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saw in any country so miserable an inn, for
so it is styled. We mounted our cavalry with
all expedition, and in a very short time got
into the woods, where we where serenaded by
the nightingale as we went along, who made
us a full apology and atonement for the bad
cheer we had met with. In a short time it
was day, and then we had entertainment
enough from the varied scenes of the most
beautiful, wild, and romantic country in the
world. The fertility of many of the plains is
truly astonishing, without enclosures, without
manure, and almost without culture. It is
with reason that this island was styled,
"Ro-
mani imperii horreum," the granary of the
Roman empire. Were it cultivated, it would
still be the great granary of Europe. Pliny
says, it yielded a hundred after one; and
Diodorus, who was a native of the island, and
wrote on the spot, assures us, that it produced
wheat and other grain spontaneously; and
Homer advances the same fact in the Odyssey

"The soil untill'd, a ready harvest yields,
With wheat and barley wave the golden fields;
Spontaneous wines from weighty clusters pour,
And Jove descends in each prolific shower."

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Many of the mountains seemed to be formed by subterraneous fire; several of them retain their conical figure and their craters, but not so exact as those on Mount Etna, as they are probably much older. I likewise observed many pieces of lava on the road, and in the beds of the torrents; and a good deal of the stone called tufa, which is certainly the production of a volcano; so that I have no doubt, that a great part of this island, as well as the neighbouring ones of Lipari, &c. has been originally formed by subterraneous fire: we likewise passed some quarries of a kind of talc, and also of a coarse alabaster; of this they make a sort of stucco or plaster, resembling that of Paris; but what I much regretted, we missed seeing the famous salt of Agrigentum, found in the earth about four or five miles from that city. It has this remarkable property, different from all other salt, that in the fire it presently melts; but in the water it cracks and splits, but never dissolves. It is celebrated by Pliny, Aristotle, and others of the ancient, as well as modern naturalists. Fazzello, whom I have brought along with me to read by the road, says, he has often experienced this: he adds, from the authority of these

ancient authors, that they formerly had mines of this salt, so pure and solid, that the statuaries and sculptors preferred it to marble, and made various works of it.

The poor people of the village have found us out, and with looks full of misery have surrounded our door.-Accursed tyranny,what despicable objects we become in thy hands! Is it not inconceivable how any government should be able to render poor and wretched a country which produces almost spontaneously every thing that even luxury can desire? But alas! poverty and wretchedness have ever attended the Spanish yoke, both on this, and on the other side of the globe. -They make it their boast, that the sun never sets on their dominions, but forget that since they became such, they have left him nothing to see in his course but deserted fields, barren wildernesses, oppressed peasants, and lazy, lying, lecherous monks. Such are the fruits of their boasted conquests.-They ought rather to be ashamed, that ever the sun should see them at all. The sight of these poor people has filled me with indignation. This village is surrounded by the finest country in the world, yet there was neither bread nor wine to

be found in it, and the poor inhabitants appear more than half starved.

"'Mongst Ceres' richest gifts with want oppress'd, And 'midst the flowing vineyard, die of thirst."

I shall now think of concluding, as I do not recollect that I have much more to say to you: besides, I find myself exceeding sleepy. I sincerely wish it may not be the same case with you before you have read thus far. We have ordered our mules to be ready by five o'clock, and shall again travel all night ;-the heats are too great to allow of it by day; adieu.

-These two fellows are still sound asleep.In a few minutes I shall be so too, for the pen is almost dropping out of my hand. Farewell.

LETTER XXI.

Palermo, June 19.

WE are now arrived at the great capital of Sicily, which, in our opinion, in beauty and elegance is greatly superior to Naples. It is

not, indeed, so large; but the regularity, the uniformity, and neatness of its streets and buildings render it much more pleasing; it is full of people, who have mostly an air of affluence and gaiety. And indeed we seem to have got into a new world.-But stop-not so fast. -I had forgot that you have still fifty miles to travel on a cursed stubborn mule, over rocks and precipices; for I can see no reason why we should bring you at once into all the sweets of Palermo, without bearing at least some little part in the fatigues of the journey. Come, we shall make them as short as possible.

We left you, I think, in a little village on the top of a high mountain. We should indeed use you very ill, were we to leave you there any longer; for I own it is the very worst country quarter that ever fell to my lot. However, we got a good comfortable sleep in it, the only one thing it afforded us; and the fleas, the bugs, and chickens, did all that lay in their power even to deprive us of that, but we defied them. Our two leaders came to awake us before five, apostrophying their entry with a detail of the horrid robberies and murders that had been committed in the neighbourhood; all

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