WEST AFRICA. 



853 



Great Britain, has by means of its trading monop- 

 oly driven French and German merchants as well 

 as political agents from the field, and has paid 

 dividends on its capital of 1,100,000. The trade 

 of the Niger Coast protectorate has been carried 

 on by a company of Liverpool merchants, who 

 likewise have been excluded from the Niger river 

 by the regulations of the chartered company. 

 The protectorate has heretofore been adminis- 

 tered by a commissioner under the direction of 

 the Foreign Office in London. The revenue in 

 1898 was 153,181, of which 145,440 came from 

 customs,; expenditure, 121,900. The imports in 

 1898 were 639,698; exports, 750,223. The 

 trade in palm oil and palm kernels gave the name 

 of the Oil Rivers district to the country traversed 

 by the Calabar, Brass, and other creeks. Besides 

 these commodities, caoutchouc, ivory, ebony, 

 camwood, indigo, gum, barwood, and hides are 

 exported. Cacao is grown, and plantations have 

 also been started in the Niger territories where 

 the cultivation of coffee has been introduced also. 

 The natural products are gums, caoutchouc, ivory, 

 palm kernels, palm oil, vegetable butter, and 

 skins. The military force of the Royal Niger 

 Company, consisting of 1,000 Hausa troops, was 

 supplemented in 1898 by 2,400 black troops raised 

 by Col. F. D. Lugard, which were stationed in 

 Borgu after the subsidence of the excitement 

 caused by the French occupation of a port on the 

 navigable Niger. A public debt of 250,000 was 

 contracted by the Royal Niger Company while 

 contending with France for the possession of 

 Sokoto and Gandu on the middle Niger and with 

 Germany for the countries on the Benue. Early 

 in 1897, when the trial of strength with foreign 

 governments was nearly ended, the Emir of Nupe 

 denied the authority of the company over the 

 country that he occupied with an army of 30,- 



000 men. The Sultan of Ilorin was also defiant. 

 Sir George Goldie, with a force of 800 men, de- 

 feated first one and then the other, and issued 

 a decree abolishing the legal status of slavery 

 under the judicial system of the company. The 

 introduction of firearms and spirits into the in- 

 terior was already prohibited. 



Immediately after the ratifications of the An- 

 glo-French convention of June 14, 1898, were ex- 

 changed the British Government arranged with 

 Sir George Taubman Goldie, chairman of the 

 Royal Niger Company, the terms of the transfer 

 to the Imperial Government of the administrative 

 authority and territorial rights of the company, 

 together with lands and mineral rights that it 

 was thought desirable to take over and the build- 

 ings, military stores, etc. The trading rights to 

 be retained by the company were only such as 

 all other traders possessed, not the virtual monop- 

 oly that the control of transport facilities and 



1 lading stations, the possession of both banks of 

 the river, and the right to collect duties and tolls 

 had previously preserved. The compensation that 

 the Government agreed to pay was 865,000, 

 representing the debts incurred and advances 

 from profits for administrative expenses and the 

 value of the lands, buildings, mineral rights, etc., 

 acquired from the company. The treaties that 

 the chartered company in its sovereign capacity 

 had made with native rulers contained a clause 

 binding them, when called upon to do so by the 

 company, to place their territories under the pro- 

 tection of the British flag. The trading stations, 

 river depots, wharves, rights of w r ay, factories, 

 and all the rest of its plant and trading assets 

 are retained by the company. The 5-per-cent. debt 

 of 250,000 the Government assumed with the 

 right reserved of redeeming the bonds at any 



time at 120. The Government agrees to impose a 

 royalty on all minerals in the part of Northern 

 Nigeria between the Ni^er and a, line running from 

 Yola to Zinder, and to pay half the receipts to the 

 company for ninety-nine years. Of the total 

 sum 820,000 were raised by a loan and 45,000 

 paid out of revenue, besides which 75,000 were 

 voted for new buildings and the expense of start- 

 ing the new administration. The entire sum paid 

 to the chartered company was made a charge 

 on the revenues of the new colony. The lands 

 acquired by the Government from the company 

 consisted of a narrow strip extending along both 

 banks of the Niger, nowhere above 2,000 yards 

 wide, but having a total area of 500 square miles. 

 It was the possession of this strip that enabled 

 the company to shut out completely any other 

 traders from sharing the Niger trade. The cus- 

 toms frontiers between Lagos, the Niger Coast 

 protectorate, and the Niger Company's territory 

 were abolished and a common tariff established, 

 except that the importation of spirits into North- 

 ern Nigeria was prohibited. In order to guard 

 the better against their introduction into North- 

 ern Nigeria a neutral zone is established on the 

 border of Southern Nigeria, within which spirits 

 can be sold but not kept in store. The whole coun- 

 try was divided into the three colonies of Lagos, 

 Southern Nigeria, and Northern Nigeria. South- 

 ern Nigeria, embraces the Niger Coast protector- 

 ate and the southern part of the Niger Com- 

 pany's territory. Col. Lugard was appointed 

 Governor of Northern Nigeria. The Niger Com- 

 pany, whose charter was to be revoked on Jan. 

 1, 1900, decided to go on as a concern for trading, 

 banking, the working of forests, the cultivation 

 of indigo, tobacco, and other indigenous products, 

 and generally for any financial and industrial ob- 

 jects. The capital was reduced to 319,760. The 

 actual cash capital on which the company had 

 been built up was said to have been about 160,- 

 000; but, in spite of deficit shown in the adminis- 

 trative account, the company had paid large divi- 

 dends on the nominal capital every year. 



The colonial loans bill passed by the British 

 Parliament authorized a loan of 43,500 to the 

 Niger Coast protectorate for harbor works at Old 

 Calabar. This, as well as the rest of the English 

 colonies, has made much progress lately in trade. 

 The revenue for 1898 was 13,000 more than the 

 previous average, which was 140,000. 



There was severe fighting at the beginning of 

 1899. In an attack upon the Niger Company's 

 forces, numbering 400, at Illah, several officers 

 were wounded. After being re-enforced by a body 

 of the West African frontier force, the troops at- 

 tacked and destroyed Ibo, Kuka, and several other 

 native towns and killed a great many natives. 

 In April the troops of the protectorate marched 

 against the chief Ologbosheri, instigator of the 

 Benin massacre in 1897, who was finally captured 

 after the troops had burned six towns, and was 

 executed early in July. In the territory of the 

 Niger Company Capt Carter was killed in April 

 while attempting to scale the wall of Suntai, a 

 town near the upper Benue, whose chief was com- 

 mitting depredations on his neighbors. A puni- 

 tive expedition of Hausa troops with mountain 

 guns captured Suntai and its chief in July, after 

 inflicting heavy loss upon the defenders. In Sep- 

 tember there was prolonged fighting with the 

 Fula tribes on the Benue, and a great many per- 

 sons were killed and eight towns burned because 

 there had been interference with the river traffic. 

 In Northern Nigeria, which covers about 300,000 

 square miles, military operations under Col. J. 

 Willcocks were directed to establishing fortified 



