intelligent countenance, and what is sometimes met with in Gozo-blue eyes. It is a very curious fact, that although the Maltese are proverbial for large black eyes, there is a village called Casal Zehbug (olive) where all the inhabitants have them of a blue colour. This little lad was rendered more interesting by being dressed out in a smart blue shirt with a braided collar, such as the boys wear on board a man-ofwar. After a lovely moonlight ride, enhanced by the feeling that we were not exposed to the mercy of the waves, whose distant murmur broke on our ears, we arrived at Valetta about half-past eleven o'clock.

In passing through Casal Nasciar, the circumstance of the church being lighted up attracted our attention, and we looked in. Several tapers were dimly burning around the altar, and all the rest of the building was shrouded in gloom. An aged and venerable man was bending before the altar, apparently engaged in earnest prayer, and several women and a lad were kneeling at a short distance off. On inquiry I learnt that they were praying for a dying man, that he might have an easy entrance into purgatory! Arriving at Valetta, and reaching the Strada Reale, to my infinite surprise my little charge darted off all of a sudden in the direction of the quay. On the next day, as I was walking along the Marina, he came running up to me quite delighted, and shook my hand most cordially. I made him a present of a few coppers, and he returned to his father in the boat: after this I never saw him again.

CONVENT OF THE CAPUCHIN FRIARS.

"Within the twilight chamber spreads apace

The shadow of white death; and, at the door,
Invisible corruption waits to trace

His extreme way to her dim dwelling-place."

Ar sunrise I paid a visit to the convent of the Capuchins. It is situated on an eminence in the suburbs of Floriana, and commands a superb view of the harbours and surrounding country. I had on a previous day applied for admission, but as it happened to be the time when the brotherhood were taking their siesta, I was refused, and told that if I particularly wished to see it, the Superior should be duly informed, and I must come at six o'clock in the morning. The approach to the building is marked by a cross of black wood, erected on a mound of stones, and a broad road cleanly swept; the pathway bordered with tapering cypress trees, leads the traveller to the porch of the convent, underneath which a number of beggars are continually thronging, who are fed daily by the hospitality of the monks, who prepare a dinner expressly for the poor. In the centre of the square in front of the convent stands a large statue of a Capuchin saint, arrayed in the garb of the order, with a gilt glory surrounding his head. In all their statues of the saints, the Catholics have a clever method of fixing the glory (which generally consists of a gilt or brazen circle) in such a manner, by means of a thin wire behind the head, that it has the appearance of resting in the air. The door of the convent was opened to us by a very old Capuchin servant; and after proceeding along a narrow passage, we entered the chapel, where a mass was being performed. The walls were covered with several pictures, which chiefly represented saints and their miraculous achievements. In one of the ante-chambers a waxen model of our Saviour, as large as life, was exhibited, enclosed in a glass case; and in another were several pictures; one of them, of the Virgin, was very good. The floor of a little silver shrine through which we passed, was composed of green and white mosaic. After going through the lower apartments we ascended a wide stone staircase hung

with small paintings, and entered the corridors, which extend through the entire length of the building, and are lined on each side with the cells of the monks, who are about fifty or sixty in number. The walls of these passages are hung with pictures representing the astounding miracles performed by friars of the order. Over each cell is a small Latin inscription taken from the Holy Scriptures. This convent is very much frequented by the inhabitants of Valetta on holidays, when it is thrown open, and great numbers of persons come here to pass an hour in traversing the corridors, examining the pictures, or chatting with some of the fraternity, and enjoying the fine air and beautiful prospect which surrounds the convent.

