32 
A GLRA THROUGH SICILY. 
can scarcely furnish a more deplorable example of the decay 
of civilization in the old world than one meets with at every 
turn of the road throughout the interior of Sicily. It is almost 
impossible for the American traveler, accustomed as he is to 
progress and enterprise, and all their concomitant results, to 
comprehend the barbarous condition in which these poor 
people live. Passing through the villages at night, I saw 
many of them asleep on the road-side, without covering or 
shelter; and the squalor and destitution of those who lived 
in houses surpass belief. Whole families are huddled to¬ 
gether in one wretched apartment, without beds or furniture, 
living in common with mules, goats, and swine, and about 
as cultivated as the brutes around them. Few that I con¬ 
versed with had ever heard of America, and even those who 
knew there was such a country, had no idea whether it was 
in China or in England. That such a state of things should 
exist in the nineteenth century, in a country once so highly 
civilized, and still boasting antiquities that excite the admira¬ 
tion of the world, is almost incredible. 
The implements of agriculture, the rude and half-savage 
appearance of the people, the entire absence of the comforts 
of civilization, all bore evidence of the depressing effects of 
military rule. “ What object is there in these poor wretches 
endeavoring to benefit their condition ?” said my friend, the 
Italian, to me. “ What good will it do them to increase their 
crops, or build better houses, or educate their children ? The 
more they have, the heavier they are taxed; they naturally 
think they might as well remain idle as labor for the support 
of a horde of brutal soldiers to keep them in a state of slavery; 
and there is no incitement to education, for it only makes 
them the more sensible of their degraded condition. Yet it 
is not to be contended that they are fit for self-government; 
all they need is a judicious and humane system of laws, which 
will afford them adequate protection against the errors and 
follies of despotic rulers. They are not deficient in capacity 
or industry, where they have any object in making use of 
their natural gifts. You see them now in a state of hopeless 
degradation and bondage.” 
