On the South African Frontier. By William Harvey Brown. (Sampson
Low, Marston, and Co. 12s. 6d.)—Mr. Brown is a citizen of the United States, who went out as naturalist to an expedi- tion sent by the American Government to West Africa, and prolonged his stay in the continent for seven years, " as collector, big-game hunter, gold-seeker, landowner, citizen, and soldier." He went through many experiences in the early days of Rhodesia. The war with the Matabeles and the Mashona rising are the most important historical events with which he deals. As to the latter, he remarks with emphasis that it was not due to white oppression. On the contrary, the Mashonas, whom we protected against the Matabeles, were really under great obligations to us. That there was gross mismanagement he admits, but the errors committed were, he thinks, in the direction of too much leniency rather than of excessive severity. We do not doubt Mr. Brown's good faith, but we must point out that his view does not agree with that of equally good witnesses, who hold that forced labour cruelly applied was one of the chief causes of the revolt. Mr. Brown has evidently very decided opinions about the right of the white man to civilise the black by making him work, but there is no reason to doubt his veracity when he is relating his personal observations. The book would have been better for severe compression, for it is over long —more than four hundred large pages—but it is not wanting in interest of a varied kind.
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