Facsimile · p. 333
STAY AT SAY 313 won back Galadio and Amiru of Torodi to the cause of the true religion, and at the very time that he was signing a treaty with the French, gave passage to Amadu, against whom he had been pretending to need our help.
Amadu crossed the river, and was hospitably received by the people of Djerma, who gave him the village of Dungu for himself and his people.
Profiting by family quarrels, the wily chief soon became master, and presently took possession of the big village of Karma, and it was not until they were all taken prisoners, that the Djermankobes discovered that they had been warming and feeding a serpent.
Now Amadu is once more a great marabout in right of his inheritance from his father, El Hadj Omar. He is also a formidable military chief, able to put five hundred guns into the field, for he has that number of Toucouleur warriors under him. His word is paramount from Sinder to Kibtachi. Unfortunate circumstances, including the blood shed by the Christians, have won to his side the whole of the Mussulman population, and besides his five hundred guns, he can dispose of from ten to twenty thousand socalled archers or men armed with spears.
His aim, or rather that of his principal adviser, Aliburi, who is really the organizer of everything, seems to be to join hands on the one side with Samory, and on the other with the Sultan of Sokoto, from whom, however, he is divided by the Kebbi, Mauri, and Gober. Moreover, Samory has a brother who was the leader of the column which took to flight after the French success at Nioro. He will achieve his ends unless we can prevent it, for his confederation is strengthened by the fact that all are united in devotion to the Mussulman faith, whilst the various native tribes combined against him, though they are individually