The Sea Road to the East, Gibraltar to Wei-hai-wei / Six Lectures Prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office

by A. J. Sargent

Valetta Harbour.

Gibraltar has been made by the Rock; its harbour is modern and artificial; but the harbour of Valetta is as old as the island and was used long before the town 30 existed. Here is a plan of the harbour: we see that it consists of two deep inlets with a spur between on which stands the main town. The entrance is narrow, and thus easily defended, while the inlets run far into the land and offer safe anchorage for the largest vessels. The southern inlet, partly closed by a long breakwater, forms 31 the Grand Harbour, into which we are steaming. On our right, at the corner above the breakwater, is the castle 32 of St. Elmo: on our left is fort Ricasoli, guarding the entrance. Higher up are fort St. Angelo, on a jutting 33 peninsula, and other forts and bastions on every point of vantage; while the main town and suburbs are encircled on the land side with ramparts and deep 34 trenches. Here is a view towards the harbour mouth which gives a good picture of the old town. The view is from the upper Baracca, where the old knights of 35 Malta used to walk to take the air. Here is another view from the lower Baracca, but looking up the harbour. In the harbour a long line of warships lies at anchor, and from the water’s edge the town rises up in steep streets and terraces. Let us climb up one of the main 36 streets leading from the water front. It is not an ordinary roadway, but a staircase with shallow steps of stone, owing to the steepness of the hill. The tall houses, with their weathered yellow stone, their carved fronts and overhanging balconies, and their heavily barred windows looking out on the street, might well belong to some old Italian city. The whole city has an air of dignity and age which we should hardly expect to find in a small and isolated island. Even the great forts suggest mediæval history and romance, armour and swords, rather than bayonets and quick-firing guns. They are very different from the batteries of Gibraltar. In fact, Valetta is far more than a mere fortress; it has a history, a people and a language all its own. The upper classes have been affected by contact with the Latin races of Southern Europe, while there is a strong Arab strain in the mass of the people; but all alike are Maltese, proud of their country and clinging tenaciously to their old customs and language. Here we see a portrait of a 37 gentleman of pure Maltese descent, and here again a Maltese lady, wearing the faldetta, or hooded cloak, a 38 remnant of national costume. The hood is still worn very generally by ladies in the street, and we may perhaps connect it with the Eastern custom of concealing the face, though it is not always used for this purpose by the Maltese, and their own tradition traces its origin to the insults of the French soldiers at the time of the occupation.

Malta is the meeting-place of East and West, and its position in the Mediterranean has determined its destiny. From the beginning of history every dominant race in the Mediterranean has held it at one time or another. Romans and Carthaginians fought for it: the Arabs occupied it for two centuries and left their mark on the language and the people: then came the Normans in the eleventh century and brought it into close contact with Europe; and finally, in 1530, it was handed over by the Emperor Charles V. to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, better known as the Hospitallers, who had been driven from Rhodes, their earlier home, after a great siege by the Turks. Thus Malta became an outpost of Christendom, barring Mohammedan progress westward, and a safe base for the knights in the perpetual war which they waged against the infidel in the eastern Mediterranean. It is no matter for surprise that three times in the course of twenty years the Turks besieged the knights with powerful armies; though each time they were beaten back with great slaughter. At the date of the third attack, in 1565, La Valette was Grand Master of the Order. On the retreat of the Turks he founded the new town of Valetta, round the harbour and forts which he had so well defended. The Order was wealthy, with vast possessions in Europe; princes and prelates contributed money as a thank-offering for victory over the Turk, and crowds of skilled workmen were brought over from the mainland. So the new city grew, with its fortifications and palaces, a fit home for a knightly aristocracy which was distinguished alike for its prowess in war and for its luxury in time of peace.

The city remains much as it was. The Grand Master’s 39 palace is now the residence of the Governor; here in the armoury we can still see the armour and weapons of its 40 former owners. At Citta Vecchia, the former capital, we find the old Court of Justice converted into a hospital. 41 Here again is the house of one of the knights made useful as a government school, and here the Auberge, 42 or club house, of the knights of Castile in the occupation of the Royal Artillery; while the beautiful cathedral of 43 St. John, built by the knights, still stands to remind us of the combination of religion and fighting which was so characteristic of the mediæval world. We can still 44 see, also, the great aqueduct, built to bring water to the city from the distant springs. Everywhere we have preserved and adapted the work of the knights, so that Malta is a picture of the past for the most part unspoiled.

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