ME THREATENS FRANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 163, 12 July 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

ME THREATENS FRANCE.

The Sioky of Mahmadt; Lamink and His Son. Ak officer of the French Government while .

visiting a school near Paris the other day, saw some bright-eyed black boys among; the pupils. He called one of them, a lud>

about thirteen years old, to him, and asked! him what he intended to do when he be-:

came a man. ' I shall avenge, the death of i my father,' was the quick response, * ! § The French Government will doubtless* - M take good care that the son ofgMahm&duj *- Lamine never has an avenge ~ his father's tragic death. They will nofc X repeat the blunder they made five years f-J ago, when Mahmadu Lamine appeared in! Kayes, on the Senegal River, a suppliant <•* for friendship and assistance, and was." M treated by the French with honour and. \ . r dismissed with presents. Three \ *■ later the humble supplianb was filling »'" }: great region between the .Senegal and the' l|i Gambia with war, burning French posts,! ' .. killing French traders, beheading chiefs' V.*' who opposed him, rallying all the tribes to; |a his standard, and it was nob until two yeara^ '-' later, and after two hard campaigns, than ill the French caughb and beheaded their *'j energetic foe. ' \ J

This chief, of mixed. Arab and negro blood, was the last of the Mohammedan;

pretenders, who like Ahmadu north of the '■■> Senegal and Samory on the upper Niger,; %> inflamed the superstitious tribes by their re-; »; * ligioua pretensions and coat France many " * lives and much treasure before they were ■■'/#) finally subdued. Mahmadu Lamina had jII made several pilgrimages to Mecca, and many thousands believed his story that he % had been commissioned by Allah to found] .;«/ a new and powerful Mohammedan empire and drive the.French into the sea. ■ ■■,:•] J^i Few stories of Africa are more dramatic - ; "pi than that of the last few days of this fanati- ~. cal pretender, when he was hunted three, .?-' yearssago by thousands of foes and deserted by many a tribe that a few weeks before, would have willingly followed him to death. ,/i ';| His reverses had destroyed liispfestige, and - 'Tr* the followers of the pretended prophet ria longer had faith in him as the favourite o£ < I Allah. With the Senegalese cavalry almost,' at his heels, village after village refused' him shelter, though he held the Koran *' ' above his head, opened ab the page where- .-,_! the faithful are en joined to succour allservi- 1 ' ' tors of Allah. Some villages that had; trembled at his name fired volleys at thej handful of men who were still faithful to him. At length his jaded horse - could, carry him no farther, and the pretender ';,, faced the enemy close upon bun, and with - -; no weapon in his hand calmly awaited the sword thrust that laid him lifeless. The * ; § , women in his big harem, who for several ■'--# days had been captives in the hand of the' .*; French, weredistributed among the bravesu. ■■ f| of the Senegalese soldiery,* jmd two little sons were taken to France to. reared and educated by the Government. . 1 It is the eldejr of these boys who says hiji. ;§>§ mission in life is to avenge his father. Hβ, t g-& was only ten years old when his father fell,; bub doubtless he has a vivid recollection of ' ■ .j the two years when all the world he knew. ..' revered Mahmadu Lamine as Allah's chosen prophet, and when tribute and slaves! poured in a never-ending stream into hia'< • father's big capitol, which was laid in ashoa, ■ .'.■> after the French had knocked its defences' -"$ to pieces with their cannon. He was, nob; $ * .too young to hate the French for;, ;- scattering the women pi hiis father's,';.£ household among the * common, sol**-j> diery of Senegal, and for bearing away the head of the great chief as af •, f trophy while they left his. body in. the , - wildernoss for the birds of prey* ' It is quite certain that this young- fellow "'-,' has no career in Africa before him.. Hβ})!* may some day laugh at his youthful thrsati ~ as a child'e folly, but the French will notj; trust him. His father, whose only purpose.. ;l1 was. to spy oub the strength of therenemy*, * ? deceived them, once, wiijh. hja crafty dissimV ,; ulation, and the? wijjt never give the eon •• i h ■ ■ ■■ a