ERROMANGA, THE MARTYR ISLE.
Erromanga, the Martyr Isle. By the Rev. H. A. Robertson. (Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.)—Erromanga, one of the larger of the volcanic group of islands known as the New Hebrides, and situated about twelve hundred and forty-five miles from Sydney, certainly deserves the title of the "Martyr Isle" by which it is known in missionary annals. Ever since it was visited in 1771 by Captain Cook, its inhabitants, who are Mela- nesians, or black men of the same race as the Fijians, the Papuans. and the aboriginal Australians, have manifested a strong hostility to white men. This hatred has been tragically exhibited in the treacherous and brutal murder of missionaries. Among the men who have been thus massacred are John Williams, "the apostle of Polynesia," and James Harris, who were slaughtered in 1839; George N. Gordon and his wife Ellen, who fell in 1861; and James D. Gordon, who was killed in 1872. But, as usual in missionary history, there has been no lack of heroes—no other name can be used—to fill the gaps caused by death. Here we have an account of Erromanga, and of the Christianising work that has been and is being done in it, told by the Rev. H. A. Robertson, who for nearly thirty years has been engaged in its spiritual supervision as representative of the Church of the Maritime Provinces, Canada. Mr. Robertson originally migrated to the group of which Erromanga is the most notable island as an agent for a cotton company, but he received what in his simple, sincere fashion he terms " a call" to a spiritually higher sphere of labour. To that he has adhered. His book treats of his steady, uninterrupted exertions in the way of sapping and mining the heathenism of Erromanga. Mr. Robertson has not quite escaped the dangers which proved fatal to so many labourers in the same field; in 1886 there was a conspiracy against his life which might well have proved successful. Not the least useful portions of his work are the chapters in which he tells of the present position of Erromanga ; of the physical and moral characteristics of the natives, who are decreasing in numbers; and of the trade of the New Hebrides, which cannot be said to be considerable. A more simple, un- pretentious, straightforwastl book than this could hardly be con- ceived. It is in every respect a model narrative of missionary enterprise.
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