IV

INTRODUCTIONS

During the whole of their stay on this desolated shore, theycontinued their pious occupations, and found means to shelter,from the inclemency of the weather, numbers of beings who hadbeen reduced to rest their weary limbs on the cold bosom of theirmother earth.

If such, then, were the hospitable virtues of the knights ofSt. John, their military exploits were surely equally conspicuous !How easily could I point out the memorable and recent periodswhen the Maltese galleys and men-of-war so gloriously com-bated, in the post of honour on the African Sea, in the midst ofthe Christian fleets, when they threatened with destruction thecoast of Barbary, and spread universal terror to the very walls ofAlgiers ! But I will leave to others this wide field of glory, andconfine myself, in the following pages, to a slight sketch of thehistory of the knights of St. John, from their first establishment inthe island of Malta till the fatal moment when they were so cruellyforced to abandon it.

How frequently shall I regret, in this rapid account of thememorable exploits of the heroes who have done honour to Malta,the impossibility of placing before the reader the names of allthose whose actions have obtained the prize of immortality, and