WASHINGTON, a Pacific coast State, admitted to the Union Nov. 11, 1889; area, 69,180 square miles. Population, according to the census of 1890, 349,390. Capital, Olympia.

Government.-The State officers for the year were: Governor, John R. Rogers: Lieutenant Governor, Thurston Daniels; Secretary of State, Will D. Jenkins; Treasurer, C. W. Young; Auditor, Neal Cheetham; Commissioner of Public Lands, Robert Bridges; Superintendent of Public Instruction, T. J. Brown; Justice of the Supreme Court, John B. Reavis; Attorney-General, Patrick Henry Winston-all Populists except Winston, who is a Silver Republican.

JOHN R. ROGERS, GOVERNOR OF WASHINGTON.

Finances. The levy made by the State Board of Equalization for 1897 for State purposes is 26 mills; for school purposes, 27 mills. This levy will produce for State purposes $587,940: for school purposes, $610,553; a total of $1,198,493. Last year the total amount of the State tax was $626,615; school tax, $655,480: a total of $1,282,095. The total for State and school purposes is $83,602 less this year than last.

The total valuation of railroad property in the State is placed at $20,624,505, against $12.910,176 The State board raised these valuations from $17,863,561, as returned by the county boards.

last year.

The total amount of taxes levied in King County for 1897 is $1,017,120.64. The average rate of taxation is 23 mills. In Snohomish County the total amount of taxes levied for all purposes is $287,002.90, and the average rate of taxation is 36 mills.

Legislative Session.-The Legislature, which organized on Jan. 11, 1897, passed, among others, the following bills, which were approved by the Governor:

Creating a State board of control. It creates one board for all the penal, charitable and reformatory institutions, leaving the educational, wards of the State to be managed by separate boards of regents. Fixing order of payment of debts of decedents. Debts shall be paid as follows: Funeral expenses; the expenses of last sickness; debts having preference by law; any debts or dues owing the State; judgments rendered against deceased during his lifetime, which are liens upon real estate, on which execution might have issued.

Defining the crime of rape, and fixing the age of consent at eighteen years.

Granting bounty for production of sugar. This bill provides that the State shall pay 1 cent a pound, as bounty, to manufacturers for all sugar manufactured within the State, and provides further that no bounty shall be paid on sugar not containing at least 90 per cent. of crystallized sugar, and only upon sugar produced from beets for which as much as $5 a ton has been paid to the producer. The bounty to be paid by the State shall not exceed $50,000.

Providing that property assessed for street improvement may be sold on ten days' notice after the assessment falls due, without foreclosure.

Exempting from execution and attachment to householders and freeholders personal property to the amount of $1,000. When any person dies seized of exempt property, leaving heirs, such property shall be set aside for the use of such heirs, free from all claims against the deceased.

To regulate insurance companies, requiring that policies be written by local agents; that a license be secured from the State, and that 2 per cent. on all policies be paid to the State; that statements be published in two daily papers each year; that in case of a total loss the full amount of the policy be paid, and prohibiting insurance combinations.

George Turner, Populist, was elected to the United States Senate.

Dairies.--The annual report of the Dairy Commissioner for 1897 shows in Washington an increase of more than 150,000 pounds of cheese and 200,000 pounds of butter. A total of 709,364 pounds of cheese was produced during the year 1897, compared with 554,123 pounds in 1896. The butter production was: 1897, 2,094,427 pounds; 1896, 1,853,657 pounds. The largest creamery in the State is that of Martin & Hubbard, of Spokane, where 139,876 pounds of butter and 103,235 pounds of cheese were produced last year.

Kittitas is the leading dairy county in the State. as shown by the report of the commissioner. Twice the number of dairies in other counties are located in Kittitas, and the report shows that they have done a good business during the year. The number of dairies in each county is: Adams. 2; Clallam, 4; Clark, 6; Columbia, 1; Cowlitz, 3: Douglas, 1; Island, 1; Jefferson, 1; King, 7; Kittitas, 15; Klickitat, 1; Lewis, 6: Lincoln, 2; Pierce, 4: Snohomish, 3: Skagit, 2; Spokane, 2: Stevens, 2; Thurston, 3; Wahkiakum, 2; Whatcom, 3: Whitman, 4; Yakima, 6.

