HISTORY OF MALTA.

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the Captain of an English Ship, devoted himself to the Service of theOrder. The Knights driven, bp the Plague, from Messina. Theyrepair to Civita Vecchia, and settle at Viterbo.

1552. HThE order of St. John of Jenisalem was ori-

Villiers

de L’lsle Adam, ginally merely charitable (the knights were calledHospitallers); but it soon became military, and was established inthe Holy Land, where it followed the fortunes of the Latin Chris-tians in that country, which it was obliged to quit when they left it.The Order remained some time in Cyprus; and, after having con-quered Rhodes, fixed itself in that place. The brilliant exploitsperformed by the knights attracted the attention of the Turks,who took up arms against them at different times *; but they wereobliged to renounce their design of conquering the island. Soly-man, however, was too vain of his success in Hungary, and toomuch irritated at having so powerful an enemy as the Order sonear him, not to make another attempt: he therefore, in 1522 ,(June 26) landed an army of a hundred and fifty thousand menon the island, which he presently followed in person, and arrived,accompanied by still more considerable forces, which continuedaugmenting every day.

LTsle Adam, who had been grand-master scarcely twelvemonths, was not discouraged by the appearance of this powerfularmament. He placed himself at the head of six hundred knights,whose avowed principle it was, never to take account of the number

* See the Chronological Table,