The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-12-22
Has RaVaged the Interior Of Africa Rutblessly
But He Met His Waterloo

One by one the great centers Of pure
B " African power are falling. In 1893
the Congo States forces under Baron
Dhan1s smashed up the Arab traders
and their rule at Nyangee and Kason-
go. Bohanzin in Dahomey fell in 1894,
Prempeh in Kumasi in 1896 Six weeks
ago the Khalifa's power was finally
broken. And now Samory ends his
long career as a captive. The "black
Napoleon" as he has been called, will
no doubt find his st. Helena.
Samory, like so many other African
potentates- for instance, Rabbeh, now
ruler of Bornu, almost the last sur
v1vor OF these great predatory Chiefs
began life as a slave. His father was
Mendi and Pagan, petty dealer
In kola nuts, who lived in Bissandugu,
a town lying about the sources Of the
Niger, outside the present boundary of
the Sierra Leone protectorate. There
Samory was born about 1885. In 1860
ne was made prisoner along with his
mother by the soldiers of Sori Ibrahim,
chief OF Senancoro, or as some say,
he offered himself as prisoner in ex-
change for his mothers liberty. Sori
lbrahim, who was a marabout and de-
vout Mussulman, converted his slave to
the principles of Islam. Samory dis,
tlnguished himself as a soldier till he
quarreled with his master and left
Senancoro to return to Bissandugu. BY
1870 he was chief Of his native town,
and soon defeated a rival claimant.
His fame began to spread; men flocked
to him until he was strong enough to
attack his old master, and after a siege
of six months captured Senancoro,
where he established his capital.
In 1881 when the French for the
first time pushed across from the sene-
gal to the Niger, they sent emissaries
to Samory; but he refused alliance, and
in 1888 attacked them on the west bank
of the Niger, and was repulsed. In
1885, however, after there had been
considerable skirmishing. between the
parties, Samory made. definite peace
with the Europeans, and undertook not
to cross the Niger. To cement the al
lance his son, Karamokho, was taken
to Paris and spent some months there.
Five years later a French column cap:
tured a box containing, among other
things, cuttings from the French il
Illustrated papers representing Kara
mokho in all his glory at the theaters
and elsewhere. But there was an in
terVal OF peace SO far as concerned
France. Meanwhile Samory was raid
ing his neighbors, as usual, and in 1888
he endeavored to subdue Tieba, the
chief Of Sikasso, town to the north
Of his country. The place was too
strong for him, and his forces were
reduced to very low ebb before he
abandoned the enterprise. -
Samory was shortly driven from his
own country about the sources of the
Niger, and made his way eastward be-
hind Liberia and the French iyorv
coast until he settled in the neighbor-
hood of Kong, in what was then de-
batable land between the French
sphere and the hinterland of the Brit
ish gold coast. His headquarters were
at a place called Djimini. Here he man
aged to avoid collision with European
troops till the beginning of 1897, when
the whole of this hinterland began to
be filled with small parties of French
and English running about, taking OBJ
servations and signing treaties. A
mission under Lieutenant Henderson.
r. N. (Traveling Commissioner, was
sent up, found body of Sofas in pos
session of the town of Bona, and
turned them out. The same was done
at Wa, whence the mission. went to
Dawkita. Here they were attacked by
the Sofas under Samory's son, Sara
kent Mory. After a heavy fight, they
were reduced to such position that
nothing could be done but escape in