Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/38

2 From the 21st to the 26th January was occupied in obtaining letters and recommendations from the Council and Officers of the Royal Society, the British Minister for Foreign Affairs, and some noble or eminent scientific persons in London, to the Government of the kingdom of Naples, its well-known jealousy causing much doubt whether its permission might be obtained for the author to travel into the earthquake districts.

On the 27th January the author left London, stopping a day at Paris, for the purpose of conferring with and receiving any suggestions that those there engaged in geological research might have to offer as to his intended labours; and another at Dijon, in conference with Professor Perrey, the distinguished author of many works on seismology, with a like object. On the 5th February, 1858, he arrived at Naples, where he was detained until the 10th, awaiting the tedious decision of the Neapolitan Government as to whether or not it would permit his journey into the interior. This permission was at length granted by telegraph from the king, then at Gaeta; and, accompanied ultimately by letters of authority to the Intendenti, Judici, Syndici, and Gendarmetie of all the provinces proposed being traversed, enjoining them to give safe conduct and all possib!e assistance to the author and his objects. Before leaving England he had been favoured by Cardinal Wiseman with an encyclical letter, commending the object of his mission to the good offices of the clergy of all denominations in the interior. This valuable letter he was enabled, after an interview with the Cardinal (Sisto) Archbishop of Naples, to get approved and