Scottish Geographical Magazine
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Scottish Geographical Magazine ISSN: 0036-9225 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsgj19 Malta: Notes on a recent visit Ralph Richardson To cite this article: Ralph Richardson (1906) Malta: Notes on a recent visit, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 22:7, 365-373, DOI: 10.1080/14702540608521197 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14702540608521197 Published online: 30 Jan 2008. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 11 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rsgj19 Download by: [137.189.171.235] Date: 12 June 2016, At: 20:56 SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE. 365 MALTA: NOTES ON A RECENT VISIT. ~By RALPH RICKAILDSON. THE visitor to Malta finds he must get rid of several prejudices. He had probably imagined it to be a rather unattractive and unimportant island, whose chief town, Valletta, was remarkable for its endless stairs, its squalid population, and its insufferable smells. Whatever old- fashioned Valletta may have been, modern Valletta has totally changed for the better. It is a fine, stone-built city, with several broad level streets, excellent shops and hotels, handsome buildings, widely-spreading suburbs, electric tramways and motor omnibuses, and a general appear- ance of prosperity. To ascend from the level of the harbour to that of the residential quarter a huge Lift is in constant requisition. The streets of the city are clean, well kept, and well lighted, and the population is quiet, sober, well-dressed, industrious and polite. A Tunis resident hfformed me that the Maltese there are much better and quieter people than the Sicilians. The census of 1901 showed that there were over 12,000 Maltese and over 67,000 Sicilians in Tunisia. These immigrants assure the prosperity of that flourishing French colony. Everywhere throughout Malta one finds signs of industry, sobriety, and prosperity. The soil of the island is laboured to ~ degree seldom seen elsewhere, and is cultivated in small fields surrounded by lofty •drystone walls. There is no great depth of soil, but its general quality is good, and the powerful sun, added to intensive cultivation, secures success. Specimens of the various soils are shown in the Public Library at Valletta. There is an absence of perennial streams, but the rainfall in winter is frequent and considerable. There is only one drawback to Malta, and it is a recent one. I refer to the dreaded :'Mediterranean fever," which assumes a peculiarly malignant form in Malta, although occurring elsewhere along the Downloaded by [] at 20:56 12 June 2016 Mediterranean coast. So severe is it in Malta that some 600 soldiers of the garrison are annually invalided by it. When I visited Malta last May a Government Commission was sitting in Valletta, endeavour- ing to find the origin of this scourge. That it originates from a microbe is known, but why this microbe should have within recent years become so active and virulent in Malta has yet to be discovered. Some associate the intensity of the plague with the congested state of the population of Malta, others with the new system of drainage, but the Report of the Commission is anxiously awaited. Several previously appointed Commissions have, however, met without result, so the Maltese will not be surprised if this one also fails. The fever is a most severe one, often lasting a year and leaving bad after-effects. It affects the natives as well as the garrison of Malta, and is contagious. It has ruined Malta as a health resort. Curiously enough, it is the only serious malady known in Malta, which, if it were extirpated, would again become one of the finest health resorts in the world. 366 SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL 1VLAGAZINE, Valletta is not only a large city having, with suburbs, about 40,000 inhabitants, but it is spreading in every direction. It has a teeming population of a very temperate and orderly character, but most of its underground dwellings should be closed for sanitary reasons. In fact, the population of Malta is far too large for the area inhabited, and gives rise to some very remarkable statistics. The colony of Malta (which includes the adjacent islands of Gozo and Comino) embraces one of the most densely populated areas in the world. On 31st March 1905 the civil population of the colony was 202,134~ As the total area of the colony is 117 square miles, its population is equal to 1727 persons to the square mile; while in 1900 that of Belgium, the most densely populated country in Europe, was only 589 to the square mile, and in 1901 that of England was 436, Scotland 150, and Ireland 137. At the same time, it must be admitted that the general health of Malta is