BORNU 27 Bornu had *'guns" as early as the beginning of the fifteenth century.

From Ali Ghajideni, who ascended the throne of Bornu in 1472, to Edris Alawoma, who was the contemporary of Queen Elizabeth and died in 1603, the destinies of Bornu were guided by almost uniformly vigorous and enlightened kings. There were a few short reigns of no importance, but for the most part the period was for Bornu, as for Songhay, one of great and prosperous development. The Government of Bornu was, in theory at least, somewhat less despotic than that of Songhay, and was conducted by the medium of a council of twelve, between whom the principal offices of State were divided. According to some authorities the monarchy itself was elective, but with the interruption of certain revolutions it seems to have descended very generally from father to son. The territory of Bornu was divided, like that of Songhay, into districts of which each had its governor, but it does not appear to have had the superior grouping of districts into viceroyalties, which in some degree assimilated the organisation of the Songhay Empire to that of Imperial Rome. In the records of Bornu there is frequent reference to the position and influence of the queen mothers, and women appear to have played a not unimportant part in its history. In the latter half of the sixteenth century, Aicha, the mother of King Edris, herself reigned for a short period before her son's accession. She was a very distinguished woman, to whose advice it is believed that her son owed much of the wisdom of his conduct.

Under her influence an important embassy was sent to Tripoli, and the policy of maintaining intercourse and trade with the outer world by the medium of the Turkish Empire, which had always been the policy of prosperous Bornu, was actively developed. In this latter period of Bornuese prosperity, foreign trade and local conquest form the two important notes of its his-