The Maltese islands group consists of Malta,
Gozo, Comino, Cominotto, with the rock of Filfla.
Local legend, taking us back to the twilight of
fable, tells that they were inhabited originally by a
race of giants called the Phoenicians, and the old
writers pointed in proof to great stone structures
of evident antiquity, and certain bones and skulls
of superhuman size found in all the islands. These
stone buildings, similar to our Stonehenge, were,
in fact, built by the first settlers, the Phoenicians,
while modern science has declared the bones in
question to be those of a species of small elephant.
This latter fact, in knocking, so to speak, the giants
upon the head, raises the further question whether
Malta was once part of the mainland of Africa, as
the presence of the elephants seems to suggest.
The annalists of the islands have also claimed
Gozo as the Ogygia of Homer, where dwelt
Calypso when she allured Ulysses from his path. 
(Calypso
was a nymph in Greek mythology, who lived on the island of Ogygia, where she
kept Odysseus prisoner for a number of years. She is generally said to be the
daughter of the Titan Atlas.) By this statement, no doubt, they wished
to secure, like historians in the Middle Ages everywhere, a good place for their
own particular country in the geography whether real or imaginary of the
classics; and in this way, indeed, the fair Calypso
has had quite twenty island homes placed at her
disposal. Anyway, we find Gozo called by the
Maltese the Island of Calypso, and her Grotto may
there be admired today by the uncritical.
The Phoenicians were the first settlers in Malta
who have left authentic records. They gave to
the island the name of 'Malet,' meaning shelter, or
haven, from the famous natural harbour. As they
are the forefathers of the Maltese of today, it is not out of place to
tell at some length what
manner of men were these seafaring fellows.
'They were the foremost of barbarian nations,
the only real political rivals of the Greeks, who
came into the western waters of the Mediterranean
about 1500 B.C. They sailed from the narrow strip
of land that lay between Lebanon and the sea,
where are their old and famous cities of Tyre,
Sidon, and Arvad. The name by which we call
them is not their own, but one which perhaps
marked their land as the land of palm-trees. They
called themselves and their country Cana, or Canaan, for of a truth they came
from the Canaan of the Old Testament; they worshipped the gods
of Baalim and Ashtaroth, with their foul and
bloody rites, burning their children in the fire.
Their tongue was the same as the Hebrew, and
very little knowledge of Hebrew will explain many
Phoenician names. Thus, the most famous of all,
Hannibal, is "the grace of Baal," just as the
Hebrew Hananiah is " the grace of Jehovah. "Turn it round and it is
Jehohanan, Johannes,
or our familiar John.' The Phoenician names
Hercules, Hannibal, and Hamilcar, are names
quite commonly found among the Maltese down
to recent times.
'The Phoenicians were the oldest mariners in the
world of their day, and the most cunning traders.
They were then far advanced in material arts above
the Greeks and all other European nations. Certain
it is the Greeks learnt much from them in the way
of culture, and they learnt a much more precious
gift namely, the alphabet. All the various forms
of written letters now used in Europe have come
in different ways from the letters first used by the
Phoenicians. The name Alphabet shows it: it
comes from the first two Phoenician letters "aleph"
and "beth"; in Greek, "alpha" and "beta." '
The Maltese language of today has not a distinctive
alphabet of its own, but is now written in the Roman characters of English or
Italian. These, being
foreign characters, do not adequately express the
sounds of the Maltese words, the guttural sounds
of which are reproduced more nearly by the use of
Arabic or Hebrew characters. This will at once
show that Maltese is in no way Italian, as so many
people imagine.
The chief land of Phoenician settlements was
Africa, where Carthage was their most famous
colony; and this brings us near our own Malta.
Malta was occupied by the Phoenicians for 700
years. The best 
preserved
of their buildings is Hagiar Kim 'The Stone of Veneration' ' which
was excavated by Government in the year 1839.
