DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0062
36
travels in upper
CHAP. IV.
Maritime honours—English travellers—Palermo and
its environs.
It was an affair of no slight importance to settle
the manner in which ships of war were to give
and receive salutes in the ports of foreign nations.
Every commander had particular instructions on
the subject; and if it was recommended to them
to support the glory of their flag in battle, it was
no less expressly prescribed not to let it down in
the form of the honours which they paid, or had a
right to demand. This idle ceremonial frequently
became the source of serious disputes, and dis-
turbed the tranquillity of nations. Punctilious
officers gravely employed themselves in a minute
detail of this weighty business. Some of this de-
scription have been known at Smyrna, the most
frequented port of the Levant for European vessels,
to claim and appropriaie to themselves, exclusively,
the discharge of cannon, by which merchant-ships
are accustomed to express their respect for men of
war, of whatever kind, on entering a harbour, and
to hasten the return of the salute, even before it
was finished, for fear that the ships of other powers
should anticipate it as their due. As if the glory
of arms could consist in such frivolous emulation,
4 the
travels in upper
CHAP. IV.
Maritime honours—English travellers—Palermo and
its environs.
It was an affair of no slight importance to settle
the manner in which ships of war were to give
and receive salutes in the ports of foreign nations.
Every commander had particular instructions on
the subject; and if it was recommended to them
to support the glory of their flag in battle, it was
no less expressly prescribed not to let it down in
the form of the honours which they paid, or had a
right to demand. This idle ceremonial frequently
became the source of serious disputes, and dis-
turbed the tranquillity of nations. Punctilious
officers gravely employed themselves in a minute
detail of this weighty business. Some of this de-
scription have been known at Smyrna, the most
frequented port of the Levant for European vessels,
to claim and appropriaie to themselves, exclusively,
the discharge of cannon, by which merchant-ships
are accustomed to express their respect for men of
war, of whatever kind, on entering a harbour, and
to hasten the return of the salute, even before it
was finished, for fear that the ships of other powers
should anticipate it as their due. As if the glory
of arms could consist in such frivolous emulation,
4 the