Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/555

 NIGER TERRITORIES 211

In consequence of the international complications in 1897 an Imperial force, known as the West African Frontier Force was raised early in 1898 under the command of Colonel Lugard, C.B., D.S.O. This force consists at present of two battalions of 1,200 men each, with artillery, engineer, telegraph ser- vice, medical staff, &c., complete. It occupies at present British Borgu.

The present capital of the Niger Territories is at Asaba, where the chief justice of the supreme court resides, and where are also the central prison, civil and military hospitals, and other public buildings. The headquarters of the company's military force are at Lokoja. The other principal settlements are at Akassa (port of entry), Abo, Abutshi, Atani, Bakundi, Donga, Egga, Ganagana (port of entry), Ibi, Idah, Leaba, Loko, Odeni, and Yola, the last being only about 200 miles from Lake Chad. The trade in these inland territories is as yet in its infancy, as the Company has been almost entirely absorbed in the preliminary work of establishing order and putting down slave-raiding. For this purpose it maintains a force of about 1,000 black troops — chiefly Ilausas — commanded by British officers lent by the War Office, and provided with ample artillery. The principal exports are gums, hides, indiarubber, ivory, kernels, palm oil, and vegetable butter, but a great variety of minor products are also exported. Considerable plantations of coffee and cocoa have been started, and a botanic garden created. The chief imports are cottons, silks, woollens, earthenware, hardware, beads, tobacco, and salt. Heavy duties have been imposed by the Company on spirits and gunpowder. The importation of spirits into regions north of latitude 7° N. (stated to form nineteen-twentieths of the Territories) is now prohibited. Tobacco and salt are also taxed. All other imports are free. The revenue is principally raised by export duties.

The government is conducted by the Council in London, of which the president is Sir George Taubman Goldie, K.C.M.G., the vice-president, the Earl of Scarbrough.

Books of Reference on Niger Coast Protectorate and Niger

Territories.

Annual Reports of the Royal Niger Company.

Papers Relating to the Massacre of British Officials near Benin. London, 1897.

Travels of Clapperton, R. Lander. Richardson, Barth, Rohlfs.

Bacon (R. IL), The City of Blood.' [Benin]. London, 1807.

£ind?o«8 (H.), In the Niger Country. London, 1899.

Boisragon (Captain), The Massacre in Benin. London, 1897.

Goldie (Hugh), Old Calabar and its Mission, 1890.

Harford-Battersby (C. F.), Niger and Yoruba Routes. 2 vols. London, 1895-96.

Hulchmson, Narrative of the Niger, Tshadda, and Binne Exploration.

Hodges (F. E.), Consular Jurisdiction in the Niger Coast. London, 1805.

Hoilr»t (Lieut.), Sur le Niger et au Pays des Touaregs. Paris, 1898. — The Exploration of the Niger, 1895-96. [Eng. Trans.] London, 1898.

Johnston (Sir Harrj'), The Colonisation of Africa. Cambridge, 1899.

Keltie (J. Scott), The Partition of Africa. 2nd. ed. London, 1895.

Lucas (C. P.), Historical Geography of the British Colonies. Vol. III. Oxford, 1894.

MacDonaW (Sir C. M.), Paper in Proceedings R. G. S., 1891.

Ortroz (F. Van), Conventions Internationales Concernant rAfriquo. Brussels, 1898.

Robinson (C. H.), Hausaland : Fifteen Hundred Miles through the Central Soudan. 8. London, 189(3.

MockUr -Ferryman (A. F.), Up the Niger. London, 1892. Imperial Africa. Vol. I. London, 1808.

r/io/n.<:on(J.), 'Mungo Park,' and Proc. R. Geographical Soc. (1886).

Trotter (Colonel J. K.), The Niger Sources. London, 1897.

Vandeleur (S.), Campaigning on the Upper Nile and Niger. London, 1898.

Nyasaland. See Central Africa (British). Pondoland. See Cape of Good Hope.

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