THE TRADE OF GHANA 105 of the inhabitants, carried thither articles which were either of no use or of no value to them, taking in exchange objects which were a source of profit and wealth. This even went so far that an African sovereign was once heard to say : * Were it not that I consider it a bad action, I would, by God ! prevent these Soudan traders from stopping in my dominions ; for thither they go with the most paltry merchandise, and bring in return the gold which conquers the world.' However, when my ancestors had once established a direct trade with those countries, the scene changed, and the blacks were better and more abundantly provided with such articles as they stood most in need of. They also were furnished with goods which they had never seen before, and they obtained a better price for their returns." The writer of this account was a Judge of the Supreme Court of Fez in the year 1356. Presumably, therefore, he may have been born about the year 1300, and he counts himself sixth in descent from Abdurrahman, the founder of the firm. Allowing thirty years for a generation, this would get us back near to the year iioo, or not very far distant from the period at which the life of Ghana has been described. As all writers agree that the trade of Ghana was important in the eighth and ninth centuries, we must assume that, with the approaching decline of the kingdom, the trade had already fallen into some decay, from which it was revived by the exertions of the Makkari firm. The account is interesting for the indication which it gives that, in the early period of Arab trade with the Soudan, companies found it necessary, as European companies have found at a later date, to acquire political as well as commercial influence, and also that the better class of traders exercised a wise discretion as to the class of articles which they introduced to the notice of the natives.

The allusion made in the incidents which have been related to the successful attack upon Ghana by a neighbouring king may be taken, perhaps, to presage the con-