The Lowland Indians of Amazonia by K. G. GrubbReview by: E. A. P.The Geographical Journal, Vol. 72, No. 3 (Sep., 1928), pp. 288-289Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1781987 .Accessed: 15/04/2014 15:03

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288 reviews

seem to clash with the evidence. Harcourt, it is true, aimed at the founding of flourishing communities in Guiana, and the discovery of precious metals was a secondary consideration, yet, none the less a consideration not to be ignored. In this respect a passage of his own is worth quoting: "I made triall of a piece of sparre, which the same Indian discouered unto me, and I found that it held both Gold, and Silver, which (although it was in small quantity) gave mee satisfaction that there bee richer Mines in the Countrey to bee found: but the best lie deeper in the earth, wee had not time nor power to make seerch for them" (p. 108). Furthermore, the fact that Harcourt took the trouble to send his cousin Unton Fisher on an expedition in search of Raleigh's Manoa, the supposed city of El Dorado (the gilded man) is, to say the least, significant. In point of fact, Har? court was to a large degree Raleigh's disciple. From the great Elizabethan he had derived his plan of an English Empire in Guiana. Raleigh's 'Discoverie of Guiana,' his later essay 'Of the Voyage for Guiana,' and Harcourt's 'Relation' all strike exactly the same note. Gold there may be, and the Inca city of Manoa may exist; but whether that be so or not, the occupation of and settlement in Guiana must be carried forward because of the three great results that will accrue: the extension of Christ's Kingdom, the political aggrandisement of England at the expense of Spain, and the enormous expansion of English com? merce. Harcourt constituted an important link between Raleigh and subsequent colonizers, and we could have wished that more attention had been given to this aspect of his work.

In other respects the volume is worthy of high praise. The editor has re? produced some very valuable maps of Guiana, the most important being one by Gabriel Tatton, which (it is shown) was almost certainly framed for the specific purpose of illustrating Harcourt's exploration and settlement. The notes to the text are copious and scholarly, revealing an intimate knowledge on the part of the editor of Guianian geography and ethnology. In Appendix II by a piece of masterly analysis and reconstruction the editor shows that a document in volume 4 of Purchas entitled "Relation of the habitations and other Observations of the River of Marwin and the adjoyning Regions" is a mutilated fragment of a much more detailed report presented to Harcourt and probably written by his cousin Fisher. Indeed, the notes and this appendix alone make the volume a worthy addition to the Hakluyt Society series. V. T. H.

THE LOWLAND INDIANS OF AMAZONIA. By K. G. Grubb. London: World Dominion Press 1927. 10 X 6 inches; 160 pages, and 14 maps. $s

Mr. Grubb is a missionary, and his survey of the Native Tribes of Tropical South America is animated by the desire to Christianize them. As a matter of fact missions have made little progress (though they were first started by the Franciscans before the close of the sixteenth century), and the greater part of the work is a valuable and interesting ethnological study of the numerous tribes inhabiting the vast region drained by the Amazon and Orinoco. In fourteen maps the distribution of the different tribes is carefully indicated under their linguistic families. The characteristics of these several tribes and their relation to the white population are frequently referred to. Particulars of area, population? (1) Total, (2) Indian, and the percentage of (2) to (1), also the number of Indians per square mile?are given for each state, together with its form of government, resources and products. We believe that no such extensive details about the Indians of Tropical South America have ever been given before, and they will be of great value both to the ethnologist and the geographer. The author has an extensive personal knowledge of the region, and other sources which he has drawn upon are indicated in footnotes. Several appendices are added. One of

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REVIEWS 289

them consists of a list of linguistic families, fifty-seven in number, and the tribes composing them. Mr. Grubb calculates that there are altogether quite four hundred dialects and languages spoken by the Indians of the Amazonian region.

The author frequently refers to the lamentable results of the contact of the Indians with the white man and so-called civilization, and his remarks, and still more those of the distinguished traveller, Koch-Griinberg, whom he quotes, make melancholy reading. Many specific instances might be quoted, did space permit.

