it as his firm conviction that, had the
South succeeded in the Civil War, it would shortly have itself
abolished slavery and sought readmission to the Union. His proposition
was that the power and influence of the planter class was waning,
while the manufacturers, merchants and the like were increasing in
number and influence and they would have for their own protection
abolished slavery. I have not met a Northerner or a Canadian who
agreed with this view; but a few Southerners have expressed to me
their general concurrence with my friend's proposition.

BOOK REVIEWS

_Africa and the Discovery of America._ Volume I. By LEO WIENER,
Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard
University. Innes & Sons, Philadelphia, Pa., 1920. Pp. i-xix,
1-290.

The present volume is the first of a series in which Professor Wiener
will show that Arabicised Negroes, chiefly Mandingoes, brought to
America as slaves, profoundly influenced the culture of the Indians,
and were an important, if not always direct factor in establishing the
_modus vivendi_ between the Indians and the Europeans, which made
practicable the colonization of the New World.

The book is packed with valuable data, newly discovered, and brought
together for the first time. It should be read slowly, and read
through at least twice before judgment is passed on it. With the first
reading comes a shock. One learns that the _Journal of the First
Voyage_, and the _First Letter of Columbus_ are literary frauds,
though containing material which came from Columbus's own pen, and
that tobacco, manioc, yams, sweet potatoes and peanuts are not gifts
of the Indian to the European. Yet with a more intimate study of the
subject matter, the conviction increases that the author has built
upon the bed-rock of fact, and that his position is unassailable.

It is impossible, within the limits of a review, to do more than to
emphasise the most important of his discoveries. In his studies of the
_First Letter_, and of the _Journals_ giving account of the first and
the second voyages of Columbus, Professor Wiener seeks to determine
how much testimony they give pertaining to Indian names and things,
after the elimination of all that is not Indian. The non-Indian
elements are of two sorts; the names of the Islands, and the words for
"gold," etc. Columbus, dominated by the fixed idea, that, sailing
westward, he would find a short cut to India, China an