﻿RESEARCH IN BRITISH WEST AFRICA. 141 



total native population is between 6,500,000 and 7,000,000, and there are over 

 1,500 Europeans in the Colony. 



Formerly this area was divided politically into the Colony of Lagos and the 

 Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, each with its own administration, but recently 

 the two have been amalgamated into the " Colony and Protectorate of Southern 

 Nigeria " as a single dependency. 



Roughly speaking the old Colony of Lagos is now known as the Western 

 Province, and the old Protectorate is subdivided into two Provinces, the Central 

 and the Eastern (see Map). The term " Colony " will be used to denote the whole 

 area, and the subdivisions will be referred to as the Western, the Central, and the 

 Eastern Provinces respectively. 



Lagos, an important and flourishing seaport, is the seat of administration of 

 the Colony and also the headquarters of the Western Province, while Warri and 

 Calabar are respectively the headquarters of the Central and the Eastern 

 Provinces. At these three towns are stationed the Provincial Heads of Depart- 

 ments, and here also are situated the three European Hospitals. 



The division of the Colony into three Provinces is to a certain degree 

 arbitrary, but to a great extent these form fairly definite geographical areas. As 

 will be seen later, the Western Province has no large rivers but is traversed by 

 the Lagos Railway, which now unites Lagos with Zungeru, Kano and the Bauchi 

 tin mines in Northern Nigeria ; the Central Province is traversed by the River 

 Niger, the main outlet to the sea for exports from both Northern and Southern 

 Nigeria ; and the Eastern Province is drained by the Cross River, which, during 

 the rainy season, is navigable throughout its entire course in Southern Nigeria 

 and even into the German Colony of Kamerun. 



Lagos is by far the most important town on the coast, and now that Northern 

 Nigeria has been linked up by means of the railway, a considerable amount of 

 the passenger and light goods traffic which formerly went by way of the Niger 

 will pass through this port. At the present time, owing to the dangerous nature 

 of the bar, mail-steamers are unable to enter the harbour, and all heavy cargo is 

 trans-shipped at Forcados into smaller " branch boats " and then transferred 

 to Lagos, but harbour works are being rapidly carried out, on the com- 

 pletion of which it is hoped that the mail-boats will load and unload direct at 

 Lagos. 



The port-of-call for mail-steamers in the Central Province is Forcados, which 

 is undoubtedly the largest shipping port in West Africa. This port must always 

 be the main outlet for exports from a large part of Northern Nigeria, and at the 

 same time, as the headquarters of the Niger Company, it will continue to be the 

 chief port of shipment for the produce of Southern Nigeria. Such being 

 the case, special attention should be directed to it and special efforts made to 

 ensure that the conditions there are such that there could be no possibility of any 

 insect-borne disease obtaining a hold and spreading, even if introduced. 



There are two ports in the Eastern Province, namely, Bonny and Calabar, but 

 the latter is by far the more important, and, as in the case of Lagos and 

 Forcados, they must also be regarded as possible centres for the dissemination of 

 disease. 



