THE MIDDLE AGES. 
47 
probably Walet, which is represented to have been 
at one time the centre of the Mahometan power 
in Africa, and the chief resort of the Barbary mer- 
chants. But after the foundation of Tombuctoo, 
the happier situation of that city enabled it to 
carry off all this trade, and Gualata ended, like all 
the neighbouring kingdoms, in becoming tributary 
to Izchia. 
