The Zambesi Basin and Nyassa-Land. By Daniel J. Rankin, 14',R.S.G.S.,
M.R.A.S. With maps and illustrations. (William Blackwood and Sons.)--This is a prettily-got-up, but otherwise very disappointing, bcok. More than the first half is taken up with unimportant details and adventures, many of which might have occurred anywhere, and are related in very slipshod English. The latter part of the work is somewhat better ; but the author's adventures, and his observations on various places he visited, are arranged in separate chapters, without sufficient connection between, them to excite or retain the interest of the reader. The final chapters are devoted to a brief and somewhat sketchy account of the countries bordering on the Zambesi and Shir6 Rivers, their waterways, inhabitants, products, future possibilities, &c., and con- tain somewhat severe strictures on the policy carried out by the Portuguese, and on that of the agents of the British South African Company. One point in Mr. Rankin's book seems to demand careful investigation. He declares that the Arabs have been maligned, and should be utilised in any attempts to civilise Africa, and that most of the slave-raiding and other atrocities attributed to them are really committed by the Swahili, or coast negroes with a slight admixture of Arab blood. The author's portrait in Arab dress, which he assumed at Mombasa, in order to prosecute his inquiries among the natives, forms the frontis- piece to the volume.
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