MISTAKES AND FALSE NEWS 383 Amadu had not set their Hadji free in three days, the SidiW women with their flocks and herds would be placed under the protection of our guns !

Would this be the spark which would set fire to the gun-powder? Hurrah ! If it were, our protectorate would become an effective one ; we should have a fine r6k to play ; that of intervening in favour of a native coalition iainst the parasitical Toucouleurs, the hereditary enemies of French influence in Africa.

All, then, was tending in the direction of our hopes. A good Job too, for the river was falling, falling, falling. Our island was completely transformed, for a big isthmus