CHAPTER XXV ANCIENT CONNECTION OF HAUSSALAND WITH THE VALLEY OF THE NILE The next great event of importance in the history of the Soudan is the conquest of the country by the Moors, but before approaching the narrative of this catastrophe it will be well to bring the history of Bornu and the Haussa States — which fill the last remaining section of the country lying between the Atlantic and Lake Chad — up to the point of their contemporary development in the sixteenth century. These portions of the Soudan are especially interesting to us, as they constitute at the present day the northern portion of the British Protectorate of Nigeria. It has been said, in entering upon the history of the Songhay Empire, that in it we reached that part of the history of the Western Soudan in which the influence of the West and of the East visibly met and overlapped. In crossing the Niger, and passing to the territories which lie still farther east, we come to that part of the country in which the influence of the East begins more distinctly to predominate.

To establish the grounds on which such influence may be presupposed, a short digression is necessary into what is known of the geographical connection of the countries of Northern Africa with each other during a very early period of their history.

The ancient civilisation of Egypt spread, as we know, from south to north, and without venturing to accept or to reject the assumption of some learned writers that it came originally by way of the Arabian Gulf from India, there is seemingly no doubt that the earliest seat 218