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GAMBIA

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 439 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GAMBIA , the most northerly of the See also:

British See also:West See also:African dependencies. It consists of a stretch of See also:land on both sides of the See also:lower Gambia. The See also:colony, with the See also:protectorate dependent upon it, has an See also:area of about 4000 sq. in. and a See also:population officially estimated (1907) at 163,000. The colony proper (including St See also:Mary's See also:Island, British Kommbo, the Ceded Mile, McCarthy's Island and other islets) has an area of about 69 sq. m. The protectorate consists of a See also:strip of land extending ten kilometres (about 6 m.) on each See also:side of the See also:river to a distance of about 200 M. in a See also:direct See also:line from the See also:sea. The land outside these limits is See also:French. Within the protectorate are various See also:petty kingdoms, such as See also:Barra, to the See also:north of the Gambia, and Kommbo, to the See also:south. The breadth of the colony near the See also:coast is somewhat greater than it is higher up. The greatest breadth is 39 M. See also:Physical Features, See also:Fauna and See also:Flora.—The colony, as its name implies, derives its See also:character and value from the river Gambia (q.v.), which is navigable throughout and beyond the limits of the colony, while large ocean-going See also:ships can always See also:cross the See also:bar at its mouth and enter the See also:port of See also:Bathurst. Away from the swamps by the river See also:banks, the See also:country is largely " See also:bush." The region above McCarthy's Island is hilly. Much of the land is cleared for cultivation.

The fauna includes lions, leopards, several kinds of See also:

deer, monkeys, bush-cow and See also:wild See also:boar. Hippopotami are found in the upper See also:part of the river, and crocodiles abound in the creeks. The birds most See also:common are bush-See also:fowl, bustards, See also:guinea-fowl, See also:quail, See also:pigeon and See also:sand-See also:grouse. Bees are very numerous in parts of the country. The flora resembles that of West See also:Africa generally, the See also:mangrove being common. See also:Mahogany and See also:rosewood (Pterocarpus erinaceus) trees are found, though not in large See also:numbers, and the See also:rubber-See also:vine and oil-See also:palm are also comparatively scarce. There are many varieties of See also:fern. The See also:cassava (manioca) and See also:indigo See also:plants are indigenous. See also:Climate.—The climate during the dry See also:season (November–June) is the best on the British West African coast, and the Gambia is then considered fairly healthy. See also:Measures for the extermination of the malarial See also:mosquito are carried on with See also:good effect. The mean temperature at Bathurst is 77° F., the shade minimum being 56° and the See also:solar maximum 165°. Up river the variation in temperature is even greater than at Bathurst, from 50° in the See also:morning to too°-104° at 3 P.M. being common at McCarthy's Isle.

The See also:

average rainfall is about 5o in. a See also:year, but See also:save for showers in May and See also:June there is rarely any See also:rain except between See also:July and See also:October. The first instance of rain in See also:December in twenty-six years was recorded in 1906. The dry See also:east See also:wind known as the See also:harmattan blows intermittently from December to See also:March. Inhabitants.—The inhabitants, who are both thrifty and industrious, are almost entirely of See also:Negro or See also:Negroid See also:race, the See also:chief tribes represented being the See also:Mandingo (q.v.), the Jolof and the Jola. Numbers of See also:Fula (q.v.) are also settled in the country. Fully four-fifths of the natives are Mahommedans. The few See also:European residents are officials, traders or missionaries. Towns and See also:Trade.—Bathurst, pop. about 8000, the chief See also:town of the colony, in 13° 24' N., 16° 36' W., is built on St Mary's Island, which lies at the mouth of the river near its south See also:bank and is connected with the mainland by a See also:bridge across See also:Oyster See also:Creek. It was founded in 1816 and is named after the 3rd See also:earl Bathurst, secretary of See also:state for the colonies from 1812 to 1827. Bathurst is a fairly well-built town, the chief material employed being red See also:sandstone. It lies about 12 to 14 ft. above the level of the river. The See also:principal buildings See also:face the sea, and include See also:Government See also:House, See also:barracks, a well-appointed See also:hospital,437 founded by See also:Sir R.

