see the smoke of Stromboli several hours before we came near it, which was not till 4 P. M., though we had steered directly for it, and sailed rapidly. This "LightHouse of the Mediterranean," is a vast cone with a divided top, rising immediately from the waves to the height of five thousand feet, while the circumference of its base is only about two miles. The sides seemed too steep for cultivation, and too bare and arid to furnish any thing for human subsistence, but we could see some cottages sprinkled over a part which was rather less precipitous than the rest, and it is said the soil produces liberally, and that two thousand people find the means of subsistence there. The crater is on the western side, about threefourths of the distance to the top. This mountain is always burning, and the fire, though we could not see it, becomes visible at night. A cloud of white smoke was issuing from the crater, and ascending to the summit, rolled over it and down the opposite side quite to the base. Pumice stones from this volcano, or some of the other Lepari isles, have been floating around us here to-day, and several pieces have been brought on board.

Off Stromboli, we altered our course and stood to the southward. It was near night, and the wind increased. One sail after another was taken in, but still we drove along at a rapid rate towards the Straits. Our Captain had never been at Messina, and there was no prospect of finding a pilot in the evening, so he was compelled to change his course and beat about during the night. It was a tempestuous one, and as we were near a lee-shore, our situation was alarming. Snow fell on the deck, and in the morning appeared crowning the mountains of Sicily and Calabria. Thus we do not entirely escape the winter, even in

this region of Hesperian gardens, where the golden fruits of the orange and lemon are now coming to maturity.

On the 26th, we took a pilot and entered the Straits. We found nothing formidable in Scylla and Charybdis. The Strait is quite wide, and as we kept near the Sicilian shore, Scylla appeared so small, that we should hardly have observed it but for its celebrity. As to Charybdis, I find there is a dispute about its exact situation. There are two places which at times exhibit something vertiginous, but which of them was so formidable to ancient heroes, and so delightful a theme to classic poets, it is difficult at this day to determine. However, I take it that Charybdis was almost or quite directly opposite to Scylla; and am therefore willing to believe that a particular part of the channel over against this same rock which was pointed out to us as the whirlpool, was indeed the vortex that engaged so much attention in the olden time. When we passed over it, the water was smoother than I remember ever to have seen it at Hurlgate.

When we arrived opposite the town, an officer came off in a boat and asked a number of questions, and then sans ceremonie, we were brought to our present situation. It was a grievous thing to look forward to a weeks' imprisonment, and we wrote notes to the gentlemen for whom we had letters, stating that we had embarked at Marseilles and brought clean bills of health, and asking their influence to get us released. We might have spared ourselves the trouble, for eight years ago the plague was introduced here and carried off 70,000 people from the city and its neighbourhood, and now the quarantine regulations are enforced with inflexible rigour. Indeed we have been given to understand that a relaxation of them, is

the only thing which cannot be accomplished in Messina by the power of money.

In the afternoon, the Captain, mate, crew and ourselves, went over to the health office to be examined, leaving the Mary unguarded. The physician looked at us from behind an iron railing; the papers which it was necessary to examine, were taken in the split end of a reed and carefully fumigated, and our letters were cut through with a chisel, and then thrown into a vessel in which they were to have vinegar poured over them. After we had been questioned, and our answers registered, we were remanded to the brig, and two men sent to guard us.

Our dreaded quarantine has proved very different from my anticipation. The weather is so fine, that I have been sitting on deck without an over-coat, most of the day. We are within the toss of a biscuit from the shore, but in very deep water, which is so calm and still that the fish which play in it, and the brighter objects on the bottom, are distinctly visible. There is a pleasure in looking down many fathoms and thus prying into the mysteries of the deep, but we have much higher gratification in surveying the mountains, which on every side go far up into the sky. Sicily is nominally divided into three valleys, but if my information is correct, it is but a collection of mountains. A range of these, parallel to the coast, rises to a great elevation directly back of the town. The intervening space is filled up with innumerable hills, divided by ravines into various wild shapes, but generally steep. On the opposite shore of Calabria, the heights are so lofty that the snow still remains upon them. Between these high hills is drawn a broad channel of that sea, whose "purple is of deepest die," with shores bending and winding into the most graceful

Messina, Jan. 27th, 1824. MY DEAR BROTHER,-Gur quarantine of seven days, lasted but six according to our mode of computing time, the first and the last being both counted here, as anciently among the Jews. We landed on the 1st, and dined with Mr. C―, an English gentleman, to whom our very kind friend Mr. F, of Marseilles, had given us an introduction. From him and the other gentlemen to whom Mr. F gave us letters, we have received most prompt and hospitable attentions.

The houses here are spacious, and many of them have an air of grandeur. Fire-places are not common, though they are seen in the houses of the English residents. The ordinary mode of heating apartments, is by placing a sort of copper-platter, called a brasier, and containing a few live coals, in the middle of the floor. There is no danger of asphyxia, for the cracks at the doors and windows are wide enough to allow the deleterious gas to escape, and plenty of fresh air to supply its place. The floors of the houses are of stone, marble, or plaster, and are supported by arches; or if rafters are used, they are not left projecting as in France, to disfigure the rooms below. The ceilings and windows are lofty, and the latter open into balconies paved with stone, and guarded

with iron railings; and various kinds of rare plants are cultivated in these little airy gardens.

