Download (14Mb) - VUIR - Victoria University

contracted to pay) the joumey became one of much greater hardship than they had
anticipated.
The chief complaint among passengers on the Adele was the poor standard of
food, which fell far short of the terms of the travel agreements. For breakfast the
passengers had expected to receive coffee, bread and sugar; for lunch, stew, bread,
meat and vegetables and for dinner, bread, meat and soup. What they received instead
was coffee and less than six ounces of bread, which was supposed to last all day; for
lunch a tiny amount of stew and one and a half ounces of bread and for dinner putrid
soup. On one occasion, they were served horse meat so inedible that it had to be
thrown overboard. As the passengers grew thin and iU and began to riot, the captain
threatened to take the most troublesome to Brazil to be hanged. This subdued the
dispute but did not lessen the tension, which persisted throughout the joumey.^" The
passengers were continually seasick as well as frightened by storms and by a fire in the
galley. Together with another seven Maggesi ~ Felise Cheda, Maurizio Stocchini,
Tobia Bonetti, Antonio Negranti, Domenico Bonetti (the two Bonettis were possibly
related to Vincenzo's wdfe Serafina Bonetti) and Giacomo and Martino Garzoli ~ the
Quanchis suffered 110 days of fear and torment. Finally, when it berthed at Melboume
on 1 November, the Adele released to the soil 176 Ticinesi, many of whom had
become less tmsting in their fellow man and of a successful life in Australia.
Prior to their departure, the Quanchi boys had each borrowed 660 francs from
the Maggia council (Alessandro's youth apparently not being of concem to the
govemment officials) " which, upon their arrival, left them with less than 160 francs
114