Morocco remains stupidly indifferent and inert, a pitiful example of senility and decay. The remaining portion of North Africa which still fosters slavery is Tripoli. The occupation of Tunis by France has diverted such traffic in slaves as it maintained to its neighbor. Though the watchfulness of the Mediterranean cruisers renders the trade a precarious one, the small lateen boats are frequently able to sail from such ports as Benghazi, Derna, Solum, etc., with living freight, along the coast to Asia Minor. In the interior, which is inaccessible to travellers, owing to the fanaticism of the Senoussi sect, caravans from Darfoor and Wadai bring large numbers of slaves for the supply of Tripolitan families and Senouissian sanctuaries. The country is of course under Turkish authority, and vizirial letters and firmans have been frequently issued since 1848 forbidding the importation of slaves and all traffic in them, but we might as well expect the Bedouins of Arabia to cease their nomadic life at the bidding of the Pasha of Haleb as the fanatical Mussulmans of the Fezzan to abstain from slavery at the mere command of the Governor of Tripoli. The descent of the Congo to the Atlantic in 1877 suggested to King Leopold the foundation of a state. The Berlin Conference was a consequence of the success attained by the King. The partition of Southwest Africa among France, Portugal and Belgium inspired the Germans to seek territorial possessions in the Dark Continent, and the movement of Germany excited Great Britain to action, and thus public attention was once more diverted to eastern Africa. [Illustration: BOY SLAVE] From the Abyssinian frontier as far as the Portuguese possessions, and stretching inland to a line which may roughly be said to be about east longitude 30°, was an area covering about 1,500,000 square miles which belonged to no power. It was agreed that it should be divided into three spheres of influence. The Germans fixed upon the southernmost, the Italians upon the most northern; the British chose the central. Each power contracted to confine its operations within its own sphere, and to proceed to organize and administer it as opportunity offered upon a civilized basis. There was no intention to launch out into any enterprise of conquest, but each power proposed to make its title good by renting or leasing tracts within its sphere from the native princes or tribal chiefs, by making treaties with them for the sovereignty of their lands, in return for annual subsidies and protection from violence, meanwhile being certain of immunity from all interference or opposition from its neighbor.