The total amount of cheese shipped to outside points was 112,402 pounds; of butter, 174.778 pounds.

Mines. The Mine Inspector's report issued in 1897 shows that the coal mines of Washington produced nearly 2,000,000 tons of coal last year, and employed the largest number of miners ever en

gaged in that calling within the confines of the State. There were fewer mine accidents than ever, and the precautions for the safety of the workers were more generally recognized. The production of last year was 280,000 tons larger than ever before known.

Fisheries. The annual report of the Fish Commissioner shows that the output of the Puget Sound salmon canneries for 1897 was 494,026 cases, compared with 312.361 cases in 1896. The increase in one year's production was 175,665 cases, or over 55 per cent. The increased revenue amounts to more than $500,000.

WEST AFRICA. Previous to the assumption of a German protectorate over Togoland and the Cameroons in 1884 the European possessions on the west coast of Africa north of the Portuguese colony of Angola consisted merely of the English trading posts at Bathurst, Lagos, and on the Gold Coast and the colony of Sierra Leone, originally peopled by liberated slaves from the West Indies, and the French colony of Senegal. Since then European powers have taken possession of the whole coast except the independent republic of Liberia, and asserted claims to the whole interior, except the Central Soudan states of Bornu, Wadai, and Kanem.

British Possessions.-The total imports of the United Kingdom from the West African colonies in 1895 were valued at £1,685,581, and the exports of British produce and manufactures to those colonies at £1,083,333. The colony of Gambia has an area of about 2,700 square miles and a population of 50,000. The settlement is 69 square miles in extent, with a population in 1894 of 14,978, of whom 62 were white. The Administrator is R. B. Llewellyn. The district exports ground nuts, hides, beeswax, rice, cotton, corn, and rubber. The revenue in 1895 was £20,561; expenditures, £28.867. The value of the imports was £97,399, and of the exports £93,537. The chief imports of all the colonies are cotton goods, spirits, and tobacco.

Sierra Leone has an area of 15,000 square miles, containing about 180,000 inhabitants; the colony proper, with an area of 4,000 square miles, had 74,835 in 1891, of whom 224 were whites. The Governor is Col. Frederic Cardew. The revenue in 1895 was £97,851 and the expenditure £96,690. The development of the neighboring French colonies has diverted some of the trade. The exports are palm kernels and oil, rubber, kola nuts, gum, copal, and hides. The value of the imports in 1895 was £427,337, and of the exports £452,604. Freetown, which has 30,033 inhabitants, is a British coaling station and the headquarters of the British garrison in West Africa, consisting of a regiment of blacks recruited in the West Indies and British engineers and artillery. There is also a native constabulary of 570 men employed chiefly as a frontier guard. In August, 1896, a protectorate was proclaimed over additional territory embracing 30,000 square miles, with a population estimated at from 250,000 to 500,000. A railroad is being constructed from Freetown to Songo.

Lagos has an area of about 1,500 square miles and a population estimated at 100,000. The number of whites is about 200. The protectorate has been extended over Yoruba, with an area of about 19,000 square miles and 3,000,000 inhabitants. The chief exports are palm oil and kernels, ivory, gum, copal, rubber, cotton, cacao, and coffee. The Governor is Major H. E. McCallum. The revenue in 1895 was £142,049; expenditure, £144.484. The value of imports was £815,815, and of exports £985,594.

The Niger Coast Protectorate includes the district formerly known as the Oil Rivers and a part of the territory formerly administered by the Niger