The book concludes on a despondent note, explaining that the reason why the greater part of his book is devoted to the tribes and their location rather than to the missions is due to the paucity of the latter, only nine having been established among four hundred tribes, and these have met with little success. How far they may be prejudiced by the Indian's first experience of the white man he does not discuss. The numerical decline which goes on among these tribes, he concludes, makes it hard to say that the situation will improve in the future. Indeed, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that taken as a whole the Lowland Indians of Amazonia are facing sure and gradual extinction which nothing seems able to arrest.

E. A. P. OROKAIVA MAGIC. By F. E. Williams. With a foreword by R. R. Marett.

Oxford: University Press 1928. 9X6 inches; xii+ 231 pages; 8 plates and a map. 12s 6d

For some time past the Government of Papua has realized the important part that anthropology must play in effective and sympathetic administration of primitive races, and this book owes its being to the policy of appointing trained men to study native culture and affairs, the three parts into which it falls having been originally prepared as Anthropological Reports. The first part deals with the Taro Cult, a religious movement which during the last ten years has spread throughout the Orokaiva people of the Northern Division; this cult, from being originally directed towards the placation of the spirits of the taro (the staple food of the Orokaiva), is now translated mainly to the placation of the spirits of de? parted ancestors, who are believed to control the growth of the taro. The remaining part of the book is concerned with the Garden Culture of the Orokaiva and with Orokaiva Magic. Mr. Williams's work is an agreeable mix? ture of accurately recorded fact and stimulating deduction and suggestion; and few who have ever attempted to improve methods of native agriculture or horti? culture will doubt the soundness of his conclusion when he insists that if the native is to benefit at all from improved methods that are set before him, he must be taught them young and must be habituated to them. O. R, THE EARLY HISTORY OF TASMANIA : The Geographical Era, 1642-

1804. By R. W. Giblin. London: Methuen, 1928. 9X6 inches; xiv+341 pages; plates and charts, zis

In planning the history of Tasmania in three volumes Mr. Giblin has under? taken first the part most difficult of literary presentation. The elements of his problem are these: an island in a remote part of the world, in seas unvisited by regular traders; a number of casual visits by explorers, spread over a century and a half, the expeditions not forming a connected series in origin or plan, and taking Tasmania only as an incident in voyages for more extensive purposes; a very gradual revelation of the coast-line recorded in a series of imperfect charts; and a succession of observations of a primitive race of mankind, now extinct, by persons who lacked the scientific equipment provided by modern anthropology. Material of this sort is not easy to cast into narrative form. If the title is narrowly

U

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Article Contentsp. 288p. 289

Issue Table of ContentsThe Geographical Journal, Vol. 72, No. 3 (Sep., 1928), pp. 209-304The Work of the Royal Research Ship "Discovery" in the Dependencies of the Falkland Islands [pp. 209-227]The Work of the Royal Research Ship "Discovery" in the Dependencies of the Falkland Islands: Discussion [pp. 227-234]The Gilbert Map of c. 1582-3 [pp. 235-237]Lessons of the Gilbert Map [pp. 237-243]Lost Oases of the Libyan Desert [pp. 244-249]Remarks on "Lost" Oases of the Libyan Desert [pp. 250-258]International Geographical Congress, Cambridge, 1928 [pp. 259-267]Review: untitled [pp. 268-274]Review: Claudius Rich: Scholar and Pioneer: Review [pp. 275-277]Review: Musil's Arabian Journeys: Review [pp. 278-280]ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 281-282]Review: untitled [p. 283]Review: untitled [pp. 283-284]Review: untitled [p. 284]Review: untitled [pp. 284-286]Review: untitled [pp. 286-287]Review: untitled [pp. 287-288]Review: untitled [pp. 288-289]Review: untitled [p. 289]Review: untitled [pp. 289-291]Review: untitled [p. 291]Review: untitled [pp. 291-293]Review: untitled [pp. 293-294]Review: untitled [pp. 294-295]Review: untitled [pp. 295-296]Review: untitled [p. 296]Review: untitled [p. 296]

The Monthly Record [pp. 297-302]Obituary: Otto Nordenskjld [pp. 303-304]CorrespondenceIntermediate Commercial Geography [p. 304]