THE CALABRIAS.

[Calabria; during a Military Residence of Three Years, &c. In a Series of Letters, by a General Officer of the French Army, from the original MS. London, Effingham Wilson, 1832.]

The Calabrias, which are divided into two provinces, citra and ultra, occupy the extremity of the South of Italy, forming a peninsula one hundred and seventy miles in length, and varying in breadth from seventy to thirty-five miles. The beautiful Mediterranean sea flows round this peninsula, and a chain of the Apennines intersects it. The summit of these mountains is a vast platform called La Syla, which is admirable for pasture, and well provided with farm-houses and villages. The plains washed by the sea would be everywhere most fertile, but they have been neglected, and permitted to become swamped and pestilentially unhealthy in many places.

A little work has just been published, which contains some instructive and amusing information with regard to this part of Italy. This work is the translation of a French volume, entitled ‘Lettres sur les Calabres, par un Officier Français,’ which was published at Paris some twelve or thirteen years since. What the Author may have become we know not, but when he wrote his Letters he was nothing more than a subaltern;—a clever man, as his little book proves, yet still only a lieutenant of the line. But the translator, or publisher, appears to consider that the high-sounding additions of, “A General Officer of the French Army” and “from the original MS.” are necessary to the success of the book in its English dress. It is to be regretted that a volume which contains much to inform and amuse should be introduced to the English reader with the aid of such useless quackery; for the work is really valuable in itself, and requires no such arts to recommend it.

During his three years’ residence, the Author of these Letters, which were written on the spot, when the scenery and the romantic adventures he was engaged in were fresh and full in his mind, traversed the Calabrias several times in their whole extent, and in pursuit of partisans and brigands climbed mountains and penetrated into wild glens which for ages had probably never been visited except by the native robber or huntsman. He saw and described all the great towns, and the sites of the ancient cities of Magna Græcia; and his account of the productions and curiosities, manners and customs of these provinces, is full and most amusing. We subjoin two or three passages, describing the physical character of the country and the manners of its people:—

“The climate of Calabria varies according to the character and elevation of the soil, and is consequently favourable to all sorts of produce. In the plains, sheltered against the north wind, there are found sugar-canes, aloes, and date-trees; while the pine and birch cover the tops of the mountains. The great variety and richness of the productions of Calabria furnish an abundance of all the necessaries of life. It has grain of every description; wines which might be rendered as good as those of Spain and Languedoc, if the inhabitants had more intelligence and industry; and olive oil in such profusion, that it is kept in vast cisterns dug in the earth, or in the rock. Great quantities of silkworms (and silkworms of the very best quality) are bred here, which, together with the growth of cotton, form a considerable article of commerce. The liquorice root grows without cultivation; and in the forests is found a sort of manna, which is in great request. Immense droves of horned cattle pass alternately from the rich grazing grounds of the Syla to the aromatic pasture of the plains, where they remain during the winter. Their flocks are as vast as their herds. Their breed of horses is hardy, active, extremely swift, full of fire, and very numerous. And besides these the Calabrians have the excellent mule, so necessary for a mountainous country, and vast droves of the formidable buffalo, which they tame and employ in labour like an ox. In all parts of Calabria there is a great quantity of game of every description. The seacoasts abound with fish: the sword-fish alone supplies food to a part of the inhabitants during several months of the year, and the tunny forms a lucrative branch of commerce.… All this ought to produce comfort and opulence, but hardly any thing is met with but abject misery! Nature has done every thing for the country, but for many ages the vices of the government have marred its prosperity. The condition of the peasantry is most wretched: there is a total want of emulation. The climate and the soil do all the work. Productions of every kind are the spontaneous gifts of nature without any aid from art and industry. With the exception of a few cities, and some towns that are regularly built, all the other inhabited places present the most miserable and disgusting appearance: the whole interior of their houses is a mass of revolting filth: the pigs live familiarly with the inmates.… These people have no true principle of religion or morals. Like all ignorant masses, they are superstitious to excess. The most atrocious brigand carries in his bosom relics and images of saints, which he invokes at the very moment he is committing the greatest enormities.… The Calabrians are capable of being made excellent soldiers from their robust constitutions, their sobriety, activity, and quickness. If these people, isolated as they are from the rest of Europe, and entrenched behind impassable mountains, were actuated by a pure spirit of patriotism, political and religious, they would become invincible; and the country they inhabit might be rendered a sure and safe asylum against tyranny.”