Passaro.—Below Pachino is
a large valley, with an extensive salt lake, and two wells of fresh
water between it and the sea. The evaporation occasioned by the heat of
the sun causes the salt to crystallize near the banks of the lake. The
canes and shrubs around are resorted to by a profusion of game. From the
shape of the beach that shuts up this lake, I have no doubt of its
having been once open, and that it was the Port Pachynus, where the
Roman fleet was so disgracefully moored by the drunken Cleomenes, and
where the hapless sailors were compelled by hunger to devour the roots
of the dwarf palm, a plant that still flourishes in prodigious quantity.
On the point of the south
part of the valley of Ginepre, and opposite Passaro Isle, is the large
"tonnara" of that name, an establishment giving employment to about
three hundred people, during the fishing season. Passaro Isle is
composed of a curious aggregate of marble, lava, tufa, cinders, and
oceanic deposits, and is high on all sides but the west, where it is
joined to the main by a sandy spit, with two feet water on it. On its
eastern point stands an excellent tower-redoubt for twelve guns,
garrisoned by seventy-five men, with good bomb-proofs, stores, and
cistern; it commands the island and coast for some distance, but would
be infinitely more serviceable were a lighthouse erected on it, as this
point is liable daily to be either the landfall or departure of various
vessels.
This arid island, at the very extremity of the
deserted wilds of Sicily, appeared, as if intended by nature and man, to
be a place of banishment for the worst of criminals, under the control
of some pardoned bandit; and on landing, the unfavourable prepossession
was strengthened in my mind, by seeing two crosses among the dwarf
herbage, to point out the spot where two murders had been perpetrated;
though in Roman Catholic countries, crosses are, indeed, often erected,
not only where murders have been committed, but also where a man has
died suddenly by disease or accident, without the benefit of extreme
unction. Our surprise, therefore, was great, on entering
the tower, to be met on the drawbridge by a veteran
gentleman of the old school, with venerable white hair, and the order
of Constantine decorating his neat, but antiquated, uniform coat; and
still more, on his introducing us to his family, consisting of his lady,
two grown-up daughters, and a son, who, with an air of politeness and
good address, had been brought up on this sequestered spot. Our arrival
was hailed by the family, the adjutant, and the chaplain, as a most
auspicious event; and an hospitable kindness during the eight or ten
days we had occasion to remain there, proved the sincerity of their
professions. Still we found this remote community troubled with many of
the agitations that disturb the peace of larger societies; and the old
gentleman's vanity was conspicuous, by sending his invitations to our
marquee on paper, stamped thus:
![[graphic][merged small]](http://books.google.it/books?id=hHpkAAAAMAAJ&hl=it&output=text&pg=PA182&img=1&zoom=3&hl=it&q=pachino+marzamemi&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U3bSINw08wgB2snShxYA7bSPLRAOw&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=371,550,287,344)
D. O R A Z I O
MOTTOLA
De' Marchesi dell' Amato, Maggiore de' R. Eserciti di S. M. (D. G.)
Comandante Proprietario del R. Forte, ed Isola di Capopassero, suo
Littorale, e di Real Ordine incaricato delle Funzioni di Commissario
Reale di Guerra del medesimo Forte, e Deputato d' Alta
Polizia, ec. ec.
This I have preserved, that the passing mariner,
while he sympathizes (as is always the case) with the wretched people
supposed to exist on so desolate a point, may, perhaps, be amused at a
specimen of the Cape Passaro etiquette; and which will, at the same
time' teach him that old officers can be found, who would rather shine
in importance even there, than remain in insignificant obscurity in a to