The Soil of Malta.--Imports and Exports.--Absence of
Trees.--Equable Climate.--Three Crops Annually.--Use of
Fertilizers.--Ignorant and Pious Peasantry.--Food of the
People.--Maltese Women.--Oriental Customs.--Roman Catholic
Influence.--Improvisation.--Early Marriages.--A Resort for
the Pope.--Low Wages.--Beggars.--Wind Storms.--Blood Oranges.
--The Carob-Tree.--Maltese Lace.--Sailing along the Shore.
It has already been mentioned that a large portion of the island of
Malta is covered with a thin, rich soil, some of which, it is said, was
brought from Sicily at infinite cost and labor. If this is so, of which
we have reasonable doubts, it was done only to a very limited extent.
Vessels sailing hence with merchandise for the mainland or Sicily,
having no return cargo, may have occasionally brought back as ballast
quantities of earth, but that there was ever any systematic importation
of soil is not probable. Much of the surface of the island is still only
bare, calcareous stone, exposed to the fierce winds, rains, and
scorching sunshine. A process of disintegration is constantly going on
which gradually reduces this surface rock to friable matter, and as soon
as a space becomes favorable in its conditions by such means it is
promptly improved by the natives for agricultural purposes. The
extraordinary success which crowns the husbandman's efforts is the
triumph of industry over natural obstacles. All soil is but broken and
decomposed rock, pulverized by various agencies acting during long
periods of time, counting centuries as days. The molten lava poured from
the fiery mouth of Vesuvius has, in the course of ages, become the soil
of thriving vineyards at Resina and Castellamare. The Bahama Islands,
composed originally of coral and limestone, have, during the lapse of
centuries, become such fertile soil at the surface as to nourish the
royal palm, the orange, and the banana, together with the stout-limbed
ceiba and the most delicate fruits of the tropics. It should be
remembered, also, that vegetation does not depend alone upon the soil
for its life and fruitfulness. Like human beings, it borrows vitality
from the rain and atmospheric air.
This Maltese soil must be of a very prolific nature, and contain hidden
properties which stimulate plant life beyond comparison, to furnish the
means of support for so large a number of inhabitants in so
circumscribed a space. It is true that cattle, sheep, and grain are
regularly imported for the consumption of the garrison and the people,
as the island does not yield sufficient meat and breadstuff for the
support of the population; but other products which are raised here and
exported go far towards balancing the deficiency, by the grain and other
needed supplies which they purchase in return. Two articles, salt and
soda, are produced upon the island and exported in considerable
quantities, the annual income from which reaches a large aggregate sum.
The early potatoes which are grown in several districts of these
islands are of a very choice character, commanding a special market in
England, and realizing good prices. So the Atlantic cities on the
American coast depend upon Bermuda for their early supply of the same
article. Where the ground is not cultivated, wild-growing masses of the
prickly pear often form a feature of the landscape, while the almost
entire absence of trees in the larger island, outside of the city,
creates an arid appearance. The charming color and grateful shade which
are afforded by groves is almost entirely wanting. Neither art nor
nature can produce an effective landscape without their aid. Where the
land is carefully improved, it is not unusual to realize three crops
annually from the same ground, by a timely succession of seeds. It is
the common practice to follow the harvesting of a grain crop by
immediately planting the same field with cotton. This last article has
long been an established product of Malta, where it is believed to be
indigenous. The islands produce two kinds of cotton, one of which is
pure white, the other of a yellowish brown, both having a staple
combining length and silkiness in a peculiar degree. It will thus be
seen that the capacity of the soil and climate is very comprehensive,
and it is interesting to know that there are over sixty thousand acres
of land under cultivation in Malta at the present writing.
The climate is so equable and mild that there is no sterile period of
the year, no unproductive month in the twelve. Every division of the
season has its special vegetation and its fragrant flowers, thus
rendering the reign of floral beauty ceaseless. March and April,
however, are the months which present the most luxuriant phase of
vegetation in this latitude. Though Malta lies much farther south than
Naples, the heat of summer is not so intense there as it is in southern
Italy. The plants which are so liberally displayed in the balconies of
the dwellings require no shelter all the year round. Thus at all times
striking bits of color line the second stories of the houses upon the
Strada Reale. It will depend somewhat upon the stranger's fancy whether
he is attracted by these beautiful flowers, so vivid in color, or by the
graceful forms, the lovely olive-hued faces, and appealing eyes, which
are half hidden behind them, like screened batteries. One cannot closely
observe the use of the Maltese hood, presumedly the insignia of modesty,
without becoming convinced that it serves in no small degree the same
purpose as the Spanish fan in the hands of an accomplished Andalusian
woman.
