MILITARY OCCUPATION 431 wanted to maintain the moral influence acquired in the provinces. Police and revenue officers were also needed. The housing of Europeans and the erection of public offices in the new settlement, of which the site was selected at a spot called Zungeru, within ten miles of Wushishi, on open ground rising from the Kaduna, had become a matter of some importance, and for the opening year of 1 901-1902 the necessity of some increase in the estimates to provide for these pressing requirements was apparent.

The continuance of the South African War still gave no relief to the exchequer at home. The inclination of the public was still such as could only be interpreted by the Government as a desire to "go slow " in West Africa, and still affairs upon the spot continued to urge the necessity for the assertion of British rule.

Five more provinces were in a condition in which the danger of abstaining from interference was greater than the inconvenience of interfering.

British Residents had been accepted — though not enthusiastically — by the governing power in Nassarawa, the province bordering eastward upon Nupe, which was a sub-emirate of the nominally friendly Zaria, and was very largely occupied by pagan tribes. In Muri too, a little farther along the Benue, where pagans were glad to be protected, British stations had been formed. But the Fulani Emirs of Bautchi and Yola in the east, believing themselves strong enough to defy the power of Great Britain, and rendered only more antagonistic by the fate of Kontagora and Nupe, and by the effectual British protection given to the pagans of Muri and Nassarawa, were creating a situation which became every day more difficult. The Emir of Yola, a well-educated Fulani and religious fanatic, ordered the representatives of the Niger Company, notwithstanding treaty rights to the contrary, to haul down their flag and close their trading station on the river. In Bautchi the important town of Guarram was destroyed, and the population carried into