This, near Casal Krendi, is a circular enclosure of
vast stones, divided into chambers and alcoves for
sacrificial and religious purposes. Here you may
see the stalls of the animals of sacrifice, an oracular
room for the prophesying priest, and in the Valletta
Museum the altar on which the victims were
offered. In the excavation of these remains were
found statues of the seven brothers Kabiri, of
Astarte, Sidonian deities, and stonework ornamented with date-leaves, symbols
plainly showing an origin from the palmy East. At Gozo is found
another structure similar to Hagiar Kim, upon the
property of the Marquis Desain, called Gigantia,
or the 'Giants' Tower.'
Gozo Ferry - Gozo may be reached by a steamer going twice
daily; but those who like a more picturesque mode
of conveyance may take the 'Gozo boat.' This
native vessel, of graceful lines and gaily painted, is
rigged with two masts and lateen sails, resembling
the swan-like shapes seen upon Lake Geneva. It
is an open boat, bringing market produce, including
fruit, sugar-canes, raw cotton and honey, cheese,
and cut grass as fodder for cattle, to Valletta, for
Gozo is naturally as fertile as Malta is barren.
The Maltese boats often carry the quaint device of
a pair of eyes, one on each side of the prow, for the
good ship to see the way over the waters, a custom
used by the Romans upon their galleys. The
sailors in Malta used to wear the bright-coloured
stocking-caps of the Neapolitan fishermen, frequently bright red in colour. Now,
alas! they
are exchanging this head-dress for a black felt
abomination, like the brigand's in conventional
melodrama.
Gozo is but twenty miles square in area. It is
separated from Malta by a channel two and a half miles wide, and is surrounded
by perpendicular cliffs. The name Gozo is a corruption by the Arabs
of Gaudex, 'a tail,' a name given it by the Romans
because it seemed to the traveller on his approach
a sort of appendix to Malta. The peasantry are
noted for their strength. Famous goats-milk
cheese and honey come from it. Its capital
formerly
was called Rabat, but was changed to Victoria in honour of the Queen's Jubilee
in the year 1887. Gozo was once full of magnificent buildings. Today may be
seen remains of Gothic
and other architecture in the city and in the burying-place of the Augustinian
Order. The citadel,
perched upon a solitary rock, guarded by draw-bridges, with a winding road to
the top, was once an
impregnable position. Under the Order of St. John
of Jerusalem Gozo was governed by a Knight, originally of the English League.
We read in
the records of the Order that the refractory
Brethren were often in punishment banished to
Gozo.
At Marsa Scirocco is also found the ruins of
a Phoenician temple, and a great stone hollowed
out to receive rain-water. The inhabitants today
depend in large measure upon rain-water for drinking purposes. The rain is collected
upon the flat roofs of the houses, which are covered with a sort
of red asphalt, and is carried by a pipe into a well
in the cool basement, and stored there.
In Malta was found, in 1694, a slab bearing an
inscription in both Greek and Sidonian letters,
almost as valuable as the famous Rosetta Stone,
because it gave us much of our knowledge of the
Phoenician language; indeed, Professor Sayce has
pronounced the archaeological remains of this period
in Malta to be the finest in the Mediterranean.
Besides the giant buildings, pieces of pottery, flint-knives, and bones of sacrificed
animals, the Phoenicians have left a much more permanent trace
of their occupation in the present population of the
island, who, especially at Gozo, in their mode of
thought and usages, preserve a strong Oriental bias,
and are evidently distinct from every one of the
various nations who have subsequently held in turn
a temporary supremacy over them.
We may conclude our reference to the Phoenicians by recording the qualities
given to them by
a great Oriental scholar: 'First, pliability combined
with iron fixedness of purpose; secondly, depth
and force; thirdly, a yearning for dreamy ease,
together with a capacity for the hardest work;
fourthly, a love of abstract thought; and, fifthly, religiousness, together
with an intensely spiritual
conception of the Deity.'
'These qualities,' says Professor Rawlinson, 'are
said to have especially distinguished the Phoenicians, the Jews, and the Arabs.'
They may be
traced without exaggeration in the Maltese people. Hard work ' has made the Maltese
merchant the
most flourishing in the Mediterranean at the
present day; while the successful small trader in
Tunis and Alexandria and other Eastern ports is
often found to be a Maltese, whose hope, generally
realized, is to amass a competence and return
to end his days in his beloved island. A traveller
in the eighteenth century notes that adventurous
merchants from Malta travelled to America no
mean performance in those days returning with
fortunes; and a good Knight, with perhaps affectionate exaggeration, would have
us believe that,
so famous were their woollens, half Europe at one
time wore Maltese socks, and went to bed between
Maltese blankets.