The obtaining of three crops annually from the same field is not only
remarkable in itself, but is also significant of the prevailing industry
of the Maltese, as well as of the fertility of the soil and the
propitiousness of the climate for agricultural enterprise. It is
observed that in sheltered places, where the soil is quite neglected by
the hand of man, nature exhibits often a wanton luxuriance of vegetable
growth almost tropical. Another obvious reason for this marked
fertility of the cultivated soil should be mentioned, namely, that the
natives understand and fully appreciate the great value of manure, which
no artificial fertilizer can equal in permanent results. Like the
Chinese, the people here achieve excellent returns in agriculture by
deserving them. The most unwilling soil will succumb to such persevering
and intelligent treatment. The careful collection and application of
domestic refuse to the land is systematically pursued by the farmers,
which process is conducive to cleanliness and health as well as to good
husbandry, thus serving a twofold purpose.
Were the same liberal use of easily obtained enrichment, together with a
system of irrigation (also well understood in Malta), to be applied to
our constantly abandoned farms in New England, we should hear much less
grumbling as regards their sterility, while the returns which would be
realized in the shape of an ample harvest would liberally compensate for
all cost of time and labor. There is no zone where nature will do
everything for man; his work upon the farm is only begun with the
planting of the seed. The fact is, many of our farmers work on the
principle of the Kodak man,--"You touch the button, and we do the rest."
Sitting down in indolence and despair, such men wonder that their
utterly neglected lands do not yield better crops, talking the while
about rich fields and virgin soil which are supposed to exist somewhere,
far away in Utopia.
Until the author visited Malta, he thought that the British island of
Barbadoes, the farthest windward of the West Indian group, was the most
densely populated spot on the globe, but here we find human beings
numbering over thirteen hundred to the productive square mile. One
intelligent statistician places the population at fourteen hundred, but
the first estimate is quite extraordinary enough. As a matter of
comparison, it may be mentioned that the population of England averages
three hundred souls to a similar space. The steady increase of the
people in numbers speaks well for the average health of Malta, on whose
dry soil and in whose usually pure air children thrive and adults live
to an extreme old age. The residents have a saying that invalids are
obliged to go away to Nice or Mentone, on the mainland, to die, since no
one shuffles off this mortal coil by natural means in Malta. There is
certainly nothing in the local conditions or in the geographical
position to generate any sort of malady. No vegetable matter is
permitted to decompose, nor are objectionable substances allowed to
remain aboveground. Malta no doubt has its drawbacks, but its climate,
as a rule, is very healthy. "Malta healthy?" responded a local physician
to our inquiry. "Why, we professionals are simply starved out for want
of practice." "How about the plague and the cholera?" we asked. "Ah, an
occasional visit of that sort occurs, to be sure, at wide intervals,
otherwise our occupation would be gone." He added, "All the world is
liable to such visitations; but as to the general healthfulness of this
island, no one can justly find fault." Such is probably the truth.
English physicians continue to send certain classes of their patients
hither regularly.
The men one meets outside of the city, in and about the villages,
engaged upon the land, or otherwise, form a hardy, swarthy, and capable
race,--industrious, ignorant, and very pious. These men, on an average,
are not quite so tall as those of North America, but they are strong,
broad-shouldered, frugal, and honest, with a decided Moorish cast of
countenance, whose usual expression is a compound of apathy and
dejection. That the Maltese are a temperate people is very plain.
Drunkenness is scarcely ever to be met with even in the humbler portions
of the capital, or along the shores of the harbor, where seamen
congregate, and where every facility for indulgence is easily
procurable. It is but fair to say that sobriety of habit is the rule
among the common classes of the people. In the rural districts great
simplicity of life prevails. Vegetable diet is almost universal, varied
by an occasional meal of fish. Meat is much more costly, and is seldom
indulged in by ordinary people, in town or country. Fish, which abounds
along the shore, is both cheap and nourishing. Shell-fish, especially,
are a favorite food in Malta. We say meat is costly; it is only so, as
compared with the means of the common people, and the amount of money
they realize in the form of wages. Beef sells in the market here at
about the same price as is charged in our Atlantic cities. Considerable
mutton is raised in the group, but the beef which is used for food
purposes is nearly all brought from over the sea, the larger portion
coming from the Barbary coast. As regards the cost of living at Malta,
that depends so much upon individual requirements that no general rule
applies, but it is certainly considerably less expensive than at either
Nice or Cannes.
