CHAPTER XXIII SONGHAY UNDER ASKIA THE GREAT {continued) To cross the dominions of the Askia was, we are told, a six months' journey. Yet so effective were the measures taken by him for its administration, that before the end of his reign, the result is thus summarised by his historian : ** He was obeyed with as much docility on the farthest limits of the empire as he was in his own palace, and there reigned everywhere great plenty and absolute peace." He laboured unceasingly to Introduce the reforms which he thought desirable, and to appoint to every position of importance men whom he could trust to supervise his measures. The reformation of the army and the church, which had occupied the opening years of his reign, represented but the beginning of the care which he continued to bestow upon these two great institutions. The evolution of systems of government suitable to the widely differing peoples over whom he ruled, the development of trade, the protection of letters and the opening of communications, were among questions to which he gave much of his time. Moslem judges were appointed In the lesser towns, which up to this time had been content with the services of scribes or conciliators ; and among the biographies of upright judges given to us by Ahmed Baba or Es SadI, the comment is not infrequent : ** He was one of those appointed by Askia the Great.'* There was a state prison for political offenders, which seems to have served a purpose similar to that of the Tower of London, and the courtyard of the prison of Kanato was no less famous In local annals than 199