Introduction

The part of the British Empire where the data on which the conclusions arrived at in the following pages were, for the most part, obtained is that known to-day as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. Within the limits of Nigeria are to be found sections of the human race and areas of the earth’s surface typical of very nearly every class of society and of every description of climate to be found in the Empire within the tropics. Probably the home of the Bantu race is to be found just to the North of the Benue on the Bauchi plateau, where natives very like the Basutos, with ponies which they ride barebacked over every kind of stony hilly ground, are to be found. These people successfully resisted the Muslim from the North finding refuge in their hills and the areas of forest which clothe the banks of the rivers and streams.