Everywhere—north, south, and west—the advance has been gradual and general. The black-coated cabinet ministers in Paris, the administrators in the various colonial capitals, and the helmeted pioneers scattered along the frontiers have worked toward a common end, the pioneers keeping their superiors constantly informed of every fluctuation in local conditions and native sentiment, just as the intelligence officers of an army in the field relay the information they have gathered to the high command. Let it be added that no nation has been more faithfully served by its explorers and pioneers than France. Henri Duveyrier, the first of the French explorers, whose great journey into the Sahara dates from 1859; Victor Largeau, who reached Ghadames in 1875; Savargnan de Brazza, whose name will always be linked with the creation of the French Congo; General Faidherbe, founder of the French Sudan; General Dodds, conqueror of Dahomey; Montiel, who won for France the great country around Lake Tchad; Fernand Foureau, the hero of the march to Zinder—these, and many like them, were to French Africa what Lewis, Clarke, Boone, Crockett, and Frémont were to our own frontier. But of the intrepid company of French explorers who have carried the tricolor into the darkest corners of the Dark Continent, Africa has taken a heavy toll. Joubert and Dourneaux-Duperré were assassinated near Ghadames; Lieutenant Palet was murdered at Gurara; Camille Douls laid down his life for France at Tidikelt; the expedition led by Colonel Flatters was ambushed by Touareg in the central Sahara and wiped out to the last man; Louis Say, Lieutenant Lamy, Brière de l’Isle all died by Touareg spear; Coppolani was killed by tribesmen in the conquest of Mauretania; Colonel Bonnier was slain at the taking of Timbuktu. Such is the price of empire.