Published in 1930, and chosen as one of eight Newbery Honor Books in 1931 - other titles to be so distinguished include Floating Island, The Dark Star Of Itza, Queer Person, Mountains Are Free, Meggy MacIntosh, Garram the Hunter, and Ood-Le-Uk the Wanderer - this tale of the dawn of the spice trade between western Europe and the (east) Indies is set in Portugal, and features many of the famed explorers - Bartholomew Diaz, Vasco de Gama, and the fiery-eyed young Ferdinand Magellan - of that country as characters. Woven in with the narrative of their true-life voyages of exploration are the stories of fictional figures, from Nicolo Conti, a descendent of the Venetian explorer Niccolò de' Conti, who comes to Lisbon to throw his lot in with the Portuguese, and become a ship-builder, to the beautiful Nejmi, half-Portuguese and half-Arab, whose presence in the circle of sea-voyaging enthusiasts and explorers is unexpectedly beneficial, in that she brings important information about the famed "devil's cave," and the sea-route along the east coast of Africa. Tying them all together is the brilliantly realized character of Abel Zakuto, a Jewish sea enthusiast, inventor, and banker, whose workshop in the hills above Lisbon serves as a meeting place in Spice and the Devil's Cave, and whose counsel and material assistance help all involved to realize their plans...

I had the distinct impression, going in, that Spice and the Devil's Cave would be another of those Newbery seafaring tales, akin in plot to titles like The Great Quest (1922 Honor Book), The Dark Frigate (1924 Medal Winner), The Voyagers: Being Legends And Romances Of Atlantic Discovery (1926 Honor Book), and Clearing Weather (1929 Honor Book) - but instead discovered that the majority of the story, save for a few pivotal scenes at the end, was centered on land-bound activities within Portugal. Still, thematically it is linked to these other stories of seafaring and exploration, particularly Colum's The Voyagers, and provides a fascinating (although not entirely unbiased) picture of Portugal's efforts to secure a direct sea trade with India, and her conflict, in this issue, with Venice. I found it ironic that Agnes Danforth Hewes so vividly depicted the cruelty of Arab traders - who murder Nejmi's family, because they are determined to prevent Europeans from trading with India, rather than using them as middlemen - when Vasco de Gama, who is very fond of the half-Arab Nejmi in the novel, is famed in real life for his own cruelty to Arabs and Muslims, particularly his massacre of an entire shipload of pilgrims (men, women and children) at Madayi. Hewes' rather unquestioning acceptance of the "nobility" of the European explorers here - she also displays some disturbingly racialist thinking, in her description of Nejmi's slavery, as the "only white thing among those naked, black cattle with their big, white teeth and lips" - stands in stark contrast to her surprising lack of antisemitism, and her sympathy for Abel and Ruth Zakuto, and historically accurate depiction of the important and beneficial role played by Europe's Jewish communities, in the development of all areas of culture, learning and economy, on that continent. This latter is particularly noteworthy when one considers the date of publication of Spice and the Devil's Cave (1930), so soon before the implementation of the Nazi Final Solution, made possible by (among other things) propaganda with the exact opposite message!

A mixed bag, altogether, with both problematic and admirable qualities, Spice and the Devil's Cave is, judged on story alone, a moderately engaging tale. Certainly no forgotten masterpiece, it is also nowhere near the nadir (insofar as I have thus far read) of the Newbery corpus, and is worth seeking out (provided one bears in mind its anachronistic content), for those readers interested in stories of adventure and exploration.

ETA: Although I often forget to discuss the accompanying illustrations in these older Newbery titles, I should mention here that I enjoyed Caldecott Medal-winning artist Lynd Ward's work here. I thought his engraving-style depictions of the characters, found at each chapter-heading, were lovely - dark, somewhat mysterious, and well suited to the story. ( )