7/3 THE CONFLUENCE OF THE NIGER AND THE BENUE AT LOKOJA, CHAPTER III ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN WEST AFRICA was fought under the walls of the Fulah capital. The enemy's force was estimated at about 30,000 men, a large part of them mounted. Formedin a square with guns and Maxims at the angles, the Company's forces beat back with enormous loss the repeated charges of the enemy, and next day the city was bombarded and stormed. The reigning sultan wasdeposed, and another of the Emirs was enthroned in his stead, as tlae vassal of the Niger Company. In February the expedition advanced against Ilorin. It wasconveyed up tlae Niger by the flotilla to Rabba, which was chosen as the starting-place of the march by land. The Fulahs againretired before Northcott's advance, and gave battle under the walls of their capital. It was a repetition of the fight at Bida, with tlae same result. Ilorin was captured on February 10th, and two days later the fugitive Emirs came in and surrendered. The reigningEmir was reinstatedunderthe controlof a Resident appointed by the Company, and a decree was published abolishing slavery in the newly-acquired territories. The troops that had brought this brilliantlittle campaign so speedily to a successful issue then returned to Lokoja. The camp there was a busy place for the rest of the year. Special service officers were arriving from England ;new regiments were beingraised and trained, and additions were made to the gunboat flotilla,for the French were again pushing MEANWHILE the British authorities and tlae Niger Company were steadily strengthening their position. In the winter of 1895, an expedition under the command of Colonel Sir Francis Scott left Cape Coast Castle to occupy Coomassie, the capital of the Ashanti kingdom, one of tlae few powerful native states now remaining on the West Coast. The Ashantis made no resistance, and the last of their kings was deposed and brought away as a prisoner. In tlae winter of 1896, extensive preparations were made for an expedition on the Lower Niger, to reduce to submission the French sultans of Ilorin and Nupe. A flotilla of gunboats was concentrated at Lokoja, the point where the Niger receives its great tributary, the Benue. In the camp near Lokoja native troops, chiefly Flaussa negroes, were being drilled under English officers, the commander-in-chiefbeing Major Northcott, a British cavalry officer who, likemany good soldiersof our day, had worked his way to a commission from the ranks. Sir George Taubmann-Goldie, tlae Governor of tlae Niger Company's territory, who had decided to accompany the expedition, reached Lokoja at the end of December. A start was made on January 6th. Advancing first against Bida, tlae Fulah camp at Kabba wascaptured, tlae enemy's outposts weredriven in on tlae 25th at a place nine miles from Bida, and on the 26th a battle