All were of course eager to be served first, which gave rise to endless quarrels and contentions, in which the strongest party was of course victorious. In many of the casals or villages, the people are obliged to buy their water at the rate of one halfpenny a gallon; this is supplied to them by water-carts from the aqueduct, built by the Grand Master, Wignacourt, A.D. 1610. The principal street of Valetta is Strada Reale, which extends from the gate of the same name as far as the castle of St. Elmo; a distance of three quarters of a mile. The city is closed by three gates; Porta Reale, which is the chief entrance from the country, and the suburban town of Floriana; Porta Marsamuscetto, from the quarantine harbour; and the Marina gate, from the Grand Harbour. Before the arrival of the order of St. John, the capital of the island was the Citta Notabile, or Civitta Vecchia, as it is generally called. The first stone of the new city was laid by the Grand Master, La Valette, on the 28th March, 1566, and the whole was completed by his successor, Pietro de Monte, in May, 1571. The population of Valetta, including Floriana, is estimated at about 30,000, and that of the whole island at 120,000. Gozo contains 18,000 more, consequently it is one of the most thickly populated places on the face of the earth. The Maltese are generally of an ordinary stature, strong, robust, and of a sallow complexion; the country people are very tawny, and are said to bear extreme heat better than any other nation. They have large black eyes, and those you see in the towns are occasionally handsome; they are full of fire, and endowed with a warm and lively imagination, and in their love and hatred, as well as in their general opinions, they are tenacious and affectionate. Notwithstanding the natural fertility of the island beneath a sky of almost continued serenity, the population is so dense that a large portion of the supplies of grain, fruit, vegetables, &c., on which most of the inhabitants subsist, is constantly brought over in boats from Sicily. Many of the overplus population find an asylum in the Barbary states, in Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. The language is certainly a dialect of the Arabic; and in many of the villages, and particularly in Gozo, its original is preserved almost pure. In Valetta most of the better classes understand Italian, and some few speak English, though not nearly so many as I should have supposed. In the town, there is a normal school, attended by about 500 children, as well as several private schools for the children of the better classes. Education is, however, chiefly in the hands of the priests. The Government University is a large building, and is attended by about 90 students; in the Lyceum, there are nearly 100. It is governed by a rector, and has professors in the four faculties of arts, theology, law, and medicine. There is a confessor appointed for the youthful pupils, who pay 2s. 6d. per month each; those of the Lyceum pay 1s. per month, and both have the use of the extensive library belonging to Government. D SUNSET-COUNTRY HOUSE OF MR. AGIUS-CATTLE AND GOATS. "There is a glory in the setting beams Of heaven's bright sun at even, When, through a bank of purple clouds, He streaks the western sky With many coloured radiances, Of amber and of gold, Till one ineffable brightness And, like an orbed glory Steeped in vermilion light, He rolls his chariot-wheels away 126, Strada Dominico. I HAVE just returned from a pleasant walk in the country, where I have been to see Mr. Agius's villa and farm, accompanied by his two sons, Antonio and Tancredi. We left the city by the Marina gate, and walked along the shore of the Grand Harbour to Marsa, where there is a pillar erected on the beach. This spot commands a fine view of the harbour and the surrounding country. As we strolled along, the music from the men-of-war sounded cheerfully across the water, and broke the calm and pleasing stillness of the evening. The air was delicious; indeed the only time in this warm climate, suitable for walking, is either at sunset, or else very early in the morning. When we had gained the summit of the hill, the sun was just setting behind a bank of resplendent clouds. The whole western horizon was tinged with a deep orangeyellow, and small clouds scattering their golden light along the sky, contrasted their exquisite beauty with the blue of the surrounding heavens. Occasionally we could see the gleaming lightning shine between the clouds, whose darkened edges became in an instant vividly bright, and added a glorious and impressive grandeur to the prospect. On passing the walls of Pieta, we encountered a most remarkable-looking personage, whose appearance strongly reminded me of the idea I had formed of a ghost in my younger days. He was dressed wholly in white, with a thick veil covering his head and face, and two holes left for his eyes; in one hand he held a small box for money, and my companions explained to me that he was a religious beggar called the "Fratello dell' anima Justiziate," or brother of the souls in purgatory. By and by we reached the farm, but it only resembled an English farm in name. We entered beneath a portly archway, painted with divers strange representations of camels, goats, and birds, and other creatures whose names I was unable to divine; above every doorway was a cow's head, carved in stone, and painted to resemble life. The cattle, of which there were nearly 300, were all tied up in rows outside long stone sheds, into which they are put at night, and in wet weather. These creatures were all undergoing the process of fattening, and some of them were really handsome: those from Barbary and Sicily I admired most, as the native Maltese cattle are all of a small size. It is from this farm that most of the men-of-war calling at Malta are supplied with beef. These animals are fed chiefly on hay, and other supplies brought from Sicily, as the present excessive drought has put a stop to almost all cultivation in the island. By far the greater part of the cattle consumed in Malta are brought over from the Barbary states, and yield very good beef. The sheep are also from Barbary, and of a very different breed from our own; they are frequently black and spotted; with long legs, and wool almost approaching to the structure and consistence of hair. But the most numerous and valuable animals which the Maltese possess are their goats, of which it is computed there are about 12,000 on the island; they are handsome creatures, with very long hair, silky and of every variety of colour; black, white, dappled, and fawn being the most common. Their milk is plentiful and very good, though from the scarcity