G. See also:

MacDonnell (See also:administrator, 1847-1852), and various churches. The See also:market-See also:place is shaded by a See also:fine See also:avenue of bombax and other wide-spreading trees. There are no other towns of any See also:size in the Gambia. A trading station called See also:Georgetown is situated on McCarthy's Island, so named after Sir See also:Charles McCarthy, the See also:governor of Sierra Leone, who in 1824 was captured and beheaded by the See also:Ashanti at the See also:battle of Essamako. Albreda, a small port on the north bank of the river, of some historic See also:interest (see below), is in the Barra See also:district. Products.—Ground-nuts (Arachis hypogaea), rubber, beeswax, palm kernels, See also:rice, See also:cotton, and See also:millet are the chief productions. Millet and rice are the See also:staple See also:food of the See also:people. The curing of hides, the catching and drying of See also:fish, See also:boat-See also:building, and especially the See also:weaving of cotton into cloths called " pagns," afford employment to a considerable number of persons. Formerly the principal ex-ports, besides slaves, were See also:gold-dust, See also:wax and hides, the gold being obtained from the Futa Jallon district farther inland. Between 183o an,. 1840 from 1500 to 2000 oz. of gold were exported annually, but shipments cased soon afterwards, though small quantities of gold-dust can still be obtained from native goldsmiths.

The export of hides received a severe check in 1892–1893 through the See also:

death of nearly all the See also:cattle, but after an See also:interval of seven or eight years the See also:industry gradually revived. The value of hides exported in-creased from £520 in 1902 to £9615 in 1907. The collection of rubber was started about 188o, but the trade has not assumed large See also:pro-portions. In 1907 the value of the rubber exported was £4602. The export of wax, valued at £37,000 in 1843, had dwindled in 1907 to £2325. The cultivation of the ground-See also:nut, first exported in 1830, assumed importance by 1837, and by 185o had become the chief industry of the colony. In 1907 the value of the nuts was £256,685, over H of the See also:total exports (exclusive of specie). Nearly the whole male population is engaged in the industry for eight months of the year. Planted in June, after the See also:early rains, the See also:crop is reaped in October or See also:November and exported to See also:Europe (*t to See also:Marseilles) for the extraction of its oil, which is usually sold as See also:olive oil. A feature of the industry is the See also:appearance at the beginning of the planting season of thousands of men from a distance, " See also:strange farmers," as they are called, who are housed and fed and given farms to cultivate. In return they have to give See also:half the produce to the landlords. As soon as he has sold his nuts, the "strange See also:farmer " goes off, often not returning for years.

Apart from the cultivation of the ground-nut, the agricultural resources of the country are undeveloped. Large herds of cattle are kept by the Fula, and in cattle See also:

rich natives usually invest their See also:wealth. Land can be hired for 2d. an See also:acre per annum for twenty-one years. All land lying vacant or unused, or to which the occupier is unable to produce any See also:title, is vested in the See also:crown. A botanical station was opened in 1894, and the cultivation of See also:American and See also:Egyptian cotton was taken in See also:hand in 1902. The experiment proved discouraging. See also:Great difficulty was experienced in getting farmers to grow cotton for export, as unless carried on on highly scientific lines its cultivation is not so profitable as that of thegroundnut. The principal imports, of which over a come from Great See also:Britain or British colonies, are cotton goods, See also:kola-nuts (from Sierra Leone), See also:tobacco, rice, See also:sugar and See also:spirits. In the ten years 1898 to 1907 the average See also:annual value of the exports was £301,000, of the imports £316,000. There are no mines in the colony, nor any apparent See also:mineral wealth, except ridges of ironstone in the regions above McCarthy's Island. Bathurst is in telegraphic communication with Europe and the See also:rest of Africa. There are no See also:railways in the colony, but it is traversed by well-made roads of a See also:uniform width of 18 ft.

The See also:

Liverpool See also:mail steamers See also:call at the port every fortnight. A government steamer runs regularly from Bathurst to McCarthy's Island, and a smaller boat plies on the upper river. The See also:shipping trade is chiefly British ; French and See also:German See also:tonnage coming next. Surrounded on all sides, save seawards, by French territory, the colony largely depends, economically, upon Franco, to which country most of the exports go. A considerable See also:entrepot trade is also done with the neighbouring French colonies. The extent of French See also:influence is indicated by the fact that the five-See also:franc piece, locally known as a See also:dollar, is largely circulated throughout the protectorate, and is accepted as legal See also:tender, although the currency in the colony proper is the See also:English coinage. See also:Administration, See also:Revenue, &c.—The Gambia is administered by a governor, assisted by an executive and a legislative See also:council. On the last-named See also:body nominated unofficial members have seats. The colony is self-supporting and has no public See also:debt. The revenue, which in 1906 for the first See also:time exceeded £60,000, is mainly derived from customs. A See also:company of the West African Frontier Force is maintained. Travelling commissioners visit the five districts into which, for administrative purposes, the protectorate is divided, and in which the native See also:form of government prevails.