'A yearning for dreamy ease' may be seen in the
absence of athletics, so dear to the English garrison,
and all form of unnecessary physical exertion among
the Maltese, and in the midday siesta; though the
early rising of all classes, often at five o'clock in the morning, may account
for the need of the latter.
The shaded rooms; the loungers in Strada Reale (now Republic Street / Ir Repubblika Triq) ;
the sunshade and fan, called a paliu, sometimes
carried in the summer by both men and women;
the interminable cigarettes and coffee; suggest
an Eastern, rather than a Western, mode of
life.
'Abstract thought' may be found in the rich
metaphors of the Maltese tongue; in the vivid
imagery and the play of ideas which mark the speeches of popular orators, like
the late Dr. Mizzi,
or the distinguished avvocati; and in the wonderful
sermons, in either Italian or Maltese, of the padres,
in striking contrast to the more matter-of-fact
utterances of English speakers.
'An intensely spiritual conception of the Deity'
comes out in that religious feeling which makes
the Maltese look for and find the 'Will of God' in
each and every act of their daily life, much as in
the case of the Celt in the West of Ireland.
The Greeks succeeded the Phoenicians, coming
to Malta from Corinth at the time when they
colonized Syracuse. Few details of their doings
have come down to us; they named the island
Melita, that is, the 'Land of Honey,' of which
present-day readers who have eaten the Maltese Qubbait or the Kaghka marmorata
made on Festa
days will carry sweet memories.
A Greek inscription in the museum at Naples
records a vote of thanks of the Maltese people to
Demetrius, the Greek ruler of Syracuse. A city
called Melita was built by the Greeks; this the
Arabs afterwards fortified, calling it Medina, or the
chief city, and it remained the centre of government until the year 1571, when
the Grand Master,
Pietro Del Monte, proclaimed the then recently
built Valletta the capital of the 
island.
It was therefore called Citta Vecchia, or the old city,
though it is known to the Maltese still as Medina.
You may see a Greek private house of this
period, in good preservation, standing in the main
street of the Casal Zurriek, which is well worth a
visit. Greek coins, pottery, and other remains, are
in the Valletta Museum; the Greek inscriptions
found in Malta sufficiently prove that the Greek
language was at one time in habitual use there,
and it is conjectured that it was then the language
of the cultivated classes of the natives, just as is
Italian or English today.
The Carthaginians, coming next, resumed the
rule of their ancestors, the Phoenicians. Malta
then played a part in the Punic Wars, during which it changed masters several
times. It was ravaged
by a Roman fleet under Regulus in the year
257 B.C., and in the Second Punic War it was held
by a garrison under Hamilcar, son of Gisco. The Carthaginian leader, however,
surrendered here
to Titus Sempronius, the Roman Admiral, and
thus Malta passed under Roman rule. A writer upon Malta recalls the existence,
not so long ago, of
a family in an outlying village, bearing the surname of Hamilcar, who claimed
descent from the
Carthaginian General; and though the actual pedigree may be a figment of the
imagination, the
assertion illustrates how living a thing is historical
tradition, and how strangely fact and fancy, present
and past, are interwoven in these islands.
Latin writers have plenty to say about Malta:
it was governed by a Praetor; several Maltese were
enrolled in the Quirine tribe; in later days it became a Municipium, while under
the Christian
Emperors the Code of Justinian was introduced,
and, in fact, remains embodied in part in the present
laws of the land.
Cicero mentions in his letters that pirates infested it, and it is not unlikely
that at all times
were to be found among the Maltese daring spirits
ready for a raid. Captain Marryat, indeed, in his novels, speaks of the alarm
(which his boy-readers
probably shared and thoroughly enjoyed) with
which merchantmen sighted Maltese pirates on the horizon, whom he describes as
' the ablest corsairs in
the Mediterranean.'
