412 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. LXVI. 
viously to that of Songhay, — I mean Ghana, or Gha- 
nata, and Melle, — had evidently emanated from the 
north, and especially from Sijilmesa, Songhay appears 
to have been civilised from the other side, namely, from 
Egypt, the intimate relation with which is proved by 
many interesting circumstances, although, in a political 
respect, it could only adopt the same forms of go- 
vernment which had been developed already in Ghana 
and Melle ; nay, we shall find even some of the same 
titles. With respect to Ghana, we learn from A'hmed 
Baba the very interesting fact* that twenty kings 
were supposed to have ruled over that kingdom at 
the time when Mohammed spread the new creed which 
was to agitate and to remodel half of the globe. 
The kingdom of Songhay, even after 'All Killun 
had made it independent of Melle, could not fail to 
remain rather weak and insignificant, as even Tim- 
buktu, and probably a great portion of the country to 
the east of that town, was not comprised in its limits : 
nay, it even appears that the kingdom was still, at 
times, dependent in a certain degree upon Melle, the 
great kingdom on the upper course of the Niger ; and 
it was not until almost 150 years after the time of 
c Ali Killun that the powerful king Sonni 'All, the 
Sonni Heli of Leo Africanus, conquered Timbuktu, 
wresting it, with immense slaughter, A. h. 894, A. d. 
1488, from the hands of the Tawarek, who had them- 
selves conquered it from Melle. This king, although 
he is represented by all the learned men of Negroland 
* See A'hmed Baba, 1. c. p. 526. 
