628  Retrofpect of Domeftic LiteratureVoyages, Travels, St. 
interefting at the prefent time. The 
plan of its harbours and fortified places 
is ftated to be a correct copy of that 
which was taken by the French Gene- 
ral Vaubois, by order of Bonaparte ; 
the other drawings of Malta were taken 
on the fpot, and inall probability may 
be depended on. We underitand Mr. 
Anderion did net proceed further than 
Malta. i 
In a vault beneath the church at Citta 
Veechia, the ancient metropolis of the 
ifland, are now feen the mouldering forms 
ef feveral monks, who, till the arrival of 
the French, were the officiating priefthood. 
Mr. Anderfon gives their brief, extraor- 
dinary, and lamentable hiftory in the fol- 
Towing words :—‘* Soon after Bonaparte 
Jeft this ifland to condu& his expedition 
tato Egypt, a French garrifon was marched 
into Citta Vecchia, whole firft obje& was, 
as ufual, to pillage the public buildings, 
and plunder the inhabitants; and when 
they found refiftance, maffacre and blood- 
fhed accompanied their rapine. When, 
therefore, they began to defpoil this ve- 
nerable edifice, the monks fled for fafety 
into the adjoining catacombs, and, being 
loft in their fubterranean mazes, were 
flarved to death: nor were they found till 
after the enraged peafantry had rifen to 
revense their wrongs, when, aftera plen- 
tiful maffacre of the French, they drove 
the reft to the fhelter of La Valetta. The 
Inhabitants of Citta Vecchia, to perpe- 
tuate the hatred of this act of facrilege, 
as weil as of the people who praQifed it, 
have placed the bodies of thele pious vic- 
tims in a vault beneath the church, whcre 
they appear in the drefs of their order, 
and in the attitude in which they were 
found dead in the catacombs.” This was 
the aét of a lawlefs foldiery, for which the 
sovernment of France can harciy be re- 
tponfible. The defign to deliver the ifland 
of Malra to the Order of St. John of 
Jerufalem, by the Engi:th, at the treaty 
of Amiens, was unjuit and cruel. 
The Maltefe were the firft who tock up 
arms againft the French, and befieged 
them in Waletta:* they were afterwards 
afifted by the Portuguefe, the Neapoli- 
tans, andthe Englifh, the foreigu troops 
being folely auxthianes, and the Maltese 
* This account is abbreviated from the man- 
ly and affe@ting remonfirance which the Mal- 
tele drew up on the 22d of O&ober, 1801; 
the moment they were acquainted with the 
tignature of the preliminaries of peace. it 
was brought to London by certain Deputies 
in Sebruary, and prefented to Lord Hovart. 
the principals in the war. The gates of 
Valetta were fhut. on the 2d of September, 
1798, and on the 4th of September, 1800, 
the city furrendered. During the block- 
ade the Maltefe loft 20,000 fouls; the 
Britith army had not a fingle foldier killed. 
Reduced to the utmoft extremity, from a 
fcarcity of provifions, the French garrifon 
offered to capitulate, and to leave hoftages 
for the vaft {ums that they had taken from 
the public treafury, from the univerfi- 
ty, from the Monte di Pieta, from the 
churches, and, laftly, from individuals, un- 
der the name of forced loans. The Bri- 
tifh General, as well as the Maltefe, were 
acquainted with the fituation of the French 
garrifon; they knew that in two days they 
muft furrender at difcretion; and in the 
city there were aétually found no more 
than a few falms of wheat, and no other 
provilions whatever. Notwithftanding 
this, General Pigot granted the garrifon 
a capitulation, by which the French were 
permitted to carry away all their ef- 
fects. In confequence of which, before’ 
the gates were opened, the French again : 
plundered the city of the few jewels and 
effects which ftill remained to the aban- 
doned' inhabitants, and cairied them in 
triumph on board the veflels that were to 
convey to France the fpoils of a vidtorious 
peopie. The Britith troops took poffef- 
fion of the place, and perfuaded the Mal- 
tefe to lay down their arms upon the gla- 
cis before they entered the town. Con- 
fiding in the good faith of the Britifh na- 
tion, the Maltele configned the govern- 
ment of their country into the hands of the 
Britith Generals without fufpicion, without 
ftipuiation, and faithfully obeyed them as 
minifters of the Sovereign whom their 
hearts had eleéted. As to the manner in 
which they were treated, they wifh to re- 
main filenc; as they are fully perfuaded 
that it will be reprobated, with horror 
and regret, by the Minifters of the King 
of Great Britain. The expences of the 
war by land, and the pay of the Maltefe 
battalions, were defrayed by the Maltele ; 
and inorder to enable them to do this, 
they mortgaged the lands of feveral vil- 
lsges. The Maitcfe, therefore, demand: 
that their ifland may be reftored to them; 
or that all the expences incurzed by them,’ 
for their fhare of the war, may be paid” 
them, andthat they may beindemnified for 
the loffes occafioned by the wary and for the 
plunder which the French were permitted 
to carry away.” The deputies proceed to 
inveftigate and invalidate the claim of the 
Knights of the Order of St. John to their 
ifland; ‘they have forfeited (fay they) 
Z whatever 
