Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/687

Rh S E N S E N 661 goods 360,000, goods passing as French 200,000, foreign goods 440,000, of which 240,000 represent English, 200,000 Belgian, 120,000 German, 80,000 American articles. In 1882 946 vessels entered and 960 cleared. The budget for the colony in 1884 was 100,320, for the communal expenses 14,560, and for the expenses of the capital 250,000. History. The navigators of Dieppe are said to have discovered the Senegal about 1360. The Portuguese had some establishments on its banks in the 15th century ; and the first French settlements were probably formed in the latter part of the 16th or beginning of the 17th century. Between 1664, when these French settlements were assigned to Colbert's West India Company, and 1758, when the colony was seized by the English, Senegal had passed under the administration of no fewer than seven different companies, none of which attained any great success, though from 1694 to 1724 affairs were conducted by a really able governor, Andre Brue. In 1677 the French captured from the Dutch Rufisque, Portudal, Joal, and Goree, and they were confirmed in possession of these places by the treaty of Mmeguen (1678). In 1717 they acquired Portendic and in 1724 Arguin on the coast of the Sahara, which still belong to the colony. Goree and the district of Cape Verd were surrendered by the English to the French in 1763, and by the treaty of peace in 1783 the whole of the Senegal was also restored ; but the English again captured the colony in the wars of the first empire (Goree 1800, St Louis 1809), and, though the treaty of Paris authorized a complete restitution, the French authorities did not enter into pos- session till 1817. Between that date and 1854 little was effected by the thirty-seven governors who succeeded each other at St Louis; but in this year the appointment of General Faidherbe proved the turn- ing-point in the history of Senegal. He at once set about subduing the Moorish (Berber) tribes of the Trarzas, Braknas, and Duaish, whose "kings," especially the king of the Trarzas, had subjected the French settlers and traders to the most grievous and arbitrary exactions ; and he bound them by treaty to confine their authority to the north bank of the Senegal. In 1855 he annexed the country of "Valo and erected the fort of Medine in the country of Khasso. This last was a bold stroke for the purpose of stemming the ad- vancing tide of Moslem invasion, which under Omar al-Hadji (Alegui) threatened the safety of the colony. In 1857 Medine was brilliantly defended by the mulatto Paul Holle against Omar, who with his army of 20,000 men had to retire before the advance of General Faidherbe and turn his attention to the conquest of the native states of the Sudan. By treaty of 1860 Omar recognized the French claim to half of Bambuk, half of Khasso, Bondu, Kamera, Guoy, Guidimakha, Damga, Futa-Toro, Dimar, &c. Since then annexations and protectorates have followed in rapid succession under the governorships of Jaureguiberry, Faidherbe, and Briere de 1'Isle. It is sufficient to mention the treaties of 1881 and 1885 by which the confederation of Futa-Jallon and Bure respectively recognized a French protectorate. See Jannequin de Kochefort, Voyage de Libye au royaume de Senega, 1643 ; Adanson, Histoire naturel du Senegal, 1757 ; Mollien, Voyage dans I'interieur de VAfrique fait aux sources du Senegal et de la Gambie en 1818-1820 ; Tardieu, Seneganibie et Guinee, 1847 ; Faidherbe on "Populations noires des bassins du Senegal et du Niger," in Bull. Soc. de Geogr., Paris, 1854 ; Senegal et Niger, la France dans I'Afriijue Occidentale, 1879-83, published by the Ministry of Marine, 1884; Faidherbe, Le Soudan francais, Lille, 1881-85; Notices Coloniales pub. a ^occasion de F Exposition d'Anvers, 1885; Annales Senegalaises de 185Ua 1SS5, suivies des traites jMsses avec les indigenes, 1886 ; and Rambaud, "Senegal et Soudan Frangais," in Revue des Deux Mondes, 1885. SENEGAMBIA, a country in the west of equatorial Africa, comprising, as the name indicates, the regions Jound- watered by the Senegal and the Gambia. It lies between 9 and 17 N". lat. and 6 and 17 30' W. long., being bounded on the N. by the Sahara, W. by the Atlantic, S. by Sierra Leone, and E. by the Joliba or upper Niger. The area is estimated at about 400,000 square miles. Accepting the course of the Senegal and its right hand affluent the Ba-ule as the boundary towards the Sahara, the Joliba as the frontier towards Segu and Upper Guinea, and the watershed between the Mellacoree (Mellicoury) and the Great Scarcies as that between Senegambia and Sierra Leone, we have only for short distances to fall back on a mere conventional delimitation, in the north between Sidian on the Ba-ule and Sansanding on the Niger via Murdia ; in the south-east, from Sansanding to a point above Nyamina ; and finally between the Joliba oast, and the sources of the Great Scarcies. The Senegambian coast extends south-south-west almost in a straight line from the N'diadier or Mosquito lagoon (Marigot des Ma- ringouins), formerly the northern mouth of the Senegal, to Cape Verd, the most western point of the African con- tinent ; then it bends south as far as Cape Roxo ; and afterwards south-east as far as the Mellacoree. With the exception of the two great capes just mentioned, the only headlands of any importance are Cape St Mary, forming the south side of the estuary of the Gambia ; Cape Verga, between Rio Nunez and Rio Pongo ; and Konakry Point, opposite the Los (or Idolos) Islands. The only gulf on the whole coast is that which lies to the south of Cape Verd and contains the island of GOKF.E (q.v.); the other inlets, such as the bay of Sangareah, are mere estuaries or river mouths. Apart from the island in the Senegal on which St Louis is built and those formed by the deltas of the rivers, the only islands along the coast are Goree, the Bissagos (or Bijug) Archipelago, the Los Islands, and the Map of Senegambia. little island of Matakong. The coast in the northern part has the same appearance as that of the Sahara, low, arid, desolate, and dune-skirted, its monotony relieved only here and there by cliffs and plateaus. Farther south it be- comes low, marshy, and clothed with luxuriant vegetation. Behind the low flat seaboard the country rises into a vast Interior, plateau terminating eastwards in a mountainous region. Though of no great height, these mountains cover a large area and have numerous ramifications. Farther to the east they sink abruptly towards the Niger valley, while southwards they are prolonged towards Sierra Leone and the interior of Upper Guinea, perhaps forming those Kong Mountains which are said to exist between the ocean and the Niger basin. Under the name of Mounts Badet, Yandi, Mate, Kissi (of which the first form the "Alps" of Futa-Jallon) they descend on the west by a series of terraces to the plains of Senegambia, and on the north they extend to the left bank of the Senegal and even throw out some spurs into the desert beyond. The moun- tain region is cut by numerous erosion valleys. As to the general altitude nothing is accurately known, but the fol- lowing points have been determined Mount Daro, 4068 feet; Kuruworo, 3868 ; Warnani, 3799; Yenkina, 3560; Bogoma, 3524 ; Pampaya, 3290. The principal rivers are the Senegal, the Salum, the Yombas, the Gambia, the Casamance, the Cacheo, the Geba, the Rio Grande, the