Strengthening the medical service in Northern Nigeria is a measure which should be well pondered over by the Government at Zungeru. The value of a hospital can be gauged from what is done by the establishment at the Capital of the Protectorate. The necessity of a hospital is not to be estimated by the fatal cases which come under its roof. An overwhelming majority of sickness among whites is that of fever. The great chance of a cure is taking the indisposition in time and nursing, and no nursing on this earth equals the nursing of a sympathetic woman. A nurse of the best kind is the nearest picture we can imagine of one of God’s angels. The light, feminine movement; the exquisite solicitude for suffering; the sisterly soothing influence on a pain-racked brain; the gentle, yet not tiresome, attention to unexpressed wants, all these seem almost divine qualities which appeal to even my dull, unimaginative mind. They impress me, who had never needed them; they are qualities not possessed by one man in two millions; they are qualities to be found in several places in West Africa; they have counted in many recoveries to health. The Zungeru hospital is spoken of as a sanatorium. That is because men go there when early symptoms of malaria declare themselves, and frequently after a few days’ treatment—which may be described as rest, change, and the inestimable frequent medical examination and attendant nursing—the aforetime invalid returns to his duties thoroughly well. There must have been hundreds of lives saved by hospital treatment in West Africa, lives which would have been lost but for prompt entry into a hospital. Those of us who have seen men stricken with fever in some out-of-the-way spot in the bush, lying on a camp-bed in a mud hut many miles from the reach of a doctor, ourselves doing in a rough way all the nursing we could, we know what a relief it would have been to welcome the appearance of a skilled man versed in the art of healing. In Nigeria, North and South, most of the Government medical officers are as splendid fellows as you would wish to meet. In Southern Nigeria some of the cherished personal friendships I have made in the course of journeys are among that profession; and in Northern Nigeria if I have not come in contact with so many they have been sufficient to show that the same spirit prevails. I gladly remember two who went out of their way to render me acts of kindness: Dr Johnson, of Zaria, and Dr Costello, of Naraguta. CHAPTER XXIV A MURDER TRIAL Mining licences and leases—The Government Inspector of Mines—Nine years without doors—Two Residents—Poisoned arrow welcome—A murder trial. Previous to leaving the subject of the tin fields it is appropriate a few words are said on the Government administration of that territory controlled from Naragutu.