SEA-FAN MAKERS. 205 



caparra ; so that, when the time of final depar- 

 ture arrives, it not unfrequently happens that 

 the whole of his scanty pay has been consumed, 

 and the improvident or unhappy rogue has some 

 months of hard labour in prospect, without the 

 hope of another grano of compensation. Nor 

 does the proprietor run any risk in making this 

 prepayment ; for as the mariner can make no 

 engagement without presenting his passport, per- 

 fectly en rtgle, he is under the surveillance of a 

 vigilant police. The agreement between the par- 

 ties is made from the month of March to the 

 Feast of San Michaele (2Qth September) for vessels 

 destined for the Barbary coast, and from March 

 to the Feast of the Madonna del Rosario (Oc- 

 tober 2nd) for those whose destination is nearer 

 home. Each man receives from twenty to forty 

 ducats, according to his age, or skill, for the 

 whole voyage ; whilst the captain receives from 

 one hundred and fifty to four hundred ducats, 

 reckoning six ducats to one pound sterling. These 

 preliminaries being settled, let us imagine them 

 now on full wing, some for the coast of Barbary, 

 and others for that of Sardinia, or Leghorn, or 

 Civita Vecchia, or the islands of Capri, San Pietro, 

 or Ventotene, near which I have often seen them, 

 hour after hour, and day after day, dragging for 

 the treasures of the vasty deep. On arriving at 