Malta seems to have flourished under Roman
rule. Diodorus speaks of it as a Phoenician colony,
famous for its wealthy inhabitants; he remarks
upon the beauty of the houses, with their painted
plasterwork and curiously projecting pediments,
just as the modern visitor might notice the rococo
ornamentation of the churches or the balconies in Strada Stretta. Strabo mentions
as peculiar to
the island a breed of small dogs, surely the Maltese
silken-haired terrier known to dog fanciers today.
At that early date it was famous for its cotton
cloth, much in request at Rome, and called there
vestis melitensis. The island must have been to the
Roman a winter resort, much as it is today to English visitors, because we find
Cicero in one of his
letters talking of retiring there when the political
world became unpleasant for him at home; and we
can scarcely imagine the Roman orator banishing
himself to a mere colony devoid of the amenities
and society of the Roman capital. In the year
1881, while some trees were being planted outside Medina, a villa residence of
Roman times was
actually found, with mosaics, glass, sculpture, and
other objects of Roman art, of great interest and
value. These have been arranged in some of
the rooms of the villa itself, and suggest an
admirable picture of the luxury and civilization
of the Romans.
Under the Roman rule occurred that event
which has beyond all others captivated the imagination of the Maltese, and which
makes the island almost sacred in the eyes of the Christian world:
the coming of St. Paul in the second month of
A.D. 58. The Apostle, sailing from Caesarea to
Rome, was shipwrecked in the present St. Paul's
Bay, being driven ashore by the Euroclydon,
as it is called in the Acts, now known as the
Gregale, a cold and wet north-east wind, of
great danger to shipping. In this bay, about
five miles from Medina, may be seen, near a
small island, called Il Gzira, on which stands
a great statue of the Saint, the place where the
ship bearing St. Paul and his followers struck 'between two seas.' Not far from
this spot, under
like conditions, H.M.S. Sultan was lost some years
ago. The square watch-tower and little church on
the shore were built in the year 1610 by the Grand Master Vignacourt, the latter
upon the site of one
more ancient, marking the spot where St. Paul and
his followers landed, and were received by the
Maltese, who lighted them a fire, ' because of the
present rain and the cold.' According to the sacred
narrative, a viper crawled from the burning sticks,
and fastened upon the hand of the Apostle, who thereupon, so local legend says,
banished reptiles
for ever from the island, just as did St. Patrick
in Ireland. The Maltese were then converted to
Christianity by the Apostle, Publius, son of the
Roman Governor, being consecrated by him their
first Bishop. St. Paul became the national Saint
of the island. Publius, too, is much honoured.
The cathedral in Medina is built on the supposed
site of his house, while the great church in Floriana,
just outside Valletta, is dedicated to him. Publius,
in fact, so St. Jerome records, received the crown
of martyrdom, being eaten by lions in the arena at
Athens during the first Christian persecution there,
and was eventually canonized a saint of the
Church.
The name of St. Paul, together with that of
St. John, the patron of the Knights of Malta, is
found everywhere in the island. The smallest casal has its Strada or Piazza San
Paolo or San Giovanni, and statues of the two mark the street corners.
Traditions of the intervention of St. Paul in the
cause of the Maltese and the Church are frequent
in the miraculous legends of the island. Thus, on
one occasion, before the arrival of the Knights, the
Saracens invaded the island, and the Maltese would
have been exterminated if the Apostle had not
appeared in the skies upon a white horse, bearing a
flaming sword, and put the Infidels to flight. This event is commemorated today
in a solemn procession through the streets of Medina, where prayers
for the peace of the Church are offered at the Porta
Reale.
The question of the identity of the island upon
which St. Paul was shipwrecked was once the controversy of the age. Antiquarians,
theologians,
politicians, and whole religious Orders took sides
against one another upon the question, Padre Georgi,
a Benedictine, leading the case for Meleda, an
island in the Adriatic. The Maltese historians spent much ink and paper in support
of the claim
of their island to the honour, and happily the
matter is now scientifically decided in their
favour.
A relic of early Christianity is found in the
museum: it is the quaint figure of a beggar, seated cross-legged, with a bowl
in his hand, denoting
possibly Charity. It is covered with figures and
letters of the alphabet, which represent the symbols
of some sect who tried to reduce religion and
morality to a mathematical formula.
