The trade in these products is practically confined to Great Britain and Germany, the share of the first-named being 25% to Germany’s 75%. Minor exports are coffee, “country cloths,” maize, shea-butter and ivory.
Cotton goods are the most important of the imports, spirits coming next, followed by building material, haberdashery and hardware and tobacco. Over 90% of the cotton goods are imported from Great Britain, whilst nearly the same proportion of the spirit imports come from Germany. Nearly all the liquors consist of “Trade Spirits,” chiefly gin, rum and a concoction called “alcohol,” introduced (1901) to meet the growing taste of the people for stronger liquor. This stuff contained 90% of pure alcohol and sometimes over 4% of fusel oil. To hinder the sale of this noxious compound legislation was passed in 1903 prohibiting the import of liquor containing more than 12% of fusel oil, whilst the states of Abeokuta and Ibadan prohibited the importation of liquor stronger than proof. The total trade of the country in 1905 was valued at £2,224,754, the imports slightly exceeding the exports. There is a large transit trade with Dahomey.
Communications.—Lagos is well supplied with means of communication. A 3 ft. 6 in. gauge railway starts from Iddo Island, and extends past Abeokuta, 64 m. from Lagos, Ibadan (123 m.), Oshogbo (175 m.), to Illorin (247 m.) in Northern Nigeria, whence the line is continued to Jebba and Zunguru (see Nigeria). Abeokuta is served by a branch line, 112 m. long, from Aro on the main line. Railway bridges connect Iddo Island both with the mainland and with Lagos Island (see Lagos, town). This line was begun in 1896 and opened to Ibadan in 1901. In 1905 the building of the section Ibadan-Illorin was undertaken. The railway was built by the government and cost about £7000 per mile. The lagoons offer convenient channels for numerous small craft, which, with the exception of steam-launches, are almost entirely native-built canoes. Branch steamers run between the Forcados mouth of the Niger and Lagos, and also between Lagos and Porto Novo, in French territory, and do a large transit trade. Various roads through the bush have been made by the government. There is telegraphic communication with Europe, Northern Nigeria and South Africa, and steamships ply regularly between Lagos and Liverpool, and Lagos and Hamburg (see Lagos, town).
Administration, Justice, Education, &c.—The small part of the province which constitutes “the colony of Southern Nigeria” is governed as a crown colony. Elsewhere the native governments are retained, the chiefs and councils of elders receiving the advice and support of British commissioners. There is also an advisory native central council which meets at Lagos. The great majority of the civil servants are natives of the country, some of whom have been educated in England. The legal status of slavery is not recognized by the law courts and dealing in slaves is suppressed. As an institution slavery is dying out, and only exists in a domestic form.
The cost of administration is met, mainly, by customs, largely derived from the duties on imported spirits. From the railways, a government monopoly, a considerable net profit is earned. Expenditure is mainly under the heads of railway administration, other public works, military and police, health, and education. The revenue increased in the ten years 1895–1905 from £142,049 to £410,250. In the same period the expenditure rose from £144,484 to £354,254.
The defence of the province is entrusted to the Lagos battalion of the West African Frontier Force, a body under the control of the Colonial Office in London and composed of Hausa (four-fifths) and Yoruba. It is officered from the British army.
The judicial system in the colony proper is based on that of England. The colonial supreme court, by agreement with the rulers of Abeokuta, Ibadan and other states in the protectorate, tries, with the aid of native assessors, all cases of importance in those countries. Other cases are tried by mixed courts, or, where Yoruba alone are concerned, by native courts.
There is a government board of education which maintains a few schools and supervises those voluntarily established. These are chiefly those of various missionary societies, who, besides primary schools, have a few secondary schools. The Mahommedans have their own schools. Grants from public funds are made to the voluntary schools. Considerable attention is paid to manual training, the laws of health and the teaching of English, which is spoken by about one-fourth of the native population.
