The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-03-27
Our temples and our treasures are gonew
be passionately retorted.


mechanism, but continually bewailed the
English possession OF Gibraltar and Malta
az menace to all oriental supremacy, and
tne direct cause. or permissible cause, OF
the dismemberment and appropriation Of
northern Africa by Spain, Italy and France.
lie admitted that its development, especial
iy In Tunis, Tripoli and Algeria, had been
marvellous within the last quarter of a
century; that Gibraltar and Malta III the
hands of the English guaranteed perina-
nent and peaceful trade with all Mediter-
ranean countries by the fleets of the whole
world, and even confessed that without
this very English stragetic supremacy In
the Mediterranean his own safety with his.
hides and wheat, in transit from Tunis 10
any neighboring port, would be extremely
problenatic, IL not altogether improbable.
In such unusual converse with these
strange folk the voyage from Palma to
Malta was passed. l was often able to
lead the momentary topic from Moors TO
Maltese and thus secured much valuable
information concerning the real as we'll as
the sentimental condition of the latter.
Two very interesting facts developed
through the apparent extraordinary ha~
tired of English rulers by the captain and
Tunisian, and their seeming equal mutual
affection for the common people of Malta,
the folk who were its peasantry even be-
fore its days Of chivalry under the oIden
knights of Malta, whose deeds and fame
were the most luminous in all medieval
history.
The first was the passionate love all NAL
tese have for their sterile, sunbaked,
sirocco-swept little hump of rock TO which
they cling and nurture so lovingly that it
returns them, conditions being considered,
the most bounteous and luxuriant rewards
of any equal area on the face Of the earth.
"Flower OF the earth" they call the tree
less spot. my country adored" they ever
name the casal or village where they are
born. And as 1.-THE purgatory" or penance
spot they know any other land beneath the
sun To which necessity has led them.
have noticed this same almost pathet-
ically desperate affection for ones birth
spot to be true in other rugged and sterile
abodes of men. Nothing can induce the
half frozen people of Labrador TO quit
those regions Of silence and desolation.
The Highland crofter Of Scotland is a spir-
itless, heartbroken man when forced from
his wild straths and glens. Who that has
stepped foot on the Arran islands, off Cal
way, ever saw other such pictures of hope
less poverty and suffering? Yet for gener-
ations their people have chung to the rocks,
like the dolorous puflins which nest in
their sides amid the Atlantic's howlings,
and no power has been sufficient to tear
them away from their starvation and
wretchedneSs
1t was a curious thing, too, to learn from
the Tunisian that the peasantry of Malta
were more Berber and Arab than Greek,
Italian and Spanish. BY all aflinities,
save the one of religion, he claimed them
as brethren to a man. In their customs,
superstitions and many Of their home
side ways, as well as in nearly all methods,
or rather want Of method, in agrlcul-
ture, they are, he claimed, precisely like
the Berber tribe farmers In the valleys be-
hind Tunis and Algiers.
ave are at Malta, senior. Would you
look upon sleeping Valetta from the sea In
the early morning."
Such was the CHEEKY call Of our captain
as we approached the most famous island
of the Mediterranean. When | reached
the deck our craft lay league distant
from port, almost imperceptlbly moving
toward the white island and whittier city
over a rippleless sea, with sails scarcely
filed by the faintest Of breezes which
merely whispered of the morning; for the
sun seemed to stand tremendous globe Of
crimson on the sea horizon, away over there
between Greece and Crete.
Myeyes never before beheld so transcend
ent and radiant a scene. The whole bosom
of the sea seemed envelOped in a dOwny
mantle Of pearl, gold and crimson, which,
living low upon the water, showed count
less matchless changes of color and pos
sessed the added marvellous effect of lift
ing all discernible objects to an unwonted
altitude.
Our brigantine, with other craft here
and there about us. appeared to ride upon
an opalescent intangible yet palpable
surface of softly flaming cloud. Though
Sicily Law sixty miles 10 the north, its
shore line, lifted vertically and not in mi.
rage. showed strangely near, with the huge
cone of Etna like spearhead Of silver
above. 81,
But where are the words with which to
paint for another's seeing the island and
its ancient city of the Knights as they rose
out of the pulsing, throbbing tints Of that
glorious morning witchery? Ii one could
dream that the gods had transformed the
sea into bed of cameo rose, and, through
cycles of time, with their most cunning
artifcers wrought it into miracles Of
fjligree. and then chiseled upon it white
relief of the islands area, whose wondrous
design had eliminated in outlines and de-
tail of massive grandeur and matchless
simplicity where the city of fortresses and
palaces stood, a vague hint Of this morning
scene could come with the dreaming and
seeming. -,
And on this morning, as we slowly gud-
ed into the eastern of the two ports and
the ideal gradually resolved into the real,
the mind, following the imagery OF the
cameo. its setting, and those who wrought,
loved to linger on the thought that those
who had built had left their miracle OF
labor silent and still. as a ghostly and
stately housing for all who came. Otter
silence brooded over the vast bleached
battlements. Escarpments, terraces JAS
tions eptablatures and huge flat roofs
were lifeless and still The shipping wa
hagless, apparently crewless, ana stlli 81
though craven from onyx into the picture
Not an oar stirred the mirroring haroor
Not more still or pregnant with mystery L
the Libyan Sphinx than was every s1raiig'
object upon which the eye might rest
Not thing having life stirred or was Wis
ible, save when, as our craft swung arouh'
and tugged gently at her anchor, the ray