440 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY that Kano would prove impregnable, and that Fulani rule would be victoriously maintained.

This being the condition of affairs, it became evident that, the sooner the issue was decided, the sooner would peace and progress become possible in the Nigerian territories. It was not without a profound sense of the responsibility attaching to British action at a juncture when all eyes, pagan and Mohammedan alike, through the vast congeries of native states, were turned upon the little knot of white men, by this time permanently established in the British headquarters at Zungeru, that the High Commissioner determined to urge upon the authorities at home the necessity for striking one clear and decided blow before the resistance to British authority had had time to gain weight and force by preparation and a sustained belief in its own chances of conquest.

The highest authority of Haussaland had repudiated the position nominally established by treaty. He had declared that between him and Great Britain there could be nothing but war. The alternative for the British Administration was either to take up the challenge thrown, or to abandon the work of pacification and civilisation upon which it had entered in Haussaland. The treaty ground of the British position having been cut from under our feet, it was necessary either to leave the country, to abandon those who had already trusted to our protection, and to throw away in the eyes of Europe all the ground taken by successive international agreements, or to face the position frankly, and base our future supremacy in the Protectorate upon the indisputable argument of conquest.

In the case of the southern emirates this had already been done. In Kontagora, Nupe, Bautchi, Yola, and Nassawara, we had already been welcomed by the subject populations as the conquerors of their conqueror. In every emirate the new ruler had been appointed by the British Government, and had accepted