448 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY lay along the twelfth parallel of latitude, and the partymoved on at the rate of about twenty-eight miles a day. As they drew near to Sokoto as many as four and five walled towns were passed on each day. They were generally moated, and the walls were sometimes a mile long on each face. Fortunately the inhabitants showed themselves quite friendly, and, with no worse adventure than tolerably severe discomfort, the High Commissioner arrived at Sokoto on the 19th of March in time to see, as he came over some rising ground, a dark crowd streaming towards the British camp, composed, he was informed, of the principal notables of the town coming to make their formal submission to the British. He received in person the submission of the Waziri and principal chiefs of Sokoto. The emir, like the Emir of Kano, had fled.

The trial of strength had come and gone. The Fulani emirates were in our hands, and Great Britain was the acknowledged sovereign of Northern Nigeria. I