Company. The boundaries are indeterminate. The administrative and judicial functions are exercised by an Imperial Commissioner and Consul General, Sir H. D. Ralph Moore. The exports are palm oil and kernels, rubber, ivory, ebony, camwood, indigo, gums, barwood, hides, and cacao. The value of the imports in 1895 was £739,864, and of the exports £825,098. The protectorate embraces the country drained by the rivers Benin, Brass, Old Calabar, Bonny. Quaebo, Opobo, and New Calabar, running back as far as the junction of the Niger and Benue, about 300 miles, and covered with rich growths of the oil palm. The British have undertaken several punitive expeditions to break down the trading monopoly which the pagan tribes living on the rivers have possessed from time immemorial. Thus the chief Nana, on the Benin, the chief of Okrika, on the Bonny, and the Brass natives have been punished successively. An expedition set out on Jan. 2, 1897, to visit Drunami, the King of Benin, one of the boldest and haughtiest of these river potentates, in whose capital the Juju worship, requiring human sacrifices, was practiced without restraint. The King refused to receive the mission, consisting of 9 English officers, with 250 Krumen, and when the party entered his dominions it was surrounded by his warriors, and acting ConsulGeneral Phillips, the head, and the other Englishmen, excepting Capt. Boisragon and Commissioner Locke, who made their escape by hiding, were killed. An avenging expedition of 600 men was immediately equipped, which advanced through the river and lagoons, captured Gwato and Sapoba, marched 24 miles through the bush, and took Benin on Feb. 18, after a bombardment. The natives offered a determined resistance, but could not stand before the Maxim guns. The British lost 17 Europeans and 23 natives killed or wounded. The chiefs surrendered after a few days, and on Aug. 7 the King, who had escaped into the back country, gave himself up and was taken as a political prisoner to Old Calabar. A British garrison remained in the capital.

The Niger Territories were taken under British protection in 1886 and intrusted to the administration of the Royal Niger Company that during the previous two years had negotiated with native chiefs and tribes treaties under which the country up to the bend of the Niger and eastward to Lake Chad was claimed as British, including the territories known as Sokoto and Borgu. On Aug. 5, 1890, the French Government agreed to a line demarcating the British from the French spheres, drawn from Say, on the Niger, to Barua, on Lake Chad, in such a manner as to comprise in the sphere of the Niger Company "all that fairly belongs to the kingdom of Sokoto," the line to be determined by commissioners to be appointed. The British and German spheres are divided by an agreed line drawn from the rapids in the Cross river to a point on the Benue 30 miles east of Yola, and thence to the southern shore of Lake Chad. The extent of the regions claimed by the company is 500,000 square miles, with a population estimated variously from 20.000.000 to 35,000,000. The exports, consisting of gums, hides, palm kernels and oil, rubber, ivory, and vegetable butter, were valued at £406,000 in 1893. The importation of spirits into the country north of 7 of latitude is prohibited. The company imposes heavy duties on imports of spirits and gunpowder, tobacco, and salt. and on all exports, the effect of which is to secure for it a monopoly of the trade of these regions which the merchants of Liverpool, now antagonistic to the company, once shared with French and latterly also with German merchants. Some of the independent Liverpool merchants, on whose behoof the Govern

ment detached the Benin and lower Niger countries from the territory of the Niger Company, formed in 1889 the African Association, limited, with a nomimal capital of £2,000,000. The capital of the chartered Royal Niger Company is over £1,000,000, all subscribed, which it has power to increase in definitely. The chairman is Sir George Taubman Goldie. The territories within the sphere of the company's influence are in part pagan Hausa states that have held their own against the Mohammedan invasion from the north and in part states that have yielded to the religious and military domination of the Mohammedan conquerors, the Fulahs, who now rule over them as a military caste. The Niger Company has concluded more than 400 treaties, 235 with separate pagan tribes, and the rest with the greater and lesser Mohammedan chiefs.

