he, however, is now completely "used up," and, in dreamy resignation, oscillates with the rocking of his boat upon the light groundswell; his head is aching violently; his nose is blistered; does he close his eyes to exclude the glare? millions of little bubbling atoms spring up and down in fantastic polkas, till, quite bewildered, he once more opens them, to cherish a very pardonable delusion of his having become, somehow or other, a denizen of a world in which sea, sky, land, trees, ships -all, are glowing copper; and in this hallucination, caused by the rays of a noontide Egyptian sun at his highest northern declination, at last approaches the welcome period of his release. A greater bustle ensues-1 -the mails and captain come off together; the former are tossed on board without ceremony, and the latter, running up the ladder, says, in a breath, to the officer receiving him at the gangway, "Now, Mr. Topmaul, bundle the mails in at once, if you please. Are you hove short?"-"Yes, sir, to a stay peak." -"Run a line out to that corvette to get her head round. Have your jibs clear," &c. &c. The busy skipper, then, at a glance, comprehends the occupants of the thronged quarter-deck,— the grizzled ex-commander-in-chief of Tanksquare presidency, the collector of Apollo Bunder, the deputy-judge of Cooley Bazaar, and the senior kettle-drum of the Currywallahbad cavalry, with the political resident at the Ladrone Islands, are the great guns; a crowd of less distinguished liver-affected Qui-His, Ducks, and Mulls,* with a filling-in of little sore-eyed, rice-crammed babies, and their dingy ayahs, parroquets, and Persian cats, complete his survey; during which, brief as it is, dire alarm seizes his soul, in consequence of unmistakeable manifestations being made by some of the nabobs of a desire to appeal to him, at the early stage of four hours before dinner, to settle the important matter of precedency at table, generally a quæstio vexata among Indian passengers. By an eel-like manœuvre he escapes the snare, and gains the stern, where, looking over the taffrail, the hapless stranger, now almost baked to a turn, catches his eye. Inquiries are rapidly made and answered; the skipper, melted with pity, bawls out lustily, "Mr. Topmaul, clear the ship at once of strangers from the shore."-"Bless me, here's a poor gentleman four hours under the stern."-"What a treat he must have had of it under such a sun!"

Noms de guerre given in badinage to the residents of the three presidencies, Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, among themselves.

The orders are quickly obeyed, and our traveller, scrambling up the ladder, rushes to his cabin, and, in an hour, bathed, shaved, and curled, is haply recognized, on his re-appearance, as the very Antinous of Curzon-street and the embryo lion of the season, the Eothen of Belgravia.

In the meantime the ship, now placed in quarantine, emerges from amid the pasha's line-of-battle ships, and timber-carrying frigates of that great utilitarian; and, steaming past a perfect grove of windmills, turns sharp to the right, when, abreast of the Tombs of the Kings, and keeping to starboard the lighthouse and palace on Point Eunostos, and far to the left the island and fortifications of Marabut, threads her devious course amid the reefs, forming the Boghaz Pass † or Channel, and regains the open sca.

When the soundings, deepening to sixteen feet, signify to the Arab pilot that his knowledge is no longer needed, he descends from the paddle-box; the clanking engines pause for a space, and a boat, hitherto towed astern of the ship, is hauled up to the gangway, and the follower of the prophet prepares to leave the packet, but first begging the usual "backsheesh" of a couple of bottles of booza or ale, and a loaf or two of bread; he also receives his certificate of pilotage on paper, and unavoidably comes in contact with the crew when going over the side. It is hardly to be credited, after all the fuss that had been made about the poor passenger, that the pilot and his boat's crew land again, in perhaps an hour, at Alexandria, freed from all restrictions imposed by quarantine; yet were the ship from any cause to put back, she would be subjected to the same length of quarantine as that allotted to the Syrian traveller ;-such is one of the inconsistencies of this system!

