and the castles which defend them; and there, too, you have a distinct view of the Floriana suburbs. This is a place of great rescrt, and the prospect of the sea in the evening is very charming. The native dress is much worn by the lower classes; a long cap, hanging down behind, of various colors, I saw on many men; and this is used as a pouch for small articles. Many of the Maltese wear a silk or cotton sash to hold up the pantaloons. The white clothes of the poorest were beautifully clean. Many of the country people looked quite jauntily; the costume is seen in the illustration.

I greatly admired the dress of the Maltese ladies. It consists of a black silk petticoat, which is worn over a body of some other silk or print, and this is called a half-onnella. The upper part is called the onnella, and is also of black silk, drawn up into gathers at the centre of one of the outer seams. In the seam of one of the remaining divisions is enclosed a thin piece

270

COSTUMES

CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO.

of whalebone, which is drawn over the head, and forms an elegant arch, leaving the face and neck perfectly open. The left arm is covered with part of this habit, and the right is used for keeping down the angle of the other. The whole is very neat, and the Maltese ladies are not deficient in grace to show their dress off to advantage. I hope this account may be intelligible; if it be not, I may be pardoned when I say that it is the description given in one of their publications at Valetta. The countrywomen usually wear striped native cotton; the head-dress is a tsholkana, instead of an onnella. The doublett is in shape the same as the half-onnella; but on gala occasions they put on the gezuira, which is a kind of petticoat of blue cotton striped with white, drawn up in thick creases round the waist, and open on the right side, where it is tied with bows of ribbon. The poor women of the island rarely wear shoes, but have one pair which they keep for special occasions. The onnella, no doubt, took its origin from the oriental veil. I have noticed vast numbers of the laboring men lying down in the streets and on the docks, and I am told that they often sleep all night exposed to the air. I will not close this notice of our visit without a slight account of the forts, which are so marked a feature of the place.

CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO.

In 870 the Arabs erected here a small fort to guard their piratical craft which anchored in the great harbor. The Knights of St. John, on their settlement, made it their chief bulwark, and added greatly to its strength. In 1686 it was very much enlarged, under the Grand Master Gregorio Carafa, and it took its present appearance in 1690. It presents a most formidable appearance, and consists of four batteries, one above another, in the style of an amphitheatre, and mounts fifty-one guns, and others upon the cavalier and adjacent walls. This fortress is garrisoned by British artillery.

This was founded in 1670, by the Cavalier Ricasoli, at his personal expense; and the Grand Master Cottoner ordered it to be called by his name, as a mark of his gratitude for such generosity. This fort is built on a point of an angular projection, and corresponds with St. Elmo, on the opposite shore, in front of Valetta; and thus the two forts command the entrance to the great harbor. From the sea, if well garrisoned, the fort is quite impregnable; and from the land it could only be reached by surmounting a long succession of very strongly-defended forts, which would threaten destruction to any assailants.

FORT MANOEL.

This was erected in 1726, and is now used as a Lazaretto.

FORT TIGNE.

This fortress was built in 1796, and named in honor of the Cavalier Tignè, who planned the barracks of St. Elmo. This fortress, in connection with St. Elmo, defends the entrance to the quarantine harbor; it is regarded as a very strong work, and has extensive mines cut in the solid rock. It is garrisoned by the artillery and a company of the line. It answers to Fort Ricasoli, and St. Elmo is the great central point between the two harbors; the wings of defence are Ricasoli and Tignè.

THE CASTLE OF ST. ELMO.

This, I have already mentioned, stands upon the extremity of the peninsula which separates the two chief harbors; and the great harbor on the left has three lateral inlets, which are defended by Fort St. Angelo, and on the shores of which stand the towns of Burmola, Senglea and Vittoriosa, all nearly opposite to Valetta. The Fort St. Elmo was built by the Viceroy of Sicily, against the Turks, in 1488. On obtaining posses

272

SIEGE OF ST. ELMO BY TURKS.

sion of the island, the knights saw the vast importance of this point; and when they commenced the city of Valetta, they made St. Elmo the citadel. In 1565, the Sultan Solyman, angry at the seizure of a Turkish galleon belonging to one of his favorites, threatened the destruction of the order; and, for this end, sent a powerful fleet under Dragut, the admiral of the Algerine navy. This armament appeared off the island in May. The attack was made on St. Elmo, usually defended by sixty men under the command of a knight; but on this occasion sixty knights and a company of Spanish infantry were sent in as a reinforcement. The Turkish artillery battered the fort from sea and land. A breach was effected, and a bloody contest followed; and the result would have been the destruction of the garrison, had not supplies arrived in the night from the other side of the great harbor, and the wounded were carried back in the boats. The ravelin was stormed by the Turks, and fell into their hands after a loss on their part of three thousand men. But the courage of the knights was unabated. At last, in their exigency, they sent a knight to the Grand Master, to request permission to evacuate the fort. La Valette, knowing the vast importance of the place, would not permit it to be abandoned, but managed to excite the emulation of the garrison, who were now determined to die rather than surrender their charge. On the 16th June, a general assault was made by the Turks, and the walls were laid level with the rock on which they were built. The enemy entered the ditch, and a heavy fire was kept up on both sides. The assault lasted for six hours, when the Turks retreated with a loss of three thousand men. Seventeen knights perished in the breach, and three hundred soldiers were killed and wounded. A volunteer reinforcement from the other side, of one hundred and fifty men, came over; but it was stated that this was the last aid that could be afforded. The 22d of June the assault was renewed at break of day; and, after defending the place for four hours only sixty men remained to man the

breach. At eleven o'clock the janissaries took possession of the Cavalier, and Dragut entered the fort. Not one knight survived, and every soldier perished in the breach. The Turks lost eight thousand men, and the order had to mourn the deaths of three hundred knights and about one thousand three hundred soldiers. The bloody conqueror, anxious to revenge the death of his men, ordered a search for the dead knights, ripped out their hearts, cut their breasts in the shape of a cross, and set them afloat on boards, for the tide to waft them to St. Angelo, and the head-quarters of the Grand Master, at Borgo. La Valette, by way of reprisal, put his prisoners to death, and, loading his cannon with their heads, fired them into the enemy's ranks. The next year after the defeat of the Turkish invasion, the first stone of Valetta was laid, and the Castle of St. Elmo built in great strength. In 1687 it was almost entirely rebuilt, and early in the seventeenth century the bastions of hard limestone were added, and supplied with artillery.

On the angles of the ramparts which command the entrance into both harbors are seen two turrets, originally intended for the purpose of watching all vessels entering and departing the harbor. A treble row of magazines, nineteen on each story, now forms a barrack for two regiments of the line, and a safe asylum for females in case of a siege. These magazines are bomb-proof, and are within the walls under the western wing of the fort.

I must not forget to name the vast chambers which are dug in the rocks to preserve grain in case of siege. These caves are hermetically sealed, and will preserve grain for one hundred years. A vast quantity of wheat is brought here from the Black Sea, and consequently there are in this port many Turkish and Greek vessels, the sailors in which do not appear very ship-shape, or, as Captain Eldridge says, " don't look cut the right way of the leather." Valetta is a free port, but wheat and oil pay a small duty. Rents are quite reasonable in Valetta, and good houses can be had from one hundred dollars per annum upwards.