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one thing is still needed, and that is money. It is for the French
Government to ask for it, and for the French Parliament to grant it.
Certain there be who deliberately oppose French colonial expansion;
with them discussion is impossible. I do not try to convince them, for
they are already proved to be in the wrong.
There are, however, others, noble and loyal Frenchmen, who
stigmatize as sterile all the efforts we make beyond seas to add to
the possessions of our native country. “What,” they urge, “you talk of
wholesale emigration, when the population of France is by no means
increasing!”
This is, after all, only a specious argument. Who speaks of
advising expatriation en masse to Frenchmen for the sake of
peopling distant countries? All the colonies suitable for peopling
have already been appropriated by our English rivals. Australia was
the last of them.
With regard, however, to colonies for exploration, it is quite a
different matter. And with the fullest conviction of my soul, I say
France ought to acquire such colonies. Through them alone will she
recover her commercial ascendency, which has been so seriously
jeopardized; through them alone will her social position become
assured.
Take, for instance, some child, the son of a workman or farmer: he
goes to the school of his quarter or village. Intelligent and
hardworking, he soon wins the affection of his teacher. “Work,” says
that teacher; “to every one the reward is sure, according to his
merits. Think of Pasteur, the son of a workman, to whom all Europe
renders homage.”
Believing what he is told, the child works on. At first the State
fulfils the promises made through the lips of the master. The teacher
has spoken to the inspector of his protégé, the rector bestirs himself
in the matter, the minister even intervenes, encouragement and
money aid alike are lavished upon the young fellow. His zeal
increases, he redoubles his application, he passes all the
examinations and gets all the honours possible, till the University has
no more to teach. Teacher, rector, minister, all justly pride
themselves in having done their duty by him.
Then the son of the workman begins his life in the world.
Oh, how changed is everything to him now! Knowledge and
industry are much, it is true, but there are still two applicants for
every post, for every social function, and it is always the weaker, the
less skilful, or rather perhaps the less fortunate, who goes to the
wall.
The State has no other situation to offer him, and there is a
regular glut of brain-workers already in commerce and in
manufacture. Still it is necessary to eat to live.
It is easy to say “go back to the workshop or the plough,” but it is
against human nature to do so; the cultivated brain, the matured
intelligence, need the intellectual food to which they have become
accustomed. The hands are too soft and delicate now for manual
labour, nor are the muscles strong enough for it.
One more embittered, discontented, unfortunate man has been
produced, that is all, and who knows but that to-morrow he may
astonish the world by some attempted crime or act of folly, the result
of his despair, perhaps even of actual hunger?
Am I making excuses for an anarchist? By no means. I have but
proved the necessity of French colonial expansion in colonies of
exploration.
If we wish to turn our distant possessions to account, the criminal
of yesterday, the dangerous member of society, might go there, and
in directing industrial or commercial enterprises find legitimate
employment and a fair return for all his intelligent efforts and for the
work and study of his youth.
There is plenty of labour to be obtained out there, for it is only the
natives, of whatever tribe or colour, whose temperament is hostile to
manual work.
More than that, these very natives who are now in a degraded
state of barbarism, if taught by intelligent Europeans, would soon
rise above their present condition to more of an equality with their
instructors. Not only would the young man of whom I have been
speaking live a happy life; not only would he win riches for himself
and add to the wealth of his native country, but he would also aid in
bringing about what, in my opinion, is the noblest of all possible
ambitions, the amelioration of the lot of his fellow-creatures, for to
make them better and happier is to share in the work of God Himself.
So logical is this reasoning, that my only wonder is why those who
have the good of humanity at heart have not thought of it before
myself.
Is not our French Sudan just such a fertile colony as is well suited
for playing a part in what I may call the future social policy of
France? I can answer that question in a very few words.
MEDAL OF THE ‘SOCIETÉ D’ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE.’
I have visited the lower course of the river, with the districts under
the control of the Royal Niger Company, and I can confidently assert
that except for palm-oil, which is only to be obtained on the
seaboard, none of the exports, gum, india-rubber, ivory, and above
all, karité, are wanting in the French Sudan. In fact, we have all
these things in greater quantities than the English, without counting
the products peculiar to our districts, but unknown at the mouth of
the river.
