98 THE SEA. 



" His body's under hatches, 

 His soul has 'gone aloft.'" 



"Going aloft" in the Mediterranean has a very different meaning: it signifies passing 

 upwards and eastwards from the Straits of Gibraltar. We are now going aloft to Malta, 

 a British possession hardly second to that of the famed Rock itself. 



CHAPTER VII. 



ROUND THE WORLD ON A MAN-OF-WAR (continued}. 



MALTA AND THE SUEZ CANAL. 



Calypso's Isle A Convict Paradise Malta, the " Flower of the World "The Knights of St. John Rise of the Order 

 The Crescent and the Cross The Siege of Rhodes L'Isle Adam in London The Great Siege of Malta Horrible 

 Episodes Malta in French and English Hands -St. Paul's Cave The Catacombs Modern Incidents The Shipwreck 

 of St. Paul Gales in the Mediterranean Experiences of Nelson and Collingwood Squalls in the Bay of San 

 Francisco A Man Overboard Special Winds of the Mediterranean The Suez Canal and M. de Lesseps His 

 Diplomatic Career Said Pacha as a Boy As a Viceroy The Plan Settled Financial Troubles Construction of the 

 Canal The Inauguration Fete Suez Passage of the Children of Israel through the Red Sea. 



APPROACHING Malta, we must " not in silence pass Calypso's Isle." Warburton describes 

 it, in his delightful work on the Eastf a classic on the Mediterranean as a little 

 paradise, with all the beauties of a continent in miniature ; little mountains with craggy 

 summits, little valleys with cascades and rivers, lawny meadows and dark woods, trim 

 gardens and tangled vineyards all within a circuit of five or six miles. 



o o / 



One or two uninhabited little islands, " that seem to have strayed from the continent 

 and lost their way/' dot the sea between the pleasant penal settlement and Gezo, which 

 is also a claimant for the doubtful honour of Calypso's Isle. Narrow straits separate it 

 from the rock, the "inhabited quarry," called Malta, of which Valetta is the port. The 

 capital is a cross between a Spanish and an Eastern town; most of its streets are flights 

 of steps. 



Although the climate is delightful, it is extremely warm, and there is usually a 

 glare of heat about the place, owing to its rocky nature and limited amount of tree-shade. 

 "All Malta," writes Tallack,| "seems to be light yellow light yellow rocks, light yellow 

 fortifications, light yellow stone walls, light yellow flat-topped houses, light yellow palaces, 

 light yellow roads and streets." Stones and stone walls are the chief and conspicuous objects 

 in a Maltese landscape; and for good reasor, ior the very limited soil is propped up and 

 kept in bounds by them on the hills. With the scanty depth of earth the vegetation 

 between the said stone walls is wonderful. The green bushy carob and prickly cactus ave 



* Vide "Malta Sixty Years Ago," by Admiral Shaw. 



t " The Crescent and the Cross." 



1 " Malta under the Phoenicians, Knights, and English," by "W. Tallack. 