The streets are full of a wretched population, clothed in rags and importunate in begging. Poor beings! it seems almost cruel to speak of them but in terms of commiseration; yet when we think how degraded they are, and how they swarm and grow up in their native filth, we are ready to consider them as rank plants which spring from this fertile soil, and vegetate under this powerful sun. Thanks be to Him who has made us to differ. We owe it solely to his good pleasure that we were not born here in a hovel, and nourished upon garbage. And while we see many half-naked human beings around us that bask in the sunshine, and rejoice in the acquisition of a penny, it is a small consolation to reflect that God is just and merciful; that unavoidable ignorance and its consequences, are not crimes in his sight; and that little will be required of those to whom little has been given.

There are a number of English families who live here in handsome style, and at less expense, than they would be obliged to incur to support it in their own country, or even in ours. Yet they give up much, in exchanging England for Sicily. To say nothing of the comforts which are wanting here, the loss of publick worship is too serious to be endured for life, on account of any worldly gain. Most of them, however, I presume retain the "animum revertendi." Our most excellent and hospitable friends, Mr. P— and his family, are the only Americans settled in Messina.

The English entertain great contempt for the majority of the Sicilians. Ignorance and superstition hold them in bondage, and there is no near prospect of their being liberated. The rich have little enlargement of mind, and the

poor are very abject. The influence of the priests and monks is great, and their number is said to amount to 4000, in a population of 60,000. Some of the daughters of distinguished families are educated in convents. When they arrive at a suitable age, husbands are provided for them, if good matrimonial bargains can be made; but otherwise, they are often induced to take the veil. Knowing nothing of the world without, and having been taught that dedicating themselves to God according to the rules of the convent, is a sure path to heaven, it is not strange that they take those vows which compel them to pass through life inert and useless. Perhaps, however, more of them than Protestants are apt to imagine, are animated by real devotion. The operations of the Spirit are diverse, and often very far beyond the ken of prejudice and slight observation. For aught that we know, full many a nun, though sunk in ignorance, and enthralled by forms, ceremonies, superstitions, and rules of man's device, has earnestly and steadily endeavoured to learn and obey the will of her Maker; and that Saviour, who never said seek ye my face in vain, may have sent the peace which the world cannot give nor take away, into many a cell surrounded by the walls and gates of a convent. But at best, the whole system is a sad perversion of the benign religion of the New Testament.

There are few publick buildings here which deserve particular attention. We have visited the cathedral, and some of the convents. The cathedral was built in the commencement of the 12th century, and has an abundance of ornament, especially of costly Mosaic; but the effect which this produces, is by no means proportional to the labour and time bestowed upon it.

When we visited the convent of the Franciscan monks, we first entered the church, where we found a number of people saying

their prayers. I call it saying their prayers, for though their knees were bent, I must be allowed to doubt as to their really praying. Their lips it is true were steadily occupied and constantly moving, but their eyes were entirely at liberty to watch and examine the strangers. We were shown a number of pictures which did not excite our admiration, and a monument of gilt bronze, erected about two hundred years since to the memory of a young lady by her intended husband. He had received her dowry, and chose to expend it in this manner. On one side of the church was hung a leg of wax, and near it were several representations of diseased parts of the human frame. In the same place were suspended a number of small pictures, representing various perils, such as those of a shipwrecked man, of one who was attacked by an armed ruffian, of another who was falling from a window, and of a fourth whose gun had just burst. All these we learned were tokens of gratitude to the Virgin Mary, for the deliverance which she was believed to have afforded from disease or danger.

The interior of the convent reminded me of a prison, but one of the cells which we entered appeared tolerably comfortable, and larger than many which are endured at our fashionable watering places. The belfry afforded a charming view of the town, harbour, Straits, and neighbouring country.

A silk manufactory next engaged our attention, but it did not appear to be an important one. The silk as wound from the cocoon is sometimes white, but more frequently of a very brilliant yellow, and is worth about two dol

lars, the pound avoirdupois. The weaving was just such as we have often seen in the fabrication of coarser stuff.

Leaving the manufactory, we proceeded to a convent of Capuchins. The dress of these monks, is a very coarse, dark-brown, woollen frock, with a hood, which serves the purpose of a hat. They wear neither shirt nor stockings. Their legs are bare, and the feet protected only by sandals. Their beards are left unshaven, but the hair is cropped. They all wear girdles of thick knotted ropes. How much these are used in flagellation I cannot say, but as they did not seem worn out, and on the other hand, the friars appeared very cheerful and hearty, I opine that there is seldom, if ever, any violent oppugnation" between them. A cell which we entered here, was poorer than that which we saw at the Franciscan convent. The bed was scantily covered and had no sheets, the monks being obliged to sleep in the dress that they wear during the day. Their "eternal blanket," as some one has called the Roman toga, is almost their only protection from the cold, whether they are asleep or awake. The garden contains a variety of very fine lemon and orange trees, loaded with fruit. One kind of the lemons, exceeded in fragrance any that I had ever seen; another was sweet, and a third had a skin that was quite palatable. Our guide was loaded with fruit, and we were hospitably invited to take some wine, which to my taste, was at least equal to any Hermitage that we drank in France. The friar showed a very merry face, when he heard my hearty commendation of his cup, and neither he nor any of his comrades, had the appearance of suffering from extreme abstinence.

There are twenty-five convents of monks, and six of nuns, in Mes