The New Student's Reference Work/French Guinea

French Guinea. Lying between Portuguese Guinea on the north and Sierra Leone on the south, this French possession extends inland with a total area of 95,000 square miles and a population estimated at 1,498,000. The colony is self-supporting, the income and outgo balancing in 1907 at 5,300,000 francs. In 1905 the imports amounted to 18,924,814 francs, and the exports to 16,373,661 francs, these consisting chiefly of rubber, cattle and palm-nuts. A road has been driven from Konakry, the capital, to the Niger at Kurussa, and a railway has followed it as far as Kindia, 83 miles. There are 1,060 miles of telegraph. As elsewhere in French West Africa, governmental lay-schools are taking the place of those under the care of religious orders. French colonization began in 1685, but official occupancy by France did not occur till 1843.