Africa by Élisée Reclus/Volume 3/Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV.
NORTH SENEGAMBIA: SENEGAL.
General Survey.
OUTH of the Saharian region the natural frontiers of Sudan are indicated by no precise line, but rather by a narrow zone skirting the north bank of the Senegal and of the Joliba (Niger) eastwards to and beyond Timbuktu. Here takes place the transition from the dry to the rainy climate, and to these contrasts correspond others in the aspect of the land, of its flora and fauna, origin, customs, and institutions of its inhabitants. Senegambia is thus well defined northwards by the valley of the Senegal and the scarp of the plateaux which mark the geological frontier of the Sahara.
The river valley, although penetrating not more than 600 miles inland, constitutes one of the characteristic features of the continent. Here begins the real Africa, separated by the desert from that Mediterranean Africa which forms an intermediate region between the northern and southern sections of the globe. The Senegal constitutes an ethnical parting-line between the Berbers and Arabs on its right, and the Nigritian population on its left bank. In a general way the river may be said to mark the starting-point of the transverse line which runs between the domains of the brown and black races. Here two distinct worlds confront each other.
But towards the east and south Senegambia has no precise limits; in these directions the transitions take place imperceptibly, while the geographical features are marked by no striking contrasts. The water-parting between the affluents of the Senegal and Joliba is faint and uncertain, the traveller passing from one fluvial basin to the other without detecting any change in the aspect of the land. On the other hand, the ranges and groups of uplands in south Senegambia continue to develop towards the south-east as far as Liberia and the Ivory Coast, parallel with the continental seaboard. Nevertheless a certain geographical unity is presented by the oval space comprised between the Atlantic, the Senegal, the Upper Joliba, the Rokelle, and the plateau separating the sources of the two last-mentioned streams. The whole land may here be said to be grouped round the central mass of the Futa-Jallon highlands, whence the running waters flow in divergent beds towards the encircling main streams. The whole region, to which in its widest sense may be given the name of Senegambia, including the Saharian slope of the Senegal, and even some dried-up basins sloping southward, has a total area approximately estimated at 280,000 square miles. Sufficient data are still lacking to give any trustworthy estimate of the population, so that the current calculations naturally present the greatest discrepancies. If any dependence could be placed on the missionary De Barros' computation of fourteen millions, we should have a proportion of fifty to the square mile, a minimum ratio for a fertile and well-watered land, where the birth-rate is high and where the population rapidly increases in times of peace. Yet the data supplied by the European possessions, taken in connection with the reports of the most competent travellers, would seem to show that the actual population is far less than had been conjectured from the density of the villages in some of the coast districts, falling in fact to considerably under three millions.
Progress of Discovery.
Over five centuries have passed since Europeans first had any direct or hearsay knowledge of Senegambia. Apart from the Periplus of Hanno, J. Ferrer's expedition of 1346, in search of the "river of gold," and the voyages of the Dieppe navigators, begun in 1364, it is certain that through their friendly relations with Tunis the Venetians were already, in the fifteenth century, acquainted with the name of Timbuktu and other Sudanese towns. On the Catalonian map of 1375 are figured the inhabited lands which stretch south from the Sahara, and two names especially had become famous, Ginyia (Gineua, Ghenni, Ginea, Guinoye), the city rich in gold, identified by most geographers with Jenné, and the "river of gold," which is the Senegal. To reach "Guinea" and to discover the river of gold was the great ambition of navigators in those days. Béthencourt, conqueror of the eastern Canaries, had "the intention of opening the route to the river of gold" at "one hundred and fifty French leagues from the Cape of Bugader." But the systematic exploration of these mysterious lands was still delayed for another half century.
In 1434 the Portuguese Gil Eannes at last penetrated beyond the formidable reefs of Cape Bojador, and in 1443 his countryman Muno Tristam doubled Cape Blanco, and coasted the mainland for twenty-five leagues thence southwards. He brought back a few wretched fishermen captured on the Arguin Islands, and the sight of these slaves sufficed to rekindle the zeal of the shrewd traders, who were beginning to reproach Prince Henry for the costly and useless expeditions along the Saharian coast. Quite a little fleet sailed from Lasros in 1444 for the Arguin Archipelago, and its operations turned out greatly to the profit of the shippers. "It pleased God, rewarder of good deeds, to compensate the navigators for the many hardships undergone in His service, and to award them at last some triumph and glory for their sufferings, and compensation for their outlays, for they possessed themselves of one hundred and sixty-five heads of men, women, and children." SENEGAMBIA. 121 (Azurarar's Chronicle). But next year the Portuguese slavers were less fortunate, for Gon^alo de Cintra having stranded on a sandbank, was suddenly set upon by the natives and massacred with all his followers. The year 1445 is one of the glorious dates in this century of great discoveries. The mariner Diniz Dias, Diniz Fernandez, as the name is variously written by contemporaries, leaving behind him the sandy or rocky Saharian coasts, sailed beyond the first clump of palms on the strand south of the desert, and after passing the mouth of the Senegal, doubled the extreme western headland of the continent. By this discovery of Cape Yerd was once for all exploded the Aris- totelian theory, so discouraging for previous navigators, that the solar rays must scorch the ground in the south of the world, and render impossible the germination of plants, the development of all animal or human life. Henceforth the analogy of the climatic conditions in the northern and southern hemispheres was an established truth. One of the twenty-six caravels which in 1445 sailed from Portugal for the African coasts discovered the mouth of the " Canaga," that river of gold which was at the same time regarded as a branch of the Egyptian Nile. Next year, Nuno Tristam, who had been the first to double Cape Blanco, penetrated south of the island now bearing his name, to a little coast stream, where he was suddenly surrounded, perishing with nearly all his companions. This was most probably the river afterwards known as the Rio Nuno, or Nunez. Alvaro Fernandez pushed forward the same year to the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, which, however, was not passed for some fifteen years later. In three years all the Senegambian coast had been explored and most of the estuaries surveyed ; but the slave-hunting practices rendered all expeditions to the interior extremely dangerous. Neverthe- less regular commercial relations were at last established at certain points, factories and forts sprang up on favourable sites, and from the beginning of the fifteenth century the Portuguese, penetrating north of the Senegal into Adrar, began to trade with the people of Wadan, 420 miles east of their station at Arguin. From the seventeenth century the Dutch, English, and French contended with the first conquerors for the possession of the Senegambian coast, and traders of these nationalities pushed into the interior of the continent. But geographical explora- tion, properly so called, first began with Andre Briie, director of the ** French Company in Senegal," at the end of the seventeenth and commencement of the eighteenth century. He penetrated into the region of the Upper Senegal above the confluence of the Faleme, and sent several explorers into the riverain districts along the main stream. The monk Apollinaire visited the gold country in Bambuk, which was traversed in all directions by Corapagnon. The map prepared by him and published in Labat's work contains some details which have not yet been verified by any modern explorers. In 1786 Rubault surveyed the thinly peopled tracts between the Gjmibia and the northern bend of the Senegal, and other trips were made into the basin of the Gambia. Then Mungo Park, charged with a mission of discovery by the London African Association, mother of all contemporary geographical societies, made a
72— AF 
the Gambia with a trading caravan. In 1818 Mollieu first reached the central SENEaAMBIA. 123 mass of the Futa-Jallon highlands, whence the waters flow east to the Niger, north to the Senegal, west and south to the Gambia, Rio- Grande, Scarcies, and Eokelle. Since this memorable journey the country has been repeatedly traversed, especially by French naturalists, military and naval jofficers. While Braouezec and other sailors were studying the estuaries on the coast, French or native officials, such as Panet, Aliun-Sal, Bu-el-Moghdad, Vincent, Soleillet, were surveying the steppes north of the Senegal, and connecting with the Saharian oases, and even with Marocco, the network of itineraries in Senegambia. About the same time Mage and Quintin were pushing eastwards to the Niger basin and advancing in the direction of Timbuktu, The Gallieni expedition of 1880 formed a fresh point of departure for the extensive geographical studies which went hand in hand with the work of conquest between the Senegal and the Niger. Throughout the whole region connecting Saint Louis on the coast with Bamaku on the Joliba, the preliminary explorations were followed by more accurate surveys for determining the relief of the land, and certain sections of the Senegal are now figured on our maps with the same fulness of detail as the European countries. As in Algeria, Egypt, the Cape, and at all points of the seaboard where busy European communities have been developed, science is slowly but surely prosecuting its work of conquest. The Futa-Jallon Highlands. A certain geographical unity is given to Senegambia by the massive Futa-Jallon highlands, where rise the headstreams of the Senegal, Gambia, Casamanza, Geba, E/io-Grande, Nunez, Pongo, Scarcies, which diverge thence in various directions coastwards. These uplands thus constitute one of the salient features in the formation of West Africa, and it is not perhaps surprising that their size and importance were exaggerated by the early explorers. Lambert, who visited them in 1860, assigned an elevation of 10,000 feet to the Sun-du-Mali (Sudumali), one of the loftiest summits near the centre of the range. He even supposed that the highest points, reported by the natives to be snow-clad during the wet season, might have an altitude of over 13,000 feet, nearly equal to that of the Abyssinian Simen on the opposite side of the continent. But Lambert had taken no accurate measurement, and ten years afterwards Hecquard took only five hours to ascend Mount Maminia, some 30 miles west of the Labe plateau, which had also been described as exposed to ^' white rains," but on which he found no trace of snow. If the Futa-Jallon hills approached the altitudes spoken of by Lambert their crests would be visible from the lower Faleme and middle Gambia, whence at a distance of 90 miles they cannot be detected. Nor do more recent travellers, such as Bayol, Noirot, and Ansaldi mention any such heights, while the loftiest pass crossed by Olivier near the source of the Kakrima was found to be only 3,370 feet high. At the village of Bogama, near the central Sudumali peak, Bayol and Noirot reached an altitude of 4,600 feet, above which rose other crests, which according to the extreme estimates of the Portuguese Simocs may possibly exceed 6,500 feet; but in any case the mean elevation cannot be more than 4,000 feet. 124 WEST AFRICA. This highland system, which begins on the Senegal in the Bondu district, does not appear to develop a regular chain till it approaches the great bend of the Gambia. It runs mainly in the direction from north to south, with a slight eastern deflection, for a total length of about 180 miles. But beyond the sources of the Senegalese Bafing the' chain is continued by other still unexplored mountains south-westwards to the hills, from 3,500 to 4,500 feet high, which command the sources of the Niger. In Senegambia the most abrupt slope faces eastwards in the direction of the Gambia and Faleme, and a large part of the system consists of baowals, or slightly rolling plateaux strewn with scattered boulders and broken by steep escarpments. Geologically, Futa- Jallon forms a nucleus of crystalline rocks encircled by more recent formations, and by most travellers described as consisting of granites, gneiss, and "primary sandstones." Northwards and north-eastwards this crystalline and schistose mass is continued by other parallel ridges, such as the Tambaura of Bambuk, where almost inaccessible rocky walls rise abruptly about the surrounding verdant plains, and the heights of Kenieba, affecting the form of truncated cones. The secondary ridges are intersected by river valleys, whoso sands and clays contain particles of gold washed from the primitive rocks. Through this auriferous alluvia the headstreams of the Senegal have excavated their convergent beds. Between the Bafing and the Bakhoy, the two main forks of the Senegal, the hills running parallel to the Niger consist of horizontally stratified sandstones, above which crop out granite, hornblende, quartz, and feldspar blocks of fantastic shape. Even north of the Senegal as far as the sands of the desert, the lines of hills and terraces consist of sandstones dating from the same epoch. In Kaarta the Saharian cliffs, whence flow the intermittent a^uents of the Senegal, have a mean height of from 1,000 to 1,070 feet, and the hills are h6re formed of bluish slaty schists overlain with deposits of laterite. Farther west the heights are more regularly disposed in chains running mostly in the direction from north-east to south-west. The surface looks as if it had been furrowed by a gigantic plough, leaving between the trenches parallel Tidges with their steep side facing east and sloping gently westwards. The western crest of Halip Anaghim, forming the north-west limit of the Senegal basin, rises to a height of 1,350 feet. West of the Senegambian gneiss and schists follows a deposit of ferruginous sandstones or laterites, an ochreous mass formed by the disintegration of the older rocks, and occupying all the Senegambian seaboard, except where the streams and tides have deposited their alluvia. Towards the west these ochreous sandstones contain a continually increasing proportion of iron, and in many places the ground looks as if it were covered with ferruginous refuse like the neighbourhood of a smelting furnace. The Senegambian Seaboard. The Senegambian seaboard is disposed in three distinct geological sections, the first extending from Cape Blanco to Cape Verd, the second from Cape Yerd to Cape Roxo (" Eed "), the third thence to the island of Sherbro. Taken as a whole the curve of about 500 miles developed between Capes Blanco and Yerd constitutes a separate geological area, fringed north and south of the Senegal by lofty dunes, and describing a regular arc except in the north, where the coastline, eaten away by erosion, is now replaced by a sandbank, over which the surf rolls in long-breakers. Farther south, also, the alluvia deposited by the Senegal has advanced beyond the normal shore-line, forming a convex segment about 120 miles long, with a mean breadth of some 12 miles. But landwards, behind the range of coast dunes, the same geological formations everywhere prevail. Both north and south of the Senegal, towards the Sahara as well as towards the Gambia, the ground consists of ferruginous laterite deposits. Even the two extreme capes, Blanco and Verd ("White" and "Green"), present small prominences which seem to date from the same geological epoch.
