Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/193

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