Embarkation-Arrival at Malta-General Description-Its InhabitantsArmory of the Knights of St. John-Excursion to Citta VacchiaCathedral-St. Paul's Cave-Catacombs-Excursion to St. Paul's Bay.
FREQUENT reading of Eastern scenery had greatly interested me from the very days of boyhood. Often had I contemplated the grandeur of objects along the great river Nile-the city of the Califs-Egypt's towering pyramids, her colossal Sphynx, her numerous catacombs, with her ruined cities and fallen temples. Often, too, had I fancied the picturesque appearance of a caravan traveling over the deserts of Arabia. In later years, my profession led me to study and contemplate everything connected with sacred history. The reading of the Sacred Scriptures often awakened in me an ardent desire to visit the principal places of their historical scenery. But it was not till within a very few months of my actual embarkation for the East that I had dared anticipate a journey in Africa and Asia. By too much study and intense labor, my health had been seriously impaired. Suffering greatly under an affected state of the nervous system, I was advised by physicians to take a voyage to sea. I chose the