AT MALTA. 99 



to be seen; but in the immediate neighbourhood of Malta few trees, only an occasional 

 and solitary palm. Over all, the bright blue sky; around, the deep blue sea. You must 

 not say anything to a Maltese against it ; with him it is " Flor del Mondo " the " Flower 

 of the World." 



The poorest natives live in capital stone houses, many of them with facades and fronts 

 which would be considered ornamental in an English town. The terraced roofs make up to 

 its cooped inhabitants the space lost by building. There are five or six hundred promeiiadablu 

 voofs in the city. Tallack says that the island generally is the abode of industry and content- 

 ment. Expenses are high, except as regards the purchase of fruits, including the famed 

 " blood," " Mandolin " (sometimes called quite as correctly " Mandarin "} oranges, and Japan 

 medlars, and Marsala wine from Sicily. The natives live simply, as a rule, but the 

 officers and foreign residents commonly do not ; and it is true here, as Ford says of the 

 military gentlemen at Gibraltar, that their faces often look somewhat redder than their 

 jackets in consequence. As in India, many unwisely adopt the high living of their class, 

 in a climate where a cool and temperate diet is indispensable. 



The four great characteristics of Malta are soldiers, priests, goats, and bells the latter 

 not being confined to the necks of the goats, but jangling at all hours from the many church 

 towers. The goats pervade everywhere ; there is scarcely any cow's milk to be obtained in 

 Malta. They may often be seen with sheep, as in the patriarchal days of yore, following their 

 owners, in accordance with the pastoral allusions of the Bible. 



What nature commenced in Valetta, art has finished. It has a land-locked harbour 



'really several, running into each other surrounded by high fortified walls, above which rise 



houses, and other fortifications above them. There are galleries in the rock following the 



Gibraltar precedent, and batteries bristling with guns ; barracks, magazines, large docks, 



foundry, lathe-rooms, and a bakery for the use of the " United " Service. 



To every visitor the gorgeous church of San Giovanni, with its vaulted roof of gilded 

 arabesque, its crimson hangings, and carved pulpits, is a great object of interest. Its floor 

 resembles one grand escutcheon a mosaic of knightly tombs, recalling days when Malta was 

 a harbour of saintly refuge and princely hospitality for crusaders and pilgrims of the cross. 

 An inner chapel is guarded by massive silver rails, saved from the French by the cunning 

 of a priest, who, on their approach, painted them wood-colour, and their real nature was 

 never suspected. But amid all the splendour of the venerable pile, its proudest possession 

 to-day is a bunch of old rusty keys the keys of Rhodes, the keys of the Knights of St. John. 

 What history is not locked up with those keys ! There is hardly a country in Europe, 

 Asia, or Northern Africa, the history of which has not been more or less entangled with 

 that of these Knights of the Cross, who, driven by the conquering Crescent from Jerusalem, 

 took refuge successively in Cyprus, Rhodes, Candia, Messina, and finally, Malta. 



The island had an important place in history and commerce long ere that period. The 

 Phoenicians held it 700 years; the Greeks a century and a half. The Romans retained 

 it for as long a period as the Phoenicians ; and after being ravaged by Goths and Vandals, 

 it was for three and a half centuries an appanage of the crown of Byzantium. Next came 

 the Arabs, who were succeeded by the Normans, and soon after it had become a German 

 possession, Charles V. presented it to the homeless knights. 



