452 Voyage of the No vara. 



course. A few hours more and we were in tow of the steamer, 

 which proved to be the Lucia, the same vessel which upwards 

 of two years before had brought us as far as Messina on our 

 outward voyage. We now received letters from friends and 

 relatives at liome, as also the customary and inevitable poeti- 

 cal effusion, which some sailor poet had written on '' Tlie 

 Retmii of the NovaraP 



On the night of the 19tli August we were off Cape Santa 

 Maria di Leuca, which marks the entrance of the Adriatic 

 Gulf, and in the afternoon of the following day passed Caste 

 Nuovo near Cattaro, and the same night anchored in the 

 harbour of Gravosa in Dalmatia. The captain of the Lucia 

 had been dispatched to bring us hither, there to wait further 

 orders. 



The following morning, Sunday, 21st August, the natural- 

 ists and superior officers made an excursion to the highly 

 interesting city of Ragusa, only a few miles distant, which 

 communicates with Gravosa by a beautiful wide well-kept 

 road. For the first time in 28 months our feet once more 

 trod our native soil. 



Next morning, about nine, the imperial steam yacht Fan- 

 tasie came into port, with H. I. H. the Archduke Ferdinand' 

 Maximilian on board, accompanied by the Archduchess. 

 The Lord High Admiral stood on the paddle-box, and saluted 

 us most heartily, repeatedly waving his cap, to which the 

 crew of the Novara replied by a shout that made the welkin 