The section of the seaboard between Capes Yerd and Roxo develops a curve of about 165 miles with its concave side facing eastwards. The original shore-Line, as revealed by the tongues of sand and submerged bars at the river mouths, is extremely regular, although deeply indented by the fluvial estuaries, whose alluvia are widely spread over the older ferruginous sandstone deposits. On the other hand, the third section between Cape Roxo and Sherbro Island has lost all appearance of regularity, being carved by the waves into a thousand inlets of all sizes, or broken into islets and reefs, now strewn over the neighbouring waters. But in other respects this southern section presents the same alluvial and laterite formations as the seaboard north of Cape Roxo.
The indented parts of the Senegambian coast lie in exactly the same latitude as the Futa-Jallon highlands, and between the two formations it is easy to detect a relation of cause and effect. The streams flowing from the uplands have excavated the valleys and to some extent contributed to the creation of the marine estuaries; but glacial action may also have had its share in the general result. Doubtless the climate is now very different from that which must have prevailed when frozen streams were slowly descending down to the Senegambian plains; but in this respect the African seaboard offers precisely the same conditions as those of Brazil and New Granada, where traces of glaciation have also been detected by Agassiz and other observers. The erratic granite boulders occurring on the sandstone plains of Sierra Leone can scarcely be otherwise accounted for; consequently to the action of glaciers should perhaps be largely attributed the destruction of the Senegambian seaboard, causing it to retire some 60 miles inland.
Political and Social Relations.
Occupying nearly twelve degrees of latitude, and rising to an extreme height of over 6,000 feet, Senegambia naturally presents a great variety of plants and animals, belonging, however, to two distinct domains, that of the neighbouring Saharian savannahs and that of the great Nigritian forests. Great contrasts are also presented by its inhabitants, who possess neither political unity nor social coherence. They belong to diverse stocks, broken into numerous states, kingdoms, centralised or federal republics, religious communities, nomad tribes, scattered family groups. The central Futa-Jallon highlands are occupied chiefly by Fulahs,
a swarthy race not to be confounded with the Negroes proper. Round about them. on the sea-coast and on the upper affluents of the Senegal and Gambia, dwell POLITICAL AND SOCIAL RELATIONS. 127 numerous Nigritian tribes, while more or less mixed Berber groups roam over the tracts to the north of the Senegal. Intercourse with the European traders has created new centres of attraction for these various peoples, thus modifying their social aggregates and alliances. The West European States, influenced by the interests of their respective subjects, have moreover forcibly occupied or secured by treaty and purchase the districts bordering on the central markets. Thus Portugal, the first to arrive as a conqueror, possesses the Bissagos archipelago and' a part of the adjacent coast, a mere fragment of a domain which once stretched away to the boundless regions of Sudan. England has established her trading stations at the mouth of the Gambia, and in several other places in that basin. But France has annexed a far more extensive territory, embracing all the coast from Cape Blanco to the river Sulum, a stretch of 450 miles, and the fluvial zone extending for 150 miles between the Nunez and the Mallecory rivers. Between these two great coast regions the basin of the Casamanza forms an enclave also assigned to France, while in the interior the possessions of the same power stretch from Cape Verd in a straight line for over 600 miles eastwards beyond the sources of the Senegal right away to the Niger. Lastl}^, in virtue of a treaty recently concluded with Portugal, the Futa-Jallon highlands have been, if not annexed at least declared a French protectorate. In the same way, by agreement with Great Britain the L^pper Joliba basin has been reserved as a field for the future expansion of French political influences. But these are mere outward political changes, and although many writers still regard the Negroes as an immovable race incapable of progress or improvement, great revolutions have already taken place, profoundly modifying their social condition. The gradual spread of the conquering races from east to west has been continued, the Mendingoes encroaching on the coast populations, while the Fulahs have already reached the marine estuaries. The Mussulman propaganda accompanies and even precedes these ethnical displacements, and many indepen- dent black communities have already adopted Islam, which however in most cases acquires a mystic character more vague, less dogmatic and less rigid than amongst the Arabs. Usages and industries also become modified through the disj^lacements, inter- minglings of races, fresh political combinations and religious conversions. And while these great changes are progressing in the interior, the foreign traders established on the seaboard act as a counterpoise to the westward movement of the Mandingoes and Fulahs, and constantly acquire greater influence through their expanding commercial relations. The object of their traffic has also changed. They no longer purchase man himself, as they had done for nearly four hundred years, but rather the fruits of his industry ; and with the suppression of the slave trade the incessant intertribal wars caused by it are gradually coming to an end. Thus this great event is of vast importance in the renovation of Africa. But although whites and blacks no longer mutually consider each other as anthropo- phagists, the responsibility for the horrors committed remains uneffaced. If men 128 WEST AFEICA. are no longer directly purchased, the European dealers continue the work of moral degradation. While reproaching the Negro populations with cruelty they incite them to war; while complaining of their intemperate, depraved, or indolent habits, they persist in supplying them with fiery alcoholic drinks. The real value of European influences is not to be estimated by flourishing trade returns. The natives in sharing their land with the stranger have a right to demand in return the substantiyl benefit of increased moral and intellectual well-being as well as mere material progress. Senegal Easin and Futa-Jallon. The regions either directly administered by France, or in which her military ascendancy is uncontested, may be roughly estimated at 200,000 square miles, or very nearly the area of France itself. The term Senegal, by which French Sene- gambia was until recently designated, has naturally been replaced by the more comprehensive expression, French Sudan. The former name, however, is still reserved for the territory skirting the navigable part of the river between Saint- Louis and Medina. At the same time to this great artery the whole regioQ undoubtedly owes its geographical unity, just as from its name, combined with that of the Gambia (Senegal-Gambia), it takes its general designation of Sene- gambia. The Senegal is the first perennial stream which reaches the south coast of the Siharian wastes. Between its mouth and that of the Um-er-Rbia the last per- manent Maroccan river, the distance in a bee-line is no less than 1,320 miles, and 1,800 including the indentations along the coastline. Throughout its course and that of its numerous tributaries the Senegal indicates the northern limit of the zone of abundant periodical rains. Its bed prolongs westwards the winding line of running waters formed eastwards by the Niger, the Tsad affluents, and the great tributaries of the Nile — the Bahr-el-Arab and Bahr-el-Azraq. It was possibly owing to a vague idea of this geographical fact that, down to the last century, mention was at all times made of a Nile with many mouths traversing the whole of Africa. According to the traveller Cadamosto the " Senega " is at once the Gihon, " river of the earthly paradise," the Niger, and the Nile. In the extent of its basin the Senegal ranks only as a secondary African liver, being inferior not only to the Congo, Nile, Joliba, and Zambesi, but according to some approximate estimates, even to the Limpopo, Orange, and Juba. But great discrepancies prevail on this point ; and while Chavanne calculates the Senegal at 176,000 square miles. Yon Kloden reduces it to little over 103,000 square miles. These discrepancies are due to the fact that the Saharian slope of the river has not yet been accurately surveyed, and that some include this region of intermittent wadies in the Senegal basin, while others bring it within the zone of inland drain- age. According to the former view the Senegal must have in any Case an area of 145,0li0 square miles, or very nearly two-thirds of the whole of France. From the source of the Bafing to the bar at its mouth, the total length is as nearly as possible
1,000 miles, but as the bird flies not more than 170 miles. 
Niger, takes the name of Baulé, which, however, changes incessantly according to the countries it traverses and the population residing on its banks. Below the hilly district where it has its source, it waters the little-known Bélé-Dugu territory, beyond which it trends westwards, here forming the border-line between the French possessions and Kaarta. In this section of its course it receives but few and slight contributions from the northern or Saharian slope; but from the south it is joined by some copious streams, such as the Bakhoy, which gives its name to the main stream below the junction, and which by its confluence with the Bafing forms the Senegal, properly so called. Bafulabé, or the "Two Rivers," is the local Malinké name of
this confluence of the Bakhoy, or "White," with the Bafing, or "Black" river; the designation Maio-Reio given to it by the Fulahs and Toucouleurs, has the same meaning.