Throughout the latter part of 1896 many English officers entered the Niger Company's service, and preparations were made for a forward movement, the first one against the Mohammedans of the Niger regions, whom the British had endeavored to win by alliances and concessions in contrast with the French policy of subjugation. On Jan. 6 a column under Major Arnold marched out of Lokoja toward Kabbau, while an armed flotilla of the company's steamers proceeded up the middle Niger toward Eggau. The movement was directed against the forces of the Emir of Nupe. This emir, whose territory stretches westward of Lokoja, along the northern bank of the middle Niger to the Boussa rapids, had for five years pursued a defiant attitude toward the Niger Company, while the rulers of Sokoto, Gando, and Borgu, to whom he and the other Mohammedan chiefs were regarded as tributary by the English, and who had entered into treaties placing their foreign relations in the company's hands and binding themselves to recognize no white power except Great Britain, had assisted the company by using their influence to restrain the emirs from slave-raiding and hostile action against the British. The company had endeavored to preserve the peace with Nupe, overlooking acts of aggression and granting a subsidy of £2,000 a year to the ruler, a larger one than was paid to the Emirs of Adamawa, Muri, Bakundi, Bautshi, and Zaria. Nupe itself was tributary to the Sultan of Gando, to whom the emir was obliged to furnish thousands of slaves every year. After the accession of a new emir, Abu Bokari, in 1895, it was found impossible to avoid for a long time a conflict with him and his organized army. He attempted to form a league with the Emirs of Boussa and Ilorin, with the object of driving the Christians out of the country. Nupe, whose territory borders on the pagan states south of the Niger, which the emir has claimed as his vassals, has been the most troublesome opponent of the Niger Company, which had taken these pagan states under its protection and disputed the right of the emir to demand slaves and produce as tribute. The inhabitants of Nupe are superior in wealth and civilization to most of the Mohammedan peoples of the western Soudan, excelling as weavers and as workers in iron, brass, leather, and glass. In May, 1896, his general, the makum, crossed the river Kabba, in defiance of treaty engagements, with a force of 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, and formed a permanent camp, striking terror among the surrounding population. The emir joined him later with other forces, bringing the total number, including noncombatants, up to 50,000. The British column, consisting of about 800 Hausa troops, trained, drilled, and led by picked European officers, with six Maxim guns and two 7-pounders, accompanied by Sir George Taubman Goldie, made a rapid march of 200 miles to Egbom, where the vessels had deposited supplies

of military stores. The river was strongly held by the company's flotilla. The enemy dispersed and fled before the advancing column, which crossed the river at Egbom on Jan. 24, dragged the guns through swamps, and attained the high ground overlooking Bida, the stronghold and capital of Nupe. The British had induced the makum to betray his master by promising him the succession. Heavy fighting began on Jan. 26. The column, which had left detachments for garrison purposes along the line of march, and was now reduced to 250 men, had to cut its way by force of superior discipline and better arms, machine guns and repeating rifles, against bows and arrows, through inasses of natives estimated at 20,000 to 30,000. The Fulahs rely chiefly on their cavalry, against whose onsets the company's troops were usually able to protect themselves by fencing in their position with barbed wire rapidly strung from reels mounted on wheels. There was a moment in the assault on Bida when the English force, surrounded on all sides by the enemy's cavalry, was in danger of annihilation. The Hausa troups, with great steadiness and courage, maintained their square unbroken at this critical juncture, and executed a retreat in good order. When the heavy artillery arrived the assault was renewed, and on Jan. 27 the British entered the town and received the submission of the enemy. The Emir of Nupe was deposed, and the Makum Mohammed was placed on the throne, who on Feb. 5 signed a treaty acknowledging British protection in both southern and northern Nupe, agreeing to abandon slave-raiding, and transferring to the direct rule of the company the dependent territories on the south side of the river. A part of the expedition marched immediately for Ilorin, in the rear of Lagos, where a battle was fought and won outside of the walls of the city, and the emir made his submission on Feb. 18. In Ilorin, as in Nupe, the Fulahs are the ruling caste, but the people are Yorubas, not Hausas. Their capital was destroyed by the British shells, and in the fighting, which lasted two days, they lost 200 of their horsemen. The Emirs of Lafiagi and other neighboring states accepted the company's rule without a conAn expedition of 200 men, with artillery, marched against the Patanis, who were accused of smuggling arms, and these made their submission without fighting. The Fulah strongholds along the river Niger were reduced by the flotilla, and new native rulers, amenable to the company's control, were placed over the populations. The authority of the company having been vindicated and its rule extended over a vast territory in which it previously exercised only trading rights, the Governor on March 6 issued a decree abolishing from June 19, 1897, the legal status of slavery throughout the territories under the direct administration of the company, embracing the country of the pagan tribes south of the Niger and a strip three miles wide along the northeast bank, ever which the ganagas or river chiefs formerly held dominion. In the autumn the company's forces under Major Arnold subjugated Igarra, extending from the borders of Nupe to the mouth of the Benue, completing the conquest of all the countries south of the Niger in the undisputed English sphere.

test.

The complaints of Liverpool merchants regarding the trade monopoly of the Niger Company and the territorial disputes with France, which had become so acute as to threaten a disturbance of international relations and to demand the assumption of all responsibility and control by the Imperial Government, forced upon the imperial authorities the necessity of placing the territories of the Royal Niger Company under their direct control. Negotiations were accordingly begun with the governor

and council of the company, looking to the surrender either of its trading activity or of its political powers, and in all events the restriction of the latter to administrative functions under the control of the home authorities.

