FRENCH COLONIAL EXPANSION 127 
expansion; but, after suffering several severe defeats at their 
hands, Samory placed himself and his country under French 
protection in 1886. 
In the treaties of 1887 and 1889 this relationship was 
confirmed; but his territory was limited to the east side 
of the Niger and the Bafing (or Tankisse) Rivers. He did 
not long remain satisfied with this situation, but invaded 
Kenedugu, seizing and sacking its capital, Sikasso, and made 
a league with the Sultan of Segu and with the Sefas to 
drive out the French. The French forces resumed opera- 
tions, and in a brilliant series of maneuvers, lasting from 
1891 to 189+ and conducted by Colonels Archinard, Hum- 
bert, and Combes (known among the natives as “Coumbo, 
the All-conquering”), reduced Samory to desperate straits. 
Owing to the recall of Colonel Archinard and the decision 
of the French Government to stop operations in the Sudan 
for a time, he was given, however, a breathing space for 
three or four years. 
Meanwhile in July, 1887, Captain Binger left Bamaku 
on what appeared to be a madcap attempt to reach the 
Ivory Coast. Passing in the rear of the British colony 
of Sierra Leone, he visited Bissandugu and Sikasso in the 
Samory country, pushed on south and east into the Gou- 
rounsi and Mossi districts, where for a time he was thought 
to have lost his life, made treaties with the chiefs of Kong 
and Bonduku, and reached Assinie finally in the spring of 
1889. A distance of four thousand kilometers had been 
traversed and the French possessions of Senegal and the 
Ivory Coast definitely united. Between 1890 and 1895, 
Captains Quiquandon and Destanave completed the union 
of the two districts, by establishing the French supremacy 
from Tiola to the Bobos country, and by making treaties 
with the chiefs of the Gourounsi and Mossi countries. In 
December of the year 1890, M. Monteil crossed the whole