A note of charges for the trattoria, and for the hire of furniture, will be furnished to the passengers, on their applying for it.
Of the manner in which the time may be passed in a lazaretto, the following graphic sketch by Mr. Stocqueler, which appeared some time since in the "Asiatic Journal," will convey no imperfect idea:—
"Upwards of 140 passengers left Alexandria in the Oriental, at the end of May, for some fifty had joined it from Bombay; amongst the latter were several heroes of Meanee and Hyderabad—fine young soldiers, who were covered with honourable scars received in the desperate engagements between Sir C. Napier and the Belochees. Never, perhaps, was a vessel freighted with so many who had distinguished themselves in conflict with the enemies of their country. Not less than twenty-six officers, who had seen service in Afghanistan, China and Scinde, paced the deck every day, and described the scenes which their own prowess and that of their comrades had, for the previous three or four years, rendered memorable in the history of British India. But of this large number of homeward-bound passengers, only three (one having two ladies in his family), quitted the Oriental at Malta. Those who wished to prosecute the rest of their journey by land had either failed to make the necessary provision,[11]or shuddered at the prospect of twenty days' imprisonment in the lazaretto. Moreover, they flattered themselves with the belief, that they would be enabled to make the tour of the Continent when they had exhausted the various pleasures of glorious England. And so they steamed away to Southampton, leaving the few above alluded to—the writer of this among them—in the lazaretto, under suspicion of the crime of being afflicted with the plague.
"Meanwhile, let me assure the traveller from India, that even a three weeks' incarceration in the Malta lazaretto is not intolerable, if, which is generally the case with the imprisoned, he is lucky enough to have one or two pleasant and intelligent companions. I have before me, at this moment, a memorandum, written after twelve days' of captivity, and, as it may serve to re-assure future prisoners, by conveying some idea of the scenes, impressions, and occupations which diversify existence in the durance they are compelled to support, I here transcribe it:—
"'Let me survey my prison, and its agrémens. I am lodged in two commodious apartments, overlooking the quarantine bay. I look out of the southern window of my verandah, and have the waters of the Mediterranean forty feet only below me. Opposite, at the distance of about 300 yards, and divided from me by these waters and the quarantine harbour, are the ramparts of the fortifications, surmounted by windmills, flag-staves, and a small Roman Catholic chapel. To the right is the termination of the bay, where a dozen of Greek, Austrian, and English brigs and barques lie in quarantine, sufficiently near to allow me to observe the operations on board. Behind all these, a little more to the south-eastward, is part of the suburbs of La Valetta, the evening promenade, gardens, hills, &c. To my left, is the entrance to the bay, overlooked on one side by part of the city of La Valetta, and on the other side by Fort Manvel, now used as a part of the lazaretto. This view greets me whenever I stand in the verandah, a recreation to which one is often tempted by the clearness, coolness, and crispness of the air, the beauty of the sky, and the rich blue of the water. Well, this of itself is something. Then, for moving sights, we have occasionally the arrival or departure of a steamer from Alexandria, or Greece, or the coast of Spain; of vessels from Tripoli, and Smyrna, and Syra; of speronaros from Sicily or the Italian coast; or we see a vessel released from quarantine, working her way out of the harbour. Early in the morning, four times in the week, the bell of the little chapel, on the summit of a rock opposite the lazaretto, tolls to prayers. The chapel is not more than twenty feet in breadth, and the same in depth. The altar occupies the back or southern side, and exactly faces us. The bell ceases, the priest dons his canonicals, and the matin mass commences, the responses being audibly chanted or muttered by the crews of Maltese and Italian vessels, who are either quartered in apartments beneath us, or employed on board the vessels. The door of the chapel closes, and the work or pastime of the day commences.
"'Ha! there's a splash!—a sailor in quarantine has stripped himself, and plunged into the water beneath his prison-door. Another and another follow him! How admirably they swim! the ease of the water-fowl, and the rapidity of the fish. See! one of them dives! How long he remains under water! Will he drown?—will he not be suffocated? not a bit of it; he rises to the surface, bearing in his hands some of the black, starry, thorny members of the crustaceous tribe. He has a knife in his right hand, which I did not observe before, and which he evidently took with him to dislodge the fish from their location in the rocky depths. Splash! and the strong swimmer is again twenty feet below the surface. Again, he rises—and again descends—and behold! he has accumulated a perfect breakfast of shell-fish! Meanwhile, the others breast the waves, diving, floating, playing, and rejoicing in all the muscular strength which the noble, healthful, and refreshing science calls into action. Well, a walk will do no harm—the verandah is sixty paces long, and forty or fifty turns will give one an appetite for breakfast. A. and B. have abun dance of conversation for the promenade, and when we have exhausted the pleasures of memory, we can turn to the pleasures of hope, and debate the possibility of an abatement of the quarantine or, at any rate, discuss the respective advantages and pleasures of going to Syra, to Naples, or Marseilles. We are tired now, and it is time to dress. Breakfast is ready—can anything be more satisfactory, or anything more tempting and wholesome? There are coffee and tea, and three times as many rolls as we can eat! The eggs are as large as the finest production of the English barn-door hen, and boiled to the exact point—half a minute less, and the albumen would not have coagulated; half a minute more, and they would have been as hard as a stone. And there's a delicious dish of strawberries, brought only yesterday from the coast of Sicily, and plucked but an hour before their embarkation! And flowers too:—
'The captive soothers of a captive's hours.
"'Carlo, best of servitors, knows my penchant, and decks the table with the rose, the pink, the carnation, and the fragrant thyme.