Morning journal and courier., 1892-03-12

 and it's Mighty Fortihcattons-A City Massive as the Pyramids and Filmy as Lace Carved out of stone. vALETrA, Malta, Feb. 15. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER: The scholastic, that superior being who moves forward in the world with his shab- by back towards progress, sneering at the paucity of dead-age lore on the part of those who are occupied in making the glo- rious present glow, has no patience with us common folk who wish to know, when we read or write of ancient places, bit | about what gave them their olden fame | and present interest.
 Being all the way through a commoner myself, and rather liking to be disliked by the self-appointed bashaws of didactic knowledge, often find and perhaps give some profit and pleasure in beginning a theme, as it were, at ''the beginning of the world" as did dear old Knickerbocker in his wonderful History of New York, and by pleasant and by no means dreary stages reaching the thing to be considered or be described in that atcomprehensive way which will leave it all distinct and compact en- tity in the recollection. That is at least my own habits of enjoying travel and ob- servation; and I have abundant reason to believe that those who follow my wander ings find genial enjoyment in travelling in just that sort of ruminative, lettering and altogether pleasant way.
 Malta is such very little place that something like a personal explanation is pardonable when one refers to its history. And yet in that history lies nearly all that | Over fifteen hundred years before the birth of Christ Malta was taken possession of by the Phenicians, and they held it for nearly eight hundred years. The Greeks who had founded the important colony at Syracuse then made themselves Inas- ters of the island and gave it the name of Melits, on account of the delicious honey obtained there and Maltese honey | is noted delicacy at this very time. During the Punic wars the Carthagenians | took Malta and the two contiguous islets | of Gozo and Comino from the Greeks.
  nians the islands were so thoroughly col l onized by the Berber and Arab races that to them can undoubtedly be traced | the ancestors of the Maltese of our own | time
 The Romans now secured dominion of | the islands; lost it for time; bnt about l two hundred years before the Christian | era they regsined possession, which last a1 dc .f o5y r,rfa Tn al hfa | record of barbaric and semi-oarbaric conquest there is nothing of greater inter est than dreary tale of pillage, rapine: slavery and blood. Then suddenly, short ly after the beginning of the Christian era, one shipwreck makes Malta eternallv fla nous. If you will read the last two chap uers of the Acts of the Apostles you will know the whole story: How Paul, after his defence before Agrippa, when in charge of the centurion, Julius, was proceeding by Sea to the court of Cesar at Rome, was shipwrecked upon Malta, where he was kindly entertained by the barbarians, among whom he healed Paulus, 'the chief man of the island" and many others that were sick, and finally proceeded in "ship | of Alexandria" via Syracuse, on his way | to Rome.
 The Arab races gained dominion of Nal | ta in 833. About two hundred yeats later l the Sicilians drove out the Saracen rulers and annexed the islands to Sicily, under the government of Roger, the youngest son of Tancred, hero of the Crusades Then, in 1104, France took both Malta and | Sicily from the Normans; when, at the | massacre of the Sicilian Vespers in 1883, French supremacy in all these islands was at an end. They were seized by Pedro of Arragon and made dependency of Spain for nearly two hundred and fifty years. The only career of real glory and inde- | pendence which ever came to the Maltese island opened in 1530.
 After the famous seige of Rhodes by | Sulieman the Magnificent, in 1522, when the Knights Hospitallers were expelled from their shattered towers, though with fadeless honor and glory, they retired first to Crete and then to Sicily. The Emperor Charles V., moved by their renown and homelessness, well as by stragetic con ! alterations, finally ceded to them Malta, with Gozo and Comino, the only condi- tions of the same being that the knights should repress the ardacity of the African corssirs, and in token of homage, every year present a single falcon to the vice
 roy of Sicily
 Twenty eight grand masters exercised | the chief authority during the two hun dred and sixty-seven years in which tine now Knights of Malta held sway over the island and the various branches of the or der which acquired riches and power in
 every portion of Christian Europe. No
 order on earth ever attained the same
 wealth and influence. The latter was se-
 cretly courted by monarchs and their aid
 in all crusades against Moslem countries
 was invoked. The order was divided into
 three classes: the Knights of Justice, the
 Chaplaina, and the Serving Brothers Of
 Arms There were besides persons called
 Brothers de Stage or Donats, given dis
 tinction by the demi- cross for having
 served well in subsltern positions.
 Conceived in the purest and most in
 tense emulation of Christian chivalry, the
 order admitting only those of noble blood,
 and at period when nobility meant some
 thing more than title and inherited pos
 sessions, drew into the commentaries of
 it's eight Languages" the very cream of
 the men and means of the entire Chris
 tian world. The chivalrous spirit of the
 age everywhere lent wealth, lustre and
 power to the order. Kings and emperors
 sent splendid embassies to its courts. The
 properties of it's communicates In various
 countries became enormous. The votive
 offerings at Malta were of incalculable
 value. And the grand master of the order
 possessed not only military and absolute
 authority over all it's members, but sov- ereign power and regal rights over all his
 subjects.
 From 1851 to 1796, a period of barely two and halt centuries after the first
 settlement of Malta by the Knights of St. John, nearly all the majestic monuments of their wealth and power which may be
 found here to-day were resultant from
 their military and ecclesisstic handiwork;
 while during the same brief period were marshalled the events which have crowned
 their memory with imperishable glory and
 renown.
 Most impressive of all remains of tteir tremendous power are the colossal fortif- ] cations of Valetta. When the handiwork l of man is considered, Gibraltar pales into , insignifcance in comparison with Malta. 7 "God made Gibraltar; Gods vicars, l Maltal' once exclaimed an enthusiastic ? admiral az his eyes first rested upon i'm.
 pregnable Valetts. The conformation of
 the port, or double port, is in shape some ! thing like gigantic mouth with protru. 7 ding tongue. The latter would represent Valetta proper; the upper and lower space: a the grand and quarantine ports; and the 7 curvature of the upper and lower lips the upper and neither harborsides; the whole
 water front sweeping away past suburban promontories in either direction and form :. ing one mighty mass of Notifications a, U defensible as art and nature can combine The lsndward lines are equally as vas and wonderful. They enclose the various