By that treaty, Great Britain leases to Leopold II., King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Congo Free State, the territories limited by a line starting from a point situated on the west bank of Lake Albert Edward, south of Mahagi, to the point of intersection of the 30th meridian east of Greenwich, the frontier line of the territories so assigned following the head of the division of the Nile and Congo waters to the 25th meridian east of Greenwich; and along this meridian to its intersection with the 10th north parallel, and along this parallel direct to a point north of Fashoda; thence to the west bank of Lake Albert Edward, south of Mahagi. These territories comprise the entire basin of the Bahr-el-Ghazal River and its affluents (except the upper portion of the Bahr-el-Arab), and are generally referred to as the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The treaty further provides that the lease is to remain operative during the reign of King Leopold II. only, except as regards that portion of the Bahr-el-Ghazal west of the 30th meridian, permanently vested in the Congo Free State. [Illustration: Commissariat of the District of Banana, 1893.] France, which had never recognised British influence in the Nile Basin, at once protested against this arrangement, asserting that Great Britain had leased territories which did not belong to her. While this delicate question was _sub judice_ there arose the celebrated Fashoda incident which brought Great Britain and France perilously near to war. The circumstances of that incident are too near our own times, and too remote from the purpose of this book, to need recounting here. But it is important to refer to it in this place, because in the settlement of the Fashoda dispute between Great Britain and France the latter recognises the paramount influence of the former in the Basin of the Nile. The only obstacle in the way of the execution of the treaty of 12th May, 1894, was now removed, Great Britain’s right to dispose of the territories leased to the Sovereign of the Congo Free State being everywhere admitted. But now Great Britain herself sought, without justification, to annul the treaty. Because the Congo State had made therein certain reservations in regard to France—a perfectly natural proceeding at a period when the rights of Great Britain over the Bahr-el-Ghazal were in dispute—Great Britain contended that the treaty of 12th May, 1894, had practically lapsed. After the battle of Omdurman, the British even went so far as to give, in part, practical effect to this extraordinary view of their treaty obligations, occupying, upon several occasions, Meshra-er-Rek, at the confluence of the Bahr-Djur and the Bahr-el-Ghazal.