DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0077
and lower egypt.
CHAP. V.
Passage from Palermo to Malta—Soundings between
Sicily and the island of Malta, and between this
last and Africa—Coasts of Sicily—Pant alarm—
Isle of Malta ; its nature, its cities, its produc-
tions.
We sailed from the beautiful port of Palermo
May the iid, a little after midnight. The fri-
gate had now all her guns mounted ; those which
had been sacrificed to the accommodation of the
passengers, and the absence of which deranged the
symmetry of the ship's appearance, were replaced.
Our courtiers had taken leave of us. Terrified at
the rough weather which we encountered at sea,
afld particularly at the storm which attacked us off
the mouths of Bonifacio, they did not choose to
cXpose themselves any more to the fury of an ele-
ment so inconstant, and had formed the resolution,
after traversing Sicily, to cross over to Naples,
and return to France by land. They had been
assured at Versailles, and I have heard the same
°pmion expressed at Paris, that a ship of war de-
^ed all concussion in the midst of the waves, and
that they would be as tranquil at sea as in their
0vvn houses. What was their astonishment to
perceive that a fabric so vast and so ponderous,
e a was
CHAP. V.
Passage from Palermo to Malta—Soundings between
Sicily and the island of Malta, and between this
last and Africa—Coasts of Sicily—Pant alarm—
Isle of Malta ; its nature, its cities, its produc-
tions.
We sailed from the beautiful port of Palermo
May the iid, a little after midnight. The fri-
gate had now all her guns mounted ; those which
had been sacrificed to the accommodation of the
passengers, and the absence of which deranged the
symmetry of the ship's appearance, were replaced.
Our courtiers had taken leave of us. Terrified at
the rough weather which we encountered at sea,
afld particularly at the storm which attacked us off
the mouths of Bonifacio, they did not choose to
cXpose themselves any more to the fury of an ele-
ment so inconstant, and had formed the resolution,
after traversing Sicily, to cross over to Naples,
and return to France by land. They had been
assured at Versailles, and I have heard the same
°pmion expressed at Paris, that a ship of war de-
^ed all concussion in the midst of the waves, and
that they would be as tranquil at sea as in their
0vvn houses. What was their astonishment to
perceive that a fabric so vast and so ponderous,
e a was