ed him on that expedition; and that the government was informed of it, but was satisfied with watching his motions.

62. ERROR OF MR. BRYDONE.

Mr. Brydone flattered himself with having seen, from the summit of Mount Etna, an horizon of eight hundred miles diameter, the radius of which would have been four hundred miles. Now, from an examination of the convexity of the globe, it is proved that it would require that Ætna should be sixteen miles high to see that distance, even with the best telescope. Etna is not, according to the most exact measurement, above two miles high, and it is impossible for land to be seen at more than a hundred and fifty miles from its summit. This agrees with what Lord Seaforth once told me; that as he was bathing one afternoon in the sea, near the island of Malta, he saw the Sun set behind Mount Etna, the top of which only he was then able to perceive. The distance from Malta to Mount Etna is computed to be about a hundred and fifty miles.

63. SHOCKING CONFINEMENT OF A FRIAR.

In the month of June, 1781, the Police at Turin were informed that one Father Casimir, a Franciscan friar, was shut up in a dungeon at the Convent of Madonna delli Angioli, where he had been kept chained in the most cruel manner. A Turk, in the service of the Marquis d'Entraives, walking one day in the garden of these fathers, with the cook of the convent, heard some person complaining through the vent-hole of a little vault. He made this public, and the cause was searched into. It was known that this Father Casimir had been confined in a dungeon; and the Archbishop of Turin himself had frequently inquired after him of the Father-Guardian, who had at first refused to give any account of him, and had at last said he was dead. The King of Sardinia, upon being informed of these circumstances, sent a person to visit the convent; and the poor friar was found in the dungeon, in a horrible condition parts of his body were lacerated by the chains, his limbs were quite shrunk,

and the man was rather dead than alive. The Father-Guardian was banished to a convent belonging to his order in the country, and was declared incapable of holding any office in his order; a punishment much too mild, considering the cruelty which he had exercised towards his unfortunate brother: upon whom he had inflicted a chastisement so severe, for having ran off with a woman to Venice; though he had voluntarily returned, and surrendered himself to his supe

riors.

64. A BLOW GIVEN, AND HOW RETURNed.

A lady of rank at Paris, who was about to be separated from her husband, went to the place appointed for executing the writings with her advocate and attorney. "Sir," said she to her husband, who was also there with his lawyers, "I know nothing of the "business, therefore ask me no questions: "these gentlemen are here to state my rea"sons, and to receive your answers." The husband having commenced by setting forth the complaints he had against his wife, among others, attributed to her injuries

which she thought so insulting to her honour, that becoming at last impatient, she rose and interrupted him by a blow, which greatly disordered his wig. The husband, without being at all confused, adjusted his wig; and turning towards his wife's advocate: "Sir," said he, " since it is you who 66 are to receive my answers to this lady, "here is the one which I have to make "her;" and he gave the advocate such a blow that he knocked him down, and the conference was broken up.

65. ANOTHER BLOW.

A man of fashion in Paris, whose name I have heard but do not wish to mention, having quarrelled with his wife, went so far as to strike her. Full of rage, she flew to her advocate, to consult him relative to the complaint which she was resolved to prefer against her husband. The advocate, being informed that there was no witness to prove the assault, told her that her complaint would be useless, and that she could obtain no redress. She therefore went home again: and as she was going into the house, she met

ker husband, who inquired where she had been. "To my advocate, Sir, to consult "him respecting the blow you gave me; "but, as he tells me that I can gain nothing "by it, I do not wish to keep it, and I now "return it to you." So saying she struck her husband, and hurried away.

66. ISLAND OF ITHACA.

The island of Ithaca (Théachi, or Thiaki) is separated from that of Cephalonia by a channel three or four miles wide, and is about twenty-five miles in circumference. Those who have asserted that nothing but barren rocks are to be seen upon it, have not visited it; and perhaps have seen it only from a distance at sea, and in the winter, when the vines which cover some of the hills had lost their leaves, and thus given an air of nakedness to the rocks: but in the spring, even from Cephalonia, it presents a smiling aspect. The principal produce of the island consists of grapes of every sort; which are made into wine, or dried. There are also olives, white-mulberry trees for the silkworm, and all kinds of grain in the valleys: