The Land of the Hibiscus Blossom. By Hume Nisbet. (Ward
and Downey.)—This "yarn of the Papuan Gulf" (for "the land of the hibiscus blossom" is New Guinea) reeks terribly of blood. There is, too, a certain sense of reality about it which the most slaughterous fictions cannot attain to. Whether this is or is not a merit, is another matter; but it is certainly a fact that the writer has every appearance of talking of things quorum pars ipse fuit. His characters are, to put the matter plainly, for the most part terrible villains ; and it is a considerable relief to read in the preface that they are no more than "embodied principles of what might in- fluence the future of this great island if lawlessness were allowed to run riot, and religion and order were not in the majority." Carolina Joe is the ordinary " beechcomber ;" but Professor Kill- mann, who shoots a native if he sees him wearing a curious bead which he covets, and the Greek rover, " Niggeree," are, we hope, impossible. The Professor may be described as an embodied principle of scientific curiosity without conscience. The story is powerfully told; but some of the horrors, as " Niggeree's " story of sacking a native village, might have been retrenched with advantage.
Previous page
