156 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY tion. He first relates as an historian the history of the country up to the period of his own manhood, and from that time continues to write as a contemporary of the events which he records up to the year 1656, when presumably he died. But a great part of the charm of the Tarikh consists in the fact that it is not the work of one hand alone. Nor is it always easy to distinguish when Es-sadi has ceased to write and has given place to some other distinguished contemporary. Among those whose chronicles are thus incorporated with his own is Ahmed Baba, the well-known historian of the Soudan, who at the period of the overthrow of the Songhay Empire by the Moors was carried as a captive into Morocco, but was so profoundly respected there for his learning and philosophical demeanour that he was allowed in 1607 to return to Timbuctoo, where he died twenty years later. Though an older man than Es-sadi, Ahmed Baba was writing in Es-sadi's lifetime, and his work is so freely incorporated in the Tarikh that when Barth had the book in his hands in Gando he took it to be the work of Ahmed Baba.

From Ahmed Baba, who was the descendant of a long line of learned ancestors, we get some charming biographical sketches ; amongst them many of his own family, which enable us perfectly to reconstruct for ourselves the cultivated and dignified life of letters in the palmy days of Timbuctoo, when Sultans, however great, felt themselves to be honoured by the presence of the learned, and to do justice was recognised as the first quality of a gentleman. Ahmed Baba tells us of his father that he had **afine and sagacious mind and a sensitive heart," that he was as firm in his dealings with kings as he was with other men, and so earned their profound respect, that he had no hatreds and did justice to all.

He was widely read, and very fond of books. His wellfurnished library contained many rare and precious works, and "he lent them willingly." This last-mentioned form