The Bafing rises at an elevation of 2,500 feet in the southern part of the Futa-Jallon highlands, south of the sources of the Falémé, Gambia, and Rio-Grande. After flowing some distance southwards it describes a great curve to the east, north-east, and north, thus forming a semi-ellipse with the lower course of the Senegal. Having a very steep incline between its source and the Bakhoy confluence, and receiving no rainwater for nine months in the year, the Bafing would cease to THE SENEGAL BASIN. 131 flow in the dry season, but for the natural barriers dividing its course into a series of basins with an almost imperceptible current between the periods of high water. During the rainy winter season the stream passes by so many rapids from ledge to ledge of these dams, which are again exposed in the rainless months. At the confluence of the Bakhoy and Bafing, the Senegal is still 470 feet above sea-level, and its bed being confined between banks from 100 to 120 feet high, the stream rushes from rapid to rapid, at that of Guina falling in a single plunge from a height of over 50 foet with a mean breadth of 1,600 feet. The Felu Falls, the last of the series, are of the same height, but here the river is much more contracted. At the foot of the cataract it reaches a level of 220 feet above the sea, from which it is still distant some 600 miles. Hence, the mean incline is here very slight, so that during the season of high water large craft are able to ascend as far as the falls. A little farther down the Senegal receives its chief northern affluent, the Kuniakari, or Tarakole, which has a total length of at least 120 miles. But the contributions of this feeble Saharian tributary are as nothing to those of the Faleme, which joins the main stream lower down after collecting the copious waters of the Futa- Jallon uplands. Rising near the Bafing and Gambia, the Faleme sends down a little water even in the dry season, while in winter it is no less than 1,000 feet broad and 26 feet deep at the confluence. It might be navigated for some hundred miles by small craft, but its upper basin, unhealthy and frequently wasted by wars, has been very little explored, comprising the least known part of French Sudan. Below the Faleme junction the Senegal receives no more perennial tributaries, for it here flows north-west beyond the region of copious rains, and penetrates into the zone of transition between Sudan and the desert proper. Several of the inter- mittent Saharian wadies run out in saline marshes, which in a drier climate would be converted into salt-pans like those of Ijil and other parts of the desert. During the dry season the volume of the main stream gradually diminishes, developing long meanders and winding sluggishly round numerous idands, such as the long alluvial land of Bilbas, and the island at Morfil, or " Ivory," so called from the elephants which formerly frequented it. The river bed is intersected at intervals by several rocky ledges, none of which, however, is high enough to com- pletely arrest the stream. But at low water boats have great difficulty in forcing the passage, and the riverain populations are able to ford the current at many points. In the lower reaches small steamers can always ascend as far as Maf u above Podor, 210 miles from the sea ; but this is due to the tides, which convert the lower course of the Senegal into a marine estuary. The discharge during the dry season is estimated at not more than 1,760 cubic feet per second. The great rains, which begin in May on the Futa-Jallon highlands, change the whole character of the river. The water rises rapidly, and from June to October large steamers ascend to the foot of the Felu Falls. At Bakel the floods rise 50 feet and upwards, at Matam 30 to 34, at Podor 20, at Dagana little more than 14, the inundations thus diminishing as they approach the sea. But at this season the force of the current stems the tidal stream, so that the water is quite fresh at Saint Louis, and even penetrates into the sea, where it may be distinguished by its yellowish colour amid the liquid blue of the surrounding ocean. At this season the discharge is certainly several thousand cubic yards per second, for the stream not only fills the broad and deep fluvial bed, but also overflows both banks, flooding numerous lateral lagoons, or "false rivers," which mark the course of former channels. The inundations even attain an exceptional development about every four years, when in its lower course the river assumes the aspect of a great inland sea from 12 to 15 miles wide.
Towards its mouth the Senegal ramifies to the right and left into numerous channels or tortuous lagoons, here called "marigots," a term also wrongly applied to the permanent tributaries and to the brackish lacustrine basins on the coasts. During the floods these lagoons serve to relieve the overflow, which in the dry season is here husbanded as if in artificial reservoirs. The two largest of these side
lagoons are disposed on the right and left near the point where the Senegal bends southwards to skirt the coast dunes. The Cayar or Khornak basin on the north or right bank is some 12 miles long, with three outlets to the main stream; while the southern, variously known as the Guier, Paniéful, or Merinaghen Lake, occupies with its affluent, the Bûnûn, a winding valley about 90 miles in length. Even in the dry season this navigable basin retains some water, which attracts wild animals from all directions.
The Senegal Delta.
The delta, some 600 square miles in extent, forms a labyrinth of islands, islets, and marshy banks, separated by streams, channels, and stagnant waters, changing their form and depth with every inundation. The whole of this low-lying tract, half lacustrine during the period of floods, is sharply limited westwards by a surprisingly regular line of sands, the so-called "Langue de Barbarie," which has a mean breadth of from 400 to 450 yards, and which is strewn with little dunes from 15 to 20 feet high.
Fig. 51. — Bars of the Senegal from 1825 to 1884
Being constantly exposed on one side to the fury of the surf, on the other to the pressure of the fluvial overflow, this sandy dyke yields now at one point now at another, again repairing the breach with the alluvial matter here arrested by the opposing fluvial and marine forces. The curve of the shore-line bears witness to the ceaseless encroachment on the sea which has been going on for ages. The sedimentary matter already deposited beyond the normal coastline, and rising above the surface, covers an area of at least 1,000 square miles, and the range of dunes which at one time developed a regular concave curve between Capes Mirik and Verd now bulges out some 12 miles seawards. Off the delta the waters are also much shallower than elsewhere along the coast, so that the 50-fathom line, running within 2 miles of Cape Verd, is deflected to 18 or 20 miles off the mouth of the Senegal.
During the present period the bar at the entrance of the river has constantly changed its form and position. For a stretch of 13 miles below Saint-Louis, the breach in the sandy dyke has continually shifted up and down, according to the abundance of the fluvial discharge, the force and direction of the fluvial and marine currents, and of the winds and surf. Usually the bar is slowly displaced southwards, owing to the gradual extension of the sandy dyke formed by the combined action of the parallel marine and fluvial currents, both trending in the same direction. But as it gains in length, this narrow tongue becomes more exposed to the pressure of the river, yielding sooner or later at some weak point. It happens at times that the sill breaks into eight or ten distinct channels; but these openings are soon filled up by the action of the two conflicting currents, leaving only a single passage, through which the lighter fresh water spreads over the marine surface, while the heavier salt water penetrates up the river-bed. In 1825 the bar nearly faced Gandiole, 8 miles south of Saint -Louis; in 1851 it had shifted still farther south, almost to the southern extremity 134 WEST AEEICA. of the dyke. But five years afterwards it had returned to Camel Point, close to Saint-Louis, in 1864 retreating over 2,000 yards southwards, and in 1884 again retiring to a point south of Gandiole. The depth of the channel seldom exceeds 13 or 14, and seldom falls below 8 feet, being shallowest from November to February, and deepest in April and May, at the end of the dry season. The depth is increased 6 or 7 feet by the tides ; but in rough weather the bar is almost inaccessible to shipping, which has at times to wait for weeks either off the roadstead or within the port of Saint-Louis. To obviate this and other inconveniences it has been proposed to create a permanent channel by means of a curved pier forming a continuation of the left bank of the river. JNorth of the Senegal there are no perennial rivers in the territory politically assigned to France. Nor are there now any streams for a stretch of 180 miles south of the bar, until the Salum is reached. Eut according to a well-founded local tradition, the Senegal itself seems to have formerly continued its southern course parallel with the coast under the shelter of the Cayor dunes as far as the Bay of Dakar, below Cape Verd. According to Wendling's recent observations the Cayor formations appear to have been originally fluvial deposits, which became attached to the islet of Dakar, and were afterwards covered by marine sands. South of Cape Yerd the shore -line curves round towards the south-east, thus describing an arc corresponding to that of the Cayor dunes. Here a few streamlets reach the coast ; but north of the Gambia the seaboard is broken only by the large island- studded estuary, which is sheltered from the sea by the long peninsula terminating at Point Sangomar, and which towards the north-east mingles its waters with those of the Salum, a coast-stream navigable for some 60 ndles. Climate of the Senegal Basix. The Senegal year is divided into two periods of nearly equal length, the dry season, answering to the summer of the southern hemisphere, from the end of November to the beginning of June, and the wetj which is also the hottest, for the rest of the year. During the former the trade winds prevail, occasionally interrupted near the sea by local breezes blowing from the north-west and west. Thanks to these atmospheric currents and to the cool marine current setting from the north, the temperature is relatively moderate along the seaboard, oscillating at Saint-Louis and at Goree round a mean of from 68^ to 70° F. But in the interior this dry season is again divided into two periods corresponding somewhat to the winter and spring in Europe. The winter, if not cool, is at least almost temperate (77° F.) ; but in the spring, when the hot east Saharian winds pre- dominate, the glass stands normally at 90° F. The changes from season to season are usually ushered in by the " tornadoes," small local cyclones, generally lasting from fifteen minutes to an hour, and nearly always wheeling from the south-east and east round to the north and west, reversing the direction of the normal wind. They are violent gales which, when unaccompanied by rain, may even become dangerous. During the four months from July to October inclusive, when the "hivernage" or rainy season is at its height, the prevailing winds are weak and variable, the mean temperature (80° F.) is very constant, and the air saturated with moisture. Rains and thunderstorms are frequent, the river overflows, the swampy tracts are flooded. Although the same conditions prevail everywhere, the rains begin somewhat earlier in the interior than on the coast, and the season lasts considerably longer at Goree than at Saint-Louis. The humidity is on the whole considerably less than in most other tropical regions, and Saint-Louis has on an average scarcely more than thirty rainy days with an annual rainfall of less than 20 inches. In the interior lying farther south, and at Goree, the proportion appears to be somewhat higher, and at Kita there was a rainfall of over 50 inches in 1882. Hail, almost unknown elsewhere in the tropics, is not rare in Kaarta, where "hard water," as it is called, is regarded as a valuable medicine.
Flora.
Lying on the frontier of the Saharian and Sudanese zones, French Senegambia resembles both these regions in its flora. The northern vegetation is allied to that of the neighbouring Saharian steppes, while the southern assumes a more tropical aspect, the variety of forms increasing in the direction of the equator. Although some species are peculiar to Senegambia, this region is far from presenting the same diversity as other tropical lands. During five years of exploration, Leprieur and Perrottet collected only sixteen hundred species, a very small number compared with the exuberance of the Indian, Australian, and South American floras. Some extensive tracts are occupied by a few graminaceae to the exclusion of all other forms. These are fired by the herdsmen in the dry season, and the conflagrations caused by them prevent the development of large forest growths.
As in the corresponding Nubian regions, where grassy savannahs also prevail, there are numerous gummiferous plants, such as the acacias, which cover whole districts north of the Senegal. Even in the south the most widespread tree is the goniaké, or Adansonia acacia, whose hard, close-grained wood yields an excellent material for ship-building. On the coast the characteristic plants are the arborescent malvacea), the gigantic baobab, and the bombax. In Senegal the baobab was first studied by Adanson, whence its botanical name of Adansonia digitata. But so early as the beginning of the sixteenth century Cadamosto already spoke with amazement of these stupendous growths, which yield the so-called "monkey-bread," eaten also by man. Still larger and of more symmetrical form than the weird-like headless baobab is the bombax, whose enormous aerial roots form large recesses, in which travellers take refuge for the night and where "palavers" are sometimes held. Although usually regarded as the fetish tree in a pre-eminent sense, some of the natives convert the stem into canoes of 18 or 20 tons burden. The down of its fruit, too short and fragile for weaving purposes, supplies a substitute for touchwood.
