MALTA.

BY THE REV. SAMUEL SHERIDAN WILSON.

THE island of Malta, celebrated as the scene of St. Paul's shipwreck, and rendered notable by its having been, for nearly four centuries, occupied by the soldier monks of St. John, was anciently called Melita, a name traceable to its honey, one of the products for which it is still famous. The Greeks named it Melita; the Arabs, Malta. Some say it was so denominated in honour of the nymph Melita, daughter of Doris and Nereus; and those versed in the Syrian language derive the word Melita from Mylith, which means Juno among the Syrians, and probably the same amongst the Phoenicians. By Ptolemy it is considered an African island; by Pliny, as a part of Europe. It lies sixty miles from Cape Passero in Sicily, and two hundred from Calipia, the nearest African point; being 33° 40′′ E. longitude, and 35° 26′′ latitude north of the equator.

It was early on a Sabbath morning, in January, 1819, that Mrs. W. and myself first set our feet on this interesting rock, with an ulterior view to Greece.

The medium width of Malta is about eighteen miles, and since three diameters make the circle, its circumference amounts to fifty-four miles. For its size, it is the most populous place, perhaps, in Europe, or the world,-containing about 80,000 souls. Notabile, where stands a church dedicated to Paul, was its ancient capital; Valetta its modern one. Of this city, in which I myself resided, the foundations were laid in 1566 by