"...The Heat Has Been Gradually Increasing Day By Day As We Have Come Along..."

A 19th century photograph taken outside Victoria Gate, Valletta. Victoria Gate can be seen from the Grand Harbor. The foundation for the Gate was laid  27 May, 1884, several months before Charles King sailed by the island of Malta.  From Times Malta January 9, 2022. Article entitled Valletta Street Hygiene in Early British Malta by Giovanni Bonello. 

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 "...I think Malta is a lovely place the town of Valletta rises in streets or terraces running parallel to the harbour & are broken here and there with a large church or other large buildings.  The Government House is a very bold feature from the harbour. Here are (laying?) craft of the merchant services of many nations...Here are also a (training?) ship of the....

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British Navy...Here are Men of War ships & occasionally one or more from a friendly nation...There is the dock yard with its busy steam hammer & machinery. We are now surrounded by a host of (?) boats hawking various wares of almost every transportable sort & kind...grapes & other fruits of vary kinds & qualtitys (sic) are offered...tobacco and cigars are offered and very cheap they are at Malta & altogether in about an hour after our arrival our ship presents a lively appearance swarming with Maltese...a few staff officers of the garrison bring off the dispatches & exchange greetings & as the ship is going to coal Tommy Atkins mustn't go, so he is left to enjoy himself aboard & you may guess they are not slow to do this. It is a remarkable sight to see these Maltese diving.  Just throw out a threepenny piece over the side of the vessel & it isn't many seconds before...

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  ...(?) has got it and brings it to the surface...Visitors to Malta on their homeward journey generally avail themselves of the opportunity of purchasing something at Malta as a memento of their visit but we were going the wrong way for that (the following was crossed out ----but not withstanding this we were swarmed with Maltese offering almost every conceivable ware for sale as well as fruits food & other commoditys (sic) useful and ornamental---)  I always remember with pleasure my visit to Malta & whilst I am on the subject I may mention that Malta is the place where St Paul landed after being shipwrecked on his voyage to Rome, but you will notice (?) reading the account as given in the Acts of the Apostles  the island is given as Melita...I do not know if I may be right in my assumption, but I have a strong suspicion that the chief town of Malta, has had the original name of the island corrupted & applied to it for the similarity is at the least striking, Valetta, Melita.  We are now ready to resume our journey having...

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 ...coaled our ship & taken in what necessary provisions we need...we are about right for the remainder of the journey by sea. We have spent the major part of the day at Malta and as we are steaming out we get the full benefit of the bay (?) sun the heat has been gradually increasing day by day as we have come along, but we have not felt it so strongly as we have not been ashore since we have left England but still we are being prepared for our landing at Alexandria.  We notice several forts on the island in passing out & after getting well clear of the harbour we put on full speed & on the third day after leaving Malta we begin to think about reaching Alexandria.  We notice a look of anxiety of the countenance of the Captain & Officers & the whisper goes round that we are out of our course which however proves to be utterly incorrect for within an hour after the low lying coastline becomes faintly visible, & for two or three hours after all eyes are fixed on the object before us & every now and again fresh visions break..."

 And here the writings of Charles King transition to his experiences on the Nile  while stationed at Korosko  and Akasha, also written on the back of the Bazaar flyers. I almost feel like we are missing a page or two as his writing seems to fade off in mid sentence, and then picks up with a near drowning incident on the Nile. Fortunately, we have Part II which does pick up once the Rewa docked in Alexandria. 

  He wrote Part II in a small notebook, and in pencil, and then recopied this portion to a larger notebook and used pen.  Much easier to read and transcribe, thank goodness!...... In the interest of keeping to his timeline, I will start with Part II in the next post in which he describes his experiences in Alexandria and Cairo.   I will piece together his Nile experiences as best I can into Part II so that they make sense within the expedition narrative.  For some reason he excludes these Nile experiences from Part II altogether.  Perhaps near drowning, boils, frogs, flies, wolves and hyenas were just too much for his audience at the time! 

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 Just a few notes on Valletta and Maltese history......

A modern view of Valletta from Marsamxett Harbor. You can see the large dome of the Basilica of Our Lady Mount Carmel. Originally built in the 1570's, it was bombarded in WW2 and subsequently demolished. The current basilica was built in 1958.  The steeple of St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral stands to the right of the basilica.  Built in 1577 it survived the bombing in WW2. 

By Mandyy88 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113500980

HM Dockyard, Malta, 1865.  Iron sheers were used as a lifting device. 

 The Knights of Malta established dockyard facilities pre 1800's.  When Malta became a British protectorate in 1800 these facilities were consolidated by the British Royal Navy. A steam factory with machine shops and foundries was added in the second half of the 1800's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta_Dockyard

 A Gozo boat in the Malta Harbor WW1. Gozo boats carried passengers and cargo between islands.  Trips from Gozo to Malta generally carried agricultural products such as fruits and vegetables, as well as poultry and eggs. On return trips they generally carried manufactured goods such as cement, soft drinks or beer. These may be the type of boats Charles referred to that greeted the Rewa when it entered the harbor. 

By Frank Henry Algernon Mason - http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//178/media-178226/large.jpgThis is photograph Art.IWM ART 3120 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31607279 

 

  Christianity has almost 2000 years of history on Malta. Tradition says that the Apostle Paul was shipwrecked on the island while on his way to Rome to be tried as a political rebel.  He and over 200 passengers swam to safety where they were warmly welcomed by the islanders.  He learned the name of the island was Malta.  While there he was bitten by a snake, but suffered no ill effects. The islanders took this to mean he was a special man. Paul lived in a cave and eventually converted Publius, Rome's leader on Malta, to Christianity. Publius became the first Bishop of Malta. https://www.visitmalta.com/en/a/st-paul-in-malta/

  The name Malta may be derived from the Greek word Meli "honey".  The Greeks called the island Melite meaning "honey-sweet".  Valletta was named after its founder, the respected Grand Master of the Order of St. John, Jean Parisot de la Vallette.  So, Charles didn't have the name origins quite right.  But, any way you look at it, Valletta is a magnificent fortress city built by the Knights of St. John and is a masterpiece of Baroque art and architecture.  It was named a World Heritage City and is one of the most concentrated historic areas of the world. https://www.visitmalta.com/en/a/info/valletta/

   Charles King sailed past Malta at a time when Victorian expatriates, writers and artists made the island their home and British citizens came to visit because of the climate. Malta's importance as a Naval base also brought troops, officers and their families. Even Queen Victoria's aunt, the dowager Queen Adelaide, came out in the winter of 1838 and funded the Anglican church St. Paul's Anglican Co-Cathedral.  The Queen's second son Alfred became Commander of the Mediterranean fleet and had a long connection with Malta. His third child, Victoria Melita, was born there in 1877; she was named after her grandmother and after the island of Malta.  https://victorianweb.org/history/empire/malta/2.html

 The journey from Malta to Alexandria by air would be almost 6 hours.  By ship it was 3-4 days.....Google maps