g outside the harbour for nearly an hour for
Captain Hayland, one of the passengers, who, it seems, went to sleep,
and the people in his hotel forgot to wake him in due time. He was
greatly alarmed, all his baggage being on board; and for some time he
supposed we had really left him behind. The boat he hired was engaged to
take him to Syracuse, in case it did not overtake the steamer. The
commander of the Francesco, however, behaved very well on this occasion;
for, when some of the passengers remonstrated at the delay, he replied,
that the absent person was not only attentive and obliging to all on
board, but had been punctual hitherto; and, therefore, he would stretch
a point for him, though he would not do as much for many others who
sailed with him.

[Sidenote: SICILY--GIRGENTI.] _Thursday, August 1st._--We are off
Alicata, having landed Prince Butera, whose estates are situated near
the town. I was not sorry for the opportunity of seeing Girgenti thus
afforded me; and a day or two sooner or later in Naples made no
difference. Some extra charge was made for this addition to the eastern
voyage, merely sufficient to pay the expenses of the boat.

We coasted along this beautiful island, now almost a wilderness, and
nearly depopulated by a long series of oppressive edicts and taxes,
imposed by the government of a nation which has no sympathy with its
distresses. It may be truly called the Ireland of the great kingdom of
the two Sicilies; a wretched country, which can only be preserved from
destruction by a war to which Naples is a party. When that occurs,
Sicily may again raise its desponding head, and, by seeking the
protection of England, whose remembrance is indelibly stamped on the
hearts of its inhabitants, it would soon be regenerated, and, with a
liberal government and free trade, might once more become the rich and
happy Sicily, the garden of Europe.

[Sidenote: GIRGENTI.] We anchored off Girgenti: in the distance, against
the clear blue vault of heaven stood its ruined temples, the sad
enduring monuments of former greatness; which appeal to the miserable
and oppressed inhabitants, impressively reminding them of the glory of
their forefathers, and the power which has passed away from the land.

Half an hour after midnight, a party I had formed, started to view the
temples by that light,

"Which mingles dark shadows into gentleness."

After rambling across the country, and losing ourselves among groves of