Travels in British East Africa, Zanzibar, and Pemba. By W.
W. A. Fitzgerald. (Chapman and Hall. 28s.)—Mr. Fitzgerald here records, in a rather bulky volume, the results of two years' exploration of the British East African coast-line, which he undertook with a view to making a special report on their agricultural capabilities to the late British Emit Africa Com- pany. He writes :--" In the anxious search for new markets, caused by the trade rivalry of the present day, the fact is not sufficiently realised that, along the 400 miles of sea.board within our sphere, there exists a wonderfully fertile country only awaiting the advent of English energy, capital, and enterprise for its development, and the exploitation of such products as Rubber, Cotton, Ivory, Copal, Jute, Fibres, Hides, Cereals, Oil-seeds, Copra, etc., while the forests contain many valuable woods. The climate varies from tropical on the Coast-lands to bracing, frosty, and cold on the high in- land plateaux." Certainly the prospect seems to be an encouraging one, and as far as we can judge from the author's own experience, there are no difficulties which cannot be sur- mounted by a little patience and perseverance. The labour question is of course the principal stumbling-block, but in that respect the author does not at all despair of finding willing hands amongst the various tribes who already attempt a certain amount of rough cultivation of their own. The small amount of skilled labour that is absolutely necessary on a plantation might be furnished, he suggests, by importation from India. In the mean- time, the accounts that he gives of his own experiments in this line are decidedly hopeful. It would be impossible for any colonist who cares to make a trial of British East Africa as a field of enterprise to have a more full and useful guide than is furnished by Mr. Fitzgerald's book. There is not a product of the country, nor a single circumstance connected with its ex- ploitation, that is not treated of fully and exhaustively ; while the story of the author's adventures in the pursuit of knowledge is as instructive as it is interesting.
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