618 
APPENDIX IX. 
Sough ay. 
A.D. 
A.H. 
Neighbouring Kingdoms. 
fact, which I shall soon bring for- 
ward, shows how this remarkable 
tribe, which we have seen stirring 
in these regions already several 
years previously, as soon as they 
saw the established government 
endangered, broke out in order to 
make use of circumstances for 
establishing themselves firmly in 
the country. 
A'skia Fs-hak wanted the Bara- 
koy to imprison the royal princes 
who were in his company at the 
time, in order to prevent their 
joining the enemy, but they es- 
caped ; and he also endeavoured, 
in vain, to cause a diversion in his 
rear, by raising a revolt in Tim- 
buktu, but his messenger was killed. 
The Basha Mahmud ben Zar- 
kub pursued the king, and did not 
halt till he reached Kukia, having, 
with him, according toA'hmedBaba, 
174 divisions of musketeers, each 
of twenty men * ; so that, if the ranks 
were all filled, he had 3480 men, or, 
including the officers, about 3600 ; 
and these being all armed with 
matchlocks, there was certainly no 
army in ISTegroland able to resist 
them.f Seeing that a numerous 
undisciplined army against a well 
disciplined and compact band, 
armed with such a destructive 
weapon, was only a burthen, the 
Songhay king seems to have 
thought that a band of choice 
• • 
men, even if small in numbers, 
was preferable, and he therefore 
sent Hiki Serkia, an officer of ac- 
knowledged bravery, with a body 
of 1200 of the best horsemen of 
his army, who had never fled be- 
1 fore an enemy, to attack the Basha. 
The Fulbe or Fullan begin to 
play a prominent part in the 
history of this region. 
* In order to make out the whole numbers of the army of the Basha, we must add the garrison of Timbuktu, 
which could certainly not be less than a couple of hundred men. 
f It would be highly absurd to conclude, from what A'hmed Baba says of the strength of this army, that its 
numbers made it so ; for in numbers it was certainly a very small army for Negroland, where armies of from 
30,000 to 50,000 men are a common occurrence, and the Imam e' Tekruri says that the Songhay king had an 
army of 140,000 men. Revue Africaine, 1. c. 