The Gold Coast colony has an area of about 15,000 square miles, and the neighboring protectorate 31,600 square miles. The population of the colony is estimated at 1,473,882, of whom only 150 are whites. The Governor is Sir W. E. Maxwell. The revenue in 1895 was £230,076; expenditure, £265,289. The value of the imports was £931,537; exports, £877,804. Rubber, palm oil and kernels, and gold dust are the chief exports. Ashanti was conquered and placed under British protection early in 1896, with a Resident at Kumasi, Capt. Donald Stewart. A new labor ordinance permitting natives to be impressed as carriers was issued to facilitate the military operations undertaken on an extensive scale in 1897. It had the effect of totally stopping trade on the Gold Coast.

Samory, chief of the Sofas of the upper Niger region, who entered into an alliance with the English and took refuge within their sphere after the French by great military sacrifices had nearly succeeded in crushing his power, turned against his friends when they also proceeded to reduce to European rule the countries that were the field of his freebooting and slave-raiding exploits. In February, 1897, he captured the party of Lieut. Henderson, who had just made a treaty with the chief of Wa. Mr. Fergusson, the valued colored political agent of the English, died of his wounds. An expedition was sent against the Sofas, who were driven out of Bontuku. Samory retreated to Lobi, on the right bank of the Volta, where the French had posts. A detachment of French troops were sent under Major Caudrelier to expel the Sofas, who, however, surrounded the expedition near Bontu and killed 46. Bontuku, being within the French sphere, was evacuated by the British in November. Samory took up a strong position northwest of Seguskoro, in the bend of the Niger, where he was supplied with modern arms obtained from the Tuaregs and had 12,000 troops, who were drilled in European fashion.

French Possessions.-By the Anglo-French agreement of Aug. 5, 1890, Great Britain recognizes as within the French sphere all territories north of the Say-Barua line. The French occupy the coast from Cape Blanco south to Portuguese Guinea, except Gambia; beyond Portuguese Guinea to Sierra Leone; the Ivory Coast between Liberia and the British Gold Coast; and the Slave Coast between Togo and Lagos, with the conquered kingdom of Dahomey in the rear, beyond which the regions in the bend of the Niger are the subject of dispute between France and England. The French sphere extends northward across the Desert of Sahara until it joins Algeria and Tunis. The coast line from Cameroon to the Congo, except the Spanish settlement at Corisco Bay, belongs to France, and by an agreement with Germany in 1894 the region behind Cameroon northward east of the Shari to Lake Chad. Eastward the French sphere extends across the continent north of the Congo Free State, along the right bank of the Congo and of the Mobangi north of 4° of north latitude, to the region of the upper Nile formerly occupied by Egypt and claimed as within the British sphere. The two spheres are separated by the still independent countries to the east and north of Lake Chad, which both France and England hope to absorb. The northern sphere embraces an area of 550,000 square miles south of Sahara, the French part of which is 1,000,000 square miles in extent, and the southern sphere 330,000 square miles.

Senegal is a French colony, represented by a VOL. XXXVII.-52 A

Deputy in the Chamber. It includes the communes of St. Louis, which has a population of 20,000, Dakar, Rufisque, and the island of Goree, together with territories or stations on the coast and the river Senegal. Including the annexed countries of Walo, Cayor, Toro, Dimar, and Damga, the area is 58,000 square miles, having in 1891 a population of 1,029,540. The Governor General of French West Africa, M. Chaudié, is Governor of Senegal, and resides at St. Louis, where he is assisted by a Colonial Council. The troops in 1896 numbered 2,508, with 66 officers. There are 246 miles of railroad. The telegraphs have a length of 574 miles, with 1,022 miles of wire. The local revenue in 1895 was 3,951,400 francs. The expenditure of France in 1897 was 5,951,841 francs. The imports in 1893 amounted to 13,866,000 francs; the exports, consisting of ground nuts, gums, rubber, palm nuts, palm oil, hides, mats, and gold dust, amounted to 17,985,000 francs. The protectorates attached to Senegal have an area of 96,500 square miles, with an estimated population of 80,000.

