COLONEL MONTKIL. {Photo;PanaJou, Fordaux.)

ON THE WAY TO FASHODA. 777 Governor of Dahomey, secretly organised an expedition of some hundreds of carriers with an escort of Senegalese Tirailleurs, under the orders of CommandantToutee, which, marching through the Dahomey hinterland,and making a short cut through part of what bothFrance and England agreed was the interior of Lagos, reached the west bank of the Niger, opposite Badjibo, some fifty miles south of Boussa, on February 13th, 1895. The place wasbelow the most southern of the cataracts, and at the head of a clear waterway to the sea. Here Toutee built a fort, which wasnamedFort Arenberg,in honour of one of the leaders of the colonial party. He collected a flotilla of eight small boats, he passed the rapids of Boussa during the summer,and ascended the river beyond Say and Zinder. Once Say was passed, he found the Tuareg chiefs and their bands of veiled,lightcomplexioned warriors the dominant racein the country. They levied tribute from the negro kings of the towns and villages. At first they seemedfriendly,but near Zinder they made an attack on his party, and again when he was descending the river he had to fight his way past the town. Revisiting Fort Arenberg on the way he continued his voyage down the Niger,and at lastreached the posts of theRoyal Niger Company on the lower river. Here he washospitably received, although a protest had been madeby the Company against his occupation of the river bank opposite Badjibo and the building of the fort. TheEnglish Government supported this protest at Paris, and the French Ministry of the day yielded the point and ordered the evacuation of the fort. It was at once occupied by- a detachment of the Niger Company's forces,and its name was changed to Fort Goldie.

But theFrench designs on the eastern portion of the middleNiger region, though checked for a while, were not abandoned. During 1895 and 1896 the energies of the French Colonial administration in Africa were devoted chiefly to securingpossession of the Ubanghiregion in the hinterland of the French Congo,and organising and pushing forward the columns that occupied part of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and began that race for the Nile which ended at Fashoda. West Africa was therefore comparatively neglected, and little was done beyond completing the exploration of the country andholding Samory's bands in check on the western borders of the Kong country.