The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-04-09
WHAT'S BECOME OF RABAH
M YSTERY MUsi BE SOLVED BEFOBE
 LAKE CHAD IS REACHED.

soudnncsc Adventurer Imperils Three
 French Expeditions, Those of MIMI. Fourenu-Lnmy, Gentil and Lieut.
 Meynier-Conhscting Stories Spread
 by Natives.
 The most curious and the most con
 tradctory statements have recently
 concerning the movements or the
 famous Arab adventurer Rabah, whose
 romantic career has loomed large Ill
 the history of the Dark Continent for
 the last thirty years, and upon whose
 actions greatly depends the success or
 failure of the French advance into the
 Lake Chad region. A short time ago
 we were informed, on apparently trust
 worthy authority, that portion or ms
 army was strongly intrenched at TOE
 bao on the lower SharL from when
 points of vantage he was opposing the
 advance of the French under GonuL
 And then very different story reached
 us Rabah had fled into Wadai, and the Foureau-Lany mission advancing
 from the north, had reinstated the
 representative of the Borneuse dynasty
 expelled by Rabah in 1893 upon the
 Bornu throne. In direct contradiction
 with this singular piece of news, a re-
 port published in Paris little While
 pack describes Rabah as more powerful
 than ever, and the prospects or the
 French expedition or expeditions despe-
 rate in the extreme To make confusion
 worse confounded, advices recently to
 hand from the Cameroons tell us that Rabah has several white prisoners, and still retains Dikwa as his principal seat, whereas an official report received by Q the Grench government four months ago clearly intimated that Rabah had aban- doned Dikwa (from Niger sources the rumor recently arrived that Rabah had burned Dikwa), and converted Afade-a town in the neighborhood of the Logon river, and consequently some distance east of DikWa-into his capital The majority of these tales and counter-tales must have been derived from native sources, which tends to prove one thing at least, viz, that Rabah continues to exercise considerable influence over the imaginations of the inhabitants of Cen tral Africa. The fact does not help us to elucidate the mystery, but is signifi- cant of the power still wielded by the conqueror of Bornu.
 What is to be accepted and what re- jected in these conflicting accounts? In the first place, we may venture with some show of reason to dismiss the re- port which credits the action attributed to M Foureau The Foureau-Lamy ;c itnJx lynn tn reached Binder early in December. Now, from the point of view, of time only, it is materially impossible that in- formation should have been received of M. Foureau's alleged proceeding, even if it had actually taken place. That the strongest presumption exists against that Hypothesis may be estimated from the following facts. The residence of the representatives of the Bornuese dy- nasty-the Kanemiyin-disposs by Rabah in 1893, is Kano a town with which M. Foureau could no doubt easily communicate from Binder, but which is in the heart of the Sokot0 empire, i. e.. in Nigeria-a British protectorate. It is conceivable that the British authorities who by now must be In pretty close rela ationShip with the Amir -el-Mumimin (the head of the Sokoto empire) could have acuuiesced in the French expedi- tion opening up political relations of the most important kind with the Ma homedan potentates of Nigeria? Again, M. Foureau, to replace the representa- tives of the Kanemi-yin dynasty in pos session of Bornu, would have been obliged to march into Bornu, i. e., in- wade the British sphere-a thing which the French explorer would hardly have taken upon himself to do, and which, even if he had we should certainly have heard of via the Niger
 The news that Rabah has fled into Wadai is not more credible. Rabah was probably never so strong as at present. It is 9 moral certainty that he is we'll possesses numerous well-drilled troops. and has been able within the last | three years to obtain supplies of ammu- milton from the north. He has just de- | feated French expedition and seized | its entire armament, including two | guns. having a few weeks previously | captured the leder of a French commer- | cial mission, M. de Behgle. Moreover, so far as we are able to judge at all of |
  ring in the Central Soudan. Rabah's | political difficulties are disappearing, or, at any rate, have diminished. He is be- ieved to have accepted Turkish suze- rainty, following in that respect the ex- ample of the Emir of Wadai, which ac- ton has probably eliminated the long quarrel between them. Ra- oah, it will be remembered. defeated in 1892 an army sent by Yussif late Emr 1f Wadai, to the assistance of Gaurang, lmir of Baghirmi, then besieged by Ra- oah in Mandjafa. An understanding with Wadai necessarily entails a rap )rociement with the Senussi, and this 0 Rabah-who at various times has de- led both Mahdism and Senussism-will | )e a source of great strength. The ut ' CT collapse of Mahdsm. and the death if are Khalifa, must also prove an ad- lltion to his own prestige.
 Estimates of this kind cannot be oth- rWise than hyDothetic, but so far as me can hazard an opioion, the probabil- ties are that Rabah is making things lncommonly warm for the French expe- itions operating in the neighborhood of he Chad; that his hold over Baghirmi { nd Bornu has frightened: and that