covered, so that the pigs dug them out and
ate them. I saw one devouring the leg of a
man.

Some soldiers had been sent down by the
government; but they gave themselves up to
plunder and drinking. They broke into the
cellars of Montemurro, drank the wine,
and then they and the poor plundered right
and left. One man, who happened to be
walking with me, was arrested for stealing
four thousand ducats. One of the great
sufferers in Montemurro was Baron—— .
His house had fallen, and he had been buried
in the ruins, and his right leg rendered
useless. The first shock had buried him up to
his shoulders, but two beams above had kept
the house from falling upon him. He heard
the voice of his daughter upstairs, lamenting
and calling out for him, but he answered,
that he could not move! " The second
and the third shock came," he told me,
"and threw the beams upon my head, crushing
me to the ground. An opening was,
however, left before my mouth, just sufficient
to allow me to breathe, and speak to my
daughter. The next shock closed up even
this aperture. Not a limb could I move,
and the only member of my body that
I could use was my tongue. With this I
worked at the ground, and blew the dust
away, until I managed to re-open the
communication with my child. For three hours
I heard her dying voice, and finally her
very last tones." The Baron was got out
safely, and so was his wife; but the daughter
and two sons were killed.

In this place I distributed one hundred and
forty-five ducats, and left ninety-six ducats
behind me. By my orders, some agricultural
instruments, too, were made at Spinosa, which
I distributed, as also some working materials
for shoemakers. I was, however, deceived by
a genteel-looking woman coming to me one
evening, and crying and asking for assistance.
I gave her ten piastres; but afterwards
heard that she had five thousand or
six thousand ducats in her possession. On
hearing this statement I went and asked
her for what I had given her, and she restored
it. So few people had been spared by the
earthquake in the mountains, that it was
useless to attempt building, and I advised the
authorities to get the people away. They
were occupied, however, in erecting a great
wooden church, and in digging for an old
wooden Madonna, which, on its being found,
was carried in procession, and stuck up in
their church.

The next place I visited was Viggiano;
which, like all the others named, may be
found on a good map of Italy. One
thousand people had been destroyed here, but
as a considerable population still remained
and all their houses were broken, I saw the
necessity of building huts. For this purpose,
I rented a piece of ground for two years, at
eighteen ducats a year; built over a part of
it; and  accommodated twenty-eight families.
Here I remained a month, three weeks of
which I spent in my barrack, ill with fever,
and keeping the money under my pillow.
For eight or nine days I ate no food, and
was in a barbarous country, without any
one to assist me; but my good constitution
helped me through. Whilst staying in
Viggiano, I sent some people to inquire into the
state of Spinosa, and two hundred persons
came over to me, and received relief. I sent
money also to Marsiconnovo, and to Brienza;
but as the authorities would not put their
names to the list of those who were to receive
it, the money was brought back again to me.
In Tranutola, I distributed three hundred and
forty-four ducats to the poor. In Viggiano,
I distributed six hundred and twelve ducats,
whilst the whole cost of housing twenty-eight
or thirty families was not more than five-
hundred and sixty ducats, or one hundred
pounds. During this time, too, I never ceased
to feed the people, and on one day I fed not
less than five thousand persons, and thousands
on every day that I remained. The cost of
feeding them did not exceed one hundred and
thirty-two ducats. On leaving Naples, I
brought with me five thousand one hundred
and forty-nine ducats, and I took back one
thousand nine hundred and ten ducats.
Small sums I had, however, lent to some
reduced persons, at five per cent, interest, for
there were some offering it at twenty or
thirty per cent. To the people, I stated that
I was ready to take as many orphans as they
would bring me, and receive them into my
silk factory, in Sant Torio, near Portici.
Twenty were offered to me. It is my intention
to go back to this part of the country in a
few months, and build some model houses of
stones, with vaulted roofs. One room and one
kitchen, I calculate, could be built for one
hundred ducats, or eighteen pounds.

Viggiano has a special interest of its own
as being a city of Troubadours. From the
middle ages, the inhabitants had wandered
over Asia and Europe, with their harps and
violins, and after the lapse of many years
they come back with their thousands
sometimes, and build or add to the family house.
Every generation adds something; thus, in
the very architecture of the place there was
a  quaintness. As many, too many are abroad,
the population is of a varied  character; and I
found here men with wives from Spain and
Germany, England and New York. Poor fellows!
they had lost everything. Their dwellings on
the top of a mountain had been all thrown
over. I bought a harp for one, and shall
assist others in like manner. When Grumento
was destroyed by the Saracens, the inhabitants
fled to the tops of the mountains, and
there erected Sapouara, Montemurro, and
Veggiano.

It was whilst I was in this latter place that
I was visited by the Intendente of Basilicata,
a gentleman who distinguished himself by his