Page 165 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1860 CAMPAIGN IN SICILY 163

May 10 th – They sailed with the fear of meeting the Neapolitan navy, and
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therefore the Mille were lying down in the holds. In the night of the 10 , the
Piemonte and the Lombardo, having outdistanced one another during the sail-
ing, almost attacked one another, each believing that the other was the enemy.
Garibaldi called the pilot Castiglia, and expressed to him his intention of
landing at Porto Palo, following Crispi’s proposal. Castiglia replied that it was
a bay with very shallow waters, with no means for quick disembarkation, and
proposed Marsala, a more capable and better-equipped port, as an alternative.

May 11 th – At daybreak, the expedition arrived near the Marettimo
Island. Rounded the south-eastern promontory of Favigana, they caught
sight of Marsala, with two warships at anchor in the harbour. This worried
all of them, but soon afterward, when coming alongside with a cargo ship, an
English schooner, they learned that the two ships were English and a person
named Strazzeri, owner of a fishing boat they met offshore, told them that
the previous evening a company had left Marsala for Trapani and also the 4-
ship Bourbon naval Division had left for Capo Bianco.
The problem of lack of ammunitions that had forced the expedition to go
to Talamone and Orbetello, and the time wasted to rescue a man who had fall-
en overboard had caused a delay that now turned out to be really providential.
What was the Bourbon government doing in the meantime?
After receiving the news from Genoa of the preparations for Garibaldi’s
expedition, they had informed Lieutenant Castelcicala in Sicily of that as
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early as April 28 ; then, envisaging the different landing scenarios, they had
a 4-ship Division (Valoroso, Stromboli, Partenope and Capri) cruising those
waters under the lead of Captain Cossovich, while other smaller ships coast-
ed the island.
Moreover, they ordered the setting up of two trenched camps in Palermo
and Messina and reinforcements for the garrisons in those strongholds that
had to communicate with one another via the ships.
As for Castelcicala, seeing Palermo in a state of agitation and fearing
another uprising, called back to the capital the mobile columns of Primerano,
Letizia and D’Ambrosio, that were covering the province of Trapani, and hav-
ing been informed from Malta about a possible enemy landing in Sciacca,
ordered the naval Division to go there. These orders, too, were really provi-
dential for the Mille.