merchants. The chief manufacturing industry of the city is
exquisite embroidered robes, which cost from three to four thousand
francs each, and are principally exported to Morocco.

An ancient Sudanese proverb says, "Salt comes from the north, gold from
the south, and silver from the country of the white men, but the word of
God and the treasures of wisdom are only to be found in Timbuctoo." It
would be an exaggeration to put the university in the mosque of Sankore
on a level with those of Egypt, Morocco, or Syria, but it was the great
intellectual nucleus of the Sudan, and also one of the great scientific
centres of Islam itself. Her collection of ancient manuscripts leaves us
in no doubt upon the point. There is an entire class of the population
devoted to the study of letters. They are called Marabuts, or Sheikhs,
and from them doctors, priests, schoolmasters, and jurists are drawn.

_V.--The Romance of the Modern Conquest_

The prosperity of the French Sudan is so closely connected with that of
its principal market that if the general anarchy had been prolonged in
Timbuctoo all the sacrifices of human life and money France had made on
her threshold would have remained sterile. The French Government decided
that the sooner an end was put to the ruinous dominion of the Touaregs
the better it would be. Up to the last moment England endeavoured to put
her hand upon the commerce of Timbuctoo. Failing in her efforts from
Tripoli and the Niger's mouth, she attempted to secure a footing by way
of Morocco, and was installed towards 1890 at Cape Juby. It was then too
late. French columns and posts had been slowly advanced by the Senegal
route, and in 1893 Jenne was captured.

In the following year a flotilla of gunboats was dispatched while two
columns of troops followed up to anticipate any concentration of nomad
Touaregs, which might prevent the occupation of the Mysterious City.
From the flotilla a detachment of nineteen men was landed. Of these only
seven were Europeans, the remainder being Senegalese negroes. They had
two machine guns with them, and, under the command of a naval
lieutenant, Boiteux by name, they marched to the walls of Timbuctoo, and
demanded that the rulers of the city should surrender it, and that they
should sign a treaty of peace placing the country under the protectorate
of France. The city was occupied, temporary fortlets were run up, and
the nineteen mariners held them till January 10, 1894, w