in doing so a few days before the arrival of French
expeditions from the west. Disregarding the British treaties, French
officers concluded others with various chiefs, invaded Bussa and
established themselves at various points on the Niger. To defend British
interests, the West African Frontier Force was raised locally under
Lugard's command, and a period of great tension ensued, British and
French troops facing one another at several places. A conflict was,
however, averted, and by the convention of June 1898 the western part of
Borgu was declared French and the eastern British, the French
withdrawing from all places on the lower Niger.

The British portion of Borgu has an area of about 12,000 sq. m. Up to
the period of inclusion within the protectorate of Nigeria little or
nothing was known of the country, though there were interesting legends
of the antiquity of its history. The population was entirely
independent, and resisted with success not only the Fula from the north
but also the armies of Dahomey and Mossi from the south and west.
Travellers who attempted to penetrate this country had never returned.
Since 1898 the country has been opened, and from being the most lawless
and truculent of people the Bariba have become singularly amenable and
law-abiding. Provincial courts are established, but there is little
crime in the province. The British garrisons have been replaced by civil
police. The assessment of taxes under British administration was
successfully carried out in 1904, and taxes are collected without
trouble. In south Borgu the people are agricultural but not industrious
or inclined for trade. In the north there are some pastoral settlements
of Fula. The Bariba themselves remain agricultural. Cart-roads have been
constructed between the town of Kiama and the Niger. The agricultural
resources of Borgu are great, and as the population increases with the
cessation of war and by immigration the country should show marked
development. Shea trees are abundant. Elephants are still to be found in
the fifty-mile strip of forest land which stretches between the Niger
and the interior of the province. The forest contains valuable sylvan
products, and there are great possibilities for the cultivation of
rubber. There are also extensive areas of fine land suitable for cotton,
with the waterway of the Niger close at hand. Labour might be brought
from Yorubaland close by, and a Yoruba colony has been experimentally
st