 Chapter 27 of From Tangier to Tripoli by Frank G. Carpenter. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Betty B. The Islands of Malta. Sailing northward from Tripoli, I have reached the island of Malta, where I shall get a ship for Alexandria in Egypt, the next field of my travels. I made the trip to Malta on a little Italian steamer. Our 36-hour sail ended at the port of Valletta, under the shadow of the great English fortifications, which guard this John Bull's outpost in the mid-Mediterranean. Malta is just about halfway between Gibraltar and Port Said. It is scarcely a fly spec on the map of the world, but it is one of the most valuable of all strategical points. It is in the center of the most traveled sea, a great station on the busiest of our commercial highways, and just where the steamer stopped to take on coal. Malta is now handling about half a million tons of coal a year. It is brought here from Great Britain to be retailed to the steamers. As we came in, we saw several ocean liners taking on fuel, preparatory to their start for the Far East. Most of the ships which go to Australia, India and China by the Suez Canal bunker here, and the port has a fleet of several hundred lighters, which are used for that purpose. Training vessels and other naval ships are coaling in the harbor, while a great English transport, which will leave for Suez tomorrow, lies at the wharves. Malta is a strong naval station and the chief base for the repairs and outfitting of the Mediterranean fleet, but the fleet has already outgrown its capacity. First, let me tell you something about the Maltese islands. They are quite numerous, but the only ones of note are Malta, Gozo and Comino. Altogether they have an area of only 118 square miles. They seem mere rocks cropping out of the sea, but they are covered with a thin rich mold, which makes them among the most thickly populated parts of the globe. Malta, which is the biggest, has an area just about that of the District of Columbia. It rises right up out of the water, and as one looks at it from the steamer, it seems bleak and bare. The slopes are precipitous, but the land is so terraced and held back by stone walls that all of it is cultivated. To look at it, you would not think it could raise anything. It seems more like a stone quarry or a stone pile than a fertile region. Nevertheless, everything that is planted grows, and Malta alone supports more than 200,000 people. This is over 2,000 for every square mile, and more it is said than any other-like area on the globe. The two chief towns of the archipelago are Valletta and Chitavecchia, which are both on this island. It is at Valletta that all the great ships stop. From the harbor the view of the city is beautiful. Great walls, which look like forts, rise up from the water, and back of these the houses mount the hills in terraces. Many of the buildings are painted in bright colors, and under the glorious sun of the Mediterranean, they shine out resplendent. The town is built on a hill high above the sea. Its streets ascended at all sorts of angles, so that one has to climb up or down in going to any part of it. Lord Beaconsfield once said that the architecture of Valletta was equal to that of any city of Europe, but it seems to me he overdrew it. The buildings are much like those of Naples. The streets are narrow with the tall stone houses extending out over them. Many of the houses have balconies from which the family washing generally hangs out over the streets. The wet clothes flap to and fro in the breeze, and now and then a passerby is apt to be startled by a shower of pearly drops from a newly washed shirt spattering down upon his neck. The city has some fine structures. It has an upper house in which Patty sang the first time she came to Malta. This was when she was still a girl, and the price she received was $25. Another building of note is the Church of St. John, containing the tombs of the grand masters of the Knights of Malta. This church, which is one of the most remarkable in Europe, is revered by the Knights throughout the world. It is now over 300 years old, but it is still in excellent condition. It is gloriously decorated. The altar, which is magnificently carved, is fairly loaded with gold and silver, and the railing in front of it is made of virgin silver. Beneath it are kept the keys of Jerusalem, Acra, and roads. Some of the paintings of the church were brought from roads, and it has tapestries made in Brussels at a cost of $30,000. You have heard of the Capuchin Cemetery in Rome, the chapels of which are walled with the bones of dead monks. I visited a similar one some time ago during a trip to Palermo, the capital of Sicily, and I find here at Malta another evidence of the gruesome taste of the pious fathers of the past. There is a church here known as the Church of the Monks, in which the bodies of the deceased are put away unburied. Their skeletons are wrapped in the cloaks which they wore in life, and they will, I suppose, be thus clad until the day of judgment. The place is a hideous one, so hideous indeed that a visit to it sometimes affects people seriously. Not long ago a smart young fellow went through with his sweetheart. He thought he would have a joke on her, so when her back was turned, he slyly pinned her skirt to one of the cloaks. As she started to go, the skeleton was pulled forward and fell upon her as if