ABSTRACT
Boyd Alexander skirted Adamawa on his first expedition, going northwards and westwards from Ibi to Bauchi before striking across to Bornu, but Gosling and Alexander's remarkable boy, Jose, came up the Benue as far as Numan, whence they ascended the River Gongola. 'Langa-Langa', the pen-name of a Resident who later wrote the standard gazetteer of Ilorin Province, has left an account of his spell of duty in Numan in 1915. Numan was a lonely little station on the right bank of the great silent Benue. Of Numan F. W. H. Migeod writes: The old site of the native town was to the left of the Niger Company's factory. Before fording the Benue, whose channel was knee-deep and only about 200 yards across, Migeod called on the Emir. E. Lenfant was given an audience by the Emir, who reminisced on the visits of French explorers such as Mizon and Maistre.