Cloth, hair, wool, silk, feathers, and many other articles are, in the jargon of quarantine, styled "susceptible," that is, capable of conveying contagion. Does the skirt of a fellowdetenu in the lazzaretto touch yours, you are detained to share the remainder of his captivity, even if your quarantine should expire this evening and his to-morrow morning. Does a poor bird escape from its cage, a whole garrison trembles,-as at Gibraltar, when a beautiful Himalayan pheasant, belonging to Lord E, flew upon the rocks near the New Mole, from the packet on board which his lordship was passenger; yet, strange to say,

The central channel through the reefs, and possessing the deepest water.

the pigeons of Valletta seem to have a prescriptive claim to set all sanatorial regulations at defiance, and, although feathered, and of course "susceptible," keep up a regular communication between Valletta and the lazzarettos in the following manner.

Malta imports large quantities of corn, principally from Ibraila, Galatz, and Odessa, and which is discharged into open lighters while in quarantine; the grain, thus temptingly displayed, attracts numbers of pigeons, that alight upon the rigging of the vessels, and from which clothes, perhaps, are hanging to dry, and thence, perching on the grain-lighters, fill their crops, and when-satisfied, wheel back in airy circles to their dove-cots in Valletta. Vessels, too, from Barbary and Egypt have generally several pigeons on board; I have frequently seen them vary the monotony of their floating homes by flights into the city, the regulations of the marine police being a dead letter to the pretty strayers.

A curious difference is made in the wisdom of this yellow-flag legislature with regard to the "susceptibility" of gold and silver, as specie, or when wrought into those ornaments for the fabrication of which Malta is so famous. All money taken from a person in quarantine is plunged into a bucket of water prior to the receiver touching it, and it is customary, when landing a quantity in bags, to rip the latter open, and pass the treasure through a mixture of vinegar and water, lest contagion should be communicated; yet, in the face of such needless particularity, articles of jewellery are handed from a seller in pratique to a purchaser in quarantine on the end of a short board of two feet in length; the buyer handles the articles, and those rejected are again received by the jeweller without his having thought it at all necessary to submit them to the dipping process. Why such a distinction should be made is, I suppose, one of the choice subtleties of quarantine.

While thus arraigning the stupidities and annoyances of this bête noir of Mediterranean travel, it must be admitted that, in self defence, our possessions of Gibralta and Malta are forced to adhere to its ordonnances; for, were they infringed by them, Spain, in the first place, and Naples, in the second, would rejoice in finding a pretext for their isolation; and, as it is known how much the comfort of the population of the Rock depends upon a

* Pratique signifies not being in quarantine; it is also applied to those who, having undergone quarantine, have just been released."

daily intercourse with St. Roque and Algeciras, and also how indispensable Sicily is to Malta, we cannot marvel at the anxiety displayed by the authorities of our Mediterranean strongholds to maintain a state of free pratique.

I once, at Malta, was a witness of the inconvenience caused by that island being put in quarantine, occasioned by the captain of an English brig which had arrived from Alexandria, and was anchored, as usual, in the quarantine harbour. The unsophisticated Northcountryman landed in the most open and natural manner at Marsamuscetto steps, and, unquestioned, walked across the city with his wife tucked under his arm; the worthy couple took it leisurely, remarking this and wondering at that, until they found their way to the Marina, or quay of the grand harbour, where the agent of the skipper meeting them, was of course quite confounded at their appearance, and precipitately hurried the unwelcome visitors back to their brig. The news flew fast, and the foreign consuls in the island lost no time in advertising their various governments of the circumstance. The Neapolitan packet was sent away by the consul without being allowed to land her passengers; the French steamer was driven away in the same manner; the Bull-dog steam sloop-of-war, dispatched on a mission of importance to Italy, was placed in strict quarantine upon her arrival at Genoa, and all Malta declared to be in the same predicament. The poor skipper-the cause of all this hurly-burly-was imprisoned, and people spoke of hanging, or transportation at least, as his probable doom: however, upon its being discovered that he, not having visited the Mediterranean before, was quite ignorant of the subtleties of quarantine, government released him upon the payment of a small penalty.

