I found the people more benighted than in any of the other islands of the Mediterranean I had yet seen.
The population of the entire island is estimated at three hundred and fifty thousand; its length is one hundred and fifty miles, and it is from sixty to eighty miles in width. It belongs to the kingdom of Sardinia. The peasantry live in villages, and, not unlike those of the interior of the island of Sicily, go long distances to cultivate the soil, and may be seen at early morn in their coarse black cloaks, with hoods as substitutes for hats, and dark leggings below white cotton pants extending to the knees, trudging out with their donkeys, which bear their implements of husbandry.
The women and children, while watching their flocks of sheep and goats, have a sort of distaff in their hands, and spin with their fingers the coarse wool which serves for their rude covering.
In the mountains large numbers are found who have no habitations, and live in a state of barbarism, covering themselves with skins, bruising grain between two flat stones, and making a sort of paste which is cooked upon the ground, after the fashion of the Arabs on the desert sands.
The country is infested with bandits. Game is abundant, and fire-arms are kept by all who can afford them. Life is unsafe, and comforts are scarcely known in the cities; certainly not outside of them.
The roads are somewhat protected by gens d’armes, who are useful in pursuing the banditti. We picked up eighteen gens d’armes on the road; they say that the bandits fly at their approach, but if cornered, fight desperately.
My casual travelling companion was going to see a person under sentence of death for the murder of his brother; the culprit was in his employ and confidence, but he basely shot him in the back while they were riding their horses quietly along the road. My companion’s object was to ascertain what induced the commission of the crime. The custom is to execute the criminal, if possible, upon the spot where the assassination was committed.
The soil is fertile, but poorly cultivated, and thinly inhabited. The island has but little commerce. The olive groves look well, and furnish oil in abundance. Cork forests abound.
The town of Sassari is encircled with walls and gates; the streets are narrow, and badly paved; the houses are of stone, lofty, but filthy; the inhabitants are dirty. A very small portion of the people seem in easy circumstances. They have a theatre, which is not indifferent, as all the Italian races must have an opera. The cathedral, built in the thirteenth century, is the only respectable monument of antiquity which I found.
The clergy swarm, the profession being resorted to as a military exemption, and more profitable than that, without regard to fitness or qualification; consequently they have a bad reputation.