314 THE EXPLORATION OF THE NIGER braver and stronger, have nothing to l)irid them together or to lead them to act in concert.

If this union be brought about, the three great slavedealers of Western Africa — Samory, Amadu, and the Emir el Munemin of Sokoto, will be combined against all comers, and we may expect to see the complete depopulation of the Niger districts above Say. Amadu has already begun his operations down-stream, where the banks are deserted, the villages in ruins, and, where once the Toucouleurs women came to draw water and to wash their clothes, grow quantities of wild flowers and creepers.

Let us hope, however, that the recent occupation of Fandu, and the French policy of establishing an effective protectorate over the negro races may produce a salutary effect.1 The only man in a position to make head against Amadu was Ibrahim Galadio, a stranger to the country, whose father had fled there, chased from Massina by the Fulahs of Amadu, the great founder of the ephemeral dynasty of Hamda-Allahi. Galadio has guns, Galadio has a tata, he is as strong as the Toucouleurs, and no one would be able to understand his rallying to the cause of Amadu Cheiku, and submitting to him, if it were not for the prestige still attached to the name of that chief's father, El Hadj Omar. Yet the former Sultan of Sego is, as every one knows, a Mussulman, with neither faith nor belief in any law, stained with numerous crimes, a traitor to his The occupation of Say is now an accomplished fact, and Amadu has fled in a north-westerly direction ; but the French must be more than ever careful to be on their guard against his forces, aided by those of the Emir of Sokoto. We must be especially on the watch against offensive action on the part of Samory, for does not a certain section of the English press talk of arming and rousing against us that monster in human form who under pretext of a holy war is responsible for the destruction of thousands of his fellow-creatures t