The present trouble between France and Great Britain concerns the boundary line between the possessions of the two countries in Western Africa.
This line has been in dispute for nearly thirty years, and has been the subject of four treaties in ten years.
One of these agreements laid out the northern boundary line of the British possessions on the west coast, the Niger territory as it is called, but it failed to come to any decided understanding about the western boundary.
You must understand that these tracts of land which have been taken possession of by the European powers are not by any means deserted or uninhabited lands. On the contrary, many of them teem with people, and these lands on the west of Africa are especially populous. You must bear in mind that the extensive slave trade which existed for so many years was carried on with the west coast of Africa.
Many of these black people are intelligent races of men, and all are divided into tribes and kingdoms governed by rulers and kings.
To obtain possession of these lands, it has been necessary for the different nations of Europe to fight, or make treaties with numberless small native rulers and kings. The Europeans have seized the country belonging to these people, but have allowed the kings and rulers to retain their positions, provided they paid tribute and performed certain services for their conquerors. You remember about the King of Benin. He was one of these tributary kings, and his country lay in this very Niger territory about which we are now speaking.
When the French wished to define the northern boundary line between their possessions and those of the English, it was quite easy to do so, because they had already made treaties with the rulers of the various provinces and their rights in the country were established.
With the western side it was not so easy, for there were two great stumbling-blocks in the way. One was the kingdom of Gando, the other the territory of the Borgus.
You will find Gando marked on your maps on the west of the Niger territory. Borgu, or Bussang, lies just below it, and forms the northern boundary of Dahomey.
Borgu and Gando had opposed the advance of both France and England, the Borgus being an especially fierce and warlike tribe who refused to be conciliated.