304 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY submission to the Sultan. He did so, and by order of Mahmoud he was treacherously murdered. Of the eighty-three notables who accompanied him the majority were massacred, but a few of the ablest escaped to group themselves round the new Askia, a younger brother of Kagho, who succeeded under the name of Askia Nouh. One of the eighty-three, Suleiman, a cousin of Nouh, was selected by Mahmoud and proclaimed as a rival Askia at the camp near Kuka in Borgu.

From this time until the authority of the Askias altogether disappeared there were always two Askias — one at Timbuctoo, appointed and maintained by the Moors, and used as a puppet when convenient to give a semblance of legitimacy to their acts ; the other, representing the wishes of the Songhay people and claiming legitimate descent, maintained himself in some degree of independence in the Viceroyalty of Dandi, which, though it included Kebbi and the practically independent Haussa States, still constituted nominally a portion of the Songhay Empire that never submitted to the Moors.

Askia Nouh formed a seat of government in 1592 near the southern border of the province of Kebbi.

During some of his earlier battles Kanta's people, it is said, could hear the sound of the firing. Nouh was of a different temperament from the later Askias, and all the efforts of Mahmoud Zergoun were insufficient to overthrow the resistance which he organised to the advance of the Moors. War continued for two years, during which time the Songhay forces, notwithstanding their inferior arms, obtained many successes. '' Numerous and terrible," says the Tarikk, **were the combats which took place in this region." On one occasion, at the battle of Birni, Mahmoud lost eighty of his best fusiliers. Famine and climate worked on the side of Askia Nouh. The Moorish army suffered severely. Mahmoud wrote to the Sultan that the whole of his cavalry was destroyed. Six army corps were sent successively in reinforcement,