Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/482

 initial port on Friday. The barber is mistaken. For thirty years or more, the P. & O. line has sent a ship out of London every Friday. Nine-tenths of all you hear is untrue. The barber also says that the famous expression, "See Naples and die," is founded on a play on words. In the bay of Naples there is an island called Morreai, which in Italian, means something connected with death. The original saying was, "See Naples and Morreai," but in a spirit of levity the English translated the saying, "See Naples and die."

—This afternoon we passed the "Lusiana," an Italian emigrant ship also bound for New York. The "Lusiana" left Naples a day before we did, but it is slow, and we overhauled it. We passed it within a hundred yards, and marveled at the manner in which it pitched and rolled; probably the big "Canada" was cutting up in a similar manner, viewed from the decks of the "Lusiana," which were black with emigrants. The emigrants did a good deal of cheering as we passed The "Canada" is also a faster ship than the "Princess Irene," the favorite, and we are hoping that we may overtake it, and jeer at the passengers. The "Princess Irene" had a start of nearly twenty-four hours, as it did not stop at Palermo By-the-way, as we left the "Lusiana" behind, I caught the geographies in a ridiculous error. They all say that at sea, the last sight of a disappearing vessel is the top of its masts; which proves, the geographies say, that the world is round. The curvature