ficulties were raised as to the grant of a charter
to the company which had carried through this work of national
importance; but on July 10, 1886, it gained that charter with the title
of the Royal Niger Company. The chief difficulties since that date have
arisen from French aggressions on the west, which will be noticed
presently.

In 1897 the Royal Niger Company overthrew the power of the turbulent and
slave-raiding Sultan of Nupe, near the Niger, but, as has so often
happened, the very success of the company doomed it to absorption by the
nation. On January 1, 1900, its governing powers were handed over to the
Crown; the Union Jack replaced the private flag; and Sir Frederick
Lugard added to the services which he had rendered to the Empire in
Uganda by undertaking the organisation of this great and fertile colony.
In an interesting paper, read before the Royal Geographical Society in
November 1903, he thus characterised his administrative methods: "To
rule through the native chiefs, and, while checking the extortionate
levies of the past, fairly to assess and enforce the ancient tribute. By
this means a fair revenue will be assured to the emirs, in lieu of their
former source of wealth, which consisted in slaves and slave-raiding,
and in extortionate taxes on trade. . . . Organised slave-raiding has
become a thing of the past in the country where it lately existed in its
worst form." He further stated that the new colony has made satisfactory
progress; but light railways were much needed to connect Lake Chad with
the Upper Nile and with the Gulf of Guinea. The area of Nigeria (apart
from the Niger Coast Protectorate) is about 500,000 square miles[452].

[Footnote 452: _The Geographical Journal_, January 1, 1904, pp. 5, 18,
27.]

The result, then, of the activity of French and Germans in West Africa
has, on the whole, not been adverse to British interests. The efforts
leading to these noteworthy results above would scarcely have been made
but for some external stimulus. As happened in the days of Dupleix and
Montcalm, and again at the time of the little-known efforts of Napoleon
I. to appropriate the middle of Australia, the spur of foreign
competition furthered not only the cause of exploration but also the
expansion of the British Empire.

* * * * *

The expansion of French influence in Africa has been far greater than
that of Germany; and, while arousing less attention on politi