A WESTERN MAHDI.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1233, 16 October 1885, Page 3

A WESTERN MAHDI.

The ‘ San Francisco Bulletin ’ publishes the text of an official de-patch which has been received at Washington from the United States Consul at Sierra Leone relative to an extraordinary movement among the Mohammedans of the regions of the Niger, extending from Timbuctoo to the West Coast. “It appears,” he states, “ that a Maudingo named Samuau*, of extraordinary intelligence and energy, conceived the idea that he was called by Cod t > wage a war for the suppression of paganism, and fur the purpose of opening roads to the coast, which in .certain dis:riets have been for generations subjected to ex* cessive blackmail and to the plunder ing of vagabond tribes. During the last five years he has collected an army, consisting of f ot and horse, of about 100,000 men. It is said that Samud lie’s array is divided into three portions, one of which is operating near the head waters of the JNiger. This portion recently drove certain French troops Irom the goldfields of the Boarse, of which they had taken possession Another portion of the army is operating in the regions of East Liberia, and by suppressing the disturbing (dements, unfettering trade and introducing the knowledge ot leligion and letters, is in one sense opening the way for negro immigrants of intelligence and energy from America, to push out from the Af'ricansAmericau republic to the bealthv legions of t h e interior. In another sense, it is forestalling the whole region for Mahoramedanism. The third portion of the army is approaching the coast a few miles northward of Sierra Leone. It has secured sub mission by force or by voluntary surrender of all the tribes on the way for 500 miles hick. The largest and most important kingdom this side of the Niger was Soolitnana, of which Falaba, a large commercial city, was the capital. For the last sixty years the French Mabommedans have been trying by diplomacy and by arms to subdue this city to the faith, but it has always successfully resisted both dip’omat and warrior. Last year Samudue’s army, in overwhelming numbers, surrounde 1 it and called upon the king to surrender, and profess Lslatnism. This he refined to do The town was then invested, and after a terrible siege of fie months, the king assembled the royal family and principal chiefs, and informed them that ho could hold cut no longer, as his resources were exhausted. A very important achievement of this army was the destruction of the Hoo* boo power, an irresponsible organisation which for thirty years has been the source of annoyance and loss to oravaus passing from the interior to the coast