The French Colony of the Senegal, or Senegambia, as it is called from its two great rivers, the Senegal and the Gambia, includes the coastlands from Cape Blanco to the borders of Sierra Leone, with the exception of Portuguese Guinea and the English settlements on the Gambia.

Inland, the French have extended their dominion over the Senegal riverain districts, and have penetrated into the basin of the Upper Niger. The road to the Niger from the coast is secured by a long line of forts-the cordon starts at Dakar, the commercial metropolis of French West Africa, on the eastern side of the Cape Verde Peninsula, with a splendid natural harbour defended by the island-fortress of Goree, and skirts the coast as far as ST. LOUIS, the political capital of the French possessions in Senegambia, situated on a low island in the Senegal, near its mouth. It then ascends the river, and passes and thence strikes the Niger at the fortified post of Bamaku. There is a service of steamers on the Senegal from St. Louis to Kayes, and the railway from Kayes to Bamako, connecting the Senegal and Niger, is now open. Another railway joins Dakar, Rufisque, and St. Louis.

The soil, wherever water is abundant, is extremely fertile, and oil-yielding palms, acacias which yield gum-arabic, cotton-trees, and baobabs or monkeybread-trees, grow luxuriantly in this hot and unhealthy region.

The natives are chiefly Mandingo Negroes in the interior and Jolofs on the coast, but there are also numbers of the remarkable and much more advanced Fulahs, with Moors and Arabs on the Saharan side of the Senegal. The few Europeans are either connected with the government or are engaged in trade, which consists in the exchange, by barter, of palm-o 1, ground nuts, gums, indiarubber, ivory, and skins, for cotton goods, beads and trinkets, metal wares, &c. Nearly one-half of the imports (total annual value 2 million pounds) comes from France, and fully two-thirds of the exports, consisting chiefly of ground nuts and rubber, go to that country. Although the Senegal is considered a flourishing colony, the expenditure incurred by the Home Government, chiefly for military purposes, is largely in excess of the colonial revenue.

THE GAMBIA.

The small, but important, British Crown Colony of the Gambia includes St. Mary's Island, British Combo, Albreda, the Ceded Mile, McCarthy's Island, and various other islands and territories on the banks of the Gambia.

The River Gambia, which was frequented by English traders in the time of Queen Elizabeth, is navig ble for vessels of 300 tons as far as the Rapids of Barraconda, a distance of 300 miles from the sea, but the British Protectorate only extends 250 miles from the sea. The town of Yarbatenda was ceded to France in 1904, to enable her sea-going vessels to reach the interior of Senegambia,

The area of the Colony and Protectorate is 3,061 square miles, and the population 164,000, consisting of Jolof and Mardingo Negroes; there are only 200 Europeans in the Colony. The chief town is Bathurst (9), on St. Mary's Island.

The staple export of the Colony is ground-nuts, which are sent chiefly to Marseilles. Bees'-wax, india-rubber, and hides are also exported, but the total trade only amounts to about two-thirds of a million a year.

... The Gambia is divided from Portuguese Guinea by a belt of French terri. tory which is included in the Senegal Colony, and which is traversed by the Casamanze River. The trade of this part of the Senegal centres at Carabane, at the mouth of the Casamanze.

Portuguese Guinea includes the coast belt traversed by the Cacheo, the Geba, the Rio Grande, and the Cassini Rivers, with the adjoining Bissagos Islands.

The only settlements are Zanguichor, at the mouth of the Casamanze River; Cacheo, at the mouth of the Cacheo or San Domingo River; Bissao, on an island at the mouth of the Geba; and Bulamo, on an island at the mouth of the Rio Grande. Almost all the inhabitants are Negroes, and although the rivers afford easy access to the interior, the Portuguese make no effort to create or develop a trade.

FRENCH GUINEA.

French Guinea is the name given to the French Colony, lying between Portuguese Guinea and Sierra Leone, and has an area of about 95,000 square miles, and a population of over 2 millions.

This territory extends from the Upper Niger, and the sea, and is watered by the Rio Nunez, Rio Pongo, and the western head streams of the Niger. Palmoil and nuts, millet, gum and rubber, are the chief products. The imports and exports each amount to over half-a-million sterling.

The Lieutenant-Governor of French Guinea resides at KONAKRY on the Dubreka River. A railway is being built from Konakry to Kurussa on the Niger.

SIERRA LEONE.

The British Crown Colony of Sierra Leone includes the whole of the coast region between French Guinea on the north and Liberia on the south, together with the island of Sherbro, and other islands.'

