the mother of infidelity in France, correctly represents the natural tendency of that gigantic system of absurdity and error wherever it exists. The influence of the church of Rome, where she has reigned in her might, has been most disastrous, in that she has not only brought down upon herself the execrations of mankind, but has involved in undeserved reproach purer and more scriptural forms of faith and worship.

When on our way from Marseilles to Naples, after our first visit to the former place, while passing between Corsica and Elba, we met with a violent gale, which during the night was attended with the most vivid lightning and terrific thunder I had ever witnessed. Our rigging was strained by the violence of the wind, so as to excite some anxiety as to one of the masts. Once our sails were taken aback, placing us in momentary peril, and twice, within a short time, was our ship struck with lightning, which stunned some of the men, but passed off with a slight explosion, as it reached the water by way of the chain conductor suspended from the mainmast. It is not altogether pleasant to be enveloped in an atmosphere of vivid darting flame, while beneath you is a magazine of powder, liable at any moment to be ignited, and blow into a thousand atoms the ship in which you sail. Still, one becomes so familiar with such exposure, that it scarce detracts at all from those feelings of high-wrought and rapturous sublimity and awe, which fire and absorb the soul when witnessing a storm at sea. The lines which follow were written during the tempest described above:

The dark-robed tempest, in its wrath,
Now veils the evening sky,-

Ploughs through the deep a foaming path,
And rolls her waves on high.

How vivid is the lightning's flash!
How loud the teinpest's roar !

While boldly on the night-winds dash,

And stormy torrents pour.

The noble bark now proudly rides
Along the heaving main,

Anon she mounts the swelling tides,
Then low descends again.

Dash on, dash on, thou rolling sea,
And higher toss thy waves;
I love thy wild-toned melody,
When loud the tempest raves.

Ay, brighter be the lightning's glow,
More loud the thunder's peal,
And fiercer let the night-winds blow,
Till earth's firm pillars reel.

For, rising on the tempest's wing,
The spirit bold and free,

Exults to hear the wild winds sing
Their song of liberty.

VOL. II.

3

CHAPTER XVI.

GENOA, LEGHORN, AND FLORENCE.

History of Genoa. - Her Naval Power. - Population. Walls.-Commerce. -Palaces. - Paintings.- Marquis di Negro. - Richard Cromwell.- Lord Byron. - Churches. Relics. University. Libraries.- Public Schools and Academies. - Deaf and Dumb. - Hospitals.- City Government. Convents. Ladies of Genoa. - Poetry. - Leghorn.- Population.-Jews. Lazaretto. English Chapel, and Burying Ground. - Grave of Smollet. Commerce. Journey to Florence. - Vale of the Arno. - Industry and Thrift. Situation of Florence. - Milton. - Vallombrosa. - Cathedral. Conspiracy. - Campanile.-Baptistery. - Church of Santa Croce. - Monument of Michael Angelo; of Dante; of Alfieri; of Machiavelli ; of Galileo; of Boccacio.. Church of St. Lorenzo.. Savonarola. - The Jesuits. - The Inquisition; its Victims; its Suppression.

It was early in the month of June that we came to anchor in the harbour of Genoa. The mists of the morning were just rising from off the city, and, rolling slowly up the sides of the Apennines, disclosed to our view a scene of peculiar magnificence and beauty. "Genoa the Superb," "The City of Palaces," lay before us, everywhere adorned with those splendid structures, the venerable and timehonored monuments of days of republican glory, when "her merchants were princes," and when, as empress of the sea, all the richly varied products of the eastern World were hers. Above, and around the city, in wild and romantic beauty, rose the Apennines, clothed with the richest verdure, their summits crowned with ramparts, and their sides adorned with terraces, sustaining numerous hanging gardens, in the midst of which were neatly whitewashed cottages, presenting a striking and beautiful contrast to the deep green foliage of the orange and the vine, by which they were wellnigh concealed.

And here I scarce need say, that the first view of a city, which, like Genoa, has of itself been a nation holding for centuries a conspicuous rank among those powers, which, by their commercial enterprise and their arms, have exerted an important influence on the destinies of mankind; the first view of such a place recalls to the memory, and gives a local habitation and distinct identity, to a thousand historical facts

and traditions, which before were loosely floating in the mind.

