$4 VOYAGE TO MALTA-GOZO. mandment is altogether excluded, while prayers to saints and directions as to the worship of the Virgin, are given at full length. We next wandered into an open church, and after examining the usual crucifixes, paintings, altar-pieces, and confessionals, found our way into a curious side-room, or rather vault, a mortuary adorned with human skulls. In the niches round stood skeletons, some of which held a cross in their bony hands, others a scythe and hour-glass. Mottoes such as these were affixed, "Aspice in me et miserere mei— Breves dies hominis sunt" (Behold and pity me-Few are the days of man). These are meant to excite spectators to pray for the dead. Another skeleton had this motto, "Expecto donec venerit immutatio mea" (I wait till my change come). Another referred to purgatory, " Non exies inde donec reddis novissimum quadrantem" (Thou shalt not come out hence until thou pay the utmost farthing). One in particular drew our attention. The skeleton fingers held a bag open for any visitor to drop in money, and over it was written, "Elemosina por i poveri morti di campagna" (Alms for the poor dead of the country). This town is the "Centum Cella" mentioned by Pliny,1 and was in his day a port of Etruria. Re-embarking, we soon lost sight of the Italian shore. Next day was the Sabbath, a silent Sabbath, far from the assemblies of God's worshippers. (May 6.) No land appeared till Monday morning, when we obtained a distant view of Sicily. Mount Eryx might be one of the heights we saw. At all events, we were now viewing hills of which we used to read in our earlier days, "Mille meæ Siculis errant in montibus agnæ;" (My thousand lambs roam the Sicilian hills ;) and were traversing the very sea of which Horace sang in all the pride of a Roman citizen, when he looked on its dashing waves. "Nec durum Hannibalem, nec Siculum mare, Pœno purpureum sanguine."s (Nor dreaded Hannibal, nor the Sicilian Sea By sunset the same evening we came in sight of Gozo, rocky and steep, and as we looked round upon the blue waters, 1 Epist. VI. 31 2 Virg. Eclog. 2, 21. 3 Od. 2 12, 2 ISLAND OF MALTA-VALETTA. 35 without a bound but the horizon, remembered Paul, having no doubt that this is the part of the sea at the mouth of the Adriatic on which he was tossed. About ten in the evening, we drew near Malta, and soon sailed far up into the splendid harbour of Valetta, formed by one of the creeks in which the island abounds. We cast anchor in the smooth deep water, near some of the ships of war stationed here. The lights twinkling on the heights shewed the direction of the town, while the solemn bells tolled the hours of night. A small boat came alongside, and a voice hailed us in English. It was some individual who held office in the place. He inquired if we were all " en pratique,” i. e. free from plague,—if we had brought any news,—and if there were any individuals of rank on board. Sitting on deck, and feeling joy and gratitude at being thus far brought on our way, we remembered that this island once sent up its hymn of thanksgiving, when Paul, and Luke, and Aristarchus stood on its shore and praised their Deliverer. Perhaps they sang Psalm cv, 23-30. Whether or not the spot pointed out on the other side of the island be the real place of Paul's shipwreck, it is difficult to say; but certainly many spots, and the harbour of Valetta among the rest, correspond to the brief description given, Acts XXVII. 39, κόλπου δέ τινα κατενοουν ἔχοντα αιγιολόν” (a certain creek with a shore). 66 Early on the Tuesday morning (May 7), we disembarked amid tumult and confusion that baffles description, arising from the greedy anxiety of porters and miserable-looking beggars, all striving to the utmost to obtain a pittance by seizing on the luggage of strangers. Valetta is certainly a singularly-built town. Several of the streets are little else than so many flights of steps, steep and slippery; yet up these the mule can climb with ease, a feat that no horse in our country could accomplish. The heat was very great, so that we were quite oppressed by walking under a burning sun. Strangers from every country under heaven seem to meet here;—the Greek gracefully attired, and the turbaned Turk;-the dismal priest, and the monk with shaven crown ;-English sailors next, and then an Eng lish officer;-the Maltese peasant with ornamented vest, and girdle round the waist; and then the Maltese lady wearing the onella (perhaps a remnant of the eastern veil), a black 36 MALTA-JEWS--MR FREEMANTLE. silk scarf drawn over the head, forming an arch, which re veals the face half in the shade. The state of morals is fearfully corrupt all over the island. The natives are proverbially deceitful and avaricious. They possess lively passions, and are tenacious in their love and in their hatred. Popery is their curse; churches and priests abound; and our government has hitherto done too much to countenance the Man of Sin in Malta. Queen Adelaide's Protestant church had not yet risen above its foundation. In Malta there are very few Jews, and these few move from place to place: not many have wealth, and most of them are wretchedly poor. There is one convert employed in the printing establishment of the Church of England Society's Mission. We called on Mr Schlienz, of the Church of England Missionary Society, from whom we received useful information; and at the quarantine station we conversed with the Rev. Mr Freemantle, a minister of the Church of England, who, with his wife, had just returned from Palestine. They had travelled by way of Cairo to Mount Sinai, and thence to Jerusalem. SAIL FOR ALEXANDRIA. 