Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/329

LAGOS. 271 In the basin of the Okj^ara river, north of Badagry, are the independent kingdoms of Ado, Pokra, and Okeadan, which still suffer from the incursions of the Dahomey people. On an island in the Ossa, 40 miles east of Badagry, stands Lagos, the " African Liverpool," capital of the British possessions and the wealthiest city on the West African seaboard. Lagos occupies an extremely advantageous position about the centre of the Bight of Benin, and at the converging point of several inland routes. Through the navigable river Ogun it communicates with the great city of Abeokuta, and commands the western outlet of the Ossa lagoon, which affords a navigable highway to the Niger delta. IN^early all the European trade is in the hands of the English and Germans, while the inland traffic is carried on mainly by the Mohammedans, who increased from twelve hundred in 1865 to some thirty thousand in 1886. The island of Lagos, the Auni or Awani of the natives, lies three miles from the sea, between the arms of the lagoons, the mouth of the Ogun river, and the channel opening seawards. The city occupies a large space on the west side of this marshy land, where the European quarter has been built on ground partly reclaimed from the lagoon. Of late years its trade has suffered from the frequent wars between the inland states, owing to which much of the traffic has been diverted to the factories on the Niger delta. East of Lagos, the chief places on the coast are Talma, Leckie, or Ychu, and Odi, and on the lagoon the most important town is Epe. The district of Mahin, lately occupied by the Germans, has been restored to England by a convention recognising her right to all these alluvial lands in the Yoruba country. An extensive clearance in the forest separating Odi from the Mahin channel has become famous under the name of Atijeri (Arligeri), perhaps the Atagara which the Haussa sultan mentioned to Clapper ton as the chief trading place on the Slave Coast. Mahin belonged to the formerly flourishing but now decayed kingdom of Benin, which, according to Dapper, was able at one time to raise eighty thousand fighting men in a few days. But in order to display his power and propitiate the gods, the king offered human sacrifices, which depopulated his state. Benin, now the obscure village of Beni, had schools and temples whose priests were able to carve " hieroglyphical figures " and stone images, by means of which they related the history of the country. Lagos, residence of the British administrator, has been independent of the governor of the Gold Coast since 1886 ; but the protectorate is organised in the same way, the English settlements being defended by Hauesa garrisons, while the authority of the judges appointed by the Crown is gradually replacing that of the local chiefs. The revenue is derived from imposts levied at various sea- ports, and the whole territory is divided into the four districts of Lagos, the North, East, and West, this last with capital, Badagry.