140
EUROPE AND AFRICA
that, while the powers declined to recognize Turkey’s claim
to Tunis in 1856 out of courtesy to France, nothing was said
at that time, or in 1878, as to the integrity of lands in the
equatorial regions acquired after 1856. Salisbury was ready
to join with France in the delimitation of the western fron-
tiers of the Egyptian Sudan, and assured the French states-
men that the withdrawal of Marchand would in no way
compromise their claims; but he declined to consider any
division of the Bahr-el-Ghazal district.
While this discussion was in progress, the British for-
warded a message from M. Delcassé to Major Marchand,
asking for this report; and in October one of his officers,
through the courtesy and assistance of the British officials,
made his way to Paris via Cairo. In November, Marchand
received instructions to withdraw from Fashoda by way of
the Sobat River in Abyssinia. In due time he reached
French Somaliland in safety and arrived in Paris toward
the end of May, 1899, where he was welcomed with a great
ovation. But the fate of the Upper Nile had already been
definitely determined in an agreement signed by Salisbury
and Paul Cambon on March 21.1
The whole frontier between the French sphere of influence
in Central Africa and the British-Egyptian sphere of influ-
ence on the Nile and in the Sudan was carefully worked out
in this treaty. Bahr-el-Ghazal and the old province of
Dar-Fur were retained for Egypt; and the kingdom of the
Ouadai (Wadai), with the two valuable oases of Tibesti and
Borku, went to France. This arrangement allowed France
to round out her Sahara possessions south of Tripoli, joined
them securely with the Lake Chad lands, and these again
with the Upper Congo. This area northeast of Lake Chad,
however, was not effectively and permanently occupied until
1 Arch. Dip., 1899, vol. 1, p. 210; also Supplement to Amer. Jour. of
Internat. Law, 1907, vol. 1, p. 425.