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FRANK
LESLIE’S NEW YORK JOURNAL.
291
Route of the Overland Mail to India.
Arter passing Algiers, the Maltese islands are
soon sighted. They are Malta, Gozo, Comino, and
Filfla. At Malta, the principal isle, the outward
bound, coming free from the imputations of plague,
which cover the homeward passengers, are at liberty
at once to go on shore, and see the “lions” of the
place.
Malta is a small island, not more than forty-four
miles in circuit. From being literally an immense
magnesian limestone rock, without any trees of large
size, and a part of the year without any verdure
whatever, its natural aspect is dreary and barren.
The whole of the southern.coast is precipitous and
inacessible, the rocks rising perpendicularly from the
sea to the height of 500 or 600 feet. The island
slopes from the southern to the northern side.
There are no streams, and but few springs. The
rain water is collected in tanks, which are carefully
excavated in the rock, and lined with cement. The
inhabitants of Valetta and the shipping are supplied
with water by means of a magnificent aqueduct,
which conveys it from springs in the southern part
of the island. Although Malta seems by nature to
have been condemned to barreness from its rocky
character, yet the skill and industry of its people
have converted many parts into fertile fields. The
produce is cotton (which is its staple), wheat, barley,
pulse, potatoes, &c. .The Malta orange is superior
to all others, and melons, figs, and grapes are of a
particularly fine flavor. The vegetables are excel-
ent. There are no wild animals or venomous rep-
tiles ; but to compensate in some degree for this,
the whole island swarms with mosquitos. We think
that we do not err in stating that we have seen, on
the walls of a single room, not less than ten thou-
and at the same moment. On account of the
scarcity of pasture, few cattle are bred. Meat is
principally imported from Barbary.. The salubrity
of the climate may be judged of from the fact of the
range of the thermometer being remarkably equable :
seldom falling below fifty degrees in January, or
rising above eighty-eight degrees during the summer
months.. From June to September, the common
people often sleep all night in the streets. We have
had occasionally to: pick our way. very carefully
round a man, his wife, and half a dozen urchins, lest
we shouid stumble over them in the dark, and dis-
turb the slumbers of an entire family. On these oc-
casions they draw a mattress to the door of their
house, but the children generally enjoy the luxury
of the stones... In the day-time, {rom twelve to two,
the facchini (the lazzaroni of Malta), barefooted, with
sleeves rolled up, long red or blue.woollen caps,
light shirts, vests, and pantatoons, generally working
as porters, take a. comfortable siesta in the open
street. They usually lay themselves down after
dining, perhaps on bread,‘oil, and luscious grapes,
draw the long dangling end of their cap over their
face, as a protection both from sun and mosquitos,
and thus enjoy their repose as calmly as though on
a couch of down.
Malta contains two principal ports on the south-
east side, which’are separated by a tongue of land a
mile and a half long, on which are built the Castle
of St. Elmo anda lighthouse, commanding the en-
trance to both ports. This tongue of land is two
hundred feet above the level of the sea, but lowers
towards the point, and is almost flat at the part
where it joins the mainland. On this advantageous
position is built the city of Valetta, which is the
seat of government and the citadel of the island. : It
is defended on all sides by the most stupendous for-
tifications, constructed chiefly by the soldier-monks
of St. John of Jerusalem, Other works situate on
the opposite side of the great harbor are of nearly
equal strength, amongst which is the powerful castle
of St. Angelo, that rakes the entrance of the harbor,
with four tiers of guns, and completely forbidding
every approach. Altogether, the place is considered
impregnable.
When the British troops took possession of the
place, after the capitulation of 1800, there were up-
wards of 800 picces of ordnance mounted on the
fortifications. The land front of Valetta is defended
by a strong line of works, which stretch across from
one port to the other, having within them two very
high *cavaliers,” which command the town. and
country, and look into the works onthe. opposite
sides of cach harbor... This front is strengthened by
adry dich running its whole length, excavated in
the rock to a depth varying from 90 to 140 feet.
Outside the works of Valetta there is a suburb called
Floriana, and beyond this is another series of fortifi-
cations. ‘lhe total wumber of embrasures in the
defences of Valetta and its ports, including the three
cities of Borgo, Darmola, and Isola, is 947.
