is monk called wealth would be poverty to
me. He offered to share with me, and seemed very proud at my consenting
to honour him so far.

The tartan touched at the harbour of Pola, called Veruda, and we landed.
After a walk up hill of nearly a quarter of an hour, we entered the city,
and I devoted a couple of hours to visiting the Roman antiquities, which
are numerous, the town having been the metropolis of the empire. Yet I
saw no other trace of grand buildings except the ruins of the arena. We
returned to Veruda, and went again to sea. On the following day we
sighted Ancona, but the wind being against us we were compelled to tack
about, and we did not reach the port till the second day. The harbour of
Ancona, although considered one of the great works of Trajan, would be
very unsafe if it were not for a causeway which has cost a great deal of
money, and which makes it some what better. I observed a fact worthy of
notice, namely, that, in the Adriatic, the northern coast has many
harbours, while the opposite coast can only boast of one or two. It is
evident that the sea is retiring by degrees towards the east, and that in
three or four more centuries Venice must be joined to the land. We landed
at the old lazzaretto, where we received the pleasant information that we
would go through a quarantine of twenty-eight days, because Venice had
admitted, after a quarantine of three months, the crew of two ships from
Messina, where the plague had recently been raging. I requested a room
for myself and for Brother Stephano, who thanked me very heartily. I
hired from a Jew a bed, a table and a few chairs, promising to pay for
the hire at the expiration of our quarantine. The monk would have nothing
but straw. If he had guessed that without him I might have starved, he
would most likely not have felt so much vanity at sharing my room. A
sailor, expecting to find in me a generous customer, came to enquire
where my trunk was, and, hearing from me that I did not know, he, as well
as Captain Alban, went to a great deal of trouble to find it, and I could
hardly keep down my merriment when the captain called, begging to be
excused for having left it behind, and assuring me that he would take
care to forward it to me in less than three weeks.

The friar, who had to remain with me four weeks, expected to live at my
expense, while, on the contrary, he had been sent by Providence to keep
me. He had provisions enough for one week, but it was