The Story of Africa and its Explorers. By Robert Brown,
M.A. (Cassell and Co.)—Mr. Brown, whose power of giving a literary form to historical geography has been shown by not a little good work, takes up in this volume (the first of a larger work) the sub- ject of Africa. The introduction states the circumstances of the ease. Putting aside the Northern coast, the systematic attempt to explore Africa for purposes of settlement and trade is of recent date. Mr. Brown contrasts, in his first chapter, the Africa of 1792 with the Africa of the present year. He comes in the sixth to what we may call the serious work of African exploration. Tim- buctoo was the first object of search. In the youth of Tennyson, it was still—witness his poem—just passing out of the region of the unknown. Andre Brae, /lunge Park, the Landers, Clapperton, and others, worked at this object, the Niger being to them what the Nile has been to the explorers of more recent times. The French, however, it must be remembered, are still devoting much energy to Eastern Africa. Mr. Brown's is a brilliant narrative, the result, it is clear, of diligent and comprehensive study of the sub- ject ; and it gains much assistance from the excellent and copious ill•istrations with which it is furnished.
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