MILITARY OCCUPATION 427 upon the condition of affairs created by the previous victory of the Company. The emir driven out by them had returned, as has been already mentioned, and ousting the heir placed upon the throne by the Company, had ever since maintained a condition of hostility to the British. This emir, Abu Bekri, now fled, like his colleague of Kontagora, to the north. The High Commissioner did not call upon Gando, to whom Nupe was tributary, to nominate his successor, but himself took the initiative and reinstated the emir selected by the Company upon the throne.

But If the High Commissioner was desirous that the lesson of the previous war should not be lost upon the native dynasty of Nupe, he drew also his own moral from the experience. On this occasion there was to be no more of conquest without permanent assertion of British influence.

The reinstatement of the ousted Emir of Nupe was made the opportunity of a preliminary declaration of British policy. It was pointed out to the people of Nupe and Kontagora that two of the most powerful Fulani emirs had been deposed, because, after repeated warnings, they would not desist from laying waste the whole country and carrying off" the people as slaves. At the same time no looting and no destruction of the country had been permitted by British troops. Both the cities which were the Fulani capitals had been preserved, and the loss of life had been confined entirely to the Fulani cavalry employed as slave-raiders. The peaceful populations had In no case suflered from British arms. Nevertheless, though Individual emirs had been deposed, it was not the Intention of the Government to overthrow Fulani rule as such, and to substitute rulers of another race. On the contrary, it was the intention of the British Government to maintain existing institutions, including the rule of the Fulani, established now for a hundred years, but to insist on such reforms as should restore the administration of the country to its ancient purity,