Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-27
The MALTESE.
Coast and Interior Scenes in
Island of Sword and CowI.
WAKEMANS WANDERINGS.
St Paurs Bay and Citta yecchia-Imprsss-
i've Prehistoric Observation-Disclosures
Crypts-rhe Beautiful Wan
dering Singers.
Icoprright. 1saa. nr Edgar Z. wakeman.l

lUOr 10 N1dlJ2 IS a long Wn1lo IN J1rlng o.
the historic, architectural and social attrac
tions of Yaletta, especially in the sunny
winter time when day and nigh
seemed flled with an endless round Of
brilliant scenes and glyetyy But if interest
in the splendid old city of the knights
should begint to xane there would still be
found an extraordinary charm IN the easily
made excursions to various points of inter
est in Malta and the adjoining islands, and
a most pleasing study of the peasautry .un-
der their curious conditions Of environ
ment.
From Valetta one can reach the remotest
| points in Comino and Gozo even by row or
sail boats, with donkeys for the interior
! lettering, aud return TO the city within day
! light hours; and as to Malta itself-whose
length is no more than eighteen miles with
| an extreme breadth of less than twelve-I
| have often walked from Valetta to Fort St.
| Lucian on the southeast coast, to Citta
Vecchia, the ancient capital of the island,
| to st. Paul's bay, and to sunny, silent Ding
| lion the extreme southwestern coast, arriv-
| ing still in time for a Maltese breakfast
which, if not a meal of dainty perfection,
| always possesses the aristocratic quality of
| interminable delay.
The coast scenery of western Malta and
all of Coco is very beautiful indeed, while
occasionally it reaches positive grandeur.
| For the Bible student there are the scene
of the shipwreck of St. Paul and several
places made famous by the apostles stay
upon, the island. For the simply curious
traveller there are the many ruined sum-
| mer palaces of the grand masters, ancient
and interesting fortalices and palaces of
the Inquisition. The antiquarian will
discover a larger number of prehistoric re-
mains than upon any other equal area, with
catacombs as fiRe as those of Syracuse and
greater than those of Rome Biologists
find extraordinary favorable conditions for
researches, owing TO the bare, denuded
condition of the island, with its rocky sea
shores and noble cliff exposures. And
naturalists haunt the islands in winter for
studies of its rich and winsome tenantry of
migratory birds.
The most beautiful examples of coast
scenery are to be found upon Coco. 1t is
so near that a days excursion in a little
felucca, manned by two or three pictu-
rescue and necessarily chattering boatmen,
will give one a continuous feast of change
full scene, and almost complete survey of
all coast points of interest The shores of
Malta are completely lined with fishermen
or women and children gathering seaweed
for enriching the scant soil of the island,
and every little cove is alive with color and
soundful with song.
Even in winter the sparkling and phos-
phorescent waters. of the Mediterranean
are here bland and warm to the touch and
the young Maltese disport in the waves
during their arduous labors like bevies of
playful seafowl; while the most dangerous
cliffs and precipices are so crowded with
them in their quest for eggs, the young of
the seafowl inhabiting the crannies of the
cliffs, and for the various forms of Vegeta-
ton which are stored with misery care for
fuel and manure, that, at some distance,
the blending of colors of costume with the
grays and greens of the island crags, often
gives the curious illusion that the SeawallS
a1.a lfio wit
Coco, which is called Gaudisch by the ma
tive Maltese, contains no town, although |
the tiny island, which is but six miles broad |
and eight miles long, is thic<ly inhabited. |
1t has SIX villages or casals. These, with |
the outlying farms, for it is very fertile |
island and under the highest degree of cult |
walton, are, or were in the old times, pro-
tected by an ancient though massive fort |
called Rabato. 1t is most pictu- |
resquely situated at great elevation in |
the center of the island From its walls, |
with a field glass, I have looked upon the
splendid panorama of Malta with its ter
raced fields, its old walled villages, its
massive palaces, and the far white city of
Valetta; to the north viewed Sicily with
the glistening cone Of Htna above its dark
and slender thread of horizon line; and
seen to the southwest. like purple dots
upon the shimmering Mediterranean blue,
the lonely islets of Linosa and Lampedusa, |
4
The topography of GOA is very beautiful.
1t is charmingIy diversified by hill and dale.
Many of its sunny valleys are natural and
artificial gardens of wondrous luxuriance.
l have nowhere seen their equal, save in
those marvellous garden wales behind beau
tiful Palermo in Sicily. The shores present,
save at a very few points, perpen-
dicular sea walls, and on the west
srn and northwestern coasts they often
rise straight from the waters edge
to height Of over 1000 feet. These abound
in caves OF great size and Splendor; their
sides and brows are the haunts of myriad
sea-fowl; there heights here and there
show stunted and lonely palms and the air
about them with the sky above are often
almost white with millions of the slowly
sailing and exquisitely beautiful little
Adriatic gulls.
cannot vouch for the emotions of others,
out as I first tramped over the heights of
Nasciar, descending into the valley beyond,
ind saw spread before me the Bay of St.
Paul, a sense of awe mingled with glorious
,lation came with the stiffness and beauty
the spot where the heroic Apostle
vas shipwrecked- The bay, which
S about two miles long and
me in breadth, is situated on the northern !
cast of Malta, and is hardly distant
,risk two hours walk from the city of Va {
eta. Countless excursions are made
lither by water from Malta's capital, and I
'ften the roads are filed with all manner
# vehicles conveying pious or curious pill '
rims 1 preferred coming in the early
morning and alone.
As 1 stood on Nasciar heights, the sun t
vas just rising above the promontory of Ras
j Kaura. 1t rays fell softly upon the +
leeping waters They gave the little me- t
MORTAL chapel bright and smiling face
they deepened the shadows on the eastern S
hore, where fishermen were lazily S
their nets. They pierced b
he copses and chimes of the Melliha o
lopes, disclosing their huts and cabins
f the lowly folk who are nearly as naked
nd quite as lstless of civilization as were
heir Barbarian" forefathers among
7hom St Paul was cast nearly 1000 years
go. They mellowed the grays of the mas
i've walls of the ancient Salmona palace,
Thich crowns the Melliha rocks to the
orthwest And where the little island of
izeier, like a bit of the cliffs tumbled into
ne sea, at the north showed its safrony
1rface between the blue of the bay and
ne sapphire of the sea, they flooded
ne great statue of the saint with such
shine and seeming. that the
uickenened fancy, for an instant at least,
wept across the centuries and basked in r
ne very O-eseppe of that fair and mighty l o.