622 APPENDIX IX. 
Songhay. 
A.D. 
A.H. 
Neighbouring Kingdoms. 
to hold possession for ever of this 
distant province for his master in 
Morocco. This is a highly interest- 
ing fact. But a small spark of 
native independence nevertheless 
remained behind in this province, 
from whence the Moroccains, after 
the first energetic impulse was 
gone, were forced to fall back. 
While the Basha himself was thus 
waging relentless war against the 
nucleus and the eastern part of 
the Songhay empire, the conquest 
and destruction of national in- 
dependence was going on no less 
in the west. The great centre of 
national feeling and of independent 
spirit in that quarter was Timbuktu, 
a town almost enjoying the rank of a 
separate capital, on account of the 
greater amount of Mohammedan 
learning therein concentrated. It 
was on account of this feeling of 
independence, probably, that the 
inhabitants would not bear the 
encroachments of the Kaid el 
Mustapha upon their liberty, es- 
pecially as he wanted to fill from 
his own choice, after the death of 
Yahia, the place of the Tumbutu- 
koy, or Tumbutu-mangha, as he 
is here called, the office of the 
native governor. Thus a bloody 
tumult arose in the town, when 
the Tarki chief Ausamba came to 
the assistance of the distressed 
Kaid, probably from motives of 
plunder ; and thus the whole town 
was consumed by flames, it being 
a dreadful day for the inhabi- 
tants. Nay, the enraged Kaid, 
who had now got the upper hand, 
wanted to slaughter them all ; but 
the Kaid Mami succeeded in re- 
establishing peace between the in- 
habitants and El Mustapha ; and 
quiet and comfort began to return ; 
so that even those who had emi- 
grated again returned to their na- 
