190 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1839, 



about it, and thus was again in Provence. The 

 court of Constantine the Great was for several years at 

 Aries, which was celebrated for its refinement, and the 

 women and children are said to be still handsome and 

 graceful. Certainly nearly all I saw, young or old, were 

 comely, and many handsome. They are all brunettes, 

 and not a little sunburnt ; but their black hair, large 

 dark eyes, and long eyelashes appear to advantage. 

 We were soon on the road again, traveled over an 

 immense plain, bordered on the north by a long ridge 

 of mountains, composed of naked jagged rocks, a 

 picturesque range, in fine contrast to the fertile plain 

 from which it abruptly rises. They are, I believe, 

 the mountains of the Durance. At length the plain 

 became as barren as the mountains ; night came on, 

 and rather late in the evening we reached Aix, took 

 our supper. ... I slept pretty well, and when I 

 awoke we were in sight of the town and bay of Mar- 

 seilles, the latter superb as seen from the elevated 

 place of our view ; but the town did not present such 

 an imposing view as I had been taught to expect. . . . 

 Genoa, April 27, 1839. Saturday evening. I 

 have just finished my afternoon and evening stroll 

 through this, to me, the first Italian city : the birth- 

 place of Columbus, the city of the Dorias, the rival 

 and even the conqueror of that other proud republic 

 of the Middle Ages, Venice, in remembrance of which, 

 huge pieces of the chains which were employed to bar 

 the harbors of the latter city are suspended from the 

 gates of Genoa. We arrived in the bay before twelve 

 o'clock to-day, and during our gradual approach to 

 the town enjoyed the view to the full ; both the dis- 

 tant view and the near are very fine, equal, I may 

 say, to what I expected, which is saying a great deal. 