The great harbor,, which is to the eastward of
Valetta, is about 3,400 yards in length, with an)
entrance 450 yards wide, defended by a strong fort. |
The harbor varies in width from 700 to 450 yards, |
without including three inlets, which are of them-|
selves ports, and capable of containing many ships |
of war. ° In one of these is situate tht naval arsenal. |
On the opposite side of the same inlet are handsome |
residences for the superintendent and oflicers of the |
arsenal, and spacious stores for the victualling de-|
partment. Here also are three immense arches of
masonry, under which the galleys of the order were
built, and drawn up for repair and for protection
from the weather. All these buildings were con-
structed by the ‘order, and they have been greatly
improved by the British government. On a promi-
nent point opposite Valetta stands the naval hospi-
tal, built in 1830 ; it is one of the many striking ob-
jects which surround this beautiful harbor. The
entrance of the port has no bar or other impediment,
and the water is so deep that the largest ships
can sail in, close under the bastions of Valetta,
direct to their anchorage. In the great harbor and
its inlets twenty-five sail of the line have been known
to lie during the last war without inconvenience,
besides 300 or 400 merchantmen.
‘he harbor to the westward has, at its entrance,
upposite to and besides the castle of St. Elmo, a
small but powerful fort. It is principally appro-
priated to vessels arriving from the Levant or coun-
triés infected with the plague, and it is therefore
commonly called the Quarantine Harbor, Here is
the lazaretto, a suite of extensive buildings, erected
on an island in the centre of the harbor. In addi-
tion to its former accomodations, a new plague hos-
pital has been recently built ; but no case of plague
has occurred in the island since the memorable
plague of 1813-14, though many intected’ships and
crews have been received in this Jazaretto.
The chief ornament of Valetta is the governor's
palace. This splendid erection was built, for the
grand masters about 250 years ago, and within its
immense quadrangle there is a magnificent armory,
containing a stand of 10,000 muskets, together with
the armor of the knights, and some interesting
trophies. Another object of interest is the church
of St. John (built 1580), a large and sightless struc-
ture externally, but enriched within by some most
costly marble monuments and altars. — The late
Queen Adelaide caused a very handsome Protestant
“church to be erected, which bears an imposing and
elegant appearance from the sea. . Valetta is a dull,
handsome town, peopled, it would appear, by beggars
from the Bastin Promenade to the Nix Mangiare
Stairs, where the sympathies of the tender-hearted
are kept ever alive by awful tales of stout-looking
fellows who have eaten nothing for forty days! Next
in number to the: mendicant herd are. soldiers and
guides ; and if there are any other classes of inhabi-
tants, the stranger can seldom get a glimpse of
them. They remain unobtrusively at home, or glide
unnoticed along the shady sides of the streets, whilst
the beggars and guides surround one with almost
menacing vociferation at every step.
The ancient capital of Malta—Citta Vecchia—is
situate on a rising ground in the interior of the
island, about six miles from Valetta. «It is walled,
but is of no importance as a fortification. It con-
tains many good and even magnificent. buildings,
but, with the exception of two large convents, the
population is very trifling. . Here are the celebrated
catacombs, that appear to have anciently served as
subterranean abodes or cemeteries, or both; but
their use is problematical.
~ Too small to defend its existence as an indepen-
dent government, Malta has in nearly all ages formed
a portion of some of the mighty empires of the
world. . It has successively belonged to the Pheeni-
cians, Greeks, Romans, French, and. English,
besides some ,of lesser note., It. was : during
the Roman occupation of the island (then called
Melita), and in the reign of Tiberius, that St. Paul
was cast upon these rocky shores, and the creek off
which he was stranded retafns to this day the name
of La Baia de San Paolo—the Bay of St. Paul. By
that apostle a church was planted on this interest-
ing rock of ‘the great sea’ and a building. stands
at Floriana, which still bears the name of San Pub-
lio, in honor of the “chief man of the island,” con-
verted to the faith while Paul remained there.