A certain inclination for seclusion is observable among the Maltese
women in all parts of the group. They are rarely, if ever, seen abroad
with their husbands. Their predilection for indoor life is pronounced,
and when hastening to morning mass through the streets of Valletta, the
shielding black hood is always in requisition, unrelieved by a touch of
bright or cheerful color. The general effect is nun-like and funereal.
There is an axiom current here to the effect that "A woman should never
appear abroad but twice,--on the day of her marriage, and that of her
funeral." This sentiment emphasises in a degree the fact of the Eastern
origin of the people. No such absolute seclusion as this saying implies
is, however, observed here. Though the faldetta is universally worn,
still, as we have already intimated, many women use it in so coquettish
a manner that they not only expose their pretty faces, but they also
manage to see all that goes on about them. The average woman is very
much the same, whether in Cairo, on the Strada Reale, Malta, or on the
Champs Elysees,--whether in the atmosphere of the Mediterranean, or on
the banks of the Seine. The semi-Oriental custom of the sex, as observed
in these islands, is doubtless a relic of their association with and
descent from the Mohammedans. As they neither use nor understand a word
of any language except Maltese Arabic, it is of course impossible for a
stranger to hold conversation with them. One would have to speak, not
Turkish, but Maltese Arabic, to do so.
The land in Malta is universally terraced on the side-hills. This method
serves a double purpose: that of beautifying the landscape, while it
secures the soil in its proper place, as one sees it in Switzerland or
on the Rhine. Being of a spongy nature, the soil retains the moisture
for a long time, thus insuring fertility. Though there are long periods
during which no rain falls, little trouble is realized from drought. The
ownership of the land is about equally divided between the English
government, the church, and two or three thousand farming proprietors.
The Roman Catholic institution is the same leech upon the common people
here that it proves to be on the mainland and in European countries,
keeping the ignorant, superstitious class in indigence by taxing its
individual members up to the last point of endurance, and beclouding
their humble mental capacity. How else could a swarming tribe of useless
non-producers like the priesthood be supported in well-fed, sensual
idleness, and the costly ornamentation and ceremonies of the church be
maintained? There is said to be a priest for every thirty families in
the group, men who are intensely bigoted and ridiculously ignorant
outside of their professional routine, but who are the apt tools of more
able personages who hold higher positions in the church. They are ever
ready to show their credulous parishioners pieces of the true cross and
other sham relics "to whet their almost blunted appetite." Yet it may be
doubted if these cunning Maltese agents of the Romish church could go
any further in this direction than was lately done by a priest of the
same denomination in the city of New York, who pretended to exhibit for
worship a bone from the body of St. Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary,
which anxious hundreds of deluded people were "permitted" to kneel down
and kiss!
Do not let us talk any more about idol worship among the Fiji tribes or
the people of "Darkest Africa," while we have in our midst such
barefaced trickery under the veil of religion.
The humble owners of the land in Malta, as we have tried to show, are
naturally a thrifty, hard-working people, neither rich nor poor. The
reader would be surprised to see how much of seeming plenty, comfort,
and contentment exists among these sturdy natives under such adverse
circumstances. Notwithstanding their uncultured condition, the lowly
country people have a genius for poetry; indeed, all Eastern tribes who
speak the Arabic tongue are thus endowed. This talent finds expression
in a sort of improvisation, by which means two persons will hold earnest
converse with each other, asserting and denying in something very like
epic poetry. They chant their words in a wild, Maltese sing-song, which
appear exactly to accord one with the other, though the music seems to
be equally improvised with the ideas of the singer. However
unconventional the words and the music may be, there is still a certain
rude harmony in both, evidently animated now and then by gorgeous gleams
of fancy.
These Maltese are a prolific race, marry quite young, rear large
families, and are very fond of their children. Brides only thirteen
years of age are common among the working classes. It is a touching
sight to watch these childlike mothers with a crude instinct gently
fondling their tiny babes,--dolls, we were about to write. It recalled
far-away Japan, where the daily life of the humbler classes presents
similar domestic tableaux. Japan is a land of babies, where the annual
crop is marvelously sure. In both instances, these youthful mothers, as
may naturally be supposed, grow old in appearance at a comparatively
early age. It requires no prophet to declare that premature maternity
entails premature old age.
