now shed by my journey and my researches over these regions and their inhabitants, I have no hesitation in asserting that the work of A'hmed Bábá will be one of the most important additions which the present age has made to the history of mankind, in a branch which was formerly almost unknown.

Aʼhmed Bábá, however, limits himself to the records of the political relations of Songhay, and does not enter into any ethnological questions, leaving us entirely in the dark as to the original seats of the tribe; for while in general, on the banks of the Niger, the towns of Tindírma and Díre are supposed to be the orginal seats of the Songhay, A'hmed Bábá apparently restricts the limits of the ancient Songhay to the eastern quarter around Kúkiya, stating distinctly* that the town of Timbúktu was not under the authority of any foreign king before it became subjected to the dominion of Kunkur-Músa, the celebrated King of Melle. Yet from this statement we can not conclude with absolute certainty that the banks of the great river to the southwest of that town were not comprised in the kingdom of Songhay before that period; for Timbúktu, lying on the north side of the river, and being founded by the Tawárek or Imóshagh, was an independent place by itself, and in the beginning not closely connected with the history of the surrounding region. It might easily have happened, therefore, that the Songhay language was not at all spoken in Timbúktu at a former period, without any conclusion being drawn from this circumstance respecting the country to the south and southwest of the river. But although, according to Ahmed Bábá's account, the foundation of the place was entirely due to the Imóshagh, it is probable that, from the very beginning, a portion of the inhabitants of the town belonged to the Songhay nation;t and I rather suppose, therefore, that the original form of the name was the Songhay form Túmbutu, from whence the Imóshagh made Tumbýtku, which was afterward changed by the Arabs into Tumbuktu.+

Journal of the Leipsic Oriental Society, vol. ix., p. 525.

"The palace which was erected in Timbuktu was called 'm'aduk,' or 'm'adugu.' This is evidently a Mandingo word, meaning the house of the king;' but it was certainly called so in the language of the conquerors, and not in that of the natives, and A'hmed Bábá understands the former when he says that the building was called by this name in their language."-Journ. of Leipsic Oriental Soc., ix., p. 525.

The u sound in the first syllable of the name is the only original one, not only in the Songhay, but also in the Arabic form; but it has gradually been changed into an i, and almost all the Arabs at the present time pronounce and write TinThe town was probably so called, because it was built originally

تنبت buktu

But the series of chronological facts which we learn from A'hmed Bábá, or from other sources, I shall give in a tabular form in the Appendix. Here I will only draw the reader's attention to a few of the most striking facts, and make some general remarks on the character of that history.

It is very remarkable, that while Islám in the two larger westerly kingdoms which flourished previously to that of Songhay— I mean Ghána, or Ghánata, and Melle-had evidently emanated from the north, and especially from Sijilmésa, Songhay appears to have been civilized from the other side, namely, from Egypt, the intimate relation with which is proved by many interesting circumstances, although, in a political respect, it could only adopt the same forms of government which had been developed already in Ghána and Melle; nay, we shall find even some of the same titles. With respect to Ghána, we learn from A ́hmed Bábá the very interesting fact that twenty kings were supposed to have ruled over that kingdom at the time when Mohammed spread the new creed which was to agitate and to remodel half of the globe.

The kingdom of Songhay, even after 'Alí Killun had made it independent of Melle, could not fail to remain rather weak and insignificant, as even Timbúktu, and probably a great portion of the country to the east of that town, was not comprised in its limits: nay, it even appears that the kingdom was still, at times, dependent in a certain degree upon Melle, the great kingdom on the upper course of the Niger; and it was not until almost 150 years after the time of 'Alí Killun that the powerful king Sonni 'Alí, the Sonni Héli of Leo Africanus, conquered Timbúktu, wresting it, with immense slaughter, A.H. 894, A.D. 1488, from the hands of the Tawárek, who had themselves conquered it from Melle. This king, although he is represented by all the learned men of Negroland as a very cruel and sanguinary prince, was no doubt a great conqueror; for although it was he who, in taking possession of this town, inflicted upon the inhabitants a most severe punishment, surpassing even the horrors which had accompanied the taking of the town by the King of Mósi, nevertheless it was he also who gave the first impulse to the great importance which Timbúktu henceforth obtained, by conquering the central

in a hollow or cavity in the sand-hills. Túmbutu means hole or womb in the Songhay language: if it were a Temás hight word, it would be written Tinbuktu. The name is generally interpreted by Europeans, well of Buktu, but tin has nothing to do with well. See vol. i., p. 272, note. *See Ahmed Bábá, 1. c., p. 526.

seat of the old empire of Ghánata, and thus inducing the rich merchants from the north, who had formerly been trading with Bíru or Waláta, and who had even occasionally resided there, to transfer their trade to Timbúktu and Gágho. It is the same king, no doubt, that attracted the attention of the Portuguese, who, in the reigns of Joâo and Emmanuel, sent several embassies into the interior, not only to Melle,* which at that time had already greatly declined in power and importance, but also to Timbúktu, where Sonni 'Alí seems to have principally resided; and it was perhaps partly on account of the relations which he entertained with the Christian king (to whom he even opened a trading station as far inland as Wadán or Hóden), besides his cruelty against the chiefs of religion, that the Mohammedans were less satisfied with his government; for there is no doubt that he was not a strict Mohammedan.

It was Háj Mohammed A'skia who founded the new homonymous dynasty of the A'skia, by rising against his liege lord, the son of Sonni 'Alí, and, after a desperate struggle, usurping the royal power; and, notwithstanding the glorious career of that great conqueror, we may fancy we can see in the unfortunate circumstances of the latter part of the reign of that king, a sort of Divine punishment for the example which he had given of revolt.

