Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/202

 162 WEST AFEICA. mines. But " the gold hid itself," as the Negroes say, and after the withdrawal of the garrison Kenieba fell into decay. On a hill a little farther to the east stands the fortified town of Farabana, formerly noteworthy as the capital of an independent republic, where the runaway slaves from all the surrounding districts found refuge. Farabana btill holds the first rank among the petty states of Bambuk. Km/es, on the left bank of the Senegal, at the head of the steam navigation during the floods, has recently acquired some importance as the western terminus of the railway ; but its warehouses and depots have been gradually transferred to the more healthy station of Diamu, 33 miles higher up and on the same side of the river. But the central military station still remains at Medina (the " City,") 7 miles from Kayes below the Felu Falls, and memorable for the siege of ninety-five days sustained in 1857 by the French garrison, followed by the final dispersion of the forces of the prophet Al Haji Omar. This victory secured the definite posses- sion of the Upper Senegal, and in 1878 the capture of the fortified village of Sabucire, 4 miles above the Felu Falls, opened the route to the Niger. The northern section of the Toucouleur empire, which thus became dismembered, comprises the Knarta country formerly dependent on the kingdom of Kasso. The Kassonkes and the Diavaras, descendants of the original Soninke rulers of the land, are the most numerous ethnical element in Kaarta. Next in importance are various castes of the Bambaras, subsequently the dominant nation, and the Tou- couleurs, masters of the country, less numerous than the other populations, but occupying the strongholds, and constantly recruited by fresh immigrants from the neighbouring Futa district. Diambokho, the province of Kaarta lying nearest to Medina, has for its chief town the stronghold of Kiuiiakari, which was formerly the capital of the Kassonkes, and which is said still to contain five thousand inhabitants. It occupies a good commercial and strategical position at the confluence of several wadies to the west of Diala, the chief place in the province of Dialafara. In Kaarta proper KogM and Niogomera, on the verge of the desert, have been replaced as royal residences by Nioro, the Bhah of the Arabs, much frequented by the caravans from the Upper Niger, which here procure their supplies of salt from Tishit. The tablets of this indispensable article here form the recognised currency, four representing the value of an adult man. Jarra, north-east of Nioro, is no longer the " Great City," nor the " capital of the Moorish kingdom of Ludamar " (Ulad-Mbarek,) as at the time of Mungo Park's journey. South-east of it, but still in the Senegal basin, lies the important town of Dianghirte, occupied at the time of Mage's visit by the Toucouleur conquerors who had expelled the old Bambara residents. Till recently all the Bakhoy basin above Medina was regarded as nominally a part of the kingdom of Segu ; but in reality it comprised a large number of Bambara and Malinke petty states and confederacies, which the Toucouleurs had wasted with fire and sword. Although they had succeeded in establishing them- selves permanently only at a few points, they succeeded in reducing this fertile region to a desert, exterminating nine-tenths of the whole population. The centre