uld he (M. Marchand) be met with, his Excellency said that he
had received instructions to be most careful to abstain from all
action which might cause local difficulties, and that he had been
enjoined to consider himself as an 'emissary of civilisation'
without any authority whatever to decide upon questions of right,
which must properly form the subject of discussion between Her
Majesty's Government and that of the French Republic.

"M. Delcasse therefore begged me to inform your lordship of this
fact, and expressed the hope that the commander of Her Majesty's
naval forces on the river might be instructed to take no steps
which might lead to a local conflict with regard to such questions
of right."

It may be remarked, in passing, that this view of the position of the
emissary of civilisation does not tally with that which M. Marchand
subsequently gave to the Sirdar, to whom he stated "that he had
received precise orders for the occupation of the country and the
hoisting of the French flag over the Government buildings at Fashoda,
and added that, without the orders of his Government, which, however,
he expected, would not be delayed, it was impossible for him to retire
from the place."

The instructions given by Lord Salisbury, through Lord Cromer, to the
Sirdar, have been given elsewhere in this chapter.

On September 11 our Ambassador informed M. Delcasse of the advance of
the Sirdar up the Nile, and on the 18th the French Foreign Minister
stated further:--

"As a matter of fact, there is no Marchand Mission. In 1892 and
1893 M. Liotard was sent to the Upper Ubanghi as Commissioner,
with instructions to secure French interests in the north-east. M.
Marchand had been appointed one of his subordinates, and received
all his orders from M. Liotard. There could be no doubt that for a
long time past the whole region of the Bahr-el-Ghazal had been out
of the influence of Egypt."

Sir E. Monson left M. Delcasse in no doubt as to the view Her
Majesty's Government took of the situation. Of the interview referred
to, he reports to Lord Salisbury as follows, under date September
22:--

"Although his Excellency made two or three allusions to the
reasons for which, in his opinion, the French might consider that
the region in question was open to their advance, he himself
volunteered the suggestion that discussion between us would be