: The scenes are laid in the Canary Islands and off the West coast of Africa, which the author has pictured with appalling vividness. Jacinta is the daughter of a rich English merchant in Las Palmas, and being the belle of the place, as well a motherless and only child, she is just a little bit spoiled and inclined to have things her own way. The particular object of her intentions is a young Englishman, the sobrecargo of a little steamer that traded around the islands of the Canary Archipelago. Jacinta, disapproving of his indolent life, taunts him for his idleness, and in consequence, for her sake though he does not tell her so, he goes to the rescue of a mutual friend who is attempting to float a steamer laden with oil and gum that has been abandoned in one of the creeks on the West coast of Africa. The hardships and perils to which the men are exposed are splendidly described and the reader is made to realize the awful conditions which confront the traders in that fever-ridden district.