Captain. 3facklin : his Memoirs. By Richard Harding Davis. (W.
Heinemann. 6s.)—In Captain Macklin Mr. Harding Davis gives us the adventures of a soldier of fortune in Honduras. Central America, a Republic convenient to the novelist, for there "the frequent ructions rise." If the reader has not very much sympathy with Captain Macklin himself, ample compensa- tion is afforded by the very attractive figure of General, after- wards President, Laguerre. He is a real press chevalier, and it is quite a, grief to the reader when Fortune, having with one turn of her wheel seated him in the Presidential chair, unseats him with another, and he is obliged to fly from the Republic. The adven- turous parts of the book, and especially the seizure of the town of Santa Barbara, are written with the utmost spirit, and are excel- lent reading. The beginning and end of the story, however, drag a little, chiefly owing to the hero being so unsympathetic a figure that it is impossible to feel much interest in him personally, or in his private affairs. The women in the book are like most of Mr. Harding Davis's women, handsome and uninteresting lay figures. Altogether Captain Macklin will only interest those readers who consider it purely as a novel of adventure.
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