ABSTRACT
The expansion of the Royal Niger Company from their Lower Benue district, centred on Ibi, towards the Upper Benue, followed by the international concentration on Yola during the scramble of the 1890's, makes the advent of the Company the principal influence in Adamawa. After the signing of the Congress of Berlin in February 1885 and the declaration in June of the Protectorate of the Niger territories, the British Government had to decide between direct administration and administration by charter. The administrative policy of the Company, with a small staff of energetic young men largely engrossed in commercial development, was modest and simple. In the oldest of the Company's territories on the upper Benue—the Muri treaty was signed on 30 January 1885—the situation with the Emir, Muhammadu Nya, had become difficult by 1890. Most of the towns against which military operations were carried out are no longer within the boundaries of the modern Muri Emirate.
