THE EAST AND WEST INDIAN MIRROR.
The Bast and West Indian Mirror. By Saris van Spielbergen and Jacob le Maire. Translated by J. A. J. Villiers, of the British Museum, Vol. XVIII., Series II. (Ilakluyt Society. um. Ga.) —This delightful book, one of the volumes issued by the Hakluyt Society for 1906, is an account of a voyage round the world vie the Straits of Magellan and the East Indies by Joris van Spiel- bergen. It contains also an account of the Australian naVigations of Jacob le 3Iaire. "The renowned marine hero," Joris van Spielbergen, was sent in the year 1614 in command of six ships fitted out by the Dutch East India Company to sail through the Magelanes Strait and Southern Sea to India." The East and West Indian Mirror, besides being a diary of Joris van Spiel-, bergen's voyages, has many most charming, not to say ingenuous, maps, and an account of "all the battles fought on land and water"; and" to this are added two accounts, the one of the East,
the other of the West Indies, with the number of ships, forts, soldiers, and guns." The maps and map pictures which illus- trate this book are beautiful works of art, besides being full of unconscious humour, since the designer's aim was to give the maximum of information in his somewhat limited space. One plate contains a delightful picture with a terrific battle taking place on sea and land, and in the middle of it all a gentleman sleeping peacefully in a hammock, with the note that "this is how some of them sleep in a net made fast between trees." There is also a curious "Ode in honour of these fresh navigations," which contains one of the vaguest verses in the whole of poetry ; the rhymester is describing the lands visited by Spielbergen
" Adorned with fruits so sweet, with many kinds of creatures,
With mountains, woods, and dales, and all such varied features."
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