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THE PICAROON.

09.17

MAKANNA

A ROMANCE, IN THREE VOLS.

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"One of the most interesting and graphic romances that it has been our lot to read for many a year. The author transports us to South Africa, as completely as a Judge could to South Asia. He is equally at home when grappling with the ocean's storm, hunting the wild beasts of the wilderness, or painting with Flemish minuteness, the voorkamer of a Dutch boor at the Cape."-Athenæum.

"There was yet untrodden land for the writer of fiction—and the author of MAKANNA is its discoverer. To him we owe a romance of real life, the scene of which is laid in the jungles and deserts of Southern Africa, beyond the confines of the Dutch settlements, where the boor is surrounded by savages, and primitive nature is exhibited in all the sublimity of desolate grandeur. His pictures of the scenery of Africa are vivid and unique-his eloquent delineations of individual character are life-like and philosophical."-Atlas.

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"The graphic details of the Dutch Colonists, and the striking delineation of the manners, and superstitions of the savage tribes of the desert, impart such a deep and vivid interest, that we seem to live and breathe in the wilds."-Court Journal.

"This work abounds in interest, and is written in a style of great vigour and elegance."-Sunday Times.

"The work does not want to be invested with any fictitious interest, and the talent which is visible in its pages is its best recommendation to publie favour."-Morning Post.

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"We have rarely read a production of deeper interest, of interest sustained from the first page to the last. He is as much at home on the Ocean, and there are many scenes on ship-board equal to the best of the great sea lord, the author of The Spy.""-New Monthly Magazine.

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C. WHITTINGHAM, TOOKS COURT,

CHANCERY LANE.

THE PICAROON.

CHAPTER I.

"You would pluck out the heart of my mystery."

HAMLET.

THE shades of coming night were fast wrapping the gorge of St. Vincent's Rocks, through which the Avon, after laving the shores of Clifton, advances towards the sea, in a veil of vague and dim obscurity: a few faint rays yet lingered on the crags that crown with fantastic pinnacles the gray and rugged bastions of the Devil's Reach, but in the dizzy depth beneath all was dusky and

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