We Now Took A Cordial Farewell
Of Our Worthy Old Host, Mounted Our Mules And Descended The Mountain.
On
arrival at Portici we dismissed our guide Salvatore with a scudo pour
boire, besides the stipulated price.
Salvatore asked me to give him a
written certificate of his services, which he generally sollicits from all
those whom he conducts to the Volcano. I asked him for his certificate
book, and begged to know whether he would have it in prose or verse. He
laughed and said: Vostra Excellenza e padrone. I took out my pencil and
wrote the following quatrain:
Dal monte ignivomo tornati siam stanchissimi,
E del buon Salvator siam tutti contentissimi;
Felice il pellogrin che a Salvator si fida,
Che di lui non si puo trovare un miglior guida.
I never saw any body so delighted as Salvatore appeared when I read to him
what I had written in his book.
I have another observation to make before I take leave of this celebrated
mountain, which is, that the liquid lava which it ejects is far more
dangerous and destructive than the eruption of stones and ashes; the lava
flows from the flanks of the mountain in a liquid stream. Sometimes there
will be an eruption and no lava flowing: at other tunes the lava flows from
the flanks of the mountain, without any eruption from the crater; at other
times, and then it is most alarming, the eruption takes place accompanied
by the flowing of the lava. All this demonstrates that the volcano is the
effect of the efforts of the subterraneous fire to get some vent and escape
from its confinement.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 348 of 558
Words from 94841 to 95114
of 151859
