Adventures in the South Pacific. By " One Who was
Born There." (R.T.S. 2s. 6d.)—This is not a book of the usual pattern. We are familiar with stories of life in the Pacific islands from the point of view of the adventurer, and from the point of view of the missionary. This is, in a wag, akin to both. The writer
describes himself as a missionary's son, and he gives us a, glimpse of what life was to a child from a Christian household among heathen surroundings. A very strange and unedifying life it was. Then there is a powerful description of a tornado, and of the famine which followed it. The famine, again, has consequences of its own. So we get a very sombre-coloured narrative of the kidnapping of children, of the pursuit of the eobbers, and of the punishment which followed. Then there is a graphic description of the contest between the old faith and the new. And there is a tale of " blackbirding," only this time it is not practised under authority, but as a private speculation. The writer dwells, we see, more than once on the passionate love that the native has for his own island. However small and poor, it is the one place in the world to him.
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