■ o * M mfl m &&1 . /(era /tt, ^^% • ookfeller& )!(/•//* ot/f,, ^^ M flk VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, IN THE YEARS 1809, L810, AND 1811 ; CONTAINING STATISTICAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS ON GIBRALTAR, SARDINIA, SICILY, MALTA, SERIGO, AND TURKEY. BY JOHN GALT. LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, STRAND. 1812. J. Nichols and Sow, Printers, Red Lion Passage, Fl«et-ttrcet, Loudon. PREFACE. 1 HIS Work is part of a design which I had formed, of giving such an account of the Countries connected with the Mediterranean, as would tend to familiarise them to the British Public. It will appear sufficiently evident, in many places, that a great part has been printed from the original Notes. I am not aware that this will be regarded as a fault, although it may expose me to the animadversions of verbal criticism. But I ought to apologise for publishing', unamplified, a number of remarks, which were noted down, as hints for dissertations. I was apprehensive that my Book would have been enlarged, without being aug- mented with information ; and I would rather that it were thought defective in disquisition, than deficient in facts which suggest reflections. IV PREFACE. I considered myself bound to be more minute, rela- tive to the modes and circumstances of travelling, than, perhaps, may be deemed conformable to the title of the Book: — because the treatment which strangers receive, in any country, furnishes a topic connected with its domestic economy, and that kind of know- ledge which is useful to the Merchant and Politician, as well as amusing to the general Reader. Classical inquiries formed no part of the objects of my journeys. My obscure gropings, therefore, at the elucidation of ancient mythology, should be re- ceived with indulgence. They may amuse the learned ; and they serve to vary the narrative to the less accu- rate reader. I trust that the papers in the Appendix will not be regarded as inserted to swell the volume. The statement of the productions of Sicily was not made without industrious inquiry. Nor will the utility of the other two papers, relative to that island, be dis- puted. The Eclogue I hesitated about inserting. It was written at Cape Passero, under a lively impression of the peculiarities of the Sicilian peasantry. What- PREFACE. ever may be the poetical defects, it will, probably, not be found incorrect as a delineation. The docur ments relative to the projects of the French are more than curious ; and those explanatory of the pro- cesses of dying Turkey red, though not new, will have their use, from being exhibited together. The political opinions, occasionally introduced, have not been delivered without reflection. The im- portance of Malta to this country, first impressed on the public mind by the Star newspaper, will be en- forced by the incidental notices in the following pages. Reflecting, in that island, on the influence of a free press over the operations of states, I was in- duced to interweave those remarks, in the text, which occurred to me, from seeing so central a station ne J and address were wanted, the members of the brotherhood displayed a penetration and ability which have never been excelled. In short, by the exercise of all the various modifications of genius, wherever talents excited admiration and acquired power, the Jesuits were discovered labouring for the ascendancy. They were a religious order, because the character of priests facilitated their views. The tendency of the principles of this celebrated society began to manifest itself in so many various ways, and with so great a uniformity of effect, that it came to be considered as the result of a premeditated design. The secular rulers of Europe were alarmed. They saw that hereditary rank and privilege — all those things which they conceived to be the end for which governments were instituted, would be subverted by the Jesuits ; and, therefore, coalescing against the Order, they effected its abolition. A partial restoration, however, has lately been permitted in Palermo ; and the school of the Order is numerously attended. If the times and circumstances in which the restoration has taken place be considered, we may perhaps see cause to regard the Sicilian government as influenced, in this matter, by a broader policy than is commonly ascribed to its views. The success of the French has been, undeniably, in a great measure, owing to their general mental superiority. The very errors of the Revolu- tionists proceeded from a kind of moral rankness that led to under- takings, which were criminal only because they were excesses. Armies having been opposed to their armies without effect, it is plausible to have recourse to a systematic counteraction of their moral vigour. This is a refinement in policy, however, that seems hardly 25 credible ; but it ought to be remembered tbat in the court of Palermo there are many friends and admirers of Filangieri. THE CLERGY. In Sicily, as in other countries, the Hierarchy has certainly seen the best of its days. The youth no longer consider the service of the Altar as the apprenticeship of Fortune, nor the livery of the Church as the garb of Honour. They shrink at the ridiculous appearance of gowns, cowls, and shaven crowns, compared with the elegancies of worldly men ; and the indolence of the monastic life is no longer a sufficient recompence for submitting to its restraints. The Church, having ceased to be regarded as venerable, is looked upon as ridiculous. This change has arisen from causes different from those which led to the Reformation in Luther's time. That Reformation originated in the exposure of doctrinal cor- ruptions ; and it was more because the monastic institutions were not found to be authorized by Scripture that they were abolished in the countries which embraced Protestantism, than on account of the flagitious lives of their members. But the doctrinal corruptions are not now thought of; nor do even considerations of morality much contribute to the increasing contempt with which the eccle- siastical profession throughout this province of the Papal empire is regarded. The institutions of the Church are now generally estimated by their temporal utility ; and, being found without value in this respect, are of course deemed oppressive. K 26 THE POOR. Among the most striking proofs of the decline of clerical wealth and power in Sicily, is the falling off in the customary largesses to the poor at the gates of the convents. The effect of this in the first instance is melancholy. The state of the poor is gradually become worse, and in Palermo the number of mendicants has visibly increased within the last twenty years. Some time since, their distresses attracted the attention of the government ; and a large and extensive establishment, in imitation of our English workhouses, was instituted to remedy the evil. The building, though not yet completed to the extent of the design, would do honour to any state. The interior regulations are, I am told, efficient and judicious. The inmates amount to several hundreds, and their employment is chiefly in the different processes of the manufactories of silk. But however well intended, this institution is found entirely inadequate to remove the distresses of the poor ; and in proportion as the Church continues to decline, the number of beggars must increase, until that salutary change in the habits of the lower orders, of which the cessation of their gratuitous supply is the necessary forerunner, shall have taken place. The Sicilian gentry, particularly the females, have the reputa- tion of being very charitable. The whole nation, indeed, seems to have a great share of benevolence. He must be strongly prejudiced, indeed, who would not allow the conduct of this people, to one another, notwithstanding the general distrust that individualizes them so much, to be both respectable and kindly. 2? LUXURIES. Among the extraordinary things in the frame of the society of this country, may be reckoned the exemption of articles of luxury from taxation. Neither carriages, horses, nor houses, are subject to assessment. Even foreign wines in Palermo are rated at little more than the wines of the island. But all those necessaries, of which the labourer requires as many and as much as the nobleman, constitute the means of the revenue. Here the monopolies of bread, fish, oil, &c. are annually farmed ; and the privilege of selling ice, which in Palermo is as much an article of necessity as porter is in London, is disposed of in the same manner. It is hardly possible to imagine a fact more strikingly illustrative of the contempt with which the people of this island are regarded. The quantity of Indian figs, or prickly pears, as they are sometimes called, consumed in Sicily, is almost incredible. In every part of the country you meet with plantations of Indian figs. In every village, stalls are seen covered with Indian figs. At every corner of every street in Palermo are piles of Indian figs. If a Sicilian be observed eating any thing, it is certainly Indian figs. If he be carrying a basket, it is full of Indian figs. Every ass that is seen coming into the city in the morning is loaded with Indian figs. Every peasant that is seen in the evening counting his copper money on a stone, is reckoning the produce of his Indian figs. If an article be bad, it is said not to be worth an Indian fig ; and there is no- thing in the world better than an Indian fig. It is the only luxury 28 that the poor enjoy ; and, like all other luxuries, it is exempted from taxation. " 1 his is noble, and bespeaks A nation proud and jealous of the blessing." POPULATION. The population of Sicily has for many years been gradually in- creasing. The fact has been incontrovertibly established by recent extracts from the parochial registers ; a fact sufficient to prove that the condition of the inhabitants must be in a gradual state of im- provement. It is deserving of notice, that the increase of males has lately been out of all proportion greater than that of females. In Palermo the population has exceeded the increase of houses, and, in consequence, it is exceedingly difficult to find an empty habitation. In the year 1809 the demand was greater than had ever before been known, and was attended in many instances with much inconve- nience. Persons who had given notice of removal, not being able to find houses, refused to quit at the term ; and landlords, in order to avail themselves of the augmented value of their property, at- tempted to oblige the tenants either to remove or to pay a higher rent. This excited much conversation ; and, as the Sicilians have a great deal to say on all subjects, their noise and clamour at length reached the ears of Government, and it was thought expedient to order that no person in the possession of a house should, for that term, be forced to quit, nor any increase take place in the rate of rents. This sudden influx of inhabitants to Palermo is supposed to be owing to Neapolitan and other Continental emigrants. 29 Although it cannot be doubted that Sicily, within the last ten years, has begun to shew decided symptoms of improvement, a fact confirmed by the testimony of those who have made the statistics of the country their study ; yet, in what concerns the arts of deco- ration, Palermo has greatly declined. The buildings erected during the early part of the last century are on a more magnificent scale than those recently constructed. The style, if I may use the ex- pression, was then more spacious, and the interior ornaments more splendid. The walls and cielings of the apartments in the new houses are either stained with simple colours, or painted in imitation of paper hangings, while the doors and pannell'ng are commonly plain. But, in the old houses, the walls are hung with satin and tapestry, the doors are gilded, and the pannels are often covered with mirrors or pictures. This alteration, in the style of domestic accom- modation, might lead one to conclude that Palermo has fallen from its ancient opulence. But the falling off, in point of state and shew, may be owing to the introduction of a taste for more comfort and convenience. The residence of the nobility in the capital, during the reign of the present king, has diffused among the tradesmen so much wealth, that a middle class has begun to arise here ; while the fashionable competitions of the nobility in their entertainments has impaired their inheritance, and forced them to incur debts which no longer permit them to maintain the splendour of their ancestors. If, therefore, no palaces be now building, but many falling into ruin, changes may be observed going on which more than com- pensate this disadvantage. The suburbs ©f Palermo begin to in- 30 dicate something like the formation of that comfortable middle class, which is the pre-eminent boast and distinction of England. GAMING. The Palermitans are certainly greatly addicted to cards and billiards. The number of gaming-houses adapted to all ranks and degrees is astonishing. So general and habitual, indeed, is the passion for play, that it manifests itself in situations where, pre- viously, one should not expect to meet with it : it is the ruling passion of the Sicilians. In going one morning to the Tribunal of Justice, I saw a groupe of card-players sitting on the landing-place of the great staircase, earnestly occupied with their game, although the bustle around them was almost as great as that of the Royal Exchange of London at high change time. On the Marina, when the weather will not permit boats to put to sea, I have frequently seen the fishermen at cards ; nor is it unusual to observe bands of idle boys sitting on the steps of the church-doors engaged in the same spendthrift occupation. Were this passion confined only to the higher ranks, I should almost be disposed to consider it as one of those private evils which minister to public good. It may seem paradoxical to assert that the love of play among the Sicilian no- bility is a source of national benefit ; but, nevertheless, the idea has some foundation in fact. The losers are compelled to resort to so many various modes of procuring the means of paying their debts of honour, that frequent changes of property are produced, either for life or in perpetuity, by which the feudal obligations are gradually relaxed. The vassals, no longer labouring for those hereditary 31 lords, whose ancestors, time out of mind, were the lords of their fathers, feel themselves, under new masters, in possession of some degree of individual liberty. The surplus of their labour comes to be regarded less as the property of their masters, and they begin to entertain the hope of acquiring something that may be called their own. Still, however, as the new territorial superior has the same legal privileges as the old, this gives birth to duplicity of character and clandestine dealings, in order to ward off the execution of his claims ; and the peasantry of Sicily are, of necessity, a cunning and equivocating race. TIME AND BELLS. One of the most puzzling things to an English stranger in Sicily is the mode of reckoning time. I was several days in Palermo before I understood it, or indeed suspected that it differed from ours, having either never heard, or forgotten, that the Italian mode of com- puting was different from that of the rest of Europe. Sometimes the public clock in the Piazza Marina, where I staid, pronounced the hours with much audible distinctness, and there was little dif- ference between it and my watch ; but it was in general so inco- herent, that I began to think that the intellects of the steeple were deranged. The servants in the hotel, being acquainted with our way of reckoning the hours, never found any difficulty in under- standing my orders or inquiries which respected time, and they always answered according to our practice. I know not how long I might have continued in this state of ignorance and error, had I not over- heard a gentleman observe jocularly that it was noon to-day at 32 the seventeenth hour. This expression excited my attention ; and, after I got home, and had thrown myself on a sopha, I hegan to ruminate upon it. " Was it a scriptural mode of expression ?" No : " for the Jews reckoned from the watches of the night; — What can it mean ?" — At this interesting moment, the waiter happening to come into the room, was, just as he entered, asked hy some one in the passage, " what o'clock it then was ?" " Twenty-one and a half," answered he. " Twenty-one and a half o'clock !" echoed I : *' why this is still more mysterious." I immediately started upright, and began to examine the waiter on the subject. The result was a most satisfactory explanation of the whole mystery, and an ample vindication of the steeple from the suspicion that I had entertained of its sanity. The Sicilians, it seems, begin to reckon their time from sun-set, an hour after which is one of the clock ; in conse- quence, as the declination of the sun alters, the time by the clock at which it is noon also changes. Part of my error as to the public clock had arisen, I found, in consequence of its superior endow- ments, for it told quarters as well as the hours, and the hours only by half dozens. The subject of Clocks leads one, by the natural association of ideas, to that of Bells. It is not the practice in these Catholic Countries to hang the bells in our heretical manner, on moveable axles with great wheels that make the steeples quake to the foun- dations, but to fix them to a stationary cross-beam. The rope is fastened to the tongue, immediately underneath which the bellman takes post, and, by shaking it backwards and forwards, produces the sound. This mode, though the noise is much more disorderly 33 than with us, is really a very sensible one ; for certainly it is much better to move the tongue against the body, than the body against the tongue. I suspect that when bells were first imported among us, directions for ringing them were omitted to be sent, and that our laborious custom must be considered as another proof of that wisdom of our ancestors which is so justly admired. AMUSEMENTS. The appearance of the Italian Theatre, and the interior arrange- ment, I think superior to ours. The boxes are snug little lodges, suitable for many other purposes, as well as of seeing the per- formance on the stage. There is no gallery, but the pit is divided into two departments. The back division, being at a lower rate, answers the purpose of a gallery equally well, and is more easily kept in order. Disturbances, indeed, are not likely to occur in the Theatres of Palermo ; for the benches are subdivided into a certain number of seats each, and, on paying the price at the door, a ticket, with the number of the bench and the seat, is given. One is not, therefore, exposed to any pressure, and a seat may be always secured by sending in time for a ticket. It is not the custom for persons to go alone to the boxes, because it is necessary to pay for the whole box. But, in taking a box, the number which may be carried with one is of no consequence; a good regulation for families where there are many unmarried daughters. The boxes are separated from each other in front by a division apparently about a foot broad, which gives them a much snugger appearance than the pigeon-holes of the F 34 King's Theatre in London, and adds greatly to the symmetry and beauty of the house. A great part of the audience in the pit generally consists of the Officers of the Guards and the Garrison, and some of the knacky little ones carrv gimblets in their pockets, which they screw into the back of the seats before them, to serve as pegs for their hats. Fe- males are not allowed to come into the pit ; and, instead of those bawling strumpets that annoy one so much in the London houses with " Nice oranges, and a bill of the play," the servants of the company in the boxes attend their masters or mistresses with ices, &c. and one person has a monopoly of the sale of refreshments in the pit. In the Theatres of Palermo there are two excellent customs for the public, the authors, and the performers. When a new piece is to be brought out, the Court generally goes to the Theatre, and, by its presence, ensures a fair hearing to the performance. An actor, before the sovereign, rarely has presumption enough to sloven over his part, and conspirators are restrained in their designs, whether they be against the author or the public. The practice of ap- plauding, by clapping the hands, is here as vehemently in use as with us ; but singers are not obliged to repeat their songs at the will of ten or a dozen obstreperous encorers. When the applause con- tinues so long and general as distinctly to show the wish of the audience, the Lord Mayor of the City, as we should call him, or the Magistrate next in rank to him, when he happens not to be present, gives a sign to the actor, and the song is repeated. Cer- tainly neither of these two customs does, in the smallest degree, 35 infringe public liberty : on the contrary, by securing justice to indi- viduals, they promote it. It is somewhat remarkable, that the gesticulation on the stage of Palermo is more moderate than with us : it is, at the same time, much more emphatic. The Sicilians, indeed, excel in this respect ; even in the streets one sometimes sees an unstudied display of this tacit part of oratory equal to some of our best premeditated ex- hibitions. The apparatus of the Palermitan stage is not, for an instant, to be compared to that of the smallest of the London houses, either in point of magnificence or of variety. But in some other things it is not inferior ; for, though the dresses are less splendid, and the scenery less various, the dramas are got up with much minuteness and propriety of decoration. The subjects of the performance, however, more than the regu- lations of the theatre, or the ornaments of the stage, interested my attention. Of Italian Operas and Comedies I was not ignorant; but I bad scarcely ever heard of Alfieri before my arrival in Palermo ; nor was I at all aware of the extraordinary merits of his Tragedies till I happened to see one of them performed. The simplicity of the arrangement, the majestic energy of the language, and the noble public virtue which he inculcates, came upon me with the freshness of nature and the thrill of enchantment. I had no previous notion that the Italian language contained any thing so powerful, nor that an Italian of these times had been capable of conceiving sentiments so magnanimous. The only fault that I could find, after the first excitement abated, was the elevation of his verse. The Drama is a representation of persons; and, whatever may be the grandeur and glory of their ideas, they should be made to deliver themselves in the familiar expressions of life. There is another defect in the com- positions of Alfieri, arising from the constraint with which circum- stances are made conformable to the unities. A more natural ar- rangement, and a style of poetry like the colloquial felicity of Shakespeare, would constitute, in my opinion, the perfection of the Drama. None of the performers that I saw in Sicily seemed to have any degree of uncommon merit. The most popular was one who repre- sented the vulgar Sicilian character much in the manner that the Irish and Scottish characters are commonly exhibited in London. In Palermo there is a Burritini Theatre, where Comedies are really most divertingly well performed by puppets *. On this stage a Signior Topholo is introduced, who seems to be that kind of per- sonification of the Sicilian national character that John Bull is of the English. But the most amusing part of the performance arises from the puppets being made, in some instances, to resemble so exactly odd characters in the town, that the caricature cannot be mistaken, and never fails to afford indescribable delight to the loquacious and lively Sicilians. NOBILITY. Of the character and condition of the Sicilian Nobles I have uniformly received but one opinion. The time of by far the greater * A similar entertainment was some years ago exhibited at Ranelagh, under the name of the Fantocini. 3? number is spent in the pursuit of amusement, and of any other object than the public good. The most of them are in debt, and the incomes of but few are adequate to their wants : many are in a state of absolute beggary. One evening, as I happened to be returning home, I fell in with a procession of monks and soldiers bearing an image of St. Francis ; and, not having seen any thing of the kind before, I went with the crowd into a church towards which the procession was moving. While reckoning the number of the friars as they entered, and having reached a hundred and seventy, all excellent subjects for soldiers, a well-dressed gentleman came up to me, and, bowing, pointed to some of the ornaments as objects worthy of a stranger's curiosity ; but, perceiving me shy of entering into conversation with him, and the procession entering the church at the same time, he walked or was forced by the current of the crowd away. The idol being placed near the high altar, the crowd began to chaunt a hymn. As they all fell on their knees, and my tight pre- judices and small clothes would not permit me to do the same, I turned into one of the side chapels, and, leaning against the railing of the altar, began to speculate on the spectacle before me, when the stranger again accosted me. Somewhat disconcerted by the in- terruption, and by the forwardness of the man, I abruptly quitted my place. But, before I had moved two steps, he approached, and, bowing, said, I am the Baron M , and my palace is just op- posite. At this instant the worshippers rose, and the procession turning to go out at one of the side doors near where we were standing, before I could retreat, I found myself involved in the 38 crowd, and obliged to go with the stream. When I reached the street, I found the stranger again at my side. This is very extra- ordinary, thought I ; and, without seeming to notice him, walked away. He followed ; and when we had got out of the nucleus of the throng, he seized me firmly by the arm, and drew me aside. Enraged and alarmed at this mysterious treatment, I shook him fiercely from me. For about the time that one might count twenty, he seemed to hesitate ; and then, suddenly coming back, repeated, in Italian, with considerable energy, " I, I am the Baron M . This is my palace ; but I have nothing to eat !" I looked at the building, near the gate of which we were then standing : it was old and ruinous : there was no lamp in the court-yard, and only a faint light glimmering in one of the windows. Mistaking my silence and astonishment, he pulled out his watch, and, placing it in my hand, entreated me to give him some money. As I had no disposition to become a pawnbroker, I returned it with some expressions of surprise, and took out my purse with the intention of giving it to him, for it only contained two or three small pieces. But here all the solemnity of the adventure terminated. He snatched it out of my hand, and, emptying the contents into his own, returned it ; and, wishing me good night, ran into the gateway. In Sicily the number of the nobility is out of all proportion to the population, and they are too strong for the government, without having any connexion with the people. It seemed to me, that the great desideratum in Sicily was a reduction of the number of nobility, and some constitution which would subject them more to the controul of public opinion. Without something of this kind, the resources of 39 the country can never be rendered available to the government ; nor the government, however absolute it may be in name, made really efficient : and without this, I may add, the nobility themselves can never acquire respectability as a body. Were they rendered in any decree responsible to the public for their conduct, there is a spirit of improvement in Sicily abundantly strong to make it a considerable kingdom. Many of the poor young diminutive Barons, Counts, and Marchesies, who are deterred, by respect for their titles, from embark- ing in business, would, if relieved from that restraint, soon be seen occupied in counting-houses, instead of lounging at the gaming-table. Their little estates would furnish respectable capitals for trade, while their petty feudal jurisdictions would serve legitimately to augment the regal authority. Political power is in this island subdivided into so many small unequal portions, that there is not enough left to enable the govern- ment to act in a way suitable to the extremity of its circumstances. The government feels this ; and, in order to preserve itself, is often obliged to act in a manner repugnant to the habits of the Sicilian nobility, and destructive of their feudal pretensions. This occasions discontent, which betrays them into intemperate expressions. These are reported, with aggravating insinuations. The Court, in addition to the natural jealousy of governments, is vexed by the loss of all its splendour, and the finest portion of its dominions, and deems extra- ordinary precautions necessary to preserve the little that remains. These cannot well be taken against the discontented only : they com- prehend the whole nation ; and tbe nation, feeling itself an object of distrust to the Court, becomes, in its turn, distrustful of the govern- 40 ment. Were the regal authority better defined, and capable of being exercised with uniform effect, it is probable that the discontents engendered among the higher ranks, and disseminated by them among the lower, would not be so strong as they have generally been. The present state of Sicily, I am inclined to think, resembles very much what I conceive to have been that of England in the reign of Henry VII. The church is falling, the nobility are losing their feudal influence, and the pretensions of the crown, and the conse- quence of the commons, are visibly extending. It must be added, however, that there is a vast difference between the character of the Sicilians and that of the English of the period alluded to. The English were a bold and masculine race, rendered familiar with danger by a long series of domestic contests. The Sicilians are of a very different description ; and the constitution of the country is more likely to be reformed by strangers than by themselves. MANNER OF LIVING. Since the arrival of the British in Sicily, the price of meat has nearly doubled, and the value of cattle of all descriptions has been raised prodigiously throughout the whole island ; the effect of which must soon be felt in the improved cultivation of the land, and an increase of the wages of labour. The value of aristocratic property will be increased, and the value of the poor man's stock (his strength) will also share in the general benefit. The Sicilians themselves are no great consumers of animal food. Sallads, macaronies, and olives, constitute the main part of their fare ; and if the frugality that is the result of necessity were a virtue, their temperance would deserve 41 great praise. Children and young people eat bread to breakfast ; but adults seldom take more than a single cup of coffee. The dinner hour is early, and corresponds to the lunching time of the English. Supper is the principal meal. They do not drink wine at table with one another as we do, but fill their glasses as they please. Nor is it the custom to inquire of a stranger, of what dish he would choose to eat. The fish and meats being cut up, a servant carries them round, and the guest takes whichever he likes. There is, in general, an evident imitation of British customs ; but, like all imitations, the effects are sometimes ludicrous. In Palermo it is not confined to dress and the etiquettes of the table ; but extends even to the con- struction of the houses. There are several new ones painted to imitate bricks, with which the proprietors have heard that the English houses are built. The most ludicrous instance of this taste, that I have seen, is the palace of Prince Belmonte, at the bottom of Mount Pelegrino. The building is certainly in the British style^ and not unlike the body of Wanstead-house, in the neighbourhood of London. The stone of Palermo is so very coarse, that it is necessary to coat the walls with a plaster prepared from it. But, instead of the native stone colour of the plaster being retained, the walls of this palace are painted to resemble brick, to the great disgrace of a beautiful marble portico. TRADE. The general foreign trade of Palermo, appeared to me to be chiefly in the hands of the British ; and the supply of colonial produce to be brought by the Americans. The Americans have enjoyed this G 42 branch, which one might have expected to have been more naturally in our hands, owing to the now impolitic adherence of our government to that principle of colonial policy, which in a former age rendered it necessary to oblige the planters to send their produce to the mother country. One might have thought that, having obtained Malta, and considering the great consumption of colonial produce in the sur- rounding countries, considering also the hardships which our planters have suffered by the shutting of the ports under the domination of the French, that a direct intercourse would have been allowed from the colonies to that island. But the surprising degree of ignorance which our diplomatic men shew in the arrangements that they make under the idea of promoting trade, but in effect to abridge it, has prevented our planters from being benefited by the advantage which might have been derived to them from our possession of Malta. Nor, in our treaties with the Sicilian government, has any care been taken to secure for us that degree of superior favour which we ought to possess, considering the vast sacrifices that are made on our part, for the defence of Sicily. The Americans have, it is true, consuls in Sicily, but there is no diplomatic correspondence between the two nations : and yet they enjoy as great privileges, and more facilities to their trade, than we do ; notwithstanding that there is a large British army quartered in the fortresses, and a fleet specially appointed for the protection of the island. This, no doubt, partly arises from the insignificant characters that we have had in our embassies at the court of Palermo. But our interests should be placed on a more distinct basis than on the personal peculiarities of any individuals whatever. We are a commercial nation in what respects our con- 43 nexions with foreign powers ; and the men who have the charge of superintending the tenures of these connexions, should not only he capable of understanding the importance of the mercantile character, hut also be rendered incapable of impairing their own particular charge, without incurring a positive penalty. The negligence, however, of our diplomatic relations with Sicily have now reached their extremity, and cannot be either longer concealed or endured. The territory immediately round Palermo is chiefly devoted to the raising of supplies for the city. It furnishes little for exportation, though its productions are various and numerous. The king has lately, for his own amusement, laid out a piece of ground with olive trees, where the oil is prepared in the French manner. What is made is said to be excellent ; but the quantity, as yet, is trifling. The adjacent land not furnishing any great quantity of commodities for exportation, and the manufactures of the town being generally in a rude and humble state, the trade of Palermo is much less con- siderable than might have been expected from its wealth and popu- lation. The facilities for extending the commercial intercourse with the interior, stand much in need of improvement. The post-office establishment, so essential