early in the 19th century, bagirmi fell into decay and was threatened by the sultanate of wadai. it was finally annexed in 1871. it came to european attention following the visits of dixon denham (1823), heinrich barth (1852), gustav nachtigal (1872), and matteucci and massari (1881). when rabih az-zubayr's forces burned massenya in 1893, the 25th sultan, abd ar rahman gaourang, moved his government to chekna. during the scramble for africa, the third french republic became interested in connecting its possessions across the breadth of africa, permitting a dakar–djibouti railway. rabih killed paul crampel, the leader of the first french expedition through the area but emile gentil secured a protectorate over bagirmi from its sultan in 1897. french ambitions in the sudan were blocked following the fashoda crisis the next year, and their authority over the bagirmi itself was not secured until after the death of rabih and his sons in 1901. towns grew up around the french fort lamy at the confluence of the logone and shari and fort de cointet on the middle shari. the population of the district was reckoned as 100,000 in 1903 and, by the time of the first world war, most of its trade was being conducted with khartoum in sudan through the wadai empire and with yola in nigeria along the benue.