‘On the 1st of January 1900 the British Nation assumed the responsibility of governing the inhabitants of a vast area of the African continent, and entrusted the task to a handful of British officials. In this book, therefore, I have endeavoured to give a brief history of the manner in which the duty has been performed, and to indicate some of the main problems which have demanded solution.’ So writes the author in his preface to this work in which he describes the fulfilment of the task he and his fellow Britons were charged to undertake: the establishment of British rule in Northern Nigeria. First published in 1911, and here reproduced in facsimile, the work is now of particular importance for the information it contains on the history of the region, its study of contemporary life, and as an account of how European dominance was maintained in West Africa.