We acknowledge a strong paternal feeling in behalf of this book, placing it very high in the estimate of its merits, as compared with other books from the same pen: a species of commendation that need wound no man. Perhaps some knowledge of Italian character is necessary to enjoy the "vice-governatore" (veechy-gov-er-na-"to"-re), and the "podesta"; but we confess they have given us, in reading over these pages for the first time since they were written, quite as much amusement as if they were altogether from an unknown hand. As for the Mediterranean, that unrivalled sea, its pictures always afford us delight. The hue of the water; the delicious and voluptuous calm; the breathings of the storm from the Alps and Apennines; the noble mountain-sides basking in the light of the region or shrouded in mists that increase their grandeur; the picturesque craft; the islands, bays, rocks, volcanoes, and the thousand objects of art, contribute to render it the center of all that is delightful and soothing to both the mind and the senses. The reader will recollect the painful history of Caraccioli. We have taken some liberties with his private history, admitting frankly that we have no other authority for them than that which we share in common with all writers of romance. . . .

Many are unfamiliar with James Fenimore Cooper, even though every American comes across his work in the class or on TV. Today he is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo. Cooper's most famous novel is The Last of the Mohicans, which was one of the novels comprising The Leatherstocking Tales and was later made into a popular movie.

The charms of the Tyrrhenian Sea have been sung since the days of Homer. That the Mediterranean generally and its beautiful boundaries of Alps and Apennines with its deeply indented and irregular shores forms the most delightful region of the known earth in all that relates to climate productions and physical formation will be readily enough conceded by the traveller.