and so fostering to mercantile business, is here in a very contemptible condition : so much so, that the British have in some sort a post establishment for themselves ; chiefly in consequence of the imperfections of the Sicilian post- office, and partly on account of the want of integrity in the officers, as well as on account of the intriguing, distrustful, and prying spirit of the Court. At a period not long past, it appears to have been the wish of the Neapolitan government, to give inducements to foreign merchants 44 to settle in Sicily ; and, among other regulations for this pur- pose, one still exists in Palermo, which seems to have been judi- ciously contrived. It is, in principle, the same as our bonding system ; but, being calculated more for the detail of dealing, is, on that account, more remarkable. It is also of greater antiquity. The merchants are allowed to land and lodge their goods in the ware- houses of the custom-house, where they dispose of them to the small buyers, paying the duties as they sell. This, in the present state of the trade of Palermo, is highly admirable. There are few merchants in the city who could command sufficient money to pay the duties at importation ; and the foreigner, on his arrival here, is, in a great degree, enabled to transact his own business. The plan, however, requires revisal, and might be made a very excellent accommodation to the merchant. On a recent occasion, it was rather disturbed by the Court ; but my observations relate, chiefly, to the general state of things ; and temporary accidents, or errors, it is needless to notice circumstantially, unless they serve to illustrate general views. AN IMPROVISATORS. On the day after my arrival in Palermo, while passing along the Via Toledo, a man accosted me in English, putting, at the same time, into my hand, a paper, signed by several British travellers. The purport of this paper was, that the bearer had acted as their guide in viewing the curiosities of the place, and that they had been pleased with him. As I was, at the time, not disposed to look at particular sights, I desired him to call on me at the hotel, rather for the purpose of getting quit of him for the present, than with any intention of taking his assistance ; for I have uniformly, in the course of my travels, avoided, when I could, these kind of professional guides. On the following morning, he accordingly paid me a visit ; and, among other rare and great qualifications, informed me, that he had received from nature the endowment of poesy, and that he was the best improvisatore in all Palermo. Just as I was about to ask for a specimen of his talent, the landlord came into the room ; and, by divers significant winks and nods, admonished me to send the Cicerone away, which I did. On inquiring of the landlord, who spoke a little English, what the fellow was, " Oh my God !" cried he, " that is one grand furbo. He shall not come in house of mine. He play at cards, and take away all the money. He is one spy. He will ask you for the news. You will tell him, without the particularmenti. Then he go to Castroni of the police, and say what he heard from English gentleman. My God ! Signore, he is one poet ! When he come again, you tell him to go to hell." " I shall certainly follow your advice," said I. Next day, the Improvisatore again made his appearance. He held in his hand two sheets of paper, magnificently stitched together with a pink ribband ; which, with a smiling and triumphant look, bowing at the same time, he presented to me; and, seating himself, began to take snuff. The paper contained a congratulatory ode on my arrival, written in English ; but such incomparable nonsense I never before perused. Notwithstanding I had, a priori, resolved to drive him out of the room, the absurdities of the composition com- pelled me to laugh, and it was quite impossible, in that state, to be so rude. The bard himself also began to grin with hope and 46 satisfaction ; but a gentleman, happening in that crisis to call, to whom I shewed the ode, told me, that the same fellow had presented a copy of the same verses to a friend of his a few days before. BOOKSELLERS. During my first peregrinations through Palermo, I began to form a very respectable opinion of the state of literary knowledge among the inhabitants. In almost every street I saw shops full of venerable looking books ; seemingly, by their size and binding, the most ancient editions of the classics ; and every shop was crowded with customers, intent to communicate, and eager to learn. Desirous of ascertaining what species of literature was most in fashion, I resolved to make a tour of the booksellers ; and, having breakfasted earlier by an hour than usual, I accordingly sallied forth. But on going into the first shop, the servant whom I had hired to act as Sicilian interpreter, having previously understood the cause of the untimely breakfasting, came up, and said that it was not a bookseller's but a notary's shop. " Well then," said I, " let us go to the next." It was a lottery-office. To the next : it was again a notary's. Not to be tedious, let it suffice to say, that all the numerous shops, with the venerable books, and throng of customers, turned out to be either lawyers' or lottery-offices. In the whole city of Palermo, which probably exceeds in the number of palaces all the cities of the British empire put together, and the population of which is more than double that of Edinburgh, there are but two regular booksellers. There are, it is true, several other shops where books are sold ; but they are mean and dirty, and only antiquaries and vermin frequent them. 4? QUAIL SHOOTING. In the month of September vast flocks of Quails come over from the Continent to Sicily, and, being fatigued by their flight, are easily shot on their arrival. The pleasure which the Palermitans take in this sport is incredible. Crowds of all ages and degrees assemble on the shore, and the number of sportsmen is prodigious. In one groupe I reckoned eleven ; and, in less than half a mile, thirty-four groupes ; each consisting of from two to five persons, with as many dogs. The number in boats is, perhaps, greater than those on the land. From morning to night they watch the coming of the birds, and nature seems sometimes to be conquered by patience ; for I saw one day a sportsman actually asleep, his head resting on his gun. But, on observing the proceedings, this did not appear so much out of character as I at first supposed. For the aquatics first seeing the quails, their firing rouses and gives signal to the landsmen. Then enviable is the lot of the idle apprentice, who, with a borrowed old musket or pistol, no matter how unsafe, has gained possession of the farthest accessible rock, where there is but room for himself and his dog, which he has fed with bread only, all the year round, for these delightful days, and which sits in as happy expectation as himself for the arrival of the quails. ST. ROSALIA. I made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Rosalia on Mount Pelegrino, not performed without toil; but the magnificent pro- spects which display themselves at every turning of the steep ascent 48 tend to lessen the fatigue, and excite to new efforts. The shrine of this beloved Goddess of the Palermitans in no respect falls short of the description given of it by Brydon. She is worth several thou- sand pounds ; at least I am sure she has dowry enough to awaken the affections of any General in the French service. When one reflects on the romantic history and benevolence of the beautiful Rosalia, it is really no wonder that she is so much adored. I ob- served, by one of the votive offerings, that she had only a few days before wrought a very notable miracle. The miracles of the Roman Saints are, in fact, only events of that sort which we call providen- tial escapes, and are commemorated by the votaries presenting to the shrines, with money or trinkets, paintings representing the ac- cidents. Sometimes the painting represents a tooth-drawing, and even more laughable subjects. The festival of Santa Rosalia is, by the concurring testimony of all who have seen it, the most superb ecclesiastical exhibition in these regions. Every dealer in finery looks forward to it as the farmer does to autumn. The wealth of the confectioners is esti- mated by the number of festivals that they have been in business. One seller of iced water in the Via Toledo, who distributes his glasses at the rate of a grain each (the twentieth part of eightpence), is said to sell, during the festival, to the amount of twenty pounds sterling a day. If a baronial family be stinted in its meals, children and domestics are all consoled with the expectation of the profusion that shall abound at this feast. 49 ACADEMY OF PAINTING. Every man who passes the Straits of Gibraltar pretends to some superior power of discrimination, in the arts of Painting and Sculpture. I might justly be charged with affectation, did I not declare that the pictures, in the Royal collection here, afforded me great pleasure. But, as they have all, no doubt, been often enough described, and I happen not to have any Dictionary of Painters at hand to help me with details, either biographical or critical, I shall not venture to say which, in my opinion, are the most beautiful. I only know what pleases myself, without being able to assign the principles from which my satisfaction arises. This, however, I could not fail to observe, in looking at these well-preserved specimens of the skill of the old masters, that the artists of the English Academy have much to unlearn. There is a vicious propensity among them to surpass Nature. Her simplicity, vigour, and graces, are rejected for some metaphysical conception of beauty, which the Italian painters never appear to have studied. If criticism be the art of detecting de- viations from Nature, the presumption that oversteps her modesty deserves chastisement as much as the vulgarity that disfigures her. I cannot withhold my inconsiderable approbation from the excellent plan in practice here for improving the art of painting. The Royal collection of pictures is chiefly exhibited in the saloon of the palace, where the students belonging to the Academy have permission to draw, with every facility to promote their studies, and a master to direct them. There is, at present, no native artist in Palermo of ex- traordinary merit ; but I saw at work, in the Palace, several young H 50 men who copied with fidelity and great splendour of effect. This liberal and judicious arrangement cannot long continue, without assisting the developement of original genius. It may be considered as a shocking disregard of keeping, to pass from the master-pieces of the Italian artists to the Barbers' signs of Palermo ; but the human mind is so framed, that such associations of ideas are nevertheless natural. For the barbers' signs here are pictures. They commonly represent a naked arm, just punctured by a lance held in an adjacent hand. MODE OF SEPULTURE. The concatenation continues ; and I am led by the images that suggested to me cases of sickness and doctors, to think of the inter- ment of the dead. I had been fully six weeks in Palermo before I was so lucky as to see a funeral, although " the host" at that time had evidently a great run. Happening to mention this cir- cumstance to a gentleman, he amused me much by his account of the Palermitan mode of burial. The dead are put into sedan chairs, and carried quietly to the church, where the friends and relations meet and pay their last respects. These sedan chairs resemble exactly those which are used at Bath to carry the hospital patients to the waters. Some of them are appropriately adorned with the armorial bearings of the king of terrors, viz. two bones in Or, as a Saltier on a field Sable ; crest, a scull ; motto, Memento mori. 51 MARINA. The mention of heraldic ornaments recalls to remembrance the Marina, where the nobility and th,eir emblazoned carnages make so great a shew. It is chiefly frequented during the summer evenings. I have never seen, nor can I imagine, a more charming place for similar recreation. The walk is a raised pavement next the sea. On it the Patricians mingle with the multitude, sharing the impartial blandishment of the air as it comes refreshed from the water. The views, both towards the east and the west, afford superb prospects of mountain scenery ; and the moving vessels in the bay form an agreeable contrast to the stationary objects of the town. But the universal gaiety which prevails, on this delightful place, is even more exquisite than the variety and cheerfulness of the views. The heart must be sullen indeed that will not relax on the Marina of Palermo. THE COURT. Every traveller who gives his observations to the public is a kind of spy ; for often, after he has been hospitably entertained, he finds himself obliged to make communications, which may lay him open to the charge of ingratitude. In the little, however, that I have to say relative to the Court of Palermo, I am under no temptation to disguise my real sentiments. At the same time, I am so fully sen- sible of the difficulty, to a stranger, of justly appreciating the cha- racters of public persons, and of the danger of trusting to popular report, that I am almost inclined to omit the topic entirely. I feel also a restraint arising from another cause. There seems to me a 52 sufficient disposition excited in the public mind of England against the line of political conduct pursued by the Court of Palermo ; nor is the spirit of the age indulgent to the errors of princes. The queen must, undoubtedly, be considered as the first person in Sicily, as the king leaves all the affairs of the state to her manage- ment ; and certainly she conducts them with much address and spirit. The wisdom of her measures, as to the effect intended, is another question. In her attention to business she is quite indefa- tigable ; and the number of letters and papers, which appear in her own hand-writing, is so extraordinary, that I have heard her appli- cation described as a passion for doing every thing herself. Not- withstanding the moral defects generally laid to her charge, she is said to be much esteemed by her immediate attendants, and to possess many amiable qualities. In her affections, as a mother, she is entitled to the greatest respect. It is indeed not uncommon to find the public and private character of persons in high stations at Variance. The great infirmity of Queen Caroline's mind arises from the vehemence of her feelings. She considers her undertakings with too much earnestness, and looks upon every measure that she plans as in some sort her last stake. Were she a gambler, it is pro- bable that her anxieties would be as strongly roused at sixpenny loo as by the hazard of all she possessed in the world. When one re- flects on her misfortunes, it is not surprising that she should have lost that regal equanimity which is expected on the throne. Born to the highest earthly dignity, and fostered, unconsciously, by the cir- cumstances attending the early part of her life, into a belief that she was almost of a species superior to the ordinary human race, she 53 could not be otherwise than proud. All the predilections of her disposition were settled into habits before any event occurred to inform her that the daughter of so many emperors was within the reach of adversity ; but, few women have ever endured greater afflictions. Her sister has fallen on the scaffold. The family of that sister has been compelled to implore alms and shelter from its ancient enemies. She cannot name one relation, or friend, that has not suf- fered degradation. She has, herself, been compelled to become a fugitive, and knows, which, to a mind like hers, is one of the greatest miseries, that many of her former flatterers are now repeating their sycophancy to the robbers that have taken possession of her home. Nor is this all; she knows that her favourite daughter has been poisoned. The house that she inhabits is but a precarious lodging, in which she never lays her head upon her pillow without the dread of being roused by a warning to quit, or by a fiat that may make her a beggar, or a prisoner. Did her situation afford any prospect of improvement, it would lessen the sentiments which her great mis- fortunes inspire ; but, wherever she turns her eyes, she can witness only affliction and dismay. Even as a mother, she is cut off from the pleasure of that redeeming hope which softens the present distress of a parent : for she sees none of her descendants capable of contending with the staunch destruction that has been let loose on the race of Austria and the Bourbons. Her second son, Prince Leopold, was sent, in a late expedition, to the coast of Naples, with some expectation that he would distinguish himself : the expedition failed ; and the Prince, in many respects, disappointed the hopes of his mother. Before he had time to land from the frigate that 54 brought him back to Palermo, she went, it is reported, in a pri- vate boat, along side. The Prince, recognizing her, hastened to present himself; but she spurned him away, in a passion of grief and vexation, bitterly upbraiding him with the mortification which he had added to the misfortunes of the family. The chief merit of the King is his good-nature, of which he possesses an abundant portion. He is, I think, very popular among the Sicilians ; who, in no small degree, manifest the same cha- racteristic as their sovereign. Not taking any active part in the proceedings of the government, he escapes the odium of its measures ; and he has, occasionally, interfered in cases of particular grievance, in a way that has obtained the applause of his people ; so that, in those acts where he has appeared at all as the monarch, he has been always seen to advantage. I have been told that he is partial to our national character, and not even irritated at the free- dom with which his own conduct has been treated by some of our writers. An anecdote, which I have heard, serves to illustrate both this part of his character and his constitutional good humour. A party of English officers and gentlemen were dining together in a house situated over a gateway through which carriages pass in going to one of the theatres. It was in the winter- time, and they had a wood fire. Just at the moment when the royal carriages were ap- proaching, one of the company, in frolic, happened to fling a burning stick at another, who, in warding it off, threw it out of the window, and it fell on the King's coach. In an instant the house was filled with guards. The simple fact of the accident was told to the officer, who immediately reported it to the king. " O, very well/' said Ferdinand, " let them alone ; they are only drunk ;" and accordingly no farther notice was taken of the affair. The hereditary prince is seldom the subject of conversation, being known merely as a man of quiet manners and domestic habits. Considering how much the Government of Sicily is indebted to Great Britain, we ought to possess a greater influence in the di- rection of its public measures than we have yet obtained. That the queen has hitherto resisted all interference of this kind is not sur- prizing, when we consider the character of the persons to whom the management of our affairs in Sicily has been entrusted. However respectable as private individuals, none of them have been men likely to carry that authority, as statesmen, which was necessary to overawe the intriguing spirit of the Neapolitan Court. Diffidence is not a diplomatic virtue ; but, for some strange reason or another, it would appear that we think our foreign ministers should be the meekest spirits in the nation. None of the Sicilian statesmen, during the first time that I was in the island, were spoken of as persons of much capacity, nor did I find that they had improved in reputation when I returned the second time. The talents of the queen kept them in a state of inferiority, from which they had not energy enough to rise. They were allowed, however, to possess a kind of prudence, which tempered the impas- sioned conduct of the queen ; but it was alleged to have in it more cunning than wisdom. The school, indeed, in which they had been educated, was not calculated to prepare them for that manly course of action to which they have been called in latter times ; nor to fit them for an intercourse, which subjected their conduct to the scrutiny 56 of the British public. The kingdom of Naples, standing out of the vortex of European politics, was, for a long time before the French revolution, not involved in hostility with any great power. The opportunities for promotion in the Court were, in consequence, few ; and the avenues to distinction, full of rubbish. The road to place was by the toll-bar of corruption ; and success, even at the tribunals of justice, was obtained only by the advocacy of fees. The govern- ment had rarely occasion to undertake any enterprise in which it was necessary to consider the popular sentiments ; and the people little regarded the proceedings of the government. To prevent scarcitv, and to keep the peace during the public spectacles, seemed to be all the duty of the government of Naples. Still it was expedient, that it should have the shew, at least, of greater affairs; and the ministers and courtiers, to maintain their consequence, were obliged to throw over their petty concerns a veil of mystery, which magnified them, not only to the eye of the public, but even deceived themselves. From this artificial and sinister course of proceeding, grew that sceptical and derelict habit of thinking and acting, which all travellers have represented as more peculiar to the Neapolitan statesmen than to any other people. Every thing about the court of Naples was managed with the dexterity and providence of intrigue and conspi- racy. All was in masque; and truth, and honour, and justice, when they appeared in their native fairness, were regarded, like every thing else, only as painted artifices, and treated as such. In many points, the court of Palermo resembles this disagreeable portrait ; and the change in political relations, since we obtained the military possession of the island, ought to prepare us for unsatisfactory 57 events. In her double tie, of grand aunt and grandmother to the Empress of France, the Queen may reasonably calculate on partici- pating in the favour of Napoleon ; especially as his systematic endeavours to establish a corporative despotism over the continent, embrace all his domestic relations. It is, therefore, natural, that, if she can obtain security, by acquiescing in the views of her new relation, she should not only relax in her professions of regard for us, but give way to those feelings, which the frank-speaking spirit of the British public irritates in the bosom of every continental sovereign. Nor will she be blameable for thus seeking her own interest : the fault will lie on our side, if we do not take care to prevent the disgrace of such a desertion. Self-interest is the motive of all alliance; and care should be taken, that the sacrifices, which we have made for the Sicilian court, shall yield their expected and just equivalent. MONT REALE. When I had satisfied my curiosity respecting Palermo, I proceeded to make the tour of the Val di Mazzara, the western district of Sicily. On reaching Mont Reale, which is only four or five English miles from the capital, I resolved, having heard a great deal of the Mosaic ornaments in the cathedral, to pay it a visit. The architecture is in a mongrel style : columns of the classic orders supporting Gothic arches. As for the Mosaic pictures, they are not worth the trouble of putting on one's spectacles to look at. The subjects seem chiefly to represent passages in the Pentateuch. The ark is a thing like a brute beast; and there are angels, or rather fantasies with wings, i 58 like unto nothing in the heavens above, nor in the earth beneath, nor in the waters under the earth — no, nor any where else. The city of Mont Reale is but a mean place ; and, being the seat of an archbishop, is, of course, grievously infested with clergy. They have had the assurance, lately, to begin the construction of another large church ; but it is not likely that they will now have the felicity to finish it. LASALA, ALCAMO, AND SEGESTA. After leaving Mont Reale*, the appearance of the country becomes wild and dreary. There is but little grandeur in the aspect of the hills, to compensate the traveller for their nakedness and poverty. But as the road winds down the steeps towards Lasala, the prospect of a fertile country gradually opens, and the town, at a distance, appears to be a place of respectability. Here, on account of rain, I was obliged to halt; and, going into a little coffee-house, which was kept by a man who had been a servant to an English gentleman, I requested him, by way of passing the time, to make me tea. Observing the landlady busily employed over a pot, which appeared to be full of perywinkles of an extraordinary size, I began to think of asking for a few ; and, by way of preliminary, requested to look at them. They were snails. The landlord said, that if I was obliged to stay the remainder of the day, he had a parcel still better, which he would dress for my dinner. " Minced, and mixed with crumbs of bread and grated cheese, they make," said he, " a delicate dish." This threat only served to quicken my desire to depart. While the letica was getting ready, I walked through Lasala, which, though not answering the expectation inspired by the splen- dour of its distant appearance, is still a very decent country town. The population may be about three thousand souls. It has a theatre; and I observed an opera and ballet announced for the evening. This, if any thing could, would have tempted me to stay ; for a company of Sicilian strolling players must certainly beggar description. The new road, from Palermo to Lasala, is so good, that it would not discredit England ; but it terminates at the latter town. About half way from Lasala to Alcamo, I crossed the little river Diato, by a bridge, which, by an inscription upon it, appears to have been erected in the sixteenth century. At that time, it is probable, the old road was made ; part of the pavement of which I had observed in several places as I came along. Owing to the great depth of the vegetable mould in this country, it is necessary to pave the roads through the valleys ; and no repairs being, consequently, required for many years, the funds appropriated to this purpose become diverted to other uses. For defraying the expence of the roads which are now making from Palermo through the interior, a duty was at first levied on the exports of produce ; but it has judiciously been converted into a small assessment on cattle and territorial property. Alcamo, like the greater part of the old Sicilian towns, is situated on the brow of a lofty hill. The walls, battlements, and churches, present an imposing appearance, but the first peep within the gate dissipates the admiration of the traveller. The prospect, however, mends on entering, for it contains several handsome houses ; and the inn, for a Sicilian locanda, is not bad. The immediate neighbourhood of Alcamo is in a tolerable state 60 of cultivation ; but on approaching the ruins of Segesta, the scenery becomes more rugged, the land is neglected, and the mountains are lonely and desolate. The ruins of the temple have, like those of Agrigentum, been re-edified by his present majesty. Soon after leaving the temple of Segesta, 1 observed a very inte- resting specimen of Sicilian agricultural industry. On one field, eleven pairs of oxen ^ere dragging eleven ploughs, driven by eleven men, all in a line, one behind another, and yet not making a deeper impression on the soil than a good English harrow would have done. The Sicilian plough, notwithstanding the antiquity of its form, is really a very humble instrument. Owing, in a good measure, to the wretched state of the plough, the fertility of the Sicilian soil is never properly brought into action. The mere surface of the ground is only, as it were, scratched. Is it, therefore, surprising, that the produce is scantv, or that the harvest is seldom more than ade- quate to the support of the inhabitants ; although it might be ren- dered sufficient to maintain more than three times their number? TRAPANI. Trapani, in point of consequence, is the fourth city in Sicily. It is well built, and contains several handsome edifices, both secular and ecclesiastical. The fortifications are respectable ; and formidable additions are now making to them. It might, indeed, be easilv made very strong, as it stands on a peninsula. But, while it is supplied with water by an aqueduct, redoubts and ramparts are useless. If but a single arch be thrown down, the place must surrender. The population is estimated at about thirty thousand souls, and the 61 natives have long been celebrated for their proficiency in the fine arts. The Marina, as the space on the outside of the walls, towards the sea, is called, if not so large as that of Palermo, is more various in the prospects that it affords. Numerous mounds of salt, on the shore beyond the harbour, appear like the pavilions of an army ; and the iEgadean islands in the offing, give a pleasing variety to the view of the Mediterranean. Trapani is one of those kind of places, which I had imagined existed no longer. It is an Italian town in the style of the sixteenth century. It has an academy of design, and two literary societies, which have also the title of academies. This place has been the mother of so many eminent artists, who have ornamented it with their earliest pro- ductions, that it would be unpardonable to pass them w ithout notice. Erranti, one of the most admired, if not the most eminent, of all the living painters, is a native of this town. In Italy, where the excellence of pictures is so well understood, several of his works are regarded as little inferior to those of Raphael. A few pieces which he painted before going to Rome, are in the possession of persons who, at the time, were his companions ; though evidently juvenile essays, they, undoubtedly, indicate a genius, peculiarly sensible to, what may be called, the serene sublime. He was the son of a shoemaker, and very early manifested a decided disposition to drawing, but his father obliged him to follow his own profession ; nor was it till after he had spoiled a great deal of leather by scratching figures on it with an awl, that he was permitted to indulge the invincible propensity of his genius. He was six and twenty years of age before he went to Rome. Erranti, at present, resides in Milan, from which, three 62 of his pictures were sent to the imperial gallery in Paris, where they are esteemed among its greatest ornaments. The war has, hitherto, prevented his being known in England. Several years ago, some notice was taken of his works in the London Morning Post news- paper ; but I have not heard that any of his pictures have yet come among us. Erranti is in correspondence with the gentleman at whose house I had the pleasure of staying in Trapani ; and wrote to him lately, that, having done something for fame and fortune to himself, he intended now to execute a work that should be useful to others. The subject he has fixed upon, is, perhaps, the very best that could have been chosen for the purpose. It is the damsels displaying their naked charms before Zeuxis. The greatest curiosity in this town, perhaps in Europe, is the oratory of the church of St. Michael. It is, indeed, a most tre- mendous chamber. The place in which the incarnated devils of the Spanish inquisition held their sittings, in all the plenitude of their iniquity, could not be more terrific. It contains about a dozen niches, and in each is placed a group of human figures, of the natural size, representing an event or passage in the sufferings of Christ. If considered only as exhibiting an innocent man under persecution, or even but as the different stages of a criminal's punishment, they cannot be contemplated without inspiring a strong degree of horror. The group which seemed to me the least terrible, and in the best taste, is that which represents the temporary apostacy of Peter. The time chosen by the artist is the crowing of the cock. Jesus is conducted by a band of soldiers from the house of Pilate, and, passing his faithless friend, looks at him with a countenance full of com- 6"3 passion. The consternation and contrition of the apostate is beyond all praise, simple and impressive. These surprising sculptures are, unfortunately, of wood. They are, chiefly, the works of Tipa, a native of Trapani — the same artist who executed a much admired St. Michael, in the imperial collections of Vienna. The present king of Sicily, being informed that the surviving relations of this artist were in very humble circumstances, some years ago bestowed a pension on the representative of the family ; and, notwithstanding his own great pecuniary embarrassments, it has always been regu- larly paid. The church of St. Lorenzo here, was planned by a Trapanese architect of the name of Amico, who published, at Palermo, a collection of his own designs ; which, I am told, is esteemed even by the Roman virtuosi. The church, were it fully completed, would certainly be a handsome edifice. There are so many productions, both in sculpture and painting, of considerable merit, the work of native artists, that it would be tedious to enumerate them : there is, in fact, at Trapani, a sufficient number to amuse the general traveller two or three days, and the student still longer. Though but of small commercial importance at present, Trapani is also not unworthy the attention of the merchant. It is the principal town of the Val di Mazzara, the most productive province of Sicily ; but, for a long period, it has been a place to which vessels have resorted merely for the produce of the adjacent country. The great staple of its commerce is salt, vast quantities of which are annually prepared in the immediate vicinity. About a thousand tons of barilla, when the crop is good, are also exported ; and the wine of 64 the adjacent district is getting into repute, both in England and America. Within the city, there is an inconsiderable silk manu- factory ; but the looms are in a very rude state, and the stuffs are, of course, inferior. There is also a tan -work : but the produce of it is only fit for the coarsest purposes. The polishing of the coral which is fished up on this part of the coast, and the engraving of intaglios upon shells, no stranger can well avoid seeing ; for he will not be allowed to rest many hours in the town, till he finds himself beset with solicitations to purchase. The intaglios are beautiful, and very cheap ; and he must have tied his purse well, who resists the temptation to buv. There are also shops, where little statues of alabaster are made, some of which are singularly well executed. In passing through a mean lane of this town, I was surprised by an incident, that has several times since amused my imagination. A fat plain-looking woman, spinning with a distaff at her window, was singing to herself, with all the flourishes and elegance of a well- taught public singer. 