CHAPTER XLV THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH ADMINISTRATION It will be understood that in attempting, as I am now about to do, to give some account of the establishment of British administration in the midst of the conditions which have been described, I enter upon a difficult portion of my task. The British High Commissioner is my husband. Many members of his staff have become my personal friends. It is impossible for me altogether to clear my mind of favourable prejudice, and I am forced to realise that the detachment which gives the proportion of history is no longer at my command. I can only therefore ask beforehand for indulgence if in this last section of my book personal sentiment tends to warp my judgment of the relative importance of events.

The rulers of the Nigerian territories had placed themselves nominally, for reasons which rendered a choice of European protectors essential to them, under the protection of Great Britain. By their treaties with the Royal Niger Company some of them had nominally surrendered their territory with all sovereign rights. Others, and these the most important, including the emirates of Sokoto and Gando, had agreed to enter into treaty with no other white nation but the British ; to give to Great Britain jurisdiction over all foreigners and non-natives in their dominions, with right to tax them ; to transfer to Great Britain sovereign rights in the riverine territories of the Niger and the Benu6 for a distance of ten hours' journey inland from the banks of the two rivers ; to confer also rights of mining and trading ; and generally, while reserving their own powers of internal rule, to subordinate themselves in external 7 2 D