To-day we glided along the
coast, past the strongly fortified little island of Consino, standing
boldly out in mid-channel between Malta and Gozo. The Mediterranean
appears to us a highway after the lonely oceans and seas we have been
sailing over. Within one hour this morning, we saw more ships than in
the whole of our passage from Valparaiso to Tahiti and Yokohama.
Towards the evening we could see the island of Pantellaria in the
distance. We retain a lively remembrance of it from having been
becalmed just off it in the 'Albatross' for three weary days and
nights. It was after this and a long series of other vexations and
delays that Tom and I registered a vow never to go a long voyage again
in a yacht without at least auxiliary steam power.
_Friday, May 11th_.--At 2.30 a.m. Pantellaria was abeam. At five the
homeward-bound P. and O. steamer passed us quite close, and at six we
met the outward-bound P. and O. steamer. At eight we passed Cape Bon
and sailed across the mouth of the Bay of Tunis, in the centre of
which is Goletta, the port of Tunis, the site of the ancient city of
Carthage. Once we anchored close by that place for two or three days,
and on that occasion I collected enough varieties of marble and mosaic
from the old palaces to make some beautiful tables when we got home.
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