254 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY a strong forward movement, the brilliant period of the prosperity of Kano under Rimpa was destined to undergo a speedy reactionary eclipse under weaker successors.

The ten years' reign of the next king was a long series of wars with Katsena in the north-west, with Zaria in the south, finally and disastrously with Bornu in the east. The result of the Bornu campaign is again tersely related in a sentence: "The King of Bornu dethroned the King of Kano, and put his own slave on the throne of Kano."

History does not condescend to record the fate or the doings of the Bornu slave, but after the persistent fashion of Haussaland, we shortly find the son of the defeated king of Kano reigning in his father's stead. This king, Ahmadu Kesoke, had the strong blood of his grandfather Rimpa in his veins. He ** conquered the four corners of Haussa, east and west and north and south." Bornu marched against him, but was defeated and driven back with considerable loss. In this reign learning prospered, and various Sheiks and Mallams are mentioned as coming to Kano from other towns.

The reign of Ahmadu Kesoke must have represented the summit of the greatness of Kano, for we know that, in the early years of the sixteenth century, Haussaland was overrun by the armies of Songhay. The dates and account of the campaign given in the Tarikh-es-Soudan are too circumstantial to admit of doubt, and Leo Africanus, writing in 1526, speaks of the greatness of Kano as being already in decline. After a description of the state and of its capital, he says : " The inhabitants are rich merchants and most civil people. Their king was in times past of great puissance, and had mighty troops of horsemen at his command, but he hath since been constrained to pay tribute to the Kings of Zaria and Katsena. Afterwards Askia, the King of Timbuctoo, feigning friendship unto the two foresaid kings, treacherously slew them both, and then he waged war against the King of Kano, whom after a long siege he took, and compelled