THE SOUDAN CLOSED 321 Europe held the coast. Slaves were hunted for her in the far interior. Ivory was shot for her, gold was washed for her ; but Europe herself, the civilisation, the order, the justice for which her name now stands, penetrated no farther than perhaps twenty miles inland.

Thus not only did the finer races of the Soudan lose touch with the civilised world, but the civilised world lost also touch with them. Their records were preserved by Arab writers, and modern Europe, in its religious fervour, had banished Arabic from its literature. The traditions of intercourse with the Soudan had been all traditions of Saracen Egypt and of Moorish Spain. Turks had destroyed the one, Ferdinand the Catholic had obliterated the other. By the end of the sixteenth century the mystery of Africa had closed round these ancient races, and they were lost to history for a period that was to last three hu-ndred years.