SONGHAY UNDER ASKIA THE GREAT 191 doubted whether the portion of Hfe which still remained would be enough to permit him to carry his many schemes to a point at which their success would ensure stability.

It was, perhaps, with this thought in his mind that he had caused himself to be accompanied to the East by his eldest son and heir, as well as by a picked band of chosen counsellors and ministers. This group of persons who had shared his experiences, and had no doubt been admitted to his confidence, offered not only a guarantee of the continuance of the reign of enlightened principles in the event of his death, but also a number of trained instruments, by whose co-operation his ideas of government might be brought into effect. Amongst these he appears to have been fortunate in possessing for his principal minister just such a faithful friend and counsellor as he had been himself, during a term of thirty years, to Sonni AH. Ali Folen — sometimes called Fulan or Fulani — mentioned amongst the foremost of those who accompanied him on the pilgrimage of 1495, remained absolutely devoted not only to him, but to his ideas, throughout the long reign which, though neither of them knew it, lay still before him. At the end they were separated only in the old age of the then blind monarch by the jealousy of others, who could not tolerate the ''mutual understanding and support which was perfect between these two." The man who had been himself a loyal friend was able to accept and to appreciate the loyalty of others. He freely trusted and freely used the service of his friends. He was more than a wise monarch, he was the founder of a school, and so long as his inspiration lasted, enlightenment, order, and prosperity were enjoyed in the Soudan. The institution of a standing army, recruited, no doubt, largely from the slave and subject populations, had already relieved the people from one of their most intolerable burdens. This was of the utmost importance, as Askia found himself obliged to sustain an almost continuous state of war. In the first year of his return from Mecca,