JIBUTI (DJIBOUTI)  , the chief port and capital of French Somaliland, in 11° 35' N., 430 10' E . Jibuti is situated at the entrance to and on the southern shore of the Gulf of Tajura ?!tau* 15o m . S.W. of Aden . The town is built on a horseshoe-shaped peninsula partly consisting of mud flats, which are spanned by causeways . The chief buildings are the governor's palace, customs-house, post office, and the terminal station of the railway to Abyssinia . The houses in the Europeanquarter are built of stone, are flat-roofed and provided with verandas . There is a good water supply, drawn from a reservoir about 22 M. distant . The harbour is land-locked and capacious . Ocean steamers are able to enter it at all states of wind and tide . Adjoining the mainland is the native town, consisting mostly of roughly made wooden houses with well thatched roofs . In it is held a large market, chiefly for the disposal of live stock, camels, cattle, &c . The port is a regular calling-place and also a coaling station for the steamers of the Messageries Maritimes, and there is a local service to Aden .

Trade is confined to coaling passing ships and to importing goods for and exporting goods from southern Abyssinia via Harrar, there being no local industries . (For statistics see SOMALILAND, FRENCH.) The inhabitants are of many races—Somali, Danakil, Gallas, Armenians, Jews, Arabs, Indians, besides Greeks, Italians, French and other Europeans . The population, which in 1900 when the railway was building was about 15,000, had fallen in 1907 to some 5000 or 6000, including 300 Europeans . Jibuti was founded by the French in 1888 in consequence of its superiority to Obok both in respect to harbour accommodation and in nearness to Harrar . It has been the seat of the governor of the colony since May 1896 . Order is maintained by a purely native police force . The port is not fortified .