DISCOVERIES DURING 
Arabian writers and Leo, some very important 
changes had taken place. Ghana, mentioned un- 
der the name of Cano, no longer held the supre- 
macy among the states on the Niger, but had be- 
come subject to the kingdom of Tombuctoo. Wan- 
gara, called Guangara, had become an indepen- 
dent kingdom, the sovereign of which maintained 
a considerable army. The gold, for which this 
region is so celebrated, is represented by Leo as 
found, not within itself, but in mountains to the 
south. Bornou is described under its modern 
name, also Cassina, under the name of Casena, 
though it does not appear to have then occupied 
that high place among the African states which it 
afterwards attained. But the most remarkable 
change is the foundation of the kingdom of Tom- 
buctoo, called here Tombuto, which took place in 
the year of the Hegira 610 (A. D. 1215.) Ischia, 
one of its early sovereigns, appears to have been a 
most warlike and powerful monarch, and had sub- 
jected and rendered tributary all the surrounding 
kingdoms, among which were Ghinea, or Genni, 
Melli, Casena, Guber, Zanfara, and Cano. The 
city itself does not appear to have been very splen- 
did. The houses were built in the form of bells ; 
the walls of stakes or hurdles, plastered over with 
clay, and the roofs of reeds interwoven together. 
One mosque, however, and the royal palace, were 
built of stone \ the latter by an artist brought from 
