The Treasure - Finder, by W. J. Gordon (Frederick Warne and Co.),
differs from most historical romances intended for boys in this, that its chief scenes are laid not on the English but on the American side of the Atlantic. It describes certain adventures in the life of Sir William Phipps, Governor of Massachusetts—notable also as the first Colonial Governor of Colonial birth—who in 1687 discovered among the rocks on the north side of Hispaniola, a Spanish plate-ship which had been under water for nearly half-a- century, and took out of it gold and silver to the amount of £300,000, to be ultimately divided between himself and his brother- adventurers. Occasionally Mr. Gordon's story falters, whereas every book of adventure written for boys should give the idea of motion as rapid as that of Dick Turpin's ride to York, or of the hero of M. Jules Verne's "Round the World in Eighty Days." But when Mr. Gordon gets really into the thick of an incident, he goes to work with vigour, and a quiet humour which is in him finds adequate expression. As an excellent example both of Mr. Gordon's vigour and of his humour, the story of the ineffectual mutiny against Phipps (who then spelled his name " Phips "), deserves special mention ; Chips, the hoaxing but loyal carpenter, is really a very clever sketch. In respect of costume, customs, style of speech, and what not, Mr. Gordon strives, with scrupulous care and very considerable success, to reproduce the period of which he treats.
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