slems.[116] It is a curious argument, especially as it seems to ignore
the fact that at the present time both the supply and the demand depend
on Mohammedan influence.

As to the means by which the Soudanese States are now extending their
power we may content ourselves with a mere reference to the operations
of the late "El Mahdi" in the East and the notorious Samadu in the West.
Their methods may be accepted as illustrations of a kind of tactics
which have been employed for ages. The career of El Mahdi is already
well known. Samadu was originally a prisoner, captured while yet a boy
in one of the tribal wars near the headwaters of the Niger. Partly by
intrigue and partly by the aid of his religious fanaticism he at length
became sufficiently powerful to enslave his master. Soon afterward he
proclaimed his divine mission, and declared a _Jehad_ or holy war
against all infidels. Thousands flocked to his banner, influenced
largely by the hope of booty; and ere long, to quote the language of a
lay correspondent of the London _Standard_, written in Sierra Leone
September 18, 1888, "he became the scourge of all the peaceable states
on the right bank of the Upper Niger." Since 1882 he has attempted to
dispute the territorial claims of the French on the upper, and of the
English on the lower Niger, though without success. But he has seemed to
avenge his disappointment the more terribly on the native tribes.

The letter published in the _Standard_ gives an account of an official
commission sent by the Governor of Sierra Leone to the headquarters of
Samadu in 1888, and in describing the track of this Western Mahdi in his
approaches to the French territories it says: "The messengers report
that every town and village through which they passed was in ruins, and
that the road, from the borders of Sulimania to Herimakono, was lined
with human skeletons, the remains of unfortunates who had been slain by
Samadu's fanatical soldiery, or had perished from starvation through the
devastation of the surrounding country. Some of these poor wretches, to
judge from the horrible contortions of the skeletons, had been attacked
by vultures and beasts of prey while yet alive, and when too near their
lingering death to have sufficient strength to beat them off. Around the
ruined towns were hundreds of doubled-up skeletons, the remains of
prisoners who, bound hand and foot, had been forced upon their knees,
and their heads struck off. Keba, the her