THE LATER ASKIAS 213 and the Empire of Songhay was overthrown by the Moors.

Under Askia Daouad we hear of the murder of the Songhay governor of Tegazza by the instigation of the Emperor of Morocco. Work at the salt mines became so dangerous, and the interruption of the salt trade was so frequent, that Askia Daouad was led to authorise the opening of another salt mine which was found in the desert ; but Askia Daouad abated nothing of the claims of his father, although he and a succeeding Muley Ahmed came to a friendly understanding. Before the end of the sixteenth century, conflict between the troops of Songhay and the troops of Morocco, on the question of the salt mines, was clearly becoming inevitable.

Under Askia Daouad military expeditions were renewed on all the borders of the empire. Melle and the Fulani provinces of the west — Mossi, Borgu, Boussa, Gurma, all in turn gave occasion for the exercise of military activity. It is during the military expeditions of Askia Daouad that we get definite accounts of the contingents furnished by subordinate Kois. Two Kois are mentioned in one of the western campaigns as furnishing 12,000 men each, which, it is said, was their regular contingent. An expedition was sent also into the Haussa States, and the campaign against Katsena in 1554 was remarkable for an incident which did equal honour to both sides. In an encounter between the Songhay and the Haussa troops, twenty -four picked cavaliers of Songhay sustained a long and desperate struggle against a regiment of 400 Haussa soldiers. They were at last overpowered, fifteen of them being killed. The remaining nine, all badly wounded, were taken prisoners, and the Haussa soldiers were so impressed by their courage that they dressed their wounds, nursed them with the greatest care, supplied their wants, and then set them at liberty, sending them back to Askia Daouad with the courteous assurance that "men