T909 

Captain Fiegenschuh, with a small force of tirailleurs, and Acyl's contingents, advanced up the Batha to a place within 15 M. of Abeshr, where, on the 1st of June, the enemy were defeated . The next day another fight took place close to Abeshr . The Wadaians were again put to flight and the town bombarded with cannon . Doud Murra with a small following fled north, and Abeshr was occupied by the French . The prince Acyl was subsequently placed on the throne, and, under French guidance, governed Wadai proper, Dar Sila, Dar Runga and other tributary states being directly governed by French residents . The war was not, however, ended by the occupation of Abeshr . Captain Fiegenschuh's column, operating south-east of Abeshr, was cut off by the Massalit Arabs near the Darfur frontier, but a punitive force retrieved this disaster in April following . While these operations were in progress, Lieut . Boyd Alexander (b . 1873), who had previously crossed from the Niger to the Nile, the first British explorer to enter Wadai, passed through Abeshr on his way to Darfur . At the station of Nyeri, in Dar Tama, on the Darfur border, he was murdered on the 2nd of April 1910 . In November 1910 a French column, 300 strong, under Colonel Moll, while operating in the Massalit country was at-tacked by 5000 men under Doud Murra and the sultan of the Massalit .

The enemy was beaten off, but the French had over Too casualties, including Colonel Moll killed . See G .

Nachtigal, Sahara and Sudan (3 vols., Berlin, 1879–1889) ; Captain Julien, " Le Dar Ouadai," Renseign. colon. comite de l'Afrique francaise (1904); J. van Vollenhoven, " Le Voyage de Nachtigal au Ouadai," Renseign. colon . (1903); Captain Repoux, " Le Ouadai," B.S.G . Corn . Bordeaux (Iwo); Commandant Bordeaux, " Deux Contre-rezzous dans 1'Ouaddai," La Geog . B.S.G . Paris (1908); A . Ferrier, " La Prise d'Abecher," L'Afrigue frangaise (1909): A . H . Keane, " Wadai," Travel and Exploration (July 191o) ; Sir H . H .

Johnston, " Lieutenant Boyd Alexander," og . Jour . (July 191o) ; The Times, July 21st, 1910 (details of Boyd Alexander's murder) . See also SENuss1 .