98 MALTA-CATHOLIC ORDINATION. Saturday, 18th Dec.-I was present, by accident, at a Catholic ordination of priests, in the cathedral church of St. John. The bishop is a corpulent creature, and remarkable, if report speak truly, more for being a bon vivant, and an amoureux, than for devotion. Some disgraceful stories are related of him. The most striking point of the ordination in ques tion, was this: the cope of the candidate was rolled to the top of his back, and after the laying on of hands, was unrolled by the bishop, who flung it behind the kneeling person. He wore a pasteboard mitre, embossed and gilt, to which two broad strings were appended. The crowd consisted chiefly of women and children. Sunday, 19th Dec.-I preached at the chapel of the palace, and dined with the Reverend John T. H. Le Mesurier, chaplain to the forces. I heard a curious story of the attachment of an old Maltese to his goat. He was upwards of eighty years of age, and lived entirely apart from all society. Without family, and almost without friends, his goat had been a cherished object from its birth; and he had so accustomed himself to its society, that he seemed not to ANECDOTE OF A MALTESE AND HIS GOAT. 99 feel the want or the wish for any other. It happened, that some inconstancy on the part of the goat led it to ramble from the humble residence of its aged friend, and it found its way to the house of the gentleman where I heard the story. The old Maltese fell into the greatest tribulation; he sought for it all over Floriana, and, for a time, without success. At last he discovered where the truant had retired; thither he went, and had no sooner beheld it than he burst into a flood of tears. He embraced and kissed it, with every demonstration of extreme joy, and nothing would prevail upon him to quit the sight of it for a single moment. The goat too shewed considerable signs of repentance, and returned joyfully to her old abode. I remembered the story of the captive who cultivated an intimacy with a spider; the agony ascribed to him when it fell by the wanton brutality of his keeper; and it appeared to turn upon the same desolateness of feeling, the same necessity for some object on which to fix the social affections. One would have thought, that eighty years had dried up the fount of sensibility, and that the humble condition of his life would have converted all such 100 MALTA PUBLIC LIBRARY. emotions into a cureless apathy. Conceive an old sallow-complexioned creature, with grey dirty hair, exhaling garlick, and girded with threadbare rags; and then imagine him giving vent to the feelings of a full heart, while he clasped his recovered goat with even more than youthful enthusiasm! Such a picture is but rarely to be met with. Monday, 20th Dec.-The public library of Malta, where I spent the greater part of this morning, is a good building, and of ample size. The books are not classed with much judgment, and indeed have, until the appointment of the present obliging librarian, the Abbe Bellanti, been greatly neglected, or rather injured. For it seems the French helped themselves to the best portion, and left the remainder in a state of ruinous disorder. A fine large-paper copy of Walton's Polyglott has been preserved here, with an Arabic or Maltese Bible, ornamented with beautiful engravings. We have experienced the greatest civility from all quarters, save in my own person, and tremble thou unhappy varlet! save from the over-looker of the Botanic Garden at Floriana. Rightly have I named him; while I loitered MALTA-BOTANIC GARDEN-ANECDOTE. 101 within his precincts, this wicked gardener did overlook me, and locked me up to study botany, and watch the motions of a brace of becaficas which were hopping unconcernedly from spray to spray. I waited patiently, nay, with very singular patience, till I could wait no longer! And then I reared a huge ladder, drew it with great difficulty and some danger over a high wall, and descended, muttering no light anathema upon the abominable gardener. Verily, My indignation boileth like a pot, An over-heated pot, still, still it boileth; CHAPTER IV. TUESDAY, 21st Dec.-Set sail from Malta, and ran, with a fair wind, up the arches, as the Archipelago is termed by seamen; a term which future ages will pore over and elucidate by many a sagacious commentary. Thursday, 23d Dec.-Stood off Cerigo,the ancient Cythera, this morning. The fortress is in possession of an English garrison. A boat was sent on shore with letters, while the Cambrian lay to for her return. The commanding officer, unadvisedly as it would seem, came back in the boat, by which circumstance we were detained during the whole day. Friday, 24th Dec.-Off Milo, where we took in a pilot. This town is situated upon a rock, at the foot of which is a fine bay, containing numerous inlets of great beauty. Several curious rocks rise up at the entrance; |