File:The Revolution in Sicily (letter from Capt. John W. Peard).jpg

LETTER FROM CAPT. JOHN W. PEARD.

JULY 18, 1860

The Florence correspondent of the Boston Transcript furnishes that journal with the following letter from that "gallant Garibaldino. Capt. JOHN W. PEARD." He adds that Miss ABBY FAY, of Boston, was to sing on the evening of July 1, at a concert to be given in behalf of the Sicilian fund. It would be her first appearance.

PALERMO, Friday, June 22, 1860.

DEAR _____: Here we are, all safe, although I hear the papers have said the contrary. We left Genoa with three steamers, one of which ran on to Leghorn to embark laborers for the Isthmus of Suez, and after a good passage, got into Cagliari. Not so the American clipper with a battalion on board that sailed twenty-four hours before us. The Neapolitans fell in with her off Cape Corso, and captured her. She is now, with all her cargo, both live and dead, at Naples. Yesterday the American man-of-war on the station sailed for that port to demand her peremptorily. She was taken on the high seas, not in Neapolitan waters -- therefore her capture is an act of piracy by the laws of nations. Notwithstanding that loss, we landed 2,500 men, and large supplies of Enfield rifles and ammunition.

Palermo is in a frightful state from the bombardment. Accounts vary as to the number of shells thrown into the city; but the best report I can get gives them at about 800. The Toledo is in places quite blocked up with ruins. Near the palace, nearly an entire street is burned. In other parts, ruins meet you at every step. At present, the people are hard at work removing the barricades and leveling the Castello-a-mare, from which the shells were thrown. All the works toward the city are to be razed to the ground. The people are wild with joy at their deliverance. A friend of mine asked a man, yesterday, if it was a festa. "Yes, signore, every day is a festa now," he said, with tears rising to his eyes. Those who were present tell me never was anything like GARIBALDI's entry into the city. He had not above six hundred available men beside the Sicilian levies, and the enemy was twenty thousand strong! I am sorry to say a great many Mazzinianists have arrived. They will much, damage the cause of Italy by their presence. Extraordinary are the ravages of the royal troops -- villa; sacked and burned. I was in one, yesterday, that belonged to the Neapolitan Minister, CAVONA. They had destroyed everything they could not carry away. The floor was strewed with broken mirrors, chandeliers, marbles, vases, busts, &c. His own room they had piled up with furniture, and tried to set the building on fire. In another villa, a valuable library (apparently, for I had not time to examine more than a few of the books) was totally destroyed, the torn books being as high as a man's waist. I saw some Spanish MSS., royal decrees, &c., which would be invaluable to Sicilian historians, torn to pieces. After the armistice, the royalists sacked upwards of a thousand houses, and committed numberless murders.

We have with us a clever artist from the New-York Illustrated News, who is making beautiful sketches. The Illustrated London News also has an artist here, and the London Times a correspondent. I am writing in great haste, as a steamer is off directly for Genoa Remember me to the Trolled family and all friends. With respects to -- Yours, truly,