about to embrace her. The girl was terribly frightened, and it is said that the shock destroyed her reason. I like the Maltese girls. They have large, soulful eyes, beautiful features, and complexions the color of the dark moss rows. They wear great black hoods over their heads with long black cloaks hanging to them so that most of the person is hidden and little more than the face and eyes can be seen. This part of their costume is called the umnella. It is usually made of black silk, and the hood part of it is boned at the front over a thin piece of whalebone, which is drawn over the head, forming an arch. The left arm is usually covered by one part of this dress, while the right is used for holding down the other side and bringing the two together. In other respects, the Maltese of the better classes dress much like the people of Europe, and it is only the peasants who have costumes at all out of the ordinary. The peasant women wear hoods. Their dresses are of a striped native cotton, and they seldom have shoes. The men wear short pantaloons, which leave the legs bare to the knee and are tied about the waist with a girdle of cotton or silk. Above this they have on cotton shirts and sometimes vests ornamented with rows of silver buttons made of American quarter dollars or English shillings. They seldom wear coats. Their heads are usually covered with caps of bright colors made in the shape of a bag so long that the crown of the cap often hangs down to the shoulders. They sometimes carry their money and their tobacco in their caps. Outside the cities, the Maltese houses are of one story. They are usually stone huts built of the materials gathered on the ground. The doors and windows are made by the carpenters, and the village blacksmiths supply the locks and hinges. The people have little farms on which they raise fruit and small quantities of grain. They grow oranges, figs, and grapes. Many of them have bees and raise the honey for which the island is noted. Among the chief domestic animals are the goats of which there are thousands. I have seen the Maltese goats in Morocco, Tunisia, and Tripoli. They are considered about the best along the Mediterranean, being imported not only on account of their milk, but as breeders. They give so much milk that the whole population depends upon them for its supply, and the few cows which are kept are not regarded with favor. Indeed, there is not enough pasture on the island to furnish good cow's milk. These Maltese goats are the chief competitors of the Angora goat, and it is questioned whether they would not be more valuable for our country than the latter. There is a demand in all the American cities for goat's milk for babies, and young kids are set to sell at the price of lambs. Here in Malta, goat's milk brings about 8 or 10 cents a quart. The average goat yields from two to two and a half quarts per day. The milk is not used for cheese or butter, although fresh butter and cheese made of sheep's milk are sold here. I see goats in the streets every morning. They are driven from house to house and milked at the doors. It is not uncommon to see rags tied about the goat's nipples to prevent the kids sucking their mothers between milking times. The islands of Malta are among the oldest in history. Angozo lived Calypso, the nymph who enchanted Ulysses and kept him for seven years on the promise that she would give him perpetual youth and immortality if he stayed with her. Malta once belonged to the Phoenicians and was colonized by the Carthaginians. Before that it was owned by the Greeks and after the Punic Wars by the Romans. Later on it was attached to Sicily and after the Roman power was overthrown it was occupied by the Vandals, the Goths, and again by the Greeks. In the 9th or 10th century the Arabs took possession of it and later on the Normans came in and ruled it under one form or other for hundreds of years. But one of the most interesting things about this island is its story in connection with the Knights of Malta who owned and governed it for many years. It was in 1530 that Charles V of Spain gave Malta to the Order of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem who thereupon took the title of the Knights of Malta and fortified it. At this time they had not only Malta but also Gozo and Tripoli. Taking upon themselves the defense of the Mediterranean they made war upon the Barbary pirates, fought the Turks again and again and defeated the Sultan when he attacked them. They waged war with the Muslims for generations and it was not until Napoleon Bonaparte besieged them on his way to Egypt that they surrendered their fortresses. Altogether they held the island for 268 years. When the French took it they agreed to give the Grand Master of the Knights an annual pension of about $60,000 and to make every French knight resident in Malta a yearly allowance of $140. The French occupation was followed by a blockade under the English fleet aided by the Maltese which lasted two years. During a part of this time there was a famine in Malta. Fresh pork sold for $2 a pound. Dogs and cats were generally eaten and even rats brought an exorbitant price. While the knights had possession of the island they lived in grand style. Those of each nationality had a particular post assigned them in case of attack and there were also palaces or inns for those of each language were all the members ate and assembled