Besides bullock carts and wagons, donkeys are also used in the dry season for the tin fields’ work, not in traction but in pannier style. They are cheaper than human carriers. A donkey will take the load of two of them, and one man—the owner of the animals hired—looks after three. The donkeys have not to be supplied with provender. They fend for themselves on the march, feeding on the dry stalk of the guinea corn—in some cases an inch in diameter—after the ear has been garnered.
The Rahama branch of the Niger Company is in charge of Mr Percy Garrard, who had Government experience in South Africa, East Africa and India. His post is far from being an enviable one, especially on the arrival of a train, when perhaps several men who have given no notice of their coming want to be horsed, equipped with carriers and away in a twinkling. Though his position is one where many of us would turn savagely on folks harassing us to death, or at least to distraction, Mr Garrard does nothing of the sort. He just does the best he can for everybody, giving precedence for those for whom he has prepared and fitting up the others as quickly as he is able. He works rapidly, as he must or he would be overwhelmed by the continuous stream of matters claiming attention.
He is one of the most remarkable individuals to be met with in Northern Nigeria. Not alone that he is incessantly occupied, doing things at lightning speed and yet never becomes flurried nor loses his temper, it seems incredible that the whole of the transport work at Rahama is directed by him with only one European to assist in the multifarious duties, which commence at high pressure at 6 a.m., and continue at an equal rate throughout the day.
Nobody has so many pressing requests from impatient travellers. Everybody who arrives from the Coast of course wants carriers at once, probably needs a horse, and, more likely than not, wishes to take with him more packages than there are carriers to bear them.
All these desires are urged on Mr Garrard, and, naturally, each person believes his own business to be more urgent than that of anybody else. The wonderful thing is that Garrard not only tries to please everyone, but, notwithstanding the tragic fate of he who in fable attempted a similar result, Garrard succeeds, although it is seldom possible to do all that is asked. He has an infinite capacity for what is known as getting on with people. All speak well of him; in fact, that is putting the position too mildly; they speak of him enthusiastically. A couple of men who were out for their second year and had been through Rahama four times said to me, “If you write a book on your travels you should include Garrard’s photograph. We would cut out the picture and carry it with us, and whenever we happened to be annoyed at not having forwarded things we wanted, whilst we were miles away in the bush, we could look at Garrard’s portrait and that would give us pleasurable recollections and tone down anger at the delay.”
The offices and stores of the Company are corrugated iron sheets, not fixed together to form a wall, but merely touching one another, leaning on bamboo frames and covered by a dried-grass roof. The whole thing is taken to pieces and carried forward as the railway line advances and is put together at each new railhead.
Rahama is also the clearing centre outwards. To it, from different districts, comes tin, which is sent by the Bauchi Light Railway to Zaria, then transferred to the Baro-Kano Line and taken to Baro, where it is carried down the River Niger and shipped to England.