But the Company depends not on its name alone. An elaborate organisation exists by which native merchants who are vendors are introduced by brokers—a better analogy is that of an outside clerk to a stockbroker—who help a transaction through. Some Arab and native local merchants have already established a branch in England, where skins and feathers are sent direct. To these men the Niger Company acts as forwarding agent, sending goods over the railway to Baro, thence by the river route to the sea for shipment. Although the general canteen business of the stores—apart from the trade to Europeans—is small at present, it should extend. In Kano and the immediately surrounding districts there must be 50,000 to 60,000 inhabitants. Nearly all have some money to spend. The trade with these people will probably not be done in a direct manner, but by native retailers, who know their own folk best and with whom, as dealers, Europeans cannot compete. The trade, I think, will be a small wholesale one. What can be done in that way is already clear from the six months’ work of the Syrian previously referred to. In the six months he has been up here he has done business to the amount of £4,000 in English calico and beads. Doubtless the gentleman will be surprised to find that these figures are known to me. They have been obtained in no underhand manner. [Illustration: ONE OF THE EMIR’S TRUMPETERS.] [Illustration: NATIVE SKIN-MERCHANTS WITH TRANSPORT, KANO. (See page 76.)] No wonder he is about to open a place at Manchester to be used as a forwarding depôt. Though this Syrian, Farris George, is not to be compared to the large firms, his record demonstrates the field of trade that can be cultivated in Nigeria. A few years ago he landed at Lagos and commenced trading in a street market in the smallest manner. Steadily he did more and more; was joined from time to time by members of his family; and eventually he became well-to-do. When, as the phrase goes, the railway opened up Kano to outside commerce, George was quickly on the spot, and he has improved his opportunities all the time. Although when the stores get into their stride his total will appear insignificant, I shall be surprised if he has not secured quite a respectable proportion of the whole, an amount not to be despised and very difficult indeed to lower. CHAPTER IX A GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER The London and Kano Trading Company—The Captain intervenes—Army, Civil Service, Commerce—Discarding appearances—Contrast of mansions—The pleasure of business—“Traders” and others. Although there is a law that no non-native of Nigeria may live permanently in Kano City, the London and Kano Trading Company has a large establishment there. That is because the firm took the step long before the present regulation was promulgated, or probably thought of.