“In February, 1898, the announcement that a party of whites coming from the south had arrived at Ayak, on the Naam or Rohl River, determined Marchand to put his troops in motion, and this had an excellent moral effect on the population. Lieutenant Gouly was sent to occupy M’Bia, two days’ march from Ayak and Rumbek, but he unhappily died there of an attack of bilious hematuric fever; Captain Germain marched from the ‘Rapides’ post towards the Tonj, where the post of observation Diabéré was established; Captain Mangin went from Fort Desaix to Jur Ghattas; while a reinforcement of 100 tirailleurs, armed with ‘Gras’ carbines, arrived at Fort Desaix from Deim Zubeir. All the native chiefs then sent to Fort Desaix with offers of help.
“On the 26th March, Captain Baratier and the interpreter Landerouin returned from a reconnaissance which they had made as far as the confluence of the Bahr El Arab and up to Lake Nô, while Captain Largeau had explored the Bahr El Homr and made a survey of the course of the River Wau.
“At this time Captain Marchand occupied the following centres in the Basin of the Bahr El Ghazal:—Tembura, Kojali, les Rapides, Fort Desaix, Meshra El Rek, Bahr El Arab, Rumbek, Jur Ghattas, M’Bia, and Ayak. It was then that he wrote:—
“‘I hold now, in the Basin of the Bahr El Ghazal—that is, of the Nile—an all-powerful position. I have seven barges or steel boats, a steamer under way, fifteen canoes made by my tirailleurs, able to take me wherever I wish in the Basin of the Nile, where the first French steamer has now penetrated in spite of obstacles and every hostility.
“‘But do not think that our position is altogether an agreeable one. First of all, we are dying of hunger, and for a long time we have depended almost exclusively on what we shoot for food. You know that starvation was the cause of the disaster in this neighbourhood to the Dhanis[209] expedition. Locusts have ravaged the few plantations of the Bongo natives on which we were depending, and my own plantations are also destroyed. How are we going to reach the Nile? Shall we be forced to eat the ambach of the marshes? And then, if it were only the question of pushing quickly through with my boats, it would be little. But the problem is much more difficult. One must not pass through here only. The march through a country does not constitute a right to the country traversed. It must be an effective occupation, etc.’
“In spite of all these obstacles, Marchand and his companions arrived at Kodok on the 10th July, not without having had to do with the Dervishes. Three different times were they attacked by them in large numbers, but the rifles of the Senegalese tirailleurs soon caused great havoc in their ranks, and they fled, leaving their dead behind them. Thus the French Mission was able to establish itself at Kodok.”
THE END OF THE MAHDIST DOMINION.
[198]See [end of Chapter] for details of this expedition.
[199]Composed of:—16th Battalion, Arab Battalion, Camel Corps, Irregulars and details, the whole under 8 British officers.