FRENCH COLONIAL EXPANSION 131 
nent connection between Dahomey and the French Sudan, 
left the northernmost French post in Dahomey and entered 
Borgu en route for the Niger River. Establishing stations 
at Bori, Saore, Bouay, and Kandi, he reached Ilo on the 
Niger January 25, and in February pushed on down the 
river to Boussa, which he occupied in a “facon effective.” 
Late in 1896, a rebellion had broken out in Nupé and Ilorin; 
and Major Arnold and Sir George T. Goldie were busily 
engaged, during January and February, 1897, in overthrow- 
ing the insurgent forces and restoring peace and order in the 
district, when the news of the French approach reached 
them. They hastened north to Nikki and soon found them- 
selves face to face with the determined French officials, who 
refused to withdraw without orders from Paris. Serious 
trouble seemed imminent and the wires between Europe and 
Africa were kept busy for days. The troops conducted 
themselves well. The officers held the situation well in 
hand. The two foreign departments acted promptly with 
a calmness and conciliation admirable in such a time of 
public excitement; and a settlement was finally reached in 
June, 1898, the military forces of both powers evacuating 
simultaneously, between the 15th and 17th, the lands in 
their possession on the Middle Niger. 
This agreement of June 14, 1898, was the first of a series 
of treaties between Great Britain and France, that were 
destined to break down the old barriers of hatred, distrust, 
and personal ambition engendered by three centuries of 
almost uninterrupted rivalry, and to establish a thorough 
understanding and a practical codperation between the two 
nations in all matters of importance affecting Africa and 
Asia. Between 1886 and 1893, Great Britain and Germany 
had adjusted satisfactorily and amicably a great controversy 
in East Africa without recourse to force and in spite of the 
violent diatribes and opposition of the imperialist leaders in