196 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY previously by Sonni Ali, dissatisfied with the treatment which had been accorded to him, revolted, and established an independent province, still known as Kanta, on the eastern side of the Niger. At a later date the whole of the province of Kebbi became subject to him. A campaign directed specially against him in the year 151 7 was unavailing. The independence of Kebbi was maintained against all succeeding Askias, though its territory was enclosed in the territory of Songhay and its tributaries on all sides, and ultimately Kebbi became the bulwark which saved Haussaland from the encroachments of the Moors, when they attempted to overrun it from the west. During the years 15 17-18 there was further successful fighting in the western portion of the empire. From this time to the end of the Askias' reign in 1528 peace would seem to have prevailed.

Askia the Great reigned altogether thirty-six years, during the whole of which time his minister, Ali Folen, continued to be the faithful assistant of his counsels and the interpreter of his wishes to the people.

I have thought it well very briefly to summarise the military history of the reign in order that the borders of the empire over which the rule of the Askia extended might be defined, but war was far from being the principal subject either of the Askia's or of his people's thoughts. The administrative organisation of the empire occupied his immediate care, and a parallel of the system which he partly adopted, and partly developed, from the already existing sytem of Melle, may perhaps be most nearly found in our own early administration of India. Native rulers continued to occupy positions of dignity and quasi-independence, and would seem to have been even permitted in some cases to levy troops, on the understanding that they furnished a regular quota to the imperial army. But the representatives of Songhay were supreme in all parts of the empire, and over the heads of the native rulers there was a complete network of Songhay administration.