He was appointed instructor in fortifications at the
Military School at Fontainebleau, where he remained for two years. The
work did not appeal to him particularly and he is spoken of there as a
thorough teacher, but not popular. He had not mingled enough with others
to get their point of view.
A welcome change from this was a summons from headquarters to go to
Timbuctoo, and help suppress a native rebellion. It was all the more
welcome as here, for the first time, he was promised a chance to do some
real fighting.
Timbuctoo was then being overrun by the Tuaregs, a tribe of terrible
brigands called "the veiled men" of Western Soudan. They had massacred
the European settlers, and ended by killing two French officers, Colonel
Bonnier and Lieutenant Boiteux, who had recently headed expeditions
against them. It was a wild and treacherous land, and the relief
expedition would scarcely have child's play of it.
Joffre went at it without the slightest misgiving. Like many another
soldier he was a firm believer in "Luck," and here certainly the fates
were propitious. He set forth on his journey from Segou, on Christmas
Day, 1893, commanding a force of thirty French and three hundred natives.
They crossed deadly swamps and dry, trackless deserts. There were some
deaths by the wayside, but Joffre pushed on.
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