THE SPANISH MAIN

Islands : West Indian, Aegean. By Sir Arthur E. Shipley (Martin Hopkinson. 6s. net.)

The West Indies, with British Guiana and British Honduras. By George Mannington. (Parsons. 15s. net.) Central America : New Paths in Ancient Lands. By L. E. Elliott. (Methuen. 15s. net.)

On the Earthquake Line : Minor Adventures in Central America. By Morley Roberts. With six paintings by the Author. (Arrowsmith. 15s. net.) Mexico in Revolution : An Account of an Englishwoman's Experiences and Adventures. By Charlotte Cameron.

(Seeley, Service. 21s. net.) .

Bird-Wands of Peru : The Record of a Sojourn " on the West Coast. By Robert Cushman Murphy. (Putnams. 15s. net.)

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Two thoughts occur on reading these books ; the first may be given in Mr. Morley Roberts' own words, in his final -chapter : " Have I described anything of Guatemala and its wilderness ? I fear not. I might almost as well speak of secret Peten, hidden behind British Honduras, which have never visited, where it is said that cannibals dwelt and awful things happen: To know. a country and its people we must live in it and with them." The first thought, then,. is this : All these books are written by visitors. The writer of this article was for several yearS a dweller in the American Mediterranean, a voyager about her coasts ; inevitably he feels' the lack of the inside knowledge, of the insight and sympathy, which can only come from long and intimate acquaintance. And this other thought comes, too—how these travel books vary in style, outlook and real knowledge The lacquer of laboriously-acquired 'information is upon each of them ; upon none of them rests the bloom of intimate personal understanding.

Still, of their different sorts they are excellent volumes, thorough, conscientious, carefully compiled 'and, for the more part,. well written. Sir_ Arthur Shipley's little book about the West Indies and the Isles of Greece is an interesting account of his voyage to Trinidad to lay the foundation stone of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculthre. While there he received an invitation to make a voyage to the Aegean, and, coming from the Western to the Eastern Mediterranean, he inevitably contrasts the. islands of the Old with the islands of the New Worid. He says :—" In the spring of the year the Aegean Sea is at its finest and at its clearest, comparable with, though not surpassing, the brilliancy and translucency of the seas of the Bermudas and the Bahamas." Sponge-fishing is also the main industry of the Bahamas and the Aegean ; that forins another link between the islands. This book is written with -real, though limited, knowledge. Mr. George Mannington's volume upon the West Indies is a much more elaborate, _affair. Patiently documented, well written and illustrated, it runs to three hundred odd pages of sound, painfully-acquired information. - It is furnished with a preface by Lord Olivier, well known as a recent Governor of Jamaica. He _speaks of it as a " remark- ably comprehensive survey." It is that, and more ; for Mr. Mannington's book is a model of compression ; not only is it written to sell, but it is the outcome of a full and singularly well-ordered mind. His final chapter on the relations between the West Indies and the Mother Country is sound ; upon this difficult subject he seems to have imbibed the local view—that the islanders would not be bartered to the United States for anything. The untravelled people of England cannot realize the intense loyalty of the West Indies.

Passing inwards to the Spanish Main 'proper, we have two able books in Mr, Elliott's and Mr. Morley Roberts' ; they are able as guides to the country, and each is written with considerable literary, charm. Mr. Elliott's is the more elaborate and exact ; Mr. Roberts' the . more suggestive. As one afflicted with wander-lust, Mr. Roberts writes thus :--

" In my old days., of travel, when I earned my living as I went by any tool that came to band, I observed nothing properly and learned much. Now I wonder how it is the travel books are made and what their value may be. It seemed to. me that a -good sub- title -for this volume would be ' A Strictly Inaccurate-Account of Wanderings in Central America."'

The . book is not inaccurate in its sketches of Central American life, its hOmely comedy and tragedy ; and the use of the word -" sketches " reminds us that the volume is enriched by half a dozen paintings by the author. It is a book of flashlights ; it does not throw, nor does it pretend to throw, a steady glare upon the Spanish Main. „ Amidst a wider spread illumination this sort of sentence strikes one in Mr. Elliott's book : " I cannot resist giving, hastily and here, a scrap of statistics ; in all this colony (British Honduras) of 45,000 people, only 452 pay income tax." And here is a silhouette from Corinto (Nicaragua)'::--

" It lies on a baking beach of dark volcanic sand, on the northern arm of a well-protected bay. . . . The Consul was a negro, an able and cultivated negro, writer of good verse and 'author of a clever novel. He had performed some service to the Republican party and asked for a consular job abroad. ' But Nicaragua took his appointment as a reflection and behaved as Americans at home behave in the .presence of a coloured man I I have rarely heard a more pathetic lament than his—' We -lack congenial society.. . . when my wife and .I read Dante together in the original

there is no one here to share our pleasure.' ' ,

" No "—adds Mr. Elliott—" there. would not be, in. Corinto." When a. book is "-Dedicated- by Permission to the- Queen of Roumania " one opens it with expectation. .Mrs. Cameron is already, so to say, a graduate in the-geography of•Sonthern

America ; but her present book attempti too much. Here is the full style • and title : " Mexien - in Revolution—an Account of an Englishwoman's experiences and adventures in the Land of Revolution, with a Description of the People, the Beauties of the Country and the highly -interesting remains of Aztec Civilization." It is all rather breathless. The chapters on Cortes and the Floating (ardens are• decidedly good ; but Mexico to-day is not altogether a pleasant place, witness Mrs. Cameron's closing words : " Then I fell to my knees and thanked God for a safe deliverance from the terrorist wilderness of Mexico."

Dr. Cushman Murphy has written a careful and accurate account of the guano-producing islands off Peru in a large

volume, which., the y_ast rgechAniqm

American culture. Hardly as thorough as German, it is more elaborately lucid, more systematised ; yet parts of the book are quite fascinating reading. Especially good are his chapters on " The Most Valuable Bird in the World," and his remarks upon " The Humboldt Current " are informing and interesting. As a naturalist, Dr. Cushman Murphy holds high rank, and it is by such books as this that our knowledge of little-known facts and circumstances of marine life is enriched. A useful bibliography completes the volume.