In the year 1530, Charles V. granted Malta and
the neighboring isles to the grand master and
religious fraternity of St. John, who had been
recently expelled from Rhodes by the Turks. The
sovereignty of Malta was by this grant in effect
surrendered to the vagrant knights, though the form |
of tenure from the crown of Sicily was maintained
y the reservation of the annual payment .of a
falcon by the knights to the King of Sicily or his!
viceroy. At the time of the cession Malta con-
tained only about 12,000 inhabitants, who were in
a miserable condition. The island was almost a
shelterless rock, and the cultivation of the land had
been nearly abandoned, owing to the wretched
system of adminstration and the frequent predatory
visits to which the people were exposed. Under
the order, Malta soon began to wear a better aspect.
The first object was to protect the island against the
incursions of its piratical enemies; and with this
view the knights commenced those works which
remain to this day, monuments of their perseverance
and military power. ut it was not long before
internal dissensions threatened the extinction of the
order. A private quarrel arose between a Fioren-
tine and a French knight of the “language” of
Provence ; in a duel, to which it led, the Italian
killed the Frenchman, .upon which the French
knights, pretending the Florentine had used foul
play, fell upon him and his friends sword in hand.
Retreating before superior numbers, the Italians
took refuge in the palace of the Prior of Rome, but
before they reached that place of safety, several of
them were severely wounded. Maddened by this
outrage, more than sixty Italian knights rushed out
from the prior’s residence, attacked the knights of
Provence, and soon provoked a general engagement
with all the French « languages.” To make the
struggle about equal, the knights of Arragon. and
Castile joined the Italians. Night fell on a scene of
carnage, and the darkness of it was horribly illumi-
nated by flashes of artillery and musketry. It was
not without the greatest difficulty that the grand
master, L'Isle Adam, put down this civil war. The
vengeance he afterwards took of the leaders in this
mad affray was severe, for twelve knights were de-
graded and expelled, and many others were put in
sacks and thrown into the sea,
In 1565, the Turks, under Mustapha Pacha, to the
number of 30,000 choice troops, landed on the
island, where they encountered a desperate resist-
ance from the knights. i
this memorable siege that were perfectly diabolical.
The gunners ofthe order invented a kind of fire-
work, which had a frightful effect. Hoops of the
lightest wood were dipped into brandy, rubbed with
boiling oil, then’ covered with wool and cotton,
soaked in other combustible liquors, and mixed
with saltpetre and gunpowder. ‘On an assault fire
was set to these hoops, which were then taken up
with tongs and thrown down into the midst of the
assailants, who, crowded and driven together, had
no means of escape. Such as got entangled in
them: almost inevitably Kerished, and not unfre-
quently two or three Tutks were involved in the
fiery embrace of one hovp, and burnt alive together.
The cries, the shrieks of these poor wretehes, the
groans of the wounded, the long rattling of the mus-
quetry, and then the roar of'the artillery, made a
very Pandemonium upon earth. Finally, the Turks
were compelled to quit Malta, with the loss of
25,000 men. Upon the death of Sultan Solyman in
1566, shortly after the defeat of his troops, the
grand master, John de Valetta, who had success-
fully defended Malta against this formidable inva-
sion, determined on the foundation of a new city, in
a favorable position for the protection of the island,
and as a residence of the convent of the order. He
laid the first stone of the city of Valetta, which bore
the name of its founder, on the 28th March, 1566.
The knights, now secure in their possession of Malta,
continued to cruise against the Ottomans, whom
they greatly annoyed. ut the discipline’ relaxed
as the objects of their original institution gradually
became of. secondary importance, and Malta, which
was safe from all outward attacks,’ became the scene
of the grossest debauchery and luxury.
It is not our purpose to trace the history of Malta
between this time and its surrender to Bonaparte in
1798. . The surrender of.the island was entirely
owing to the pusillanimity of the grand master, and
to the treachery of the French knights, who, fore-
seeing the decline of the order and the probability of
Malta being placed under Russian influence, pre-
ferred its surrender to France.“ When the French
general. entered the gates of Valetta, he made a
personal. inspection of the fortifications. “It-is
well, general,” said Caffarelli, one of the officers of
his suite, as he accompanied him, ‘it is well some
one was within to open the gates forus. We should
have had some difficulty in entering had the place
been altogether empty.” :
Short was the reign of France in Malta. In 1800
it passed under the powerful sceptre of Great -
Britain; for in that year the native inclination and =
“the voice of Europe” confirmed to that countr
the possession of this celebrated rock. ‘The treaty
of peace, concluded at .Paris between- France and
Scenes occurred during’