The Brig Audacious.' By Alan Cole. (Blackie and Son.)— Sharks
and pirates and savages figure in these pages ; and, what with the yarns which various seamen spin, and an ingenious introduction of a " brain-wave " anecdote, where a dream leads to the picking up of some shipwrecked people, contribute to make up a very readable story. But Mr. Cole's pirates remind us of the inexhaustible .quians and Volscians whom we meet with in Livy's pages. That historian, after killing about two millions of them in the course of three or four books, naively wonders where the supply came from. These pirates are equally marvellous. On p. 92, after a boatload has been disposed of, there are still forty-five on board the pirate. On p. 93, another boat attacks the brig. It is sunk, and some of the crew go down in her ; others climb the deck, and come " pouring in in such numbers " that they cannot be resisted. At last, however, they are all disposed of. We may reduce the " forty-five " to, say, twenty-five. But on p. 103 the pirate's deck was "full of men." On p. 104 they come "clustering up like bees." Fifteen prisoners are taken, after many have been killed, and there is still a balance of wounded.
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