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 Áskia,—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 ʿAlí, 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 Áskía 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 ʿAlí had rendered himself so odious that people 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 endeavours 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 well- being and comfort to spring up everywhere within the borders of his extensive dominions[96], and introducing such of the institutions of Mohammedan civilisation 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.