These rapid conquests, especially those on the Niger, brought France and England more than once to the verge of war.  In the autumn of the year 1897, the aggressions of the French at and near Bussa, on the right bank of the Lower Niger, led to a most serious situation.  Despite its inclusion in the domains of the Royal Niger Company, that town was occupied by French troops.  At the Guildhall banquet (November 9), Lord Salisbury made the firm but really prudent declaration that the Government would brook no interference with the treaty rights of a British company.  The pronouncement was timely; for French action at Bussa, taken in conjunction with the Marchand expedition from the Niger basin to the Upper Nile at Fashoda (see Chapter XVII.), seemed to betoken a deliberate defiance of the United Kingdom.  Ultimately, however, the tricolour flag was withdrawn from situations that were legally untenable.  These questions were settled by the Anglo-French agreement of 1898, which, we may add, cleared the ground for the still more important compact of 1904.

* * * * *

The limits of this chapter having already been passed, it is impossible to advert to the parts played by Italy and Portugal in the partition of Africa.  At best they have been subsidiary; the colonial efforts of Italy in the Red Sea and in Somaliland have as yet produced little else than disaster and disappointment.  But for the part played by Serpa Pinto in the Zambesi basin, the role of Portugal has been one of quiescence.  Some authorities, as will appear in the following chapter, would describe it by a less euphonious term; it is now known that slave-hunting goes on in the upper part of the Zambesi basin owned by them.  The French settlement at Obock, opposite Perim, and the partition of Somaliland between England and Italy, can also only be named.

The general results of the partition of Africa may best be realised by studying the map at the close of this volume, and by the following statistics as presented by Mr. Scott Keltie in the Encyclopoedia Britannica:—­

         &nb
sp;                                              Square Miles. 
     French territories in Africa (inclusive of
     the Sahara) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,804,974
     British (inclusive of the Transvaal and
     Orange River Colonies, but exclusive
     of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan—­610,000
     square miles) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,713,910
     German. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 933,380
     Congo Free State. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900,000
     Portuguese. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790,124
     Italian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188,500