ངེ

The coastline is about 200 miles in length, and the Colony, including the Hinterland, has a to'al area of about 34,000 square miles, with a population of perhaps 1,077,000. Sierra Leone Proper has an area of 4,000 square mes and a population of 77,000, of whom less than 450 are whites; it consists of a strip of coast extending between the Scarcies River and the Liberian boundary. The Peninsula of Sierra Leone was ceded to Great Britain by the native chiefs in 1787, and was shortly afterwards formed into a place of refuge for liberated negroes. The climate of Sierra Leone is simply pestilential to Europeans, and is sometimes called the "White Man's Grave." It is, however, an exquisitely beautiful country, and its undulating hills are clad in an evergreen mantle of the most luxuriant vegetation, while all kinds of tropical fruit grow in abundance on the richly fertile and well-watered soil. And yet agriculture scarcely exists; there are no food resources, and if the colony were "cut off from England and America for three months, it would be in a semistarving condition." The people of Sierra Leone are born traders, and are almost all engaged in trading European goods for the products of the interior-palm-oil, palm kernels, ground-nuts, india-rubber, gums, hides, bees'-wax, kola nuts, &c. One-half of the imports come from, but only one-third of the exports goes to, Great Britain. The trade, which amounts to

1. Th Los Islands, formerly belonging to Sierra Leone, were ceded to France in 1904

about 1,200,oco a year, centres at FREETOWN, which is picturesquely situated on a slope of the "Sierra Leone" or Lion Hill, and has an excellent and strongly fortified harbour. There is frequent and regular steam com munication with Liverpool, Hamburg, Havre, and Marseilles. The Rokelle River is navigable for 40 miles inland, and the Sherbro River for 20 miles.

There are numerous elementary and several higher-class schools in Freetown and a Training College at Fourah Bay, affiliated to Durham University. About 40,000 of the Sierra Leone Negroes are Protestant Christians, 7,000 are Mohanimedans, and the rest are pagans. A railway, 225 miles long, is now open from Freetown to Baüma near the Liberian frontier.

LIBERIA.

The Negro Republic of Liberia extends to the south-east of Sierra Leone for about 350 miles along the Grain Coast,' and claims authority for about 200 miles inland. Area, about 45,000 square miles; population, about 2 millions.

Liberia is interesting as the only Negro State in Africa formed on a European basis. The Constitution of the "United States of Liberia," proclaimed in 1847, is based on that of the United States of America, the President exercising the executive power, and a Parliament of two Houses-the Senate and the House of Representatives-holding the legislative authority. Liberia was originally founded, in 1822, as a place of refuge for freed slaves, and Americo-Liberians still dominate the vastly more numerous aboriginal tribes, of whom the best known and the most useful are the Kroomen of the Cape Palmas region. There are over a million Kroos and other indigenous peoples in the Republic, but only about 20,000 Americo-Liberians.

The commercial products of Liberia are coffee, palm-oil (the material of which almost the whole of our common soap is made), palm nuts, cocoa, sugar, arrowroot, ivory, and hides, but the exports and imports combined do not exceed half-a-million a year.

The capital of the Republic is MONROVIA (6), near Cape Mesurado, but HARPER, near Cape Palmas, has, with its suburbs, a larger population. As in Sierra Leone, there are numerous schools, and the civilized negroes are nominally Christians, but neither here, where the white man is not permitted to own a foot of land and is deprived of every administrative and governmental function, nor in the adjoining colony of Sierra Leone, where the freed slaves and their descendants enjoy the benefits of a just and kindly government, efficiently 'civilized" negro carried on by capable British officials, has the presumably shown any strong desire for progress, indeed he seems to have almost relapsed into barbarism.

THE IVORY COAST.

The French Colony of the Ivory Coast, which supplies no ivory now, extends from Liberia to the Gold Coast Colony, the actual limits being the San Pedro River on the west, and the Ass nie River on the east. Area, 200,000 square miles; popula ion, about 3 millions.

1. Or the Pepper Coast. Both names are derived from the grains of the Melegnetta pepper, obtained in abundance from this part of the West African

coast.

2. The robust and industrious Kroos are engaged as Labourers in all parts of West Africa, and gangs of Kroo "boys" do all the rough work on board

the trading vessels and men-of-war frequenting the
Without these willing and skilful
Guinea Const.
workers, the trade of Western Africa could not be
carried on. But with all their ability and promise,
after a few years' work they return, with their small
savings, to their native land and relapse into their
former barbarism.

Several large rivers enter the lagoons that fringe this coast, which is studded with European trading posts or factories, where palm-oil and ground nuts are collected for shipment to Marseilles or Liverpool. Of these trading stations, the most important are Grand Bassam, the former capital, and Assinie, which have been French since 1843. The approach to Grand Bassam is defended by Fort Nemours. Debu is a fortified post in the interior. The coast is low and sandy, and the climate is unhealthy for Europeans. The Governor resides at Bingerville, the present headquarters of the Colony. Bonduku is becoming the centre of trade between the Sudan and the coast. Imports nearly 3, and exports nearly a million sterling.

THE GOLD COAST-ASHANTI.

