brought it to on the starboard tack, with her right side to the wind. Then they lowered the gear, and then they lightened the ship by throwing the tackling overboard. A dreary interval of eleven days succeeded in which neither sun nor stars could be observed. Here Paul encouraged them by relating his vision of an angel. But when the fourteenth night was come, as they were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country-they had probably observed the breakers off the point of Koura, which is in the track of a ship coming from Clauda, and they had also probably smelt the land, as sailors are wont to do. Mr. Smith proves from three independent sources, that the wind must have been E.N.E. N.: and that the ship's head must have been to the north to avoid the Syrtes. The direction therefore of the drift, he proves to be in the direction of Malta to the nearest degree, and the rate of drift compared with the time consumed, brings the ship, according to the calculation of two nautical friends, also to Malta. In this way, Mr. Smith proves that the ship could have been wrecked nowhere but at Malta. The objection as to the serpents not being now venomous in Malta is frivolous; because they have ceased here, as in Arran and in Brazil, to exist, from the increasing population and cultivation of the country.

It is interesting also to mention, that Josephus, the Jewish historian, may have sailed in the same ship with Paul, as also did St. Luke, and their friend Aristarchus the Macedonian of Thessalonica, also a prisoner, and the young Titus. And it is remarkable, that the eminent historians

* Colossians iv. 10.

28

THE ACCOUNT BY JOSEPHUS.

and missionaries of the gospel times seem all to have been shipwrecked on this beach, if not in the same ship, near the same place, and in the same year. Josephus gives the following statement in the beginning of his own life, Vol. II., p. 905., Hudston's edition in Greek and Latin, published at Oxford. 1720.

"But when I was in the 26th year of my age, it happened that I took a voyage to Rome, on the occasion which I shall now describe. At the time when Felix was Procurator of Judea, there were certain priests of my acquaintance, and excellent persons they were, whom, on a small and trifling occasion, he had put into bonds to send to Rome to plead their cause before Cæsar. These I was desirous to procure deliverance for, and that especially because I was informed that they were not unmindful of piety towards God, even under their affliction: but supported themselves with figs and nuts. Accordingly, I came to Rome, though it were through many hazards by sea, for our ship was drowned in the middle of the Adriatic sea. We that were in it, being about six hundred in all, swam for our lives all night, when upon the first appearance of the day, and upon our sight of a ship of Cyrene, I, and some others, eighty in all, by God's providence, prevented the rest, and were taken up into the other ship. And when I had thus escaped and was come to Decearchia, which the Italians call Puteoli, I became acquainted with Aliturius. He was an actor of plays, and much beloved by Nero, but a Jew by birth: and through his interest became known to Poppea, Cæsar's wife; and I took care as soon as possible to entreat her to procure that the priests might be set at liberty: and when besides this favour, I had obtained many presents from Poppea, I

CHRONOLOGICAL HARMONY,

29

returned home again." This passage, should it refer to St. Paul, contains the very interesting information that it was through Josephus and a Jewish actor that the Apostle gained an introduction to Cæsar's house, through the influence of which he ultimately obtained his freedom. Hence we read in Phil. iv. 22, that there were saints in Cæsar's household, and that Christianity had reached the palace of Nero himself.

In regard to this very interesting statement on the part of Josephus, I have made reference to the chronological harmony found to exist in the matter, for the purpose of corroborating the facts, and if possible, of identifying the shipwreck of Josephus with that of Paul. The reader will observe the important fact stated by Josephus, that this shipwreck took place in the 26th year of his age. On turning to the Ancient Universal History, vol. xiv., p. 272, note K, it will be found that Josephus was born A.D. 37. And again, on consulting the chronological table of the Holy Bible, appended to Calmet's Dictionary, edited by Taylor, 6th edition: London: Holdsworth, 1837, p. 941, he will find that the date of Paul's shipwreck was A. D. 63. Now on adding the historian's age at the date of the shipwreck, viz. 26 years, to the year in which he was born, viz. 37, the sum resulting therefrom is exactly 63. Archbishop Usher gives A. D. 62 as the date of St. Paul's shipwreck; and Pearson, in his 'Annales Paulini,' p. 372, gives dates different from either. But Dr. Gray, in his 'Connection of Civil and Sacred Literature,' vol. i., p. 262, corroborates the date A. D. 63.

All the coincidences mentioned in the two accounts are so striking in their agreement that I feel inclined to direct the reader's attention to the probability. I have no desire to

cook the facts; but let the reader take Josephus in one hand, and the Acts of the Apostles in the other, and he will find that Paul and Josephus both sailed in the same year from Cæsarea for Rome; that they were both shipwrecked in the same sea, the Adriatic, in the night-time; and that they both swam for their life. They both ultimately reached Puteoli. And far more remarkable still, Josephus tells us, but in a very cursory way, that "at the time when Felix was procurator of Judea, there were certain priests of my acquaintance, 'Sacerdotes quosdam mihi familiares,' and excellent persons they were, whom, on a small and trifling occasion, he had put into bonds to send unto Rome to plead their cause before Cæsar. These I was desirous to procure deliverance for, and that especially because I was informed that they were not unmindful of piety towards God even under their affliction." Now what better description could have been given of the Apostle Paul even by St. Luke himself? Next, the reader will find the result to be another remarkable coincidence. St. Paul is not only set at liberty, but he gains access to Cæsar's household, and converts some of them to Christianity—all, I am inclined to believe, through Josephus and Aliturius. It is not impossible that such literary characters as Josephus, Paul, and Luke, might have been familiar friends from an earlier period, especially when the two latter were Jews, the one a native of Tarsus, the other of Antioch. Being all desirous to visit Rome, they might go in company: Josephus being anxious to procure their liberty. One objection to this supposition seems to be, that Josephus, himself a Jew, would never have denominated St. Paul as a priest, because he did not belong to the sacerdotal family, being of the tribe of Benjamin. Another objection, some

HARBOUR OF VALETTA.

31

what more weighty in my estimation, arises from the Apostle having been shipwrecked on a shore, and the historian having been foundered in the midst of the sea. But such may have been the two accounts of the same affair, given by different writers at different times, the one being very general, and not pretending to be at all accurate in minute details. Even here, however, there seems to be more concurrence than at first appears. St. Luke tells us, that in his ship some got to land, by casting themselves into the sea and swimming to the shore. More still, Paul writing about one of his shipwrecks, says, "A day and a night I have been in the deep," that is, shipwrecked and supported on spars or fragments of the broken ship. Nay, Luke says, that in this instance, those who could not swim got to the land, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. In these circumstances, it is not at all impossible that Paul may have reached the shore of Malta, either by swimming, or on a raft, and Josephus may have been drifted back into the ocean, and there at last picked up by a ship of Cyrene going to Rome. There only then remains the difference in the two accounts as to the number of passengers, the one given as under 300, and the other about 600. But this statement of Josephus is a proof to me that he wrote in a vague cursory way, for I suspect that no ship of the ancients, of whatever class, much less a merchant-ship with a large cargo of wheat, would likely contain 600 men.

What a superb panorama starts up on entering the harbour of Valetta. The high walls with the names of line of battle ships painted on them—the clean and white houses glittering in the sun, and with their verandah windows rising one above another, the arches of the lower Barracca,