10 NOVEMBER 1877, Page 25

CURRENT LITERATURE.

Seventeen Years in the Yoruba

by Mrs. Hinderer for five yea

al o e h rs of her life in Africa, and also from the editor's recollection of person intercourse with her. Archdeacon Hone

gives a charming description of Mrs. Hinderer in his introduction to the Memori:ds, one which is born out by the internal evidence of the book, and the following estimate of her conversational gifts, which must have rendered her an invaluable companion in the social desert of an African mission settlement :— "There wee a charm in her vivacity and affability, in the ease with which she could draw graphic

d pictures of the scenes in which she had lived, sometimes touching an pathetic, sometimes singularly grotesque and ludicrous ; in the readiness with which she bad caught and could exhibit the salient points of her story, in the tone of kindness as well as truthfulness with which she noticed alike the faults and the virtues of the native character (which she always upheld, as having much in it to be admired and commended) in te candour with which she took care to toll the tale of mission work without false or exaggerated colouring, in the vein of good-natured humour which ran through the histories of the adventures of her husband an herself; and withal, in the entire forget- fulness of self, and the absence of all conceit, when she had been enter- taining, instructing, and delighting a circle of listeners, rich or poor, it might be far hours together." d (The Religious Tract Society.)—This deeply interesting volume is one of the most satisfactory records of missionary work in Africa, and also ono of the most impressive personal narratives of missionary experience, 'within our knowledge. We d not think it could fail to attract any class of readers, even that towhom the phraseology of "Evangelical" pietism is not agreeable ; because it is so full of vitality, activity, intense conviction, and reality. The wife of the Rev. David Hinderer, his faithful, brave, and devoted fllow-labourer, was a woman who must have made her mark anywher t h d great number of lettere, and a journal kept

Mr. Hinderer's career as an African missionary has been a very success- ful, as it was a conscientious and active ono, and though his devoted wife fills almost the whole space in the volume, nothing in it is made more plain than the distinctiveness of her department of their joint work, and the strictness with she maintained it, "keeping the house," according to the Apostolic precept, and working assiduously among the women and children, with, especially in the ease of the latter, the happiest results. The narrative of this life, full of the zeal of the love of God and abounding in charity, cannot fail to please tho fancy and to touch the heart of the reader, to whom it appeals by its curious and interesting details, its pictures of strange scenes, and tho quiet courage and constancy of the husband and wife who have been so sorrowfully parted by death.