to transact business. The palace of the Grand Master was surrounded by the four principal streets. It still stands and is now occupied by the officers of the British garrison. This building covers more than two acres. It has two entrances and two courtyards one of which is used as an amusement court for the British officers. The interior of the palace is elegant the chief halls and apartments being embellished with paintings commemorating the battles of the order. One of the most interesting parts of the building is the armory. It is a great hall running the whole length of the structure and containing many war-like weapons and trophies which belong to the knights of Malta. In it there are now 90 complete coats of armor for mounted knights and a large number of weapons used by the infantry of the past. The complete suits of armor stand among the muskets of the garrison looking like sentinels and giving the whole a threatening appearance. In one piece of armor several slight dents may be seen. They were caused by shooting at it with a musket at 180 feet. The bullets fail to penetrate or break the steel. Cittavecchia, the old capital of Malta which is six miles from Valletta may be reached by rail or carriage. It is there that the grandmasters had their summer residences and there they were inaugurated. They left Valletta early in the morning escorted by a bodyguard and bands of music. When the grandmaster came near the city he was saluted by musketry and one of the chief citizens came out and gave him a bunch of artificial flowers making an appropriate speech and kissing his hands. When the potentate arrived at the gates he knelt down before a cross which had been erected there and the keys of the city were given to him. At the same time he swore that he would respect the privileges and franchises of the city. After this he went to the cathedral to mass and then on back to Valletta. Cittavecchia is in the center of the island and about on the top of it. It is so high that on a clear day the coasts of both Sicily and Africa may be seen from its walls. According to tradition Saint Paul the Apostle accompanied by Saint Luke spent three months on the island of Malta. During this time they lived not far from Cittavecchia in a cave over which a church was built about 200 years ago. The cave is about 36 feet in diameter and 8 feet high. In the middle of it is a marble statue of Saint Paul before which lights are kept burning day and night. Among the relics of the church is a piece of the true cross upon which the savior was crucified. There are also relics of not less than six of the apostles and of other saints. Malta has been a possession of the British since Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States. Nevertheless the people do not speak English and although they have been ruled for centuries by foreigners they still have a language of their own. There have been attempts to make Italian the national tongue but the Maltese object and still speak the same language that they have spoken in the past. There are a number of newspapers published in Maltese and the Maltese language is used to some extent in the schools. The percentage of illiteracy is great. Most of the people are unable to read or write and many of the children do not go to school. Nevertheless the island has common schools and private schools everywhere. There is a university, a lyceum and a large school for girls. There is a public library in Valletta which contains more than 60,000 volumes and which has many of the books of the Knights of Saint John. The religion of Malta is Roman Catholic. It has an archbishop and more than a thousand priests and monks. There are 20 convents and five nunneries on the island and these are conducted after the manner of the middle ages. The nuns seldom coming out of their seclusion. There are more than a hundred Catholic churches and chapels some of which are elaborately decorated. Many of the churches are rich. That of Saint Paul is said to own more than one million dollars worth of statues, altar ornaments and jeweled robes. End of chapter 27. Chapter 28 of From Tangier to Tripoli by Frank G. Carpenter. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Betty B. A look ahead in North Africa. The life in these Muslim lands of North Africa remains much the same as before their Christian conquerors came across the Mediterranean bringing their unwelcome Western ways. Yet partly as a result of the upheaval among the European nations and partly because the great powers are ever strengthening their grasp upon their African possessions some changes have inevitably occurred. These are most marked in French Morocco whose present day administration will remind Americans of our own military governments in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. If we were to visit Morocco again next winter we should probably choose to cross from Europe by airplane. This land chained so long to the traditions of the past and until recently steeped in anarchy has the first of the international air transport services with which France is binding closer her African colonies. Our airplane would take us on board at Toulouse at sunrise and land us at Casablanca before sunset after a flight longer than from New York to the Mississippi River. Under French control Casablanca has already surpassed Tangier as a commercial center. Modern docks and piers have been