The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-09-21
THE VOULET- -CHANOINE MS

and denounced it's misdeeds, writes, u says, from Kita to Paris friend:
 "Chanoine Is already nicknamed tle white Samory. Chanoine is the lntris- uer the cold-blooded, sanguinary man, with whom the end justifies the means Voulet is the weak creature, placing his very weakness at the service ot an ambition which his personal ability does not justify He is the man or straw, the hand which daily signs the pardon of so many crimes. His 1nslg- niticance hands him over, hand ana foot, to his accomplice, and he leads away with him the generous heartS which he has deluded. Blood maddens him and casts over his conscience thick veil which conceals from him the horrors of the daily task. He affects to faint at the mere sight Of a chlcken being killed yet daughters without pity or reason, hundreds of defenceless beings. In short, there is no need or being much of a prophet to guess the tie of blood uniting this wretched quar- tet, Vouet, Chanoine, Dr. Henrlc ana Sergeant Major Laury. =. l must tell you that on April 15 the mission was
 
 Kirtachi, a post dependent on Dahom- ey, and situated on the banks or the river. This means that, for three months after my leaving it, it had not advanced one Step It had painluily CraWled along this southern part de- pendent on Dahomey, burning and Kill ing all as in the past, and finding all the wells on it's route filled up. Its eX- actions must inevitably have come to the knowledge of Governor Ballot.
 "The minister for the colonies has telegraphed to the governor somewhat in these terms. I learn that Voulel mission commits following atrocities. I refuse to believe it, for 1t would be disgrace to France. Order an immedl- ate inquiry.' l was then ordered to pre- pare a report, and as you may imag- inc, I had long ago prepared it. Timbuctoo. with his column against the Tuaregs, just then passed here, return ing to France. He is man or more than ordinary honesty, cool and eXperi- enced. He showed some interest in me, and I gave him a full account or the events. His indignation knew no bounds, and starting up he exclaimed They must be shot, those people!
 The letter then relates that six days afterwards Lieutenant c. I. Klobb re- turned bv forced marches from Kayes with full powers, and that 1T he over took the mission he was expected to send back Voulet and Chanoine as prisoners in order that they might De tried by court-martial
 A statement apparently taken rom Lieutenant Peteaus report says;
 "The excesses and cruelties described began as soon as the two sections of inc mission were reunited at Say, and after the departure of Lieutenant-Colo- mel Klobb, who had accompanied cap tain Voulet as far as that place on January 8, 1899, native who was met by some soldiers declared that he dld not know the road towards the east He was brought before Captain Voulet, who ordered his head to be cut off. Reconnoiterng parties sent out on the night of January & were ordered to cap ture his village kill all the natives who resisted, bring away the rest as cap- | tives and take the heads. On the | morning of January 9 reconnoitering | party returned to camp with two nun l dred and fifty oxen, five hundred sheep, l twenty eight horses and eighty prison i CTS. Some of the soldiers having been I killed or wounded, Captain Voulet said ! that an example must be made. He or dered twenty women, mothers with young children and babes, to be killed l with lances at a few hundred yards l from the camp, Their bodies were af- | I Sna,a fln, ,l 1 Say. On the same day soldier who had expended one hundred and twenty l four cartridges in skirmish had his 1 brains blown out by order of Captain Voulet, for having wasted his ammuni- | ton
 On January 13 the mission burned Sansanne- Hausa, a city of ten thousand inhabitants and an active commercial center. On the 14th three Spahis reg ular soldier, and two auxiliaries charged a native who, in defending himself, | wounded the regular. The auXliaries, being armed only with lances, did not dare to pursue the native. For this negligence they were shot without trial as soon as they returned to camp, by order of Captain Chanoine. An entire | 17th, two prisoners were Drought in and taken before Captain Voulet, who or dered them to be shot At the same time two soldiers brought two freshly l cut hands to the chief of the mission. From that time forward the practice of cutting off the hands of the massacred natives became general It was Cap tain Chanoine's Spahis who conceived the idea of this barbarous custom, and
 their commander found this~an excel
 lent means of easily verifying how | many natives were killed by his men All the men who brought these san
 puinary evidences of murder to the of 1 fcers mess tab ble were rewarded. On
 the 24th Captain Chanoine lost, by sur
 prise six Spahis killed in an engage l ment. Pursuing the aggreSsors, he
 came across the inhabitants of a neigh
 boring village who had taken refuge ir
 the brushwood. He made twenty pris
 oners cut off the heads of ten of them and had them stuck on poles.
 During the march of the mission Sergean mt Major Laury and some of the
 soldiers armed with slaves struck those who did not march quickly. The car
 rers. recruited by chance, were in many
 cases old and feeble Some fell out anc
 the soldiers cut off their heads, Some times Sergeant Major Laury executed
 them himself with his revolver.