1 halted for a short time, to listen ; and was about to conclude, hypothetically, that it was not in painting and sculpture only that the Trapanese excelled ; when the gentleman, who had taken the trouble of acting as my Cicerone, said, that she was the prima donna of the theatre, and esteemed one of the best singers in the kingdom ; but prevented from promo- tion by the uncouth size of her figure. An opera singer indus- triously spinning, was certainly a rare sight ; and I turned round, and looked again. This woman was the first Sicilian that I had heard singing off the stage ; and I am not a little at a loss to dis- cover upon what possible grounds the nation can be considered 65 musical. I scarcely remember to have heard one of the common people attempting to whistle a tune. When we returned home, I found assembled several friends of the family with whom I resided, all anxious to hear descriptions of London. I mentioned its population of a million of inhabitants ; its circumference, commonly estimated at twenty miles ; its spacious squares ; the uniformity and neatness of the houses ; the vast docks ; the stupendous bridges ; and the innu- merable vessels which cover the surface of the Thames. All this was fully credited, nor thought in any degree exaggerated, till I hap- pened to say, alluding to the circumstances of the Opera singers, that Catalani was paid about five thousand pounds for singing only during the winter. I could then clearly perceive, by the astonishment which this statement excited, that the greatest part of what I had been saying would be discredited. Opulent and prodigal as the inha- bitants of London are known to be, it is a fact in its own nature im- probable, that the salary of a singer should be as great as that of the first minister of the British nation. That a favourite actress should become enormously rich, could not be doubted, for such things have happened even in this mendicant island ; but it was always owing to numerous spendthrift lovers, and never to professional emolument. The salary of the Prima Donna of the Theatre of Trapani is about thirty pounds sterling per annum, and her benefit is worth half as much more. LITERATURE. The state of Literature in Sicily must, I suspect, be considered as very low ; but the cause should be ascribed rather, perhaps, to the cir- K 6-6' cum stance of the country having been, till lately, only a province of a greater kingdom, than to the want of opportunities of acquiring learning, or to any deficiency of genius in the people. As the lite- rary men of Ireland and Scotland used formerly to resort to London, those of Sicily, probably, went to Naples. I say probably, more because I think the thing would naturally be so, than from any po - sitive information that I have obtained. Besides this, the language is still considered but a provincial dialect ; and a Sicilian, in fact, uses a foreign language when he writes in Italian. It is less, I con- ceive, by the number of publications than by the number of readers, that the state of learning in a country is to be estimated. What proportion the number of readers in Sicily may bear to those in any other European country, I have not the means of even conjecturing. But I may venture to affirm, that Sicilian will soon be added to the number of the polished languages of Europe. A dictionary, in five volumes, quarto, has been published, and there are several poets who have used the language with success ; particularly Don Giovanni Meli, of Palermo, whose odes are highly esteemed. He has also written several papers in prose with much classical propriety. In- deed the number of authors is already sufficient to raise the Sicilian tongue from its provincial inferiority, and even, perhaps, to render it worthy the attention of a scholar. Of the two literary societies in Trapani, one is very antient. It was originally called the Academia della Lima, but now it is named the Academia delta Civetta : since the institution of the other, how- ever, which bears the more assuming title of the Academia del DiscernimentOy it has lost much of its former importance. 67 The Academia del JDiscevnimento is composed of the principal persons of the place, who assemble, at stated times, during the winter, in the Town Hall, where such of the members as are productive geniuses read their essays. Two censors are appointed annually, whose duty is to show to the authors the blemishes that are dis- covered in their compositions, and otherwise to assist the president in managing the affairs of the society. Besides the two societies, there is a respectably endowed college, the professors of which are said to be well-informed men. As they do not form a university, they have not the privilege of conferring degrees ; but they teach all the different branches of knowledge usually taught in universities. MARSALA. After passing the Trapanese salt mounds, the road to this place lies, for a considerable part of the way, through a very pleasant country. A number of pretty little white-washed cottages are seen smirking, as it were, among inclosures, and the prospect, for several miles, would not discredit the ordinary parts of England. The old line of road is so little effaced, that, if the briers were cut down, and the rubbish, which has accumulated between the paths, were levelled, it would still do very well for the few travellers who pass along it. I saw none but two sturdy capuchins, who had been begging over the country, and were returning to their convent with well-filled wallets, with which they had loaded a mule. The appearance of Marsala, at a little distance, is rather calcu- lated to raise agreeable expectations, which, on entering the gates, 68 are instantly dissipated : for, although it contains several re- spectable private houses, and the churches are handsome, the gene- rality of the buildings are mean, and the streets narrow. The great church is planned on a very magnificent scale, but has never been finished ; and, in all probability, never will. The wine, prepared in the neighbourhood by an English con- cern, is well known; and, though, perhaps, not equal in flavour to many other kinds of the Sicilian wines, has tended to shew that it has been more owing to the want of care, in preparing them for exportation, than to any inferiority of quality, that the wines of this island have had so little reputation among us. MAZZARA. A great part of the road from Marsala to Mazzara lies across a waste as desolate as Hounslow-heath, and equally susceptible of cul- tivation. The town, like all the Sicilian towns, is, for its extent, abundantly showy at a distance. The fortifications, being in the oldest and most obsolete style, have a formidable aspect, but nothing more. The town within is a collection of relicks and rubbish. The recess of the high altar in the Cathedral is decorated with several well-executed Trapanese statues, and an impious representation of the Deity in the shape of a huge incumbent giant. In one of the lesser churches I saw, for the first time, a cadavery — a large well- lighted room, containing about a hundred dead men, women, and children, placed without any veil or mask to hide the horrible look with which they seemed to regard the living. Some of them are in niches ; others are lying on the floor. Some are yet entire ; 69 others are half mouldered away. The mode of preparing the dead for this hideous and disgusting exhibition is very simple. The body, cleansed from the bowels, is placed in a vault, from which the air is carefully shut out. In the course of three months the whole moisture is exuded, and the corpse, having become quite dry, is then removed into the cadavery. The population of Mazzara is, probably, about three thousand souls ; and, though the seat of the Bishop, the place is much inferior, both in size and consequence, to Marsala. In this town the church has certainly made great progress in decay. Several convents are almost tenantless ; and others have actually become entirely unin- habitable. There is scarcely any other trade than what is conducted by an English merchant, who has formed a wine establishment here. About the cathedral there are a few scraps and shreds which might please an antiquary to look at. SCIACCA. The road to Sciacca proved more interesting than, perhaps, I should have found it had my information been more correct. The ruins of Salinuntum lie on the right hand, about five English miles distant from the direct road ; and they are certainly worth going fully that distance to see. They were the first ruins, I had seen in Sicily, that gave me that kind of pleasure which one expects from viewing the remains of antiquity. The temples of Agrigentum and Se- gesta having been, in a great measure, rebuilt, afforded me, compa- ratively, but little satisfaction. Those, however, of Salinuntum, lying shapeless and desolate, on a lonely promontory, corresponded, ?0 exactly, to the idea that I had formed of the remains of a city de* stroyed many ages ago. The ruins consist of huge piles of broken pillars, of the most extraordinary dimensions. I measured a capital, a single stone, still entire, and found it fully more than twelve feet square. I also measured a stone, one of the lintels of the same edifice to which the capital belonged, and found it several inches more than two and twenty feet in length, five in breadth, and three in thickness. How such prodigious masses were lifted into the air is not easy to be conceived ; but Sicily disputes with Samos the honour of having given birth to Archimedes. I traced, without difficulty, the bounds of two other temples, which seem to have been more ornamented : though, of smaller dimensions, they are surprizing monuments of antient labour. Leaving Salinuntum, the road, for several miles, lies through a sort of underwood forest, in which I observed the wild pear-tree, and se- veral of our most beautiful shrubs and flowers in the natural state. After emitting this tract, we reached the steep banks of a stream, where the surrounding country seemed well calculated to form a back-ground to some of Salvator Rosa's banditti, and I began to think of robbers. Having passed down the side of the stream about a mile, I saw a bridge of two arches before us. One of the arches had fallen in, but the road was carried across by trunks of trees and pieces of timber rudely placed together. On turning to go over, I perceived a kind of gate at the farther end. A little beyond it was a house, lonely and ruinous; from behind which appeared, as we crossed the bridge, a tall stout fellow, in a tawdry uniform. He had on a leather cap, more like a huntsman's than a soldier's, with a plate 71 of metal glittering on the front of it. He wore a short grey jacket, and his waiscoat had been scarlet, but the weather had changed its colour, and tarnished the gold lace with which it had been richly ornamented. At his belt, made of goat-skin with the hair on, hung a clumsy sword, and an ammunition- bag. I had scarcely made these observations, when I discovered a long old-fashioned gun standing at the door of the house. A boy, whom I had not before observed, ran suddenly in ; and, in a moment after, a third fellow, bare headed, looked out. The man in the uniform, as we passed the gate, came up, and, stopping the letica, demanded money, and I paid the toll. This is the only establishment of the kind that I met with in Sicily. With the appearance of Sciacca, when I saw it from the packet in passing the coast, I had been much pleased ; but a nearer in- spection produced only disappointment. The buildings that seemed so magnificent, are, it is true, palaces and monasteries, but they are either roofless or deserted, and in the last stage of dilapidation. The whole town, like Mazzara, bears indubitable marks, not of decay only, but, of ruin. How should it be otherwise ? The population does not probably exceed six thousand persons, and it contains four nunneries, sixteen convents, five attorneys, about twenty doctors and apo- thecaries, a duke, four marquises, and sixteen barons. The trade of Sciacca is confined to the exportation of the pro- duce of the country and of the sulphur mines in the neighbourhood. I did not learn that it had any manufactories ; for I do not con- sider the domestic industry of the women as entitled to that ap- pellation. 72 Sciacca must, I imagine, be noticed as " a city fortified/' It has walls and gates, the state of which may be easily conceived by mentioning the strength of the garrison, which consists of five men, militia officers. The whole males of the town are enrolled vo- lunteers, but they are neither armed nor disciplined. The natural hot baths here are famous for their efficacy in curing scorbutic affections. In passing along one of the streets a house was pointed out to me as having been inhabited by Rosa the painter. What Rosa, or any thing more about him, my conductor could not tell. Whether this was Salvator, whose paintings so frequently reminded me of the scenery of Sicily, I cannot; therefore, presume to say. Salvator Rosa, I have always understood, studied in Calabria ; but I have never met with any circumstantial account of his life. It is not improbable that he may have been here ; for, in his youth, he was a rambling fellow, and, it is said, was actually a member of a gang of banditti. ST. MARGARITTA. It was about mid-day when I left Sciacca, and at sun-set I reached St. Margaritta, a small town in the interior. The locanda or inn, in this place, was one of the very poorest that I met with in Sicily. The sight of it sickened my heart. The walls of the bed-room, as black as a chimney, were scrawled with divers hieroglyphical devices of ships and asses, which I suppose denoted that it had been the occasional abode of sailors and Sicilian peasants. Bed, there was none ; but across two blocks of w r ood a parcel of reeds were laid as a substitute. There were two chairs ; but ?3 one of them was bottomless, and the table had lost one of its legs. Had the place been clean, all these defects and deficiencies might have been submitted to; but it was stinkingly filthy, and, being over the stable, was, of course, swarming with vermin. To stay in this hole was out of the question, and I resolved to apply to one of the monasteries, having observed no fewer than three handsome ones on entering the town, although the population of the place does not probably amount to fifteen hundred souls. I accordingly went to one of the Franciscan order. Vespers were not over when I reached the gate ; and I was obliged to wait a short time in the cloisters. When the service ended, a Monk came to me ; and, being made ac- quainted with my situation, immediately went for a key, and ad- mitted me into a cell, which he said I might use as long as I wished to stay in the town. He then left me. One of the muleteers who had followed, seeing I was accommodated, returned to fetch my bedding, and store basket, and I sat down on the only chair that the room afforded. The Friar had, in the mean time, announced the arrival of a stranger " to all the house ;" and I had not seated my- self many seconds, when the cell was filled with the brotherhood. Some of them were contented with a slight look, and retired ; others sat down on the bed-side, and on the table, and debated concerning me. They spoke only Sicilian, and I did not understand them ; but I endeavoured to make affable faces at them. When the mu- leteer returned, a peasant came to the door, bawling for the Capitano Inglese, as he was pleased to call me. The meaning of this vehement inquiry I could not divine ; but, after innumerable signs, and much roaring, as if our difficulty of comprehending each other had been a L 74 real misunderstanding, a friar who spoke French came in, and explained to me, that the peasant had come to beg my interference to procure the release of some others, whom he represented to be volunteers that had been thrown into prison by an officer sent from the Court of Palermo ; but that the fellows were, in truth, great rogues. The circumstance of their application to me, and their ex- pectation that an Englishman would be induced to assist them by alleging the oppression of their own Government, sufficiently in- dicates what are the political notions of the lower class of Sicilians. Next morning, at day-light, I left the convent, and had not ad- vanced many miles when the rain began to fall in torrents. The wind being high, I was obliged to draw up the blinds of the letica, so that, for the greatest part of the way to the little town of St. Giuseppe, where the great road to Palermo, from this part of the country, commences, I could see nothing. As I approached St. Giuseppe, the wind abated ; and, not hearing the pattering of the rain on the roof, I inferred, like Noah in the ark, that the waters were assuaged, and opened a window. The grape - gatherers, having been interrupted by the wetness of the morn- ing, were seen returning to their labour. Their faces were be- smeared with the juice; and they were, themselves, as noisy as the ancient bacchanalians on similar occasions. They did not, how- ever, attack me with any ribaldry, according to the privilege of their order ; but they were abundantly vociferous in their jests on one another. The harvest and the vintage are periods of recompence and ge- nerosity. The farmer receives the reward of his industry, and 75 the labourer is paid for his assistance with a freer heart. The hands are filled, and the mind, participating in the abundance, expresses itself with unusual hilarity. It is, therefore, unnecessary to suppose, as some of the pedantic commentators on the allegorical descriptions of the classics have done, that there were any positive legislative institutions for making the slaves merry during the af- fluent periods of the harvest and vintage. On entering the village, I observed the labour of the wine-press going on; a process of which a faithful account might enforce the precepts of Temperance. The grapes are thrown into a large square vessel, somewhat like a brewer's cooler, but deeper. It is elevated about eighteen inches from the ground, and round it are several aper- tures, with vessels under. In this theatre a number of bare-legged peasants, with clumsy shoes, were bellowing and treading out the juice, which squirted against their unwashed limbs; and I saw with consternation and horror, that the finger and thumb had been made for other ends, in case of need, than to snuff candles. Ima- gination must supply the rest. It was late when we approached Palermo, and I began to think that I should not have deemed myself very safe in the neighbourhood either of London or Dublin at such a time of night. About eleven o'clock we reached the gate, and I never was more pleased with the sight of a lamp, than with that which burns before the saint who is the sentinel. It never occurred to me before, that, but for the saints with their lamps, the streets of Palermo would be utterly dark after the shops are shut. The church, in this respect, may certainly be considered as a light to the path of the Palermitans. 76 In tracing, my nocturnal journey, on the map, I perceived that I had passed one of the five Greek villages, which are in Sicily. The history of these establishments I have never heard well explained ; farther than that, about a hundred and fifty years ago, several Al- banian families took refuge here from the oppression to which they had been subjected at home. They were followed by others, and by them these little colonies were established. The descendants still wear their national dress, and speak the language of their ancestors. A JOURNEY. It was in the month of November that I left Palermo for Messina. The journey is usually performed, by letica-travelling, in four days ; but the rains happened to set in with more than ordinary violence, and I was seven on the road. The first stage, after leaving Palermo, is Termini, and thus far the road is excellent. Termini is situated on the eastern side of a bold promontory, Crowned with a castle. Its population is reckoned at twelve thou- sand souls. It has but little trade; and, though a slovenly town, and, by its situation, on a steep declivity, disagreeable to walk in, upon the whole, it must be regarded as a respectable place for its extent. The baths have, from time immemorial, possessed a high reputation ; but the buildings, at present, over the springs, are by no means calculated to please delicate invalids. There are two or three re-licks of antiquity in the neighbourhood of the town. A daily stage- coach runs between Palermo and Termini. It is drawn by three horses abreast, a style of harnessing ancient, handsome, and efficient. 77 Nothing, in this place, attracted my attention so much as the barbers' poles, because they served to satisfy a sort of antiquarian curiosity which I had sometimes felt, to know why barbers' poles, with us, are always painted as if twisted with a ribband. In Termini they are twisted with real ribband in the way that ours are painted ; and to this, tresses of hair, of divers colours, and suitable to various complexions, are pinned. CEFALU. We halted for the night at Cefalu, where we found a neat cleanly house. I have since lodged in the same place ; and the accommo- dations appeared, in the interval, to have approximated to respecta- bility. The town stands at the foot of a very lofty perpendicular rock, on which embattled walls and buildings have a strikingly pic- turesque appearance. The country, on the West side of the town, is well cultivated ; and the oil, produced from the numerous olive- trees, with which it is covered, is said to be the best in Sicily. It is certainly very good ; but, in general, is not perfectly transparent. Some of the country-houses are neat ; one in particular, which stands in an inclosed park, about two miles from the town, would, even in England, be regarded as a handsome manorial mansion. The town is pretty well built, but the streets are narrow. The population is estimated at ten thousand souls. The cathedral is, apparently, a cotemporary with that of Montreale. It is built in the same style, and ornamented with similar mosaic pictures. One or two of the paintings over the altars are tolerably good ; but its greatest orna- ment, and one of the very finest things in all Sicily, is the tomb of a 78 late bishop. No monument in Westminster Abbey is equal to it in propriety of design, or superior in beauty of execution. The subject is, the bishop distributing alms : a venerable and dignified figure, in the flowing drapery of his order, giving a shirt to a naked infirm cripple. With this, the artist should have been content. Nothing can be ima- gined more natural than these two figures. The cripple is, indeed, an excellent statue. The shirt which he is receiving, has the lightness and easy folds of linen. The bishop, though less eloquent, if the ex- pression may be permitted, than Sir Isaac Newton in Cambridge, the finest statue in England, may, I should think, without any disparage- ment, be compared with it. Two mendicant children, a boy and a girl, complete the group. They are finished, with a beauty and felicity not inferior to the other two figures ; but they rather tend to divert the spectator's attention from the action. The design of this monument appears to me a legitimate subject for sculpture. Angels and spirits, of any sort or shape, certainly ought never to be placed on the same pede- stals with mortals ; because, it is not possible for the chissel to endow them with that airiness of appearance which is essential to mark the difference between them and the beings of this world. One can hardly think, without shrinking, of the ridiculous idea which posterity must entertain of our taste in sculpture, by the Britannias, Fames, and other horrible images, which will scare them from looking at our national monuments. There are two cheesemongers, with wings, in St. Paul's, exhibiting a couple of double Gloucesters, on which, strange drawings of two naval officers have been scratched ! They ought to have had their heads broken by the first stone-cutter's apprentice that happened to see them. When it is considered, that ?9 the British nation gives more money for the monuments of its public men, than all the other states of the world, put together, allow for the encouragement of sculpture, it is wonderful that the art is in so mean a state among us. Since the commencement of the late war, a greater sum has been voted by Parliament for these subjects, than, perhaps, the whole amount of what Leo X. laid out on all his artists; and yet we have not obtained one statue above mediocrity. From whatever cause arising, it seems clear, to me, at least, that the inferiority of the British artists, is not owing to want of encou- ragement. In no part of the world are the productions of the line arts more sought after than in London, nor higher prices given for them. If old works be preferred, let us not be told that it is merely on account of their name, until we have seen our native artists equal them. Among a crowd of beggars, by whom we were beset at departure, were two hideous wretches, devoured by the leprosy. One of them was reduced to the most frightful spectacle in which the human form can be retained. His skin was shrunk and black ; his neck and limbs swollen, and covered with a disgusting crust ; and his teeth, long and yellow, seemed to be only sticking in a mass of putrefaction. Yet he could articulate ; but his tones were, if possible, more horrible than his figure. Instead of exciting compassion, they only inspired abhorrence. Never having before witnessed a case of this terrible disease, I was fascinated, as it were, by the perfection of misery ; and could not, in spite of a strong sensation of disgust, refrain from looking at him. 80 PINAEE. We were obliged, in consequence of a torrent from the bills, to stop at tbis place. A priest, who lives, in a hermit state, near a watch tower, on the sea shore, allowed us to lodge in his house. On the summit of a neighbouring mountain, the little town of Pollini is situated. The priest told us, that it contained a few fragments of antiquity, supposed to be older than the time of the Roman conquest. In the morning we forded the stream, not without the hazard of a ducking. ST. STEPHANO. The road to this town is very bad. A gentleman, with whom I had travelled from Palermo, having a letter to the bishop, we received an invitation to lodge with him. The town is a poor uninteresting place ; standing, like the generality of Sicilian villages, on the brow of a steep hill ; but episcopalian fare, delicious wine, and elegant apartments, would have made a Greenland village agreeable. Our host was a facetious little man, " With twinkling eyes, and visage chubby." He corrected himself on inquiring if we were Christians, by re- marking, that the difference between the Roman and English churches consisted only in etiquette. The process of extracting oil from the olives, was going on in one of his out- houses, and we went to see it. The fruit was first crushed under an edge-stone, put in motion by an ass; then gathered, and, after being slightly heated in a caldron, put into baskets resembling fig frails, and placed in the press. The juice was expressed into a tub half full 81 of water below. The oil swims on the surface, is skimmed off into jars and butts, and is fit for immediate use or exportation. The bishop informed us, that the quality of the oil depends more on a careful assortment of the olives, than upon any peculiarity of the soil on which they grow, or art in the process. His servants make three different kinds. They pick out the best fruit, of which the first quality is made ; and from the refuse, the third kind is manufactured. The second quality is made of the promiscuous fruit. This method is commonly practised in Sicily, and is, perhaps, the only cause of the general inferiority of the Sicilian oil. The extra labourers were paid at the rate of two pence a day. ST. MARCO. From St. Stephano we came, next day, to St. Agatha, where we saw a little fair of earthen-wares and toys. There was no jollity or merry-making, such as one sees, on similar occasions, among our own country folk. We passed, indeed, one raree-shewman, who had been there, and was strolling, with the theatre on his back, towards Melazzo. The evening proving fine, instead of stopping here, as we had intended, we proceeded to St. Marco, a small fishing village, where our accommodations were in comfortless contrast to those of the preceding night. Travelling instructs one in the vicissitudes of fortune. The hardships of a journey differ in nothing, while they last, from the effects of adversity; nor its temporary pleasures, from the mutable favours of prosperity. M PATI. The weather, in the morning, was fair, and the air clear. When we reached the heights of Cape Orlando, we discovered the mountains of Italy ; and I obtained, for the first time, the sight of an active volcano. Strombolo was seen, with a column of white aqueous smoke, which formed a cloud over it, that bore some resemblance, in outline, to a stupendous oak tree. The island itself is of a beautiful conical figure. The whole of this day's journey was truly delightful. The appearance of passing vessels varied the sameness of the sea, on the one hand; and valleys here and there, opening between the mountains, afforded several agreeable vistas, of the interior of the country, on the other. In the evening we reached Pati, a town somewhat distin- guished for the fertility and beauty of its environs. As there was no lodging to be procured at the inn, on account of a wedding there, we went to the Franciscan monastery, where we readily obtained every kind of accommodation that the house afforded. I was pleased with the necessity of our application to this convent, as I was desirous of seeing a little more of monastic life, and grudged the opportunity which I lost at St. Margaritta, of seeing the monks assembled in the refectory. The Franciscans of Pati were, in what respected their house, inferior to those with whom I formerly lodged. They were, however, all very obliging. In general, I have found that the monks of this order are, commonly, peasants, who profess themselves only for an easy life. We supped in the refectory. It was a large vaulted chamber, lighted by two old-fashioned lamps. Across the upper 83 end were placed two tables, one of which was covered with linen, and furnished, in addition to the articles on the other, with two flaggons of wine. This was destined for us. The other, at which sat the superior, and two stranger friars, was not covered. Along- each side of the room were other tables, for the brethren and servants. The scene was just like a dinner of one of the monkish fraternities of Oxford or Cambridge. BARCELONA. Barcelona is a straggling town, containing, probably, five thousand inhabitants. We saw here a party of British dragoons, and could not, without pride, observe the superiority of their figures to those of the Sicilians. There is a small quantity of silk manufactured here, for sale ; but the chief article of trade is earthenware, which, for its purposes, is etruscanly light and elegant. The material used by the potters, is, chiefly, the vegetable soil of the vicinity, mixed with clay. When burnt, it assumes a light drab colour. Some of the jars were ornamented with the black outline of flowers, and other forms, in the style of the ancient vases. FUNDACCO NUOVO. From Barcelona, leaving the peninsular fortress of Melazzo on the left, about three miles distant, we proceeded towards a place called Fundacco Nuovo, — the New Inn. As it happens to be half way between the two principal British stations, Melazzo and Messina, we concluded, in our own minds, that it must be a comfortable house. 84 This erroneous hypothesis induced us to decline an invitation to dinner, which an English officer, as we passed through Spadafora, had the politeness and sense to offer us. He knew the sort of place to which we were going. On our arrival at this Fundacco Nuovo, which we reached ahout half an hour after sunset, we were not a little disappointed at finding the most despicable habitation that we had yet seen. We could scarcely procure any thing to eat ; the wine was new, and the apart- ment, which opened from the stable, had been whitewashed, per- haps twenty years before. The house was kept by a young couple ; but, though we could admit the apology of their want of means to buy furniture, it was impossible to allow the validity of their excuses for the dirtiness of the room. We slept in our leticas. Twenty months after, when I revisited this place, I found that the room had been whitewashed. Unable to sleep, we got up about two o'clock in the morning, and, before the dawn, reached the heights which over- look the straits of Messina, where we saw, distinctly, along the Calabrian shore, the morning fires of the inhabitants. The road down the mountains, we were told, was made by the British troops ; and is called, by the Sicilians, the Strada Inglese. The British call it Corkscrew-hill Road ; and the appearance of the descent, seen from above, fully evinces the propriety of this name. MESSINA. Messina, unlike every other town in Sicily, has, at present, the appearance of great prosperity. The ruins, occasioned by the earth- quake, in 17^3, are fast removing, and buildings, not inferior to those 85 which were destroyed, are now, every where, making their appear- ance. The Marina still presents the most impressive monuments of that terrible calamity ; but, in a short time, it will, probably, retain as few as the other quarters of the town ; if a recurrence of the cause do not again involve it in a similar destruction. The prosperous state of this city, since the arrival of our troops, is an excellent proof of our national superiority. Notwithstanding all the great and numerous defects of our official foreign policy, it is truly gratifying to perceive, that wherever our countrymen obtain a settlement, they never fail to improve the state of society, and, ultimately, the character, both of the people and their rulers. Here, as in Palermo, the British complain much of the imperfect manner in which justice is administered, even in cases of the most flagrant nature. Not long since, in consequence of an Englishman having been robbed and murdered in the streets, our merchants came forward, collectively, and asserted the claims of justice, in a way that could not but leave a salutary impression, both on the govern- ment and the people. Three persons had been apprehended, on suspicion of having committed the crime ; and, after much equivoca- tion and delay, they were found guilty. Their relations and confe- derates endeavoured to prevent the execution of the sentence, by offering a ransom ; or, more properly, by bribery. This so provoked the British, that they subscribed a sum of money sufficient to enable them to contend against such a manifest corruption of justice, and procured the execution of the criminals. The British have a set of reading rooms, where the English newspapers are taken in. I was informed, that the Sicilians are not 86 permitted to frequent them, or, rather, perhaps, they were deterred, bv the dread of being considered, by the government, as persons of suspicious political opinions. If this be the fact, the government acts very weakly. So striking a proof of thraldom, compared with the freedom of the British, cannot but produce the very effect on the minds of the Sicilians, which the prohibition is meant to prevent. The difference between the British and the Sicilian character, is, here, very obvious. The British are so accustomed to think for themselves, and to speak of their rulers without fear or deference, that, though, here, only strangers, they act precisely as they would do at home ; and, by taking it as, of course, belonging to them, they actually possess more liberty than the natives. The produce of the environs of Messina, consists of fruits and wines. The Pharo red wine is rising in reputation ; and, when old, is not unlike port. The situation of the town is very advantageous for trade ; but seamen complain, that the harbour has been too deep since the great earthquake, at which time the bottom fell in several fathoms. It is, nevertheless, a very fine and secure bason. The silks woven in Messina are not very remarkable, either for elegance or cheapness. It is surprising, considering the vicinity of Sicily to Turkey, that it manufactures no stuffs suitable for the markets of that empire. The state of the theatre in Messina is very poor. Tragedies are generally performed on the Friday evenings. Formerly, the theatres were shut on that night ; but, since the Italian drama has been so admirably improved by Alfieri, the theatres have, in many places, been allowed to be opened on the Fridays, for tragedies. 