Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/392

 384] FOEEIGN HISTORY. [1899.

of its officers ; new steamers for transport were building, and the railway was earning over 1,000,000 francs per month gross receipts.

The exports last year were 1,015,868Z., and the imports 1,007,405Z. Rubber formed more than three-fifths of the exports ; ivory and palm products nearly all the remainder. The rubber trade was almost wholly in Belgian hands. New railways were projected to connect Stanley Falls with the upper Ituri plateau, one branch turning northward toward Lake Albert Nyanza and the other southward toward Lake Tanganyika.

Nigeria. — The new protectorate of Northern Nigeria was to come into being at the close of the year with Colonel Lugard as Governor. It will be the largest in extent of any of the British West African territories, and will contain about 300,000 square miles. Geba will be the capital till the new site is chosen in the direction of Kano.

The Royal Niger Company transferred its territories to the Imperial Government in August for 865,000Z.

The convention between Great Britain and France respect- ing boundary lines in West Africa, signed on June 14, 1898, was finally ratified this year.

The import duty on spirits imported into the Niger Coast Protectorate was raised on June 17, from 2s. per gallon to 3s. per gallon.

French Soudan. — In October by decree the French Soudan ceased to be a distinct province, and was divided between Senegal, Guinea, the Ivory Coast and Dahomey, West Africa.

Early in January the Voulet-Chanoine mission, authorised to explore the country between Say and Lake Chad, were about ninety miles above Say at Sansanne Hausa, and in March left for Lake Chad. Lieutenant Peteau, attached to the expedition, brought charges before the French authorities in the Soudan against the officers in command of excesses and cruelty towards the natives and of wantonly burning their villages. After a partial inquiry Lieut.-Colonel Klobb of the Marines was ordered to proceed from his station at Kayes to take over the command, and if the charges proved true to arrest Captains Voulet and Chanoine. On July 14 on the approach of Colonel Klobb at a place near Damangara, West Africa, Captain Voulet sent word that he should retain the command and if Klobb continued to advance that he should treat him as an enemy ; that with 600 rifles under his orders he should prefer fighting to a stupid suicide. Colonel Klobb advanced unfurling the French flag, whereupon Captain Voulet ordered his men to fire three volleys and then independently. Colonel Klobb, while forbidding his own men to return the fire, was shot dead, Lieutenant Meunier was badly wounded, and their men were routed by a bayonet charge. In October Voulet and Chanoine were no longer with the mission. It was under the command of Lieutenant Pallier who was seeking to place it under the orders of the Foureau-