[ «3 ] 



Irilli, and in competition with the trade extenfively carried on 

 by a people, who, however erroneoufly, we are taught to be- 

 lieve were at that period little removed from a ftate of abfolute 

 barbarity. For the native Irifh, upon whom the afperfion prin- 

 cipally falls, muft have had a fhare in this traffic, the Englifh 

 fettlers being too few, and too much occupied by perpetual 

 broils, to be alone equal to an extenfive manufadurc. Our 

 author indeed himfelf in a great meafure contradifis this ca- 

 lumny, and the character which he gives of the Irifh in his 

 time tends greatly to diminifh that idea of barbarity which is 

 ufually objeded to them : 



Quefta Gente, beiiche moftra felvagia, 

 E per gli Monti la Contrada accierba, 

 Nondimeno I'e dolcie ad cui I'afaggia *. 



Fazio, or Bonifazio, delli Uberti, grandfon to the celebrated 

 Farinataf, is fuppofed to have vifited in perfon moft of the 

 countries he defcribes. His family J, one of the moft illuftrious 

 of Florence, and head of the Ghibellines, having been driven 

 into banifhment by the oppofite fadion, he is faid to have 

 taken advantage of this opportunity to indulge his tafte for 

 travelling, and the Dittamondi is in efFeft no other than an 



• Th'u race of men, tho' favage they may feem. 

 The country too luith many a mountain rough. 

 Yet are they fweet to him 'who tries and tajles them. 



f For fome account of this Tufcan hero, vid. Iftorie di Giovanni Villani, lib. 

 vi. cap. 82 — Machiavelli, Iftorie Florentine, lib. ii. page 45. — Alfo, Dante, Inferno. 

 canto X. 



t Vid. Crefcimboni, Hiftoria della volgar Poefia, vol. iv. part ii. page 160. — 

 Quadrio, della Storia e della Ragione d'ogni Poefia, vol. iv. page 47. Both thefe 

 authors exprefsly mention the travels of Fazio. 



account 



