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country is very mountainous: some of the mountains are lofty; but towering
above all, like an enthroned spirit, rises AEtna. His giant form can be
seen from elevated grounds in the most remote parts of the island, and the
mariner can discern his snowy crown more than a hundred miles. But Sicily
abounds in luxuriant plains and charming valleys, and its soil is
proverbially rich: it once bore the appellation of the Granary of Rome;
and it is now said that if properly tilled it would produce more grain
than any country of its size in the world. Its beauty and fertility were
often celebrated by ancient bards, who described the sacred flocks and
herds of Apollo on its delightful slopes. The plain of Enna, where
Proserpine and her nymphs gathered flowers, was famous for delicious
honey; and according to an ancient writer, hounds lost their scent when
hunting, in consequence of the odoriferous flowers which perfumed the air;
and this may be no fable; for in Spring, as I myself have seen, the
flowers are abundant and fragrant beyond description; and it seemed to me
that the gardens of Europe had been supplied with two-thirds of their
choicest treasures from the wild stores of Sicily.

The history of Sicily is as varied and interesting as the features of its
surface; but of this I must give only such a brief and hurried sketch as,
to those who are not conversant with it, will serve to render the scenes I
intend to describe more intelligible and interesting than they otherwise
would be. Its early history, then, like that of most nations of antiquity,
is wrapped in obscurity. Poets feign that its original inhabitants were
Cyclops; after them the Sicani, a people supposed to have been from Spain,
were the possessors; then came the Siculi, a people of Italy. The
enterprising Phoenicians, those early monarchs of the sea, whose ships had
even visited the remote and barbarous shores of Britain, formed some
settlements upon it; and in the eighth century before Christ various
colonies of Greeks were planted on its shores, and became in time the sole
possessors of the island. These Grecian founders of Syracuse, Gela, and
Agrigentum, seduced from their own country by the love of enterprise, or
driven by necessity or revolution from their homes, brought with them the
refinement, religion, and love of the beautiful, that have distinguished
their race above all others; and in a short time after their establishment
in Sicily, the magnificence