The author explains too how slavery in Cuba or in the Spanish possession differed from that of other nations in that although the Spaniard regarded the black as socially and politically inferior, he did not look down upon him as a "soul-less son of Cain condemned to servitude by divine wrath" but recognized the black's equality with him before the altar of the church. When he became free and even before he became free the slave had rights before the law. "This attitude of mind of the Spaniard--so very different indeed from that of the slave-holding North American,--partly explains the facility with which he mingled his 'pure, clean' white blood with black, so begetting a mulatto population to be reckoned with later." Free blacks, therefore, soon appeared. By 1568 forty in Havana had bought their freedom. Others, though still slaves, lived independently, the men doing such as working at trades and the women running eating houses, but all reporting their earnings to their masters at intervals. C. B. WALTER. * * * * * _Sierra Leone: Its Peoples, Products and Secret Societies_. By H. OSMAN NEWLAND, F. R. Hist. S., F.I.D. John Bale, Sons and Danielsson, London, 1916. Pp. 247. This work consists of the observations on a journey by canoe, rail and hammock through Sierra Leone. To this is appended fifty-three pages of matter on "Practical Planting Notes for Sierra Leone and West Africa," by H. Hamel Smith. Subject to sufficient demand, however, it is proposed to issue this book, annually or biennially, with amendments and additions to date, as a Sierra Leone Year Book and with a Who's Who section. Accordingly, it treats of the geographic and economic conditions of that land and the rule of 1,500,000 Africans, largely by less than 900 Europeans. Taking up the elements of population the author devotes much space to the Creole and Aborigine elements, giving the characteristics of these classes. He then considers the river system, the railroads, life in the interior, the rubber industry, the native chiefs, the amusements of the people, native law, peculiar customs of the people, their secret societies, the important products and the management of estates.