Through Polynesia and Papua. By Frank Burnett. (Francis Griffiths. 12s.
6d. net.)—There is nothing noteworthy about Mr. Burnett's book except the profusion of photographic illustra- tions—his sub-title is "Wanderings with a Camera "—and the attacks which he makes on missionaries. They are not liked, he gives us to understand, by the majority of officials and traders. For ourselves we are disposed to put the practical testimony of such names as Selwyn, Pattcson, and Paton above the very vague evidence on which Mr. Burnett relies. But we can do more than this. Mr. IL Hesketh Prichard in his Through Trackless Labrador has something very much to the point. Speaking of the Moravian mission and the Eskimo, he says : "From the very outset the mission has stood between this people and partial, if not entire, annihilation." In early days the Eskimo had boon treacherous and cruel ; no stranger's life was safe. Then the Moravians tamed them. In 1775 a naval officer, who had been sent to report on the matter, wrote : " By means of this laudable Society a herd of barbarous savages are in a fair way to become useful subjects. Then traders came and brought with them the customary evils. Once more the missionaries arose to save the Eskimo. They demanded grants of land in the vicinity of their stations. This request was looked upon with immense and idiotic suspicion, but the Society stood firm and finally gained the day." Without doubt tho traders, whose corrupting influence the Moravians with- stood, would have given the same account of them as Mr. Burnett's friends have given him of the missionaries in the Pacific. With what sort of prepossession he would be likely to hoar their story it is not difficult to imagine after a glance at his book.
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