EUROPE AND AFRICA» 
of the Niger country and the Sudan by the British and 
French and the opening of direct connection by rail and 
water between the West Coast and Central Africa, the 
greater part of this trade is going to Europe via the Niger 
and Senegal Rivers. Thus the dangers and delays of a 
thousand-mile caravan route are avoided; but the traders 
and merchants of Tripoli are being compelled to procure 
their goods more and more from the distant eastern oases 
of Tibesti, Borku, and- Kanem in the Wadai country, 
under French control. 
In 1714, the Arabs of Tripolitania, which, with the rest 
of northern Africa, had fallen under the domination of the 
Ottoman Empire during the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
turies, secured their independence. They maintained it 
successfully for over a hundred years. In 1835, the Turks 
seized the port of Tripoli and put an end to the Arab régime, 
but it took thirty-five years before they were able to extend 
their administration over the entire province. Since then, 
what had they done to promote the welfare of the country? 
Very little. In the past thirty years, remarkable progress 
had been made in Egypt, in Algeria and Tunisia, by Great 
Britain and France, in the establishment of efficient govern- 
ments, in the development of natural resources and com- 
merce, in the construction of public edifices and improve- 
ments, and in the promotion of the public health and wel- 
Fare. But Tripoli was still marking time. Her trade had 
remained stationary during the same period at the nominal 
annual figure of $3,850,000. The Turks spent compara- 
tively little on the country and reaped an insignificant 
profit from their investment, the annual income from taxes 
and internal revenue dues never exceeding the sum of $540,- 
000, out of which all the expenses of the provincial govern- 
ment and military protection had to be paid. 
The governors were most invariably easy-going, unpro- 
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