We do not intend to convey the idea that ignorance and its natural
consequences do not prevail among the Maltese peasantry, when we say
that there is much of seeming comfort and contentment to be found among
them. As an average class, these children of the soil exhibit only too
clearly their want of culture and intelligence. The priests oppose all
efforts to improve them by schools. Education is virtually tabooed by
the church, it being held that devotion to the Roman Catholic religion
is all that is necessary for their spiritual or earthly welfare. Said a
famous English general: "Thinking bayonets are dangerous. What we
require in a soldier is a machine that knows just enough to obey
orders." So it is with the followers of the Roman Catholic faith; people
who can read and reason for themselves are "dangerous," so far as
putting trust in that bigoted creed is concerned. What the church
requires is machines which will obey orders, and yield up their
hard-earned wages to support the priesthood and the regal Romish palace
of the Pope at Rome. Any unprejudiced observant traveler in Spain,
Italy, Mexico, or South America will bear witness to the truth of this
statement. Not one twentieth of the inhabitants of this Maltese group
can read and write. In populous, overcrowded China, eight tenths of the
inhabitants can read and write, and yet the Western nations look upon
them as semi-barbarians.
Can any one indicate another people on the globe, eight tenths of whom
can read and write? Education is not only compulsory, but it is the only
stepping-stone to high preferment in the civil service of the
government. Our venal politicians would do well to profit by the example
of China.
It will be remembered in this connection that since the suppression of
the Pope's temporal power in Italy Malta has been looked upon as a
possible future residence for the head of the Romish church. An
influential section of the councils of the Vatican has favored the
idea, and it would seem to be well suited for the purpose. Were this to
occur, Malta would eventually become the Mecca of Catholicism. We may
not expect to see such a change brought about in our day; if it should
ever happen, it would add but one more to the strange vicissitudes in
the history of Malta.
The wages paid to ordinary laborers in these islands are insignificant
in amount, though there has been an improvement in this respect during
the last decade. Boatmen in the harbor demand but nine-pence, English
money, for rowing a person to or from a ship lying a quarter of a mile
from the landing. Equally moderate terms prevail for pleasure
excursions, according to the service and the time occupied. Women
employed in field labor receive twenty-five cents per day, and men one
third more. The P. & O. Steamship Company pay to colliers half a dollar
a day; the same men get forty cents per day at the wharves. Blacksmiths,
carpenters, stonemasons, boat-builders, and sail-makers rarely earn more
than seventy-five cents per day. The drivers of the street vehicles in
Valletta are quite reasonable in their demands, and a shilling will pay
one's fare to any part of the city. The little one-horse vehicles called
_carrozzellas_ are well adapted to their purpose.
The same economic conditions are found here as prevail in India and
China. The multiplicity of seekers for employment keeps the prices which
are paid for services at a minimum rate. So, in over-populated
Barbadoes, a plantation hand can earn but twenty-five cents for a day's
work continued through ten hours. To be sure, that sum will more than
feed him; and as to clothes and shelter, these are of secondary
consideration in the tropics, where only conventional ideas require the
native race to wear clothes of any sort. Idlers swarm about the landings
and in the open squares of Valletta, who, it would seem, might be better
employed upon the soil inland. An organized effort of capital and
official influence to this end would accomplish the object, and render
many a square mile of the now sterile ground not only beautiful to the
eye, but also exuberantly productive. All over the civilized world the
most useless and idle portion of the people leave comparatively
comfortable homes in the country, where at least good food and shelter
can nearly always be earned, to crowd into cities, attracted thither by
the glamour of vice and fast life which always prevails more or less in
populous centres.
The arrival of a P. & O. steamship in the harbor of Malta, with a goodly
number of passengers bound either east or west, is a harvest time for
the beggars, who know very well how to challenge the generosity of
strangers. They have made a careful study of the business; they have
elevated it, as De Quincey would say, to the dignity of a fine art. The
"Nix Mangare Stairs" of Valletta are the congregating place of an army
of mendicants of every species, men, women, and children, who exhibit
all manner of deformities, both real and artificial, as well as every
grade of dirt and squalor. In landing and making one's way up to the
main thoroughfare of the city, it is necessary to run the gauntlet of
this horde of poverty-stricken people. At the base of these "nothing to
eat stairs," the longshoremen and fishermen also congregate. It was just
here that Midshipman Easy and his companion procured the boat in which
they escaped after the "triangular duel." The evil odors permeating the
atmosphere in the vicinity are what might be expected from a people
reveling in garlic and eschewing soap. The daily food of the class one
sees in this section of the city is a slice of black bread and a raw
onion. The traveler's disgust and sympathy are both wrought upon to an
extreme degree, while amid all the clamor and whining appeals the
practiced eye pauses for a moment to note the picturesqueness of mingled
colors and of ragged humanity. The same recalls to mind the broad stone
steps leading up to the Capo di Monti from the Piazza di Spagna, in
Rome, where the artists' models assemble, clothed in a "congress" of
colors.
