The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-03-15
THE CAMEROONS.
A COUNTRY THAT is GIVING GER
MANY MUCH TROUBLE.
An African Territory About Which
the English Government Is Vital
~ Commemorative Dispute About
Its Boundaries.

Battle OF the tame1OOlS, Says q
recent cable. What and where are
the Cameroons This from the New
York Herald will elucidate little:
The Cameroons is a territory on the
Blight of Biafra, West Africa, one hum
bred and fifty thousand square miles
in extent, and with an estimated popu-
lation of two millions. 1t has a coast
line of one hundred and twenty miles
between the Campo river and the Rio
del Rey, is bounded on the northeast
by treaty line running northeast to
the east of Yola, on the upper Benue,
and on the south by a line running
inland, due east from the mouth of the
Campo river, to about the meridian of
longitude fifteen degrees cast, which
may be regarded as the eastern or in
land limit of the co-called protector
ate.'
In 1892 there were one hundred and
sixty-six whites of whom one hundred
and nine were German and thirty-one
English. 1t became d German protec-
torate in 1884, and is placed under an
imperial governor, assisted by chan
cellor, two secretaries and local
council of three representative mer-
chants. The country is fertile, and
productions grow in profusion. Plan
tations of cacao and tobacco have been
farnled by a company, and numerous
factories carry on an active trade in
ivory and palm oil. On January /,
1888, an import duty was imposed en-
European goods, and from this the
revenue is mainly derived. The chief
town is Cameroons, and in the south
BAHAMA, Bimbia and Bakundu Town
are other important trading stations,
and Aqua Town and Bell Town are
the principal native settlements. The
imports and exports are quite large.
In April last, Mr.. Henry NJ. Stanley
wrote to the peace association a letter
in which he attributed the increase of
trade in 1892 at African ports under
German administration to the growing
practice among German merchants
of importing into Africa small arms and
ammunition. These materials of war,
he said, were sold to the slave traders
and do inestimable damage. Mr.. Stan
ley inculpated also the Portuguese in
his charges. He appealed to the Euro
pean nations to suppress the traffic in
arms carried on by the Germans and
Portuguese. Unless this step be taken,
he added, all efforts to stop the slave
trade would be useless
In February a German expedition,
which was under the command of
Freiherr Won Stetten, proceeded from
the Cameroons coast up the river San
maya to Balinga, whence it travelled to
the thickly populated district of Tikar
and reached Ngaudere and Yola.
Treaties were concluded with the ma
tive tribes in the district passed
through. This temperance on the
coast, the Kreuz Zeitung pointed out.
was peculiar in view of the statement
made by members of the expedition
that Lake Tchad was their goal. 1t is
a fact, though at present an ineXplica-
bic one, that German expeditions fail
to reach the more easterly portions of
the Hinterland of the Cameroons The
expedition returned in September.
England and Germany had a long
dispute about the boundaries of the
Cameroons, which was settled in May
last. The third section of the agree
ment reads: 1.-THE German colonial
any trade settlements to exist or be
erected on the right bank of the Rio
del Rey Creek or waterway. In like
the administration of the Oil
riers protectorate engages not to al
low any trade settlements to exist or
to be erected on the western bank of
the Bakassy peninsula from the first
creek below Arsibon's village to the
sea and eastward from this bank to
the Rio del Rey waterway
According to the German view the
new agreement is a purely fiscal one,
intended TO enable the British and
German administrations to cope with
the widespread smuggling which was
detrimental to the Gamer
cons. There had been no question of
the frontier laid down by the
agreement of 1890, which,
in consequence of disagreement be-
tween the two governments. left the
Rio del Rey out of count and settled
the frontier as a straight line running
from the upper end of the waterway
to the rapids of the Cross river. But
this indefinite upper end has now
been fixed as above set forth. Much
satisfaction was expressed in Berlin at
the pledge given by the English gov
not to allow trade settlements
On the Bakassy peninsula, which other
wise would have afforded an excellent
base for contraband opera tions