The cocoa-nut, now abundant in Lower Senegal, is of comparatively recent importation, and the date-palm occurs chiefly in the neighbourhood of Bakel and
about the Falémé confluence, which is its southern limit. The wild forest plants yield scarcely any edible berries or nuts beyond the small red fruit of the sidom, PAUNA OF SENEGAL. I37 a thorny zlzyphus, which flourishes on the Upper Senegal and Faleme. In Kaarta and other regions of the interior the vine grows spontaneously, even yielding a savoury grape, which, however, none but the children ever think of gathering. The attempts to introduce this vine into J'rance have failed, and even in the country it has been found impossible to graft it. Besides the species already known in commerce, botanists mention hundreds of woody or grassy plants, whose seeds, roots, bark, sap, gum, foliage, or fruit might be turned to profitable account. One of the most remarkable is the karite {Bassia Parkii) of the Bakhoy, Faleme, and neighbouring districts, which has acquired the name of the butter-tree, from the fatty substance of its fruit, the ce of the natives and shea of English writers. The guru, or kola (Sterculia acuminata), whose root will render even foul water pleasant to the taste, forms extensive forests on the Upper Senegal and in Futa-Jallon. Fauna. Like the flora, the Senegalese fauna belongs to the two conterminous regions of the Sahara and Sudan. In the northern steppes and those of Futa, the Arabs hunt the ostrich, which is even domesticated in many villages. The girafPe and various species of antelopes are still met on the grassy plains dotted over with clumps of trees which stretch from the great bend of the Senegal southwards in the direction of the Salum and Gambia. The well-watered and fertile tracts remote from human habitations still afPord a refuge to the elephants, who roamed in herds of forty or fifty over the savannahs in the eighteenth century, and who so recently as 1860 were occasionally seen in the neighbourhood of Lake Panieful, or even crossed the lake into the lower delta. Nor has the hippopotamus yet dis- appeared from the Upper Senegal, while the wild boar frequents all the thickets. The grey monkeys are the only quadrumana seen on the coastlands ; but multitudes of cynocephali inhabit the forests of the interior. These baboons constitute little republics in the neighbourhood of the cultivated tracts, where they commit great depredations amongst the crops. Yet some of the tribes near Bakel claim to have made a treaty of peace with the monkeys, in virtue of which their lands are exempt from pillage. Win wood Eead asserts that these animals combine to attack the panther, usually killing him after losing many of their members. Beasts of prey, scarcely ever seen in Futa-Jallon, are numerous and formidable throughout the Bambuk district The lion, here maneless, but as large as " the lord of the Atlas," haunts the steppes north and south of the river, and is frequently seen prowling about Dagana in the dry season. He is said never to attack women, and even to make way for them ; but in the Jolof country the people speak with dread of a black lion who does not hesitate to fall upon men. No European hunter has ever seen this animal, but mention is frequently made of other rapacious beasts, such as panthers, leopards, tiger-cats and wild cats, lynxes, hyajnas, and jackals. Birds are very numerous near the forests and marshy districts. The sui-manga, a living gem like the humming-bird of the New World, all sparkling with gold and metallic lustre, is seen at times to flash amid the emerald foliage. The 73— AF 138 WEST AFEICA. passerine family is very numerously represented in Senegal, and several of its varieties, such as the cardinal, the widow-bird, and senagali, have become familiar ornaments of the European aviaries. The local variety of the parrakeet, much dreaded by the growers of millet, is in great request amongst the bird-dealers of Saint-Louis. A more useful bird is the dohine, or black stork, which preys freely on all kinds of reptiles, lizards, venomous snakes, the green adder, and even small boas. In the rivers and lagoons are found the electric fish and two species of crocodile, '* one that eats man, and the other eaten by man." Inhabitants of the Senegal Basin. In its ethnology as well as its flora and fauna, French Senegambia is a land of transition, where a sharp contrast is presented between the Arabised Berbers from the Mediterranean seaboard and the Nigritians from the heart of Africa. The Senegalese " Moors," although of northern origin and calling themselves former vassals of the Emperor of Marocco, have nothing but their name, language and religion in common with the Mauri tanian Moors. So far from being civilised members of settled communities, most of them live in the nomad state, wandering with their herds from camping- ground to camping- ground, and pursuing men and animals on the open plains. Descended from the Zenaga Berbers, who gave their name to the Senegal river, they have largely intermingled both with the Arabs and wdth the subjected Negro population. Hence amongst them is found the w^hole series of types, from the swarthy southern European with broad brow, regular nose, and thin lips, to the flat features, pouting lips, and crisp hair of the Negro. The lighter element is represented chiefly by the Hassans, or horsemen, and the Marabouts, or religious class. As nobles, conquerors, and Mussulmans of the old stock, both of these look upon themselves as superior to the lower castes, whom they speak of contemptuously as lahme, or food. The Hassans plunder their subjects by brute force ; the Marabouts swindle them by medical jugglery and magic arts. " Remember that the Marabout must always take and never give," said one of these men of God to Hene Caillie. " Gratitude is the virtue of vassals and captives, unworthy of superior beings," is another of their edifying axioms. The subjects, who are the true nobles, being descended from the first owners, constitute the bulk of the primitive Zenaga population, beneath whom are the captives, nearly all blacks obtained by conquest or purchase from every part of Sudan. The fair element is said to form about a twentieth, the blacks one-half, and the half-caste Berbers and Arabs the rest of the Senegalese Moors. The numerous geographical terms in the western districts north of the Lower Senegal attest the long persistence of the Berber dialects amongst the Zenagas. One of these dialects alone survives amongst a few groups of the Trarza people, amongst the Marabouts, and the Lamtuna branch of the great Dwaish confederation. Elsewhere the Beidan Arabic dialect has everywhere supplanted the Berber speech. But whatever be their origin, the Moors have a proud spirit and noble courage. They are inured to the hardships of long expeditions, and surprisingly frugal when not living at the expense of others. As in so many parts of Africa, the young women are fattened for matrimony, and in several tribes their upper incisors are made to project forward so as to raise the upper and rest on the lower lip.
Despite their tribal feuds and caste prejudices, the Mohammedan Moors have always combined against the hated Christian. The French have failed to reduce by dividing them, and although far less numerous than the black populations of the Senegal basin, they have resisted the encroachments of the whites far more resolutely. In war they are pitiless, after the battle sparing only the women and children. The Negroes have many axioms breathing the spirit of hatred which they cherish against their Berber oppressors. "A tent shelters nothing honest unless it be the horse that carries it;" Fig. — Trarza Type.
"If a a Moor and a viper cross thy path, kill the Moor," are sayings current among the Jolofs, and perhaps sufficiently accounted for by the Arab maxim that the Negro "must be trampled under foot and impoverished to make him submissive and respectful."
Although split up into endless clans, sects, and sub-groups of all sorts, the Moors constitute two natural divisions only, the northern tribes, who never leave the steppes verging on the desert, and the Guebla, or southern tribes, who migrate to and fro between the fluvial trading stations and the camping-grounds of the interior. But for political and commercial convenience the French have classed them in the three great groups of the Trarzas, Braknas, and Dwaïsh, to whom they assign a collective responsibility for the observance of the treaties. In virtue of these treaties they can no longer cross the Senegal except as guests and friends, the only Moorish tribe now settled on the left bank being the Dakalifas, to the west of Lake Paniéful. é The Negro Wolofs still remember the time when the Ganar district north of the Lower Senegal was occupied by them. But they were compelled to withdraw before the marauding Trarzas, and the whole territory to the gates of Saint-Louis gradually fell into the hands of the Moors. Even down to recent times the marauding Trarzas, crossing the river at low water, raided over the plains stretching southwards to the Dimar and Cayor districts. But in 1858 they were finally driven back, and now occupy a tract of about 60 miles on the north side of the river. Higher up follow the Bracknas, and beyond them the Dwaïsh (Ida-u-Aïsh), both holding a territory 120 miles in extent.
North of these three riverain groups are many other Arab and Berber tribes less known to the French, such as the Ulad-el-Haj, and further east the Ulad-Embarek and the Sidi-Mahmud, reckoned the most skilful of ostrich-hunters,
capturing the birds by means of leaden balls attached to thongs without injuring the plumage or shedding a drop of blood.
Besides the Moors, both sides of the river are occupied by a few half-caste communities intermediate between the Berbers and Negroes, and generally known collectively as Porognes. This term, however, which corresponds somewhat to that of Haratin farther north, is in some places applied to the full-blood Negroes in captivity amongst the Moors. But great confusion prevails everywhere in the ethnical nomenclature, so that at times a certain vagueness attaches even to the names of the great Senegalese and Sudanese groups, such as the Fulahs, Wolofs, Sarakolés, and Mandingoes. Of all these nations the Wolofs and Sarakolés appear to be, if not the true aborigines, at least the longest settled in the country.
The Wolofs,
The Wolofs, who are typical Senegalese, occupy a very extensive domain, comprising nearly the whole of the space lying between the Senegal, the Falémé, and the Gambia. They are the exclusive inhabitants of the Walo, Cayor, Baol, and Jolof districts, the last mentioned, properly the name of a chief branch, being sometimes applied to the whole nation. Saint-Louis and Dakar, the two centres of French authority, both lie in Wolof territory, and in all the military stations throughout Sudan there is sure to be a Wolof colony preserving its national speech and usages. According to Tautain, the term Wolof would appear to mean "Speakers," as if all other peoples were speechless barbarians; Barth, however, proposes perhaps the less probable sense of "Blacks," in opposition to the neighbouring Fulahs, or "Red" people.
Certainly the Wolofs are "blacks of the blacks," their shiny skin having the colour of ebony, and their very lips being black, although of a lighter shade than the rest of the body. They are distinguished from most Negroes of the seaboard
by a slighter degree of prognathism, the incisors being very little inclined forward. Generally of tall stature, both sexes have an admirably proportioned bust, but lender lower extremities, undeveloped calves, flat feet, and great toe more detached than among Europeans.