87 In one of the churches I saw a dead friar, laid out in the habit of his order. At first, I thought it a figure of wax, and was about to give great praise to the artist, when a gentleman, who was with me, happened to inquire of one of the bystanders, how long the body had been there. As it is the business of the clergy to admonish the rest of mankind to prepare for death, the custom, of laying out their dead brethren in the churches, may be capable of some excuse ; but, in this warm climate it should not be permitted. In going to the Pharo, by water, I was amused by a species of labour, which, in a country where rocks are superabundant, seemed to me very thriftless. 1 happened to observe a boat passing slowly along the shore, with two men on board. One rested, every other minute or two, on his oars, while his companion appeared as if he pushed the boat forward with a pole. This alternate work induced me to go nearer ; and I found that they were fishing up stones. The pole resembled the shaft of an oar, and had a piece of iron, like a horseshoe, fastened across the end. With this the stones were lifted into the boat. Messina is a town so well known, and has been so often described, that it would be superfluous to enter into any minute description. The ancient judicious regulations for the encouragement of foreigners to settle in this unstable city, have been lately impaired ; and the complaints of our merchants, at the shameless negligence with which their concerns have been treated, are becoming, daily, louder and more severe. The present population of Messina, is reckoned at upwards of eighty thousand souls, exclusive of the British troops. The scouts 88 of a certain class of ladies, better understood than described, are uncommonly numerous and enterprizing : they all speak a little English. The fortress in which Richard Cceur de Leon took up his quarters, when he landed in Sicily, in the course of his passage to the Holy Land, is again occupied by English troops. It is situated on the heights which overlook the southern part of the city. At that time, the Messinese were jealous of the English ; and frequent bickerings led to an open and general quarrel, in which the Crusaders pursued the citizens into the town, and planted the English standard on the walls. But the object of the king was not, at that time, the conquest of this island, although it was ruled by a usurper : he, therefore, soon after, abandoned a possession that had been accidentally acquired, and proceeded to the great theatre of his exploits. TOA.RMINI. The road from Messina to Toarmini lies along the shore. For several miles after leaving Messina, the appearance of the country, even in the depth of winter, is delightful. The orange trees are then in full bearing, and the vineyards are dressed. It may be said, that, in Sicily, autumn and spring go hand in hand. One of the headlands, along which the road winds, is crowned with a romantic military castle, which overlooks the sea at a fearful height. Of what use it can possibly be, I am utterly at a loss to conjecture. It has nothing to protect, and can protect nothing. We had a garrison in it when I passed. 89 Before reaching the top of the mountain, on which Toarmini is situated, the sun had set ; and, by the time we got to the gate, it was quite dark. The locanda, I found better than I had ventured to hope for. While I was taking supper, the Cicerone of the town came to offer his services, which being accepted, without further preface, he began to tell that he was also a poet, and repeated several of his sonnets. He likewise informed me, that there was another Cicerone in the town, whom he advised me to have nothing to do with, as he was an ignorant, impertinent, old man. In the morning he came at the time appointed, and we proceeded to inspect the ruins, which are worth the trouble of inspecting, in fair weather. The theatre is still so entire, that it might yet, largely speaking, be easily repaired. When perfect, it must have been a superb and extensive building. It seems to have been semicircular ; and the apartments for refreshments, instead of circumscribing the area, as in the London houses, were constructed under the slope on which the benches for the audience were placed. Nor was so large a proportion allotted to the stage, as in our theatres. The drama of the ancients did not require any change of scene, throughout the whole developement of the performance. The semicircular form, in the construction of their theatres, was, certainly, more favourable to the actors, than the oval of the moderns. None of the spectators, in this edifice, were, probably, further from the stage than the front of the gallery is from the orchestra, in the Opera-house of London ; and yet the theatre of Taurominium was capable of containing a greater audience than, perhaps, all the London theatres put together. 90 Besides the theatre, there are remains of a naumachia here, and of the reservoirs which supplied the bason with water. Like all the other theatrical exhibitions of the ancients, the spectacles of the naumachia were, certainly, more expensive than those of the modern theatre ; but, when it is considered, that the art of perspective painting was unknown to them, it may be doubted if the effect was superior. The name of no ancient landscape painter has descended to posterity. The population of this city, which was once supposed to ex- ceed a hundred and fifty thousand, does not now amount to five thousand souls. The town is divided by a wall and gateway; and, at the time I was there, a company of the British German legion had possession of it. The environs afford the most romantic views in all Sicily. The country, though rugged and mountainous, presents an agreeable diversity of cultivated scenes, and rural objects ; and Etna, with all his regions, is seen from the base to the summit. Toarmini is situated on shelving cliffs, which overlook the sea, nearly opposite to Cape Spartevento. It is a place of no trade. ETNA. Having mounted, after viewing the antiquities, I proceeded towards Catania : the rain, however, began to fall copiously, and obliged me to stop at Mascali, a handsome village, in the viny region of Etna. About two o'clock in the morning we set out for Catania. The weather was exceedingly cold ; but the darkness enabled me to notice one of the phenomena of the mountain, of which I do not recollect to have heard. Some time before any symptoms of dawn 91 in the east, a faint, pale, reflected light, was shed from the side of Etna ; and it gradually increased to such a degree, that I could almost see the hours on my watch, although the sky was obscured with black clouds. The reflection was, no doubt, the early effect of the morning on the snow, with which the hill was then covered, nearly to the vineyards. As the dawn opened, I beheld, on all sides, the scoria of the cyclopean furnaces. The appearance of the lava disappointed me. I had expected to see it with some exterior marks of having once been fluent ; but it was all in heaps and masses, like a wide preci- pitation of black and craggy stones. The lava of Etna is, I under- stand, so very docile and deliberate in its course, that any curious phi- losopher may approach, and poke it with his stick. The eruption in 1809 was twelve days in coming eight miles ; yet, notwithstanding this slow and sluggish pace, it can be compared, in its effects, only to the advance of inevitable death. The fable of the rape of Proserpine, is, probably, an allegory, descriptive of the destruction of the cultivated land, by an eruption of the mountain. Much of the classic mythology is, evidently j allegorical ; and few of its subjects are susceptible of so simple an explanation. The single-eyed Cyclops are, certainly, only the personifications of volcanos. Those parts of Homer's works which relate to them, have, perhaps, had the distinct features of the allegories defaced by his correctors. When the history of the Iliad and Odyssey i« considered, it is impossible to believe that they are now the very works which Homer composed. It is not credible, that, from the collection of the parts of the Iliad by Lycurgus, down to the trans- 92 lation by Pope, it was copied, without improvement ; though not to the extent that Pope has improved on Chaucer, in his Temple of Fame — probably, in some similar manner. The edition of the Casket was corrected by Aristotle and Alexander the Great. The king of Sicily, in bestowing on Lord Nelson the title of Bronte, seems to have indulged his fancy ; as it was the name of a one-eyed thunder-making Cyclops. On my arrival at Catania, I found that it was useless to think of ascending to the crater. The season was too far advanced ; and the snow had fallen earlier, and in larger quantities than usual. I, therefore, endeavoured to appease my curiosity, by the persuasion that, probably, very little, worth the trouble of the journey, was to be seen. Besides, a volcano is better calculated to interest a mineralogist than a mere cursory voyager ; and Etna, after all that has been said and sung about it, does not, really, possess a tenth part of the aspectable grandeur that one, somehow, expects. CATANIA. Catania is, certainly, the finest town in Sicily. The buildings are on a scale of magnificence that far exceeds any idea I had enter- tained of what Sicily, in its present state, was likely to have produced. The streets, in some places, are equal to those of Bath and Edin- burgh. The houses, from being built in large separate structures, give it more variety than is seen in the new buildings of those cities : still it has the characteristics of the country ; many of the best edifices are only half finished, and the chief belong to the church. The senate-house, and the two universities^ are very handsome ; and the Benedictine monastery excels every other fabric, secular or ecclesiastical, in the island. It was inhabited, when I was there, by sixty friars, of noble birth, a hundred and twenty servants, and a company of the British German legion. The soldiers, every where, indeed, have taken up their quarters in the convents. The library of this fraternity contains many rare books, and the museum is not contemptible. The taste of these blessed brothers for bottled monsters, and other useless articles, is fully as much to be com- mended as that of their neighbours for old rags and rotten bones. Monks have always been great collectors of curiosities, but seldom so innocently. About a dozen of other strangers were viewing the museum, when I was there ; and, among them, an officer with a star, the admiral, as I was told, of the Sicilian navy. The keeper, in the beginning, was all attention to this star-adorned chief, till he heard of the Englishman. From that moment he annoyed me with his assiduities. The Sicilians give only a bow for sights of this sort ; the English give money. Perceiving the motive of his particular civility, I re- solved to do exactly like the rest of the company ; and, in going out, made him a very handsome bow, and walked on. Before I had gone many paces, he, however, came after me ; and, returning the bow, gave me to understand that he expected something more substantial. The church belonging to this monastery is very grand ; were the design completed, it would be one of the largest in Europe. The organ is truly exquisite ; and I was fortunate enough to hear the whole extent and variety of its powers. It is said to be the finest in the world : it is, by far, the noblest I ever heard. The effect of 94 the sonata, which is performed in order to shew the whole genius of the instrument, may be compared to the course of a river from the fountain-head to the sea. It begins with a sweet little trilling move- ment, like the sound of waters trickling in a far remote pastoral upland. The breadth of harmony increases, and the mind is excited to activity, while the introduction of a delightful echo suggests the images of a rapid stream, and bands of huntsmen, with horns and hounds, coursing the banks. Continuing still to rise and spread, the music takes a more regular character, and fills the imagination with the notion of a Thames, covered with moving vessels, flowing through a multitudinous city. Occasional military movements gra- dually open all the fountains of the instrument ; and the full tide, deepening and rolling on, terminates in a finale so vast, so various, so extraordinary an effusion of harmony, that it can be compared only to the great expanse of the ocean agitated by a tempest, and the astonishing turbulence of a Trafalgarian battle. The public library of Catania is one of the greatest ornaments of the city. The collection occupies several large rooms in the plebeian university, and was originally formed by the Jesuits. It is open to strangers, as well as to the inhabitants, and it is numerously fre- quented by readers of all descriptions. The ancient theatre and amphitheatre are now subterranean. It is not easy to conceive any notion of their form : with the aid of torches, only vaults and corridores can be seen. The baths of the ancient town also are now under the lava. There are several private mu- seums here ; the most famous and various is the Biscarian, which, as a collection of Sicilian antiquities, is an ornament to the nation. 95 The Catanians appear to be as inflexibly attached to their old modes of building, notwithstanding their equally fatal experience, as the Messinese. Little timber is used in the construction of their houses, which are built to the height of four and five stories. A slight shock must inevitably bring the whole vaulting of the rooms down upon the inconsiderate inhabitants. Having heard much of the inexhaustible forests of this island, I was surprized that such a style of building should continue to be preferred. But, like many other things relative to Sicily, the magnitude of the forests has been ridiculously exaggerated ; and the island must be regarded as a country not only very bare of wood, but in great want of it. Planting does not appear to be practised. Scotland, in point of forest scenery, is a sylvan region compared to Sicily. During the time that I was in Catania, a festival occurred in ho- nour of the Virgin. As her image passed the guard-house, the British soldiers were turned out, and presented arms to the image ! I have no comment to make on this illegal iniquity. The number of ecclesiastics in the town was greater than the number of men in the garrison. The troops were British, and paid by the British nation. The expense of maintaining the monks could not be less than that of the soldiers ; so that the British public, it may be said, were paying the ecclesiastics. The population of Catania is estimated at seventy thousand souls. I should not have supposed, from the first view of the place, that it contained above half that number ; but, when I had observed in what manner the people live, the estimate did not appear to have been ex- cessive. The population, on this side of Sicily, has, of late years, 96 materially increased. It seems, indeed, beyond dispute, that the country is in a gradual state of improvement. Whether this is the effect of the natural powers of society recovering their vigour as the church declines, or of an accidental and temporary exterior im- pression, I want facts enough to enable me to form an opinion. But the circulation of a million and a half sterling annually, by the British garrisons, must have some influence ; at the same time, it should be observed, that the increase of the population was visible before their arrival. Catania is rather a manufacturing than a trading town. Silk is its great staple ; and some of the stuffs, which I saw in the looms, were beautiful. The velvet-workers earn about three shillings of our money per day, and the damask-weavers a little more. The wages are regulated according to the skill, as well as to the industry, of the weavers. In the neighbourhood, along the foot of Etna, large quantities of strong wine are made ; and the plain country, to the Avest of the city, exports several cargoes of grain, barilla, flax, lin- seed, and linseed-oil. The Port of Catania is unsafe and in- convenient. LENTINI. The road, after leaving Catania, is very like the ruins of one ; but, with a little labour, it might be rendered tolerable : for there is no better material in the world, either for making or mending roads, than lava. The direct way from Catania to Syracuse, at the time I happened to travel, was impassable, owing to the rains ; and I was obliged to go round by Lentini. About two hours and a half, 97 of letica travelling, I was ferried across the Giarretta (the Simetus of the ancients) the only stream that I saw in Sicily deserving the name of a river. At its mouth are found the rich and rare ambers which the Catanians manufacture into trinkets. One of the principal artificers told me, that those specimens, with perfect flies, and other insects, which are seen in museums, are not natural amber, but preparations of gum. When insects are found in the natural amber, they are all distorted and imperfect. He convinced me of this fact, by shewing me several specimens, of which, the mass appeared to have been formed at different times ; for it evidently consisted of different laminae. The plain of Catania did not come up to my expectations, either as to extent or cultivation. Sicily is a beautiful island, and the climate is delightful; but when the Sicilians hear us admire the luxury of their air, and variety of their scenery, they should not imagine that we also admit their island to be equal to either of ours. They have as preposterous a notion of the improvability of their country, as they have of the influence of governments. * Governments can only do negative good. Their duty is to pro- tect, not to meddle with, the concerns of individuals. The instinct of private interest, is the spring of public prosperity. Instances are rare, of laws emanating spontaneously from rulers, for the purpose of improving the condition of their subjects. On the contrary, an obvious demand for the improvement, generating a disposition, on the part of the people, to extort it by force, has usually preceded those reformations of abuses, as well as those beneficial institutions, for which politicians have received the gratitude of posterity. The o 98 Sicilians know not what they think, when they imagine, that Laws and a Constitution similar to those of England, would raise them, at once, to an equality with Englishmen. But their discontent is the forerunner of their improvement. Lentini stands on the scite of the ancient Leontini. It is a small irregular built town ; and, being inland, has but little commerce. It contains about four thousand inhabitants. The inn is exemplary to all the country towns of the island. It was built by a nobleman of the neighbourhood. The establishing of inns in remote and desert situations, is truly philanthropic. It is providing for the comfort of the stranger and the unknown ; and, in benevolence, is only inferior to the endowment of hospitals. Perhaps, the wretched state of the inns in Sicily, is, partly, owing to the monasteries. Inns are supported by the opulent travellers ; and, in this country, the opulent commonly go to the monasteries. In the town-hall, two large Etruscan vases are preserved, and in the Capuchin convent there is an altar-piece, said to have been painted by Tintoretti. Above the door of a small set of catacombs, a priest pointed out to me a hieroglyphical device, which, he said, was a proof of its having once been the asylum of persecuted Christians. SYRACUSE. The road from Lentini, to the remnant of Syracuse, affords various and romantic views ; but the country is rugged and waste. The great charm of the journey, and which renders every spot that the traveller passes interesting, is the consciousness of approaching 99 so celebrated a city. He looks in vain, however, for the remains of those edifices, which formerly extended, for so many miles, on every side. Here and there a few fragments of marble, and broken pillars, are all that meet his eye, as he approaches to the gates of the modern fortress. The circumference of the ancient Syracuse, has been estimated at upwards of twenty miles. I was, indeed, told, that the walls may vet be distinctly traced. A most ingenious contrivance in the ancient fortifications, apparently for the purpose of making sorties, has lately been discovered. It consists of a subterranean passage, for a consi- derable way beyond the walls, where it formed several branches, each opening at a port of the same dimensions as the entrance to the principal communication. By this contrivance, the garrison could send, suddenly, forth, a greater body of troops than is practicable by any plan in the modern system of fortification ; while the danger of surprise was prevented, by the opening within the city being not wider than one of the sally ports. The theatre and amphitheatre, having been excavated in the rock on which the city was built, are still tolerably entire. The latter is small, and, being of posterior construction to the former, may be regarded as a proof of the declining state of the city, at the time it was formed, which is said to have been in the reign of Nero. The theatre must have been a vast work : it contained benches for upwards of twenty thousand spectators. It seems almost impossible to conceive, in what manner the actors could make themselves heard throughout so great a concave. Hollow passages between every four or five benches, are supposed to have been made for the purpose 100 of conducting the sound from the stage ; places are also shewn, where reverberators were, according to this hypothesis, fixed, in order to throw out the sounds to the audience. That is to say, that the text of the performance was heard like the talk of the invisible girls : a supposition very like nonsense. Some of the learned have fancied, that the actors performed only the pantomime of the drama, and that there was a person behind the scenes, who roared out the dialogue. This, however, I do not believe, more especially since I have seen the theatres of Syracuse and Toarmini. In the latter, on each side of the stage, there is a place where, it is said, a pulpit stood, which, I imagine, must have been for the readers : a contrivance more pro- bable than the supposition of a person behind the scenes. If the man concealed could have been heard, the actors themselves might just as well have made use of their own voices. I have somewhere seen it suggested, that the Greek tragedies were, probably, recited with music, like the modern Italian operas ; and I feel rather inclined to assent to this notion. The Ear of Dionysius, as it is called, is, of all the remains of Syracuse, the most famous ; but, it appears, that he had two ears, both of which are still in existence : which of the two to choose as the right one, I confess myself unable to determine. One of them is still tolerably perfect, and is marvellously like an ass's ; the other has suffered, as all tyrants' ears should suffer, a degree of culprit deficiency. They are both excavations in the two principal Latomies. A Latomy is just a stone quarry. The bottom of one of the largest is now converted into a beautiful sequestered garden. Huge fragments, from the precipice, overhang the pathways like the segments 101 of broken arches, and the olive trees are seen starting out of the rocks, where there is not a particle of soil. This recluse paradise belongs to a Capuchin convent, the chief of which, a sensible well- bred man, conducted me through it. In turning a corner, I observed a monumental inscription ; and, on approaching, was surprised to find it in the English language. It mentioned, that the body of an American midshipman was deposited in the rock behind. He had been killed in a duel, and the monks, in charity, had permitted him to be buried there. In the other great latomy there is a picturesque cavern, occupied by twine-spinners, and a small manufactory of nitre. Among other curiosities, a street of tombs is shewn. In this street is the sepulchre of Archimedes ; but all the marks by which Cicero discovered it are obliterated, and it is not now known. In passing from this place to the catacombs, the entrance to which is about half a mile distant, we happened to cross the excavated aque- duct which antiently supplied the city with water. It is chiefly re- markable, on account of containing two canals, one over the other. It is supposed that this was a secret contrivance in case of siege, that if the enemy stopped up one, the other, being concealed, might still furnish a sufficient supply of water. In a neighbouring field, I saw a number of broken marbles lying, near which, not long before, a statue of Venus was discovered, of very admirable workmanship. It wants, however, the head and right arm. It is the property of the king, otherwise it would have been bought by some of the English travellers. It was standing, when I saw it, in the house of a private gentleman, covered with an old green silk petticoat, ex- 102 posed to the ribaldry and carelessness of the servants. I should not be surprized to hear of its having been thrown down and broken. The catacombs may be described as a subterranean city — the city of the dead. They are of great extent, and branch out into un- numbered streets and labyrinths. The tombs appeared to be te- nantless ; — even the dead of Syracuse are gone. It is wonderful, considering the strong belief of great treasures being deposited in the catacombs, that no one has yet undertaken to examine them tho- roughly. Without much labour, the apertures in the roof, by which the light and air were formerly admitted, might be opened, and the passages seem to be all sufficiently clear. The Marmio, a principal harbour of Syracuse, is a natural bason, about six miles in circumference, and bordered with the luxuriant landscape of Hybla. It has, more than once, during the present war, received the British fleet ; but, when I was there, it contained only one ship, and two or three boats ; — to such a desolate condition has this once busy port been reduced ! Svracuse is a place from which an enemy ought to meet with a formidable resistance. It is one of the very strongest fortresses in the kingdom. The garrison was a British regiment, consisting of about six hundred men. In the town there were upwards of twelve hundred ecclesiastics ; therefore it was necessary to have a garrison of fo- reigners. I ought to mention, that, although the person who acts as Cicerone in Syracuse wears an order of knighthood, he was very thankful for a recompence of three dollars. Is it possible that rank 103 or nobility can be respectable in this form ? In Catania, the master of the inn requested me to give him something in charity for a no- bleman, who was chiefly dependent on his family, and a small stipend of about six-pence a day from the Bishop. Many of the Sicilians consider themselves indebted to Mr. Leckie for the agricultural projects that he has set afoot in the neighbour- hood of Syracuse. At the same time, few of them have attempted to imitate his example ; but, continuing insensible to the value of experimental alterations, which, in such a country as theirs, are useful merely by breaking in upon old inoperose habits, they appear to have felt the tacit reproach of his activity, and seem invidiously disposed to ridicule the improvement which he endeavoured to intro- duce among his labourers. It is certainly to be lamented, that the usefulness of his example was so soon frustrated by the decisive cha- racter of his politics. The king, it is said, had, at one time, a high personal esteem for Mr. Leckie. As far, perhaps, as individual, in- dependent of official weight, prevailed, there has not yet been any Englishman in Sicily who might have contributed so much as he to extend our national influence in that way which is most efficient ; namely, by the good manifestly resulting from commercial under- takings. Those who charge this gentleman with ingratitude to the court, should remember, that public benefits are the only legitimate returns for the favours of kings. SUBSTITUTE FOR GUNPOWDER. The festivals in honour of the saints, are, like other occasions for demonstrating loyalty and attachment, celebrated with loud ex- 104 plosions of gunpowder. In the town of Noto, a substitute for this effect has been contrived, which does great honour to the ingenuity of the inhabitants, and is so very cheap, that it ought to be recom- mended to our fleets and armies. Not that it would answer military purposes ; but for all the festal noises of gunpowder it would do perfectly well. It consists of persons, in pairs, clapping thin planks together in such a way as to produce, at each stroke, a smart re- sounding culverin-like smack ! CAPE PASSERO. Having completed the inquiries which induced me to make the tour of Sicily, I hired a boat at Syracuse in order to proceed to Malta. The distance is above a hundred miles. The winter being far advanced, the voyage was entitled to the epithet of an enterprize. We sailed on the fourteenth of December; the wind came against us before we reached Cape Passero, and obliged us to put into the shore, where we lay seven days, in a most uncomfortable state. The country near Cape Passero is rocky and uncultivated, pro- ducing chiefly the palmeta, a wild plant, the root of which is dug up by the peasants, and used by them, occasionally, for food. In the early part of summer, great quantities of tunny are caught off the Cape, and cured in public warehouses, built on purpose to promote the fishing. The tunny is much larger than any fish which we make use of. When fresh, it resembles salmon in flavour ; salted, it tastes exceedingly rich ; and would, probably, not be unpalatable to the English, were it more neatly prepared. It is the chief festival food 105 of the lower order of the Sicilians, who seldom obtain any butcher's meat. They allege, that it is salutary to dropsical constitutions. During the time that we were compelled to wait for the wind, 1 made several excursions to the villages in the neighbourhood, and was a good deal amused by the peculiarities of the peasants. In a house, where I one day happened to apply for some refreshment, two old women were baking. They had the licence for supplying the village with bread. Bake-houses in Sicily are licensed like ale-houses among us, and the women were too much engaged to attend to my wants. In the same cottage was a shop, kept by the very prototype of Mrs. Maclarty, of Glenburnie. Only, unlike the Scotch wife, she wore gold ear-rings, as large as a watch chain. She was very busy, measuring wine from one cask into another. A girl coming in for a pennyworth of oil, the signora shook the wine from her fingers, took down the oil flask, filled the girl's phial, put the pence into an old handless jug, wiped her fingers on her petticoat, and resumed the mensuration of the wine. I sat down, and gave a deep sigh. After cogitating about ten minutes, on what it was possible to get, which the signora might not touch, an unfortunate hen came pecking in at the door. I immediately thought of eggs, and inquired of my landlady if she could get me any. Making the affirmative sign in reply, for the Sicilians never answer verbally, if a sign will serve, she went to the door, and gave a shrill unintelligible scream. A long-bearded slovenly peasant, with one hand in his waistcoat pocket, and the other holding a tobacco-pipe to his mouth, made p 106 his appearance. He was her husband. She gave him a few coppers from the handless jug: he slowly withdrew, and she resumed her occupation. In a short time, he returned with two eggs, which the signora put into an earthen vessel, and placed it on the fire. Looking round, she observed a piece of straw rope lying on the floor, and, taking it up, after tugging at it a little, stuffed it under the pot, and blew with her mouth till a flame appeared. She then poked a few small sticks into the fire, and returned to her labours. All this was done without one word passing her lips. The husband now began to address me, and the purport of his discourse was, to ask if I should not like to have a fowl dressed. In an unguarded moment I assented ; and the hen, that was pecking on the floor, was immediately put to death. He picked off the feathers out of doors, and, while I was eating the eggs, which were now ready, I heard him exclaim, " Che bella, che bella \" in the very tone and language of a Cicerone, directing the attention of a traveller to the beauties of a painting, or a statue ; and he immediately came in, shewing, first to me, and then to his wife, the fatness of the hen's " postique parts." EDUCATION OF THE PEASANTRY. The church monopolizes the education of the peasantry, and, in some respects, follows the particular policy of the Jesuits, in selecting for priests, those pupils who appear to be possessed of superior endowments. I happened, one day, to observe a country boy, of about eight years old, with an ecclesiastical cravat about his neck. I inquired if he was destined for the church, and received for answer, that it was not yet known ; but when he was grown up, if he shewed 10? that he had capacity, probably he would be made a priest. The boy appeared to be uncommonly shrewd, and I did not wonder that he had attracted the notice of the clergy. A STATE PRISON. While we lay at Cape Passero, I went to an island which lies at a short distance from the shore, and on which there is a small castle, used as a state prison, and as a place of confinement for felons who have been condemned to perpetual imprisonment. The castle is a large square tower, on which ten or twelve pieces of cannon are mounted. The entrance is only capable of admitting one person at a time. On entering, I was almost intimidated by the scowling unshaven visages which met me ; till, advancing a little further, I discovered a woman spinning with a distaff. On inquiring for the keeper, she shewed me into a clean apartment, and, presently, a very pretty young lady came from an inner room, and told me, in Italian, that her father would be with me presently. In a moment after, another appeared, who, I found, was her elder sister. They were dressed with dark brown calico, trimmed and ornamented with green ribbands, in a stile indicating gentility, and something like fashion- Before I had time to express my surprise, at meeting with two ladies in a place so distant from all society, the captain made his appear- ance. I told him the simple fact of my detention, and want of amuse- ment, and he immediately took me into an inner chamber. It seemed to be their principal room. In a little grated window, two flower pots were placed, and the other parts were neatly arranged. But the surprise of this unexpected scene, was very soon changed to a far 108 other feeling than that of pleasure. On the bed lay the mother, apparently dying ; and, beside her, a little boy who had taken refuge behind her at my approach. She had been ill above a month ; and her family had no hope of her recovery. On my taking leave, the captain requested me to give him a little rum from my stores ; and the soldier, whom he sent to bring it, informed me, that this unfor- tunate family were