built and its business is rapidly increasing. If we like we may fly down the coast to Agadir the port famous for the naval demonstration of Kaiser Wilhelm which nearly precipitated the world war several years before it finally came. If we are very adventurous we can travel by air from the Moroccan coast to Dakar the capital of West French Africa near Cape Verde. From there it is only three days sail to Pernambuco, Brazil and the French have a scheme for a combined rail water and air route through Spain across to Morocco down to Dakar and over the Atlantic to the eastern most tip of South America. This route will bring all Europe a week near South America. As we fly over the country we shall not find Morocco greatly changed in appearance though the French have made many improvements since they took it over. We know however that we can travel with safety anywhere we please riding on the little narrow gauge railroad lines or motoring over the smooth hard roads even to the sacred city of Fez. Many miles of these new motor roads were built by German prisoners sent over from France during the world war. As laborers they replaced thousands of natives hundreds of them former rebels and mutineers who left their homes to fight for France. Morocco has helped to feed France as well as to fight for her where formerly most of the grain raised by rude methods on the little native farms was consumed at home. During and since the world war Morocco has furnished to France millions of bushels of wheat, barley, beans and corn besides quantities of hogs, eggs and other food stuffs. The arable lands extend for about 300 miles along the coast and end with the Atlas Mountains yet if all the land now under cultivation were put together it would form an area not larger than Massachusetts. There are rich possibilities in planting grains, grapes, lemons, olives and almonds. There is also a future in sheep raising and in the development of the forests of Cedar and cork oak. In her minerals Morocco has a practically untouched source of riches. There are large deposits of iron, copper, lead, silver, gold and platinum believed to contain ores sufficient to supply all Europe for years to come. Fast coal beds and underground reservoirs of fuel oil are also known to exist. It was a hint of this undeveloped wealth that made the powers so eager to get control of Morocco and sustained the ambitions of France in maneuvers with rival nations. The French are doing all they can to improve the farming methods of the natives who have been accustomed to getting only 10 bushels of wheat to an acre. At the agricultural schools the simplest rules of good farming are taught and experts go through the country teaching better ways of handling crops and livestock. Annual fairs and expositions are held in several places and mixed chambers of commerce and agricultural societies have been organized. Stimulated by cash prizes for the largest acreage cultivated with modern methods and machinery, the natives are giving up the plow made of a forked stick and the farm tractor is abroad in the land. The French are also trying to revive among the people their ancient handicrafts which were fast being forgotten. Specimens of native pottery, jewelry, rugs, metalwork and embroidery are today shown along with farm produce. The visitor to the new Morocco did not feel that he is at the end of the earth or out of touch with the world. There are more than 4,000 miles of telegraph lines, several radio stations and daily mail service from European ports. The holy city of Fez, far in the interior, gets the wireless flashed every day from the Eiffel Tower in Paris while there is a telephone even on the walls of the Sultan's harem. There are over 600 miles of new railways and motor buses and private cars are available for trips across the country into Algeria. Even so, recently as during the World War, there was not a real vehicle in all Morocco. There were no roads outside the towns and freight transportation was limited to what could be carried on a camel's back and that at prohibitive rates. Only yesterday, 15 miles was a day's journey. Now one can go 15 times as far between breakfast and supper and will find little hotels and eating places along the way. Near the towns, the roads are lined with tiny tents where candy, tobacco and all manner of goods are offered for sale and the barber and the blacksmith are ready to ply their trades. While the French program of railroad construction is far from complete, already they have linked up Casablanca with FES and have established rail communication with Algeria by means of the FES Taza Line. The narrow gauge railways built for military purposes are being replaced as rapidly as possible with standard construction. The recent remarkable progress of Morocco is largely the work of one man, the French resident general and the real ruler of the country. I first met Marshal Lyauté when he was in charge of one of the provinces of Algeria and doubtless this earlier experience in North Africa helped him to make his brilliant success in turbulent Morocco. When the French took hold of the Moroccan mess they deposed Moulay Abed El-Hafid, the brother who had forced the abdication of Abed El-Aziz and put in his place a younger half-brother, Moulay Yousef, Sultan still but shorn of most of his power. Immediately, bloody mutinies broke out at FES. Yet within five months Lyauté reported