The Wolof, distinct from all other forms of speech current in Africa, is a typical agglutinating language. The roots, nearly all monosyllables ending a consonants, are determined by means of suffixes, and coalesce together while remaining invariable in their different nominal, adjectival, verbal, and adverbial meanings. By these suffixes the meaning of the words is endlessly modified, verbs, for instance, being diversely conjugated in their several reciprocal, emphatic, augmentative, diminutive, accelerative, repetitive, cursative, or habitual forms by a change of the final syllable. A few roots have been borrowed from the Fulah and Mandingan tongues, and some technical terms from the Arabic; but as a 142 WEST AFRICA. whole Wolof is a, very pure and homogeneous form of speech. As the current language of commercial intercourse throughout Senegambia, it has acquired a paramount importance, and numerous Wolof grammars, dictionaries, and voca- bularies have appeared in France and Africa since 1825. But no literature, properly so called, has yet been developed. The Wolofs preserve their national songs, legends, and proverbs by memory, and apart from those attending school they have no knowledge of any letters beyond the Arabic characters on their paper spalls and amulets. Most Wolofs call themselves Mussulmans, although in the neighbourhood of the missionary stations some claim the title of Christians. The chief difference is that the former have trinkets enclosing scraps from the Koran, while the latter wear medals and scapularies. All feasts, Mohammedan and Christian alike, are celebrated with equal zeal, and many of the old pagan rites still attract the multi- tude. Tlius at Goree the capture of a shark and its exhibition in the streets excites a perfect frenzy of delight, all work being stopped for hours together. Most Wolofs believe in a family genius, to whom they make offerings ; in many houses the tutelar deity is a lizard, for whom his bowl of milk is scrupulously set apart. The Marabouts, or " Serins " of the early travellers, also enjoy very great autho- rity ; all are acquainted with Arabic, and by them the schools are conducted. Polygamy is sanctioned by usage, and the wife is " chained " to her husband, as is the daughter to her father. She has no personal rights, and at her husband's death belongs to his brother. She must even simulate death, and remained crouched and motionless until the husband's sister comes to resuscitate her, as it were, by attiring her in mourning. Usage still allows the judgment of the dead. Before the burial the neighbours gather to praise or blame the departed, to sing his virtues or bemoan his vices. But on the brink of the graves, whether sprinkled or not with the blood of an ox or of any other victim, nothing but good- will and affection is shown to the dead. In some places the roof of the cabin is re- moved and placed on the tomb, the new home of the lost friend. For a year after the burial the touching custom also still prevails of sending to some indigent neighbour, or to a slave, the portion of food usually allotted to the deceased when alive. On returning from the grave to his home great care mu«!t be taken to make many turnings and to go astray, as it were, in order to deceive the evil spirit, who might else find his way to another house and carry off a fresh victim. The old kingdom of Cayor, largest of the Wolof states, has been respected by the French. The ruler is elected, but always from a family enjoying the royal prerogative, and the electors, themselves barred from intriguing for the honour, number four only. When appointed, the king receives a vase said to contain the seeds of all the plants growing in Cayor. He is thus constituted lord of the land, and henceforth on him depends the abundance of the crops. Before the inter- ference of the French in the local arrangements, all the Wolof states recognised a supreme head, the Bur, or " Great Wolof," to whom the secondary kings sent a drum of homage. He was approached on aU fours, with bare back and head covered with dust.
The Wolofs are thoroughly devoted to the French cause, and display the greatest courage and heroism whenever called upon to perform any deed of prowess in the service of the whites.
The Serers.
The Serers, southern neighbours of the Wolofs, belong to the same stock, and in many places form with them half-caste communities, sometimes even adopting their language and usages. Elsewhere they have intermingled with the Mandingoes, to which conquering race belong most of their reigning families. But the proper domain of the pure Serers is still sharply delineated by the waterparting of the Gambia and Salûm, comprising all the basin of the latter river and thence to the Tanma Lagoon at the neck of the Cape Verd peninsula. In this extensive territory of nearly 5,000 square miles, the Serers are subdivided into numerous shifting groups reducible to two main divisions—the None Serers in the north-west, and the Sine Serers (the Barbarians of the early Portuguese writers) occupying all the rest of the country. The latter are by far the most numerous, and their language, which presents many close analogies with Wolof, has been the best studied.
Of all the seaboard Nigritians the Serers are the tallest, men of 6 feet 6 inches being by no means rare. The chest is well developed in proportion to the stature, and their figures might be described as Herculean if the lower corresponded to the upper extremities. Somewhat less black than the Wolofs, they present more Negro features, with broader nostrils, more flattened face, and thicker lips. As amongst their neighbours, wives are purchased of the father, but do not belong to their husband until a form of make-believe abduction is gone through.
Although the influence of Islam has been of late years increased by intercourse with the Wolofs and the conquest of the Salûm basin by a Fulah Marabout, the bulk of the people still practise pagan rites. The gods are worshipped at the foot of the trees, and at the new moon the spirits of air and night are conjured with mysterious incantations. The two supreme deities are Takhar, god of justice, and Tiurakh, god of wealth, the former appealed to against the injuries of others, the oppression of the great, the magic arts of the weak, the latter implored for the success of all undertakings, even when iniquitous and disapproved of by the beneficent deity himself. The snake also held a high place in the national pan- theon, and was often known to appear, in various disguises, even "assuming the uniform of an aged officer of the empire." Formerly he received offerings of living animals, especially cattle and poultry ; but zeal having waned since the spread of the new ideas, he has to be satisfied with the remains of the animals consumed at the public feasts. Most of the natives believe in the transmigration of souls, which explains many features in their funeral observances.
The Sarakolés, Kassonkés, and Jallonkés.
The predominant Negro element in the middle Senegal region, formerly known as the "Galam" country, are commonly known by the name of Sarakolé. They call themselves Soninké, which is said to have originally meant "white," but which in the Gambia basin has become synonymous with impious and drunkard. By some they are regarded as totally distinct from their Bambara andl Mandingan neighbours, while others affiliate them to the Sonrhais of the middle Niger, with a slight dash of Berber blood, which would account for their relatively fair complexion. But most ethnologists agree with Barth in grouping them with the great Mandingan family. Where interminglings have taken place, their language is more or less affected by Fulah, Bambara, and Mandingan elements, and Tautain
finds that both in its roots and syntax it is fundamentally connected with Mandingan. According to their traditions, they formerly held extensive sway on the banks of the Niger; but in any case they have certainly occupied the Senegal basin long before the arrival of the other Mandingoes and Bambaras.
Scattered in small isolated groups throughout Senegambia, the Sarakolés are found in most: compact masses along both banks of the Senegal between Bafulabé and Bakel. Considerably smaller than the Serers and Wolofs, they are still taller than the Fulahs, but of less graceful carriage. The complexion is a dark chestnut, Inclining to red, and according to Tautain the true meaning of Sérékhullé is "red men." The facial prognathism is very marked, and they are further distinguished by a retreating brow, slightly prominent cheek-bones, short thick nose, receding chin, woolly but not curly hair. Most of the women dress their hair in the form of a helmet, elegantly interwoven with glass trinkets and amber beads visible through a floating gauze veil. Their houses are also kept very clean and tastefully
grouped in hamlets disposed round a large central tree with a raised encircling platform, where the villagers assemble to discuss public affairs. Notwithstanding their mild and essentially peaceful disposition, the Sarakoles have by passive resistance contrived to keep together in a number of petty monarchical or oligarchical states, some isolated, some grouped in confederacies, but all now Mohammedan. Many trade in caravans from village to village, even visiting the coast, in order to see with their own eyes the wonderful things of which they have heard. Few harbour hostile feelings towards the whites, with whom they willingly associate, and under whom they readily accept service by land and water. Thus combining the qualities of settled and nomad populations, and naturally of a cheerful buoyant temperament, they seem destined to become on the upper what the Wolofs are on the lower Senegal, the French of the colony. Other somewhat distinct ethnical groups about the headwaters of the Senegal, apparently half-castes, and speaking dialects more or less related to Mandingan, are the Kassonkés, forming federal republics in the Medina district, in Xasso, Kamera, Guidimakha, and Nadiaga. Most of them have a relatively light complexion and pleasant features, with a stealth, cat-like gait. They are quick but cunning, and of dissipated habits, given to dancing and merrymaking, and keeping up an incessant tam-taming night and day in all their villages. The Kasso women lead the fashion in all matters connected with the toilet.
The Jallonkés, between the Bating and Niger, formerly occupied the Futa-Jallon highlands, whence they take their name. Of all the Senegambian Negroes
they have come least under European influences, and have been described as barbarous and cruel, still clothed in the skins of wild beasts. Towards the north they have come in contact with the Soninkés, elsewhere with the Mandingans and Fulahs, who have dispossessed them of their primeval homes.
The Fulahs.
These Fulahs, a foreign race entirely distinct from the surrounding Negroes, have wedged themselves in between the blacks of the seaboard and those of the Niger. Here they are more numerous and present a more compact national body than in any other part of Sudan, throughout which region they are scattered in more or less powerful communities for a space of about 2,700 miles. They are met as far east as Darfur, while in the west they have penetrated to the Nunez, Pongo, and Mellicory coast streams. Their colonies stretch north and south for 600 miles THE FULAHS. I47 between the Senegal and Benue rivers. But however vast be this domain in which they have founded great empires, such as those of Haussa and Massina, their settlements are almost everywhere very scattered, and in many regions lost as it were in the surrounding sea of Negro populations. Even in the district of French Sudan specially known as Fula-dugu, or " Fulah Land," and by many regarded as the cradle of the race, only a few Fulah families are now met. Nevertheless throughout their widespread territory they everywhere maintain a- certain national solidarity, recognising themselves as brethren, thanks to the common speech, traditions and usages. Those who have best preserved their racial purity have a somewhat red or bronzed complexion, with features differing little from the Berber type — oval face, ringlety or even smooth hair, straight nose, delicate and rather thin lips. Many, especially of the women, may be described as really beautiful in the European sense of the term, and the charm of this beauty is heightened by their mild, pleasant expression, graceful carriage, noble bearing, and the good taste displayed in their dress and ornamentation. The shape of the skull resembles that of the fellahin in the Nile delta, and many of the women dress their hair like that of the Egyptian statues. They regard themselves as absolutely distinct from the Negroes, and those met by European travellers in Central Sudan never fail to claim brother- hood or kinship with the white strangers. But the majority, being zealous Mohammedans, prefer a Himyaritic or Arab origin, and the Marabouts trace their genealogical tree back to a common ancestor. Fellah ben Himier, " Son of the Ked," that is, of the Ilimyarite, thus explaining at once their descent and complexion. From the surrounding Negroes they are distinguished even more by their pastoral pursuits than hj their physical features. Less nomad than the Moors, they none the less readily change their abodes, even abandoning their hamlets for the sake of their herds, without any thought of returning. By thus following their zebus they have spread over the whole of West Africa, everywhere displaying a marvellous attachment to and knowledge of the habits of these animals. Taken as a whole, the race is distinguished by great intelligence, lofty ideas, a poetic tone, and dignity of speech. The tales recited of an evening in the village groups breathe such an elevated spirit as to be simply unintelligible to the neigh- bouring Negro peoples. Yet the Fulahs have shown their superiority even by taking a lesson from the agricultural blacks, and in some districts they have become completely settled, combining tillage with the national occupation of stock- breeding. They also become skilled craftsmen, and have learnt to extract the metal from the iron ores, smelting and forging it into implements of husbandry, utensils, knives, and weapons. The jewellers handle the precious metals with great taste ; the builders erect solid and commodious dwellings ; the tanners and workers in leather prepare excellent sheaths and many other articles in that material ; lastly, with the native cotton the weavers produce fabrics almost as fine as muslin. As warriors the Fulahs hold their own against all other African races. In time of war all able adults march to battle, and in their expeditions they give proof of great strategic skill. Besides the arms common to the Nigritian peoples, they have iron spears with leather-bound handles, often wrought with great skill. Although they have slaves, employed in the houses and as field-labourers, it redounds to their honour that they have never taken part in the slave trade. Under rare circumstances criminals were sold instead of being put to death, and a
few nomad Fulahs were captured on the confines of their territory; but they were scarcely represented amongst the gangs transported to the New World.
