Hurrah for the Spanish Main! By Robert Leighton. (A. Melrose.
6s.)—"A Tale of the Third Voyage of Drake to Darien" is the sub-title of Mr. Leighton's book, and it may be well to remind the reader that this "third voyage" was the expedition which started from Plymouth on May 24th, 1572, and that the great exploits which distinguished it were the attack on Nombre de Dios and the capture of the mule trains. The diffi- culty of the writer who sets himself to make a volume of the orthodox length on such a subject is that his fictitious accessories and preliminaries may be tedious to the reader who wishes to get, so to speak, to business. We reach the hundredth page before the hero takes service with Drake, the hundred and eighteenth before the `Pacha' and the ` Swan ' set sail, and the hundred and sixtieth, more than half-way through the book, before we find ourselves at Nombre de Dios. Mr. Leighton, however, does his work very well ; the details with which he fills in his picture are always drawn with spirit.
Previous page
