Mr. Archibald Lyall has struck completely virgin soil for his new travel book. This is the first work that has ever appeared in English on the Portuguese colonies of either Guinea or the Cape Verde Islands. They may truly be said to be two of the least known territories in Africa, if not in the worldÑbut by no means two of the least important. With the German demand for colonies, and the confused future of the Mediterranean, they may yet leap into front-page news, and Mr. Lyall has much that is topical to say about the strategic importance of Cape Verde, and about the German activities in the Bissagos Islands, off the Guinea coast, where the French newspapers place secret naval bases almost weekly. During his adventures, Mr. Lyall sailed in the last wind-jammer still left in the trans-Atlantic passenger trade, he stayed with alleged cannibals, hobnobbed with some of the most eccentric exiles ever to be washed up on a tropic beach, discovered the worst poet in the worldÑand at least one very good one.