The recent migrations and invasions of the Fulahs are recorded in history; but where were they settled in the early period of Islam? Are they Negroes, who have acquired a fair complexion and regular features by crossings with the Arabs and Berbers? Are they kinsmen of the Nubian Barabras, or of the ancient Egyptians, whom they resemble in so many respects? Have they migrated from the southern slopes of Mauritania in company with those Garamantes who carved THE TOUCOULEUES. I49 the images of their zebus on the face of the rocks in the wilderness ? Or is their origin to be sought beyond the continent, in Malaysia or amongst the gipsies who migrated centuries ago from India ? For all these views have been advanced without helping much towards the solution of this curious ethnological problem. Nor has the Fulah language yet found a definite position amongst the linguistic families of Africa. It has two grammatical genders, not the masculine and feminine, as in most idioms, but the human and non-human ; the adjective agrees in assonance with its noun, and euphony plays a great part in verbal and nominal inflection. In some respects the sonorous Fulah tongue resembles the surrounding Negro dialects, while in the use of suffixes betraying the Semitic influences to which it appears to have been long exposed. But its true position must soon be deter- mined by means of the numerous grammatical works, including one by a prince of Sokoto, that have already been composed in this language. Its general features, combined with the national and historic traditions, seem to assign an eastern origin to the Fulahs, who first crossed the continent from east to west, and then, like the Mauritanian Arabs in more recent times, retraced their steps eastwards. From the banks of the Senegal came those Fulahs who, at the beginning of the present century, founded the Haussa and Massina empires in the Niger basin. Apart from a few tribes, especially those of the Birgo district, the great bulk of the race have long been Mohammedans. Many are even animated by an ardent spirit of proselytism, although their religious zeal has not rendered them intolerant. Their men of letters are quite free from the slavish adherence to the text of the Koran characteristic of the eastern Mussulmans, and when a passage seems unintelligible or contrary to their way of thinking, they freely modify it in accord- ance with their own religious views Like other Mohammedans they admit polygamy, but scarcely practise it, a fact due mainly to their respect for woman and to her influence over her husband. " Let a female slave enter a household," say the Wolofs, " and she soon becomes mistress." Unlike those of the Negroes, the Fulah governments are not despotic, each state generally constituting a theocratic republic, whose almamy, or chief, exercises his temporal and priestly functions with the advice of the elders and notables. The elective element plays an important part in the local administration, and the real rulers are the wealthy families. The ToucouLEuiis. Analogous institutions prevail amongst the Toucouleurs of the four riverain provinces of Damga, Futa, Toro, and Dimar, between the Faleme confluence and Lake Panieful. This collective name, by some scarcely seriously derived from the English " two colours," because the natives are mostly brown or coppery half-caste Negroes, Moors, and Fulahs, took the form of Tacurores in the works of the Portu- guese writers of the sixteenth century. Hence there can be no doubt of its identity with Tacurol, already mentioned by Cadamosto as the old name of the country, and since confused with the Takrur or Takarir pilgrims from West Africa to Mecca, among which are numerous Senegambian hajis. The Toucouleurs are specially distinguished by their Mohammedan fanaticism. Their intelligence, energy, and ambition also render them formidable rivals of their Negro neighbours, and even of the French settlers. Living on the left bank of the main stream over against, the Moors who occupy the north side, they have often obstructed the navigation, and had they not been divided amongst themselves the Europeans could never have conquered the Senegal basin. Till quite recently the French columns had great difficulty in penetrating into the Toucouleur territory; but in 1885, after long diplomatic negotiations, the Government was allowed to complete the telegraph system between Gorée on the Atlantic and Bamaku on the Mger by connecting the eastern and western sections across the hitherto hostile district from Saldé to Bakel. In Kaarta, also, north of Bakhoy and Baulé, the way is again barred to the French by the Toucouleur conquerors of that region. But notwithstanding their independent and fanatical spirit, their love of labour and enterprise render them a useful element in the Senegal basin. They emigrate freely in search of fortune, and whole colonies of Toucouleur peasantry have established themselves on the banks of the Gambia.
The Europeans.
In the presence of all these different races, who are still in the same period of historic development and social organisation as the Europe of mediaeval times, the modern epoch with its new ideas and advanced institutions is represented by the few whites who are settled at Saint-Louis, Gorée, and Dakar on the coast, and who visit the riverain stations or make exploring journeys into the interior. Yet even this handful of Frenchmen does not thoroughly represent all the organic elements of European society, for it comprises none but traders, soldiers, and officials, with a few artisans amongst the military conscripts. Although the oldest of the French possessions, Senegal has the least claim to its title of "colony." Hither no Europeans have ever come freely to settle down in the country as artisans or labourers, and even in most prosperous years not more than seven Hundred or eight hundred men have ever arrived of their own accord. Women are so rare that their presence is looked upon as a proof of heroism. This, of course, is due to the dangerous character of the climate, which, speaking broadly, is fatal to Europeans of weak constitution and to all who do not pay the strictest attention to diet and sanitary precautions. To the numerous local endemics are occasionally added violent epidemics, such as cholera and especially yellow fever, which latter has broken out six times since 1830, usually carrying off over one-half of the French residents in the coast towns.
Although certain partial experiments have succeeded, as, for instance, the construction of the railway from Dakar to Saint-Louis by European navvies, we must still repeat with Bérenger-Féraud that "the acclimatisation of the French in Senegal is a chimera." Until some infallible specifics are discovered against miasma and yellow fever, and health resorts established on the Futa-Jallon uplands, Euro
peans can only be temporary residents in Senegambia. The vital statistics between 1843 and 1847 show that amongst them the mortality is fourfold the birth-rate. Since then matters have not mended, and French society has still to be maintained at Saint-Louis, Dakar, and Rufisque by the constant arrival of fresh recruits. Even the Eurafricans, or French half-castes, have failed to establish themselves as an independent community in the country. After four centuries of occupation this element is very slight, and the statistics carefully collected by scientific medical men clearly show that the offspring of mixed alliances born on the seaboard frequently die young, while the unions of the survivors are mostly childless. Few families have survived to the fourth generation, although M. Corre has shown that in Saint-Louis the proportion of births over deaths in this section of thecommunitv was seven to four. In Senegambia no Creole form of speech has sprung up like those of the Antilles and Louisiana. Wolof is still the most current language on the coast, while in the interior Arabic and Fulah are indispensable for intercourse with the Moors and Fulahs. French, however, is slowly gaining ground, more through the personal influence of the native soldiers and sailors than through the systematic instruction of paid teachers. Trade and Agriculture. During the last few years the trade of Senegal has acquired considerable expan- sion. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the traffic of the chartered companies consisted chiefly in procuring Negroes for the "West Indian plantations. In 1682 an " Indian piece," that is, a Negro of prime quality, costing only ten livres in Senegal, fetched as much as a hundred crowns in the American colonies, and the yearly exportation averaged one thousand five hundred souls. This traffic did not completely cease as a legalised industry till the Restoration, after which the only staple of trade was gum, derived from various species of acacia, adansonia, seyal, and other plants growing in the territory of the Moors on the north side of the river. The forests of gummiferous trees, some of which cover several hundred square miles, are now in the exclusive power of the Trarza, Brakna and Dwa'ish tribes, or rather of the tribal chiefs, who employ their captives on the plantations. The produce, mostly bought up by Bordeaux houses, is paid for partly in cash, partly in kind — millet, rice, biscuits, tobacco, rifles, ammunition, textiles, and espe- cially " guineas," that is, pieces of cotton 50 feet long, which were long admitted as the unit of value in the barter trade throughout Senegal. In good years the yield of gum exceeds six million pounds, and might be greatly increased by planting acacias in the Futa district south of the river, and by working the forests more systematically. For some years the chief staple of export has been the ground-nut (Arachis hypogcBo), the cultivation of which has gradually spread along the middle Senegal, in Cayor and Salum, since it began to be exported in 1844. From the agricultural point of view the ground-nut presents the great advantage of improving instead of exhausting the soil, while its foliage offers the best fodder for all herbivorous animals. Other articles of export are eighteen varieties of millet, rice, maize, beref (oleaginous melon-seeds), wax, cotton, caoutchouc, skins, ivory, ostrich feathers, and vegetable butter, all, however, in very small quantities
The land is nearly everywhere in the hands of the natives, who cultivate it with far more care and intelligence than is generally supposed by superficial observers. "No husbandman," says a local proverb, "finds the day too long or his lugan ('plot') too small." Many concessions have been made to Europeans, MINERALS OF SENEGAL— GOLD-MININO. 163 but being too extensive they have been but partially cultivated, and all such lands allowed to lie fallow for a certain period revert to the original owners. A great dithculty is found in keeping up the stock of animals. The horse, ass, camel, and pack-ox of the Sahara soon yield to the climate, and although the mule is hardier he is also very costly. The sheep thrives, changing, however, its wool for a silky coat ; and in the interior there are several breeds of domestic animals, such as the Khassonke " scrub oxen," which have become perfectly acclimatised, and which in some places even run half wild in the forests. Mineral Resources. Senegal abounds in minerals, such as gold, silver, mercury, copper, and iron. From time immemorial the natives of Bondu and Bambuk have washed tlie quartzose sands of the Faleme and its affluents for gold, and the Bambuk mines themselves were perhaps worked by the Portuguese so early as the beginning of the fifteenth century. According to the tradition they were all massacred by the natives, and there are certainly indications that in early times immigrants from Iberia penetrated into these regions. At the beginning of the eighteenth centurv Andre Brlie erected the two forts of St. Joseph on the Senegal and St. Peter on the Faleme, and sent Compagnon in quest of the gold mines. This traveller traversed the whole of the Bambuk mineral district, ascended the valley of the Sanu-Khole, or " River of Grold," to the Tambaura Mountains, and brought back some verj^ rich specimens of auriferous clays. Since then the country has been frequently visited, but no direct attempts were made by the French Government to work the mines till 1858. Even these experiments, which yielded somewhat more than £4,000, were brought to an end by the extreme insalubrity of the climate, and the more recent efforts of private companies have met with no better success, leaving the working of the mines and washing of the sands entirely in the hands of the natives. The mineral deposits of the Bure district, on one of the head streams of the Bakhoy, appear to be more productive than those of the Bambuk, yielding to the natives a yearly profit of £8,000. But iron is probably the metal destined to become the chief resource of the Upper Senegal, where the ores cover vast tracts and yield an average proportion of from one-half to two-thirds of pure metal. It is already smelted in furnaces of primitive structure, and in many places the natives also utilise the masses of meteoric iron. The Senegalese smiths manufacture iron daggers, spears, and agricultural implements. The jewellers display considerable skill in the production of delicate filigree work, and the native weavers supply considerable quantities of cotton fabrics for the local consumption. But with the exception of a few fancy articles, no manufactured goods are prepared for the foreign market. Social and Political State. Domestic slavery is a universal institution, the so-called "house captives "being considered as secondary members of the family, and treated in every respect like 74— AF their associates. Those employed as artisans, weavers, potters, carpenters, builders, and the like, also for the most part enjoy a considerable share of practical freedom. They enjoy the fruits of their industry, may themselves possess slaves, and occasionally rise to important positions in the state. The agricultural labourers fare much worse, and the tribes that own the fewest slaves, as, for instance, the Toucouleurs, also display the greatest energy, contributing most to the social transformation of Senegambia. In the territory directly administered by France slavery has been abolished since 1848, and according to the law all captives setting
foot on this territory become ipso facto free men, although colonial usage connives at the frequent violation of this right.
