It has been proved that this dispatch really was from Andrée, and it is the only word that has been received from him since he started on his perilous trip.
England seems to be determined to keep her hold in Egypt, and, if possible, to strengthen it. Her troops there have been ordered to proceed to Khartoum and thence to Uganda, with the plan of sending them on to Fashoda in order to make it a British post.
England realizes the immense importance to her commerce of keeping the White Nile Valley open and safe. It is reported that she is now conducting negotiations at Brussels and at Berlin to secure control of the territory connecting Uganda with South Africa, which she tried unsuccessfully to secure several years ago when Lord Rosebery was in power.
The news that the French liner La Champagne was overdue last month in New York, caused considerable anxiety. This increased as several days passed without bringing any news of her.
Then the steamer Rotterdam, which arrived in New York on February 27th, brought an officer and six men belonging to La Champagne. They had been picked up in an open boat in which they had been tossed about on a rough sea for six days and nights, suffering great hardships.
They announced that La Champagne had broken her shaft and was anchored, safe but helpless, off the banks of Newfoundland. They had put out in the open boat in order to seek for assistance in the regular track of the steamers, from which La Champagne had been driven.
Assistance was sent to the disabled ship, and a few days later she was brought into the harbor of Halifax.