36 HISTORY [10.99 of the Ubanghi, contrary to the terms of the Franco Congolese Convention of 1887 , which, it will be re membered , fixed the 4th parallel as the northern limit of the Free State. A compromise was reached under the Agreement of August 14, 1894, by which King Leopold, in exchange for French recognition of the Mbomu river as the northern frontier of the Congo Free State, renounced all exercise of political influence west of 30° east longitude, and in the Nile valley north of a line drawn through that meridian to the river along 5 ° 30' north .

In 1899, upon France renouncing her claim to the Upper Nile territory , King Leopold again attempted to effect a permanent occupation of the Bahr el Ghazal province. His ambition to dominate both the great rivers had led him , in 1897 , to send a military expedition to the Nile valley, which occupied Rejaf on the Upper Nile. This claim , however, Great Britain was not prepared to allow . allow. A series of negotiations was at length concluded by the signature of an Agree ment on May 9, 1906, which annulled the 1894 lease and gave the King possession for life only of the Lado enclave, with the proviso that this territory should not extend beyond 5° 30 ' north , and should return to the Sudan within six months of King Leopold's death . This instrument also defined the boundary of the Free State with the Sudan, and provided for a lease to the King and his successors of a strip of territory 25 kilometres in breadth from that boundary to Lake Albert, including the town of Mahagi.

( 12 ) EVENTS LEADING TO ANNEXATION The commercial development of the Congo Free State, the administrative abuses, the monopolist per secutions, the raids and rebellions which stained its history, and the pecuniary difficulties which hampered