f CHAPTER XXIV THE LATER ASKIAS AsKiA THE Great reigned for thirty-six years. It is sorrowful to have to relate that he was not allowed to finish his life upon the throne which he had so conspicuously adorned. In 1528 he, being by that time blind, and being supposed to have fallen too completely under the influence of Ali Folen, was deposed by his eldest son, who ascended the throne under the title of Askia Moussa, and reigned only for three years.

During his reign the old Askia lived in comfort in his favourite palace and farm near Kagho ; while Ali Folen, after a first flight to Aiwalatin, made his way to Kano with the intention of performing once again the pilgrimage to Mecca, but, falling ill, died and was buried in that town. On the death of Moussa the throne of the Askias was usurped by a nephew, Mohammed Benkan, the son of the great Askia's favourite and profoundly trusted brother. The son did not repay with gratitude the many favours which his dead father had received. Not content with sitting on the Askia's throne, he removed the blind old man from his palace, and confined him in miserable quarters on an island in the Niger. But his ill-doing brought deserved punishment in its train. In an interview which is related as taking place between the deposed monarch and his son Ismail — a young man of twenty-seven years of age, who came to visit him one night in the island in which he was confined— we see the vigour which had inspired the life of the old Askia still unextinguished. Ismail sat down 4