232

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

forming his journey to Sicily by land to the extremity of jCalabria , instead of embarking at Naples. His friends, and ;I amongst the rest, did all in our power to dissuade himfrom so dangerous an experiment, especially at a juncture of 'trouble and revolution. The Calabrians are a very strong >■athletic race of men ; and although their dress is not gene- ■rally so much ornamented with gold and silver as those of iAbruzzi and the mountainous districts of the Roman states, \it is nevertheless very picturesque. A sugar-loafed hat, iwith generally a cock’s feather stuck in it; brown jacket, jwithout collar, the shirt collar turned down, displays a fine jneck, covered by long, black curly hair and beards; sandals Smade of a single piece of hide, attached at the four corners jto bands of red worsted, bound round the legs, enable them jto run on rocks, where no man with stiff solid shoes could ;walk without falling. A gun, a pistol, and a knife, with jcartridge pouch in the manner of a belt, completes the jequipment, which is common to every male above twelve jyears old. The Calabrians, no more than the other peasants jof Italy , are really of predatory habits; but their personal jappearance, and the stories, part true, part exaggerated, of jrobberies at Fondi, Itri, and other places not in Calabria , jgave currency to the belief, amongst those who know no jbetter, of every Calabrian being inclined to use his arms [against the first man he meets whom he thinks worth plun- jdering. This is an egregious error ; but be it as it may, mypoor friend La Fleche , would have done better had he beeninfluenced by the prejudice and by our exhortations.

Off he went, and quite alone; and, further to increase hisdanger, he took with him a handsome English portmanteau,and sent, as he ought to have done by this, the rest of hisbaggage by sea. On the evening of the third day of hisdangerous journey, La Fleche arrived with his guide, his ,mule, and sumpter donkey, at a place called Logo \