We have seen that the dynasty of the Zá, of which that of the Sonni seems to have been a mere continuation, immigrated from abroad; and it is a circumstance of the highest interest to see king Mohammed A'skia-perhaps the greatest sovereign that ever ruled over Negroland-who was a native of this very country, born in the island of Néni, a little below Sínder, in the Niger, setting us an example of the highest degree of development of which negroes are capable. For, while Sonni 'Alí, like his forefathers, still belonged to that family of foreign settlers who either came from Yemen, according to the current tradition, or, as is more credible, immigrated from Libya, as Leo states, the dynasty of the A'skia was entirely of native descent; and it is the more remarkable, if we consider that this king was held in the highest esteem and veneration by the most learned and rigid Mohammedans, while Sonni 'Alí had rendered himself so odious, that people

* It is remarkable that, in a map published at Strasburg in the year 1513, the kingdom of Melle appears under the name of Regnum Musa Melle de Ginoria. Atlas of Santarem, pl. No. 13.

HA'J MOHAMMED A'SKIA.

287

did not know how to give full vent to their indignation in heaping the most opprobrious epithets upon him.

It is of no small interest to a person who endeavors to take a comprehensive view of the various races of mankind, to observe how, during the time when the Portuguese, carried away by the most heroic enterprise and the most praiseworthy energy, having gradually discovered and partly taken possession of the whole western coast of Africa, and having at length doubled its southernmost promontory, under the guidance of Almeida and Albuquerque, founded their Indian empire, that at this same time a negro king in the interior of the continent not only extended his conquests far and wide, from the centre of Háusa almost to the borders of the Atlantic, and from the pagan country of Mósi, in 12° northern latitude, as far as Tawát to the south of Morocco, but also governed the subjected tribes with justice and equity, causing wellbeing and comfort to spring up every where within the borders of his extensive dominions,* and introducing such of the institutions of Mohammedan civilization as he considered might be useful to his subjects. It is only to be lamented that, as is generally the case in historical records, while we are tolerably well informed as to the warlike proceedings of this king, it is merely from circumstances which occasionally transpire and are slightly touched upon, that we can draw conclusions as to the interior condition of his empire; and, on this point, I will make a few observations, before I proceed to the causes which rendered the foundation of this empire so unstable.

In a former part of my researches I have entered into the history and polity of the empire of Bórnu, and it is interesting to compare with the latter that of the Songhay empire, which attained the zenith of its power just at the time when Bórnu like

*It is not to be wondered at that Leo, who visited Negroland just at the time when this prince was aspiring to power, and who must have written the greater part of what he relates of him and his conquests from infomation which he had received after he had left the country, should treat this usurper, whose identity with his Ischia can not be doubtful, with very little indulgence; and it even seems as if he purposely intended to give a bad interpretation to every thing which the king undertook, a fact which is clearly evident from what he relates with regard to his proceedings in Hausa. That the taxes imposed by him upon his subjects may have been heavy, I concede may be true, as without a considerable revenue he was not able to keep up a strong military force; but at least they evidently must have been much less than they were in the time of Sonni 'Alí, when almost the whole population was engaged in war. We find a very heavy duty upon salt, from each load £5.

wise, having recovered, in consequence of the energy and warlike spirit of the king 'Alí Ghajidéni, from the wounds inflicted upon it by the loss of Kánem, the desperate struggle with the tribe of the Soy, and a series of civil wars, attained its most glorious period during the reign of the two Edrís, in the course of the sixteenth century of our era.

In instituting such a comparison between these two extensive kingdoms of Negroland we soon discover that the Songhay empire, although likewise stated to be founded by a Libyan dynasty, was far more despotic than its eastern rival; and it is in vain that we here look either for a divan of twelve great officers, forming a powerful and highly influential aristocracy, or that eclectic form of choosing a successor, both of which we find in Bórnu: nay, not even the office of a vizier meets our eye, as we peruse the tolerably rich annals of A'hmed Bábá. We find, no doubt, powerful officers also in the Songhay empire, as must naturally be the case in a large kingdom; but these appear to have been merely governors of provinces, whom the king installed or deposed at his pleasure, and who exercised no influence upon the internal affairs of the kingdom, except when it was plunged into civil war.

These governors bore generally the title of "farma" or "feréng," a title which is evidently of Mandingo origin,* and was traditionally derived from the institutions of the kingdom of Melle, while the native Songhay title of "koy" appears to be used only in order to denote officers of certain provinces which originally were more intimately related to Songhay; and in this respect it is a remarkable fact that the Governor of Timbúktu or Túmbutu is constantly called Túmbutu-koy, and is only once called Túmbutumangha. Besides this province, those which we find mentioned in the report of A'hmed Bábá are the following, going from east to west:-Dendi, or, as it is now generally called, Déndina, the country between Kebbi and Sáy, which I have described in the account of my own journey, and which seems to have contained a Songhay population from tolerably ancient times, at least before the beginning of the sixteenth century; but we find none of the *See Cooley, "Negroland," p. 75, n. 26, and p. 77, n. 28.

+ Journal of the Leipsic Oriental Society, vol. ix., p. 554. If there be no mistake, there was a "koy" as well as a "farma " in some of the provinces, such as Bára.

A governor of the town of Sáy is perhaps indicated under the title of Say-weli. -Ibid., p. 550.