At the division of the Roman Empire, Malta
was included in the possession of the Eastern or
Byzantine Emperor. We do not know much of
its history for the next few centuries. It certainly
remained a stronghold of Christianity, but was left
undisturbed by the rest of Europe. In the year 870
it again becomes the scene of active history by the
advent of a new power, which for long endangered
European civilization. The Arabs, inspired by Mohammed, roused themselves from
their leisured life as mere tent-dwellers
in Arabia, and poured in vast numbers out of their
country, with the fury of fanatics, carrying their new religion abroad at the
point of the sword.
They swept westward, through Syria, Palestine,
and North Africa, and incidentally took possession
of Malta. The Greeks there, one of whom was
a Christian Bishop of the island, were put to death;
the authority of the Byzantine Emperor, Basil I.,
was declared at an end; and the government was
assumed by an Arab Emir. Despite the occupation of the Arabs for two centuries,
at a time when
almost all the known world, from the Ganges to
the Danube, was subject to them, the Maltese
never accepted Islam. The Maltese of the present
day, indeed, is prompt to confess that there is no
god but Allah, for that is his vernacular word for
Deity; but for the second part of the creed of
Moslem he entertains a hatred and contempt
almost fanatical, even though essentially Oriental
by race. From this traditional abhorrence of the
Arab, we must conclude the Maltese suffered
severely under their rule. Native authors tell us
that horrible tortures were inflicted by the Emir
upon the Maltese. The Arabs built a castle upon
the promontory where the fortress of St. Angelo
now stands, to protect themselves against native
risings. This was the first of those fortifications
which have rendered Malta famous. They also fortified Melita, giving it the name,
as we have
said, of Medina, and they built in Gozo the fortified
town of Rabat. They have left relics of their rule
in many names given by them to places in the
island: Malta itself is their corruption of Melita;
they divided the island into most of the present
casals, and cased itself is the name given by some
Sicilian attorney, when in feudal times Italian law was introduced, who possibly
could not pronounce
Rahal, the Arabic word for village.
The national head-dress of the Maltese women,
called the faldetta, is of Arabic origin. It is due,
no doubt, to the same idea as the Eastern habit of
veiling the faces of women. It is like a nun's
hood, of black cloth stiffened by whalebone. It is
the usual dress of the poor at all times, but the
women of the better class make a point of wearing
it in church, and then it is not etiquette for
a gentleman to address a lady friend so attired.
Little girls wear it as well, and it is amusing to see
the small bare-legged people of eight or ten years
wearing a diminutive faldetta, and adjusting it
with all the care and concern of a full-grown
woman. It is not merely a head-dress, but falls
round the body much like a shawl. It is not very
heavy and, like the shawl in the Highlands or the
West of Ireland, it serves the double purpose, by its
thickness, of keeping out both the heat and the
cold. The faldetta is often made of costly silk,
and is always black in colour. The country-woman will sacrifice everything to
keep hers
untorn; for to possess none at all is regarded as the
greatest degradation. Guide books tell us it was
introduced in the year 1798 as a sign of national mourning, to last for a hundred
years, for the
calamities brought to Malta by Napoleon's armies;
but this explanation cannot be accepted, in view of
the existence of legislation by a Grand Master,
prior to that date, prohibiting a woman appearing
in Strada Reale (now Republic Street / Ir Repubblika Triq) without afaldetta.
The Roman Empire in decay, divided by the
dissensions of the Pope at Rome and the Emperor
at Constantinople, could not of itself withstand the forces of Islam. The Arabs
had conquered
Africa; one assault had made them masters of
Spain; and Mirza had boasted that he would force
his way from there across the Alps into Italy, and
cause the name of Mohammed to be proclaimed in
the Vatican. A power, however, came from the
hardy North to the help of Roman Christendom.
The barbarous tribes in the Empire, embracing
Christianity and Roman customs, created the
feudal system under which they became civilized
states, full of the vigour of new nations. The
armies of these Northern races under the leadership
of Charles Martel, by defeating the Arabs at Tours
in the year 732, saved Europe from the domination
of Islam; but the Eastern forces succeeded in holding many islands in the Mediterranean,
including
Malta, for the next two centuries.