A proof of the anxiety of the Maltese to preserve their pratique may be inferred from one or two anecdotes :

A poor shopkeeper of Valletta, who, among others, flocked across to the parlatorio of the lazzaretto to offer his wares to the homeward Indian passengers, had sold a pair of lace mittens to an officer of the Indian army; the latter, dissatisfied with his purchase, threw them back in the man's face. The moment they came in contact with him, the surrounding crowd, like the fellow herd of the hunted deer, at once drove him from amongst them, and sprang off in all directions, screaming "Quarantine, quarantine." The poor fellow was instantly made liable to the twelve days' imprisonment, and, in addition to the interruption

of his business during that period, incurred the usual expense of a guardiano: his appeals to the gentleman for some remuneration were piteous; the latter, however, imperious and selfish, turned upon his heel, and again embarking for the good fare and comfort of the packet, bestowed not a thought upon the poor smaitch, thus the victim of the proverbially insolent humours of a spoiled Anglo-Indian.

Another affair of this nature caused much merriment, as the sufferer happened to be one of the principal officials of the lazzaretto, who, although attending to their duties at the establishment during the day, still are not in quarantine, by their taking good care to avoid coming in contact with those who are; having seen all the poor wights locked up for the night, they cross the harbour to enjoy the society of their families in Valletta.

The burly and smiling-countenanced Signor Janino had locked up all for the night, and wending his way to the boat, was happy in the anticipation of escorting his fair sposa in all her glories of silk faldetta,† massive earrings, and weighty chain, to some fantasia or other-whether the illumination of the church of St. John, the fête of St. Publio, or the baptism of the new cathedral bell--when all the gobe-mouches of Malta rejoiced in seeing the complaisant governor and his lady becoming its sponsors,-I know not; some pleasure expedition of the kind, nevertheless, he had in view, when a black-bearded, mustachoed, and spectacled commissaire, or purser of a French packet from Alexandria, landed for a moment to read some document to Signor J., and which, when perused, was by the polite Gaul torn up and thrown into the water; one tiny fragment, however, wafted back by an eddying zephyr, alighted upon the shiny boot of our poor Signor,-a tremendous assault, which frightened the attendant guardianos, and caused them to fly from their tainted chief, all uttering the terrible cry of "Quarantine." The poor fellow, with rueful face, meckly ordered his own incarceration, and was locked up, to the intense delight of the other inmates, to share their imprisonment.

A young midshipman was very near being the cause of putting the squadron in quarantine

* Smaitch, the universal appellation bestowed by the English upon the lower classes of the Maltese.

Faldetta, a black silk hood, covering the head, and descending below the waist; a Maltese woman alone understanding how to wear it with grace.

Fantasia, a name applied by the Levantines to all public amusements indiscriminately.

upon one occasion: the little fellow was sent in a boat, with ten or twelve men, to Marsamuscetto harbour, to deliver despatches to one of the Oriental packets, which, as usual, had called at Malta on her way from Alexandria to England; the steamer was surrounded by coallighters and other craft, and, instead of putting his packet upon the gunwale of one of these, whence it would have been handed into the ship, the thoughtless boy ran up her side, and gave his letters to one of the crew. An outery was immediately raised by the host of guardianos surrounding the vessel, by which he saw the mistake he had made; however, he rushed back to his boat, and of course placed his crew in the same dilemma. At once, they rowed away manfully to reach the Grand Harbour and regain their ship (one of the line); then ensued a most animating chase on the part of the quarantine and police boats: but our little hero, after a long pull, being unfortunately headed off by one of the yellow pack, was compelled to row to the lazzaretto, where, for twelve days, he and his men rusticated,the lulling melody of the grinding holystones,§ and the four o'clock reveille, being unheard by them until exactly one day after the packet had landed her passengers in free pratique at Southampton.

Among the many lazzarettos of the Mediterranean, that of Malta is, with regard to comfort, interior economy, and the civility of its officials, immeasurably superior to any other; and as a slight peep into the menage of such an establishment may be a novelty to those who "live at home at ease," I shall place my reader's eye at the little hole in the showman's box, and let him judge for himself.