good. Nowhere can be seen more healthy-lookingmen, women~ and children, and as long as Britain keeps large naval and military forces there, so long will work and food be found for a very considerable population. The Maltese are a strongly built, swarthy race, of height less than the British average, but capable of much endurance which their frugal and sober habits undoubtedly account for. Great public works have been erected of late years--extensive barracks, hospitals, schools, and harbour works--and an immense breakwater is in course of construction at Valletta, which will make its splendid Grand Harbour more secure from storms than it ever yet has been. Owing to rough weather during last winter, its erection by Messrs. Pearson (who are also building Dover Breakwater) has been an arduous achievement. The island of Malta is 17½ miles in length and 8½ miles in breadth, with an area of 95 square miles. Its earliest settlers were Phcenicians, and some have derived the name from the Hebrew (Phoenician) Malet~ signifying "refuge" or "asylum," which, on account of the fine honey Downloaded by [] at 20:56 12 June 2016 produced in the island, was turned by the Greeks into Melita, which the Arabs corrupted into Malta. The neighbouring islands of Gozo and Comino extend to 22 square miles, giving the whole British colony an area of 117 square miles. The latest and best account of Malta is probably by that elegant and well-known writer, 3/I. Ren~ Bazin, de l'Acad~mie Frangaise , in his S~cile, where he describes a visit to Malta, in the course of which he hints that if the British left Malta there would soon be no signs that they had ever been there at all. This may be true as far as the Maltese are concerned, who will probably go on speaking Maltese for an un- limited period ; just as the Alsatians continued to speak German after 222 years of French rule. At the same time there will always continue to exist in every part of Malta imperishable monuments of British energy, expenditure, and skill. Like those of the ancient Romans, their works will remain for ever. The fortifications of Malta have been greatly improved and strengthened, and seem destined to make British sovereignty perpetual, provided Britain retains command of the ~IALTA: NOTES ON A RECENT VISIT. 367 sea; for, owing to its excessive population, Malta could be starved out in a few weeks by a blockading fleet. There are, however, large military granaries, and the supply of water from the western heights of the island to Valletta is abundant in quantity and excellent in quality. Although the British have held Malta since 1800, its inhabitants are only superficially Anglicised. They cling to their strange and uncouth language, which, like the Maltese place-names, is evidently of Arabic origin, rather than use English, which is now, however, being taught in all schools. Their manners and customs also are far from being English. The Maltese women wear the faldetla, a black hooded garment which gives them the appearance of nuns. There is a tradition that they have worn this gloomy dress ever since the excesses of the French soldiery during their occupancy of Malta, but I am informed that the f~l~ett~ appears in mediaeval engravings. The religious customs of the Maltese (all of whom are Roman Catholics) likewise run to extremes unknown in England or even in Europe. Priests and nuns abound, and well-attended Church services seem going on all day. Church "processions and festivals are frequent, and, what will not be seen elsewhere in Europe, well-dressed men may be observed kneeling at prayer outside churches in the leading streets. It is evident that the French Revolution, which swept religious observ- ances out of so much of Europe, never reached Malta, which remains, greatly to the tourist's satisfaction, as curious a vestige of the past as can be seen anywhere. It presents scenes such as Old France once saw, such as appear in pictures of the Ancien RSgime like the background in Hogarth's" Calais Gate" in the Iqational Gallery, London. Even the realistic Oberammergau Passion play is outdone in :Malta, for on the morning of Easter Sunday public representations of Resurrection scenes are given. Men enact a race to the sepulchre between Saints Peter and John, while a third man, clad in grave-clothes, is elevated from a tomb in presence of perfectly serious crowds. The :Roman Catholic Church lost no time in annexing Malta, for it Downloaded by [] at 20:56 12 June 2016 long ago conferred upon the Roman governor Publius, whose father St. Paul healed, the rank of a Bishop; and there is a remarkable painting in the beautiful modern cathedral at Citta Vecchia (the old capital of the island) representing Publius, wearing a mitre and in full episcopal vestments of modern Roman Catholic pattern, being consecrated by St.