Under a Tropical Sky. By John Amphlett. (Sampson Low and
Co.)—Mr. Amphlett paid visits of some length to Barba.does, Demerara, and Jamaica,:and caught passing glimpses of various other West Indian islands. He spent somewhat less than four months in his tour, enjoyed himself immensely, escaped an English winter, an escape in itself worth about a year of life, and came back much improved in health. A tour so successful could not but be recorded in a pleasant and good-humoured fashion. Barbadoes, where he had personal friends, he found an agree- able place, without a suspicion of the meanness and vulgarity for which another recent traveller could not find words sufficiently vigorous to express his contempt. The Barbadians have a trifling weakness in an excessive admiration for their country, which they think, in the words of a certain black cook, "a pomposity fine nation ;" but Mr. Amphlett thinks very highly of them, on the whole. Nor was he at all dissatisfied with Demerara, which he did not even find very hot, and where what heat there is is much mitigated by constant use of a local drink called swizzle .--Angostura bitters and gin frothed up with a stick of four or five prongs, and plentifully iced. "People drink this, and in plenty, at all hours of the day, but more especially before breakfast and before dinner." Taking " swizzle " into account, and the fact that Demerara lies close to the equator, it is much to the credit of the place that Mr. Amphlett can affirm that it is "exceptionally healthy." As for the coolies, our traveller thought them well off, but sadly given to rum, which is indeed their " swizzle," and apt to spend their Sundays in lying dead-drunk in the heat of the sun. On the whole, Mr. Amphlett's is a pleasant and readable little book.
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