On the north-east side of the island of Malta are two deep indentations, which, cutting into the coast for a depth of nearly two miles, form, with the aid of their interior and land-locked creeks of Bighi, Burmola, the Coradino, Missida, and Pietà, two safe and spacious harbours; they are parallel to each other, and on the tongue of land, which like a high ridge separates them, and about half-a-mile across, is built the city of Valletta. The easternmost, or largest basin, is called the "Grand Harbour," and that to the westward is named "Marsamuscetto," and appropriated solely to vessels in quarantine. The entrance of the latter haven is very narrow, and has on the right, when sailing in, a small fortress called Fort Tigné, which displays a union jack upon the

§ Soft flattened stones with which sailors scrub the decks, sand and water also being used.

arrival or departure of a packet; on the left, the fortifications and lighthouse-tower of St. Elmo overhang deep caverns, worn by the billows of fierce grecales,* and which, in the storms of each revolving winter, rush into their slippery recesses, threatening with hoarse roarings further to undermine the lofty bulwarks, and topple them with their dark tiers of iron cannon into the blue Mediterranean.

The lazzaretto is situated on the south side of an island, about half-a-mile in length by a quarter in breadth, and which is on the westernmost share of the harbour; it resembles, however, a peninsula more than an islet, as it is joined by a short causeway and bridge to the main; on its eastern end, which juts out into the harbour, and directly facing Valletta, is Fort Manoel, sometimes used as a lazzaretto, but more frequently as a garrison. The various buildings which form the lazzaretto extend, in a slightly curved line, from east to west, for about five hundred yards, and forming hollow squares behind the long and continuous front facing the harbour, the upper part of which front, or screen, is occupied by travellers; the ground floor, as well as the interiors of the buildings, being generally appropriated to merchandize; some, however, of the apartments looking into the courts are fitted up for detenus. The range to the front consists of ground-floor, and one story above, which is reached by flights of stone steps projecting from each house; a flagged promenade, or rather a kind of quay, about fourteen feet in width, lies between the lazzaretto and the sea, and having at intervals doors across, which shut off the portion of walk opposite one division of the range from the other. When all occupying the buildings are undergoing the same length of quarantine, the doors are open until night, but when for different periods, they are usually kept closed. Passing through several of these doors, the western extremity of the lazzaretto is gained; here the dwellings are very indifferent, and are situated further back from the water, having dirty courts full of puddle-holes before them; these places are mere dens, swarming with vermin, and are the retreats of the Maltese coal-porters who have been coaling the packets in quarantine, and also of the hadgjis, or pilgrims from Mecca, who, in hundreds at a time, perform their purification at Malta, so as to sail from the island in pratique to their homes in Bengasi, Tunis, or Morocco. More to the westward,

Grecale, a tempestuous north-east wind, which makes the north coast of Malta a "lee shore."

and near the little causeway, is a large isolated building, with extensive courts and cells, intended as an hospital and lodgings for plague patients; however, it is very fortunately but seldom required. Between this establishment and the apartments of the hadgjis is a steep scrambling space, occupied by the cemetery and farm-yard; - the former is small and crowded with tombs, many of the inscriptions telling of travellers who, bearing in their bosoms the seeds of Syrian fever, found a resting-place in this desolate and neglected little burying-ground-it being a singular circumstance that this malady, in the same manner as the fever of Java, often proves fatal in regions possessing dissimilar climes, and more than a thousand miles distant from its legitimate hunting grounds.

This spot has an uncared-for and dismal aspect--a rank description of tangled weed overruns it the foot-path has fallen in, in many places, and, owing to the heavy rains of winter and the friableness of the soil, several of the tombs are deflected from the perpendicular, being nearly on their sides, and the headstones of graves, once upright, are nodding in all directions,-sad evidences of the lack of that care which, in happier England, is piously bestowed upon the mementos of those sleeping below, but not accorded in this darker land, now that the hands which had raised the tablets were busy in other and distant scenes, and none remained to bestow a passing care upon the mausoleums of all that was left after the quick-lime-the only shroud permitted to those who die in the lazzaretto. Among the inscriptions is a tribute offered to the good qualities of a faithful servant, who had attended Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore during their Eastern travel; and many monuments of pretension, erected by the cheerfully-given dollars of our kind-hearted blue-jackets and marines, record, in terms of honest and unmistakeable affection, the manly virtues of their messmates, some of whom had died of wounds received during the "war in Syria;" and others who, while more peacefully employed in securing to their country the "marbles of the Xanthus," had inhaled the pestilential vapours of the fever-stricken coasts of Asia Minor.

