314 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY in the Soudan elected its own rulers. The tribute to the Sultan was not paid, the country conquered at so much cost became independent of Morocco, and the native populations of the Western Soudan, barred from all access to civilisation, fell under the despotism of a purely military tyranny. From this date their descent in the scale of nations was rapid and inevitable. By the end of the seventeenth century they had become practically what they now are.