Down the Orinoco in a Canoe. By Seiler Perez Triana.
(W. Heinemann. 6s.)—Mr. R. B. Cunninghame Graham explains in a characteristic introduction that the writer of this book, son of an ex-President of Colombia, finding his life in danger from the opposing faction, took this way of escaping. The narrative itself relates how Seiior Triana and his companion rode to Bogota and thence to the banks of the Tua (not named, we see, on the map with which we are supplied). Here they took canoes. The Tua took them to the Meta, and the Meta again to the Orinoco, on which they travelled till they reached Ciudad Bolivar, a distance of some seven or eight hundred miles as the crow flies, and actually much more. From Ciudad Bolivar they went by steamer to Trinidad. Mr. Cunninghame Graham is as scornful as usual of his country and countrymen ; but we take it that his friend was not sorry that Trinidad was a "British island," though "once a Spanish possession." It is an interesting and graphic story of travel, wholly free from affectation, as Mr. Cunninghame Graham points out. This praise cannot be extended to his own contribution to the volume.
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