At length, in October 1898, the French military authorities on the Upper Niger made a determined attempt to abolish the power of this bandit king, who had begun his career as a religious mystic and who ended by organizing his disciples—“Sofas” or Sufis—into a tremendous slave-raiding army. They also determined to break the fighting strength of the Mandingos, as they had previously crushed that of the Fula and the Tawareq. By a brilliant feat of arms Samori was brought to bay and his forces routed by Lieutenant Woelfel. The Mandingo king was taken prisoner by Lieutenant Jacquin and Sergeant Bratières, and was exiled to the Gaboon. During the reign of Louis Philippe a somewhat feeble revival of colonial enterprise had taken place, in which France made half-hearted attempts to establish herself in New Zealand, and secured New Caledonia and Tahiti in the Pacific. At this time also she thought of extending her possessions in unoccupied districts along the West Coast of Africa, and had acquired rights over Grand Bassam and Assini to the west of the British Gold Coast. During the sixties some efforts were made by Napoleon III to develop French trading and political influence in the Bight of Benin in Africa; and Porto Novo, near Lagos, was accorded French protection in 1868. These claims, however, had been allowed to lapse to some degree; and the places acquired would at one time have been willingly handed over to England for a small compensation. But in the scramble for Africa that commenced in 1884 they suddenly acquired immense value in the eyes of the French as footholds upon which to commence an expansion northwards from the Gulf of Guinea to the Niger empire of which France had begun to dream. In 1884 therefore Grand Bassam and Assini, on the Gold Coast, and Porto Novo, a tiny vassal kingdom of Dahomé, were effectively occupied. The journeys of Colonel Binger between the Niger and the Gold Coast in 1888-91 gave Grand Bassam a hinterland; and the consequence was that the Ivory Coast between Grand Bassam and Liberia (including the Rio Pedro district of Liberia) was annexed by France in 1891. Hitherto this coast, the interior of which was then and till the close of the 19th century one of the least known parts of Africa, had been of great importance to British trade, which was carried on chiefly by Bristol sailing ships. Moreover, from the Ivory Coast came the bulk of the celebrated Kruboys, who are the best labour-force obtainable along the West Coast of Africa from the Gambia to the Orange River. Nevertheless, although the petty chiefs of the Ivory Coast had often offered their friendship and vassalage to Great Britain, no steps were taken on the part of the British Government, and therefore no protest was offered when France annexed the Ivory Coast and became