II A Mediterranean White Squall 3 1 



year, he wandered away to the Balearic Islands, 

 apparently with the intention of collecting there 

 the material for a book. We say that he ' wandered 

 away,' not that he ' went,' to the lands of his quest ; 

 because on his way thither he visited Naples (whence 

 he sent two articles to Maanillaiis Magazine on the 

 condition of the prisons of that city, which were at 

 that time crowded with members of the Camorra), 

 visited Garibaldi at Caprera, and had a short cruise 

 in the Duke of St. Alban's yacht, The Pilgrim. 

 ' You must be surprised to see where I have got to,' 

 he wrote to his wife from Syracuse. ' I had an offer 

 of a cruise from the Duke of St. Alban's, and so 

 came round here. Lucky it is for us that we are 

 here, and not under the glad waters of the dark blue 

 sea, for we were very nearly lost on the night we 

 sailed. I was suddenly awakened by being thrown 

 out of my bunk, and, on opening the cabin door, 

 found that we were, apparently, upsetting. It was 

 no easy work getting up the companion-way, for the 

 ladder was very nearly where the hand-rail should 

 have been. We had been struck, without a moment's 

 warning, by one of those fearful Mediterranean white 

 squalls. On deck there was a terrible scene, the 

 wind howling fearfully, the sea perfectly white with 

 foam, and the ship tearing like a mad thing through 

 the water, which was surging half-way up the deck. 

 We thought that it was, literally, all over with us, 

 but at last she righted again. We lost two boats, 

 but fortunately none of the crew. . . . The ruins at 



