280 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXIX. 
Batiita visited Negroland ; but the son of the very- 
king who in the time of that distinguished traveller 
ruled over Bornu fell the first victim in the struggle 
that ensued with a power which had arisen from the 
same root, had gained strength during the civil wars 
of Bornu, and which now threatened to swallow it up 
altogether. This was the dynasty of the Bulala, 
which, originating with the fugitive B6rnu prince Jil 
Shikomemi, had established itself in the district of 
Fittri over the tribe of the Kiika, and from thence 
spread its dominion in every direction till, after a 
sanguinary struggle, it conquered Kanem, and forced 
the Kaniiri dynasty to seek refuge in the western 
provinces of its empire, about the year 1400 of our 
era. 
The Bornu empire (if we may give the name of 
empire to the shattered host of a belligerent tribe 
driven from their home and reduced to a few military 
encampments) for the next seventy years seemed 
likely to go to pieces altogether, till the great king 
'Ali Dunamami opened another glorious period ; for 
having at length mastered the aristocratical element, 
which had almost overwhelmed the monarchy, he 
founded as a central point of government a new ca- 
pital or " birni," Ghasreggomo, the empire having 
been without a fixed centre since the abandonment of 
Njimiye. It was in his time that Leo Africanus 
visited Negroland, where he found the Buldla empire 
(Gaoga) still in the ascendant : but this was changed 
in the beginning of the 16th century, even before 
