THE BENIN EXPEDITION. 779 forward into the Lagos hinterland, and events for the advance inland, was captured on the 12th. After some,hard fighting in the bush, BeninCity was occupied on the 18th. The king escaped, but was hunted down and captured a few weekslater. His city was ahumanshambles, with on all sides evidence that the sacrifice of men and women was an everyday event. The fetishhouses and the great trees on which many victims had been crucified were destroyed, the king deposed, and a British governor installed with a council of native chiefs to assist him. The king was acquitted of direct complicity in the massacre. Two of thefetish chiefs who had advised and directed it were executed. Two others committed suicide. One had already died. Thus,of the six, only one was left— the fetish man,Ologbosherri. He had taken refuge in the bush of the interior, where he gathered an escort of fightingmen. In theearly summer of 1899 he was nearly captured by a flying column which dispersed his following, but he again escaped. A gallant young officer, Lieutenant Norman Uniacke, waskilledin this fight. A few weeks later Ologbosherri was tracked down, tried and executed.

were happening which might prove to be the prelude of a great war.

While the Company's troops wereconquering Ilorin, another British expedition had put an end to the sanguinary rule of the petty king of Benin. On January ist a peaceful mission had been sent to his capital. Its chiefs were Consul-General Phillips, District Commissioner Locke, Major Copland Crawford, and CaptainBoisragon.

They had with them a number of native servants and porters, but the Government was so anxious to removeall suspicion of the peaceful character of the expedition that there wasno armedescort, and the-white men had not even their pistols in their belts. The object of tlae mission was to arrange with the king for the abolition of human sacrifices and slave hunting inhis dominions and to settle his relations with the Government of the Niger Protectorate. The expedition was conveyed up the Benin River in the steam yacht Ivy to the landing. place at Sapele, and then began its journey to Benin,marching insingle file by a path through the bush. It seems that the king was willing to receive the expedition, but six of his chiefs and fetish men arranged an ambuscade on the pith, and the envoys and their followers weresuddenly fired upon from the bush at close quarters, and thenrushed uponby a crowdof savage enemies. Surprised and unarmed, they were nearly all massacred on the spot. Two only— Mr. Locke and Captain Boisragon— escaped. Wounded by theenemy's fire, they had taken refuge among the trees and made their way through the swampy bush to a friendly settlementon one ot the creeks of the river. They had to support life for some days during their lonely march by eating wild roots and drinking marsh water. Their clothes were torn to rags and their limbs lacerated by thorns, their shoes worn out, and it was with swollenand bleeding feetand scarred with many wounds that they were at last taken on boardthe Ivy.

While British officers were thus securing the Lower Niger, the French were making a bold stroke to obtain possession of the debatable ground in the Lagos hinterland, and to hoist their flagagain on thegreat river at the rapids of Boussa. Dahomey was the starting-point of these expeditions. During the campaigning season of 1897, three columns penetrated into the hinterland in different directions. NorthwestwardCaptains Baudand Vermeersch pushed forward to Wagadugu; directly northwards CaptainGamier tried to reach theNiger through the Atacorahillcountry ;andnorth-eastwardthe most important expedition of all, under a naval officer, Lieutenant Bretonnet, had for its object the occupation ofBoussa. Insomeplacesthe local chiefs madesubmission,gave a friendlyreception to the armed explorers, and signed treaties accepting theFrench protectorate,often in careless disregard of the fact that they had already put their mark to similar documents recognising that they werethe vassals of Great Britain. It is quite possible thatin both cases they had no clearidea of what they were doing. Sometimes, however, the chiefs were hostile to these uninvited guests,andthe little bands of adventurers had to fight their wayinto more than one mudwalledtown. At Wawa, nearBoussa,thecapture of the village cost Bretonnet and his hundred Senegalese riflemen two hours of sharp fighting.

Rear-Admiral Rawson, commanding the Cape squadron, was entrusted with the task of organising and directing an expedition to capture Benin, depose the king, and punish the treacherous murderers. The force that was to do the work was formed partly of seamen and marines from tlae ships, with Maxim guns, light artillery, and rocket tubes, partly of Haussa troops. It assembled at Sapele on the Benin River in the first week of February. 01ogbo| which had been selected as the starting-point