88 MALTA-SEARCH FOR BOOKS. "She looks a sea Cybele, fresh from ocean, A ruler of the waters and their powers :" for the town is built upon a rock of considerable magnitude, and a small Grecian temple, erected to the memory of Sir Alexander Ball, crowns the summit of the point which first catches the eye on entering the harbour of Valetta. Besides which, the surrounding fortifications, which wind in every possible diversity of form, might give an additional impulse to an imaginative mind:-to such I leave the matter. Wednesday, 15th Dec.-This day was employed in rambling up and down Valetta in pursuit of old books: many a dusty volume did I turn over, and many a fat worm trembled in its narrow confines as I adventured forth. I found little, however, of moment; though from the various revolutions which Malta has seen, and the probable ransacking of the monastery, libraries, &c. some curious volumes might have been looked for; but I apprehend that there have been some diligent investigators before me. Amongst others, I obtained "Traité de MALTA-EMANUEL PINTO. 89 l'Administration des Bois de l'Ordre de Malte, dependans de ses Grands-Prieurés, Bailliages et Commanderies dans le Royaume de France." Printed at Paris in 4to. 1757, 66 avec approbation et permission." This book is a presentation copy from the author to the Grand Master Emanuel Pinto, the last Superior, as he is called, of the order. In courage and ability he equalled at least, if he did not surpass, the most celebrated of his predecessors; and the weakness and inanity of the few who succeeded him place them out of all competition. The book in question is handsomely bound in Russia, with the arms of the grand master stamped and gilded on the back: it seems to have been published anonymously, but this being a presentation copy the author's name is subscribed in manuscript at the close of the Epistle Dedicatory. It appertains to the conservation of the woods belonging to the order, with forms of various instruments relating thereto. Another volume, a thin quarto, printed at Lyons in 1755, is entitled "Modele pour Servir à la Reception de Messieurs les Chevaliers de Malte." The author, M. Le Chevalier de Laube de Bron, Commendeur de Tortebesse, informs us in the preface, that he was desired by the venerable Tongue of Auvergne to undertake this work, but that for a long time a prudent mistrust of his own powers induced him to decline it; at last "il s'est cru obligé de se prêter aux volontés du corps." This work, as well as the other, is valuable from having been published under the control of the order. In a small quarto volume of tracts appears a curious Latin speech of Pope Clement XIV. to the Secret Consistory ; an academical exercise; a sermon, preached in the Maltese Cathedral on the shipwreck of St. Paul, “primario tutelare dell' isole di Malta, e Gozzo," by P. Gio. Maria Regnaud, a Jesuit, in 1749; with a second, on the Apostle's conversion. There is also a theological disputation; but the greatest curiosity in the volume is a host of fulsome panegyrics, alternately in Italian and Latin, by a Maltese poet, ycleped Damiro Carisio. The subject is the fifth anniversary of the Grand Mastership of Emanuel de Rohan. It is printed in Malta 1780, and dedicated to "his most serene highness." The reader shall be made happy with a specimen of the larger effusions. The following opens the Latin poem. ( MALTESE POETRY. "Quo vehor ô Vates? procul ô procul este profani: 91 Eja, age, rumpe moras, Dea candida, rumpe, celerque Aoniam mentem Vati mihi conde canenti: Tuque prior præsens claro de sanguine cretus Huc ades, ô PRINCEPS, nostrisque allabere cœptis. But can the most gentle reader apprehend a reason for all this exquisite hubbub? Surely "Quòd ROHAN EMANUEL, Sceptris qui temperat urbem, Cui studuit cœlum, felix jam conficit annum Imperii quintum, protendens nomen in ævum!" Thursday, 16th Dec.-I had made an ap 92 MALTA-BARRENNESS OF THE SOIL. pointment with Mr. Cleugh to ride this morning to a singular valley, denominated (car' oxǹv, I imagine,) the strong valley. It is very curious in its way, and resembles the exhausted bed of a river. The soil, as we rode along, barely covered the rock; and the scanty vegetation seemed like the violent struggle of nature and necessity for conquest. "Truly to speak, sir, and, with no addition, To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it." The carūbba, which is the only tree in Malta that appears to flourish, affords the chief part of the subsistence of the islanders. It yields a kind of bean which is also given to cattle; and indeed the food of their masters is seldom other, or better. This fruit, with a little fish, satisfies them; but the latter is scarce. This easiness of obtaining a bare existence, if it have not rendered them indolent, has probably contributed to make them appear so. Being content with little, and the produce which their country supplies being attainable by creating, not tilling, a soil; by communicating verdure to the rock, not by directing or assisting a natural fertility; no wonder if they should look with |