ry first, having often to be defended against savage onslaughts made
by the warlike Algerines. It was an outpost which only a rich and
numerous people could afford to hold, and to the Knights of St. John it
was worse than worthless. When the loss of the place occurred,
therefore, some twenty years subsequent, in 1551, at which time it was
surrendered after much hard fighting, to Dragut, the most daring and
successful corsair of the century, it was a positive advantage to the
Knights. Thereafter they were enabled to concentrate all their energies
and means upon what was of infinitely more importance, namely, the
fortification and strengthening of their principal holdings, the islands
of Malta and Gozo.

CHAPTER XV.

Settlement of the Order at Malta.--A Barren Waste.--A New
Era for the Natives.--Foundling Hospitals.--Grand Master La
Vallette.--Sailors and Soldiers.--Capture of Prisoners at
Mondon.--A Slave Story in Brief.--Christian Corsairs!--The
Ottomans attack the Knights in their New Home.--Defeat of
the Turks.--Terrible Slaughter of Human Beings.--Civil
War.--Summary Punishment.--Some Details of a Famous Siege.

When the Knights of St. John accepted the gift of Charles V., and
removed to their new island home in October, 1530, they came in small
numbers. Their fleet consisted only of three galleys, one galliot, and a
brigantine. Malta was then comparatively a barren waste; nothing could
appear less inviting. With the picture of verdant, sunny Rhodes still
fresh in their minds, these bare rocks must have seemed terribly
inhospitable and dreary to the new-comers. The very title of Rhodes is
of Greek origin, having its appropriate appellation, and refers to the
great number of wild roses which grow spontaneously upon that lovely
island. The Knights had lived long and prosperously upon what was and is
still known as the "Garden of the Levant," hence the contrast was
naturally disheartening. Here the rocky surface was treeless and white
with desolation. In Rhodes they had left whole forests of sycamores,
planes, and palms, together with groves of olive, almond, and orange
trees, while in Malta arboreal ornamentation was literally conspicuous
by its absence.

The thirty-fourth parallel of north latitude intersects both of these
famous islands, which are, however, separated by six degrees of
longitude, the climate being nearly identical. Rhodes was larger than
their new