From the native See also:

law-courts See also:appeal can be made to the supreme See also:court at Bathurst. There is also at Bathurst a See also:Mahommedan court, established in 1906, for the trial of cases involving the See also:civil status of Moslems. See also:Primary See also:schools are maintained by the various religious denominations, and receive grants from government. The Wesleyans have also a secondary and a technical school. There is a privately supported school for Mahommedans at Bathurst. The Anglicans, Wesleyans and See also:Roman Catholics have numerous converts. See also:History.—Of the early history of the Gambia district there is scant mention. At what See also:period the See also:stone circles and pillars (apparently of a "Druidical" character), whose ruins are found at several places along the upper Gambia, were erected is not known. Those at Lamin Koto, on the right bank of the river opposite McCarthy's Island, are still in good preservation, and are an See also:object of veneration to the Mahommedans (see Geog. Journ. vol. xii., 1898). The country appears to have formed part, successively, of the states of Ghana, See also:Melle and See also:Songhoi. The relations, See also:political and commercial, of the natives were all with the north and east; consequently no large town was founded on the banks of the river, nor any trade carried on (before the coming of the See also:white See also:man) by vessels sailing the ocean About the 1lthcentury the district came under Mahomnmedaninfluence.

The Portuguese visited the Gambia in the 15th See also:

century, and in the beginning of the 16th century were trading in the lower river. Embassies were sent from the Portuguese stations in-land to 1'sIelle to open up trade with the interior, but about the See also:middle of the century this trade—apparently mostly in gold and slaves—declined. At the end of the century the river was known as the resort of banished men and fugitives from See also:Portugal and See also:Spain. It was on the initiative of Portuguese living in See also:England that See also:Queen See also:Elizabeth, in 1588, granted a patent to " certain merchants of See also:Exeter and others of the west parts and of See also:London for a trade to the river of See also:Senega and Gambra in Guinea." This company was granted a See also:monopoly of trade for ten years. Its operations led to no permanent See also:settlement in the Gambia. In 1618 See also:James I. granted a See also:charter to another company named " The Company of Adventurers of London trading into Africa," and formed at the instigation of Sir See also:Robert Rich, afterwards earl of See also:Warwick, for trade with the Gambia and the Gold Coast. This company sought to open up trade with See also:Timbuktu, then believed to be a great mart for gold, which reached the lower Gambia in considerable quantities. With this object See also:George See also:Thompson (a See also:merchant who had traded with See also:Barbary) was sent out in the " See also:Catherine," and ascended the Gambia in his See also:ship to Kassan, a Portuguese trading town, thence continuing his See also:journey in small boats. In his See also:absence the " Catherine " was seized and the See also:crew murdered by Portuguese and half-castes, and Thompson himself was later on murdered by natives. Two years afterwards See also:Richard Jobson, another See also:agent of the Company of Adventurers, advanced beyond the falls of Barraconda; and he was followed, about See also:forty years later, by Vermuyden, a Dutch merchant, who on his return to Europe asserted that he had reached a country full of gold. The Company of Adventurers had built a fort near the mouth of the Gambia. This was superseded in 1664 by a fort built by See also:Captain (afterwards See also:Admiral Sir Robert) See also:Holmes on a small island 20 M. from the mouth of the river and named Fort James, in See also:honour of the See also:duke of See also:York (James II.).

This fort was built expressly to defend the British trade against the Dutch, and from that time the British remained in permanent occupation of one or more ports on the river. In 1723 Captain See also:

Bartholomew Stibbs was sent out by the Royal African Company, which had succeeded the earlier companies, to verify Vermuyden's reports of gold. He proceeded 6o m. above the falls, but the land of gold was not found. The French now became rivals for the trade of the Gambia, but the treaty of See also:Versailles in 1783 assigned the trade in the river to Britain, reserving, however, Albreda for French trade, while it assigned the See also:Senegal to See also:France, with the See also:reservation of the right of the British to trade at Portendic for See also:gum. This arrangement remained in force till 1857, when an See also:exchange of possessions was effected and the lower Gambia became a purely British river. In the period between the See also:signing of the treaty of Versailles and 1885 the small territories which form the colony proper were acquired by See also:purchase or cession from native See also:kings. St Mary's Isle was acquired in 1806; McCarthy's Isle was bought in 1823; the Ceded ,Mile was granted by the See also:king of Barra in 1826;. and British Kommbo between 184o and 1855. Duringthis period the colony had gone through an economic crisis by the abolition of the slave trade (1807), which had been since 1662 its chief See also:financial support. The beginning of a return to prosperity came in 1816 when some British traders, obliged to leave Senegal on the restoration of that country to France after the See also:Napoleonic See also:wars, founded a settlement on St Mary's Isle. From that year the existing colony, as distinct from trading on the river, See also:dates. The Gambia witnessed many administrative changes. When the slave trade was abolished, the settlement was placed under the See also:jurisdiction of the governor of Sierra Leone, and was formally annexed to Sierra Leone on the See also:dissolution of the Royal African Company (1822).

