An Expedition to Borgu, on the Niger. de Lugard, F. D - 1895

London: Royal Geographical Journal, 1895. 22 pages, including in-text illustrations. Plus a large fold-out colour map measuring approximately 16 x 19 inches (41 x 48cm). Original condition with blue wrappers, titles to front, and containing all the ads. Mild scattered foxing, otherwise this is a complete issue, seldom found in such good and original condition. This is a fascinating expedition report on the customs, mode of life, buildings, weapons, arms and utensils of the Borgu and Yoruba tribes of West Africa. Lugard and his team lived in a Borgu hut, one of a little coterie of huts inhabited by entire families together with their goats and fowls. The younger women pounded the grain and prepared the food. Their host was a weaver and made cloth. In this report, Lugard also describes the Hausas as a most interesting people of Africa, born traders and conducting their own trade caravans for hundreds of miles from Kano and Sokoto. In 1894 Borgu became the object of rivalry between France and England. The Royal Niger Company, which had already concluded a treaty of protection with the king of Bussa, sent out Captain (afterwards Sir) F. D. Lugard to negotiate treaties with the king of Nikki and other chiefs, and Lugard succeeded in doing so a few days before the arrival of French expeditions from the west. Disregarding the British treaties, French officers concluded others with various chiefs, invaded Bussa and established themselves at various points on the Niger. To defend British interests, the West African Frontier Force was raised locally under Lugard's command, and a period of great tension ensued, British and French troops facing one another at several places. A conflict was, however, averted, and by the convention of June 1898 the western part of Borgu was declared French and the eastern British, the French withdrawing from all places on the lower Niger. . First Edition.