He was followed by Mohammed Bello, who endeavoured to introduce more order into the empire thus consolidated, and who, on the whole, must rank high among the African princes, being distinguished not less by his great love of learning and science than by his warlike spirit, although his military achievements were far from being always successful. But he has had the misfortune, after enjoying a great name in Europe, for a short time, for the kind and generous spirit in which he received Captain Clapperton on his first journey, to incur the severest condemnation on account of the manner in which he treated that same enterprising traveller on his second journey. No doubt he was a distinguished ruler; but he must not be judged according to European ideas. He had to struggle hard, not less against the native tribes anxious to assert their independence, than against his great rival Mohammed el Kánemí the king of Bórnu, who, just at the time of Clapperton’s second stay, pressed him very closely, and having successfully overrun the eastern provinces of the Fulfúlde or Felláta empire, threatened Kanó. Hence this political position, together with the instigations of the Arabs, who feared for their commerce with Negroland if the road from the south should be opened, will account in some measure for his treatment of the English traveller, who perhaps urged his going to the sheikh of Bórnu with too much energy. However, there is no doubt that Bello’s successor and brother, ʿAtíku, who ruled from the year 1832 till 1837, would have weakened the interest of the European public in the example which Bello gave of an energetic and generous ruler in those distant and out-of-the-way regions, if his career had become known to them; for he seems to have fully belied the expectation, of “a mean prince,”[53] which he raised when still living in his retirement, as a jealous king’s brother, without power and influence. But his reign was too short for consolidating sufficiently the loosely-connected empire, although, as long as he lived, full security is said to have reigned. The spirit of independence broke out more strongly under his successor ʿAlíyu, a son of Bello by a female slave, who, save a well-meaning and cheerful disposition, does not appear to have inherited many of the noble qualities of his father, and least of all his warlike spirit; and hence the lamentable condition in which I found this extensive kingdom, while there is scarcely any hope that affairs will assume a more consolidated character before another more energetic ruler succeeds to ʿAlíyu. Nevertheless the kingdom or empire, even at the present time, still comprises the same provinces which it did at its most flourishing period, with the exception of Khadéja, the governor of which has made himself independent; but the military strength of these provinces, especially as regards cavalry, as well as the amount of revenue, is greatly impaired, although the latter,