We may always look both for interest and information from
Mr. Owen Rutter, and we are not disappointed in The Pirate Wind (Hutchinson 12s. 6d.). Not only has Mr. Rutter given us of his unrivalled experience, but he has supplemented this richly from the early records describing operations against pirates in the Malayan seas. The naval operations, for example, against the pirate stronghold up the Langkon (then known as Marudu River) are one of the really exciting episodes narrated : but the whole story of piracy is a most dramatic Illustration of one effect of European contact. The native rajahs had to turn to piracy to keep up the revenue which European monopolies had almost extinguished. Their cruel-
ties and the horrors which they perpetrated are another story, and these clearly justified the intervention of the Navy and their subsequent repression. The Pirate Wind, it should be added, is "the easterly wind which brought the cruising fleets from their strongholds."
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