248 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY an earlier chapter, also speaks of it as being, with Zaria, the oldest of the states. But history places its development at a later date than that of Kano. As will be seen, it did not rise to its full power till after the Moorish conquest, when, by the destruction of the eastern capital of the Songhay Empire, a stream of commerce was directed to its gates. The most brilliant period of the history of Kano was already closed before the end of the sixteenth century.

Gober, by its geographical position on the edge of the northern desert, and the necessity which was entailed upon it of constant conflict with the desert tribes, early acquired a more warlike reputation than its sister states ; but, perhaps because of the peril to which it was perpetually exposed upon the north, it seems never to have attempted in its earlier period to achieve by force of arms any general conquest in the Haussa States, and its importance in Haussaland, like that of Katsena, is subsequent to the greatest epoch of Kano. At one time it stretched far northward into the desert, and its people inhabited the territories of Ahir or Asben upon the Tripoli-Fezzan route, but it was driven from this position towards the end of the eleventh century by Berber, perhaps Morabite, invaders.

Daura would seem to have been one of the most ancient of the Haussa States, and references to it are frequent in the Kano chronicle ; but, like its sister Rano, it does not appear to have played a very important public part in the history that is known to us of Haussaland.

Zaria, the most southerly of the original seven states, distinguished itself from a very early date by the conquest of the southern non-Haussa provinces. It extended its power over the whole of the hilly country to the confluence of the Niger and the Benue, and even beyond it towards the sea.

It will be seen, on glancing at a map of West Africa, that the Niger and the Benue, flowing towards each other from north-west and north-east, and meeting