Genoa, as a learned Archbishop claims, was founded more than seven centuries before Rome, was rebuilt in the time of Abraham, and again restored 1246 years before Christ. Having been destroyed by Mago, the Carthaginian General, the brother of Hannibal, in the year of Rome 524, it was rebuilt by order of the Roman Senate in 545. Favored, as Catholic tradition affirms, by the preaching of Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, Christianity was introduced there thirty-five years after the death of Christ, and continued to flourish until the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, when it was successively overrun by the Burgundians under Pendebaud, the Goths, in the time of Theodoric the Great, and the Lombards under their Kings, Alboin in the sixth, and Rotharis in the seventh century, by the latter of whom it was entirely destroyed. Again was this devoted city rebuilt by Charlemagne, when he delivered Italy from the yoke of the Lombards, and continued to increase until, in the tenth century, it was suddenly seized by the Saracens and almost entirely destroyed, while most of the inhabitants were absent from the city. Returning, however, they deeply avenged the wrongs they had suffered with the blood of their enemies, and the city, rising again like Phoenix from her ashes, became more prosperous and flourishing than ever before. From this time forward, the history of Genoa was identified with that of Europe, and the East. Her hardy mariners, in connexion with those of the little republic of Pisa, wrested Sardinia and the Balearic isles from the dominion of the Saracens, and established colonies of their own there. At the close of the eleventh century, when the Crusades commenced, Venice, Genoa, and Pisa had more vessels on the Mediterranean than all Christendom besides, and the Genoese Admiral Embriaco, commanded the fleet which sailed for the conquest of Jerusalem. Thus did each of these republics, by their zeal in this holy war, secure to themselves important possessions, and great and lasting commercial advantages in the East. In a war between Genoa and Pisa in 1284, although the Pisans, in different engagements, brought into action 30, 60, and finally more than 100 galleys, yet they were constantly opposed by the Genoese with a superior fleet, and, in the last engagement, seven of the Pisan vessels were sunk, and twenty-eight taken; 5,000 citizens perished in the bat

tle, and 11,000 carried away captive to Genoa. Thus was the maritime power of Pisa ruined, and Genoa reigned supreme on the seas which wash the western coast of Italy.

In 1293, a terrible war of seven years' continuance broke out between Genoa and Venice, and, in a final engagement near the island of Corfu, in 1298, the Genoese burnt 66 of the Venetian galleys, took 18, together with 7,000 prisoners and carried them to Genoa, suffering only twelve vessels to escape. In the beginning of the fourteenth century, Genoa had flourishing military and mercantile colonies at St. Jean d'Acre, on the coast of Syria, at Pera, opposite Constantinople, and at Caffa, on the Black Sea, besides possessing Chios and several other islands in the Archipelago. Caffa and Pera, almost equalled in wealth and magnificence Constantinople itself, and the Genoese, engaging in a quarrel with the emperor Cantacuzene, besieged his capital and burnt his fleet. After this, in 1352, an alliance was formed against Genoa, composed of the Greek Emperor, the Venetians, and Peter the Fourth, King of Aragon, in Spain. The allies, with seventy-eight galleys, met their enemy with only sixtyfour, but night and a severe storm coming on during the battle, the Genoese were left masters of the field.

In 1378, the Genoese having previously conquered the island of Cyprus, a war broke out between them and the Venetians, during which Venice was closely besieged and wellnigh taken. I will not dwell upon the glory of Genoa when she was the leading maritime power in the world; her frequent subsequent reverses and changes of fortune when successively conquered by the Germans, the Austrians, and the French, and the peculiar interest which we as Americans feel in the land where Columbus was born. Suffice it to say, then, in conclusion, that Genoa, after being conquered by Bonaparte, was known for a time as the Ligurian Republic, then was annexed to France, and finally became a part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, a condition in which it still exists. We should not in this case have lingered thus long among the records of by-gone ages, were it not that the natural scenery and the monuments of national glory which we meet with in ancient and time-honored lands, owe most of the excitement which they awaken in the mind of the traveller, to the deep and hallowed interest which the history of the past casts over them.

Genoa now contains about 90,000 inhabitants, and is sur