The papers regard the situation in West Africa as being of the gravest nature, and agree that the limits of British forbearance have been reached.
Reuter's correspondent at Akasa states that two French expeditions were advancing on Sokoto, and that the Sultan ordered them to halt forty miles from. the capital. The Niger Company's force is ready and awaiting instructions to advance and help the Sultan to secure the evacuation of British territory.
Sokoto is a large district in the Haussa [Akasa is at the mouth of the Niger. States, in the hinterland of the Niger territory, due north of the mouths of the Niger.—Ep. N.-0. D. N.]
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.