RECENT CAMPAIGNS IN WEST AFRICA. 780 The French flag was hoisted at Boussa on the Niger onFebruary 6th.

their presencein theBritish sphere was tolerated under protest while the two Governments were negotiating a permanent settlement. It says much for the temper and tact of the officers on both sides that under these circumstances there was no actual conflict. At times it was perilously near.

The BritishGovernment protested against this invasion of territory, which it had for years claimed as belonging to its sphere of influence in West Africa. But the aggressive " Colonial Party " was in the ascendant in France;Marchand was onhis way to theUpper Nile;efforts were being made to induce Menelek of Abyssinia to oppose the British advance in tlae EasternSoudan;at Paris it washoped that the dream of a French African empire extending from the Senegal on the Atlantic to Obok on the RedSea was on thepoint of being realised; and the protests of tlae In tlae autumn a strong column of French native troopsunderCaptain Vermeerschmarched fromNorthern DahomeyuponNikki, the capital of tlae Borgu districtand the home of the King of theBaribas, theprincipaltribe in the disputed Lagos hinterland. The French claimed that they had a right to Nikki and Borgu in virtue of a treaty signed by the British Foreign Office were king on November 26th, disregarded. Suspended for a while during the summer, the activity of the French officers in the Niger region wasredoubledin theautumn of 1897. The situation was growing serious, forEngland was at last taking active steps to oppose these aggressions. There was no desire to precipitate a quarrel in which rifle shots fired on the Niger wouldbe echoed by the big guns of battleships in the Channel and in tlae Mediterranean. But common prudence dictated a rapid reinforcement of the British forces in West 1894. They disregarded the fact that he hadsigned with Colonel Lugard, sixteen days before, a treaty with the Niger Company, and they were anxious to strengthen their more than doubtful title by actual possession. On November 8th, 1897, Vermeersch encounteredthe Baribaarmy at Guinagourou and defeated it with a loss of about 200 men. The French loss was much slighter, but Vermeersch himself was wounded. On the 13th he entered Nikki and hoisted the French flag. The defeated king, who COLONEL LHGAR1).

photj:Elliott &r> Fry, Baker Street, W.)

Africa, and as the most practical way ofeffecting this, special service officers were sent out to raise new regiments of Haussas and Yorubas, and theNiger Company's flotilla at Lokoja was strengthened by the addition of two gunboats belonging to the RoyalNavy, of the same type as the powerful modern stern-wdaeelers of the Nile flotilla. Colonel Lugard, a veteran of African warfare, was sent out to take the local commandin case of hostilities, and detachments underBritish officers were sent into the Lagos hinterland with orders to prevent any French detachment occupying villages or posts south of the ninth parallel; north of that line the had been represented as being only anxious for the French to come and protect him from the British,was a fugitive in the bush, and the Baribas had for the most part abandoned the town.

The first report of this affair that reached Lagos representedit as a fight in which British officers had been in action against the French. This was promptly denied by tlae Government, though for some days the Colonial Office was anxious on the subject. At Paris the Government was so eager to represent tlae invasion ot Borgu as the occupation of territory alreadyfriendly to France that a communique was issued to the Press saying that there had been no fighting. A smaller French column,destined to reinforce Boussa, marched boldly through the Lagos hinterland south of tlae ninth parallel and occupied Saki. A hundred Haussas under Captain Humphreys, with a coupleof Maxims, Britishexpeditionary columns wereto occupy as much of the country as possible, and when they reached the villages held by the nearest French garrisons, they were to avoid an appeal to force, but to establish postsin the neighbourhood and explain to the French officers in command that