Rio Nuñez incident

[citation needed] Because of his first marriage to Princess Charlotte of Wales, which would have made him prince consort of the United Kingdom had she not died at 21, Leopold I had been studying Britain's colonial questions and had become a strong partisan of colonisation.

[3] The Belgian Royal Navy's Louise Marie schooner was thus sent to investigate the region on 17 December 1847; it arrived in the Bay of Gorée on 11 January 1848.

[3] They stayed in the Rio Nunez in February and March and learned that the river had the potential to be successfully exploited except during the rainy season.

[3] The indigenous people were split into two groups ever since the death of the king of the Landoumas in late 1846, who occupied the upper section of the river beyond Rapass (or Ropaz).

[3] That angered Tongo, who set fire to Walkaria but was beaten by Joura, the brother of Lamina, King of the Nalous, and was forced to retreat inland.

[3] Their return was not well received by the French regional commander, Édouard Bouët-Willaumez, who thought the river to be very important to France and was unhappy to have been ordered by his government to protect the Belgian at all cost.

[3] Mayoré had expulsed Ismaël Tay, a Frenchman and his own brother in-law, and kidnapped his wife-and child, whom he felt threatened by since he could one day have a claim to his throne.

[3] On the 27th, Van Haverbeke learned of Mayore's plans to take back the wife and child and ordered his troops to inspect every ship going up river.

Meanwhile, the locals told the expedition that the two British traders had brought about 30 guns the day before to Mayoré's forces while they flew the white flag.

On the 20th, a letter from the Britons was received that stated that they would hold the French and Belgian governments responsible of any damage that they would suffer, as they refused to leave Boké.

[citation needed] Attempts by the British Prime Minister, Viscount Palmerston, to force France to pay reparations for the incident were ultimately unsuccessful and the affair lasted four years.

[citation needed] The incident formed part of the "prelude to the Scramble for Africa" and, as Bouët-Willaumez had hoped, did lead to increased French control of the Nunez.