\ 
2 LETTERS FROM 
When we left Falmouth, that town had not 
yet been officially declared quite free from 
the cholera ; consequently we could not be 
furnished with “ a clean bill of health,” as it 
is called, and for want of this we are pre¬ 
vented from landing at any healthy port in 
the Mediterranean without first performing 
quarantine. Is not this vexatious ? We are 
lying close to the pier, and a plank reaches 
from our vessel to the shore, but if any of 
our company were to step a single yard be¬ 
yond the middle of this forbidden bridge, he 
would immediately be addressed in no very 
gentle terms by a surly officer, called a 
“ Health Guardian,” who is continuallj r walk¬ 
ing backwards and forwards on the quay, and 
if his admonitions should be disregarded, a 
sentinel with a loaded musket is close at 
hand, with orders to shoot any obstinate 
transgressor of the quarantine regulations. 
