"My dear son, I entreat you to provide me with a tari a day, in order that your sister may, in some measure, be relieved of the burthen I am to her at present, and that I may not perish from want. Remember the divine command, and help a poor mother, who is reduced to the utmost extremity. I give you my blessing, and press to my heart both thee and Donna Lorenza, thy wife.
"Your sister embraces you from her heart, and her children kiss your hands.
"Your mother, who dearly loves you, and presses you to her heart.
"Palermo, April 18, 1787."
Some worthy and exalted persons, before whom I laid this document, together with the whole story, shared my emotions, and enabled me to discharge my debt to this unhappy family, and to remit them a sum which they received toward the end of the year 1787. Of the effect it had, the following letter is evidence.
"Dear and faithful Brother:—
"Dearest Son:—
"The joy which we have had in hearing that you are in good health and circumstances, we cannot express by any writing. By sending them this little assistance, you have filled with the greatest joy and delight a mother and a sister who are abandoned by all, and have to provide for two daughters and a son. For, after that Mr. Jacob Joff, an English merchant, had taken great pains to find out the Donna Giuseppe Maria Capitummino (by birth Balsamo), in consequence of my being commonly known merely as Marana Capitummino, he found us at last in a little tenement, where we live on a corresponding scale. He informed us that you had ordered a sum of money to be paid us, and that he had a receipt, which I, your sister, must sign,—which was accordingly done; for he immediately put the money in our hands, and the favourable rate of the exchange has brought us a little further gain.
"Now, think with what delight we must have received this sum, at a time when Christmas Day was just at hand, and we had no hope of being helped to spend it with its usual festivity.
