The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-01 00:00:00

rather anxious to witness their attempt "to shut
the door of the stable when the horse had got
out." Our curiosity was so much the more
excited as the Marseilles steamer, while
going two nights ago into Messina, had almost
come into collision with one of the Nea-

politan cruisers. The night had been hazy and only
occasionally and for a moment illuminated by glares
of lightning. One of the flashes brought suddenly
into relief the square topsails of the cruiser for a
moment, like the revival of the phantom ship, and
the French captain had only time to put his helm
hard a starboard, back the engines, and thus
escape a collision.

The night of our journey was tolerably bright, so
that, in spite of the proverbial clumsiness of the
Neapolitan navy, there was little chance of any
such stirring incident. But whether Neapolitan
cruisers go about only in a haze, or whether they
only cruise once or twice a week, with the excep-
tion of a guardship stationed near the lighthouse in

the straits, we did not perceive, either that night or
the next morning, the slightest traces of vigilance
on the north shore. The whole Neapolitan navy
seems to be taken up in guarding Palermo, Mes-
sina, and Catania, so that, if the Italians chose, they
might land almost anywhere on the open coast
when and whatever they pleased.

We sailed quite close to that picturesque north
coast without perceiving the slightest stir or move-
ment. Had it not been for the towns and villages
which are dotted about all along, we might have
supposed it a land of the dead, not a boat or sail
anywhere to be seen. The news had reached Mes-
sina the day before of Cefalu, a town just half-way
to Palermo, having established a Provisional Govern-
ment ; we looked out, therefore, with double into.
rest towards Ras-uggeld (the Dog Promontory),
which stands out boldly with its pointed peak, and
is only a few miles distant from Cefalu. A large
mountain range, called the Neptunian chain, runs
all along Sicily from east to west, rising to an eleva-
tion of from 3,000 to 4,000 feet towards its centre,
and throwing out its spurs to the north and south of
the island. The range is nearer to the north coast, and
is in sight all along from Messina to Palermo. The
spurs .which run down to the sea form a succession
of promontories, with smaller or larger bays between
them, serving as an outlet for the little streams
which flow down from the mountains. I mention
this feature, which is repeated likewise to the south-
west, less for its picturesqueness than because it will
help to understand the nature of the insurrection.
The transverse chains which run out from the main
chain of the Neptunian mountains form so many
different districts of insurrection, and give that
local character to it which, before Garibaldi's arri-
val, made all concerted action extremely difficult,
if not impossible. All equally detesting the Nea-
politans, most of those districts are able to get rid
of their rule without much difficulty. The Neapo-
litans have never militarily occupied the interior,
and the administration was carried on by native
Sicilians. To get rid of these and the few police-
men was therefore all that had to be done. Very
different was the case in the large towns, which
were held in force by the Neapolitan troops, and
which required co-operation from outside to got rid
of their masters.

A coasting expedition brings this at once before
your eyes. The Capo Zaffarano to the east, and the
Capo de Gallo to the north, mark the limits of the
Accordingrroamountain
unngde
ewd atshr
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lgotdbewebnwy lasth
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one used his eyesight and glasses long before we
were near enough to see some sign or •ther of the
insurrection. It was noon, and had we not been
preparing ourselves to decorate the good ship Vul-
ture in honour of her Majesty's birthday, we should
have been startled when we saw on approaching all
the men-of-war on the station fire a long salute,
and, with-the exception of two Austrian frigates
and the Neapolitan squadron, show themselves
decked out in their best colours. The sound of the
salute had scarcely died away when we took our
pilot on board, and soon after anchored near the
ligAhtbhooauts,ewaitththteheheNadeaopfotlhiteanmle.
fioag,
approached in
the usual fashion, but it contained merely the cus-
tomhouse- officers, who took the manifest in a careless
manner, and disappeared soon after. No sign of the
police ! We asked, and were told laughing that
they had all left their posts, and either embarked
for Naples or absconded. Things were more ad-
vanced here than at Messina evidently, for there the
, while here they had
Indiesraeplpyeagrrendw.neTivhliis was a strong sign of
pathloteleicgteeimthheaesdr, but stronger even was the manner in
which the people came on board and spoke about
events. There was no fear of authority and its
spies, and no one concealed his hopes and his de-
lsioglhditearst, twhiethtutrhne which
htitohn of
things
had taken, The
a thousand or so,
had left the town to encounter Garibaldi, who had
been expected to attack Monreale, to the south of
the town, on the road to Alcamo and Trapani.
While the soldiers executed this movement on the
23d, armed insurgents came down, but not on Mon-
reale, but towards Parco, a little village like Mon-
reale, on the slopes of the chain which encloses
Palermo, and not more than six Italian miles dis-
tant. The soldiers, who saw the enemy appear in
a different direction from that in which they were
expected, returned to face this unexpected force,
and, according to the accounts of the townspeople,
suffered a loss of 500 men. While this was related
to us volumes of smoke, both in the village of
Parco and the plain of the Conca d'Oro, which
separates
that another engagement was tak-
ing pla Ce. thew slopes
s from the town, were pointed
had seen that smoke before, but
owing to the haze it was difficult to make out
out
signs
whether it was merely from burning houses, or
whether it was the smoke of firing. This smoke
se
to us as
became henceforth an object of attention. It was

* Not yet cecoiyed,