Let us then make that railway, and make it quickly. Do not let us
waste any more time talking about it; do not let us turn aside for any
other projects, and when some 373 miles of iron road unite some
622 miles of the navigable Senegal, with no less than 1056 miles of
the Niger, all alike fit to be navigated by our boats, we shall have a
second Algeria, larger and richer than the first. The mind can
scarcely grasp the idea of the new source of fortune to be opened to
France by a thing so simple as this, a thing in which the Belgians
have been beforehand with us—the construction of a railway.
Stanley was right when he said Africa would belong to the first who
should lay down a line of railway through it.[12]
This will bring us to Ansongo. Are we to let it be the limit of our
zone of trading operations? No, certainly not; and this brings me to a
second result won by our expedition: the opening of relations with
the Awellimiden.
I have constituted myself the defender of the Tuaregs. I have
shown them to be less cruel, less traitorous, less hostile to progress
than they are generally said to be. It is for the reader to judge
whether the adventures I have related do or do not prove my
impressions to have been correct.
One thing, however, I must stipulate, and that is: if we let months
or years slip by without improving the relations opened with the
Tuaregs of the Niger by further contact with them, we shall find them
more difficult to deal with, more suspicious, altogether less
accessible than we did during our stay in their country.
As I have already said, the Azgueurs were in our hands after the
journey of Duveyrier. Ikhenukhen, their great chief, who was
honoured and obeyed by them, was our friend. When the treaty of
Rhâdames was made, we said to them, “We want to go to the Sudan
by way of Aïr: you will guide us, you will protect our traders, you will
hire your camels to us, and you will find it to your profit to do so.”
A Tuareg proverb says, “You should never promise more than half
what you mean to perform.”
The Azgueurs of course expected our caravans to arrive, and they
are still expecting them. Gradually, however, they are beginning to
doubt us. “What,” they are saying, “did those Frenchmen, who
seemed so anxious to trade in our country, come to do here?” When
this question is put to a Tuareg, he will answer immediately, “They
came to spy; they were the spies of a great army, which will come to
take away our liberty and our independence.”
MEDAL OF THE LYONS GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.
But never mind, the sense of having done one’s duty is worth
more than anything else.
It is to you, dear friends, dear companions on the Niger, that I add
—“Let people say what they will; a hundred years hence many things
and many men will be forgotten, but for all that, it will be as true then
as it is now, that our hydrographical expedition was the first to
descend the Niger, the first to explore its course from Kolikoro to the
sea.”
A French sailor, Francis Garnier by name, on his way to Tonquin,
which he had to aid in conquering, and where he was to end his
days, wrote to his mother describing all the difficulties he would have
to contend with, adding, “But I do not mind, mother dear. Forward,
for the sake of old France!”
For ourselves, and for those who are to come after us in Africa or
elsewhere, I too close my narrative with the same words. “Forward,
for the sake of old France!”
THE Course of the river Niger from Timbuktu to Bussa.
Reduced from the Original Surveys made by the Hourst Expedition.
(Large-size)
INDEX
Caillé, René, 75
Cape Verd, 21
Carnot, M., 176
Caron, 8, 33, 41, 309
Carrol, Captain, 473, 475, 476, 486, 487, 490
Cayor, 23, 24, 282, 319, 364, 388
Chalor, a rock, 149
Chambas, the, 204, 248
Charenton, 435
Chaudié, M., Governor-General, 37, 496
Chautemps, M., Colonial Minister, 37
Cheibatan, the, 240, 242
Cherbourg, 22
Colbert, 5
Congo, the, 36
Conquet, 399
Ebener, Colonel, 33
Eguedeche, 145, 146
El Abaker, 208
El Hadj Omar, 75, 76, 79, 129, 313, 314, 316, 386, 397
El Khotab, 154, 168, 170, 240
El Mekki, 182, 183, 186, 270, 271
El Sirat, 272
El Waghdu, 124
El Yacin, 178, 219
Emir el Munemin, 308, 314