Neapolitans, and had only been in the castle three months. The lady, he said, was a delicate woman, and their discon- solate situation, with the sharpness of the air, had brought on her disease. The captain was the governor. PUNISHMENTS. Crimes, which in other countries are punished with death, are commonly, in Sicily, followed only by imprisonment. Owing to this peculiarity in the distribution of justice, the British are apt to speak of the laws as more laxly administered, than, perhaps, the fact would justify. At least I felt myself, as it were, rebuked, by an observation of one of the judges, with whom I happened to converse on this subject. " We do not punish," said he; " we only make examples." He informed me, that the number of convicts throughout the island, in the year 1809, amounted to about four hundred persons, who cost the state, on an average, three dollars a head per month ; and it was supposed, that their labour more than repaid the value of this expence. The torture, for extorting confession, if not abolished by law, is certainly not used in Sicily. It is true, that, both in Messina and Syracuse, there have been instances of suspected traitors loy having been cruelly treated ; but not by the order of any tribunal. The Inquisition does not exist in Sicily. It is, perhaps, the case, that many members of the Sicilian tribunals of justice, are so far disciples of Beccaria, as to be governed in their awards by his principle of making example the end of punishment ; but the code of Sicily does not authorize such pro- cedure. Judges are not philosophers. It is their duty only to administer the law according to its words. If they find it imperfect for its purposes, they should point out the defects to the legislature ; but, of their own accord, to modify its provisions, is to undermine the very props of social security, and to destroy the utility of public law. The steady administration of bad laws, is better than the irregular use of the wisest. HISTORY. A regular narrative of the History of Sicily, written in a liberal and comprehensive stile, is a desideratum in the literature of Europe. The unstable possession which the sovereigns, from the earliest times, appear to have held of the throne, has, undoubtedly, been the cause of the slight attachment to the dynasties of their monarchs, which has marked the conduct of the Sicilians in all ages. The state of the island, before the foundation of Syracuse by the Heraclidae, is as obscure as that of Britain before the invasion of Julius Caesar : and we are informed only, that, for some time after, Sicily was chiefly occupied by colonies from Greece and Africa, and governed by provincial kings. When Xerxes invaded 110 Europe, Gelon, of Syracuse, was solicited by the Greeks to assist them ; but his attention was drawn to the defence of his own state, against the Carthaginians, who, at that time, had settlements in the island, and were in alliance with the Persian Monarch. Soon after the death of Gelon, the Syracusans banished his family, and established a popular government. In this revolution, the character of the age is clearly evident. A republican spirit had manifested itself both in Italy and Greece ; and, about thirty years before, de- mocratic governments had been formed in Rome and Athens. In the course of two hundred and sixty years, from the expulsion of royalty from Syracuse, a numerous and various succession of petty tyrants acquired and lost the regal authority ; and the whole island was subdued to the dominion of Rome. Unlike the other Roman provinces, Sicily was allowed to retain her ancient laws and customs ; and, in the local privileges of several cities, an antiquary may yet trace remains of the different little states into which the country was anciently divided. In A. D. 475 the Vandals had conquered Sicily, and they re- signed it to Odoacer, who, at that time, had made himself master of the western empire. In 550 it was taken by Totila the Goth ; but, next year, it was surrendered to the emperor of Constantinople, and remained a de- pendency of the empire till 857, when it was attacked, and finally subdued, by the Saracens. In 1040 the Greeks and Normans recovered it to Christendom, and Rojrer established himself on the throne. It remained but a short time undisturbed in his legitimate line ; for, when William II. Ill died, in 1190, the crown was usurped by Tancred. Constantia, the paternal sister of William, being married to the emperor Henry VI. the imperial power enabled her to regain the kingdom to her family, and her son, the emperor Frederick II. was established king. Thus Sicily passed into the house of Suabia. Conradine, the grandson of Frederick, being left a minor, Man- fred, the bastard brother of Frederick, availing himself of the mi- nority, obtained possession of the throne. Pope Innocent IV. who was hostile to the pretensions and ambition of the Suabian family, with the common arrogance of the Popes, assigned the sovereignty to Edmund, the second son of Henry III. of England. But the English monarch, soon discovering that this honour only served to drain him of money, ordered it to be resigned. Charles, Count d'Anjou, being subsequently induced by Pope Urban IV. to accept the same pretended rights to the crown, defeated and killed Manfred the Usurper. Conradine, with the Duke of Austria, then came to assert his rights ; but Charles vanquished them also, and cut off their heads. The crown, nevertheless, did not long remain in this dynasty. For Peter III. of Arragon, the son-in-law of Manfred, was induced to undertake the conquest of the island, which he ef- fected by the result of the famous Sicilian vespers. Peter, by his will, bequeathed Sicily to his second son James, who resigned the crown to Charles, the son of him from whom his father had taken the island. A party of the Sicilians, attached to the house of Arragon, set up Frederick, the brother of James, in opposition to this Charles. After a bloody civil war, peace was con- cluded, by separating Sicily from Naples, and giving the latter to 112 Charles. The separation, however, did not continue long ; for, at the death of Charles, in 1309, the crowns were again united. In the course of the same century, the Arragon line was broken by the crimes and indiscretions of Joanna, the Mary Stewart of Sicily ; who, in 1382, was executed by her cousin Charles Durazzo. In the fifteenth, the right to the throne was contested by the French, and gave rise to those famous Italian wars, of which Guicciardini has written the history. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Lewis XII. of France, was compelled to resign all pretensions to the Neapolitan dominions ; and, from that time, Sicily remained a dependency of the Spanish monarchy, till it was taken by Prince Eugene in 17^7' By the peace of Rastadt it was ceded to the em- peror. In 1734, the Spaniards recovered it ; and the eldest son of their king was placed on the throne. When he succeeded to the crown of Spain, his brother, the reigning sovereign, became king of Naples and Sicily : in his time, the island has been made, once more, a kingdom independent of Naples : and the aspect of the times seems to portend new changes. THE CONSTITUTION. The political constitution of Sicily, like all others on which feudal institutions have been engrafted, is partly monarchical, partly ecclesiastical, partly aristocratical, and partly burgheral. I use the latter term as descriptive of that species of representation by which the corporations of towns are allowed to send members to the Le- gislature : for there is not a town in the island which possesses an open elective charter, Sicily, indeed, to compare small things with 113 great, resembles an empire, consisting of different provinces, each with peculiar laws and customs. The statutes, enacted by the states of the kingdom, maybe sufficiently comprehensive, in terms ; but they are never universal, in effect, owing to certain verv ancient inde- pendent privileges which different cities enjoy, and which the su- preme legislature of the kingdom has never attempted to abrogate. The toleration of these localities, in the execution of the laws, is one of the great sources of the grievances of the people. Nor is it easy to conceive in what manner they can be removed, while the members of the parliament are personally interested in preserving them. The crown has not enough of lawful power ; the nobility and clergy are destructively numerous ; and the people, by the constitutions of the ancient cities, are prevented from influencing the proceedings of the legislature and executive. THE SICILIAN CHARACTER. Our knowledge of the characters of nations is derived from History ; but there are moral features among every people which History never describes. In estimating the character of the Si- cilians, this consideration ought to be particularly borne in mind. The island has been so long connected with Naples, that the two countries, in opinion, have become almost inseparably blended; and much of that bloody colouring, which darkens the complexion of their general national character, may, properly, belong only to the Neapolitan. Still, however, the circumstances of the Sicilian government, from an early sera, serve to shew, that the political attachments of the people have never been lasting ; nor have they, Q 114 in any epoch of their story, evinced that they possessed that resolute courage which has, often, enabled small communities to acquire immortal renown, in their opposition to superior powers. The Sicilians are rather a sly than a cunning race ; perhaps no nation in Europe possesses so much naivete. Loquacious and in- genious, they make more use of persuasion in their dealings than any other people. It is not enough that a Sicilian objects the high price of what he desires to purchase ; he expatiates on the inferiority of the quality ; recalls to recollection how long he has been a cus- tomer ; enumerates, one by one, counting them on his fingers, the circumstances of unlucky bargains that he has had ; flatteringly con- trasts the opulence of the English with the poverty of the Sicilians ; animadverts on the politics of the Government ; magnifies the value of his ready-money; insinuates that he may change his merchant; and often retires, and returns several times, before he offers his ulti- matum. Nor in selling does he practise less address. There is not a single point of his wares that does not possess something extraor- dinary, or beautiful : no other shop in the town has any thing like them ; so cheap, or so excellent. If the price be high, What will you give ? and it is seldom that a Sicilian refuses the offer of an Englishman. The inhabitants of this island are, in the proper sense of the term, highly superstitious ; but the dicta of ignorance are so interwoven with the creeds of popery, that many notions of vulgar superstition are regarded as essentials of religion. The only exception is a belief in the effects of the influence of evil eyes ; and even over this, the priesthood have acquired jurisdiction. For they persuade the people 115 to buy bits of blessed rags and paper, which, when worn suspended round the neck, have the effect, as they pretend, of neutralizing the malignancy. The influence of an evil look is instantaneous ; and the person who happens to glance it, may be unconscious of what he does : it smites the subject with sudden malady, or impresses his mind with lugubrious images, and unfits him for the prosecution of premeditated intentions. It is useless to speculate on the fantasies of the human mind ; but, in this case, the constant flickering of electricity in this climate, and the occasional breathing of pestiferous exhalations, from the vegetable corruption in the bottoms of the valleys, afford a plausible reason for the sudden distempers and de- jections which are ascribed to the aspect of ungracious eyes. The same superstition is well known in Scotland ; but it is more gene- rally prevalent among the Sicilians than the Scotch. Whether it is, among us, an imported or indigenous belief, cannot now be ascer- tained. Over all the ancient extent of the papal empire, there is a great similarity in the topics of vulgar credulity. The Sicilians have, certainly, a very keen relish of humour; and, now and then, one may perceive, in them, a strong trait of peculiarity, not individual but national, which, notwithstanding their ancient proficiency, is an assurance to think that they may yet attain some literary superiority which shall be regarded as original. A de- scription of manners and customs, by a genuine Sicilian, otherwise properly qualified, would equally surprize and delight. 116 MALTA. The entrance to the harbour of Valetta is truly grand. On each side, and in front, the fortifications rise in stupendous masses, with a watch-tower perched here and there on the corners. The buildings and domes above them have also a very noble appearance. Not a particle of smoke sullies the atmosphere ; and every edifice looks as if it were onlv just finished. The internal appearance of the city corresponds to the magnificence of its exterior. The landing-place is an extensive crescent; from which a gentle ascent, partly exca- vated in the rock, leads towards a gate. The one side of this way is occupied with the stalls of dealers in fish, fruits, and other ne- cessaries. Immediately in front of the drawbridge is a handsome fountain, ornamented with a bronze statue of Neptune ; and, on en- tering the gateway, the stairs, which conduct to the upper part of the town, immediately commence, making the entrance, in some respects, more like the vestibule of a great mansion, than the portal of a city. Nothing can be more striking than the streets which are first ascended after passing this gateway. They are, in fact, so many vast staircases; and the buildings that rise prospectively in the ascent, are ornamented with cornices and projections, so huge, that the architecture seems to have been designed to correspond in strength and durability with the fortifications. The domestic architecture of the Maltese cannot be considered as regulated by the established rules of good taste ; nevertheless, the picturesque effect is grand ; and one meets, occasionally, with vista? 117 that seem more like the conceptions of a painter than the limited realities of an inhabited town. INN. There was no tolerable hotel in Malta while I happened to be there ; but one, sufficiently spacious, was preparing, and has since, I understand, been opened. The house, in which I obtained lodgings, had formerly been a tavern ; but the owner was induced to give it up for a singular reason. " When it was an inn,'* said the waiter, a Sicilian, who spoke English, " it was so full of noises, that there was no living in it. The officers of the men of war came making noises. They went to the play, and came back making noises. Then there were the stranger gentlemen, all English, making noises — sitting up in the night, singing, roaring, jumping on the tables, breaking glasses. O, my God ! what terrible noises ! So we put down the sign from the wall ; and, if there be less money now, we have no noises." MONOPOLY OF GRAIN. The bread in Malta is the worst I ever tasted ; and I was not a little surprized, when I learnt the reason. The government, as in the time of the knights, still monopolizes the sale of corn ; and the profit derived from the trade is one of the principal sources of the revenue appropriated to defray the expence of the civil establishment. The simple statement of this fact, is, certainly, not calculated to convey a very favourable impression of the wisdom of the govern- ment. But there are peculiarities in the condition of Malta, which, 118 perhaps, justify the monopoly, and render it necessary that the public sustenance should not, as in other countries, depend on the ordinary motives of private interest. In an island, the produce of which is inadequate to support its population above a few months, though the land is cultivated to the utmost, and where the foreign supplies are liable to be intercepted, it might be hazardous to trust to mercantile speculation only. The government, therefore, considers it prudent to have always a large quantity of wheat in store, and the oldest is regularly the first sold to the bakers. The granaries are not the least curiosities of the island. They are excavations in the rock, and are formed along the ramparts, and, in some places under the streets. At the mouth, they are not more than three or four feet in diameter, widening, however, to the extent of twenty and upwards, at the bottom, each capable of containing four hundred to above a thousand quarters. CHARACTERISTICS. The Maltese, in their figure, are rather sinewy than muscular. They are, uniformly, more slenderly made than the English, and have a certain columnar appearance in the body, which I have never observed in any other people. Their national features are rather regular than pleasant, and their complexion is much darker than that of the Sicilians. In their habits, they are singularly frugal : a little garlick, or fruit, with a small piece of bread, is their common repast. Butcher-meat is a luxury of which they seldom partake. Their language is a dialect of the Arabic ; but many speak Italian, and French. In Valetta, the young men, generally, understand English, 119 of" which the sounds accord, in some degree, with those of their native language. The great amusement of the Maltese is the enjoyment of con- versation, sitting, in family parties, at their doors, after sunset. la speaking of national peculiarities, my observations chiefly refer to the practices and customs of the common people. There is but little difference between the genteel manners of one Christian nation and those of another ; all well-educated Europeans having now a great similarity in their domestic habits. When the magnitude of the Maltese public works, and the general character of the people, are considered, it is impossible not to draw a conclusion favourable to the government of the Knights ; who, whatever may have been the extent of their alleged licentiousness as individuals, must have ruled with wisdom, to form a people so com- fortable and orderly, and, with their comparatively limited means, to construct works which rival the greatest monuments of the Roman empire. The population of the island,, when the Knights arrived, was reckoned only at twelve thousand ; when it fell into the hands of the French, it exceeded a hundred thousand. I have been told., that the Maltese speak with regret of the reign of the Knights, or, as they call it, of the time of the Religion. This I was sorry to hear. The British have much difficulty in familiarizing themselves to foreigners. The contempt with which we are accustomed to regard every other nation, enables the French, by the practice of their habitual politeness, often to acquire a superior influence, even in those countries which are the pensioners of Great Britain. There- is no doubt that the French are, individually, a more accommodating 120 and agreeable people than the British, who, instead of condescending to imitate their rivals in those little arts of address that win the affections, only the more vehemently despise such arts, for the sake of those by whom they are practised. The common consent with which the British undervalue the character and institutions of other nations, is strikingly exemplified in their mode of speaking of the Maltese ; and a considerable degree of jealousy seems to be enter- tained, because the government endeavours to conciliate the native inhabitants. Men who spend much of their life abroad, especially such as are naturally of reserved dispositions, like the generality of our countrymen, acquire somewhat the character of recluse students. They attain a more comprehensive way of thinking, than those who take a part in the warfare of opinions ; but they are apt to mistake logic for reason, leaving out, in their syllogisms, the most important of all considerations — peculiarities of habit and of feeling. Pre- judices are the inductions of the heart ; and the head is seldom able to form its estimates without being influenced by them. Whatever may be the prejudices of the Maltese, we can have no right to bend them in conformity to ours. We may endeavour, by the fairness, justice, and temperance of our conduct, to awaken their respect, and to excite them to imitation ; but I know not what tyranny can be, if it do not consist in compelling men to act against the convictions of their understanding. PUBLICATIONS. In the year 1809, I met with a singular literary curiosity in Malta. It was a narrative of the exploits of the Emperor Napoleon, 121 printed at Paris, in Arabic characters, for the purpose of shewing, that he is a man sent by heaven to alter the condition of the world. It was ordered, by the French government, to be distributed wherever the language in which it is written is supposed to be understood. If anv proof were wanting, to shew how thoroughly and entirely the ruler of France understands all the various means of accomplishing his ends, this might be adduced as one. It is impossible not to regret the supine indifference with which our government affects to contemn such artifices. In Malta, where thousands of Greeks and Turks are in the practice of constantly trading, we may be said to possess a fulcrum, on which we might construct engines sufficient to move the whole Mahomedan world ; yet, so regardless are we of this advantage, that the press of Malta is of no public utility. The French publish a Greek and Italian newspaper at Corfu ; but neither in Zante nor in Malta, is there a periodical publication of any description whatever. ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. The aspect of the country of Malta is, perhaps, more wonderful to a stranger, particularly to one who has come from a land of verdant fields, groves, and hedge-rows, than the fortifications of Valetta, amazing as these are. The whole island appears to be subdivided, by walls, into innumerable little properties, of not more than an acre or two in extent. Nothing that approximates to the definition of a tree is to be descried within the whole range of view, from the highest watch-tower on the battlements of the city. The appearance of the landscape, so destitute of refreshing green, so intersected with stone walls, every where studded with churches crowned with domes, R 122 and, with the flat-roofed and windowless cottages of the peasants, is not to he previously conceived. To me, it constantly suggested the idea of a great cemetery, subdivided into family portions, and crowded with tombs and mausoleums. Malta has, in fact, reached that point of cultivation and population, which a wrong-headed disciple of Malthus would be apt to consider as affording the most melancholy subject of reflection. Every inch is tilled, and yet the produce has long been inadequate to the maintenance of the inha- bitants ; notwithstanding which, the very labouring class of the people are still so inconsiderate as to marry and beget children, as merrily as if they had all sinecures. Cows were long ago expelled ; and the frugal-feeding goat supplied a competency of milk till the English came ; but these epicures had again recalled those huge vegetable-devouring creatures ; and, in the year 1809, I was told, that there were no fewer than three milch cows in the island of Malta ! As a compensation, however, for the provender of the cows, our countrymen have introduced the cultivation of potatoes. MODE OF TRAVELLING. The common mode of travelling in Malta, is in single-horse close carriages, which hold two persons. They are called calishes, and are a very tolerable sort of vehicles. The driver never rides, but runs, all day, by the side of the horse or mule ; and the fatigue which he will sustain, even under the influence of the scirocco, is almost incredible. Nor is he extravagant in his charges: for a dollar, a calish may be hired all the afternoon and evening. This carriage is the only thing in the shape of a machine, that has struck me 123 •as peculiar to the Maltese. They are not, I suspect, a people remarkable for inventions ; on the contrary, they seem to have reached a Chinese state of self-sufficient perfection, and are satisfied with their attainments. They have the most beautiful breed of asses in the world, and they keep them in a handsome sleeked condition. KITCHENS. For some time after my arrival, I was a good deal at a loss to account for the manner in which dinners were prepared, and kept hot for large parties. I saw no smoke from the chimnies, no fires ; nor fuel, in any place, sufficient for the supply even of a very frugal kitchen. Reflecting, also, on the excessive heat of the climate, I thought it impossible for the salamandrian constitution of the most veteran cook, to endure the additional fury of large kitchen fires, after our wasteful manner. I was informed, however, that the cooks made no complaints ; and that the stoves were so arranged, as to occasion no inconvenient heat, and to require very little fuel. I was, in con- sequence, induced to examine a kitchen, which I found constructed according to what are called the Rumford principles; and I was told, that all the kitchens in the city were similar. The cooking apparatus of the Sicilians and Italians, is, I understand, much like that of the Maltese. WATER. Although the island is but one great rock, thinly covered with soil, the inhabitants are well supplied with water. A small stream, which rises in the interior, is brought to Valetta, by an aqueduct, and distributed by public fountains. Every house in the city, as well as in the country, has also a cistern, capable of containing a quantity of water sufficient to serve the family six months. These cisterns are filled by the rain from the roofs of the houses. ENTERTAINMENTS. Of the diversions of the Maltese, I observed none that I thought could be considered as national, except a simple game, which differs very little, in principle, from quoits. The players are each provided with a stone, of the size and shape of a four-pound cannon ball, which they throw towards a mark. The theatre is very neat. Like almost every other thing in the country, that is not actually alive, it is entirely composed of stone ; even the partitions of the boxes are of that material. I was first made sensible, in this house, that the Italian comic opera is not an absurdity. PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS. The cathedral of St. John is celebrated for the beauty of its pavement, which consists of the monuments of the Knights, executed in mosaic, each of which appears like one large plate of enamel painting. Several of the altar-pieces are valuable ; but the riches of this church were sadly reduced by the French. When Buonaparte came to inspect it, for the pious purpose of reforming the luxuries of its service, it was observed, that he kept his hat on, to the great scandal of the priests. The portrait of the grand master, Pinto, in mosaic, is a great curiosity. It is not, at first sight, distinguishable from painting. The menial who attended me through the cathedral, 125 pointed out, on one of the altars, a picture of the Virgin, whom he immediately seemed to address with many interjections of devout admiration ; hut, observing on her cheek the residue of the dinner of a sacrilegious fly, he suddenly expectorated in her face, in order to rub it the more easily clean. The palace of the grand master, in which the governor now resides, is a large plain building, equal to any of the royal monas- teries of England. The corridors and state apartments, are superior to those of St. James's, which, among other foolish flatteries, we are often told, at home, are equal to any in Europe. Contiguous to the palace, is the public library, the finest piece of architecture in the town. It was undergoing some repairs, preparatory to receiving the books of the Maltese library ; a collection of nearly thirty thousand volumes, consisting of books which the members of the order had from time to time bequeathed. This institution had, formerly, a right to a copy of every book printed at the royal stampery of Paris, and possesses, in consequence, the best specimens of French typo- graphy and literature. The governor has a country-house near the village of St. Antonio. Like the palace, it contains a number of portraits, and a few respectable pictures ; but it is celebrated chiefly for the gardens, which are laid out in the Italian stile. They are of no great extent ; yet, with all due deference to the manes of Kent and Brown, I find myself, in honesty, compelled to say, that, notwithstanding their trimness, fountains, and colonnades, I thought them both beau- tiful and appropriate. Where an extensive domain will admit, the imitation of rocks, woods, and lakes, may be introduced with 126 propriety ; but, in so small a spot as the gardens of St. Antonio, it would only be ridiculous. Besides, a flower-garden is a place dedicated to festivity ; and the mind is insensibly disposed to gaiety, by the sight of objects, evidently formed only for ornament. During the time of Sir Alexander Ball, his lady held, weekly, a very stately and ceremonious public tea-drinking in these gardens* Sir Alexander Ball assigned to the merchants, the quadrangle of the building which was, formerly, the college of the Jesuits ; and it has been fitted up as an exchange. It also contains apartments for a bank, and an insurance company, which were established by subscription in 1809. There is a great disposition, in Malta, to imitate the commercial institutions of London, and to place business on as regular a footing, as the difference of circumstances will admit ; but the want of a legislature is a great drawback on this laudable public spirit. The tribunals of the country may, in courtesy, recognize the institutions of the merchants ; but the want of legality, cannot but greatly operate to their disadvantage. The claims of the bank, as a company, may be resisted in the courts of the United Kingdom, where, also, the subscribers may be, indi- vidually, prosecuted for the debts of the company. FARMING. In this island, the farmer begins to turnup the soil in September, and continues his labour for the different crops that he intends to raise, till the end of April; at which time, all the seeds are in the ground. He is obliged to chip the rock under the soil every six or 127 seven years, in order to recruit the fertility of the earth. The vege- tahles of Malta are excellent. The cotton, however, is inferior, and only fit for making sail-cloth and coarse checks, into which it is ma- nufactured in the island. Were the absurd restrictions on the trade between this central station, for selling colonial produce, and the West Indies, removed, the Maltese cotton sail-cloth might become an article of return to the latter. All the small vessels in the Me- diterranean make use of cotton sail-cloth. THE PRIVILEGE OF SANCTUARY. We have had possession of Malta upwards of ten years ; and yet the public do not know whether it is to remain permanently ours, or to be resigned again, nominally to the knights, but virtually to the French. This uncertaintv, and that defect of our foreign policy, in not having any definite plan for embracing into our empire such ac- quisitions as the events of war enable us to make, operate greatly to the disadvantage of this invaluable possession. An apprehension is felt, both by the natives and the British, that our statesmen will surrender Malta — one of the most important commercial and mi- litary stations that we ever obtained. The administration of justice is affected by this uncertainty and apprehension ; and the greatest abuses are tolerated, merely because the existing government is only regarded as provisional during the war. It is still doubtful whether a British subject, in this part of the British dominions, may claim his birth-right — a trial by jury. It is indisputable, as far as prece- dent goes, that neither his person, nor his property, enjoy, here, that natural protection which it is the duty of all governments to afford, 128 and which, elsewhere, the British subject has a right to demand ; and, if refused, may prosecute the magistrate for the consequences of the refusal. Some time before my arrival at Malta, in 1809, as an English soldier happened to be walking along the street, a pig, belonging to a Maltese butcher, ran against him. The lad, irritated by having his uniform soiled, gave the animal a kick. Almost instantly the owner mortally stabbed him with a knife, and fled to the cathedral. Owing to some diffidence in the governor, out of respect to the popular prejudices, if such gentle terms can be applied to the trans- action, the murderer was allowed to remain in the sanctuary ; and the bishop was only solicited to deliver him up to justice. This in- judicious mildness was equivocally answered. The governor grew more firm, and demanded the culprit. The clergy perceived that the sanctuary might, in the end, be forced ; and they facilitated the escape of the murderer. It will not be surprizing, if, out of this felonious affair, circum- stances arise to exalt the horns of the priesthood. Inferior delin- quents may take sanctuary with impunity ; and, should it become necessary to violate the privilege of sanctuary, the disregard of ancient law and precedent may be plausibly complained of. In a case of such atrocious murder, as that which I have related, the go- vernor would have been supported by the sympathy of the people ; and, before the priests could have been able to poison their feelings, he might have dragged the butcher even from the very arms of the bishop. One act of well-timed decision is worth a million of ex- pedients. Such procedure, as the governor ought to have adopted, 129 would have abrogated in Malta the ecclesiastical power of harbouring criminals. It has been urged, in excuse for the indecision of the general, that the privilege of sanctuary formed a part of those ancient legal customs which we had engaged to respect. But an engagement to connive at the protection and escape of delinquents could never be obligatory, because it is contrary to the law of nature and nations. The man who subscribes to such a principle, becomes himself a cri- minal. There is, however, a better reason for the abolition of sanctuary in Malta than reason itself. I mean to the priests. Henry VII. of England procured a bull from Rome to put an end to it in his dominions. Although his successors have renounced the supremacy of the Pope, the Papists must admit that the kings of England have inherited all the uncancelled privileges enjoyed by their ancestors ; and therefore, as the successors of Henry, they have a regular ecclesiastical right to abolish the privilege of sanctuary, wherever their jurisdiction extends. From the moment that the island fell under the English crown, the priestly privilege of de- frauding justice legally ceased to exist. HISTORY. Malta was first known to have been ruled by an African of the name of Battus, who was an enemy of queen Dido, and subdued by the Carthaginians. From them it fell into the hands of the Romans ; and the Saracens severed it from their empire. Roger the Norman, king of Sicily, having, in his turn, expelled them, it remained attached to the Sicilian monarchy till the emperor 130 Charles V. gave it to the knights of St. John, after their expulsion from Rhodes. The French, under Buonaparte, surreptitiously ob- tained the possession, during the last war, but were, soon after, com- pelled to surrender it to the British. TRADE. The effects also of that ruinous infirmity in our foreign policy, which has, hitherto, led us to make conquests in war, for the express purpose of afterwards resigning them, is very visible in the state of the trade of this island. In the course of my voyages and travels, I found that all the countries to which the British have still access, were supplied with colonial produce by the Americans. With Sicily and Turkey the Americans were in the practice of holding direct intercourse, although neither the Sicilian nor Ottoman go- vernments are on any terms of correspondence with that of the United States. I found, also, that the coffee and sugar, in the market of Malta, was brought there by Americans, direct from Cuba and St. Domingo. It seemed, that, without any diplomatic address, exerted in these parts, the citizens of the United States enjoyed, within the Mediterranean, as great privileges, and as ample protection, as the British, with all their fleets, armies, and ple- nipotentiaries. In Sicily, notwithstanding the state of relation in which we stand with that kingdom, the Americans were just as much respected as we were. In Turkey they participated in all the privileg.es to which we could lay any claim ; and, in Malta, our own island, they shared, to the utmost, every immunity which the British possessed. It will 131 be difficult to discover, either in the conduct of the United States to- wards us, or in that regard which we owe to our own interests, a satisfactory reason for permitting them to enjoy such advantages — advantages enjoyed at the expence of our West Indian planters and merchants. Whenever the traders of any nation attain pre-eminency in a fo- reign market, it is either owing to some superiority of quality in their articles, or to a superiority of privilege, or to their ability in sup- plying the same kind of articles, at a cheaper rate than other merchants. It is to the latter of these causes, that the exclusive pre-eminence, which the Americans have attained in the Medi- terranean, must be ascribed. They load sugars and coffee in Cuba and St. Domingo, and come directly into this sea. The expenses of the voyage are not greater than those on a voyage from the West Indies to the United Kingdom. If the invoice price of their cargoes be the same as the shipping value of our West Indian produce, they can afford to sell, in Malta, for example, at the same price that our planters can afford to sell in England. By our colonial system, we cannot carry colonial produce direct to Malta. It must be first brought to the United Kingdom, there landed, there warehoused, and there shipped again, for Malta; and the expence of the voyage from England to that island, independent of the landing, ware- housing, and shipping charges, is as great as that of a voyage from Cuba, or St. Domingo, to Malta ; namely, the ordinary voyage of the Americans with colonial produce. If this expense be twenty-five per cent, it is, therefore, clear, that our colonial system has the effect of giving twenty-five per cent, of advantage to the Americans over 132 our merchants, on all colonial produce that is sold in Malta. For the Americans, to reach the same destination, perform only one voyage, while we are, by law, obliged to perform two. If it be convenient to the great political concerns of the empire, that the colonies of the enemy should be conquered ; as our original plantations must suffer by the effects of this policy, it is but just that we should endeavour to lessen their sufferings. It may be ex- pedient to reduce the foreign possessions of the enemy, in order to procure certain equivalents when we shall come to negociate for peace; but it is not judicious that we should entail, upon those pos- sessions, which we do not mean to surrender, hardships that will, in the end, affect our own vital interests, more than the temporary in- jury which we inflict on the enemy. If it be intended to retain the new acquisitions to the utmost, and to regard them as integral parts of the empire, then the obligation of considering the state of the consumption of colonial produce, within the Mediterranean, in addition to the different other plans proposed for the relief of the planters, is indispensable. The enemy, aware of our belligerent co- lonial system, has, by most unprecedented regulations, which have proved lamentably successful, endeavoured to lessen the consumption of colonial produce on the continent. This has diminished the loss to him of the colonies which we have taken, and reduced the value of property to us, in those which we previously possessed. Were the actual condition of the colonies,, collectively, the same as at the com- mencement of the war, such has been the diminution in the con- sumption of colonial produce on the continent, that the general value of plantation property is now materially impaired. 