430 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY Emirs of Kontagora and Nupe remained unrestricted, trade was of course impossible in the districts over which their armies ranged, for it was the practice of the pagans to retaHate upon the slave-raiders by attacking all small caravans. After the emirs had been brought into obedience and slave-raiding stopped, it became the duty of the British administration to put down with an equally firm hand the habits of brigandage of the pagan tribes.

For this purpose it was occasionally necessary to apply force, but even in the early stages of the administration it was found that capable officers did more towards effecting the pacification of the country by getting into touch with the people, than could be effected by many punitive expeditions, and the High Commissioner looked forward to superseding military occupation at an early date by an efcient system of civil police. Not only had the trade routes to the south from Kano and Zaria been rendered unsafe by the slave-raiding of Nupe and Kontagora and the retaliation of the pagan tribes ; it was also found that the caravan tolls extorted by the southern emirs had been of the most excessive and onerous description. By stopping the slave-raiding of the Fulani, keeping the pagans in order, and lessening the tolls, the roads on the western side of the Protectorate were rendered safer and more attractive, and trade beoan to improve. New stations for European trade were opened by the Niger Company on the Kaduna, and from Borgu to Bautchi the increase in local trade was even in the first year remarkable.

But while this condition of things in the eight provinces which had been occupied was satisfactory, the inadequacy of the numbers of the British staff to deal with the rising tide of work thrown upon the administration became ever more apparent. With the removal in some districts of Fulani rule each petty village began to claim its ancient land, and to show disposition to raid its neighbours in support of its claim. The need of a survey and land settlement was urgent. More Residents were