OUR FIRST VOYAGE ON LAKE CHAD 317 



chance, uses the show of authority that his uniform and arms 

 give him to plunder and ill-treat the defenceless natives. 

 Of course, this does a tremendous lot of harm to the white 

 man's rule. While I was at Lokoja there was a case of a 

 Yoruba soldier who deserted from the garrison, taking with 

 him a copy of the King's regulations. With this he went 

 about all over the country, on the strength of it " squeezing " 

 the chiefs for cattle and sheep and anything that he had a 

 fancy for, and it was a long time before his depredations 

 were discovered and he himself caught. Once I had to punish 

 one of our escort for snatching cloth away from a woman on 

 the road almost under my very eyes. Nor was this the only 

 case of abuse that came to light. 



We found only one of the steel boats at Kaddai, for 

 Jose had not yet returned with the other from Yo where he 

 had gone to fetch the rest of the stores. Gosling, also, 

 was at Yo making a collection of fish. He experienced 

 some difficulty in catching specimens small enough to go 

 into the spirit tanks, as the Buduma nets are large in the 

 mesh. However, his efforts were most successful, and out 

 of twenty-four different kinds that are known to the 

 natives by name he managed to secure twenty-one. This 

 reminds me that Gosling had a most thorough system of 

 ascertaining from the natives the names of animals, and 

 their habits and likely localities. So he was able with- 

 out waste of time to find out exactly what was worth 

 hunting for in each part of the country he came to. 



As the survey of Nigeria was finished, it was decided that 

 Talbot should return to England with the material collected 

 for embodiment in a map ; but he was naturally anxious to 



