But during the reign of the sixth Saadian monarch—Al-Mansur, also surnamed “the Golden”—Morocco reached the acme of her power and acquired a vast Nigerian dominion. At the close of the 15th century a Muhammadan negro dynasty had arisen on the upper Niger, and in the western Sudan. One of these negro kings, who made a pilgrimage to Mecca, obtained from the descendant of the Abbaside khalifs residing at Cairo the title of “Lieutenant of the Prince of Believers in the Sudan.” He made Timbuktu[42] his capital, and it became a place of great learning and flourishing commerce. His grandson, Ishak-bin-Sokya[43], became rich and powerful, and attracted the rapacity of the Saadian Sharifian Khalif of Morocco (Abu’l Abbas al-Mansur, who had distinguished himself by wiping out the Portuguese under Dom Sebastião at the battle of Kasr-al-Kabīr), and had recently extended his rule across the Sahara to the oasis of Twat[44]. The Moorish emperor attempted to pick a quarrel by disputing this negro king’s right to the title of Lieutenant of the Khalifs in the Sudan, demanded his vassalage, and a tax on the Sahara salt mines along the route to Timbuktu. Ishak-bin-Sokya refused, whereupon a Moorish army under Juder Basha was despatched by Abu’l Abbas-al-Mansur in 1590 to conquer the Sudan. This army crossed the Sahara, defeated Ishak-bin-Sokya, and captured Timbuktu, but raised the siege of Gaghu or Gao, lower down the Niger, whither Ishak had fled. A more vigorous commander, Mahmud Basha, completed the Moorish conquest of the Sudan, a conquest which extended in its effects to Bornu on the one hand and to Senegambia on the other, and only faded away in the 18th century, mainly owing to the uprise of the Fula and the attacks of the Tawareq. Gradually all Morocco was brought under Sharifian rule; all European hold over the country was eradicated; and the reign of culminating glory was that of the Filali emperor Mulai Ismail, the “Bloodthirsty,” who ruled for 57 years, and is said to have left living children to the number of 548 boys and 340 girls. Mulai Ismail died in 1727. He had attained to and maintained himself in supreme power by the introduction of regiments of well-drilled Sudan Negroes; but the “nigrification” of Morocco—the importation on a large scale of negro slaves and soldiers—had begun much earlier in the conquest of North Africa by the Lamtuna Berbers from the northern Niger, the “Almoravides.” But the civilization and the conquering power of Morocco were largely due to the “Ruma” or “Rumi” element, the Spanish Moors emigrating from Spain and bringing into North-West Africa a powerful “White Man” element—for they were often the descendants of the Roman-Iberian people of Gothic Spain. They were remarkable for their knowledge of firearms and their skill as artisans; and their