‘280 
LETTERS FROM 
V. 
not meet with their approbation; we then 
crossed the harbour to the Pratique office, 
where we were detained more than an hour, 
while our papers were under examination. 
The captains of several other vessels were at 
the office, for the same purpose as ourselves, 
and as the court in which we stood was very 
small, we were obliged to be extremely 
careful not to come in contact with any of 
them, as that might have subjected us to a 
long quarantine. 
Palermo is a large and beautiful city. 
The handsome shops and the numbers of 
well-dressed people and of carriages in the 
streets, make it a very gay and entertaining 
place; but the weather was so wet during a 
great part of our stay there, and we were so 
exhausted by our long starvation, that we 
were prevented from seeing much of the 
city or the neighbourhood. There is a very 
