The Prisoner of Chilouane ; or, With the Portuguese in
South-East Africa. By Wallis Mackay. (Trischler and Co.)—This is not fiction, but sober truth. The author went out to Learenso Marques, the town of Dolagoa Bay, and mot there with various experiences which he certainly would not liko to repeat, and which he records with the intention that his readers may not get in the way of them. "A dissolute, immoral, and useless horde of squatters," is his description of the Portuguese of Delagoa Bay; and he gives proof enough of its truth. Of course tho bad-spirit trade is active in the place ; and the language which Mr. Mackay uses about it is not at all too strong. But if he thinks that he is helping to got things mended by sneering at the niissionarios, he is very much mistaken. Let us put a plain question to him. Which would be the better for Africa, to give the missionaries a free hand and unlimited means, or to allow unlimited facilities to commerce ? Is it missionary enterprise or commerce to which we owe the slave-trade and this same hideous spirit traffic P There is much that is worth reading in Mr. Mackay's book, though we do not implicitly trust his judgment. His drawings, too, are graphic, if not artistic.
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