MALTA AND SICILY. 
197 
captain appeared to think this very fast 
sailing. The vessel was a very small brig, 
named the San Pietro, a painting of which 
saint was hung up in the cabin, with a lamp 
burning* before it by night and by day. 
For an English vessel of this size, three 
men and a boy would have been considered 
a very sufficient crew, but we had no less 
than twelve hands on board, a filthy and 
half-savage Company, but very civil and 
good-tempered to us, and I believe they 
did their utmost to make us comfortable. 
They certainly failed in the attempt, for we 
had a most miserable voyage. The cabin 
was very small, and although some attempt 
had been made to purify it, it was still so 
filthy, that as a place of shelter for the 
night it offered fewer attractions, either to 
the eye or to the nose, then the well-littered 
pigsties of an English farm-yard. But the 
