It was the battleground of the Romans and Carthaginians.

Pisa, Genoa, and Naples have all contended for its possession; and the Moors frequently make descents upon its coasts.

It has seldom enjoyed a peaceful and settled government.

The consequence is that general lawlessness prevails in the districts remote from the towns; while in the forests that clothe the side of Mount Etna, there are numerous hordes of bandits who set the authorities at defiance, levy blackmail throughout the surrounding villages, and carry off wealthy inhabitants, and put them to ransom.

No one in his senses would think of ascending that mountain, unless he had something like an army with him." "I should like to try it, all the same," Matteo asserted.