428 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LXVI. 
for a quiet course of study, to the great astonishment 
and disappointment of his army, who expected to be 
led by him, in a bloody contest, to power and wealth. 
A'hmed Baba himself, the author of the history of 
Songhay, who gives a long list of learned natives of 
Negroland, may serve as a fair specimen of the learning 
in Timbuktu at that time. He had a library of 1600 
books. 
A great deal of commerce was carried on in Son- 
ghay during the dominion of the A'skias, especially 
in the towns of Gagho and Kiikiya ; the latter being, 
as it appears, the especial market for gold as early 
as the latter half of the eleventh century. Salt, too, 
was the staple commodity, while shells already at 
that time constituted the general currency of the 
market; not, however, the same kind of shells that 
are used at present, but a different sort which were 
introduced from Persia ; and there is no doubt that, 
even at that time, almost all the luxuries of the Arabs 
found their way into this part of Negroland. That 
Timbuktu also, since the decline of Biru or Walata, 
in the latter part of the fifteenth century, formed an 
important place for foreign commerce, is evident from 
the fact that the merchants of Ghadames, even at the 
taking of the town by the Basha Jodar, inhabited 
the same quarter as at the present day. 
We also see, from Leo's account*, that the king of 
Songhay was obliged to spend a great proportion of 
his revenue in the purchase of horses from Barbara \ 
* Leo Africanus, 1. vii. c. 3. 
