&c.

1

MONACO, GENOA, &c.

ON the twelfth of December, 1699, I set out from Marseilles to Genoa in a Tartane, and arrived late at a small French port called Cassis, where the next morning we were not a little surprised to see the mountains about the town covered with green olive-trees, or laid out in beautiful gardens, which gave us a great variety of pleasing prospects, even in the depth of winter. The most uncultivated of them produce abundance of sweet plants, as wild-thyme, lavender, rosemary, balm, and myrtle. We were here shown at a distance the Deserts, which have been rendered so famous by the penance of Mary Magdalene, who, after her arrival with Lazarus and Joseph of Arimathea at Marseilles, is said to have wept away the rest of her life among these solitary rocks and mountains. It is so romantic a scene, that it has always probably given occasion to such chimerical relations; for it is perhaps of this place that Claudian speaks in the following description:

Est locus extremum pandit quà Gallia littus
Oceani prætentus aquis, quà fertur Ulysses
Sanguine libato populum movisse Silentúm,
Illic Umbrarum tenui stridore volantûm
Flebilis auditur questus; simulachra coloni
Pallida defunctasque vident migrare figuras, &c.

CL. In. Ruf. lib. 1.

* These travels are entertaining; especially to the classical reader. But the expression in this agreeable narrative is frequently careless: or possibly, the author, in the time of his travels, had not acquired the habit of that exact style, for which he was afterwards so famous. However, the general cast of the composition is elegant, and is even marked, occasionally, with that vein of humour, which characterizes the best works of Mr. Addison; as the reader will observe, more especially, in the chapter on the little republic of St. Marino, and that of Meldingen in Switzerland.

A place there lies on Gallia's utmost bounds,
Where rising seas insult the frontier grounds.
Ulysses here the blood of victims shed,
And rais'd the pale assembly of the dead:
Oft in the winds is heard a plaintive sound
Of melancholy ghosts that hover round;
The lab'ring plowman oft with horror spies
Thin airy shapes, that o'er the furrows rise,
(A dreadful scene!) and skim before his eyes.

I know there is nothing more undetermined among the learned than the voyage of Ulysses; some confining it to the Mediterranean, others extending it to the great ocean, and others ascribing it to a world of the poet's own making though his conversations with the dead are generally supposed to have been in the Narbon Gaul.

Incultos adiit Læstrigonas Antiphatenque, &c.

Atque hæc ceu nostras intersunt cognita terras,

Fabula sive novum dedit his erroribus orbem. TIB. 1. 4. el. 1.

Uncertain whether, by the winds convey'd,

On real seas to real shores he stray'd;

Or, by the fable driven from coast to coast,
In new imaginary worlds was lost.

The next day we again set sail, and made the best of our way, till we were forced, by contrary winds, into St. Remo, a very pretty town in the Genoese dominions. The front to the sea is not large, but there are a great many houses behind it, built up the side of the mountain to avoid the winds and vapours that come from sea. We here saw several persons, that in the midst of December, had nothing over their shoulders but their shirts, without complaining of the cold. It is certainly very lucky for the poorer sort, to be born in a place that is free from the greatest inconvenience, to which those of our northern nations are subject; and indeed without this natural benefit of their climates, the extreme misery and poverty that are in most of the Italian governments would be insupportable. There are at St. Remo many plantations of palm-trees, though they do not grow in other parts of Italy. We sailed from hence directly for Genoa, and had a fair wind that

carried us into the middle of the gulf, which is very remarkable for tempests and scarcity of fish. It is probable one may be the cause of the other, whether it be that the fishermen cannot employ their art with so much success in so troubled a sea, or that the fish do not care for inhabiting such stormy waters.

-Atrum

Defendens pisces hyemat mare

HOR. Sat. 2. lib. 2.

While black with storms the ruffled ocean rolls,

And from the fisher's art defends her finny shoals.

We were forced to lie in it two days, and our captain thought his ship in so great danger, that he fell upon his knees and confessed himself to a capuchin who was on board with us. But at last, taking the advantage of a side-wind, we were driven back in a few hours time as far as Monaco. Lucan has given us a description of the harbour that we found so very welcome to us, after the great danger we had escaped.

Quaque sub Herculeo sacratus nomine portus
Urget rupe cavâ pelagus: : non Corus in illum
Jus habet aut Zephyrus: Solus sua littora turbat
Circius, et tutâ prohibet statione Monaci.

The winding rocks a spacious harbour frame,
That from the great Alcides takes its name:
Fenc'd to the west, and to the north it lies;
But when the winds in southern quarters rise,
Ships, from their anchors torn, become their sport,
And sudden tempests rage within the port.

Lib. 1.

On the promontory where the town of Monaco now stands was formerly the temple of Hercules Monæcus, which still gives the name to this small principality.

Aggeribus socer Alpinis atque arce Monaci
Descendens.-

VIRG. Æn. 6.

There are but three towns in the dominions of the prince of Monaco. The chief of them is situate on a rock which runs out into the sea, and is well fortified by nature. It was formerly under the protection of the Spaniard, but not many years since drove out the Spanish garrison, and received a French one, which con

sists at present of five hundred men, paid and officered by the French king. The officer who showed me the palace told me, with a great deal of gravity, that his master and the king of France, amidst all the confusions of Europe, had ever been good friends and allies. The palace has handsome apartments, that are many of them hung with pictures of the reigning beauties in the court of France. But the best of the furniture was at Rome, where the prince of Monaco resided at that time ambassador. We here took a little boat to creep along the sea-shore as far as Genoa; but at Savona, finding the sea too rough, we were forced to make the best of our way by land, over very rugged mountains and precipices: for this road is much more difficult than that over mount Cennis.

The Genoese are esteemed extremely cunning, industrious, and inured to hardship above the rest of the Italians; which was likewise the character of the old Ligurians. And indeed it is no wonder, while the barrenness of their country continues, that the manners of the inhabitants do not change: since there is nothing makes men sharper, and sets their hands and wits more at work than want. The Italian proverb says of the Genoese, that they have a sea without fish, land without trees, and men without faith. The character the Latin poets have given of them is not much different.

Assuetumque malo Ligurem.

The hard Ligurians, a laborious kind.

Pernix Ligur.

Fallaces Ligures.

Apenninicola bellator filius Auni

VIRG. Georg. 2.

SIL. IT. el. 8.

Aus. Eid. 12.

Haud Ligurum extremus, dum fallere fata sinebant. Æn. 11.

Yet like a true Ligurian, born to cheat,

(At least whilst fortune favour'd his deceit.)

Vane Ligur, frustraque animis elate superbis,
Nequicquam patrias tentasti lubricus artes.

Vain fool and coward, cries the lofty maid,
Caught in the train which thou thyself hast laid.

Id.