history of Malta.

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a narrow channel, named Freo, about a league and a half wide, inthe midst of which were situated little islands or rocks, calledCumin and Cuminot: that Goza was eight leagues in circumference,three long, and one and a half broad : that they had seen no portof any kind in the island; which was so surrounded with shoals andcraggy rocks, that the approach was extremely difficult;—the soil,however, appeared to be very fertile; and it contained about fivethousand inhabitants, including men, women, and children, whowere dispersed in different villages: that the people of the island, inorder to secure themselves from corsairs, had erected a castle upona mountain, which appeared badly fortified, and of very little im-portance ; but, weak as it w r as, the commissioners judged it wouldnot be prudent in the council to accept the island of Malta sepa-rately from that of Goza, since the vicinity of the latter would inthat case be dangerous, as it might, at some future period, serve asa retreat for their enemies. Besides this relation, the commissionerspresented a variety of private notes, made by the jurats of Maltaand Goza, which contained very particular accounts of every thingworthy of notice, together with a plan of Malta, on w hich they hadmarked, in the most exact manner, many gulfs or bays, servinggenerally as retreats for fishermen, and, indeed, sometimes for cor-sairs. They therefore thought, so great a number of ports beingextremely convenient for the armaments of the order, that theoffers of the emperor ought not to be rejected, provided he did notinsist upon the order’s taking up arms against his own particularenemies.

VOL. II.

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