49]. The same had
happened at neighbouring districts. Thereupon Consul Hewitt, in
accordance with instructions from London, established British supremacy
at the Oil Rivers, Old and New Calabar, and several other points
adjoining the Niger delta as far west as Lagos.

[Footnote 449: _Ibid_. p. 24.]

For some time there was much friction between London and Berlin on these
questions, but on May 7, 1885, an agreement was finally arrived at, a
line drawn between the Rio del Rey and the Old Calabar River being fixed
on as the boundary of the spheres of influence of the two Powers, while
Germany further recognised the sovereignty of Britain over St. Lucia Bay
in Zululand, and promised not to annex any land between Natal and
Delagoa Bay[450]. Many censures were lavished on this agreement, which
certainly sacrificed important British interests in the Cameroons in
consideration of the abandonment of German claims on the Zulu coast
which were legally untenable. Thus, by pressing on various points
formerly regarded as under British influence, Bismarck secured at least
one considerable district--one moreover that is the healthiest on the
West African coast. Subsequent expansion made of the Cameroons a colony
containing some 140,000 square miles with more than 1,100,000
inhabitants.

[Footnote 450: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 6 (1885), p. 2.]

It is an open secret that Germany was working hard in 1884-85 to get a
foothold on the Lower Niger and its great affluent, the Benue. Two
important colonial societies combined to send out Herr Flegel in the
spring of 1885 to secure possession of districts on those rivers where
British interests had hitherto been paramount. Fortunately for the cause
of Free Trade (which Germany had definitely abandoned in 1880) private
individuals had had enough foresight and determination to step in with
effect, and to repair the harm which otherwise must have come from the
absorption of Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues in home affairs.

In the present case, British merchants were able to save the situation,
because in the year 1879 the firms having important business dealings
with the River Niger combined to form the National African Company in
order to withstand the threatening pressure of the French advance soon
to be described. In 1882 the Company's powers were extended, largely
owing to Sir George Taubman Goldie, and it took the name of the National
African Company. Extending its operations up the River