remonials. This special style of public display is very dear to
the average citizen of Malta.

It was a little over fourteen hundred years after the event of the wreck
in St. Paul's Bay, which occurred about A. D. 60, that Malta
was deeded by the Emperor Charles V. to the then homeless Knights of
St. John, together with Gozo and Tripoli, a fact which will be more
fully referred to as we progress with our story of the group.

There has been much ink wasted in controversy as to whether this was
really the island and this the bay where St. Paul met with his maritime
adventure, but it certainly seems to answer every necessary requirement,
and has for several centuries been thus universally designated. The
average visitor feels no doubt that he gazes upon the "certain creek
with a shore, into the which they were minded, if it were possible, to
thrust in the ship" (Acts xxvii. 39). A fresh northeaster was blowing as
we viewed the scene, driving the waves in gallant style upon the ledge
and shore, while at the same time filling the air with misty spray and
rank sea-odors. The long line of milk-white combers, after expending
their force upon the shore, rushed swiftly back, drawn by a mysterious
undertow towards the deep waters. The noise of the vexed and boisterous
element created a continuous roar, as the waves followed each other in
endless succession. It was the _gregale_, the northeasterly blast so
much dreaded by the fishermen, and which in the olden time, before
navigation was better understood, created such havoc in this midland
sea. It would have been difficult to effect a dry landing, even from a
well-managed boat, with such a troubled sea running. One naturally
remembered "a tempestuous wind called Euroclydon" which the Apostle
encountered, while the imagination was busy in depicting the struggle of
Paul and his companions to reach the shore on broken timbers of the
ship.

The beach of St. Paul's Bay seems to be composed of the very smallest of
sea-shells, together with some larger ones, which have been mostly
broken and powdered by the endless hammering of the waves. There is a
fine sand, or something which represents it, probably composed of the
powder from the shells. This place is a favorite resort of the people
from Valletta for bathing purposes, but it was not an inviting day when
we stood by the shore, and no bathers were seen. It was very natural for
one to recall the Biblical words, "He maketh the deep to b