MALTA AND SICILY. 
17 
water. It appears to be built on a peninsula 
stretching out a long way into the sea, and 
forming an extensive and commodious har¬ 
bour inside. Many of the houses have tur¬ 
rets on the roofs, and as they are built of a 
very light-coloured stone, the town has a 
beautifully clean and cheerful appearance. 
We could see several fine churches, and one 
which we were informed had been in pro¬ 
gress for fifty years, and is still unfinished, 
for want of funds, I conclude. The scene 
was greatly enlivened by multitudes of fish¬ 
ing-boats, which were rigged quite differently 
from any we see on our own coasts, for they 
had only one sail, called a lateen sail, which 
reached from stem to stern. The boatmen 
had as foreign an appearance as their craft; 
most of them had high conical hats, with the 
brims turned up all round, and they all wore 
c 
