422 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LXVI. 
account of its situation, bordering, as it did, closely 
upon the central parts of the empire of Melle, which, 
at this time, formed almost the only portion that 
remained of that vast empire, and which was nearly 
overwhelmed by the Songhay in the course of the 
sixteenth century. Even the Im6shagh or Taw&rek 
became tributaries. 
South of the river two other provinces are men- 
tioned by A'hmed Bdbd, namely, the province of 
H6mbori, which from the nature of the country was 
also called Tondi, or El Hajri, and Burgu *, or 
rather Barba, though the latter country was ap- 
parently never entirely subjected. 
The governors of these provinces were certainly 
possessed of considerable power, and belonging, as 
they did in general, to the royal family, exercised a 
very prejudicial influence upon the destinies of the 
empire, as at the same time the central government 
became weak and debilitated. The governor of Kur- 
mina, especially, conscious of the important influ- 
ence and the rich character of his province, was very 
prone to mutiny and revolt. For as it was certainly 
a great advance in the scale of civilisation, that it was 
* In the passage (Journal of the Leipsic Oriental Society), 
p. 546, in the seventh line, a second l » ( is added by mistake. 
The name cannot be read as Burgu-koy, as all the parties com- 
posing the army of the pretender Mohammed e' Sadik, are said 
to have belonged to the people of the west, while Burgu is situated 
at the S.E. frontier of Songhay ; nay, it is quite clear, from 
page 547, that the Barakoy is meant, and not the Burgu-koy. 
