Page 10 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

8 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

These Italian exiles were almost all generous men hardened to any danger.
They were mostly of a romantic temperament as was the tendency of that
time; imbued with mystical and naïve cosmopolitanism; revolutionary part-
ly because of their upbringing and habit, partly out of necessity and, politi-
cally fervent republicans, they belonged mostly to the large family of the
“Giovine Italia” (Young Italy), created only a few years before by Giuseppe
Mazzini, the austere apostle of the Italian unity idea.
They held in their heart and spread around the world as a sacred duty of
faithfulness an honour, the sublime words of the great Master appealing by
now only to God and the People for the liberation and regeneration of the
homeland after trusting in vain in the participation of Italian princes.
Among the last exiles arriving in America in that period, a singular type
of young Italian sailor who stood out in the working-class neighbourhood
around the port of Rio de Janeiro, native of Nice, landed in Brazil at the
beginning of 1836, from the Nautonnier ship, flying French flag. His name
was Giuseppe Garibaldi, an unknown name to all then, apart from the sea-
farers of Nice who had known for a while of his extraordinary audacity and
mastery as a sea captain, as well as the members of the Genoa divisional war
council, that two years before condemned him to death in his absence as one
of the heads of the revolt of February 1934 in that city.
He was a handsome young man of about thirty years of age, of average
height, with broad shoulders and strong, lean and well-proportioned limbs.
His expression, usually quietly serious and meditative, at times opened into a
smile illuminated by a lively expression of sharp intelligence and ideal kind-
ness. His voice was particularly harmonious and vibrant when, in chorus with
his compatriots, sang the hymn of the “Giovine Italia”. Everything in him
emanated calm resolution and serene energy; but when some intense emotion
troubled his soul, his strange blue eyes revealed the deep excitement, acquir-
ing a dark tone like that of a sea which seems tranquil but hides a storm with-
in. The lines of his features, properly classic, were stern and austere. He held
his handsome head always proudly erect, with a long blond Nazarene style
mane and full reddish beard tawny reflexes in the sun, giving a leonine
impression to the entire face. He was without doubt, a singular champion of
beauty and physical strength. But those who approached him were also
immediately attracted and overpowered by the powerful charm that emanat-
ed from that young man, because of his even greater moral beauty, that