ature of the atmosphere, and the temperament of the body which is stung; and he tells us farther, that the bees are more peaceably disposed in temperate climates, than in those where the heat is extreme.[1] For this he gives the authority of the Abbé della Rocca, who asserts that these insects are not so irritable in the comparatively moderate climate of France, as they are in the Grecian Islands where he had resided; and in proof of this he gives one or two anecdotes which are worthy of being recorded. A small privateer with 40 or 50 men, having on board some hives made of earthen-ware full of bees, was pursued by a Turkish galley manned by 500 seamen and soldiers. As soon as the latter came alongside, the crew of the privateer mounted the rigging with their hives, and hurled them down upon the deck of the galley. The Turks, astonished at this novel mode of warfare, and unable to defend themselves from the stings of the enraged bees, became so terrified, that they thought of nothing but how to escape their fury; while the crew of the small vessel, defended by masks and gloves, flew upon their enemies sword in hand, and captured the vessel almost without resistance. The Abbé's next anecdote is nearly as extraordinary. When Amurath, the Turkish emperor, during the siege of Alba Græca, had battered down part of the wall, and was about to take the town by assault, he found the breach defended
- ↑ This is an error, if we may believe the accounts which travellers within the tropics have given of the bees in those regions.
