454 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY prayer was recited aloud by the criers, and the crowd dispersed amid discordant sounds of rejoicing and expressions of mutual goodwill. The High Commissioner was very favourably impressed with this Sultan, as with the Wombai of Kano, and with many of the leading men of their councils.

Amongst the upper class Fulani of the northern states he met men deserving in every way of the name of cultivated gentlemen. He found them able in argument, cultivated in discussion, open to the conclusions of reason. In manner they were dignified, courteous, and sympathetic. Nor did they seem to him to lack the essential qualities of frankness and humanity. There could be no question to his mind, nor to those of the * officers who accompanied him, that among the educated classes of the northern state they were in the presence of a wholly different standard of civilisation to that generally accepted in the southern emirates. A similar experience was made at a later period in Bornu, and the recognition of this fact naturally went to strengthen I the conviction of the wisdom of the policy which proposed to rule, as far as possible, through the existing Fulani and Bornuese machinery of the greater part of the Protectorate, modified and controlled by the advice of British Residents.

Leaving a Resident and a small garrison at Sokoto, the High Commissioner, on the day following the installation, took the road towards Katsena, escorted by the new Sultan and throngs of chiefs and horsemen for a portion of the way. On parting, the Fulani chiefs thanked him profusely for all that had been done, displayed great pleasure at his praise of the plucky stand which they had made in opposition to the British troops before the capture of the town, and gave signs of much relief that the fighting was over, and that events had taken so favourable a turn. He and his staff" gained the impression, which subsequent events have done much to confirm, that the majority were genuinely surprised