Ralph Fitch, England's Pioneer to India and Burma. By J. Horton Ryley. With numerous illustrations, In "cloth, gilt, 204 pp. London: 'f, Fisher Unwin, When reading of the great Elizabethan days and the splendid men the reign brought to the front, every Englis!
that age has listed through three centuries, must fool a glow of pride thit the ptr and that the present finds us still keeping up worthily the traditions of our forefathers and leading the van in the advance of progress and civilian tion, Our soldiers and sailors show the same undaunted courage, and our merchants and travellers the same enterprise and love of adventure, 'As Mr. Ryley says in his preface: The story of the perilous adventures of Muster Ralph. Fitch, merchant of London,' in his endeavour to open up the Golden East to his countrymen, is in an eminent degree typical of the period and of the Elizabeth. an Englishman," and those who would understand the British characteristics, which lie beneath our modern luxury and ease, cannot do better than consider the real meaning of the story told in this hook. Fitch was one of four merchants who aalled the Tiger in 1553, under_a charter granted by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Edward Osborne and others, to trade with the Lo 'They went'to Tripoli and Syria and go through Asia Minor, down the Euphrates to Babylon. Thence past Bahrein to Ormuz, where they were mule prisoners by the Portuguese Governor, Don Albuquerque, who sent them to Goa. Fitch made' his escape from Goa and went te Agra, where he found the Great Akbar in the plenitude of his power, and thence across India toSerampore. He then went to Pegu and Malacca, and returned to England. The return journey occupied over three years, and the traveller had been amoy for eight yeara from home.
The narrative, which is exceedingly interesting, occupies but part of the book, as Mr. Ryley has introduced the account of the journey by a suggestive historical summary, designed to. illustrate the circumstances under which it was entered upon, and has completed the story by information from other sources. The accounts given by the traveller of India and Burma are extremely interesting and show how little manners and customs have changed in the East since his day. Pos-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.