Some Books of the Week
Da. Faro Pums-ros was on the Rum coast from 1882 to 1896 and in African Drums (Gollanez, ITs.) he sets down the kind of life which a trader then had to lead, opening up new country, finding new paths for merchandise and new markets for the distillers of ruin. Ile writes with refreshing candour of the mixed establishments of white men cut off from civilization, and what he has to say concerning the effect of Africa on white character and morals is all profoundly convincing so far as it goes. But he has failed to consider the type of white who then went as traders to that deplorable coast. There were exceptions, of course, but for the most part, given that type, the result might have been predicted and Africa is not altogether to blame. His judgment, how- ever, is not always reliable. To call Tippoo Tib a swindler would seem to some people fantastic, but for the confession that Stanley was his hero. His impressions of native life are not so good as his account of European activities, and we can only wonder what he means when he says that Africa (on the West Coast, too !) has " no art, architecture, monu- ments, temples . . . no colourful works of man."
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