The British Crown Colony of the Gold Coast comprises the harbourless coast between the French Ivory Coast and the German Colony of Togo, with a Protectorate extending inland to 11o N. lat., and including the native State of Ashanti,' and the Northern Territories.

sea.

The Gold Coast Colony thus includes the whole of the low and unhealthy coast-plain between the Assinie River on the west and a point some go miles east of the entrance to the lagoon through which the Volta River enters the The Black Volta rises in the Kong uplands, and is joined by the Red Volta and the White Volta in the Gonja country, and thence to a point about 70 miles from the sea it forms the boundary between the British and the German Possessions. The Volta is navigable within the colony for small boats, as also are the Ancobra and the Prah Rivers, which flow through the gold-mining district of Wassaw.

The Colony and Protectorate have an area of about 119.260 square miles and a population of about 1 millions, of whom only a few hundreds are Europeans. The natives are chiefly Fantis, who are akin to the fierce an i more warlike Ashantis in the interior.

Of the numerous forts and factories established on the Gold Coast by various European nations, since the Portuguese built the Castle of Elmina. in 1481, the most important are ACCRA (20), founded by the Danes and purchased from Denmark in 1850, and now the capital and chief port of the colony; Cape Coast Castle, the former capital, whose great church-like fort stands close to the water's edge, and the terminal port of the Great North Road, which leads through Kumasi into the interior; Sekondi, the port terminus of the railway to Kuniasi; Axim and Elmina, the most important of the Dutch settlements transferred to Great Britain in 1872; Adda, at the mouth of the Volta, and Quitta, further east on the coast near Care St. Paul. Several trade-routes from the interior converge at Accra, which is united by submarine cable with Europe, and by branch cables with Grand Bassam, Kotonu, Lagos, the Niger, &c., and by a land line with Cape Coast Castle.

Palm oil and palm kernels are the staple products, indiarubber abounds in the interior forests, and the whole region is rich in gold, which is now be rg worked by the aid of modern appliances.

Ashanti was one of the most powerful of the Negro kingdoms of West Africa, but the cruelties of its native ruler led to the war of 1873-4, and later to that of 1895 6, which resulted in the annexation of the country in 1901.

1. The northern and western boundaries of the Gold Coast were finally settled by the Agreement of June, 188, with France, and the Neutral Zone, lying between Bri ish territory and the German

Protectorate of Tongoland, has now been diled between the two last-named Powers.

annually exported 3 milion pounds' worth of gd 2. In the 17th century, Emina alone is said to hav

The Ashanti country is one continuous forest with small clearings around the native villages, which are usually perched on hills and always near water. The Ashantis are vigorous and well-formed Negroes, and belong to the same stock as the Fantis of the coast region. The capital, Kumasi or Coomassie, is now connected by railway with the coast, and is a centre of the important gold fields, which have been opened up in recent years.

THE SLAVE COAST.

The Slave Coast extends from the Gold Coast to the Niger, and includes the German Protectorate of Togo; the French Possessions of Porto Novo and Grand Popo, between which is Whydah. the port of Dahomey ; and the British South Nigeria Protectorate, including the Colony of Southern Nigeria (Lagos).

TOGO.

The German Protectorate of Togo (or Togoland),1 has an area of about 33,000 square miles, and a population of less than 2,000,000, including 250 Europeans, mostly Germans.

The natives, most of whom are Ewe Negroes, are industrious cultivators of maize, yams, bananas, &c. : and cocoa and oil palms, india-rubber and dyewoods grow in the forests, but palm oil and ivory are the chief articles of trade, which is carried on at Fogo (8), and at Little Popo (Anecho) (10), Lome, the chief post and capital, and Porto Seguro on the coast.

PORTO NOVO-DAHOME.

The French possessions on the Slave Coast lie between Togo and Nigeria and include Porto Novo and Kotonu to the east, and Grand Popo and Agowe to the west of Whydah-the port of the formerly independent Native State of Dahomé. Area 60,000 square miles, population about 1 million.

Porto Novo was taken by the French in 1862, but was abandoned and only re-occupied in 1882. Three years later Grand Popo and Agowe on the western portion of the Dahomé coast were seized. Kotonu (which lies between Denham Waters and the sea), is the terminus of a railway, which runs parallel with the Lagos Colony border towards the Niger River. A railway is open between Kotonu and Toffo, and is being extended northwards.

Whydah, the Ajuda of the Portuguese and formerly a great slave mart, is the port of the native kingdom of DAHOME, which was until recently the most powerful on the Slave Coast, but after the defeat of Behanzin, in 1893, was practically annexed by the French. Dahomé has an area of about 13.500 square miles, and a population of three-quarters of a million, two-thirds of whom are slaves. Abome, the capital, is about 70 miles north of Whydah, and there the Dahomé despot was guarded by the famous "Amazons," who were armed with rifles, and were not less noted for their courage and discipline than for their cruelty and love of war. It is now the seat of the French Resident. The imports and exports are both below half a million sterling.