doubted that it was a real one; and cutting it through the middle, in a moment had one large half of it in his mouth; at first he only looked grave, and blew up his cheeks to give it more room; but the violence of the cold soon getting the better of his patience, he began to tumble it about from side to side in his mouth, his eyes rushing out of water, till at last, able to hold no longer, he spit it out upon his plate, exclaiming with a horrid oath, "A painted snowball, by G-d!" and wiping away his tears with his napkin, he turned in a rage to the Italian servant that had helped him, with a "D-n your maccaroni eyes, you son of a b-, what did you mean by that?"—The fellow, who did not understand a word of it, could not forbear smiling, which still convinced the captain the more that it was a trick; and he was just going to throw the rest of the snowball in his face, but was prevented by one of the company; when recovering from his passion, and thinking the object unworthy of it, he only added in a softer tone, "Very well, neighbour, I only wish I had you on board ship for half an hour, you should have a dozen before you could say Jack Robinson, for all your painted cheeks."

I ask pardon for this digression, but as it is a good laughable story, I know you will excuse it. About six o'clock, we took a cordial leave of our jolly friends at Agrigentum ; and embarked on board our sparonaro at the new port. I should have told you, that this harbour has lately been made at a very great expense: this city having always been one of the principal ports of the island for the exportation of grain. The bishop and his company went into a large barge, and sailed round the harbour; we saluted them as we went out; they returned the compliment, and we took a second leave. The evening was fine, and we coasted along for a good many miles; we passed several points and little promontories, that were exceedingly beautiful and picturesque ; many of them were covered with noble large aloes in full blow. In one place, I counted upwards of two hundred of those fine majestic plants all in flower; a sight which I imagined was hardly to be met. with in the world. After sunset,-alas, fain would I conceal what happened after sunset! but life, you know, is chequered with good and evil, and it would have been great presumption to receive so much of the one, without expecting a little dash of the other too.-Besides, a

sea expedition is nothing without a storm. Our journal would never have been readable, had it not been for this.-Well, I assure you, we had it. It was not indeed so violent as the great one off Louisburgh, or perhaps even that described by Virgil; the reading of which is said to have made people seasick; but it was rather too much for our little bark.-I was going to tell you, that after sunset the sky began to overcast, and in a short time the whole atmosphere appeared fiery and threatening. We at tempted to get into some creek, but could find none. The wind grew loud, and we found it was in vain to proceed; but as the night was dark and hazy, we were dubious about the possibility of reaching the port of Agrigentum. However, this was all we had for it, as there were none other within many miles. Accor dingly we tacked about, and plying both oars and sail, with great care not to come amongst the rocks and breakers, in about two hours we spied the light-house; by which we directed our course, and got safely into port betwixt one and two in the morning: we lay down on our mattrass, and slept sound till ten, when finding the falsity of our hypothesis, that there could be no bad weather in the Mediterranean at this

season, we unanimously agreed to have nothing more to do with sparonaros, and sent immediately to engage mules to carry us over the mountains to Palermo. The storm continued with violence the whole day, and made us often thank heaven that we had got safely back. It was not till five in the afternoon that we had mules, guides, and guards provided us; when we set off, pretty much in the same order, and in the same equipage as we had done about three weeks ago from Messina. Our guards attempted to fill us with the most dreadful apprehensions of this road, showing us, every mile, where such a one was robbed, such another was murdered; and entertained us with such melancholy ditties the greatest part of the way. Indeed, if one half of their stories be true, it is certainly the most dangerous road in the world; but I looked upon most of them as fictions, invented only to increase their own consequence, and to procure a little more money. There is, indeed, some foundation for these stories; as there are numbers of gibbets erected on the road in terrorem; and every little baron has the power of life and death in his own domain. Our bishop's brother, whose name I have forgot, seized lately four and twenty of those

desperate banditti, after a stout resistance, where several were killed on both sides; and notwithstanding that some of them were under the protection of the nobility, and in their service, they were all hanged. However, this has by no means rooted them out. Our guards, in the suspicious places, went with their pieces cock'd, and kept a close look-out to either side of them; but we saw nothing to alarm us, except the most dreadful roads in the world; in many places worse than any thing I ever met with amongst the Alps.

After travelling about twenty miles, we arrived by two in the morning at the most wretched-I don't know what to call it-there was not any one thing to be had but a little straw for the mules. However, after a good deal of difficulty, we at last got fire enough to boil our tea-kettle, and having brought bread from Agrigentum, we made an excellent meal. Our tea-table was a round stone in the field, and as the moon shone bright, we had no occasion for any other luminary. You may believe our stay here was as short as possible; the house was too dreadfully nasty to enter it, and the stable was full of poor wretches sleeping on the bare ground. In short, I never