80 Notes on a Tour in France, Italy, and Elba. 



and beautiful sepulchral monuments of Dante and Michael Angelo. 

 The chisel has here done its best to perpetuate many illustrious 

 names which I cannot now enumerate. The museum is rich in ob- 

 jects of art, and of the natural sciences. I have seen no collection 

 of minerals so large, and so valuable, except that of the Jardin des 

 Plantes at Paris. The galleries in the ducal palace are bewitch- 

 ingly attractive, adorned with the finest paintings and statues, glit- 

 tering with the richest articles of furniture, wnth sumptuous vases, 

 and tables, composed of the most costly and splendid minerals, in- 

 laid, such as malachite, amber, lazulite and many of the gems. 



Florence is sometimes termed " the city of palaces," and is right- 

 ly named. The palaces are numerous, and many of them exceed- 

 ingly elegant and capacious. Eleven of them were for sale when I 

 was in the city. Would you know the value of a palace in Flor- 

 ence ? At my request, our consul took me to the man, who had 

 the disposal of one of them. It was finely situated, was four stories 

 high ; had fourteen apartments, and some of them very spacious, on 

 each floor, or fifty six rooms in all. The price demanded for the 

 entire palace was seven thousand and three hundred dollars, or it 

 might be rented for any length of time, for three hundred and sev- 

 enty five dollars a year ! I left that noble and lovely city with deep 

 regret, and made my way to Leghorn by land. 



Unwilling to prosecute my journey into Switzerland, without see- 

 ing Elba, that singular island, celebrated the world over for its min- 

 eral productions, and scarcely less celebrated as having been the 

 place of Bonaparte's temporary confinement, I engaged a passage 

 to it in an open crazy boat, as no other could be obtained at the 

 time. The distance is forty five miles. She set off from Leg- 

 horn at noon. I spent a sleepless night on the waters of the 

 " Great Sea," having the heavens for my canopy, and a plank for 

 my bed. At six, the following morning, I rejoiced to arrive in 

 this city, Porto Ferrajo, which is finely situated on a broad and safe 

 bay, capable of affording good anchorage for five hundred ships of 

 war, and strongly fortified, containing about seven thousand inhabit- 

 ants, three churches, one theatre, the hotel de ville, and the gov- 

 ernmental palace, in which I am writing this communication. This 

 last edifice was in part erected, and was inhabited by Napoleon. 

 The American consul at Leghorn, Mr. Appleton, very politely gave 

 me a letter of recommendation from the governor of Leghorn to the 

 governor of the island of Elba. It procured me the kindest recep- 