133 The population of Sicily is commonly reckoned at a million and a half. The quantity of sugar used in that island is, perhaps, equal to the whole consumption of Scotland ; and the quantity of coffee is, undoubtedly, much greater. Would not the exclusive privilege of supplying the Sicilians with colonial produce be regarded as a boon by our planters ? Might not this privilege be obtained, under the present circumstances of our connection with Sicily ? If we garrison the fortresses, and continue the subsidy to the court, by which the people are exempted from a large portion of the expenses of the war, surely we could and ought to stipulate for some favour in return; and the privilege of selling colonial produce to the Sicilians might be a part of that favour. But, in the existing state of our colonial system, the court of Palermo might object to concede this privilege, because it would, in fact, be obliging its subjects to pay twenty-five per cent. more to the British, for the same kind of goods, which they obtain, at present, from the Americans. Were we to obtain, from the king of Sicily, the exclusive privilege of bringing colonial produce to his ports, and yet continue those existing restrictions, which oblige the planters to send their articles first to the United Kingdom, we should, in fact, levy a tax of twenty-five per cent, on the sugar and coffee consumed by the Sicilians. I do not say that we ought not to do this ; but, were the point agitated in negociation, the king of Sicily has certainly a very solid ground of objection. Were we to grant our planters the freedom of direct intercourse with Malta, our own territory, and, it is to be hoped, an adopted and unalienable integral part of our empire, the objection of the Sicilian government would be obviated ; because, by the vicinity of that island to Sicily, 134 we could then afford to furnish the Sicilians with colonial produce, on terms, at least equal to those of the Americans, even if we did not take any steps to exclude the Americans from the Mediterranean. By extending to the colonies the right of direct intercourse with Malta, we should secure a monopoly of the supply of Turkey with coffee and sugar : of the former, the Turks, in proportion to their number, consume more than any other people, and are daily becoming greater consumers of the latter. In the course of my travels in Turkey, I found, every where, that the coffee with which I was served, had either been brought from Malta or Smyrna. The colo- nial produce sold at Smyrna, had either come from Malta, to which it had been brought by Americans, or been imported by the Americans themselves. It is only in the houses of the great, that the Mocha coffee is to be met with ; and, at present, not often there, owing to the Wechabi, the reformers of the Mahomedan faith, having interrupted the regular supplies. An important proportion of the produce of the colonies which we have taken from the enemy, is coffee ; and the cultivation of that article, in our old plantations, is yearly increasing. To aspire to the monopoly of supplying Turkey with coffee, is impressed upon us by the state both of our old and new colonies. For excluding the Americans from Malta, even entirely, there can be no political com- plaint ; far less for denying to them, in future, the privilege of carrving colonial produce there. They are not permitted to bring it into the ports of the United Kingdom ; and, all circumstances con- sidered, it is, certainly, very like negligence, if it be policy, to permit them to have, in a very great degree, a monopoly of the sugar and 135 coffee trade, with the countries round the Mediterranean ; particularly to allow them to enter Malta on as free a footing as ourselves, and with those articles too, of which their sales operate to the detriment and loss of a numerous class of our own suhjects. I do not know, whether our situation with the Porte is such, that we might attempt to procure a monopoly of the coffee trade to Turkey, by any public treaty. The Turks, individually, esteem us more than they do any other people ; but our national influence is not, I am well convinced, by facts within my own knowledge, so great with the divan as that of the French. Were we to attempt to obtain, by treaty, any parti- cular commercial privilege in Turkey, the French would immediately oppose us, and, I have no doubt, successfully. But, were we to relax our colonial system, and grant to our planters the right of direct intercourse with Malta, we should not require the dubious utility of diplomatic endeavours. The enterprise of our merchants would enable them to discover ways and means abundantly sufficient for securing the superiority and advantage which we ought to possess in the sale of colonial produce. We ought, also, as the masters of Malta, to consider, prospectively, the state of our relations with Turkey. It is scarcely to be doubted, that, sooner or later, France, one way or another, will contrive to expel, from the Ottoman dominions, the few inconsiderable remnants that still exist, of our Levant factories. We should, therefore, take some decisive way of fixing insular establishments in the Archipelago; establishments, which our navy enables us, effectually, to protect, and which, even in the event of another war with Turkey, might be 136 rendered perfectly secure, if judiciously selected. It is only by extending the ramifications of our insular policy from Malta, that we shall be able to maintain our superiority in the Mediterranean. In proposing to grant the freedom of direct intercourse between the colonies and our Mediterranean possessions, an objection might be made by those mercantile houses at home, who hold mortgages on West Indian property : but this objection could only be of weight, against an argument for extending the freedom of intercourse to countries independent of our own. Nor can it be urged by those merchants, that any mortgages are held by them, on property in the newly-acquired plantations ; and, therefore, if for no other reason than for the interests of the planters in them, some alteration in our colonial regulations should be made. If there are objections of any validity, on the part of the mortgagees, against allowing a free intercourse between the old colonies and our Mediterranean posses- sions, there can be none why that intercourse should not be granted to the new. Here we have a clear view of the absurdity of adhering, under the altered circumstances of the world, to those colonial regulations which were calculated for other times. Another objection, apparently of more importance, presents itself. By bringing the produce of the colonies to the mother country, and there re-shipping it for its ultimate destination, it may be said, that a greater quantity of tonnage and number of seamen are employed, than would be were the produce at once sent from the colonies to the ultimate destination : but, it must be remembered, that, at present, only a small part, or, rather, none of our colonial produce 137 is consumed in the Mediterranean ; so that the shipping and sailors that are supposed to be employed in this trade, have, in fact, no existence. It is chiefly with respect to the colonial interests, that the trade of Malta requires the early consideration of government. The obstruc- tions, which it, at present, suffers, may be obviated, by an act of the legislature, in the course of a few days, and without any investigation of the circumstances of the island. But those things which regard the law and administration of justice, should be examined with care, and proceeded in with caution. SERIGO I landed on Serigo, at the small maritime village of Avlemana, with a gentleman who had agreed to travel with me as far as Constantinople. The village consists of a few straggling hovels, situated near a creek, which opens into a spacious bay, where vessels, passing to and from the Levant, are often obliged to take shelter from the violent winds, which, occasionally, render the passage, between the Morea and Candia, difficult and dangerous. The creek is guarded by a small castle, in which we found an officer and a party of soldiers, languishing for pastime. This military hermitage is dedicated to St. Nicolo. It has a tower in the middle, and is more like a bed-room candlestick than like any other article that I know. The officer was as hospitable to us, as his means, in so disconsolate a T 138 place, could afford, and sent a soldier, to procure asses to bear us magnificently to the capital. Near Avlemana are several traces of the ancient town of Scandia ; and the ruins of a Grecian fortress are still visible. It was near this village, that a vessel foundered, with a part of the Athenian marbles, the spoils of the temple of Minerva. The cases, though many were of a great weight, and sunk to the depth of fourteen fathoms, were, afterwards, raised by sponge divers, and have since been trans- ported to London. It is somewhat curious, that the vessel happened to bear the name of Mentor. The pillage of the Parthenon has been followed by a number of events, in the style of the miracles of the classics, almost, indeed, sufficient to reconvert the Greeks to the dread and adoration of their ancient deities. The road from Avlemana to the town of Serigo, is just such as any reasonable man would expect to find in a mountainous island, thinly inhabited, negligently cultivated, and offering but small inducements to labour. In point of picturesque beauty, the scenery has some pretensions, and we passed through a valley, so green and goodly, that in any part of the world it would be considered a very pleasant one. It is well planted with vines and enlivened with neat white cottages. The sun was setting as we approached it, and the peasants, returned from labour, were reposing at their doors for the evening. After the monotony of a sea voyage, we felt the full pleasure of the effect of rural sights and sounds ; and regarded the aspect of the valley as an assuring omen of finding ourselves com- fortable in the town. It was dark before we reached the house of the Consul. He 139 received 119 very kindly, provided us with lodgings, and with horses to send, in the morning, for our baggage. We found him a sensible, well-informed, hospitable man, much superior, both in condition and manners, to any of the British agents that I have met with in the islands of the Archipelago. He is considered, in point of property, the first person here. Next morning, we paid our respects to the governor, who pressed us to take up our abode in the castle. From him, as well as from the other officers of the garrison, we received the greatest attention during our stay in the island. The castle, by its situation, is, naturally, very strong ; and, though the works are at present commanded by a hill, on the west, from which they were attacked by the British, it might easily be made a formidable station. It stands on the brow of a lofty, abrupt, precipitous promontory. Towards the town the walls make a respect- able shew. The mountains of Crete are seen from the windows of the governor's apartments ; and, were corresponding signals esta- blished with Serigota, which lies about mid-way over, no vessels could pass, during the day, undiscovered. Serigo may justly be called the Centinel of the Levant, and, as such, in these times, it certainly might, to us, be rendered a valuable possession. Serigo is about fifty English miles in circumference. It is di- vided into four districts, Potamo, Castrisso, Milopotamo, and Li- vadi ; and contains forty villages, besides the capital. The popu- lation is estimated at eight thousand souls ; of whom about twelve hundred are resident in the town. The face of the country is rocky and mountainous, the soil is stony, and, though rudely, the whole arable land is tilled. The cattle, of various kinds, are computed to. 140 amount to fifteen hundred, the sheep to two thousand, and the goats to three thousand. The grain produced, in ordinary times, is barely sufficient for the inhabitants ; and supplies are frequently wanted. The wine is all consumed in the island. It is of a weak watery qua- lity, and is almost universally polluted with an infusion of lime. But for this ingredient, it would be acetous, owing to mismanage- ment in the fermentation, and the too free admission of the at- mosphere. It may not be unwholesome, but it is, certainly, the most odious of mixtures. The oil is tolerable, and a small quantity is made, quite pellucid, and of the finest flavour, from selected olives. The island abundantly supplies itself with fire-wood, and has many excellent springs, one of which discharges so copiously, that it serves to turn several mills. The revenue, which amounts to upwards of twelve hundred pounds sterling, is raised by imposts on cattle, land, exports and imports. The regular civil public expenditure is about eight hundred pounds ; so that there is a surplus for other purposes. Porphyry was anciently found here ; and the island, in consequence, was, sometimes, called Porphyrcisos. The material, however, is no longer known in Serigo. I have, somewhere, heard it alleged, that porphyry is an artificial composition. The modern Greeks call it a paste. A good etymologist may discover something corroborative of this notion in the term porphyry. Perhaps the pe- trifactions in the grottos, which are numerous here, were employed in the manufacture. Notwithstanding the general sterility of the soil, the island abounds in churches, of which more than twenty are in the town. The established religion is that of the Greek church. The 141 bishop is under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Malvasia ; and, in order to render his prayers the more efficacious, he is al- lowed the privilege of garnishing himself like an archbishop. His place is worth about a hundred and fifty pounds a year, exclusive of vails and perquisites. A public school has been some time established ; and, since the arrival of the British, it has been placed on a highly respectable footing. About ninety pounds sterling per annum are allowed for the salaries of the masters ; a sum surprizingly liberal, considering the smallness of the population. The children are taught the classic and romaic Greek ; also Latin, French and Italian, with writing and arithmetic ; and they receive a slight tincture of ma- thematics. The house, appropriated to the academy, is an old Roman Catholic monastery — a most judicious conversion. Serigo furnishes so little to export, and the inhabitants are so frugal and contented with their native articles, that the small traf- ficking upon its shores hardly merits the name of commerce. They have twenty-four boats, and one square-rigged vessel ; and, it is supposed, that, at home and abroad, about two hundred and thirty men are employed in maritime affairs. There are only two ports in the island ; Avlemana, where we landed, and Capsalis, at the foot of the hill on which the Castle stands. Neither of them are good. The climate is healthy, but rather too violently ventilated. In addition to the garrison, a com- pany of militia has been formed. The inhabitants have been de- scribed to us as a simple honest race, who dance to the lyre occa- 142 sionally, eat, drink, and depart this Jife without often violating in any point, the golden rules of King Charles. As I have already intimated, two or three relics of antiquity may be discovered in the island. About the time of the taking of Santa Maura, a marble lion was found. In commemoration of that event, it has been placed on a pedestal in the castle, and is regarded by the Serigots as a very worshipful thing. The greatest curiosities, in the island, are rocks in which the bones of animals are found inclosed. There are also several caverns of great extent, one of which we ex- plored, with two officers, to a depth not before attempted. We left the town in the morning for Milopotamo, in the vicinity of which the grotto lies. Our ride was over a bare and rugged country. We reached the village in safety, and left our horses at a monastery near the source of the large spring already mentioned. Here we procured candles, and a friar, who is the common guide ; and, followed by a number of peasants, walked towards the en- trance. In descending to that part of the coast, where the cave is situated, we passed a Venetian castle, which, by an inscription over the portal, appears to have been built in the year 1566. It stands at the head of a narrow shaggy glen, and reminded us of the feudal residences in our own country. From the castle, the path is, for the most part, over disagreeable harsh lava-like rocks. At the entrance of the grotto, we left our hats and coats, and bound our heads with handkerchiefs to protect them from the innumerable protuberances of the roof and sides. The arborescent appearance of the interior of this extensive cavern may be compared to a subterranean forest of 143 petrified trees. The windings are intricate ; and the effect of the lights, in many places, was astonishingly fine. In passing a long narrow branching passage, one of our companions heard a low mur- muring sound. We listened. It resembled the breathing of a living creature ; and we became curious to know what it was. Our friend entered the passage, and proceeded about twenty yards, when his candle was suddenly blown out. He groped, in the dark, to discover the cause, and found a chink, through which the wind was issuing violently, but could see no light. No one, we were assured, by the traditionary historians, ever penetrated so far before. There is some sort of glory in accomplishing what no other has done, if it should be only in exploring the recesses of a cave. We, therefore, returned to the town pleased with our exploit. The desire of perpetuity in mankind gave rise, among other practices, to the traveller's custom of inscribing his name on the remarkable objects that he has visited. In this cave we found, among others, that of the detestable wretch, Poerio. While this Cala- brian traitor was governor of the island, a number of Albanian labourers, driven from the Morea by the severity of the extortions there, took refuge in Serigo, where they were desirous of settling ; and, to obtain the privilege, paid Poerio a sum of money. They amounted to several hundreds. The island, at the time, happened to be scarce of corn, and the inhabitants murmured at the intro- duction of so many new mouths. Poerio, therefore, without re- paying the money, ordered the Albanians to quit the island. They complained of his injustice, but prepared to obey. The wind was against them : they were undecided about their voyage ; and, lingering 144 on the shore, were accused of intentionally delaying their departure. He resolved to get rid of them, and ordered the well which they frequented to be poisoned. Three and twenty died before they sus- pected the atrocious fact ; the rest precipitately fled from the ' island. During the remainder of his government, the inhabitants scarcely ventured to whisper on the subject. After his departure, a copy of a letter to his superior officer, giving an account of the crime, was discovered among his papers, and the whole circum- stances of the case have since been fully ascertained. The collective murderer has since been taken prisoner, and sent to England. General Oswald would have been honourably justified, had he sent him, at once, to a fitter place. The scorpions in this island are uncommonly large. I measured one, which was no less than five inches in length. The officers of the garrison told us, that they had often matched the scorpions against mice, and uniformly observed, in the onset of the combat, that the reptile had the advantage of the animal ; but, afterwards, the mouse, by tearing out a part of the scorpion's back, and eating it, recovered new vigour, and, ultimately, became the victor. Ex- pecting to have had the gratification of seeing one of these contests, I omitted to inquire more particularly into the circumstances. If the fact be really as I understood, and have described it, the sagacity of the mouse entitles it to the consideration of philosophers, as well as of cats. Serigo was first peopled by the Phoenicians, and from them it passed into the hands of the Lacedemonians. The Athenians sent a fleet against it during the Peloponesian war ; and, landing a party 145 of troops near Avlemana, compelled the Lacedemonians to surrender. In the beginning of the thirteenth century, it was taken by the united French and Venetians, from the emperor of Constantinople ; and, from the conclusion of the war, rested, with Zante and the other islands that form the Septinsular Republic, in the possession of the Venetians, till the year 17^7, when it was declared a part of the Cispadana Republic. By the treaty of Campo Formio, the Seven Islands were assigned to the French ; but, in 1799, the combined Russian and Ottoman fleet retook Serigo. By the treaty of Amiens, the Emperor of Russia was appointed protector of the independency of the Re- public. In 1807, however, he abandoned his trust to the French ; from whom, in October 1809, Serigo was taken by the British. Serigo is the Cythera of the ancients, and was venerated by the Greeks as the birth-place of Venus. Her temple here was the oldest of all the temples raised to her in Greece, and she was annually worshipped on the sea shore, by the young damsels, with the same immodest exposures as in Cyprus. The Asiatics, from time immemorial, have regarded the orbs of the sky as objects of adoration. It has been supposed, that, in Phoenicia, the planet which bears the name of Venus, was originally worshipped under that of Astarte ; and, in consequence of the fables evidently wrought into the simple astrological superstition on which this worship was founded, it has also been supposed, that there was a queen of Phoenicia who bore, likewise, the name of Astarte ; and that many of the human actions ascribed to the goddess, were, really, those of the queen. TT 146 The Grecian fable of Venus rising from the sea, on the shores of Cythera, is capable of a satisfactory explanation. The Phoeni- cians, when they peopled the island, no doubt, brought with them the adoration of so favourite a goddess. The fiction of her birth, may, therefore, have only reference to the importation of her worship. The adoration of the celestial bodies, originated, undoubtedly, in the influences which the ancient astrologers ascribed to them. The Greeks, who were the greatest fabulists, may be considered as the chief corrupters of the astrological religion. Those crimes and deeds which form the histories of their deities, were, probably, perpetrated by human beings, who, like the Phoenician queen, bore celestial names. In the polytheism of the Greeks, there is a pal- pable mixture of religious allegory and secular fact. An island so thinly peopled as Serigo, cannot produce, often, eminent men. The lyric poet Philosenes, was born here. He visited the court of Syracuse in the time of Dionysius, who, being also a constructor of verses, shewed some of his to Philosenes, and desired him to say what he thought of them. The critic told the tyrant, truly, that they were very bad. Dionysius, having been assured by his sycophants that he was a most incomparable bard, was exceed- ingly enraged at the impudence of Philosenes, and threw him into prison. He made, soon after, " an excellent new song," and sent for the poet to hear it. " Now, Philosenes," said he, " what do you say to that: is it not a fine thing ?" " Send me back to prison," said Philosenes. 14? TURKEY. We took leave of our hospitable friends in the castle, and of the consul, from whom we did not part with dry cheeks. In the pathetic moment of separation, he applied his mouth to them, and, without weeping, we found it necessary to wipe them. We then descended to the port, where a boat was waiting, to carry us to Marathonesi. In order to protect us from the pirates on the sea, and to procure us a favourable reception from the robbers on the land, an arrangement had been made, with a Mainot chieftain, who happened to be in Serigo, by which it was agreed, that we should call at the village where he then was, and take him with us ; assured that, with him on board, there would be nothing to fear. When we arrived on that part of the coast, near to where the village is situated, we sent a man to inform this chieftain ; but, after waiting upwards of six hours, we grew impatient, and sailed without him. A tedious and unin- teresting passage of forty hours, brought us into the port of Mara- thonesi. But, before narrating our adventures, I ought to give some account of the people among whom we were about to trust ourselves. MAINA. Maina is a part of the ancient Lacedemonian territory, and it still merits the name *. The inhabitants were never, actually, sub- * Lacedemonia signifies the country of the devils. 148 dued, not even by the Romans. It is said, indeed, that Augustus had delivered the maritime towns of the Peloponnesus from the domi- nion of Sparta ; but the inhabitants of this district were always known by the honourable title of the free Laconians. In the time of the imperial geographer, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, they had acquired the name of Mainots, which they still retain. Safe in the fastnesses of their mountains, they have maintained their inde- pendence ; but with a various and troubled fortune. They make war, continually, with each other, chief against chief ; but, whenever the Turks threaten them with subjugation, they firmly unite. Consi- dering themselves, in some sort, as a nation allied to none, and their alliance by none sought, they commit those crimes, which, done with small and individual injury, provoke detestation ; but, with great and general calamity, call forth the applause and gratitude of kingdoms. The Mainots are considered as robbers, because they are not able to destroy states and desolate empires ; and pirates, because their cruisers are only boats. In the year 1779, their feuds had taken a decided turn. The nation was rent into two great factions. The Turks seized that op- portunity. By assisting one of the factions, they enabled it to attain the superiority, and procured, in recompence, a kind of acknow- ledgement of the sultan's sovereignty. There was still, however, a strong party in the country, which never, in fact, submitted to the arrangement ; the terms of which were broadly these : that the sultan should have the nomination of the governor, who was to be always a Spartan ; for they call themselves by that famous name ; and, on condition that no Turks were allowed to enter the country, 149 the Mainots, on their part, agreed to pay a small annual sum, which they raised by a tax on oil. From that period, the condition of the Mainots has rather improved : and the Turks have not at- tempted to infringe the terms of their agreement. But, last year, (1809) an adventurer, of the name of Constantine, who had attached to himself a large band of followers, formed the idea of getting himself appointed governor. With this view, he waited on Vilhi Pashaw, the vizier of the Morea ; and, knowing Vilhi's hereditary love of money, offered to pay him a large sum should he receive the ap- pointment by his influence. The vizier grasped at the project, pro- cured the commission, and Antonbey, who was then governor, and who had exercised his functions with much ability and beneficial effect, was, in consequence, deposed. The country, owing to this factious project of ambition, has again fallen into great disorder ; and the party of Antonbey is so strong, that Constantine is unable to fulfil his engagement to Vilhi Pashaw, without bringing in a Turkish Force, the introduction of which, probably, will end the nominal sovereignty of the sultan. The manners of these unconquered Greeks will hest be described, by minutely relating the incidents which took place while we remained among them. MARATHONESI. It was near sunset when we entered the harbour of Marathonesi, formed, by Nature, in the bay, by a small rocky island, on which there is a little chapel, and a few trees. The town is placed at the bottom of a steep hill. A church, with a respectable steeple, stands on the side next the sea. At the foot of the hill, but overlooking the town, 150 there is a tall square tower, rounded at the corners of the battlements. A few trees are intermingled with the houses. When we reached the shore, an old man, accompanied by a soldier, inquired what we were, and our business in Maina. Having received his answer, he desired us to remain in the boat while he informed the commandant of the town, and went away. In a short time he returned with several guards, who conducted us to the castle. We were led first into a kind of hall, where about a dozen war- riors, with several women and children, were idling away the time. From the hall they conducted us up a rude staircase into an apart- ment less dirty, but scarcely better furnished. Here we were intro- duced to a chieftain who was sitting with several others, evidently officers. The commandant was not in the town ; but the chieftain acted for him; and, being satisfied of the innocency of the motives that had induced us to land on their unfrequented coast, he assured us that we were in perfect safety during our abode in the country. The dress of these men was pretty much like that of the common Greeks, but closer fitted, and better calculated for efforts of activity. They all wore their hair long and flowing, a peculiarity of the Spartans even so far back as the great invasion of Xerxes, who Was exceedingly indignant when he saw the little band of Leonidas care- lessly combing theirs on the evening before the all-famous battle of Thermopylae. Our examination finished, a Greek, from the interior of the Morea, informed us, that he would be very glad to lend us his house. This poor man had been a merchant in Mistra ; but, having offended Vilhi Pashaw, he was fined in a sum greater than all his means, and obliged to take refuge here. We gladly accepted his 151 offer. One may admire a hardy and intrepid race, who have, for so many ages, retained their national characteristics ; but their habi- tations are calculated rather to excite the opposite feeling. The dress of the women consists of a petticoat of cotton cloth, a few inches from the bottom of which a broad stripe of blue or of red is the only ornament. They wear a short bed-gown for their upper dress ; and, on their heads, a handkerchief fixed to the little Grecian red cap. They appeared to be the chief labourers of the fields. But the delicacy of the sex was never known among the Spartans. In one of their early wars, all the men happened to be drawn from the city. As they had sworn not to return until they accompli shed their object, the women made a representation to the army, that, unless some were sent back, the race must become ex- tinct. Fifty of the stoutest fellows were, accordingly, ordered to Sparta. Their offspring, finding themselves afterwards slighted, emigrated to Italy. When we had taken some refreshment, we went out to walk. Several boys