The French Soudan embraces the regions of the upper Senegal and the upper and middle Niger, including the protected states of Samory and Tieba. The Lieutenant Governor, residing at Kayas, is Col. de Trentinian. The area of the annexed territories is about 54,000 square miles, with an estimated population of 360,000. The protectorates have an estimated area of 230,000 square miles, with 2,500,000 inhabitants. There is a railroad from Kayes, at the head of navigation on the Senegal, to Bamako, on the Niger, 320 miles. The troops in 1896 numbered 178 officers and 3,637 men. The local revenue in 1895 was 1,447.400 francs, and the expenditure 1,437,827 francs. The expenditure of the French Government in 1897 was 7,801,500 francs.

French Guinea, embracing the Rivières du Sud, the Gold Coast settlements of Grand Bassam, Assinie, Grand Lahou, and Jackeville and the Benin settlements of Porto Novo, Kotonu, Grand Popo, and Agoué, has an area, including protectorates, of 25,000 square miles. The population of the colony proper was 47,555 in 1891. The negro pagan kingdom of Dahomey, containing 4,000 square miles, was subjugated in 1894, and Guthili was made King instead of Behanzin. The inhabitants, numbering about 150,000, are industrious cultivators of the soil and produce the finest palm oil in Upper Guinea. The protected country attached to Grand Popo has 100,000 inhabitants; Mahis and Ajuda, 150,000; Porto Novo, 150.000; Abeokuta, 120,000. About 20,000 tons of palm kernels and 10,000 tons of oil are exported annually from Whydah and Kotonu. The imports of Dahomey in 1894 were valued at 10,750,000 francs, and exports at 9,950,000 francs. The budget of French Guinea in 1895 was 548,000 francs, besides 1,100,000 francs for the Ivory Coast settlements. The local revenue of Dahomey amounted to 1,600,000 francs. The protectorate of Fouta Djallon, not included in the above estimate, has an area of 42,460 square miles and about 600,000 inhabitants. Of the protected kingdom of Kong and neighboring territories no estimates have been made of area and population. The Governor of French Guinea, residing at Conakry, is N. E. Ballay. The Ivory Coast, or Grand Bassam, has L. Mouttet for its Governor, and Dahomey and its dependencies P. V. Ballot, residing at Kotonu. A telegraph line, 370 miles long, connecting all the posts, was constructed in 1897.

The preparations of the Niger Company for making military conquests in the Soudan aroused the suspicions of the French who disputed the claims of the Niger Company to the countries in the west. where there was no agreed line of delimitation separating the French and British spheres. The

French Government asked and received a pledge from the British Government, a pledge that the company's troops would not be employed farther north than 9° of latitude. A French expedition of 400 men under Lieut. Bretonnet set out from Dahomey and reached the Niger, and then descended the river from Illo, and occupied and garrisoned the town of Boussa and several other positions. Boussa is a pagan kingdom on the west bank of the Niger that lies back of Lagos, 150 miles to the east of an extension of the frontier of Dahomey. The Niger Company made treaties with the Boussa chiefs in 1890, and in 1895 the British Government notified the powers that the country was under its protectorate. A French expedition made an advance into this district, and was withdrawn in October, 1895, in response to a protest from the Niger Company communicated to the French Government. Subsequently the company established two fortified posts on the west bank of the Niger within this territory, one at Leaba and one at Fort Goldie, a post originally established by the French under the name of Fort Aremberg during their former expedition. Sir George Goldie went to Boussa after the British captured Ilorin, and found M. Carron established there as French resident and the French troops in possession of the district and not disposed to acknowledge the prior British claims. Lieut. Bretonnet assumed the title of French resident of the middle Niger. He had acted under instructions from the Minister of the Colonies directing him to proceed to the occupation of points in the valley of the middle Niger not already occupied by the English. The King of Boussa was at first unwilling to acknowledge the French protectorate, but he accepted the aid of a force of French soldiers in an expedition against his rebellious vassal, the King of Kworra, which resulted in the capture and destruction of the town of Wa after a fight in which 100 persons were killed. Nearer Dahomey Capt. Baud and Capt. Verneersch occupied the district of Gurma, to which the Germans had a claim under treaties with native chiefs, and Commandant Estenave and Lieut. Voulet, coming from the Soudan, took possession of Mossi. The Sultan of Gurma placed his 8,000 warriors at the disposition of the French. Another expedition rendered effective the French title to Futa Jallon. The chance of a territorial conflict with Germany was averted by an agreement arrived at by French and German commissioners, who as the result of mutual concessions settled on a frontier line which gives to France the whole of Gurma and permits Germany to annex Sansanne Mangu to Togoland. The convention was signed at Paris on July 23, 1897. The region obtained by France, while less productive than the country conceded to Germany, is of much greater extent, and it establishes the long-desired communication between Dahomey and the French Soudan. The line of demarcation proceeds from the end of the previously settled boundary, in 9 of north latitude, in a nearly northwesterly direction to 11° of latitude, then bends due west, and subsequently turns, following the river Volta in a southwesterly and afterward in a southerly direction until it reaches the neutral territory of Salaga. The German sphere embraces Ganda, Kirikri, Kunjari, Bafilo, Gambaga, and Walwale, besides Sansanne Mangu, while the French obtain in addition to the whole of Gurma the districts of Dje, Pregno, Pama, Wangara, Semere Alejo, and Sugu. In the course of the negotiations it was found that native chiefs had repeatedly concluded treaties simultaneously with French and German agents, and had also declared that their territories extended farther than they actually did and in other cases claimed an independence that they did not possess. It be

