from twelve to twenty feet. From this, also, balconies project over the street, furnishing a convenient look-out in unfavorable weather.

To

But, leaving the city, with the clamor of its beggars, and the Babel speech of its inhabitants-Maltese, Italian, English, French, and Greek, let me take you to visit the surrounding country. You should first, however, go back with me three hundred years in its history, to the beginning of the "time of the religion,” as the people still call the reign of the knights. It was then little more than a barren rock for fishermen. change the wilderness into a fruitful field, has not been the labor of a day. The surface of the rock must first be removed, to the depth of a foot or more; since it is so hardened by the weather, as not to imbibe the least moisture from dews or rains. This process is not so difficult as you might imagine; the stone, when fresh, being cut almost as easily as wood. In the city, you often see workmen with their axes, fashioning it for the purposes of utility or ornament. The fragments of the rock, obtained from thus paring the field, are then broken up, and, with the aid of a little compost, brought formerly, perhaps, from Sicily, but now from the city, invest it with a fine soil.

But the task of the husbandman is not yet accomplished. If simply spread over his field, the first great rain would soon wash the earth to a "returnless distance" from its rocky foundation. Hence the necessity of walls at frequent intervals, from four to ten feet high, by which the hill is divided into terraces of a quarter to several acres in extent. Take your stand at the foot, and looking up, you will see nothing but a constant series of these brown walls. But as the

soil is made level with the top of the wall, ascend the hill, and look down, and your eye now rests only upon the most delightful succession of fields of cotton, wheat, vegetables, and clover.

Now then we have a suitable soil and foundation for it, and, if you please, the seed bountifully scattered. All these, however, will avail little, without a proper supply of water. This the clouds and sky will afford you at some seasons of the year. In others, you must be at the pains of digging cisterns, and securing them with cement, from which you can draw water for your orange and lemon groves, and vegetables. The fig tree and the mulberry will grow by the way-side, with less attention; or, you may take advantage of some rill, flowing in a few instances from a natural fountain, and treat it according to Virgil's directions in the Georgics. After all, a great part of the interior is still uncultivated, and there is little in its scattered villages, to invite your attention.

I had purposed next, to give you a glimpse of the superstitions of this people; to show you the splendid churches, with their thousand idle priests, some of whom are boys sporting in the streets, dressed precisely in the style of those venerable clergymen whom we knew in our childhood, with the three cornered hat, long skirted coat, small clothes, knee buckles, &c. Or, I might point you to the images of the saints, at every corner, or the gorgeous processions of the different orders of priests, parading the streets, and by way of contrast to their silks and gold, surround you with hundreds of beggars, from whose importunity, neither giving nor an hour's withholding, will afford you any escape. As a more grateful spectacle, I would

then conduct you to the governor's palace, formerly the residence of the Grand Master of the knights. Here you would see their library of sixty thousand volumes, open to the examination of all; or their still more curious armory, where, with spear and shield in hand, and visor down, some of their number still seem to be keeping their silent watch. And when satisfied with seeing the antiquities, the gorgeous tapestry, and the portraits of the Grand Masters, from L'Isle Adam, down, I would conduct you to the church of St. John, where those "kings of the nations, all of them lie in glory, every one in his own house.' But a day would not suffice for examining the magnificence of its interior, nor that of St. Paul, at Citta Vecchia, the ancient capital, in the centre of the island. From Citta Vecchia, we might descend into the catacombs, which are near by, and after groping among those, perhaps, spacious dwellings of the dead, come forth to view two most pleasant resorts of the living. These are the palace and gardens of St. Antonio, (once the public property of the knights, but now the summer residence of the governor,) and the Boschetto, an orange garden, most charmingly situated, and abundantly watered from its own unfailing fountain. In conclusion, I might take you to the grotto, to see the marble statue of St. Paul, who is, of course, the patron saint of the island; or to the harbour called by his name, which, with great probability, is supposed to have been the place where he was shipwrecked; and if you are weary, we might enter, "in the same quarters," the more doubtful house of Publius, "the chief man of the isl and," where we should probably find the same Maltese captain, by whom my companions and myself were

very courteously entreated. As it is not, however, my purpose to write the history or geography of Malta, you must look for a more particular description in the books of travellers, and the journals of my missionary brethren.

CHAPTER V.

MALTA.

Funeral of the Governor, Marquis of Hastings-Prosperity and consequent obligations of our country-American and English missionaries-Operations of the press-Recent and hopeful changes.

Malta, Dec. 16.

We have just returned from witnessing the last abundant honors paid to the memory of the Governor General of Malta, the Marquis of Hastings. In consequence of increasing debility, he had sailed a few weeks since for the coast of Italy, to take advantage of a softer sky. After his death, in the Bay of Naples, his remains were brought back to this place. During the week, they have been lying in state at the palace, until their interment to-day.

The pageant has been grand and imposing. All the soldiers on the island, (four English regiments, and one of Maltese, which last is constantly quartered here,) the civil authorities, the naval gentlemen, the citizens, and the different orders of ecclesiastics, took part in the ceremony. Thus has been laid in the narrow house, where "the rich and the poor meet together," one of the most exalted of the English peers, and high

est officers of the British army, as well as one who, in different hemispheres, had filled the most important stations in civil life. So passes the glory of this world! In the freshness and pride of youth, he whom they have now laid in his grave, while yet bearing the title of Lord Rawdon, contended successfully for the palm of military glory, in the war of our own revolution. Afterwards, he was elevated to the post of Governor General of India, in which responsible situation, he furnished the occasion of the celebrated trial of Warren Hastings, before the British parliament. And now in the evening of his days, he has been induced, in consequence of his impaired fortune, to exercise a more limited, yet as is universally admitted, a mild and parental sway, over this, and the Ionian islands.

Besides the reflections on the transitory nature of earthly distinction and glory, which this scene has tended to awaken. I have also been led by it to contemplate the kindness of Providence to our native land. When the deceased first girded on his youthful armor, to pursue our partisan soldiers over the southern plains of America, it was doubtful, even in the eyes of friends, whether she would obtain an independent seat among the nations. Now, her sons, from the midst of ten millions of a free and happy people, borne in her own vessels, and on their way to set up anew the standard of the cross, in lands where the first triumphs of Christianity were won, are passing spectators when the same individual is laid to his last rest in the days of his age. Surely in this eventful period of Zion's histotory, it was not intended to be in vain for her cause, that such a tide of unexampled prosperity has flowed in upon us.