270 
LETTERS FROM 
injury, for our names and a description of 
our persons were entered in the papers of 
the vessel, and a very strict inquiry would 
have been made at Marseilles if any of the 
passengers had been missing. 
Every evening, except in very bad wea¬ 
ther, all the crew assembled aft, and chanted 
a Latin hymn or prayer, which lasted about 
half an hour. Sometimes at the conclusion, 
Diego and another boy hissed the hands of 
the old pirate, who in return muttered a few 
words, intended, as we supposed, for a bless- 
ing. 
I kept no journal during the voyage, but 
I think it was on the second night after 
leaving Messina that we passed within a few 
miles of Stromboli, one of the Lipari islands, 
and we had the pleasure of seeing jets of 
lire of a bright scarlet colour issuing from 
the crater. Our captain said, that had we 
