a province of Naples. The river Pescara divides it into two parts; one of which is called Ulterior, of which Aquila is the capital; and the other Citerior, whose capital is Chieti. Besides the Apennines, there are two considerable mountains, the one called Monte Cavallo, and the other Monte Majello; the top of which last is always covered with snow. Abruzzo is a cold country; but the rigour of the climate is not so great as to prevent the country from producing in abundance every thing requisite for the support of life. Vegetables, fruits, animals, and numberless other articles of sustenance, not only furnish ample provision for the use of the natives, but also allow of exportation. It produces so much wheat, that many thousands of quarters are annually shipped off. Much Turkey wheat is sent out, and the province of Teramo sells a great deal of rice little inferior in quality to that of Lombardy. Oil is a plentiful commodity, and wines are made for exportation on many parts of the coast; but wool has always been, and still is, their staple commodity; the flocks, after pasting the whole summer in the fine pastures of the mountains, are driven for the winter into the warm plains of Puglia, and a few spots near their own coast, where the snow does not lie. There are no manufactures of woollens in the province, except two small ones of coarse cloth. The greatest part of the wool is exported unwrought. No silk is made here, though mulberry trees would grow well in the low grounds.

Formerly the territory of Aquila furnished Italy almost exclusively with saffron; but since the culture of that plant has been so much followed in Lombardy, it has fallen to nothing in Abruzzo. In the maritime tracts of country the cultivation of liquorice has been increased of late years, but foreigners export the roots in their natural state: in the province of Teramo there is a manufactory of pottery ware, for which there is a great demand in Germany, by the way of Trieste, as it is remarkably hard and fine; but even this is going... Abruzzo, to decay, by being abandoned entirely to the ignorance of common workmen. It is not to be expected that any improvements will be made in arts and manufactures, where the encouragement and attention of superiors is wanting, and no pains taken to render the commodity more marketable, or to open better channels of sale for it. The only advantages these provinces enjoy, are the gift of benevolent nature; but she has still greater presents in store for them, and waits only for the helping hand of government to produce them. This whole coast, one hundred miles in length, is utterly destitute of sea ports; and the only spots where the produce can be embarked are dangerous inconvenient roads, at the mouths of rivers, and along a lee-shore: the difficulty of procuring shipping, and of loading the goods, frequently causes great quantities of them to rot on hand; which damps industry, and prevents all improvements in agriculture. The husbandman is a poor dispirited wretch, and wretchedness produces emigration: the uneven surface of the country occasions it to be inhabited by retail, if the expression may be used, rather than in large masses; for there is not a city that contains ten thousand people, and few of them exceed three thousand. Villages, castles, and feudatory estates are to be met with in abundance; but the numbers of their inhabitants are to be reckoned by hundreds, not thousands: in a word, the political and social system of the province shows no signs of the vigour which nature so remarkably displays here in all her operations.

The antiquary and the naturalist may travel here with exquisite pleasure and profit; the former will find treasures of inscriptions, and inedited monuments, belonging to the warlike nations that once covered the face of the country; the natural philosopher will have a noble field for observation in the stupendous mountains that rise on all sides. Monte-corno and Majello are among the most interesting. The first is like an aged monument of nature; bald, and horribly broken on every aspect; from various appearances, it is evident that its bowels contain many valuable veins of metallic ore; but the great difficulty of access renders the search of them almost impracticable. Majello has other merits, and of a gayer kind:—nature has clothed its declivities and elevated fields with an infinite variety of plants.

The character of the inhabitants varies a little among themselves, according to situation and climate, but essentially from the disposition of the natives of the more southern provinces. This proceeds from a difference of origin: for the Lombards, who were barbarians, but not cruel; poor, but hospitable; endowed with plain honest sense, though possessed of little acuteness or subtlety; remained peaceable proprietors of these mountainous regions, till the Normans, who were accustomed to a similar climate, came and dispossessed them. The Greeks who retained almost every other part of the kingdom under their dominion, never had any sway here. For this reason the Abruzzese still bear a great resemblance to their northern progenitors or masters: to this day one may trace in them the same goodness of heart, but great indolence and repugnance to lively exertions; a fault that proceeds rather from a want of active virtue, than a disposition to wickedness. Hence it comes, that in these provinces, where the proximity of the frontier almost ensures impunity, fewer atrocious and inhuman deeds are heard of than in other parts of the realm. Remnants of ancient northern customs existed here late as the beginning of this century, and, among the mountaineers, very evident traces of the Frank and Teutonic languages may be discovered.