396 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY exact spot in which the first battle took place is not indicated ; but the fight raged long and fiercely, and it was the troops of Yakoub, the Sultan of Bautchi, who at last decided the action against Bornu. This battle, which, as we learn from the history of Bornu, took place in 1826, appears to have been the last important battle of Sultan Bello's reign. After it a lasting peace was concluded between Sokoto and Bornu, and the principal Haussa dynasties appear to have acquiesced in their final deposition from the thrones of Haussaland.

The western states of the Haussa confederation, according to the account given by Clapperton, finally made peace on the understanding that they were to continue to be ruled by their hereditary native princes, and that the Fulani were not to interfere with them. It is not definitely stated that these were the states subject to Gando, but the general course of events would lead to this inference. The ruler of Gando had from the beginning leaned upon Sokoto, in order to obtain the submission of his subject provinces. Thus Sokoto apparently gained a vague overlordship of Gando, while the states of which Gando was suzerain existed on somewhat different terms from those acknowledging direct allegiance to Sokoto. Sokoto became the universally accepted suzerain of the entire territory, and Fulani rule was established more or less completely from the capital of that province to the farthest limit enclosed between the Middle Niger and the Benue.

According to the Fulani chronicles, while Bello lived, Haussaland enjoyed a period of great prosperity. Clapperton, who travelled through the country during the lifetime of Sultan Bello, tells us that under Fulani rule trade was discouraged by heavy duties, but that agriculture flourished. The country round Zaria, when he first saw it, was "like the finest in England." There were quantities of rice and corn, and the land everywhere ''looked beautiful." He notes fine cattle and horses, and heavy crops of grain **just high enough to