428 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY and bring its customs into conformity with the principles of justice and humanity.

The emir-elect of Nupe, upon the suitability of whose appointment the opinion of the native council was previously taken, having accepted British conditions, was formally installed at Bida, before a full parade of British troops and a great assemblage of his own people, in February of 1 901. He has since — under the guidance at first of Major Burdon, one of the officers transferred from the service of the Niger Company, and specially selected for the duties of first Resident of Nupe, because of his known sympathies with the Fulani people — acted with the utmost loyalty towards the British Government.

Nupe has prospered exceedingly under the new system, and the emir's sons are now being educated at a school established in Bida by the Church Missionary Society, where they are learning, at their father's keenly expressed desire, to speak English.

As a result of the subjugation of Kontagora and Bida their great organised slave-raids were brought to an end, the friendship of Zaria was confirmed, and there was a pacification of the neighbouring pagan tribes. Other provinces along the river bank indicated their readiness to open trade routes, and to accept British Residents, with the garrison which the presence of a Resident implied ; and though the limited numbers of the British staff rendered it impossible immediately to take full advantage of these favourable dispositions, the High Commissioner was able to report by the end of the financial year 1 900-1 901 that the British Government was in effective possession of the eight provinces of Borgu, Ilorin, Kabba, Kontagora, Nupe, Zaria, Nassarawa, and Muri.

Throughout these provinces the Government endeavoured as far as possible to bring into operation the policy which it had declared of utilising and working through the native chiefs, while it insisted upon their observance of the fundamental laws of humanity and justice. Resi-