of water its price has of late been raised. The streets of Valetta are full of them, and it is the custom for the milkman to lead about his goats every morning and evening to serve his customers at their respective houses. Horses, which are scarce, are of the Barbary breed: the mules and asses of Malta and Gozo are remarkable for their large size and their elegant shape, and are the chief vehicles employed for draught and burden; they are very numerous, especially the mules, which are generally used for riding. The race of Maltese dogs, so renowned for their scarcity and singular appearance, is now nearly extinct, though they may still be obtained at an exceedingly high price. They are very small, with long glistening hair reaching down to the feet, and a turned-up nose. Buffon terms them "Bichon" in his Natural History. Her Majesty Queen Adelaide procured one of these little creatures during her residence in Malta. It was carried to England, where it was greatly admired as being the only one of its race in the whole country. We returned home by the light of the moon, and in passing through the suburban streets of Floriana we were serenaded by the chirping of numberless crickets. The Maltese seem greatly attached to these insects; they capture them as we would a bird, and hang them up in little wicker cages, full of leaves, outside their windows. THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. "Lo, I must tell a tale of chivalry!" IN speaking of the island of Malta, I should be guilty of an important omission if I neglected to mention the knightly order of St. John of Jerusalem, which occupied this spot for nearly 300 years, and with whose history the name of Malta must be ever associated. On the 23rd of March, 1530, Charles the Fifth, king of Sicily, gave over to the order of St. John of Jerusalem the islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino, with Tripoli, in Africa, as a free and noble fief under certain conditions. The remains of the order, who had fled from the island of Rhodes, and were then in the Papal States, took possession of this grant in the autumn of the same year. The island, after having successively been under the dominion of the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians, fell from the hands of the Romans during the middle ages under the precarious sway of the Arabs, and Sicilians, but now began to rise into importance under the military government of the knights. On their arrival they found the island in a state of great destitution, and exposed to continued attacks from the Turks and Barbary corsairs. The first act of the Grand Master was to refortify the old castle of St. Angelo, which was built by the Arabs; and thus to secure a defence against the attacks of his enemies. In 1546, the famous corsair Dragut effected a landing, and sacked the village of Tarshien, but was compelled to retreat with great loss. After this, repeated attempts were made by the Turks to gain possession of the island, and they were as often repulsed, till under the reign of John de la Valette, Malta underwent its severest assault from the hands of the same people. Solyman, enraged at the seizure of a Turkish galleon belonging to his chief eunuch, vowed the destruction of Malta, and for that purpose sent a formidable armament under Dragut, the admiral of the Algerine fleet, which appeared off the island, in May 1565. They first attacked the fort of St. Elmo, but after a most desperate battle, and a loss of 3000 men, the Turks were obliged to suspend their operations. The assault was, however, soon afterwards renewed, and 300 knights perished on the occasion. The cruel Turk, who had now lost 8000 men, wishing to be revenged for the death of his troops, ordered a search to be made amongst the dead and wounded for the knights, whose hearts he ripped out, and after cutting their bosoms in the form of a cross, commanded them to be set afloat upon boards, intending that the tide should carry them across to St. Angelo, where the forces of La Valette were. By way of reprisal, the Grand Master ordered all the Turkish prisoners to be put to death, and loading his cannon with their still bleeding heads, he fired them into the enemy's camp! In the following year, after the defeat of the Turks, the first stone of the city of Valetta was laid, and the fort of St. Elmo repaired and fortified. On the death of La Valette, the city was completed by Grand Master Pietro de Monté, and from that time it became the seat of government. The successive Grand Masters continued the fortifications which were begun under La Valette, raised numerous forts along the coast, and established various works and institutions. During the Grand Mastership of Emmanuel de Pinto, the king of Sicily made pretensions to the kingdom of Malta, declaring that it had only been yielded up to the Order on condition that the supreme sovereignty should still be vested in the hands of the kings of Sicily. For this purpose he sent an embassy styled the "Monarchia," to desire the knights to resign the island at once into his hands. This proceeding the knights treated with contempt, and the result was, that all the ports of Sicily were closed against Maltese vessels. This was a terrible blow to Malta, as all her supplies were then derived from that quarter. The Grand Master, however, entered into a truce with the Turks, who gladly accepted his proposals, and the united powers soon made the king of Sicily feel that he had raised up against himself a formidable enemy; and after losing many of his vessels, he sought for peace, and made all possible reparation to the Grand Master for the war which he had occasioned. The bailiff Emmanuel de Rohan, of the lineage of France, succeeded Ximenes, the successor of Pinto, in the year 1775. He formed a regular battalion of infantry, improved the judicial courts, and facilitated public education. But this prosperity was not of long duration, for during the latter part of his reign the Order suffered various losses by the extinction of several of its commanderies, and the exhausted state of its resources. During the reign of his successor Hompesch, it was found necessary to melt the plate of the galleys and hospitals. Through the The French government, which for some time had manifested a spirit of hostility to the Order, now came forward to display it more openly. On the 6th of June, 1798, a division of the French fleet arrived before the port of Malta. treachery of some of the knights, the French army gained possession of most of the important posts in the country with scarcely any resistance, and after a short time it was resolved to yield up the city into the hands of the besiegers. No sooner did the |