came evident, furthermore, that it was impossible to base claims on the mere fact that territory had been duly occupied by one or the other of the negotiating powers, since French and German expeditions had often founded stations in the immediate neighborhood of each other, sometimes in the same place. The delegates of both powers agreed that where treaties had been regularly concluded priority of date should govern.

The boundary between the French possessions and the English sphere back of Lagos was fixed by the agreement of August, 1889, as far as 9 of north latitude. The French encroached on the English sphere by building a military road and establishing posts for the passage of expeditions from Dahomey at a point near the intersection of the frontier by the eighth parallel.

In the back country of the British Gold Coast colony the French have been as active as in the disputed Hinterland of Lagos. To secure this region for England a colored man named Fergusson has for years circulated among the tribes as far north as the line from Say to Segu, beyond which is the acknowledged French sphere in the Soudan, and he and other British agents have obtained treaties purporting to establish a British protectorate over Gurunsi, Mamprusi, Dagarti, Daboya, Chakosi, Bona, Lobi, Gonja, and the rest of the native states. Treaties made in 1892 were signed over again in 1894, and in 1897 other British missions traversed the region and secured fresh treaties. French agents also obtained like treaties from the same persons or others assumed to have the right to cede native territories. At Wagadugu, the capital of Mossi, in the extreme north, Mr. Fergusson obtained a treaty in 1894, also at Wa, the capital of Dagarti, and Mr. Henderson made a treaty on Feb. 2, 1897, at Leo, in the Gurunsi states. Successive treaties were made covering Bona and the other states. The validity of such treaties unaccompanied with effective possession has been denied by the French Government, and when the Niger Company undertook to establish its military power in the regions of the middle Niger the French dispatched armed expeditions both from the coast and from their military centers in the interior north of the line between Say and Segu to occupy as much as they could of the valley of the middle Niger before the British forces from the Gold Coast and the expedition of the Niger Company took actual possession. French expeditions coming down from the north attacked and took Wagadugu, took also Leo, secured the submission of Daboya, and at Wa induced the King of Dagarti to cancel his prior treaty with Great Britain, and substitute a French treaty in its place. In the Hinterland of Lagos the French still remained in possession of the Boussa district in the face of vigorous diplomatic representations, occupying Boussa, Illo, Niki, Kiami, and other towns. The British Government assumed the direction of affairs, and emphasized its serious diplomatic remonstrances by sending additional military forces into the territories of the Niger Company and considerable expeditions into the back country of the Gold Coast. In the autumn the French and British military forces stood watching each other, and there were moments when a collision was narrowly escaped. Capt. Stewart, the British officer, and Lieut. Voulet, at Wagadugu, and Capt. Scal, at Leo, effected temporary agreements equivalent to an armed truce in order that the questions at issue might be referred to their respective Governments for a diplomatic settlement. At Wa the French under Capt. Hugot promised to withdraw if the British officer would also retire, and afterward re-entered the town on the plea of securing themselves against attack. A