The Berlin Conference of 1885 had not dealt with questions of territory except to delimit the area comprised in the Congo Basin. By the Anglo-German Agreements of 1886 and 1890, the borders of German East Africa had been generally defined. France, however, still fostered the hope of acquiring dominion of the Egyptian Soudan and, perhaps, of nearly all of the northern part of Africa. The arrangement with the Sovereign of the Congo Free State, giving her a right of pre-emption of the State over other Powers, would indicate an ambition in this direction. That France endeavoured to achieve her aim in this respect was forcibly demonstrated by the expedition of Captain Marchand and the Fashoda incident. So far as Germany and Portugal were concerned, the Congo Free State’s boundary had been well-nigh firmly established, but with France and Great Britain there was a lack of settlement on this important question which threatened the State with future insecurity. The first convention on this subject was concluded with Great Britain, and concerned the Bahr-el-Ghazal, referred to in the succeeding chapter. The Franco-Congolese Convention of 14th August, 1894, was of great importance to the young State, albeit the price it paid for the friendly attitude of France may appear greater than the security afforded. The relations which existed between France and the State, when the upper course of the Ubanghi became the object of frontier settlement, were defined by the Convention of 5th February, 1885, and that of 29th April, 1887. In the first, France agreed, in return for the right of pre-emption conferred on her in 1884, to determine her own Congolese limits and those of the Free State, and to guarantee the latter’s neutrality. In the second, the Belgian Congo surrendered a considerable territory to France by substituting the Ubanghi to the 17th degree of east longitude for the boundary defined in the third article of the treaty of 5th February, 1885, and the modification of her right of pre-emption in favour of Belgium in certain contingencies. These negotiations, beginning in 1891, were not settled until 1894, owing to conflicting views as to the course of the Ubanghi. Moreover, the French Government had expostulated vigorously against the British proposal to lease the Bahr-el-Ghazal to the Congo Free State, while Germany protested against British possession of the strip of land between Lakes Tanganyika and Albert Edward, which the Free State intended granting in payment for its lease of the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The article conveying this strip, manifestly intended for the Cape-to-Cairo railway conceived by Mr. Cecil Rhodes, was, in fact, withdrawn by arrangement between the British and Congo Governments on June 22, 1894. Meantime, the French Government had contended that the river Uelle was the true upper course of the Ubanghi, and that the State had no rights north of it, “even though it resulted in moving the State’s frontier