Quietly walking out of the cemetery, we are piloted through the farm-yard by the good Mr. Borg, who is the "chief" of this part of the premises. It is divided into several large courts, surrounded by stables and sheds, the latter accommodating cattle landed from the Barbary states, and which, with geese from

Egypt, perform their due portion of quarantine as well as the nobler animal-man; when, at last being quite purified, they find themselves devoted, in the regular course of things, to appease the cravings of the queen's good subjects of Valletta, both civil and military.

In the eastern part of the lazzaretto the offices of the superintendent and other officials are situated; the parlatorio, or place for conversing with those suspected, and also the savoury regions of the cucinière, are at this end.

And now, having seen the outside of the building, we shall have a look at the harbour, and tell of the very strict regulations in force upon this small sheet of water.

Sentries are posted on the shores of Marsamuscetto in all directions where a landing may be effected; and their orders are to fire upon any persons breaking the laws by forcing their way on shore. All ships must hoist a yellow flag, and their boats, when moving on the harbour, have to do the same; but none are permitted to be about after sunset except those belonging to the quarantine establishment, or to whom a special permission has been given, and upon no account without a guardiano. Should a boat require to pass from the Grand Harbour to Marsamuscetto a pass has to be procured for her from the office of the captain of the port; this paper, upon entering the latter harbour, has to be exhibited to a soldier, who from Fort Tigné hails before allowing her to pass in. A man-of-war's boat, and having her colours flying, is exempt; but still, should she be bound to the lazzaretto, or to speak a vessel in quarantine, she is obliged first to repair to Marsamuscetto steps and embark a guardiano. This ceremony, however, is unnecessary when boats are merely crossing from these steps, or have come from the Grand Harbour bound to Sliema, a bathing-place scattered along the coast, which lies between the harbour and the open sea: the western part rounds off into the Bay of St. Julian; and Point Dragut, crowned by Fort Tigné, forms the eastern end.

All merchant vessels, both steam and sailing, must perform quarantine in Marsamuscetto; steamers of war must do the same; sailing ships of war, however, ride out their term in the Great Harbour, the former being more difficult of access, owing to a reef projecting from Point Dragut, and which narrows the entrance materially. When ships have performed quarantine they are obliged to move round to the Grand Harbour.

The duration of quarantine is fluctuating,

being from twenty-one days to twelve and less, and depends much upon the ship having clean or foul bills of health from her last port; some places, also, being deemed more likely to possess contagion than others, are less favoured by the Health-office regulations: one rule is certain, that a sailing merchant vessel has a longer period than a man-of-war or a steamer; but her passengers, by going into the lazzaretto, have their quarantine curtailed. Should a steam vessel, however, have susceptible articles on board as cargo, she lands them at once, her days of probation not beginning to count until such goods are discharged; the day of arrival reckons as one, even should she anchor at dark, as long as the island has been seen by those on board before sunset. Once, when thirtytwo miles distant, we made Malta like a little streak in the rays of the setting sun, and thereby gained that day as a counting

one.

A few words now with regard to those human screws and bolts indispensable in maintaining the integrity of quarantine, and dubbed guardianos, may not be amiss. They are generally elderly men, dressed in a blue jacket, with yellow cuffs and collars, the remainder of the costume having no pretensions to uniform; one is attached to each traveller in the lazzaretto, unless there be a small family party, and one is stationed on board each vessel riding in quarantine. Should a barge of coal be seen moving up the harbour, a guardiano is perched upon the grimy heap; or do you desire to have a moment's chat with some friend incarcerated on board an unlucky packet, which, with sickly looking drooping flag and awning'd decks, simmers away her probation under the walls of Sa Maison or off the Pictà,† your old man of the sea, the guardiano, shares in the little confidences passing between your friend and yourself, as the boat is obliged to lie at a respectable distance from the gangway of the vessel, and barely within car-shot, for, should a stray end of thread, or an erratic morsel of paper (as in poor Janino's case), be wafted from the anchored hulk and alight upon your boat, all it contains are doomed to the same imprisonment as those from whom the mischievous little flutterer had descended. Government charges 1s. 3d. per day, and 7d. a day additional (for food) for the compulsory attendance of the guardiano, amounting, in twelve days, to 17. 28.

A well-known residence overlooking the quarantine harbour.

A kind of suburb to Valletta.