About this time Sicily and Malta, both in the
hands of the Arabs, came by inheritance to Roger
the Norman, son of Tancred of Hauteville. Roger
determined to take possession of his islands, and
crossed the sea with his Norman Knights. He
drove the Arabs from Sicily, and expelled the
Emir from Malta. The joy of the Maltese people
was great. The Cross was uplifted once more
above the Crescent; a Christian Prince ruled again;
the priests and people crept from their catacombs, where they had practiced their
religion; their
patron saint might be openly invoked; the ruined
churches were restored; coins were struck in honour
of the event, bearing the figures of Christ, the
Blessed Virgin, and Roger, Count of Malta; and
today a festa commemorates the expulsion of
the Arabs.
From this year 1090 until the year 1530
Malta was a feudal fief, and, as such, was subject
successively to the many different holders of the
Sicilian Crown, the Norman Kings, the German
Emperors of the Suabian House of Hohenstaufen,
the Kings of Anjou, of Aragon, and of Castile.
Under this system Malta was but a pawn in a game
played by the Princes of these dynasties as lords
paramount of the island. It was given to them by great nobles as a marquisate
or a contado; it was mortgaged when they wanted money; it was the
scene of intrigue and faction. Giovanni di Procida
is said to have plotted the Sicilian Vespers here.
An Englishman called Corner is found a curious
fact holding it for a King of Aragon against his
enemies. The rule of Mary of Aragon, in particular,
was so exacting to the inhabitants that it has been
called, in popular speech, the 'Time of the Tyrants.'
When Count Roger overthrew the Arab domination he allowed some of the Arabs to
remain in the island. They plotted a massacre of the Maltese
during a certain Holy Week, intending to surprise
the inhabitants at their devotions. The plot was
revealed, legend says, by the miraculous dream of
a holy woman; and the Maltese fell upon the
conspirators with the cry, 'Kill the dogs,' at a spot
today called Ghaili Clieb, or 'dogs' fountain,' on the
roadside between Citta Vecchia and Bengemma.
But, despite the vexatious incidents of feudalism,
there are found in this period the germs of a
national life. There was a consiglio popolare, elected by the franchises of the
Maltese, consisting
of the nobles, the clergy, and the commons of
this island. The government was conducted by
great officers of State: a Captain of the Rod, called in Maltese the Hakem,
who was chief magistrate of Medina and had extensive jurisdiction;
an Admiral of the Port; a Steward of the Customs;
and a body of Giurati who controlled questions of
labour, wages, and commerce. These offices were
always held by the natives of the island. A
national Church existed in the sense that successive
Kings ordained, and Popes ratified the decree, that
none but natives should hold ecclesiastical dignities
in the island. The Maltese even undertook some wars of their own. We read of
their attacking and
destroying a squadron of the Republic of Pisa, and
wresting the island of Candia from the Venetians
after a severe naval engagement, in which the
Venetian fleet was defeated. Native writers and
orators, with commendable patriotism, love to dwell
upon this period as the palmy days of a free Malta;
but scientific historians have not yet decided how
far this local government of the Maltese extended;
nor how far this small people in those distant
feudal days was even conscious of a national life.
Permanent records, however, of the feudal
system are still found in Malta. From it came
the Sicilian or Italian law embodied in the
Maltese Code. The Normans built many of the
buildings in Medina, and traces of Gothic architecture may be seen in Gozo. The
Church and the
religious Orders own today quite one-third of the
land in the island, which they do in many instances
under title-deeds going back to the feudal times, when the preux chevaliers were
wont to express
their thanks for success in arms by pious foundations. Some of the present titles
of nobility were
granted by the Norman, Castilian or Aragon
Kings we have mentioned; and they granted also
many of the armorial bearings of the present non-titled nobility, who thus can
trace pedigrees as ancient as our baronies of Camoys or Hastings.
Finally, in the year 1530, Malta was given by the
Emperor Charles V., who had inherited it from the
last of the Castilian Sovereigns, to the Order of
St. John of Jerusalem, under which it remained
until the year 1798.
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