The actual extent of this political domain is far from considerable. Half a century ago it was scarcely perceptible on the maps, and the establishment of a colonial state worthy of the name was not taken seriously in hand till comparatively recent times. M. Faidherbe, founder of the French power on the Senegal River, began his operations in 1854, by his personal influence and force of arms gradually establishing peace on a solid footing, converting the independent riverain chiefs into vassals, and abolishing all artificial obstructions to free trade in the interior. The fort of Medina, erected on the Senegal where it ceases to be navigable in the dry season, served as the starting-point of a series of expeditions to the upper valleys, and when a formidable Mohammedan army was shattered under the POLITICAL STATE OF SENEGAL. 156 walls of this citadel, defended only by about a hundred and fifty men, the conquest of the country was secured. The consolidation of their military power in the upper fluvial basin enabled the French columns to push more boldly into the interior, and in 1883 they seized and constructed a fort at Bamaku, on the Niger. Henceforth the Upper Joliba became connected commercially with the sea, and Timbuktu seems soon destined to turn towards Saint-Louis as its natural outport. During the first fervour of enthusiasm created by the occupation of a station on the Niger, hopes were entertained that Senegal and Algeria might soon be linked together by a grand highway, forerunner of a future trans-Saharian railway. These hopes have not been realised ; all attempts made from the Algerian side have ended in disaster, and the Tuaregs with their allies still block the way. Thus the extreme points occupied by the French on this line — Golea, south of Algeria, and Kulikoro, on the Niger-— are still separated by a distance of 1 ,480 miles as the bird flies ; that is, far more than half of the whole route. Even the space never yet traversed or surveyed by the most advanced explorers between Twat and Timbuktu exceeds 780 miles, a distance equal to that between Paris and Warsaw. Nevertheless, the Senegal artery is the most frequented waterway in West Africa. Describing a vast semicircle round the Gambia, Casamanza, and other streams flowing southward, it forms the western branch of the great system of running waters which, through the Niger, extends to the Bight of Benin, enclosing a well defined region some 800,000 square miles in extent. Hence the political importance of the line of the Senegal is very considerable, but it lacks breadth, and would be liable to be broken through at many points were it not guarded with extreme vigilance. European colonisation being also impossible, political cohesion can be secured only by the good- will of the natives, by satisfying their interests, and gradually developing a sentiment of national solidarity amongst them. But this ideal is still far from being realised, and were France not to come to the aid of the colonial Government with men and subsidies, the situation would rapidly become perilous. Routes and Railways. The most urgent want is a rapid means of communication between the Niger and the sea. Till recently no route existed except the Senegal itself, which is interrupted for a great part of the year above Podor. But the fluvial port of Saint- Louis is now at least connected with the maritime port of Dakar by a railway 160 miles long. This forms an admirable basis for a network of lines penetrating towards the Sudan ; but, hitherto, summary surveys alone have been made with a view to the construction of a first line over the Senegal and Gambia waterparting eastwards across Futa. This line, some 300 miles in length, would shorten by one- third the distance by water, while increasing by 120 miles the breadth of the colonial territory. Terminating for the present at Bakel, which, so recently as 1886 was attacked by a force of Mussulman rebels, it would add greatly to the security of this territory, and also form an important section of the grand trunk line destined one day to connect the Niger and Timbuktu with the best port on the West African seaboard.
An excess of zeal somewhat difficult to explain has inspired the construction of a railway starting from the village of Kayes, on the left bank of the Upper Senegal,
7 miles below Medina, and intended to run for 310 miles eastward to the Niger. The works began in 1881 and were continued for three seasons ; but the small results compared with the heavy outlay, the great mortality of the Italian and Maroccan navvies, and the conviction that the project had been badly conceived, brought the enterprise to a close after a first section, 38 miles long, had been completed to a point beyond Diamu. The line has been surveyed and partly cleared as far as Bafulabé, at the Bafing-Bakhoy confluence, and at least two carriage roads have been opened between the stations on the Upper Senegal and Bamaku on the Niger, one running north through Badumbé, Goniokori, Kita, and Dio, the other south by Medina and Niagassola. Dy the Kita route were conveyed from Badumbé to Bamaku all the pieces of the gunboat which at present navigates the Niger, and which on one occasion descended the river as far as Diafarabé, 240 miles below Bamaku. Useless for trading purposes, the present object of this gunboat is to give greater effect to the two military stations of Bamaku and Kulikora, and Fig. 63. — Saint-Louis in 1700.
especially to enhance in the eyes of the natives the prestige of the conquerors. At present the Niger garrisons are in regular communication with Saint-Louis by a combined service of steamers, locomotives, carriages, and runners. In the dry season the journey lasts thirty-two days, in the wet ten days less, and the telegraph system is complete all along the lines, so that the Upper Niger is now in direct communication with France through the two cables connecting Saint-Louis and Dakar with the oceanic lines at Teneriffe and Sam-Thomé.
Topography
The French Senegambian possessions contain but one town worthy of the name, Saint-Louis, the capital, founded about the middle of the seventeenth century on or near the site of the older factory of Bokko or Bocos, a term derived from the Portuguese Boca. In population Saint-Louis is the most important coast-town for a space of 2,400 miles, from Rbat-Sla in Marocco to Freetown in Sierra-Leone. It may seem strange that one of the largest towns in Africa should have sprung up on such an unfavourable site for maritime trade, above a dangerous and constantly shifting bar. But Saint-Louis has the advantage of lying near the mouth of a great navigable river, and was founded at a time when vessels trading on this coast drew much less water than at present.
Saint-Louis, or Ndar, as the Wolofs call it, occupies most of the island, considerably over a mile long, which is encircled by the two arms of the river. In the Crétian ("Christian") quarter the streets, all disposed at right angles, are clean and well built, presenting a marked contrast to the conic-shaped hovels of the natives grouped together at both extremities of the island. Towards the centre is the Government palace, at the head of a bridge of boats 720 yards long, which here crosses the main branch of the Senegal, and connects the town with the insular suburbs of SorSor and Bouëtville, and with the railway station. On the opposite side are three other bridges over 100 yards long, communicating with the Negro quarters of Guet-Ndar, Ndar-tout, Gokhum-laye, on the tongue Fig. 64. — Saint-Louis in 1880.
of sands exposed to the waves of the Atlantic.
The capital is now supplied with a tolerably good potable water by means of an aqueduct 15 miles long, which supplies the Sor reservoir with over 75,000 cubic feet from the Khassak lagoon. Various sanitary arrangements have also tended to improve the climate, and it is now proposed, if not to give the town a port, at least to construct a landing-stage on the' ocean, so as to avoid the dangerous shifting bar. A line of batteries and small forts on the land side affords complete protection from the attacks of the Moors, Wolofs, or other natives.:
In 1445, that is, two years after the discovery of the Arguin Bank by Nuno Tristam, the Portuguese erected a fortified factory on the chief island of the archipelago, and established commercial relations with Adrar. This fort passed successively into the hands of the Spaniards, Dutch, and English, and after a warm contest was finally occupied by the French in 1678. But after being for some time the centre of a flourishing trade it was abandoned, and nothing now remains of the citadel except its foundations half buried in the sands, and surrounded by a little fishing village. The place is inaccessible to large vessels, and although the tides rise six or seven feet on this coast, the tortuous channels connecting the deep Levrier Bay with the Arguin Straits have in some places little more than ten feet at low water. In front of the archipelago stretches the vast Arguin Bank, with its reefs, breakers, shallows, and alternately submerged and exposed sands, occupying altogether an extent of nearly 8,500 square miles. The Arguin Bank terminates at Cape Mirik, about 100 miles south-east of Cape Blanco, near which a breach in the dunes indicates the approach to the dangerous roadstead of Portendik, the old Port of Addi, which enjoyed a certain importance till 1857, the English, when restoring Senegal to France, having reserved the right of trading in these waters. But this right having been relinquished in exchange for the station of Albreda, at the mouth of the Gambia, Portendik has
lost all commercial value, and Saint-Louis remains the only outport: for the whole seaboard from Cape Blanco to the mouth of the Senegal.
But the capital depends itself on its maritime port of Gorée-Dakar, which has the advantage of lying in deep water under the shelter of Cape Verd, and which is now connected with Saint-Louis by the three fortified stations of Lompul, Mboro, and Mbijen. By the Convention of 1861 the whole coast was declared French territory; next year a second route was opened farther inland, and in 1885 the railway was completed which henceforth connects Saint-Louis with its natural port on the Gulf of Gorée. In the intervening fertile region of Cayor lie several large centres of population, such as Mpal, surrounded by plantations of ground-nuts, Luga farther south, and Mdand, the old capital of the kingdom of Cayor. 160 WEST AFEICA. Goree, tlie first European factory on this coast, appears to have been originally occupied by the Dutch, who gave it the name of Goeree, from the island at the southern entrance of the Harlingvliet. From the Dutch it passed to the French in 1677, and after having been twice seized by the English, it was finally restored to France in 1814. Lying about IJ mile from Dakar, the nearest point on the mainland, the islet of Goree is less than 1,000 yards long, with an area of scarcely 90 acres. It forms a basalt rock 120 feet high on its south side, enclosing an excellent roadstead from 30 to 60 or 70 feet deep, well sheltered during the dry season, but at other times exposed to the surf. Owing to this drawback and to its inconvenient 'insular position, Goree has, in recent times, been partially abandoned for the neighbouring town of DaJxar, which has the twofold advantage of a port completely sheltered throughout the year, and of a position close to Cape Verd, the westernmost point of the African continent. Here have consequently been erected the Government buildings, the barracks, and head offices of the trading companies ; here is the terminus of the Saint-Louis railway, as well as of the Atlantic cable, and hither the population continues to migrate from Goree. A first-class lighthouse stands on one of the crests of Cape Yerd, and other improvements have been undertaken ; but much remains to be done, especially in completing the harbour works, before Dakar can hope to replace Saint-Louis as the capital of the French Senegambian posses- sions. Since Goree has ceased to monopolise the local trade, the shipping has increased twofold. Men-of-war and the Transatlantic steamers ride in deep and smooth water at Dakar, while in fair weather small craft are able to visit the neighbouping port of RufsqiWy the Rio Fresco of the early Portuguese mariners, and the Tangue- teth of the Wolofs. In several respects this rising town, larger than Goree and Dakar combined, is badly situated on an exposed low-lying coast, where the sands accumulate in shifting dunes and the waters spread out in stagnant meres. Still it has the advantage of lying at the point where the railway from Dakar leaves the seaboard to penetrate inland towards Saint-Louis. Here also converge the routes from Cayor, Baol, and the Serer country, and here is the chief market for ground- nuts and undressed hides. Unfortunately both Rufisque and Dakar are extremely unhealthy places, exposed to dangerous miasmas and endemic marsh fevers of a virulent type. In this respect Goree enjoys a decided advantage over its con- tinental rivals, for which it has become a health resort much frequented during the winter season. Farther south follow the little ports of Fortmhd, N inning, Joal, former capital of the Barbacins, and in the same district Saint Joseph of Ngasohil, headquarters of the Catholic missions in Senegambia. Fatik, residence of the hii} or " King " of Sine, lies on the river of like name, a tributary of the Salum ; and in this basin the chief factories are the French fortified station of Kaolak and Fdndikn, opposite the Sine confluence. Along the lower reaches of the Senegal the only noteworthy places are WarJihor, capital of the Wolof state ; Richard Toll ( " Richard's Garden " ), a fishing village at
In the middle Senegal region the chief trading places are Aéré, on the branch of the Senegal skirting the south side of Morfil Island; Saldé, on the main branch, and Matam, above another bifurcation of the river.
