Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/388

 324 WEST AFEICA. Wurno. Imperial decrees are passed on from vassal to vassal to tlie extremities of the empire, and homage and tribute are in the same way sent up to the central Government. The Benue and Lower Niger. — Boxny and Old Calabar. The access afforded by the Lower Niger and Benue waterway towards the interior promises one day to become the most important of all commercial high- ways in the African continent. The mouths of the Mger open seawards near the head of the Gulf of Guinea, between the Bights of Benin and Biafra, that is to say, towards the natural converging point of the chief lines of navigation in the South African Atlantic. From this point the inland fluvial route already offers a continuous navigable highway accessible to steamers for over 900 miles unob- structed by a single difficult impediment. Of all the great African rivers, the Benue alone is free from rapids in its middle course ; and even at the head of its navigation the slope of the land is continued eastwards through the Shari basin, while all reports agree in anticipating the existence of easy routes through the Niam-Niam territory from the Tsad to the Nile basin. Thus the Nile and Niger are connected by a great transverse artery crossing some of the most j)opulous and productive regions in Central Africa. Yet after the first appearance of the Portuguese on the Slave Coast three centuries passed before any European traders attempted to obtain a footing on the banks of the Niger or the Benue. Baikie's memorable expedition of 1854 ushered in the new era, which brings the purely African civilisation of Nigritia into direct contact with that of the whole world. Some English commercial houses sent their agents to the riverain cities along the Lower Niger, and at present the stream of commerce flows regularly from the whole of this region towards London and Liverpool. The English merchants have become the true sovereigns of the popu- lations dwelling in this African Mesopotamia. Nevertheless they had for a time to contend with the rivalry of some French houses, which began to found factories in the Niger delta about the year 1880. But the various British companies soon merged in a single powerful association, disposing of twenty -five steamers and a capital large enough to huj up all the French houses, and, despite the diplomatic clauses declaring the Lower Niger open to all nations, the commercial monopoly was thus restored to Great Britain. A German society, admirably served by the explorations of Flegel, has also recently made great efforts to secure the trade of the Benue ; but the riverain chiefs, dazzled by the more brilliant offers of the English, have yielded to them all com- mercial privileges. " Wherever a British consul shall set his foot," writes the emir of Nupe, " there also I shall set mine." The position of the English representatives, supported by over two hundred tieaties, is no longer challenged, and the support of the home government is gradually transforming their prerogatives* into a political dominion. Not only can the company trade along the river to the exclusion of all others, but it has