80 
REGENERATION OF THE DARK CONTINENT. 
Guinea. Thus at the beginning of the seventeenth century nearly 
all the portions of Africa that were held by the nations of Europe 
were the three divisions of the coast of Guinea that were knowr 
respectively as British, French and Dutch Guinea. 
Even at the end of that century England and France were the 
principal rivals for African trade, but at the close of the French 
wars France had lost nearly all her possessions in Africa as well 
as elsewhere. In this war Great Britain acc[uired the ascendency 
in African affairs, which she stubbornly held for 200 years. 
Leaving the coast, they both pushed into the interior, which 
example was followed by other nations. Generally the partition 
of Africa went on slowly and peaceably, and it was not until the 
Brussels conference in 1878 that the unrestrained scramble began 
that has resulted in the division of the entire continent among the 
different nations of Europe. Thus in 1876, while Great Britain, 
France, Spain and Portugal had located colonies on the coast of 
Africa, the interior was held by the wild tribes that occupied it 
against all foreign aggression. 
CONFLICTING INTERESTS AMICABLY SETTLED. 
The Berlin conference in 1876 was the time at which the 
energetic division of the continent was inaugurated, and at the close 
of 1890 of the 11,508,793 square miles of territory composing the 
continent of Africa only some 1,500,000 remained open to seizure 
by the nations of Europe. There were even then some conflicting 
claims that had not been settled, as the conflicts between French, 
German and British interests on the Niger clearly testified. 
But these, together with the disputes between Portugal and 
England in the upper Zambesi, have been amicably settled, and it is 
mainly the claims that arise out of the British occupation of Egypt 
now that the British and Boers‘in South Africa have come to a 
settlement. 
The interior of Africa is as yet imperfectly known, but we 
know enough of the continent as a whole to be able to point to some 
general features and characterize it. One of these is that almost 
all round it at no great distance from the sea, and, roughly speak- 