From the balcony of the corridor we overlooked the garden, which contains orange and pomegranate trees, with various culinary vegetables, and a few flowers; the whole of which are kept in very neat order by the servants of the brotherhood. We observed one of the servants very busy at work amongst some egg plants, and though he appeared upwards of eighty years of age, with a long beard of snowy whiteness, yet he seemed as hale and as hearty as if he had reached but half that amount of years. The long life to which these ascetics attain, may partly be ascribed to their very simple mode of living, and the primitive habits which they follow, unalloyed by anxiety, or any of the numerous troubles resulting from an intercourse and connexion with the outer world, which so often destroy the health and happiness of those who are engaged in the active pursuits of life. In this convent the four giraffes, sent by the Pacha of Egypt to Great Britain, were located during their stay at Malta; and many are the absurd pictures and descriptions given of them by the natives, who had never seen or heard of such creatures before; for the spirit of discovery does not proceed here with such rapid strides as it does in our own favoured island. Descending the staircase from the corridors, I expressed a wish to see their carneria," or charnel-house, as it is termed, which occupies an extensive vault below the convent. By the permission of the Superior we gained admittance; and, descending a narrow staircase, and passing a grated doorway, the monk who conducted us turned the great key of a heavy portal, when this modern Golgotha burst at once upon our view, horrid and disgusting in the extreme. The dim light of morning stole unwillingly through a small aperture above, admitting just enough light to assure us that we were in the abodes of the dead. Here it is that the monks who die in the convent, after being disembowelled, well dried, and baked, are dressed up in their original clothes, and fixed in niches in the walls, where they remain till time reduces them to decay; the bones of each are then taken up and nailed upon the walls, interspersed with small branches of evergreens, so as to form a kind of sepulchral decoration. The skulls, likewise, are arranged along the ceiling, looking like so many grim spectators of the mockery and indignity offered to their remains. In one of the sides of this vault are two enclosed coffins, containing the

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bodies of two friars who, they say, performed miracles during their lifetime. end of the vault stands a small altar, above which is a figure of our Saviour. is a mass annually performed here, which is called the "festival of the dead;" at which time the whole vault is illuminated, and each of these ghastly remains of human frailty is decked and adorned with flowers. This is a mockery, indeed, of the lowest kind, to make use of Nature's brightest and sweetest ornaments, the lovely flowers, to decorate with their glowing petals the filthy and decaying body of an old monk. I love flowers, but I love to see them wreathe the sunny brow, and meet the starlike smile of childhood; and I would inhale their fragrance not in a charnel-house, but in the mossy slopes and undisturbed solitude of a forest glen.

Of the various aspects of these rotten mortals, some tall, some short, and several sunk from their original position against the walls, I could give a sickening description; but they have even now destroyed my appetite for breakfast, and I gladly leave them to decay in their cells, quite unambitious ever to have the pleasure of seeing them any more.

PUBLIC LIBRARY-CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN-CHURCHES AND NUNNERIES.

Gleam, marble and mosaic,
From gilded shrines around,
So many are the monuments,

They cover all the ground;
Giall, and verde-antique

From every tomb shine bright,

And the precious lapis lazuli
Sends forth its azure light.

THE public library of Valetta, which is a handsome building, adjoining the Governor's palace, is worthy of some notice. I visited it before proceeding to the church of St. John of Jerusalem. The books are arranged around a lofty and spacious apartment, with considerable taste and order, and they amount to nearly 40,000 volumes; though I am informed that for so large a collection they contain very little that is really useful. In the same room is a small collection of antiquities, found at different times in Malta and Gozo; they consist chiefly of earthen vases and lachrymatories, and other relics of Phoenician origin. Besides these, there is a statue of Hercules, in Grecian marble; a Syracusan altar, dedicated to Proserpine; a marble slab, on which is a basso relievo of Tullia and Claudia; the former the daughter of Cicero, and the latter the wife of Cecilius Metellus, who lived at Rome, at the same time; a square marble with a basso-relievo bust of Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, and a small brass figure found in Gozo, representing a young beggar seated in a basket. A very trifling collection of stuffed birds, a wolf, and a wild cat, occupy the window recesses, and an enormous snake, said to have been taken in Gozo, is stretched out at full length upon a board; the loss of its natural head being amply supplied by an enormous one of wood, armed with sharp teeth, and a long red tongue, which give it all the ferocious and awe-inspiring appearance of a dragon.

Having thus visited the Library, St. John's Church next claimed my attention This building is rendered famous by having been the grand cathedral of the knights,