The account our friends gave us the next morning, led us into a dissertation on fireballs, which philosophers say are produced by an exceeding great power of electricity, gradually accumulated, until the resistance of the atmosphere being no longer able to sustain it, it drops down slowly, and in no particular direction, not being drawn by any substance which would attract this electric matter, in the shape of common lightning. October 10th. Sunset. A westerly breeze has carried us past Cape Spartevento, and we are now just an hundred miles from the coast of Sicily. Mount Ætna is still in sight, and the sun setting directly behind it, forms one of those heavenly scenes, which at once affects us with the beautiful and sublime. Notwithstanding our very great distance, the mountain is so many degrees above the horizon, that would day-light continue, we should see it twenty miles farther. How great does nature appear in these wonderful works! October 11th. Lat. 37° 36′. In the last twenty-four hours we have run an hundred and forty-three miles, and are so far across the Adriatic, or Gulph of Venice, as to have land in sight a-head. This breeze is almost the only fair one we have had since we left Gibraltar, and it is now growing calm. October 12th. Sunset. We are now between Zante and Cephalonia, with the Morea in front. The part of the islands near us are very rocky and barren, with no verdure except from some scattered olive trees, and brushwood; but the more distant part of Cephalonia appears well cultivated. Sunday, October 14th. We lay to all the night before last, and yesterday morning anchored in the harbour of Zante. Lat. 37°. 50′. Long. 21°. 15′. east. The nearest part of this island is nine miles from Cephalonia, and the same distance from the Morea, and an hundred leagues from Messina. It is above seventy miles in circumference; contains forty thousand souls, and carries on a very considerable trade in dried fruits, particularly currants, so called from a corruption of Corinth, from whence the vines were originally imported. On the hill above the town there is a fort, very advantageously situated, but much out of repair. It is subject to the Venetians, who have now a ship of the line and three frigates in the harbour. The senior Captain very civilly informed us, that, from his great respect for the English, he would be happy to salute us, if we would return gun for gun; to which we readily consented. By orders from Venice, the Governor at this juncture, imposes a quarantine of seven days on all vessels, even from his own nearest ports; and therefore, not being allowed to land here, we are going to a less frequented part of the island, where the quarantine is not enforced. October 15th.