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Lot 560
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17 pp Poetic Account of Lt. George H.P. White's Ascent to the Summit of Mount Etna, ca. 1830
17 pp Poetic Account of Lt. George H.P. White's Ascent to the Summit of Mount Etna, ca. 1830
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Description:

George Henry Palby White
Sicily, Italy, ca. 1830-1832
17 pp Poetic Account of Lt. George H.P. White's Ascent to the Summit of Mount Etna, ca. 1830
AMS
A lengthy handwritten account by a British sailor of an ascent of Mount Etna in Sicily. 17pp, measuring 7.5" x 9.5", Sicily, n.d. (ca. 1830-32). Signed by George Henry Parlby White as "G. H. P. White Lieutenant Royal Navy." White goes into great detail about his journey and is quite poetic in his descriptions of the Sicilian landscape and history. A fantastic piece for any travel or hiking enthusiast! With minor creasing as well as wear to the spine where the manuscript may have been removed from a larger volume. Small tears at the edges along with light toning and soiling. Boldly signed. A full transcript of the account can be provided upon request.

Highlights from the manuscript:
"On the evening of the 13th of July, 1830, I set off from Catania with a party of my messmates, to ascend Mount Etna, taking the necessary guide, and two sumpter mules to carry the provisions, & c., as nothing in that way can be procured after leaving Nicolosi, which is a small village about twelve miles from Catania. Etna is divided by the Sicilians into three several regions. The first is called Piè di Montagna, the second Nemerosa , and the third Discoperta. The ascent, though very gradual, commences immediately on leaving the city of Catania, over a tolerably constructed road; the country around is formed on an ancient volcanic soil; probably the third eruption mentioned by Thucydides, which happened in the sixth year of the Peloponnesian war, and the second of the eighty-eighth Olympiad. Traversing the lands of Battianti, and St. Giovanni della Punta, the road is constantly over the lava, and the country on either side is delicious. Trecastagne, nine miles from Catania, is seated on the acclivity of a high volcanic mountain. The scene here is beautiful and picturesque…Towards the east the mountains of Calabria, the sea stretching from Taormina to Catania, bathing the sides of Etna, covered with vineyards, woods and villages: northward rises the mountain itself, surrounded by its progeny of pigmy mountains; these have been thrown up in various forms, composed principally of cinders, and covered with rich vegetation. The freshness of the air, the beauty and picturesque situations of the houses surrounded by lofty and fine trees, the over teeming fertility of the soil, and the laughing fields, where golden Ceres still lingers, unwilling to quit her favourite abode, intersected by courses of lava, as yet unproductive, make this view one of the most beautiful and interesting that can be imagined…

...At three o'clock, arrived at the Casa Inglese, a rude hut built by the English troops when stationed in Sicily, during the late war. Here it became again necessary to halt a little to put on some extra clothing. As soon as this was accomplished, the signal for the ascent was made by the guides giving each person of the party a long staff, to assist him in clambering the steeps, as the mules could not proceed any further, owing to the nature and fatigue of the ascent. The first portion of the road lay over large broken masses of lava, most wearisome to scramble over. On approaching nearer the apex, the path was over cinders, fine black sand, and scoria. In wading through this compound the ascent became so difficult and fatiguing, that we were all under the necessity of reposing every twenty or thirty yards, tormented by the sulphurous vapour, which rendered respiration painful, and was even less supportable than the abruptness of the mountain path! At length, after somewhat more than an hour's walk, the most harassing that can be imagined, we arrived at the top just as the day began to dawn. To paint the feelings at this dizzy height, requires the pen of poetic inspiration; or to describe the scene presented to mortal gaze, when thus looking down with fearful eye on the almost boundless prospect beneath! The blue expanded ocean, fields, woods, cities, rivers, mountains, and all the wonted charms of the terrestrial world, had a magic effect, when viewed by the help of the nascent light; while hard by yawned that dreadful crater of centuries untold, evolving thick sulphureous clouds of white smoke, which rolling down the mountain's side in terrific grandeur, at length formed one vast column for many miles in extent across the sky. Anon the mountain growled awfully in its inmost recesses, and the earth was slightly convulsed! We now attempted to descend a short distance within the crater; the guides, timid of its horrors, did not relish the undertaking, but were induced at length, and conducted the party behind some heaps of lava, from whence was a grand view of this awful cavern. The noise within the gulf resembled loud continuous thunderings, and after each successive explosion, there issued columns of white, and sometimes of black smoke. The crater presents the appearance of an inverted cone, the interior part of which is covered with crystallizations of salts and sulphur, of various brilliant hues - red appeared to predominate, or rather a deep-orange colour…

…It was soon requisite for us to retire from this spot, as the smoke began to increase, and our guides said that some adventurous travellers had lost their lives by approaching too near, and were either blown into the abyss below by the violence of the wind, which is generally very strong at this elevation, or suffocated by a sudden burst of the sulphurous vapour. Our senses were entranced for awhile, unused to such an awful display of nature, in this one of her wildest abodes. On our exit from the crater, the glorious god of day was beginning to peep from behind the mountains of Calabria, and the wondrous vision, hitherto undefined and vague, was soon spread out distinctly to the admiring eye. What hand could paint, what tongue express, or pen transcribe, the transcendantly glorious scene? As he advanced in his golden path, the whole of Sicily, the coast of Italy, and the Faro of Messina, seemed gathered round the base of Etna; while the giant shade of the mountain could be distinctly traced on the face of the island, and even over a portion of the sea…"

Admiral George Henry Parlby White R.N. (1802-1882) likely wrote this incredible entry sometime between 1819 and 1845, when he was a young naval officer stationed in the Mediterranean. He entered the Royal Naval College in November 1816 and served on ships within British waters before joining the crew of his father's ship HMS Superb in August 1819. He kept extensive journals of his travels, which are now held at Exeter University. White would later serve on HMS Implacable during the blockade of Alexandria in 1840 when the British navy engaged with Egyptian forces who had invaded Syria. He retired in 1863 and returned to live the rest of his life in Devon.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 7.5" x 9.5"
  • Medium: AMS

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