20 AUGUST 1927, Page 24

THE BUCCANEERS : A BRIEF HISTORY. By Professor A. H.

Cooper-Prichard. (Palmer. 7s. 6d.)-If there is anything novel about this fresh version of the thrice- told story of the buccaneers, it is -that the history of those ferocious and daring freebooters should be recounted in a style at times wooden, at times floridly gaseous, and at other times reminiscent of the improving Mr. Barlow in Sandford and Merton. For instance : of a specially foul-mouthed `! Brother of the Coast " it is remarked that " his linguistic proficiency seemed always to have halted at expletives." There is nothing in Professor Cooper-Prichard's book (most of which is devoted to the exploits of Henry Morgan) that will take us away from Esquemeling or Dampier or Lionel Wafer, and little useful in it save its bibliography. We weep, too, to find a professor writing of bulbuous insects," of "baited breath," " La Trinadad," and " Coupe-de-main," and wonder to hear him say that the destruction of the buccaneer city of Port Royal, Jamaica, happened in 1692, " eleven years after the sack of Panama," which befell in 1671.