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malissimo ... avessimo dovuto morire dalla fame e dalla miseria'.^ Also lacking the
punctuation skills which characterised many Italian speakers' writing," Celestino
expressed vividly the suffering of passengers: comparing their beds with those on
which his pigs slept, the use of a familiar farming analogy served to highlight the sense
of degradation. In contrast to his expectations, Celestino had arrived in Australia weak
and hungry from the voyage and been left to wander the streets of Sydney chewing on
a loaf of bread. His greatest comfort coming from his compatriots ~ whom he referred
to 2LS fratelli (brothers) ~ Celestino would have appreciated the strength of village and
kinship ties.
Another member of the Righetti family who appears to have accompanied
Celestino and Battista on the voyage to AustraUa was eighteen-year-old Aquilino
Righetti who, like Celestino, also documented his experiences for future generations.
Despite naming the vessel on which he travelled the // Saint. Liduine, and claiming to
have boarded in October and disembarked in April rather than (as Celestino claimed)
to have boarded in April and disembarked in October, it was almost certainly the same
vessel. The discrepancy may have arisen from Aquilino's belief that he would arrive in
Australia's springtime which, coming from Europe, signified April. His statement,
'sbarcammo a Sydney nel mese di aprile, e credendo di giungere in primavera',
points to his sense of confusion and difference connected with such a global movement
as travelling from the northem hemisphere to the south. Describing the voyage,
AquiUno was no less critical than Celestino of the passengers' treatment.
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