ABSTRACT
The European exploration of modern Northern Nigeria was primarily concerned with the elusive riddle of the Niger and its subsequent exploitation. The first European to come into touch with Adamawa was Major Denham who, during an enforced sojourn in Bornu in 1823, accompanied the combined Bornu and Mandara armies in their attack on the Fulani town of Musfeia. H. Barth, the remarkable German explorer, was the first European to travel extensively in Adamawa and to penetrate into its capital, Yola, in 1851. Corporal Church quarrelled with Eduard Vogel and returned home with Barth in April 1855, while Corporal Macguire and his leader set out for Yakoba and Adamawa. In 1879 the German explorer E. Flegel, on board the Church Missionary Society's ship Henry Venn in command of their Niger lay agent, J. H. Ashcroft, made his first visit to Yola.