Bakel, above the Toucouleur country, is the natural port of the Upper Senegal, for here converge the trade routes from Guidimakha and Kaarta in the east, from Bambûk in the south-east, and from Bondu in the south. The fort, erected in 1820, and completed by three towers on the adjacent heights, is the strongest citadel and the bulwark of French power in the Upper Senegal regions. It is also the centre
of a considerable local and export traffic, and it lies almost exactly on the ethnological parting line between the Berber and Negro populations.
South of Bakel, the Mohammedan Fulah kingdom of Bondu occupies the almost imperceptible watershed between the Senegal and Gambia basins. Tere passes the chief trade route followed by Rubault, Mungo Park, Gray, Dochard, Raffenel, and other explorers. Bulébané, capital of the kingdom, lies on a little affluent of the Falémé, on a plain encircled by rocky hills, not far from the ruins of an earlier capital.
On the lower Falémé the chief military station is Sénu-débu, south of which
lies Keniéba, which for a time enjoyed some celebrity as the centre of the Bambûk 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
Bafulabé, last station on the Senegal proper, and first in French Sudan, stands at an altitude of 450 feet over against the Bafing-Bakhoy confluence, where it was founded in 1879 to support the military operations about to be undertaken in the direction of the Niger. It has already become a commercial centre, round which have sprung up seven flourishing villages, with gardens and banana plantations. In 1881 the station of Badumé was established on the Bakhoy, some 60 miles above Bafulabé, and the fortress of Kita was erected in the Fula-dugu country, midway between Bafulabé and the Niger. In 1883 the Niger itself was reached, and the erection begun of the fort of Bamaku, followed in 1884 and 1885 by two new fortified stations between Kita and Bamaku, Kundu on the northern and Niagassola
on the southern route. Thus there is nowhere a gap of more than 70 miles between the French garrisons in this region, where the commercial and strategical centre is the post of Makadiambugudi, encircled by fourteen Bambara villages which take the collective name of Kita. This station lies at the converging point of the main routes, at the entrance of a gorge commanded on the west by a mass of reddish sandstone with steep escarpments over 2,000 feet above sea-level and 850 above the surrounding plain. East of Kita are seen the ruins of Bangassi, the old capital of Fula-dugu, visited by Mungo Park.
The Bafing basin, south-east of Bambúk, is the least-known region in Senegambia. We possess no clear idea of the relative importance of the towns reported by the natives, such, for instance, as Dinguiray, capital of the Toucouleur state, vassal of Segu, which Omar Al Haji is said to have rendered impregnable to the attacks of all the surrounding populations. In the same country of the Jallonkés are the two large towns of Tamba and Gonfudé.
Much better known is the region about the sources of the Bafing, which since the time of Mollien has been visited by Hecquard, Lambert, De Sanderval, Gouldsbury, Bayol, Ansaldi, and others, and which must soon become one of the most frequented districts in Senegambia, thanks to its excellent climate, picturesque scenery, varied produce, and the interest presented by the inhabitants and their institutions. The communities are grouped in the upper river valleys, which
diverge in all directions round about the central uplands, and the chief of which are the Bafing, Falémé, Gambia, and Niger.
Timbo, capital of Futa-Jallon, lies 2,560 feet above sea-level in a hilly district encircled by the semicircular valley of the Bafing and traversed from south to north by one of its head streams. This royal capital is not a large place, consisting only of some groups of cone-shaped huts half buried in verdure at the foot of two neighbouring hills. The descendants of the original founders, who came from Massina less than two centuries ago, have alone the right to reside in Timbo, where, however, they spend the dry season only. Sokotoro, the "Versailles" of Timbo,
lies some six tiles to the cast in a cirque enclosed by wooded hills. In the surrounding valleys are scattered some large villages, several of which exceed the capital itself in population. Such is Buria, west of Timbo, where is seen the first orange-tree planted in Futa-Jallon, a magnificent plant with a trunk ten feet in circumference, and branches wide enough to shelter two hundred persons. At its foot stands the tomb of the famous marabout Issa, or "Jesus," before which all riders, even the sovereign himself, must dismount.
Fugumba, the holy city of Futa-Jallon, a group of a thousand huts some 30 miles north-west of Timbo in the valley of the Téné, which flows either to the Bafing or to the Falémé, is so embowered in trees that none of the surrounding heights command a complete view of the place. Here the conquering Fulahs erected the first mosque in this region, a lofty conic structure, in which each new sovereign
comes to be consecrated king of Futa-Jallon. The most learned commentators of the Koran pursue their studies in Fugumba, north of which follow, on the Bambûk route, some other large places, Of these the most important is Labé, capital of a vassal to the King of Timbo, and described by Gouldsbury as covering a great extent of ground. Farther north is the large village of Tunturun, towards the south-east Sefur, capital of the province of Kolladé, and to the south-west Zimbi, another provincial capital, a place of three thousand inhabitants in the valley of the Kakrima, which flows to the Atlantic between the Pongo and the Mallecory. Farther north, on one of the headwaters of the Rio Grande, is situated the city ae Tuba, said by Gouldsbury to be the largest in Futa-Jallon. It contains eight ADMINISTRATION OF FUTA-JALLON. 167 hundred houses, besides those of the outskirts, and a great mosque, where warriors and traders assemble before setting out on important expeditions. Administration of Futa-Jallon. Although M. Olivier de Sanderval has obtained the concession of a railway to Timbo, the king thus expressed his views on the subject to the traveller Bayol : " I do not want our routes to be widened, or that people come here with boats or railways. Futa must remain to the Fulahs, like France to the French." A few English words are the only signs of any European influences in this region, where all whites are comprised under the general designation of Portukeiro, or " Portu- guese." The chief trade routes lie in the direction of the south-west, towards the Mallecory and Sierra- Leone, and in 1881 over one thousand three hundred persons accompanied the English envoys from Timbo to Freetown, with two hundred and sixty oxen laden with ivory, caoutchouc, and other produce. Nevertheless, France is the only European state which has yet been visited by Fulah ambassadors, who came to ratify the treaty concluded between M. Bayol and the chiefs. The Fulah state itself is divided into two rival factions analogous to the so/h of the Berber tribes. Thej^ are the so-called Sorya and Alfaya, who took their rise after the conquest, when the first king abdicated in favour of a cousin, thus creating two royal dynasties, each with its champions and followers. To prevent the dis- integration of the race it was ultimately arranged, after many sanguinary conflicts, that the two houses should henceforth reign alternately. But no important decision is come to without consulting the king for the time being out of ofiice. On the other hand, the members of the national council are immovable, and their president scarcely yields in authority to the almaneys, or kings, themselves. At each change of party the provincial chiefs have to renew their homage to the titular sovereign. So natural does this division into two factions appear to the Fulahs that they group foreign nations in the same way, calling the French Sorya and the English Alfaya. But the true rulers are the families of the notables, who on all serious occasions meet in council, and communicate their decision to the almaney. Nor are the Fulahs in other respects a difficult people to govern. So great is the universal respect for the laws, that the accused when ordered by their judges proceed to the place of appeal without escort, even at the peril of their lives. Ordinary theft is punished with the lash ; more serious offences against property with the loss of the hand, then of the second hand and the feet, at each relapse successively. Assassins and even incorrigible drunkards are condemned to death, the criminals digging their own grave and lying down in it to see that it is of the required length. The state is divided into thirteen dxawah or provinces, each modelled on the state itself, with two chiefs assisted by a council, and each village with two mayors aided by the notables. The public revenues comprise a tithe on the crops,
- customs " levied on caravans, tribute from conquered populations, and a fifth
part of the booty taken in war. The Senegambian possessions are connected with France partly by elected
representatives, partly by the officials appointed by the central power. The former, elected by whites and blacks without distinction of colour, comprise the sixteen members of the general council, and the deputy sent to the Chamber. The chief colonial official, who is invested with extensive powers, takes the title of Governor, and resides at Saint-Louis. A lieutenant-governor is also nominated to administer the southern districts and possessions on the Ivory and Slave Coasts. Owing to the unhealthy climate, home-sickness, personal ambition, and the shifting of political power in the metropolis, these functionaries are often changed, as many as seventeen governors having succeeded each other between the years 1850 and 1886. They are assisted by a colonial council composed of high officials and notables.
Out of a total revenue of £100,000 about £12,000 are devoted to educational purposes, and the military and naval expenses are all defrayed by the home government. The military forces, commanded by a colonel stationed at Saint-Louis, comprise five companies of marines, two battalions of Senegalese rifles, two batteries of marine artillery, a troop of spahis (cavalry), and a few other small bodies, forming altogether a far from numerous force, considering the great extent of country held in subjection, and the thirty-five fortified stations between SaintLouis and the Niger, and from Podor on the Senegal to the Mallicory, which require to be constantly garrisoned. There is also a defensive flotilla under a naval captain, and a small colonial marine to guard the coast. 170 WEST AFRICA. Justice is administered by two tribunals, at Saint-Louis and Goree, and a Court of Appeal. At the capital there is also a cadi, nominated by the governor, as well as a Mussulman tribunal presided over by the tamsir, or chief marabout, for regu- latinar affairs of inheritance and marriaj^es in conformity with the Koran and Mohammedan tradition. The commandants, especially of the more remote military stations, necessarily enjoy much discretionary power, and usually judge according to the local customs. In principle, however, the French Civil Code prevails, pro- mulgated first in 1830 and again in 1855. But the territory to which the French judicial and administrative sj-stems have been fully extended comprises only the four communes of Saint-Louis, Goree, Dakar, and Rufisque, which are administered by municipal councils and mayors nominated by election. The " occupied " territories, comprising the outskirts of the forts, military stations, and factories en the coast, en the Senegal, and in the interior, are also considered as French soil governed by the colonial administration. But the " annexed " territories are administered by the chiefs, some chosen by the governor, some hereditary or nominated by the people with the approval of the suzerain power. Lastly, the '* protected " territories are ruled by semi-independent chiefs, who have surrendered part cf their sovereign rights, in return for which France secures to them the possession of their states, since 1879, however, reserv- ing to herself the right of permanently acquiring the lands necessary for the con- struction of forts, factories, roads, and railways. The spread of French influence appears to have had the indirect consequence of arresting the progress of Islam, which at one time seemed irresistible. The zealous Berber and Toucouleur proselytisers were at the same lime the chief enemies of France, and their overthrow naturally put an end to their propaganda. Although past treaties and letters patent, dating as far back as 1681, 1685, and 1696, seemed to assign the whole coast region to France as far north as Cape Blanco, Spain has recently founded a station on Levrier Bay, in Spanish Bahia del Galgo, sheltered on the west by the projecting headland of the Cape. This question is now the subject of the negotiations undertaken to define accurately the respective limits of the French and Spanish possessions. In the Appendix will be found a table of the French circumscriptions and of the vassal territories in North Senegambia. Each circle is administered by an officer or a civil commandant with the attributes of a French prefect, and under him are the heads of the cantons, military stations, and native villages.