Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



we had no business there, and our Haussas 

 returned the feeling most heartily; in fact, the 

 situation, difficult enough for white officers, was 

 quite beyond the black troops ; and I think we, 

 on both sides, deserve some credit for the fact 

 that we managed to keep our men so well in hand 

 that, though for some two months we were doing 

 all we knew for our respective countries, and our 

 men were crossing and recrossing each other's 

 tracks, sometimes meeting face to face and spoil- 

 ing for a fight meanwhile, yet never a rifle went 

 off, and when news from Europe came that Borgu 

 had been definitely allotted to us, we parted in a 

 friendly manner. 



I had one whole day's shooting about this 

 time, and that was all. I went out with the late 

 Captain Abadie, with whom I had many shoots in 

 Nigeria. Abadie had been a friend of mine since 

 the time when he sailed for India in 1893 to join 

 the Sixteenth Lancers on the old Serapis that was 

 taking my regiment to the East. He was very 

 quick at seeing game, and an extraordinary shot, 

 so he generally "wiped my eye" when we went 

 out together. No man did more for Northern 

 Nigeria than he did; he was the friend and 

 adviser of white and black men alike, and well 

 deserved the C.M.G. that was conferred on him 

 in 1903. He died suddenly, soon after, in the 

 country he had served so well. 



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