37 He told us that we would find far fewer Jews in the Holy Land than is generally reported; and all of them poor and wretched. He stated that the fearful corruptions of the professedly Christian churches in those countries are the most effectual stumbling-blocks to the Jew, and that the exhibition of a pure and holy faith would probably be one of the chief advantages of building an English Protestant Church upon Mount Zion. Riding out in the evening to St Julian, a village some few miles distant from Valetta, to visit Dr Clarke, who once laboured among the Jews, we had an opportunity of seeing a little of the scenery of the island and the manners of its people. The conducteur of our vehicle, instead of riding, ran all the way by the side of the mule, urging it on by his voice, and setting an example by his own indefatigable speed. No road could be more irregular, and it is impossible that it should be otherwise, for the shore is indented every few miles with inlets of the sea, round which you must wind your way. Often it became steep and narrow; and often it was made of solid rock. We noticed the beautiful appearance of the western sky at sunset for which the island is remarkable. The rocks and buildings appeared to be tinged with a yellowish pearly lustre, which added a singular beauty to every object in the scene. We required to be ready to sail early next morning in the French steamer "Eurotas" for Alexandria; and though the tardiness and greediness of porters and boatmen very nearly disappointed us of our passage, we at length succeeded in getting off. It was a bright and beautiful morning when we sailed from the quarantine harbour. Occasionally the reflection of the sun's rays from the smooth surface of a bending wave was like the gleam from a mirror; and the playful glance of the beams on this splendid sea, brought to our mind the expression, Malta which schylus1 used in regard to those very waters as they laved the shores of Greece. A few small white clouds appeared in the horizon, but not a speck in the sky above us. was out of sight in a few hours, and during the rest of the day we saw nothing but fields of level water. 1 Prom. Vinct. 89. 38 VOYAGE TO ALEXANDRIA-COAST OF GREECE. At evening, the few clouds on the horizon seemed like the hills on some distant land. There was no peculiar beauty in the sunset-only the sun himself appeared remarkably brilliant, "Not as in northern climes obscurely bright, But one unclouded blaze of living light." The swallows kept flying about the vessel till darkness came on; and then the stars shone out singularly bright. The planet Venus was reflected on the water quite like the Moon in brilliancy. Coming down to the cabin, the young American traveller described to us some of the scenes which he had witnessed at Rome during Passion-week. He told us of the Pope blessing 150,000 people, all kneeling before him1 in the great square of St Peter's, and of his riding into the city in imitation of Christ's entry into Jerusalem. The night was perfectly serene. We experienced nothing of the "Dux inquieti turbidus Adriæ;" (The blustering south wind swaying Adria's waves;) though we were passing over its waters, or at least over the "Ionium Mare," where it joins the Adriatic. All the next day, the sea presented the same glassy smoothness. Two vessels on the distant horizon were lying quite motionless, there being not a breath of wind. The Greek sung many of his national war-songs, and his patriotism seemed to rise higher and higher as we sailed towards his country. Next morning (May 10) about sunrise, we came in sight of Greece, opposite Cape Gallo (the ancient Acritas). Crossing the Gulf of Coron (anciently the Sinus Messeniacus), we sailed slowly past Cape Matapan (the ancient Tanarus), where the cloudcapt hills of Laconia terminate. These hills form the range of Taygetus .“virginibus bacchata Lacanis Taygeta:"3 (Where Lacedemon's virgins kept their revelry :) and the cape is the most southern point of Europe; the "invisi horrida Tanari sedes" (the seat of hateful Tænarus), of which we used to read in the classics. The young Greek guide proudly pointed to the mountain range as the seat of the unconquered Mainotes, and to the far distant hills at the 1 II Thess. II. 4. 3 Virg. Georg. 2. 489. 2 Hor. Ode II. 3. 5. 4 Hor. Ode 1. 34. 10. |