pacification and immediately began the outlay of millions of francs on a program of development and public improvement. He completely reorganized the administration of Moroccan affairs and undertook a general opening up of the country. Lyauté raised regiment after regiment to go to France to fight yet at the same time with the help of specialists sent from home he built roads, schools, and docks and taught the natives how to cultivate their farms as never before. Instead of becoming, as was feared, a menace to France the so-lately chaotic Morocco was transformed into a source of men and supplies. The people have been one by policies that made them more prosperous. The travel routes once shunned by the natives for fear their crops and animals might be seized by the sultan's agents or carried off by robbers are lined with busy farms and new villages have sprung up here and there. The population has increased to about six millions. The boys and girls of Morocco for the first time in the history of the land now have toys like their western brothers and sisters and are learning to play while their fathers and uncles who live in towns have acquired the moving picture habit. What the French have done in the area where they enjoy full control stands out in marked contrast to the confusion and lack of progress in Tangier the ancient city just across the way from Gibraltar. Under international administration it is one of the most mixed up places in the world. There are French, English, and Spanish post offices and mail services. The monies used in the language is spoken are equally numerous. Even the names of the streets are mixed as each of the nationalities represented in the administration tries to impose its own preference on the city. There are three Sabbaths in the week for Muslims observe Friday, the Jews Saturday, and the Christians Sunday. It is said that a German firm successfully made capital out of the conditions in Tangier by putting out some shirts especially designed for diplomats at social functions. Inside the cuffs were such conversational small change as good afternoon madam how do you do madam you are looking charming mademoiselle etc printed in more than 20 different languages. In Spanish Morocco conditions are much like those I found in the days of Abed El Aziz even including the exploits of that historic troublemaker Rizuli himself largely for military purposes the Spaniards have built some railways and motor roads. A motor line operates daily between Petuan and Tangier and Malilla is connected with the French territory on the east by an excellent road. A short line of railway extends from Malilla through Hador to Estacion but even the troops have to depend chiefly upon patmules in the western section and camels in the east to bring up their supplies. Algeria's prosperity has not only won for her the status of a French province but every soldier who fought in the allied forces during the world war may now become a citizen of France. The cash allowance made the families of men in the service though small seem like riches to them. Many of the natives who stayed at home were wealthy in business connected with the war and are now living in luxury that the prophet himself might have envied. Numbers of the chiefs enlisted in the army received in France a training and education almost equal to that of the French officer. There is a wholesome increase in the native population and a growing willingness on the part of capitalists and French colonists who invest in the future of the country. In Tunisia less progress has been made though the French have long been in control and now dictate the policies of the native bay. Since the war political agitation for more self-government has increased among the natives while the Italians who make up a considerable number of the population have strengthened their hold on the fishing industry and other commercial enterprises. The country has over 1,000 miles of railroad chiefly along the coast part of an elaborate system being developed by the French to link up their North African possessions from the borders of Tripoli to the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Tunisia furnished many soldiers to fight for France and its foreign trade amounting to about $100 million a year is a valuable asset. Tripoli taken from the Turks by Italy has cost its latest conquerors a pretty penny and yielded little in return. While France and England have large assets in Africa Italian Libya must be regarded as one of Italy's liabilities. Imagine a line from New York to Norfolk as the only railroad in the United States and you will have a picture of rail transportation in Tripoli which has less than 200 miles of track. The capitals of the two administrative districts of Italian Libya are Tripoli and Benghazi both on the coast and the combined population of the two cities is less than that of Wilmington, Delaware. Italy had to fight to get Tripoli during the world war she had to fight again not only Turks and Arabs but Germans as well in order to keep it. Disorders in the interior and French and British competition have caused a falling off in the once important caravan trade. The country has not yet fully been pacified and organized for modern administration and it will undoubtedly be a long time before it is developed on a profitable basis. End of Chapter 28 End of From Tangier to Tripoli by Frank G. Carpenter