When it is remembered that the violence of the winds which sometimes
blow over these islands is such that in any other part of the world they
would be called hurricanes, the successful results achieved by the
Maltese gardeners and agriculturists appear more surprising. In order to
furnish protection from these fierce winds, high and solid stone walls
surround every grain, vegetable, and fruit field, all of which are
purposely made small in area. These yellow walls, wearisome, monotonous,
and unlovely to the eye, are often ten feet in height, not only
sheltering, but also hiding vegetation, so that when the island is first
observed from on shipboard, while a few miles away, it appears like a
huge stone quarry. Nothing could possibly seem more uninviting. Under
these circumstances, scarcely a tree or shrub of any sort is visible,
with the exception of an occasional slim and solemn-looking cypress, or
a straggling old olive-tree raising its isolated and twisted head above
the arid rocks. Some of these walls are redeemed from utter dreariness
by the pendulous cactus which hangs from their tops, fringed with yellow
bloom. It is a strange though common plant, consisting of a succession
of bulbous formations, quite flat and an inch or more thick, which serve
the double purpose of stalk and leaves. The incurious traveler is thus
impressed, by these screening walls, with an incorrect idea of the true
nature of the island.
A passenger once said, in our hearing, replying to a friendly query:
"No, I did not land at Malta, and had no desire to do so. It is nothing
but a bare rock, with a few dwelling-houses inside of big lines of
fortifications. I saw quite enough of its barrenness from the deck of
our ship to disenchant me."
How mistaken was this superficial estimate! One would think that the
most prosaic passenger would wish to know more of the builders, and the
monuments they have left behind them, in the stately city beneath whose
stupendous ramparts the ship lies anchored. Let us chaperon the reader,
so that he shall entertain no such unwarranted impression of this Queen
of the Mediterranean.
Malta is particularly beautiful when seen from the Valletta side. At
first, while distance intervenes, the city, softly limned against the
azure sky, seems like some phantom mirage; but soon the picture, rapidly
growing in distinctness, becomes clear in detail. The grim, defiant, and
almost endless fortifications, the many-domed and terraced city, the
grand and lofty stone warehouses, the great war-ships surrounded by
lesser commercial craft, all gayly decorated with national emblems,
combine to form a picture long to be remembered, while the island is
girt by a sapphire sea of purest blue, reaching far away to the
horizon,--such a blue as is sometimes reflected in the eyes of very
young children, or seen in wood-violets just opening their petals to the
light. One should approach the place with a kindly purpose, and not
harshly repel the happy suggestions of the moment. If we would find
picturesqueness and beauty anywhere, we must bring with us a reasonable
degree of appreciation. It is the softened soul which receives
delightful and enduring impressions. One pities the man who can travel
from Dan to Beersheba and say, "All is barren," while we sympathize and
rejoice exceedingly with him who finds "sermons in stones and good in
everything."
A close inspection of Malta will undeceive any one as to its being a
sterile spot. Grapes, melons, figs, oranges,--almost equal to those of
Bahia, in Brazil,--lemons, peaches, apples, and pears, besides many
other kinds of fruits and berries, are raised here in abundance.
Gardening is brought to a high state of perfection; the closest
observation reveals no weeds. It is plain that the husbandmen are
familiar with toil and endurance. The small but prolific vineyards are
charming to look upon, though it must be admitted that the Maltese
grapes are not of the best sort for wine-making. The wine in common use
here is imported from Sicily and southern Italy. Comparatively little
fermented liquor of any sort is consumed by the natives. Grapes are
usually eaten in their natural condition, when sufficiently ripe, but
they are not so plentiful as to form a portion of the food supply of the
populace at certain seasons, as is the case in Switzerland and the south
of France. The blood orange is grown in the vicinity of Valletta in
great perfection, being propagated by grafting a slip of the ordinary
fruit tree upon a pomegranate stem. The color of the pulp of the fruit
thus produced inclines to that of the adopted tree; hence its expressive
name. This luscious orange, even in Malta, where it abounds, sells for a
higher price than the ordinary fruit. In Florida we have large and
productive orange groves, but they are the result of infinite care and
intelligent methods. Here in Malta the orange seems to grow after its
own sweet will, requiring but very little attention from the period of
the fragrant blossoms to that of the ripe and golden fruit. The
Mediterranean orange is not so large as the Florida product, but it is
of finer quality and rich in flavor, with a thin skin and an abundance
of juice. One other indigenous fruit should be mentioned. It is called
St. John's fig, because it is at its perfection on the anniversary of
the fete of that apostle as celebrated by the Romish church. Other
species of figs are grown upon these islands, but none equal to this.
