No. 85.] 327 



From its proximity, it might more naturally be said with the former, 

 as Cape Passaro lies distant to the North only nineteen leagues, while 

 Cape Demas, the nearest land of Africa, is in a south southwesterly 

 direction, at a distance of one hundred and eighty miles. So near 

 are Malta and Sicily to each other, that when the weather is clear the 

 eloud-ca,pt summit of Mount ^tna is distinctly visible from the ter- 

 races of Valletta ; and Cape Passaro, with the rugged coast in its vi- 

 cinity, may be traced for miles along our northern horizon. Those 

 who call it an European island, rely on these facts in proof of their 

 assertion. Others who entertain a different opinion, and have given 

 the subject their study, assert that though it is more distant from Af- 

 rica, yet the soundings to that continent are gradual ; that it was peo- 

 pled in ancient times by the Carthagenians ; that the islanders have 

 to this day the Arab features, and speak a language by which they 

 van easily make themselves understood by their Arab neighbors ; and 

 lastly, that the stratification of the whole southern border of the is- 

 land exactly corresponds with that of Barbary, which runs in the "line 

 of its direction." The decision one makes on this subject is of no tri- 

 fling importance to the islanders, for if Malta is in Europe, they are 

 termed, in the broad sense of the word, Europeans ; if in Africa, they 

 are Arabs. " Ptolemy has placed it in Africa, while Pliny and Stra- 

 bo have given it a situation betw^een the islands of Italy."* 



Curious it is, that though the Maltese, in different ages, have been 

 tributary to the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthagenians, Romans, Van- 

 dals, Goths, Arabs, Normans, Germans, Spaniards, Knights of St. 

 John, French and English, yet that they should at all times have kept 

 themselves so aloof from their conquerors, as to leave it a matter of 

 doubt in the Christian world from whence they are descended. We 

 have said the Christian world, for a learned Arab once remarked to a 

 capuchin friar, that though they differed so much in their religion, 

 still their language told them they were of a common origin ; that 

 their fathers were the same. One Italian writer, who was very much 

 puzzled how to decide as to the claim of the Maltese to an European 

 birthright, has come to the following (we think unfair) conclusion : 

 That, as the Maltese women have at all times been considered an im- 

 moral race, the natives might now claim a descent from all the pow- 

 ers which have ever ruled over their island. Surely, if this statement 

 is correct, it would be a strange mixture from which to form a nation, 

 and in a measure account for its present degraded condition. 



" They whom many fathers share, 

 Seldom know a father's care." 



The Maltese people are wretchedly poor. We do not think that 

 there are fifty families among them who can live from their paternal 

 estates, and of these fifty, not five who have a thousand pounds a year, 

 unless this sum is made up by a government salary, which very few, 

 if of any amount, have the good fortune to enjoy. Several causes 

 exist to produce this general misery, and if some wholesome measures 

 are not soon adopted to counteract, or remove them, the islands of 



* The treatises of Dolomieu, St. Priest, and the Count de Borch, may be profitably 

 •consulted by those who take an interest in this discussion. 



