With the Admiral of the Open Sea. By Charles Paul
Mackie. (Nelson.)—This is a new life of Columbus, and differs from the majority of the biographies that recent events have caused such a flood of, mainly in this, that it is based upon the diary of the discoverer himself. Mr. Mackie justifies this new de- parture— as it may be styled—by saying, " We feel, as we follow his artless periods, that we are looking past the pen into the heart of the man, and recall with a new appreciation that he was the contemporary of the Great Captain and of Bayard the Match- less, in the days when great deeds were simply done, and yet more simply told by their doers." Mr. Mackie, who is evidently a painstaking investigator as well as a judicious editor and dis- criminating annotator, has certainly succeeded in his chief object, —that of showing what the chief actors in the great event of 1492 actually thought of it. Some readers will, however, And it prolix and even bald, and it is certainly difficult to reconcile one- self to the Spanish spelling of the great Admiral's name, " Cris- tOval Colon," although Mr. Mackie's object in using it is perfectly intelligible. This is an excellent book to put into the hands of a boy who honestly prefers the actual facts of history to its romance.
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