camp in time to warn him, and the detachment retired on Timbuctoo. Captain Philippe sent out reconnoitring parties, which brought in a few more fugitives,but the mainbody of the column had been massacred. Colonel Bonnier and five French officers and sixty-eight Senegalese had been killed in the night attack, andninety-five Lebel rifles and about 10,000 cartridges had been taken by the Tuaregs. They approached Timbuctoo, but Captain Philippe, with 300 riflemen andsix guns, was able to keep them at bay tillhe was relievedby the arrivalofColonel Joffre and therest of tlaeexpedition.

Meanwhile, a desultory warfare had been in progress against Samory. Since his defeats in the campaign of 1893, tue Fulah Sultan had adopted a new policy. Recognising the uselessness of attempting to fight pitched battles against tlae French,he had avoided the direct attackof tlae columns sent against him,broken up his force into numerous small parties, and carried on a guerilla warfare in bush. As the result of tlae previous campaigns, he had been driven from what was once his best recruiting ground, the country between the territory of Liberia and tlae Upper Niger. Retiring eastward,he now madethe Kong mountaincountry his stronghold. This made it difficult to act against him from the old French base of -c operations on the Senegal,and a shorter line of advance was chosen, based on Grand Bassa'm and Grand Lahou, French settlements on the Ivory Coast of the Gulf of Guinea. Tlae French had already for some years been working their Joffre did not reachTimbuctoo till February 12th. He had had to march through a difficult country, inundated in many places by the overflow of the Niger, and he had had to stop more than once to attack hostile villages near his line of march. On reaching the city lie drove off the Tea/egs, and,by a series of raids carried out by lightly-equipped flying columns,