It Contains Several Small Towns, And A
Great Number Of Villages; All Of Which, This Capital Excepted,
Are Situated Among Mountains, The Most Extensive Plain Of The
Whole Country Being This Where I Now Am, In The Neighbourhood Of
Nice.
The length of it does not exceed two miles, nor is the
breadth of it, in any part, above one.
It is bounded by the
Mediterranean on the south. From the sea-shore, the maritime Alps
begin with hills of a gentle ascent, rising into mountains that
form a sweep or amphitheatre ending at Montalban, which overhangs
the town of Villa Franca. On the west side of this mountain, and
in the eastern extremity of the amphitheatre, stands the city of
Nice, wedged in between a steep rock and the little river
Paglion, which descends from the mountains, and washing the town-walls
on the west side, falls into the sea, after having filled
some canals for the use of the inhabitants. There is a stone-bridge
of three arches over it, by which those who come from
Provence enter the city. The channel of it is very broad, but
generally dry in many places; the water (as in the Var) dividing
itself into several small streams. The Paglion being fed by
melted snow and rain in the mountains, is quite dry in summer;
but it is sometimes swelled by sudden rains to a very formidable
torrent. This was the case in the year 1744, when the French and
Spanish armies attacked eighteen Piedmontese battalions, which
were posted on the side of Montalban. The assailants were
repulsed with the loss of four thousand men, some hundreds of
whom perished in repassing the Paglion, which had swelled to a
surprising degree during the battle, in consequence of a heavy
continued rain. This rain was of great service to the
Piedmontese, as it prevented one half of the enemy from passing
the river to sustain the other. Five hundred were taken
prisoners: but the Piedmontese, foreseeing they should be
surrounded next day by the French, who had penetrated behind
them, by a pass in the mountains, retired in the night. Being
received on board the English Fleet, which lay at Villa Franca,
they were conveyed to Oneglia. In examining the bodies of those
that were killed in the battle, the inhabitants of Nice
perceived, that a great number of the Spanish soldiers were
circumcised; a circumstance, from which they concluded, that a
great many Jews engage in the service of his Catholic majesty. I
am of a different opinion. The Jews are the least of any people
that I know, addicted to a military life. I rather imagine they
were of the Moorish race, who have subsisted in Spain, since the
expulsion of their brethren; and though they conform externally
to the rites of the Catholic religion, still retain in private
their attachment to the law of Mahomet.
The city of Nice is built in form of an irregular isosceles
triangle, the base of which fronts the sea.
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