Henri Bretonnet

[3] Ignoring the protests of the Royal Niger Company that Adamawa had been given to the British by the Berlin Conference, he hoisted the French flag in the region after a treaty with the Emir of Muri; unsupported by France, he was forced to leave the area with his men in 1893.

[4] In 1896, Bretonnet, by now promoted lieutenant, was given command of an expedition meant to establish French control on the navigable portions of the Niger River below Bussa, in modern Nigeria.

[5] The latter claim was far from true: Kwara, a son of the king of Wawa that Bretonnet had helped to overthrow, guided a rebellion that extended to vast areas of Borgu.

On October 10 Bretonnet left France, with his second Lt. Solomon Braun; news arrived shortly after that Rabih az-Zubayr, the greatest ruler in the Chad Basin, had attacked Baguirmi, whose king was a French protégé.

[8] On June 15 Bretonnet reached the French post of Kouno on the Chari, having with him only half a hundred Senegal riflemen and two officers, but also three cannons, and was shortly after met by Gaourang, the king of Baguirmi, with 400 men.