followed us, and pointed out an inscription, on a rock, in very antient Greek characters. The doctor of the town, a talkative native of Corfu, fell in with us as we were returning home, and told us, that he had not heard of any one that could read the inscription. We also met the commandant, attended by half a dozen guards. He was handsomely dressed in the style of the country; and his personal appearance and manners struck us as transcendantJy elegant. My imagination, which, from the scene in the castle, had become full of the blue and white melancholy of Ossian, was surprized with so distinct a vision of Oscar. He came 152 up to us very courteously ; and, taking off the little red cap which covered his hair, and which he wore somewhat doffed, invited us to go with him to a shop-door, where he treated us with a dram. There are hut two other shops in the town, the whole population, prohably, not exceeding five hundred souls. Notwithstanding the homeliness of the entertainment, there was so much dignity about himself, and so much reverence in the treatment that he received from all around him, that we irresistibly felt ourselves highly- honoured guests. After a few slight inquiries, for he did not appear to be a man of many words, he repeated the assurances of security, and seemed rather hurt when we asked if he would furnish us with guards to Mistra. He requested the doctor, who acted as interpreter on the occasion, to say, that the Mainots never molest travellers ; adding, that, even if we had killed the governor of Serigo, no Mainot would dare to give us up. While we were sitting at the 6hop-door, a crowd gathered round. He waved his hand for them to keep off, and they instantly retired. He then invited us to take a walk ; and, ordering his guards to remain where they were, he took with him a tall, awkward, humourous looking fellow, whom the doctor informed us was a chieftain, that had a castle in the interior, from which he had lately been driven by a party of his enemies. The young commandant walked on in silence before us, till we reached the middle of a field, at some distance from the town. It was a retired place. He suddenly baited. Our fancies, in the mean time, were coming thickly. We looked at each other. The sun was down, and the twilight was obscure. But he only inquired if we had any news. Perceiving that he was anxious to ^ct correct informa* 153 tion, we told him frankly and faithfully all that we knew of the wars in Christendom and Turkey. Our conversation then turned upon those of JVIaina ; and he told us, with warmth, that all the inhabit- ants earnestly desired either the French or British to come among them. I was amused with the shrewd sense of his friend, in reply to a question of mine, respecting the martial disposition of the Mainots. " We just do," said he, " like the French and English, and cannot tell why." When we returned into the town, we saw a great number of additional soldiers in the street. They were sitting at the doors, but rose up as the commandant approached, and stood, bending slightly forward, with their right hands on their breasts. Their gaunt looks, and uncouth figures, contrasted with the extra- ordinary gracefulness of their chief, seemed to me indescribably ludi- crous. They appeared, I thought, as if they had just finished a pulmonic cough, and were in the act of spitting. He conveyed us home, and bade us good night with infinitely more grace than a play-actor in the character of Norval. In the morning we were visited by two friends of the com- mandant. The father of one of them had once been governor of JVIaina ; and he himself held the rank of major in the Russian ser- vice. He spoke French and Italian fluently ; and was, in other respects, a sedate, sensible man. BATHI. After breakfast, we embarked for Bathi, the residence of Anton* bey, to whom we were recommended. Bathi is about eight miles distant, by water, from Marathonesi. In sailing along the coast, x 154 we passed under the little town of Mavroyuni, which has also its protecting castle. The bay, between it and the residence of Anton- bey, affords agreeable prospects ; such, indeed, as are rarely to be met with in the Levant. Round the shore, a number of small green hills rise, successively, beyond each other : many of them are naturally decorated with trees, and several of them are crowned with castellated houses, and their vassal cottages. The back ground con- sists of lofty mountains, terminated on the North, and overlooked, by the stupendous summits of St. Lea, the ancient Taygetus. Bathi stands on the brow of a small promontory, which is mantled with shaggy underwood. The appearance of the castle is similar to that of many of our lesser old baronial mansions. I have been always partial to descriptions of feudal manners; and the interior ceco- nomy of this fortified abode, instead of surprizing me by its no- velty, seemed more like a place with which I was already familiar, than only the resemblance of an idea which had been derived from reading. We were met on the brow of the hill by a scout, who had been sent to inquire what we were ; and conducted by him into the castle. In the gateway, a number of retainers were slumbering away the tedium of unoccupied time. The court was dirty with rubbish, offal, and excrements. Hogs were confined in a corner ; but the poultry and ducks enjoyed the range of its whole extent. We ascended into the keep by a zigzag stair on the outside, evidently so contrived as to be defended. The landing-place was moveable, and served for a drawbridge. The door, narrow, opened into a hall, where a number of long-haired soldiers were sitting. They rose, as we entered, in 155 order to make way for us to ascend the stairs which led to the apart- ment of the prince. The walls of the presence-chamber were hung with bundles of arms, clokes, and petticoats. A bed occupied the farthest corner, under which I perceived a large, antique, carved coffer; but my eye searched in vain for a more common utensil. Along the sides of the room were benches, covered with cushions ; and, on a shelf, I saw several inverted coffee- cups, two or three bottles, and other articles of the cupboard. Antonbey, a strong hale carle, was sitting near the bed when we entered, and beside him an old priest. I think he appeared to be about sixty. The first glance of him, with what had been passing in my mind before, suggested the figure of Hardyknute. Opposite sat his lady, with large rings on her fingers, but otherwise slovenly dressed. On her one side was a warlike relation, with a snuff-box in his hand ; and, on the other, she had also her ghostly comforter. She was younger than the prince, and still possessed the remains of beauty. They all rose up as we entered ; and the old chieftain received us with a kind of honest gladness — that military frankness, which gains at once the esteem of strangers. He expressed himself highly gratified by a visit from British subjects, having only once before enjoyed that pleasure. Like the governor of Marathonesi, he told us how much all the inhabitants desired the arrival of a Christian power. By the vicinity of Idra, they have learnt the benefits of commerce, and have acquired such a knowledge of the world, as to desire the termi- nation of their predatory practices. Antonbey himself was, in his youth, a courageous and famous pirate. He told us that he had visited Venice, Trieste, and Ancona. When we had conversed with him some 156 time, he took us to see a statue which he had lately found. He said it was generally considered to be the effigy of Lycurgus ; but I think it is a Neptune. The worship of that deity, and of Venus, conti- nued in this country five hundred years after they were proscribed in the Roman world. He told us, also, that, if it would be accept- able, he would send it to London, to the King ; and was not a little diverted, when we assured him that Neptune was one of his Ma- jesty's favourite Gods. On returning to his room, we found the curtains of the bed down, and perceived, through them, the princess asleep. A small repast, of broiled meat and cheese, fried with eggs, was prepared for us ; in addition to which, we had an excellent melon and a draught of wine, which was recommended to us under the name of Spartan ; certainly, it had no other quality to tempt us to drink it. But such, probably, was the fare of Paris at the court of Mene- laus. With a feast so classical, who could not be pleased ? We were pressed to remain two or three days, and were promised the pleasure of successful hunting ; but, neither of us being sports- men, the inducement was not great, especially as we considered that we ran some risk of being ourselves shot at for rare game. It was not, however, without difficulty, that we resisted the pressing kind- ness of our host ; who, when he found we were fixed on setting off next morning from Marathonesi, gave us recommendatory letters to several of the Turkish governors, his friends. He also sent one of his men with us, to be landed at Mavroyuni, in order to procure horses to take us next day to Mistra. Mavroyuni was then a neutral state ; but Marathonesi was belligerent, and adverse to Antonbey : 157 it was, therefore, necessary for us likewise to send a minister, in order to bring the answer, the Bathian envoy being- afraid of ap- proaching Marathonesi. A FRENCH PROJECT. In the year 17«97> the French government sent two Greeks on a private mission to these parts. The narrative of their voyage con- tains a great deal of information, relative to the islands which the British have since obtained in the Adriatic, and to the country of Maina. On this occasion Buonaparte, who was then in Italv, wrote a letter to the Mainot governor, of which I have given a copv in the Appendix. The alterations in the French nation, since 1797? have mate- rially diminished the esteem which its pretensions in the outset of the revolution had raised among the sanguine and theoretical ; but its solid accessions of power have rendered its influence, to the full, as dangerous and commanding as ever. Buonaparte has, not long since, with that masterly decision which has often almost antici- pated the necessity of other measures, declared that the Ionian islands, the very islands in our possession, are inseparable parts of the French empire. By this politick impudence, he has revived, in them, the courage of the partizans of France, and dismayed the con- fidence of our friends, who now look forward to become subjects of Napoleon, and necessarily, in consequence, regard our possession of t the islands, only as the temporary occupancy of military posts during the war. 158 Much of the paralysis of our foreign policy is owing to the de- fective sources of our information. Government relies, for its know- ledge of the countries reduced by our arms, chiefly on the reports of public officers ; persons, of all others, the least capable, from the peculiarities of their situations, to furnish that kind of information which is requisite to guide a government. Officers are only visited by those who give them interested representations ; and they are themselves, commonly, not inclined to treat with much suavity others of a different description, more especially such as they are taught to believe averse to their schemes. There is a difficulty in the execution of erroneous measures, which, not unfrequently, attracts attention, and, sometimes, extorts amendment : hence, mistakes, arising from the want of previous knowledge in ruling new acquisi- tions, are rectified by experience : but in the outset of expeditions the consequences are different. The want of local details, as much as deficiency of judgment in the planning, has sullied our history with many unsuccessful enterprizes. The French act otherwise. The mission of the Greeks was expressly for the. purpose of obtain- ing preliminary knowledge ; and, at this moment, there are other similar French agents abroad, of whom I may have occasion to speak elsewhere. A JOURNEY. Soon after we had landed again at Marathonesi, our servant returned, and told us that the horses would be ready very early next day, and that they would be attended by a guard of six men, to protect them back. Accordingly, about three o'clock in the 159 morning, we were knocked up, and a band of six robber-like fellows entered our apartment, and obstreperously urged us to make haste. Before we could get ourselves ready, our beds packed, and our bag- gage placed on the horses, tbe day began to dawn. Our danger was, probably, increased by this circumstance, but so was also our plea- sure. We rode for several miles along the romantic shores of the Gulf; and it is not easy to imagine a more delightful landscape than was gradually brightening around. When we turned into the country, the road lay through fine valleys, the sides of which are, naturally, so adorned with oaks, and other venerable and stately trees, that, in many places, we were reminded of the parks and pleasure-grounds of England. We passed the castles of several chieftains, and saw one of more than ordinary magnitude, which had been lately taken and burnt. " The blackness of ashes" was within the walls, and the trees on the outside had not recovered from the scorching of the flames. After riding slowly for three hours, the baggage-horses being incapable of going fast, and our own equally provoking ani- mals, we found ourselves passing into a spacious valley, bounded, on the left, by the high mountains which run from Cape Matapan into the centre of the Morea, and, on the right, by the inferior pa- rallel chain which separates the plain country of Laconia from the Gulf of Argos. We halted at Daphnis, one of the most advanced Turkish border villages towards the frontiers of Maina. Having a letter for the governor, we went to the castle, a square embattled tower, placed in the middle of a court, inclosed with a wall, perfo- rated for musquets. The governor had gone, the day before, to 160 Mistra ; but his servants, who were all busy about the killing of a calf, took us in, and did their best to make us a dinner. The in- terior of this habitation was similar to that of the castle of Ma- rathonesi, but much more slovenly kept, and as defectively furnished. From Daphnis to Mistra the face of the country improves ; and the valley narrowing, the scenery, particularly on the left, becomes grandly alpine. The fields are tolerably well cultivated; and the bright green of innumerable mulberry -trees is pleasantly diversified by the dark shades of many olives. In the course of our ride, we did not happen to approach the banks of the Eurotos, but we crossed several of its tributary streams ; and our ears were refreshed with the sound of waters purling under bushes. The prattle of these little nereids was an agreeable solace after the hoarse roaring of Neptune. At sunset we had a view of Mistra picturesquely scat- tered down the side of a steep hill, and crowned with a castle so aerially high, that it seemed rather to have been intended to attack the Gods than to resist the invasions of men. Approaching Sparta, our heads teemed with recollections almost forgotten. Happening to observe a singular flaky phenomenon of clouds, beautifully con- catenated along the sky, which was otherwise perfectly spotless, we were reminded of Jupiter's visits to the blameless race of Ethiopia, and fancied that it was the procession of his return to Olympus. MISTRA. A few miles before reaching the town, our guards left their musquets and pistols in the cottage of an Albanian, the Christian 161 subjects not being allowed to carry arms in the Turkish dominions. It was dark before we arrived. At first, we were apprehensive of being obliged to disturb the governor, to whom An ton bey had par- ticularly recommended us, in order to obtain an abode for the night, and began, of course, to execrate, as an irrational custom, the early hour at which the Turks go to bed. Our fears, however, were not of long duration. We were directed to a Greek house, usually fre- quented by the British travellers, where we got a very good apart- ment ; and, if sycophancy and obsequiousness were meat and drink, we might have supped most heartily. My companion, never having seen any Greeks, except the brief-speaking Mainots, who scarcely, in any thing but in the words of their language, resemble the mo- dern Greeks, was charmed with the manners of our host ; but the gilding of compliment will not long pass for the substance of hos- pitality. We were obliged, in the end, to order our own servant to superintend the providing of our meals during the remainder of our stav. Mistra, though generally described as the successor of the ancient Sparta, stands at the distance of two or three miles from extensive piles of ruins, which are properly considered as the remains of that more famous city. The modern town itself is also fast becoming an object of curiosity for the wandering antiquaries. Not above the fourth part of it is inhabited ; and churches, moschs and private houses, are tumbling to pieces. The church, which the Greeks call Perileptos, and which, with their innate propensity to exaggeration, they say was one of the most beautiful in the world, is far gone into decay, and never could have been an object of admiration to any tra- Y 162 veller from the westward. Before the late Russian war, in which the Morea was attacked, the population of Mistra was reckoned at twelve thousand souls ; and, from the apparent extent of the town, I should think this estimate not greatly beyond the truth. At pre- sent, the number of two thousand is sufficient to include every one in the town and suburbs. Among the ruinous buildings of Mistra, se- veral fragments of sculpture, the works of the classic ancients, are seen. We were shewn a magnificent sarcophagus, adorned with figures, and the fruit and foliage of the vine. It serves as the trough to a fountain, and has been much defaced by the pitchers of the water-carriers. We called on the governor, a venerable looking old man, to whom we had letters from Antonbey. He received us with much courtesy, and entertained us, according to the custom of the Turks, with pipes and coffee. He also gave orders to the postmaster to furnish us with horses, and ordered a guard to attend us as far as Tripolizza. The apartment in which he was sitting, in company with several other Turks, was a fair specimen of the condition of the town. The windows were falling from the sashes ; and the greatest part of the panes being broken, the vacancies were supplied with paper. In returning from the government-house, we passed the arch- bishop of Lacedemon coming from church. He stopped, and in- vited us to his residence, where he also entertained us with pipes and coffee. We dined with him next day, and received a substantial ec- clesiastical dinner. He is a respectable old man, and distinguished for the vigour with which he maintains his authority. He has a little humour, and afforded us some amusement ; but I was much more 163 tli verted by an accidental truth that escaped from his brother, who is still more lively than the archbishop. On inquiring what might be the amount of the archiepiscopal income, he told us, that it was barely sufficient for the maintenance of the prelate ; adding, if it pleased God to take away some of the priests and bishops of the •province, the price of the new ones would enable him to live very comfortably. The situation of the palace (I do not know why a Greek archbishop's house may not be called a palace, and himself a Grace, as well as any other metropolitan) is singularly fine. It stands high, on the side of the hill on which the town is built, and commands a view of the whole long hollow valley of Sparta, the most fertile and beautiful tract of the Morea. The archbishop kept two horses, both excellent and handsome, which Vilhi Pashaw hearing of, sent and took one of them away. I ought not to omit mentioning my being told by his Grace's brother, that Melettio, lately an archbishop of Athens, has said, in his geo- graphical work, that Scotland, which, three centuries ago, was one of the most barbarous nations of Christendom, was now become an example to all the world. It is a curious instance of the vicissitudes of things, that the chief priest of Athens should have occasion to praise so highly the intellectual proficiency of any nation, while his own, that once so greatly excelled every other, has fallen into ex- treme ignorance. After dinner, which was served about mid-day, we went to see the ruins of Sparta. The imagination, without much effort, in surveying the environs, may form an idea of an extensive town ; though the remains are covered with grass. The city of the stern 164 and warlike Spartans, has become a walk for harmless sheep. The ruins which we examined, have been, originally, buildings constructed with the fragments of more ancient and splendid edifices. We saw, sticking in one of the walls, several broken pieces of elegant fluted columns, and part of a frize, ornamented with grapes and wheat ears, that, probably, once belonged to a temple of Ceres. Near these relicks there is a defaced inscription, which, had it been suffered to remain, might have told us what they were. It was defaced, as we were informed, by two Frenchmen, who, because they could not read it themselves, chipped it off out of spite to the British travellers. Perhaps these buildings were built after the great earthquake in the time of Archidamus ; during which, the effect of the Spartan dis- cipline was displayed in so striking a manner, that I cannot conceive any thing more sublime. While the public games were perform- ing, and the theatre was crowded, the earth suddenly began to tremble, the walls of the buildings, opening and shaking, tumbled to the ground, the mountains at the same time rocking with the general commotion threw down vast fragments from their summits. In the midst of these tremendous circumstances, while the city was resounding with the shrieks of terror, and the cries and lamentations of the wounded and despairing, the signal of alarm was heard, and every one, instantly, rushed with alacrity to his post. Archidamus, apprehending that the slaves might seize the moment of amazement to rise and massacre their masters, had ordered the signal to be sounded. Next to this event, may be reckoned the firmness with which the Ephori received the news of the battle of Leuctra, and the effect of the tidings on the city. They were sitting 165 in the theatre, when the messengers arrived with the account of the death of the king, Cleombrotus, and the destruction of his army. Without appearing to have received any extraordinary intelligence, they sent to the different families, to inform them of their loss, and the public diversions proceeded as if nothing had happened. The loss of the battle of Leuctra is the greatest stain on the fame of the Spartans ; but the joy of the parents who had lost their sons, and the grief and dejection of those whose sons had survived the disgrace, was a proof that the spirit of the institutions of Lycurgus had not declined. The laws of Lycurgus, so famous for the austere modes of life which they enforced, lose much of their peculiarity if we consider them as military institutes. We have only to regard the citizens of Sparta as forming a garrison, to perceive, that the regulations for our own soldiers are, in every respect, as severe in their enactments. Lycurgus had, certainly, in view, the formation of a conquering people. Among other means that he adopted, to accomplish his purpose, may be added the importation of the Iliad ; for he is said to have been the first that brought the works of Homer into Greece; and the Iliad will always be the Bible of Heroism. From the ruins of Sparta we passed into an adjoining field, in order to see a building which is called the house of Helen and Menelaus. It appears to have been a monastery. One of the tricks of the inhabitants of antiquarian regions is to give famous names to things, for the purpose of enhancing their importance. We after- wards were shewn the remains of a small square building, constructed with large wrought stones,, It, of course, must also have an interesting title ; and, therefore, it is called the tomb of Agamemnon and his two sons. It is certainly, however, really an ancient work ; and a scafiating antiquary might find himself recompensed by digging it up. In returning to Mistra, we passed through a fine grove of lofty trees, the foliage of which had all the lustre and freshness of spring. This year (1810) a remarkable irregularity was observed in the vegetation of these latitudes. In Malta, the orange trees had assumed, in June, an appearance like what they exhibit, ordinarily, in October, and afterwards recovered their seasonable beauty. The environs of Mistra abound in mulberry trees. Before the first Russian war, the silk produce was reckoned at seventy-five thousand pounds weight. Since that time, owing to the oppressions which the inhabitants have suffered, in consequence of the ill-judged ambitious project of Catherine in then attempting to seize the Morea, the cultivation has been neglected ; and, at present, it does not amount to thirty thousand pounds. On returning to our lodgings, we were visited by two physicians. One of them a Septinsularian, ignorant and impertinent ; the other, a lively German. He called himself Baron Stein, and said that he had been obliged to run away from Vienna, about nine years ago, for being concerned in a duel. We found him well bred, and ex- ceedingly facetious. The Septinsular doctor informed my companion, that he had the misfortune to be married to a devil ; and the German, at the same time, told me, that his wife was little inferior to an angel, and invited us to see her. In the evening we gave a ball and supper to the Ephori and their families. Our Spartan supper would have merited the approbation of Lycurgus himself. It con- 167 3isted of a pig and a leg of mutton, with other similar delicacies. Both the devil and the angel made their appearance at our banquet. The former had nothing infernal in her looks ; and I think the German was right in saying, that she was made savage by her brute of a husband. His own wife merited some of the praises that he so lavishly bestowed on her. He excused her slow movements in the dance, by whispering to me, that she was a month advanced in preg- nancy. His rival, the Septinsularian, soon after, took an opportunity of informing me, that she had been married from the haram of Vilhi Pashaw. We found ourselves speedily acquiring a knowledge of all the scandal of the town. TRIPOLIZZA. It was the afternoon when we left Mistra. We crossed the Eurotos, a clear and rapid stream ; and, ascending the hills which close the north end of the valley of Mistra, had a pleasant ride through well -cultivated fields and vineyards, till we reached the khan, where we resolved to rest for the night. Our apartment would not have discredited a Sicilian locanda. The floor was broken and frail, and in one corner a flock of poultry was at roost. Nevertheless, as the day had been very warm, and we had taken a great deal of exercise, we slept soundly till daylight, when we again proceeded on our journey. The country, as we approached the capital, is bare of wood, and the aspect of the scenery cheerless. On our arrival at Tripolizza, we sent to the magistrate who takes cognizance of strangers, to know where we should lodge j the khan having been, a few days before, destroyed by fire. While waiting 168 for the return of our messenger, a Frenchman, whom I had known before, happened to pass, and proposed to accommodate us. We gladly accepted his offer. In a short time after, the Kaimakam, or deputy of the vizier, for Vilhi Pashaw himself had departed to the war, sent his principal dragoman, to inquire how we were satisfied with our lodgings, and to offer us any thing that we wanted. He told us also, that the Vizier, prior to his departure, had left orders to give his compliments to the British travellers, and to furnish them with passports, and every thing necessary for their accommodation ; but to request them not to go into any of the fortresses, where they might be liable to insult from the new garrisons ; the old ones, accustomed to them, being removed. The character of Vilhi Pashaw, of which I had only obtained a faint and imperfect account before, is one of the most extraordinary among the Turks. In his manners he is singularly agreeable, and, with a strong dash of humour, is eminently shrewd and cunning. He is a great admirer of European customs, and professes to have a high esteem for the British, to whom, on all occasions, he has shewn a marked and nattering partiality. He speaks several languages, and has some pretensions to taste. He has ordered Pausanias to be rendered into the romaic Greek ; and, in passing to the war, visited the antiquities of Athens, in order to see, as he declared, himself, those remains and monuments which attract so many Europeans so far from home. To individual distress he is tender and generous ; he is a liberal and indulgent master ; and his residence in the Morea has been distinguished for vigour and impartiality in the administra- tion of public justice. But, opposed to these qualities, he is said to 169 be abandoned to the most licentious appetites. The extortions of his government have been carried to an incredible extent. It is related, that, on one occasion, when the Greeks assured him that they could pay no more, he remarked^ that they had not yet brought in their perforated chequins, meaning those which the women are in the practice of wearing round their necks, and as ornaments for their hair. It is unnecessary to relate any of the many instances of sorrow and misery which have arisen from his unbridled appetite and remorseless extortion. Before his departure from Tripolizza, it was proposed to him, by several of the old Turks, to massacre a number of the Greeks, in revenge for those who are serving in the Russian armies ; but he rejected the atrocious proposition with the indignation that it deserved, and ordered the framers of it to accompany him to the war, with all their followers. I have heard this anecdote frequently mentioned, and I believe it is true. He has left the Morea entirely free of robbers, but he has also reduced it to a state of great poverty. Where nothing is left to be stolen, there is little merit in extirpating the few that would steal. Nor will the personal security of an occasional traveller, ever be valued as an equivalent for the extensive desolation that ensures it. The kaimakam having hurt his leg, by a fall from his horse, was confined to bed, and unable to receive us. Having, therefore, no inducement to remain another day in so dirty and beggarly a place as Tripolizza, we ordered horses early next morning, and bade it adieu. 1?0 A.RGOS. Instead of taking the regular road to this city, we struck off to the right, before leaving the mountains, in order to visit the Lernian lake ; which is situated on the margin of the gulf, opposite to the fortress of Napoli Romania. The destruction of the hydra which infested this place, was one of the greatest achievements of Hercules. Considering the whole polytheistical stories of the Greeks as a mixture of fact and allegory, I was desirous of seeing the lake, in order to try if the labour of killing the hydra could be explained by any local circumstance. Hydra, I need not mention, signifies water, in Greek. This lake, except in one place, which is not twenty yards wide, but of an unfathomable depth, is an extensive rushy and pes- tiferous morass. Abandoning, therefore, as pure fable, the stories respecting the venomous blood of the hydra, I think, as Hercules employed fire and iron in the destruction of the monster, we may conclude, that his labour consisted in burning away the rushes, and in opening a free passage to the water. The description of the heads growing again as fast as he cut them off, is exactly such as would be given of an attempt to eradicate the personification of a similar spring. The Lernian lake is, at present, on the one side, surrounded with a low wall, which serves to dam up the waters, which are now employed in turning several mills. A small village stands near it ; and, while we were there, a number of Turkish women, sitting on the shore, were amusing themselves in looking at the peasants loading and discharging boats with corn. The evening was calm, and a 1?1 fresh fragrancy rising from the aquatic flowers and plants which covered the surface of the morass, comhined to repress the conviction in our minds, that the hydra still merited again the fire and iron of Hercules. Ordering our baggage to go on before, as I was acquainted with the road, we afterwards proceeded to view the great spring of Eracinos, which rushes, at once a river, from a grotto at the foot of a bare rocky mountain. I imagine, that the waters of the Lernian lake have some connexion with the same great reservoir from which the Eracinos flows ; and it is commonly believed to be the lake Stimphali. I do not recollect of ever being informed where the Hyperian spring is situated ; but, from the description given by Homer, in the parting of Hector and Andromache, it seems not altogether unlikely that he meant the Eracinos, from its vicinity to Argos. The looms of Argos, which, he also mentions, were, till the twelfth century of the Christian sera, famous for their tapestry, are now no longer employed in such costly fabricks. Their richest pro- ductions are striped sashes and turbans. Greece was the first country of Christendom which obtained the silk-worm ; and Corinth, Thebes, and Argos, were the cities most celebrated for the beauty of their tissues. After the sack of Corinth and Thebes, in the twelfth century, the art of cherishing the silk- worm, and the weaving of brocades, was introduced into Sicily, by prisoners carried from those cities. In the year 1314, Lucca enjoyed almost a monopoly of the trade in Italy. It was, soon after, introduced into France. In the year 1620 the broad silk manufacture was established in England ; and, in the course of the last century 17 per dozen boxes, are the kinds which suit. 3 G 410 THE NEW WEIGHTS AND MEASURES OF SICILY, SUITED TO THE ENGLISH STANDARDS. Almost every town in Sicily, and even various articles, had a different weight and measure, till his Sicilian Majesty, by a Decree dated the 31st December, 1809, ordered, that from the 1st of January, 1811, there should be an uniformity of Weights and Measures, throughout the island, upon the following metrical system. 1st. Long Measure. — The basis is the Point or beginning of a line, and divided as follows : 1 inch, called Oncia. 12= 1 Palm. 24= 2= 1 Passetto , i.e. a, small pace. 48= 4= 2= lMezza Canna; i.e. one half cane. 96= 8= 4= 2= 1 Canna. 384= 32= 16= 8= 4= 1 Catena; i.e, a chain. 221376= 18432= 1536= 128= 64= 32= 16= 4= 1 Chord. 9953280=829440=69120=5760=2880=1440=720=180=45=1 Mile. N. B. The difference between a Sicilian and an English inch is as 12 .. 10 ; so that their palm is equal to 10 inches, and their cane to 80, or 6f. 8 in. Therefore 720 x 6.66=4$0Q feet in a Sicilian mile. But an English mile is 5280 f. therefore, the Sicilian mile is 480 f. or 16*0 yards, shorter than the English mile. Points 12= 1 111 144= 12= 1728= 144= 3459= 288= 6918 = 576= 13836= 1152= 55344 = 4608 = 411 2d. Square Measure. — Its basis is the Quartiglio, answering to a square cane. Quartigli 4=1 Quarto. 16= 4= 1 Carozzo. 64= 16= 4= 1 Mondello. 256= 64= 16= 4= 1 Tumolo. 1024= 256= 64=16= 4=1 Bisaccia. 4096=1024=256=64=16=4=1 Salma. N.B. A Salm of Land being equal to 4096 Quartigli, or square canes, 4096 x 6.66'== 9102.22" square yards in a Salma of Land. — The English acre is 4840 square yards ; therefore, the salm is 426*2.22" square yards greater than the acre ; upwards of an acre and three quarters. 