The mingling of sexes is so important and so clearly defined a factor in
regard to the fruitfulness of the tree that the cultivators of the
fig-trees in Malta heed it as strictly as they would in the breeding of
favorite animals.
The staple product of the group is perhaps cotton, which is exported in
limited quantities, sufficient being retained and manufactured here for
the use of the common people. The Maltese are believed to have been
famous for the production of certain lines of textile fabrics, even in
the ancient days of Phoenician sovereignty. History tells us that the
Sicilian praetor, Verres, sent hither for women's garments,--certain fine
articles of female wear, with which to deck the favorites of his court;
and doubtless there was even then produced here something similar to
that which is so favorably known as Maltese lace, and which is still so
profitable a product of this people. Diodorus Siculus said in his day,
"The inhabitants are very rich, inasmuch as they exercise many trades,
and in particular they manufacture cloths remarkable for their softness
and fineness." Lace is also now made by the Greek women, not a little of
which finds its way to the counters of Valletta merchants, where it is
sold to strangers as being of native manufacture.
Here and there small plots of sugar-cane and tobacco may be seen under
fairly successful cultivation, but we suspect that both are of modern
introduction, for certainly they are not indigenous. The appearance of
these small fields of the Indian weed and the saccharine plant, to one
familiar with their growth in Cuba and Louisiana, is like a broad
caricature. Cigars, chewing tobacco, and snuff are produced here, but
almost entirely from stock which has been imported in the raw state for
this purpose. Considerable quantities are exported in the manufactured
form, though the local consumption is large, the English garrison being
liberal purchasers, while tobacco in some form is the usual indulgence
of the longshoremen.
One occasionally sees in Malta a peculiar tree called the carob, with
thick, dark green foliage. It is a species of locust, growing to an
average height of ten feet, but spreading along the earth three times
that size in width. If its extended branches reentered the soil it would
be like the Asiatic banyan-tree. The carob is said to be as long-lived
as the olive-tree, and bears a nourishing bean, which is cooked and
eaten by the common people. It is considered particularly excellent for
fattening domestic animals. Sheep and goats eat the bean in a green
state from the branches of the carob, which has given rise to the saying
that in Malta animals climb the trees to procure their food. This tree
is green all the year round like our spruce and pine, and flourishes in
the most rocky soil, requiring but little depth of earth to sustain and
feed it. It seems to have no difficulty in finding or in making
fissures, into which to send its expanding roots. It will be remembered
that the friable rock of which the group is formed, until it has been
exposed for some time to atmospheric influences, is almost as soft as
common clay. If there are palm-trees on these islands, outside of the
botanical gardens at Floriana, we did not chance to see them, but we
have known writers to speak of the palm as growing in Malta. The
climate, though semi-tropical, is hardly adapted to the life of this
beautiful tree, which is one of the greatest charms of the tropics and
the East.
Nothing in the neighborhood of Valletta affords such enjoyment, or is so
suggestive and restful, after a busy day occupied in sight-seeing, as a
pull along the coast beyond the harbor's mouth, in a good Maltese boat,
propelled by a couple of stout oarsmen, while the languid sea breaks
upon the shore in tender caresses. It goes without saying that a
moonlight night must be selected for the excursion. One is not likely to
forget the picture presented by the grim fortifications, the looming
towers and domes, the tall, slim spire of the English church, the mass
of flat-roofed dwellings, the clear-cut architectural lines of the
principal edifices, or the fascination of the cradlelike motion, the
delightful coolness, the great sense of peacefulness and silence. Is not
this elysium? How responsive are the dimpled waters to the smile of the
gracious moon, which suggests so much more than it reveals! How idle and
sensuous is every surrounding! When the passing breeze touches the
surface of the waters with a gentle pressure, the color deepens, just as
a youthful maiden's cheek might do, electrified by a lover's first kiss.
Is it because one realizes the evanescent character of these delights
that a feeling of sadness intervenes? Is there not a gladness which
makes the heart afraid?
It is impossible to give expression to the golden memories we have
cherished of these delightful Maltese associations,--pictures which time
cannot efface, images, beautiful and enduring.