3 DECEMBER 1898, Page 27

A Mystery of the Pacific. By Oliphant Smeaton. (Blackie and

Son.)—Mr. Smeaton certainly gives his readers a novelty. The captain of a Queensland " Labour Schooner " finds in a seaman's chest—the man has been killed in a mutiny—a paper sent afloat by a shipwrecked party. One of the passengers recognises the name of a relative, and a search is commenced. In the course of this there is found a Roman State, with Consuls and all the rest of it complete, descendants of Republicans who had migrated when Caisar made himself Dictator. All this is amusing enough. In due course we have the risks and terrors which the readers of these stories expect, and Nova Sicilia is found to be very much like other regions familiar to the adventurous heroes of the " gift-book " class.