18 OCTOBER 1890, Page 26

Samoa, Past and Present. By the Rev. Charles Phillips. (Snow

and Co.)—The Samoans have furnished one of the brightest chapters in the history of missionary work. A really gentle and docile race, they have at times been seized with that blood- thirstiness which is the despair and astonishment of missionaries, and has destroyed the work of years. The whole of the Samoan group seems to have been converted to Christianity, with a most wholesome effect. The lamentable influence of the Germans has doubtless thrown things back, and the Samoans cannot but come off badly, morally speaking, between three Powers. There is a quantity of interesting information about the habits of the islanders in this volume, and that alone should prove acceptable to a number of readers.