SUMMER CRUISE
IN
THE MEDITERRANEAN.
SUMMER CRUISE
IN
THE MEDITERRANEAN
ON BOARD AN AMERICAN FRIGATE.
BY
N. PARKER WILLIS.
LONDON:
T. BOSWORTH, 215, REGENT STREET.
1853.
LONDON:
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS
PREFACE.
Of one of the most delicious episodes in a long period offoreign travel, this volume is the imperfect and hastilywritten transcript. Even at the time it was written, theauthor felt its experience to be a dream—so exempt was itfrom the interrupting and qualifying drawbacks of happinessin common and working life—but, now, after an interval ofmany years, it seems indeed like a dream, and one so full ofunmingled pleasure, that its telling almost wants the contrastof a sadness. Of the noble ship, whose summer cruise isdescribed, and her kind and hospitable officers, the recollectionis as fresh and grateful now, as when, (twenty yearsago,) the author bade them farewell in the port of Smyrna.Of the scenes he passed through, while their guest, he has aless perfect remembrance—relying indeed on these chancememoranda, for much that would else be forgotten. It iswith a mingled sense of the real and the unreal, therefore,that the book is offered, in a new shape, to the Public,whose approbation has encouraged its long existence, andthe author trusts that his thanks to the surviving officers ofthat ship may again reach them, and that the kind favourof the reading Public may be again extended to this hisrecord of what he saw in the company of these officers, andby their generous hospitality.
Highland Terrace,
October, 1852.
CONTENTS.
LETTER I.
Cruise in the Frigate “United States”—Elba—Piombino—PortoFerrajo—Appearance of the Bay—Naval Discipline—Visit to theTown Residence of Napoleon—His Employment during his Confinementon the Island—His sisters Eliza and Pauline—His CountryHouse—Simplicity of the Inhabitants of Elba 1
LETTER II.