It so remained until 1843, when the Gambia was made an See also:

independent colony, its first governor being See also:Henry Frowd Seagram. Afterwards (1866) the Gambia became a portion of the officially styled " West African Settlements." In 1883 it was again made a See also:separate government, administered as a crown colony. Between the years last mentioned—1866-1888—the colony had suffered from the See also:retrograde policy adopted by See also:parliament in respect to the West African Settlements (vide See also:Report of the Select See also:Committee of 1865). In 187o negotiations were opened between France and Great Britain on the basis of a mutual exchange of territories in West Africa. Suspended owing to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian See also:War the negotiations were resumed in 1876. "Definite proposals were at that time formulated by which the Gambia was to be exchanged for all posts by France between the Rio Pongas (Pongo river, French Guinea) and the See also:Gabun. This would have been a comprehensive and intelligible arrangement, but so strong a feeling in opposition to any cession of British territory was manifested in parliament, and by various See also:mercantile bodies, that the government of the See also:day was unable to See also:press the See also:scheme."' Nothing was done, however, to secure for the Gambia a suitable See also:hinterland, and in 1877 the 4th earl of See also:Carnarvon (then colonial secretary) warned British traders that they proceeded beyond McCarthy's Isle at their own See also:risk. Meantime the French from Senegal pushed their frontier See also:close to the British settlements, so that when the boundaries were settled by the agreement of the loth of See also:August 1889 with France, Great Britain was able to secure only a ten-kilometre strip on either side of the river. This document fixed the frontier of the British protectorate inland at a See also:radius of 10 m. from the centre of the town of Yarbatenda; which town is situated at the limit of navigability of the Gambia from the sea. By See also:Art. 5 of the Anglo-French See also:convention of the 8th of See also:April 1904, Yarbatenda was ceded to France, with the object of giving that country a port on the river accessible to sea-going merchantmen. Since 1871 the colony had been self-supporting, but on the acquirement of the protectorate it was decided, in See also:order to See also:balance increasing See also:expenditure, to impose a "hut tax " on the natives.

This was done in 1895. The tax, which averages 4s. per annum for a See also:

family, met with no opposition. In 1892 a slave-raiding chief, named Fodi See also:Kabba, had to be forcibly expelled from British territory. In 1894 another slave-raider, Fodi Silah, gave much trouble to the protectorate. An expedition under Captain E. H. (afterwards admiral) Gamble succeeded in routing him, and Fodi Silah took See also:refuge in French territory, where he died. During the expedition Captain Gamble was led into an See also:ambush, and in this engagement lost 15 killed and 47 wounded. In 1900 trouble again arose through the agency of Fodi Kabba, who had fixed his See also:residence at See also:Medina, in French territory. Two travelling commissioners (Mr F. C. Sitwell and Mr See also:Silva) were murdered in June of that year, at a place called Suankandi, and a punitive expedition was sent out under See also:Colonel H.

E. See also:

Brake. Suankandi was captured and, the French co-operating, Medina was also captured, Fodi Kabba being killed on the 23rd of March 1901. The people of the protectorate are in See also:general peaceful and contented, and slave trading is a thing of the past. See also:Provision was moreover made by an See also:ordinance of 1906 for the extinction of See also:slavery itself throughout the protectorate, it being enacted that ' See also:Extract from a despatch of See also:Lord See also:Salisbury to the British See also:ambassador to France, dated 30th of March 1892. henceforth all See also:children See also:born of slaves were See also:free from See also:birth, and that all slaves became free on the death of their See also:master. See the Annual Reports on the colony published by the colonial See also:office, London, which give the latest See also:official See also:information; C. P. See also:Lucas's See also:Historical See also:Geography of the British Colonies, vol. iii., West Africa (2nd ed., See also:Oxford, 1900) (this See also:book contains valuable See also:bibliographical notes) ; and The Gambia Colony and Protectorate, an official handbook (with See also:map and considerable historical information), by F. B. See also:Archer, treasurer of the colony (London, 1906). Early accounts of the country will be found in vol. ii. of See also:Thomas See also:Astley's New General Collection of Voyages and Travels (London, 1745–,747).

See also See also:

Major W. See also:Gray and Surgeon Dochard, Travels in Western Africa in 1818-1821, from the River Gambia . . . to the River See also:Niger (London, 1829). The flora has been the subject of a See also:special study, A. Rangon, La Flore utile du bassin de la Gambie (See also:Bordeaux, 1895). Most of the books mentioned under Go'.') See also:Coe sr also See also:deal with the Gambia.

End of Article: GAMBIA

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