250 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY land, when Daura and Zaria were already fully developed, and the southern country to the confluence of the rivers acknowledged the greatness, if it did not absolutely accept the sway, of Zaria. The non-Haussa States of Borgu, Nupe, Bautchi, and Kororofa, stretched in a belt of formidable pagan strength along the course of the two rivers, and we have already made ourselves acquainted with an outline of the contemporary history of the great non-Haussa nations lying to the west. The pagan belt, stretching from 8° north latitude to the coast, was practically unknown to the early Haussa races. The first king of Kano, whose second name of Daud, or David, would appear to indicate an Eastern origin, reigned, so far as our uncertain dates may be trusted, towards the end of the tenth century, or about a hundred years before the Morabite invasion from the west, which carried Mohammedanism through the Western Soudan. Opinions differ as to whether the invasion reached as far as the countries lying to the south of the Tripoli-Fezzan route; but if it did, the Mohammedanism of the five tribes was not carried so far south as to enter the Haussa States. The establishment of Islam in Ahir in the desert, is attributed to the eleventh century ; but the State of Gober offered an impassable barrier to any more southerly extension of the doctrine of Mohammed by the sword. The Haussa States remained pagan until the emigration of Wankore or Wangara Mohammedanism from Melle, in the rising epoch of that empire, about the middle of the thirteenth century, brought the new religion peacefully to Kano. It was accepted by a certain King Yahya, who was then reigning, and the story of his conversion is embellished by a graphic account of a miracle worked upon the pagan chief and people of Gazawa, who not only refused to be converted, but purposely defiled the mosque erected by King Yahya. The chief and his people were summoned on a given day, and when they were assembled, " the Mussulmans prayed against the pagans." God answered the Mussulman prayer, and