It was with characteristic activity that the Sovereign of the Congo Free State had taken the initiative in making the suppression of the slave traffic an essential aim in the civilisation of an African State which had not only been the source of slave supply for many markets, but whose territory touched closely upon a number of slave-dealing countries. In the eighteenth century, the nations of Europe had partitioned the coast of Africa to the French between Senegal and Gambia, to the British on the Gold and Ivory coasts, and to the Portuguese in the Angola and Benguela regions. The object of this territorial apportionment was to facilitate the slave trade and render it more profitable! Now, in the nineteenth century, these same Governments were dividing African territory with the much loftier purpose of extirpating the slave trade. The march of a hundred years had raised European morality and justified the Christian influence of the age. Undaunted by the material difficulty of realising the excellent theories which European nations were now offering to carry out in the very nest of the slave trade, the Congo Free State formally tackled the problem by promulgating three decrees in November, 1888. The first provided practical means for suppressing the slave trade, amongst which were measures prohibiting trade in firearms, gunpowder, and explosives; the second, seeking to protect and improve the natives, dealt with contracts of service between natives and foreigners, and enacted laws which guaranteed the former from imposition. The third decree established a body of volunteer police to suppress crimes and offences against public order and individual liberty. Then followed the organisation of the Belgian Anti-Slavery Society which, creating a special volunteer corps, operated against the slave-raiders in the Tanganyika district. Reference has elsewhere been made to the vigorous manner in which these and similar decrees were enforced, and how the slave-raider was driven from one lair to another, until, almost unaided and alone, the indomitable energy of Belgian officers succeeded in uprooting the institution of slave traffic and opening an immense river basin to the pursuits of civilisation.