We do not like the news from West Africa. The
Sultan of Sokoto, whom we dispossessed the other day, has found adherents in the interior, and is making an effort to regain his throne. He has regained his " sacred" banner, and his followers, who regard the flag as a fetish, are said to be enthusiastic. They recently attacked the British troops, presumably at or near Kano, and though driven back, they inflicted considerable loss, which, with our small disposable force, will be greatly felt. If the Foulahs, who were till recently the dominant caste both in Kano and Sokoto, really mean fighting, we shall need more men, for a defeat in the field might produce a general insurrection. It is hard to see whence they are to be obtained, for we cannot be always drawing on India, and we have not yet fully over- come the one objection to local black Sepoys,—their disposi- tion to mutiny. Is it quite impossible to raise in Hyderabad and Aden a regiment or two of Arabs, who will be as useful as Sikhs, and if regularly paid, probably as faithful ? If we are to hold so much of Africa we must have a good Sepoy army of some kind, and we have not got it yet.
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