British Nigeria and the exploration of Africa generally—its botany, anthropology, and languages—owe much to the work of William Balfour Baikie, a native of the Orkney Islands, who between 1854 and 1864 served the British Government on the Niger and succeeded the equally remarkable John Beecroft as Consul. Baikie founded Lokoja in 1860. Lander, Laird, Beecroft, Baikie, and the black Bishop Samuel Crowther were the principal creators of British Nigeria. Footnote 119: Afterwards the Right Hon. Sir George Taubman Goldie, P.C. Footnote 120: The Fulas, as already stated, are a semi-white race, who originally came from the Western Sahara, and colonised much of Senegambia and the Upper Niger basin, penetrating as far south as Borgu, and south-east to Adamawa, Mandara, Bagirmi, and Darfur. In the early 19th century, under a great leader, Othman Dan Fodio, they conquered Sokoto and much of Eastern Nigeria, stopping short of Bornu, where they were arrested by the power of the Kanemi Sheikh of Bornu. A succinct account of the different Fula kingdoms and conquests is given in a footnote on p. 201. Footnote 121: This man was no doubt a negroid Arab religious teacher from the country of Kanem, north-east of Lake Chad. He settled in Bornu early in the 19th century and became the adviser of the king of that country, a phlegmatic descendant of a great and ancient dynasty of Berber or Hamitic origin. Muhammad-al-Amin-al-Kanemi assisted the Bornu sovereign and people to beat off the Fula invasion and became the virtual ruler of Bornu. He bore the title of Sheikh of Bornu. CHAPTER IX THE FRENCH IN WEST AND NORTH AFRICA