So, too, it has been said that the Niger Company was actuated by self-interest; that it was not philanthropic. Who is, in business? If the Niger Company has profited by its enterprise it deserved to. It at the same time helped—or, at all events, enabled—others to thrive. I am free to admit that occasionally it has among the employees a member whose manner leaves something to be desired. Any more than elsewhere, there is no monopoly of boorishness and rudeness by any class in Northern Nigeria. It is quite the exception, though here and there are bad examples. I found it in the case of a mining engineer whom I met on horseback—an awfully important personage whose silly pomposity made me laugh, where he looked for my being impressed—and, whisper it not in Gath, I have even come across one or two Government officials whom you would not recognise for gentlemen, though they would have you think they were far from the common clay. Yea, in a certain place, no doubt taking their cue from the head of it, there is a small collection of such freaks, with a few men among them who must not be so labelled. The Niger Company looms so large in the acquisition and in the industry of the country that, like the Government at home, it is a big object at which to have a shy; and, I cannot avoid thinking, blamed at times as unreasonably as is the London Cabinet whatever its political complexion. I have said the road and bush transport began on a regular scale between five and six years ago. Then it was confined to human head carriage. After a while donkeys were tried on a small scale, and their use has been extended during the dry seasons. Two years ago 10 two-wheeled bullock transport carts were put on to connect Loko and Keffi, and since then others, and also four-wheeled wagons, with teams of 8 and 16 oxen, have been working between Rahama and Jos. A few camels were formerly employed, but not continued, as the animals are not obtained without difficulty in Nigeria; the nearest market for them on anything but a small scale is over the French border, though some are still utilised for transport from Kano to the Ninghi district. Now, I hear, the long-expected motor lorries have arrived at Baro and are to be running on the road in the course of the next few weeks. I am informed that Mr Kendall, the Niger Company’s chief transport officer at Jos, is considering whether bullocks, which need extreme care to keep in a condition, cannot be superseded by horses. In no part of Nigeria are they used in any other way than for riding, with the exception of a pair Captain Brocklebank has trained to draw a buggy at Kano. The relative values of the given forms of transport are: Head carriage, one man bears a 60-lb. load; a donkey takes a 120-lb. load; each bullock in a two-wheeled cart draws a 500-lb. load; one camel bears a 420-lb. load; one motor lorry carries a 4,400-lb. load.