BORNU 277 occasion was undertaken with the consent of the Haussa States, for the armies of Bornu marched north of Daura and Katsena and to the west of Gober without opposition till they entered the country of Kebbi and reached a fortified place called Surami. Then after a battle, which lasted from the rising to the going down of the sun, Bornu was victorious, and Kanta was forced to fly westward. But the fort held out. The Sultan of Bornu was unable to reduce it, and, finding himself obliged to raise the siege, he marched south to Gando and thence easterly towards Bornu. Kanta reorganised his army, and rapidly, pursuing the Bornu force, he came up with it at a place called Onghoor (presumably Ungar or Wangara) and there inflicted a crushing defeat.

The Sultan of Bornu after this again found himself fully occupied in the East, where, as a result of more than one brilliant campaign, he entirely subdued the old enemies of Bornu and re-established his authority over Kanem. Kanta himself shortly afterwards died, but the successors of Edris of Bornu continued to dispute with the descendants of Kanta the supremacy of Haussaland, while, as we have seen, the life of the individual Haussa States went on without much regard either for Kebbi or for Bornu. The chronicles, though somewhat confused, would seem to assign the final victory to Bornu.

This period of constant war was the period which we have seen to have been one of great adversity in the Haussa provinces. Although we find no mention in their chronicles of the campaigns of their greater neighbours, there can be no doubt that the long struggle between opposing powers for the suzerainty of Haussaland must have contributed much to the conditions of disturbance and unrest which issued for them in local wars. It is only amazing that under the circumstances, every province being at war with each other, and two great powers fighting over their heads, there should