BORGU, or BARBA  , an inland country of West Africa . The western part is included in the French colony of Dahomey (q.v.); the eastern division forms the Borgu province of the British protectorate of Nigeria . Borgu is bounded N.E. and E. by the Niger, S. by the Yoruba country, N.W. by Gurma . The country consists of an elevated plain traversed by rivers draining north or east to the Niger . The water-parting between the Niger basin and the coast streams of Dahomey and Lagos runs north-east and south-west near the western frontier . In about 10° N., below the 'town of Bussa, rapids block the course of the Niger, navigable up to that point from the sea . The soil is mostly fertile, and is fairly cultivated, producing in abundance millet, yams, plantains and limes . The acacia tree is common, and from it gum-arabic of good quality is obtained . From the nut of the horse-radish tree ben oil is expressed . Cattle are numerous and of excellent breed, and game is abundant . Borgu is inhabited by a number of pagan negro tribes, several of whom were dependent on the chief of Nikki, a town in the centre of the country, the chief being spoken of as sultan of Borgu . The king of Bussa was another more or less powerful potentate .

In the

early years of the 19th century Borgu was invaded by the Fula (q.v.), but the Bariba (as the people are called collectively) maintained their independence . 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, how-ever, 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 . The British portion of Borgu has an area of about 12,000 sq. m . Up to the period of inclusion within the protectorate of Nigeria little or nothing was known of the country, though there were interesting legends of the antiquity of its history . The population was entirely independent, and resisted with success not only the Fula from the north but also the armies of Dahomey and Mossi from the south and west . Travellers who attempted to penetrate this country had never returned .

Since 1898 the country has been opened, and from being the most lawless and truculent of people the Bariba have become singularly amenable and

law-abiding . Provincial courts are established, but there is little crime in the province . The British garrisons have been replaced by civil police . The assessment of taxes under British administration was successfully carried out in 1904, and taxes are collected without trouble . In south Borgu the people are agricultural but not industrious or inclined for trade . In the north there are some pastoral settlements of Fula . The Bariba themselves remain agricultural . Cart-roads have been constructed between the town of Kiama and the Niger . The agricultural resources of Borgu are great, and as the population increases with the cessation of war and by immigration the country should show marked development . Shea trees are abundant . Elephants are still to be found in the fifty-mile strip of forest land which stretches between the Niger and the interior of the province . The forest contains valuable sylvan products, and there are great possibilities for the cultivation of rubber .

There are also extensive areas of

fine land suitable for cotton, with the water-way of the Niger close at hand . Labour might be brought from Yorubaland close by, and a Yoruba colony has been experiment-ally started .