History.—Lagos Island was so named by the Portuguese explorers of the 15th century, because of the numerous lagoons or lakes on this part of the coast. The Portuguese, and after them the French, had settlements here at various points. In the 18th century Lagos Lagoon became the chief resort of slavers frequenting the Bight of Benin, this portion of the Gulf of Guinea becoming known pre-eminently as the Slave Coast. British traders established themselves at Badagry, 40 m. W. of Lagos, where in 1851 they were attacked by Kosoko, the Yoruba king of Lagos Island. As a result a British naval force seized Lagos after a sharp fight and deposed the king, placing his cousin, Akitoye, on the throne. A treaty was concluded under which Akitoye bound himself to put down the slave trade. This treaty was not adhered to, and in 1861 Akitoye’s son and successor, King Docemo, was induced to give up his territorial jurisdiction and accept a pension of 1200 bags of cowries, afterwards commuted to £1000 a year, which pension he drew until his death in 1885. Immediately after the proclamation of the British annexation, a steady current of immigration from the mainland set in, and a flourishing town arose on Lagos Island. Iddo Island was acquired at the same time as Lagos Island, and from 1862 to 1894 various additions by purchase or cession were made to the colony. In 1879 the small kingdom of Kotonu was placed under British protection. Kotonu lies south and east of the Denham Lagoon (see Dahomey). In 1889 it was exchanged with the French for the kingdom of Pokra which is to the north of Badagry. In the early years of the colony Sir John Glover, R.N., who was twice governor (1864–1866 and 1871–1872), did much pioneer work and earned the confidence of the natives to a remarkable degree. Later Sir C. A. Moloney (governor 1886–1890) opened up relations with the Yoruba and other tribes in the hinterland. He despatched two commissioners whose duty it was to conclude commercial treaties and use British influence to put a stop to inter-tribal fighting and the closing of the trade routes. In 1892 the Jebu, who acted as middlemen between the colony and the Yoruba, closed several trade routes. An expedition sent against them resulted in their subjugation and the annexation of part of their country. An order in council issued in 1899 extended the protectorate over Yorubaland. The tribes of the hinterland have largely welcomed the British protectorate and military expeditions have been few and unimportant. (For the history of the Yoruba states see Yorubas.)
Lagos was made a separate government in 1863; in 1866 it was placed in political dependence upon Sierra Leone; in 1874 it became (politically) an integral part of the Gold Coast Colony, whilst in 1886 it was again made a separate government, administered as a crown colony. In Sir William Macgregor, M.D., formerly administrator of British New Guinea, governor 1899–1904, the colony found an enlightened ruler. He inaugurated the railway system, and drew much closer the friendly ties between the British and the tribes of the protectorate. Meantime, since 1884, the whole of the Niger delta, lying immediately east of Lagos, as well as the Hausa states and Bornu, had been acquired by Great Britain. Unification of the British possessions in Nigeria being desirable, the delta regions and Lagos were formed in 1906 into one government (see Nigeria).
See C. P. Lucas, Historical Geography of the British Colonies, vol. iii. West Africa (Oxford, 1896); the annual Reports issued by the Colonial Office, London; A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba-speaking Peoples (London, 1894); Lady Glover, The Life of Sir John Hawley Glover (London, 1897). Consult also the works cited under Nigeria and Dahomey.
LAGOS, a seaport of West Africa, capital of the British colony
and protectorate of Southern Nigeria, in 6° 26′ N., 3° 23′ E. on
an island in a lagoon named Lagos also. Between Lagos and
the mainland is Iddo Island. An iron bridge for road and railway
traffic 2600 ft. long connects Lagos and Iddo Islands, and
another iron bridge, 917 ft. long, joins Iddo Island to the mainland.
The town lies but a foot or two above sea-level. The
principal buildings are a large government house, the law courts,
the memorial hall erected to commemorate the services of Sir
John Glover, used for public meetings and entertainments,
an elaborate club-house provided from public funds, and the
police quarters. There are many substantial villas that serve
as quarters for the officers of the civil service, as well as numerous
solidly-built handsome private buildings. The streets are well
kept; the town is supplied with electric light, and there is a
good water service. The chief stores and depôts for goods are