3d. Corn Measure. — Its basis is the Tumolo, equal to a cubic palm ; and its subdivisions are like those of the square measure, and with the same denominations. Thus, Quartigli 4= 1 Quarto. 16= 4= 1 Carozzo. 64= 16= 4= 1 Mondello. 256= 64= 16= 4= 1 Tumolo, a cubic palm. 1024= 256= 64=16= 4=1 Bisaccia. 4096=1024=256=64=16=4= lSalma. N. B. Salma, or Sarma, probably derived from the Latin sarcina, a bur- den ; for it is supposed to be an exact burden for a mule to carry, in a mountainous country. Or from the Greek Sayjw-a, which signifies the same thing. 412 A cubic palm is ten cubic inches; that is, 1000 inches; which, multi- plied by 16*, the number of tumolos in a salma, yields 16*000 cubic inches for one salma. — The English quarter is 17200 cubic inches. The dif- ference between the salma and English quarter is 1200 cubic inches; about half a bushel in the quarter in favour of the English measure, or seven and a half per cent. 4th. Liquids. — The basis of this measure is a cubic palm, called Quartara. Bicchieri 2= 1 CarafFa. 4= 2= 1 Quartuccio. 80= 40= 20= ] (Quartara, a cubic palma. 160= 80= 40= 2= 1 Barile. 1280= 640= 320=16= 8=1 Salma. 4920=2460=1280=64=32=4=1 Botte, or butt. N. B. A Barile being equal to two quartaras, that is, to two cubic palms of 10 inches, make 2000 English cubic inches. An English wine-gallon is 231 cubic inches ; therefore, as 231 : 1 gallon : : 2000 : 8.6*58 English gal- lons in a barile, and 8.6*58 x 32 = 277. 056* gallons in a butt. An English tun being 252 gallons, the Sicilian butt is 25 gallons greater than the tun. 5th. Weights. — The basis of the Sicilian Weights is taken from the Quar- tuccio, filled with clear olive-oil ; and the weight of this oil answers to the rottolo. In the table of the liquids we have seen, that a quartuccio is the -20th part of a quartara (equal to a cubic palm) ; so that the quartuccio is also the 20th part of a cubic palm. 413 The lowest denomination of their weights is an Octave, and the greatest a Cantar. Octaves 8= 1 Coccio, or 160= 20= 1 Sc 480= 60= 3= 960= 120= 6= 1920= 240= 12= 3840= 480= 24= 46080= 5760= 288= 1 Dram. 2= 1 Quarte. 4= 2= 1 Half-ounce. 8= 4= 2= 1 Ounce; 96= 48= 24= \2= 1 Libra— Pound. 115200= 14400= 720= 240= 120= 60= 30= 2 5= 1 Rottolo*. 1 1520000=1440000=72000=24000=12000=6000=3000=250=100=1 Cantar. * The weight of a Quartuccio of clear Olive Oil. N. B. Oil, in Sicily, is sold by weight. A Rottolo, of 30 Sicilian ounces, has been found to render, in England, 28 ounces avoirdupoise weight ; so that we may reckon, that a Sicilian Cantar is equal nearly to 175 pounds avoirdupoise. 414 THE SPANISH DOLLAR : AN ECLOGUE, ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE CHARACTER OF THE SICILIAN PEASANTS. Behold a street in a Sicilian town, "Which still retains some name of old renown. That red letica, near yon stable plac'd, Denotes th' arrival of a stranger guest. But, lo ! the actors, peasants they appear ; Hear what they say, and rev'rence what you hear. " The solar blaze, my friend, Antonio, quit, And in the shadow of this chapel sit. Here, on my knees, lay thy unwater'd face, While through thy tangled locks I raise the chace. Thine be the reveries of the drowsy joy, And mine the bliss of seeking to destroy." " Ah, Ludivico, other thoughts excite My eager scratching, than that dear delight. An English trav'ller has arriv'd to-day, And how to serve him all my wits assay. Three prices, for our vile Sicilian trash, Th' Ingleses pay, and never grudge the cash ; 415 And this milord has given, O best of men ! That Spanish dollar for my leanest hen. The hen, my wife, with salt and Indian spice, In water stews ; but what should be the price With deep perplexity confounds my brain, And firm resolves are re-resolv'd again: For, well you know, if I too much require For cooking, dishes, pepper, salt, and fire, (The thought appals my very heart with dread) Th' unruly Englishman will break my head : And if but what he freely pays, the loss, Till chance repair it, every joy will cross." u The case, Antonio, is somewhat new ; But let us take it in a double view. What ! salt, and spice, and fire, and wife to cook ! For a half-dollar, friend, you well may look." " But half a dollar, Ludivico? --Oh!" " Nay, good Antonio, I said not so ; Hear but my counsel, and you yet may own Two dollars more, and still preserve your crown. In numerous parts, >as lawyers charges frame, Divide your costs, and still beforehand claim. The small half-dollar ne'er will raise a strife, For pepper, salt, and fire, and work of wife. Therefore reserve it for the last demand, And humbly ask it with a stretched hand." " Dear Ludivico, so I mean to do ; But how shall I obtain the other two ?" 416 " Ay, there, Antonio, there the puzzle lies, And plain it is, that ne'er the shining prize You by your own unaided wits could reach: But let me share, and I that art will teach. Give me that dollar in your hand, for fee, And I will teach you how to gain still three." " Three ! Ludivico ? be the silver thine. O that I could obtain thy brains for mine !" " Well, first, you know, the English must have wine: To purchase that a dollar boldly ask, And fill a bottle from the huckster's cask ; Which, new and weak, no Englishman will taste, So in the cask it may be all replac'd. Meanwhile, your wife, with skilful hand, may make The stew such as no Englishman can take : And other fare you must, of course, provide* For eggs and bread he may be safely tried A full half-dollar ; and for fruit, you know, Another ask — why there, you see, are two : And for the third, you need not fear to try If he antiquities or toys will buy: A worn tarri to sell as wondrous rare ; A Punic coin — nay, but the thing is fair, For our Sicilia was a Punic isle, And rare that coin is the reward of toil." " Ah, reprobates !" exclaim'd a voice behind. Aghast they turn, and see, with ear inclin'd, 41? A full-fed monk look slyly from within : All he had heard, and thus reprov'd their sin : — " Ah, reprobates ! to me that dollar give ; Such knaves, as you, are hardly fit to live. How now, Antonio ! to cheat so willing ! Your famished hen was not worth half a shilling. Go, Ludivico, sinner as thou art, — How durst thou counsels such as these impart ? — Go, instantly, this shocking sin to mend, With your best tales the English lord attend. For, true it is, without his nation's aid, Our holy church would drive a losing trade.** The peasants yield, and slink away ; the priest Seeks the refectory and savoury feast. Cape Passero, 20th December 1809. 3 H 418 TURKEY. he General en Chef de VArme'e cVItalie au Chef du Peuple llbre de Maina. Citoyen, J'ai recu, de Trieste, une lettre, dans laquelle vous me temoignez le d^sir d'etre utile a la R^publique Francaise, en accueillant ses batimens sur vos ports. Je me plais a croire que vous tiendrez votre parole avec cette fid^lite qui convient a un descendant des Spartiates. La Republique Fran- caise ne sera point ingrate a 1'egard de votre nation ; quant a moi, je re- cevrai volontiers quiconque viendra me trouver de votre part, et ne souhaite rien tant que de voir regner une bonne harmonie entre deux nations £gale- ment amies de la liberty. Je vous recommande les porteurs de cette lettre, qui sont aussi des d^scendans des Spartiates. S'ils n'ont pas fait jusqu'ici de grandes choses, c'est qu'ils ne sont point trouv^s sur un grand theatre. Salut et fraternite, Buonaparte. 419 METHODS EMPLOYED IN DYING TURKEY-RED. Professor Oettinger, at Tubingen, was the first chemist, in the west of Europe, whose experiments approximated to the discovery of the Oriental process of giving to cotton that beautiful red dye, which withstands the strongest solvents. In 17f)4, he published a small work, in which he men- tioned, that by steeping the dyed Turkish yarns in olive-oil, the colour may not only be extracted, but the material of it transferred to other thread. Hence it was inferred, that either the dye itself, or the preparing liquor, or both, must be of a fat nature, and soluble in oil. THE PERSIAN METHOD. The process in use, at Astracan, for dying Turkey-red is nearly as follows : — The cotton is first washed exceedingly clean, in running water, and dried in bright weather. If it does not dry before the evening it is taken under cover, on account of the saline dews so remarkable in the country around Astracan, and again exposed to the air next morning. When it is thoroughly dry, it is laid in a tub, and fish-oil poured over it, till it is entirely covered. In this state it remains all night : in the morning it is hung up, and left till the evening. This process is repeated seven successive times, in order that the cotton may fully imbibe the oil, and free itself from all air. The yarn is then carried to a stream, cleaned as much a* possible, and hung up on the poles to dry. After this preparation, a mordant is made of three materials, which give the grounds of the red colour. The pulverized leaves of sumach are boiled in copper kettles ; and, when their colouring matter has been suf- ficiently extracted, some powdered galls are added, with which the colour must be again boiled ; and, by these means, it acquires a dark dirty colour. After it has been sufficiently boiled, the fire is taken from under the kettle* 420 and alum put into the still hot liquor, where it is soon dissolved. The whole mordant must be strong, and of an astringent taste. As soon as the alum is dissolved, no time must be lost, in order that the mordant may not be suffered to cool. The yarn is then put into small wooden vessels, into each of which a quantity of the mordant is poured, sufficient to moisten the yarn. By this, it acquires only a pale yel- low colour, which, however, is durable. It is then hung up in the sun- shine to dry ; again washed in the stream ; and afterwards dried once more. The next part of the process is, to prepare the madder dye. The mad- der, ground to a fine powder, is spread out in large troughs, and into each trough is poured a large cup-full of sheep's blood, the kind of blood easiest procured. The madder must be strongly mixed in it, by means of the hand, and then stand some hours, in order to be thoroughly soaked by it. After this process, water is made hot in large kettles ; and, as soon as it is warm, the preparation of madder is put into it, in the proportion of a pound to every pound of cotton. The dye is then suffered to boil strongly ; and, when it is boiled enough, which may be tried on cotton threads, the fire is removed from under the kettle. The dyer then dips the cotton yarn, piece by piece, into the dye ; turns it round, backwards and forwards ; presses it a little with his hands, and lays each piece into pails. As soon as all the cotton has received the first tint, it is hung up to dry. As the red, however, is still too dull, the yarn, which has been already dyed once, and become dry, is put once more into the dying-kettle, and left to seeth, for three hours, over a strong fire, by which, it acquires that dark red colour so much esteemed in the Turkey yarns. After this process it is again dried, afterwards washed in the stream, and, when dry, is marketable. The fact disclosed by this process is, the animalization of the madder ajad cotton by blood and oil. 421 THE GREEK METHOD OF DYING TURKEY RED. The first process is, that of cleaning the cotton ; for which purpose three levs are employed ; one of soda, another of ashes, and a third of lime. The cotton is thrown into a tub, and moistened with the liquor of the three leys, in equal quantities ; it is then boiled in pure water, and washed in running water. The second bath given to the cotton is composed of soda and sheep's dung, dissolved in water. To facilitate the solution, the soda and dung are pounded in a mortar. The proportion of these ingredients employed, are, one oke of dung, 1 six of soda, and forty of water. When the ingredients are well mixed, the liquor expressed from them is strained, and being poured into a tub, six okes of olive-oil are added to it, and the whole is well stirred, till it becomes of a whitish colour, like milk. The cotton is then sprinkled with this ; and when the skeins are thoroughly moistened, they are wrung, pressed, and exposed to dry. The same bath must be repeated three or four times ; because it is this liquor which renders the cotton more or less fit for receiving the dye. Each bath is given with the same liquor, and onght to continue five or six hours. It is to be observed, that the cotton, after each bath, must be dried without being washed, as it ought not to be rinced till after the last bath. The cotton is then as white as if it had been bleached in the fields. The ga'ling is performed by immersing the cotton in a bath of warm water, in which five okes of pulverised gall-nuts have been boiled. This operation renders the cotton more fit for being saturated with the colour, and gives to the dye more body and strength. After the galling comes aluming, which i& performed twice, with an interval of two days ; and which consists in dipping the cotton into a batli 422 of water, in which five okes of alum have been infused, mixed with five okes of water, alkalised by a ley of soda. The aluming must be performed with care, as it is this operation which makes the colouring matter combine best with the cotton, and which secures it in part from the destructive action of the air. When the second aluming is finished, the cotton is wrung. It is then pressed, and put to soak in running water, being inclosed in a bag of thin cloth. The workmen then proceed to the dying. To compose the colours, they put in a kettle five okes of water, and thirty-five okes of madder-root : the madder having been pulverized, and moistened with one oke of ox or sheep's blood. The blood strengthens the colour ; and the dose is increased or lessened, according to the shade of colour required. An equal heat is maintained below the kettle, but not too violent; and when the liquor begins to grow warm, the skeins are then gradually immersed, be- fore the liquor becomes too hot. They are then tied, with pack- thread, to small rods, placed crosswise above the kettle, for that purpose ; and when the liquor boils well, and in an uniform manner, the rods from which the skeins are suspended are removed, and the cotton is suffered to fall into the kettle, where it remains until two thirds of the water is eva- porated. When one third only of the liquor remains, the cotton is taken out, and washed in pure water. The dye is afterwards brought to perfection by means of a bath, alca- lised with soda. This manipulation is the most difficult, and the most deli- cate of the whole ; because it is that which gives the colour its tone. The cotton is thrown into this new bath, and made to boil, over a steady fire, till the colour assumes the required tint. The whole art consists in catching the proper degree. 423 N. B. The peculiarity in the Greek process is, the use of dung. This sub- stance contains a large quantity of volatile alkali, in a disengaged state, which has the property of giving a rosy hue to the red. The chief manufactories for dying spun cotton red, established in Greece, are in Thessaly. There are some at Baba, Rapsani, Tournavos, Larissa, Pharsalia, and in all the villages situated on the sides of Ossa and Pelion. Ambelaki, in the vale of Temp^, is the most eminent. A GERMAN PROCESS FOR DYING TURKEY-RED. Make a caustic ley of one part of good common pot-ash, dissolved in four parts of boiling water, and half a pint of quick-lime slaked in it. Dis- solve one part of powdered alum in two parts of boiling water ; and while this solution of sulphate of alumine is still warm, to avoid re-crystallization, pour into it successively, always stirring it, the above-mentioned caustic ley, till the alumine it had at first precipitated, after saturation, to excess, with sulphuric acid, has been re-dissolved. Leave this solution to cool. Then mix a thirty- third part of linseed-oil, with which a saponaceous liquor is formed. The skeins of cotton or linen ought to be successively immersed in it, and equally pressed, that they may be then exposed to dry, on a pole, in the order in which they are taken from the mixture. They must be dried under shelter from rain in summer, and in a warm place in winter, and be left in that state for twenty-four hours : they must then be washed in very pure running water, and be again dried ; after which they are to be immersed in an alkaline ley, pressed and dried a second time, in the same manner as at first ; taking care, however, to re-commence the immersion in the ley with those skeins which have been last in the oily mixture, because the first never fails to carry away a larger portion than the last. It will be proper, also, to consume the mixture each time. 424 The intensity of the red proposed to be obtained will be in proportion to the quantity of the madder employed. By taking a quantity of madder, equal in weight to that of the skeins, the result will be a red, which, by clearing, will be changed to a rosy shade. On the other hand, shades of crimson, more or less bright, will be obtained by employing two, three, and even four times the weight of madder, without ever forgetting the addition of chalk, if the water employed does not contain some of it. The best method of obtaining shades lively as well as bright, is, to expose the dark reds for a considerable time, when they have been cleared, to the action of a ley of oxygenated muriate of potash, or of soda, with excess of alkaline carbonate, in order to have such a degree of shade as may be required. But it may readily be conceived, that this method would be expensive. THE GLASGOW METHOD FOR DYING TURKEY RED. I. For 100 lbs. of cotton yarn take 100 lbs. of barilla, 20 lbs. of pearl- ashes, and 100 lbs. of quick-lime. — The barilla is mixed with soft water, in a deep tub, from which the ley is filtered through a hole, covered with cloth, at the bottom. The strongest ley required must float an egg. — Dis- solve the pearl-ashes in forty gallons of soft water, and the lime in fifty- six gallons. Let all the liquors stand till they become quite clear, and then mix forty gallons of each. Boil the cotton in the mixture five hours, then wash it in running water, and dry it. II. Take fifty gallons of the barilla ley, and dilute it in two four-gallon pails full of sheep's dung; then pour into it half a gallon of oil of vitriol, and one pound of gum-arabic, and one pound of sal-ammoniac, both pre- viously dissolved in a sufficient quantity of weak barilla water ; and, lastly, twenty -five pounds of olive oil, which has been previously dissolved, or well 425 mixed with eight gallons of weaker barilla ley than that in which floats the egg. In this steep the cotton, until it is thoroughly soaked; let it lie twenty-four hours ; then wring it well, and hang it up to dry. Repeat this process three times. III. Repeat the last process, except that the sheep's dung is to be omitted. IV. Boil twenty-five pounds of galls, bruised, in forty gallons of river- water, until four or five are boiled away ; strain the liquor into a tub, and pour cold water on the galls in the strainer, to wash out of them all their tincture. As soon as the liquor is become milk-warm, dip your cotton, hank by hank, handling it carefully all the time, and let it steep twenty-four hours. Then wring it carefully and equally, and dry it well, without washing. V. Dissolve twenty-five pounds of Roman alum in fourteen pails of warm water, without making it boil; skim the liquor well, and add two pails of strong barilla water, and then let it cool until it be luke-warm. Dip your cotton, and handle it, hank by hank, and let it steep twenty-four hours ; wring it equally, and dry it well, without washing. VI. Repeat, in every particular, the last process ; but, after the cotton is dry, steep it six hours in running-water, and then dry it. VII. The cotton is dyed in quantities of about ten pounds at a time ; for which take about two gallons and a half of ox-blood, and mix it in the cop- per with one hundred and twelve gallons of lukewarm water, and stir it well ; then add twenty-five pounds of madder, and stir all well together. Then, having previously put the ten pounds of yarn on sticks, dip it into the liquor, and move and turn it constantly one hour ; during which, gradually increase the heat;, until the liquors begin to boil, at the end of an hour. Then sink the cotton, and boil it gently one hour longer ; and, lastly, wash 3 I 426 it and dry it. Take out so much of the boiling liquor, that what remains may produce a lukewarm heat, with the fresh water with which the copper is again filled up ; and then proceed to make up a dying liquor, for the next ten pounds of the cotton. VIII. Mix equal parts of the second and third process-liquors, taking about twenty gallons of each ; tread down the cotton into this mixture, and let it steep six hours ; then wring it moderately and equally, and dry it without washing. IX. Ten pounds of white soap must be dissolved, most carefully and com- pletely, in sixteen or eighteen pails of warm water : if any little bits of the soap remain undissolved, they will make spots in the cotton. Add sixteen gallons of the strong barilla water, and stir it well. Sink the cotton in this liquor, keeping it down with cross-sticks, and cover it up ; boil it, gently, two hours ; then wash it and dry it, and the processes are finished. N. B. The Glasgow method is similar to the French. But in none of all these different methods does it appear that the juice of lemons or citrons are employed. It is from this circumstance that I have ventured to infer, that the scarlet colour of Scutari is obtained by the use of the vegetable acid, in some stage of the process. 427 CONSIDERATIONS SUR LE COMMERCE ET LA NAVIGATION DE LA MER NOIRE. " Ce commerce, fait avec prudence et £conomie, doit procurer de grand profits, puisque les Turcs et les Grecs qui le font tres-mal y gagnent encore beaucoup, malgre' le change tres-fort qu'ils paient sur l'argent qu'ils empruntent ordinairement a la grosse aventure, pour se procurer des fonds. " Le moyen qui paroitroit le plus convenable pour tirer le meilleur parti possible du commerce de la Mer Noire, et de lui donner toute 1'entendue dont il est susceptible, seroit de former une compagnie par actions, dont le comptoir principal seroit a Constantinople, et a laquelle tous les ne- gocians du Levant, et meme de France, pourroient prendre part. u Avant que d'^tablir cette compagnie et d'envoyer dans les diverses eschelles de la Mer Noire les facteurs n^cessaires, il conviendroit de choisir une personne entendue, accompagnee d'un ingenieur-geographe pour lever les plans, rectifier les cartes et la position des lieux ; d'un ou de deux negocians au fait du commerce et ayant connoissance des marchan- dizes, avec deux drogmans qui poss^dassent bien les langues Francaise, Italienne, Grecque, Turque, Persane, et Arabe, auxquels on joindroit deux janissaires fideles de la suite de l'ambassadeur pour escorte, afin de faire le tour de cette mer dans la belle saison, examiner encore plus a fond les diverses echelles, la nature du commerce en general, le commerce respectif des echelles entr elles, celui qu'y font les diverses nations voisines. 428 les marchandises que Ton peut y veridre et acheter avec avantage, les prix des unes et des autres qui peuvent varier, les differens frais de commerce et autres defenses y relatives, les facilites et les obstacles que Ton pour- roit trouver dans les etablissemens : pour s'assurer, en un mot, plus parfaitement que Ton n'a pu faire jusqu'a present, de tout ce qui peut etre relatif a cet objet, et se convaincre par l'experience de la verite des choses. " La personne choisie pour cette commission devroit noliser a Con- stantinople un gros batiment Turc de 5 a 6,000 quintaux ou 300 ton- neaux, qui couteroit 3,000 piastres par mois ; l'equipage de ce batiment devroit etre compose* de trois ou quatre matelots Francais, capables et gens determines, ainsi que d'un pilote expert et d'un ecrivain en etat de tenir un journal exact : independamment d'un re'i's ou patron Turc et d'un nombre necessaire de matelots Turcs et Grecs dont on seroit sur. Ce batiment porteroit quelques pieces de canon et des pierriers, avec d'autres armes. " L'on porteroit dans chaque echelle un essai de toutes sortes de mar- chandises d'entr^e, et on acheteroit un peu de toutes celles de sortie : Ton pourroit egalement, dans le cours de ce voyage, faire l'^preuve ne- cessaire du commerce d'une Echelle a 1'autre. Peut-etre meme les profits que l'on feroit dans cette tourn^e en paieroient-ils toutes les dcpenses, ainsi que les presens qu'il faudroit faire aux pachas, cadis, musseleims, gouver- neurs, commandans dans les divers lieux ou Ton passeroit. ft Le commissaire charge de cette expedition, devroit etre muni de firmans ou commandemans du grand-seigneur, enjoignant a tous les gouver- neurs et officiers de justice de lui donner toute la protection necessaire ponr l'etablissement de ce commerce. On pourroit meme, pour plus grande surete, le faire accompagner par un chiaoux, ou tout autre officier de la Porte, qui feroit executer les ordres de son souverain, en cas de refus et de 429 desobeissance. Une pareille grace ne seroit peut-etre pas difficile a obtenir du ministere Ottoman, et un ambassadeur habile pourroit lui faire envisager plusieurs avail tages capables de le determiner a l'accorder. Ce commissaire, aide de ces ntgocians, d'un ingenieur-geographe, et d'un pilote exptrimente, muni de bonnes cartes marines de la j\ier Noire, de boussoles eprouvees et d'instrumens, seroit en £tat, en faisant un pareil voyage, de donner sur le commerce de la Mer Noire des lumieres plus etendues, et des connoissances encore plus precises que celles que Ton a pu fournir ici. Alors, avec de pareilles instructions, on pourroit proceder a 1'etablissement des facteurs, et travailler a leur procurer la protection et la liberie qui sont le fondenient et la base de tout commerce ; et l'on ne seroit pas dans le cas de se laisser abuser par les discours de quelque aventuriers, dont les rapports inexacts ne peuvent qu'induire en erreur d'apres leur foibles lumieres. " Dans les echelles ou Ton ne pourroit pas ^tablir des facteurs a demeure, comme chez les Abazes et ailleurs, on se contenteroit de faire naviguer des facteurs ambulans et des subrecargues. " Si ce commissaire etoit oblige^ suivant les occurrences, de passer en G^orgie, conjointement avec les ntgocians dont il seroit aecompagne, et d'aller jusqu'a Tiflis aupres du prince Heraclius, ainsi qu'aupres du kan et des vayvodes, de Valachie et de Moldavie, il faudroit qu'il fut muni de lettres de creance et de recommandation du roi aupres de ces princes, dont il feroit usage suivant les circonstances et avec toute la prudence possible ; il conviendroit de plus qu'il fut porteur d'un ordre du grand seigneur aux deux vayvodes, afin de lui faciliter l'objet de sa mission. " Les perils de la navigation de la Mer Noire ont toujours epouvante, avec quelque raison, le plupart de nos ntgocians, il est vrai que cette mer est fort orageuse, que les port y sont rares, et que ne trouvant pas a ce faire assurer, on est oblige de courir tous les risques : mais Ton peut en meme temps avancer que les plus grands dangers sont causes par Tignorance et 430 l'inexperience des navigateurs, et leur mal-addresse dans la maniere de charger les navires. Les patrons des vaisseaux n'ont point de cartes marines, et n'ont que de tres-mauvaises baussoles : ils ne savent ni louvoyer, ni se tenir a la cape : de quelque cot£ que le vent tourne, ils mettent tout de suite en poupe, et vont ou le vent les conduit : d£s qu'ils perdent la terre de vue, ils ne savent plus calculer leur route, connoitre le chemin que peut faire le batiment, ni trouver le port, a moins que le hasard ou leur routine ne les y conduise ; sans cela, ils vont echouer infailliblement. Lorsqu'ils partent d'un endroit pour aller a un autre, ils ont coutume d'attendre un vent qu'ils jugent, d'une maniere fort incertaine, devoir leur faire faire tant de lieues par heure ; ils calculent de facon a pouvoir se trouver de jour devant le port qu'ils veulent aborder: si par hasard le vent renforce ou diminue, et que la nuit les surprenne a l'atterage, ils vont a coup sur naufrager a la cote. L'entree du canal de Constantinople, ou du Bosphore de Thrace, est, surtout pour eux, un ecueil dangereux, ou il en p£rit un grand nombre. " La facon de charger les navires est de meme un grand inconvenient qui fait pe>ir plusieurs batimens, et cause de grands pertes. Quand le navire est en charge, alors, faute de connoitre l'estivage des marchandises de volume, ils accumulent, sans ordre et sans management, tout ce que les chargeurs ap- portent ; et, pour gagner un fort nolis, on charge souvent le batiment outre mesure, et meme presque jusqu'au milieu du mat, de marchandises legeres ; de sorte que le vaisseau surcharge" perd son assiette et son equilibre, et par consequent se trouve souvent expose a renverser et a pe>ir au milieu de la mer, mais tres communement surtout a faire jet. Dans le dernier cas, il n'y a ni avarie ni repartition a espe>er, et les proprietaires des marchandises qui se sont trouvees a. ported d'etre jetees a la mer, essuient toute la perte, sans aucun espoir de dedommagement. " L'on pourroit remedier aux inconv£niensqni procedent de l'ignorance des navigateurs, en donnant aux re'is ou patrons des batimens que l'on noliseroit, 431 des pilotes Francais, que ces patrons accepteroient avec grand plaisir ; alors ces pilotes prendroient, bientdt une connoissance exact de la Mer Noire, decouvriroient certainement bien des ports, des plages ou des rades qui sont peut-etre excellens et inconnus aux gens du pays ; ils eviteroient par de meilleures manoeuvres un nombre infini de dangers ; ils prendroient aussi, pour charger les batimens, les precautions et les mesures convenables ; et il ne seroit peut-etre pas impossible d'enseigner aux patrons Turcs la maniere de bien arrimer les marchandises. " L'on s'est donne des mouvemens infinis dans differens temps, pour obtenir de la Porte la liberie de la navigation dans la Mer Noire. M. Le Marquis de Villeneuve avoit eu la permission d'y faire naviguer deux tartanes, permission dont on n'a jamais pu profiter, parce quelle fut immediatement revoquee. " Pendant qu'Ali-Pacha-Hekim-Oglou £toit gouverneur a Tr^bisonde, les Ragusais engagerent ce pacha, par le canal de son medecin, a demander pour eux Qe privilege un ministere Ottoman, qui &oit sur le point de le leur accordeT ; mais ils furent decouverts et croises par des ministres etrangers, qui firent bientot echouer leur negotiation. " On ne voudroit pas assurer que nous trouvassions grand avantage a introduire nos batimens dans la Mer Noire. C'est un point qui puroit meriter d'etre bien r^flechir. On ose croire qu'il vaudroit mieux se servir des bati- mens du pays, tant parce qu'ils navigueroient a meilleur marche que les notres, que parce que cela ne feroit pas un trop grand eclat. L'apparition d'un pavillion Chrttien dans cette mer, et la concurrence des autres etrangers, qui ne manqueroient pas de solliciter, et meme, s'il le fiillait, d'acheter a grand frais le meme privilege, feroit augmenter tout d'un coup le prix des marchan- dises de sortie, et tomber celui, des marchandises d'entr^e ; et Ton seroit bientot prive de tous les profits de ce ^commerce. " D'apres tout ceci, l'on doit presumer que la France, pour conserver son 432 commerce du Levant, et pour l'augmenter par celui de la Mer Noire, ne per- mettra jamais que l'empire Turc soit envahi ni demembre, ni que Ton chasse les princes Ottomans de leur trone, parce qu'alors notre commerce du Levant seroit entierement ruine ou tout au moins reduit a tres-peu de chose." N. B. To this may be added, the second and third articles of the last Treaty of Peace between France and Turkey. " II. Les traites ou capitulations qui, avant Tepoque de la guerre, deter- minoient respectivement les rapports de toute espece qui existoient entre les deux puissances, sont en entier renouveles. " En consequence de ce renouvellement, et en execution des articles des anciennes capitulations, en vertu desquels les Francais ont le droit de jouir dans les Etats de la Sublime Porte de tous les avantages qui ont ete accordes a d'autres puissances, la Sublime Porte consent a. ce que les vaisseaux du commerce Francais portant pavilion Francais, jouissent desormais, sans aucune contestation, du droit d'cntrer et de naviguer librement dans la Mer Noire. " La Sublime Port consent, de plus, a ce que les dits vaisseaux Francais, a leur entree et a leur sortie de cette mer, et pour tout ce qui peut favoriser leur libre navigation, soient entierement assimiles aux vaisseaux marchands des nations qui naviguent dans la Mer Noire, &c. " III. La Republique Francaise jouira dans les pays Ottomans qui bor- dent ou avoisinent la Mer Noire, taut pour son commerce que pour les agens et commissaires des relations cominerciales qui pourront etre etablis dans les lieux ou les besoins du commerce Francais rendront cet etablissement neces- saire, des memes droits, privileges et prerogatives dont la France jomssoit avant la guerre, dans les autres parties des etats de la Sublime Porte, en vertu des anciennes capitulations." A VIEW OF THE MERCHANDISE IMPORTED FROM CHRISTENDOM AND AMERICA, INTO THE PORT OF SMYRNA, Between the 15th March 1809 and the 31st August 18 10 ; Being the Cargoes of 1 1 7 Vessels. 564 Casks Refined Sugar. 1617 Casks Pewter-ware. 309 Ingots Pewter. 995 Casks Coffee. 18814 Bags Coffee. 358 Bags Almonds. 292 Casks Cochineal. 1260 Casks Cochineal. 2639 Cases Steel. 3256* Ingots Lead. 5741 Cases clayed Sugar. 6*02 Casks Muscovado Sugar. 2968 Sacks Pease. 624 Casks Seeds. 1800 Cases Tin-plate. 1759 Bales Paper. 22 Casks Wax. 979 Coaffes et B'qud Tayau. 201 Bundles Jesuits' Bark. 25 Casks Red Lead. 122 Puncheons Rum. 825 Serroons - ) > Indigo. 218 Cases J 1292 Bales Merchandise. 5741 Quintals Sulphur. 189 Cases -\ > Cinnamon. 2494 Packets J 17 Casks Cloves. 3 Cases Musk. 575 Bags Ginger. 3K 434 83 Casks Wire. 1622 Bars Iron. 2613 Cakes -) > Luzain. 66 Casks J 1 83 6 Pieces Fustic. 245 Packages Manufactures. 219 Ditto Muslins. 164 Ditto Indianas. 114 Ditto Handkerchiefs. 182 Ditto Millinery. 50 Ditto Silk Manufactures. 8 Cases Aisacdes. 291 Packages Shawls. 170 Bales Cloth. 248 Cases Red Caps. 30 Cases Nankins. 22 Cases Hats. 20 Tons Nigeragowood. 17 Cases Cambric. 20 Cases Satins. 720 Loads Mocha Coffee. 104 Cases Tobacco. 763 Bags Pimento. 31 Bags Pepper. 62 Boxes Tea. 3 Cases Garde Vin Bottles. 7 Cases Watches and Time- keepers. 6 Cases Wine. 29 Casks Red Tartar. ] 8 Cases Velvet. 561 Bales English Cotton Yarn. 67 Tons •} > Logwood. 6789 Pieces J 8 Cases Coral. 1 Ditto Ivory Toys. 10 Bales Packthread. 66' Barrels Rocaw. • 2 Cases Cards. 19 Ditto Marines. 1 Ditto Gauze Bologne. 4 Ditto Sublimate. 4 Ditto Liqueurs. 100 Bundles Canes and Sticks. 250 Casks Snuff. 7 Cases Laitrine. 78 Cases Sundries. gg Cases Flint Glass. 68 Cases Panes of Glass. 5 7 Casks Porter. 360 Paving Stones of Malta. 206 Cases Oil of Vitriol. 300 Barrels Powder. 197 Kegs Butter. 50 Cases Cheese. 140 Casks Potatoes. 435 25 Barrels Flour. 73 Casks Verdigris. 350 Quintals Dye-woods. 32 Bundles Iron-hoops. 284 Iron Plates. 21 Cases Saltpetre. 855 Bundles Saltfish. 29 Dozen Chairs. 14 Elephants' Teeth. 346 Pieces Canvas. 1 8 Cases Cordage. 745 Baskets. 14062 Deals. 10 Cases Glue. 8 Cases Porcelain. 18 Casks Cenobre. 14 Cases Drugs. FINIS. DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. Plate I. Ruins of Agrigentum. II. Bathi Castle • to front the Title. Page 153. Nichols and Son, Print.*, Red Lion Passage, Fleet-St reet, London, I ■ f * & w A ft ■ CSS &