A Valetta Cab.

Two famous men are said to have been shipwrecked on the coast of Malta, - Ulysses and St. Paul. The "Odyssey" tell us of the one, the Bible of the other. Poetry describes the Grecian hero as having been detained here by the nymph, Calypso, seven years. Scripture asserts that the Apostle to the Gentiles lived here for three months. Tradition adds that both resided here in grottoes; the first upon the island of Gozo, the second on Malta itself. The authenticity of Calypso's grotto is contested, several caverns claiming to have been the siren's home. The grotto of St. Paul, however, has no rival, and of its genuineness Maltese natives entertain no doubt. Accordingly, they have built above it a chapel dedicated to St. Paul, and have erected in the centre of the cave his statue. Moreover, the stone of which this wave-worn crypt is formed is held to be an effective cure for snake bites - a belief originating doubtless in the Scriptural story of St. Paul, unharmed, shaking off into the fire the viper which had fastened on his hand. Hence fragments of the cavern's walls are sold to the natives, who credulously cherish them for their medicinal value. They cannot, however, need them as an antidote to the venom of serpents, for Malta now, like Ireland, has no vipers; and the Maltese attribute this immunity to the action of St. Paul, as confidently as the Irish gratefully ascribe a similar blessing to St. Patrick. What are the real facts underlying this rank overgrowth of popular tradition? Calypso and Ulysses belong to the romantic epoch of mythology; and if the wanderings and adventures of the hero of the "Odyssey "had any actual basis of reality, we have to-day no means of knowing what it was. In the case of St. Paul, however, we have to deal with an historic period and a narrative nearer to us by about a thousand years. There can, indeed, be little ground for questioning the almost universal belief that in the fifty-eighth year of the Christian era, when on his way to Rome to plead his cause before the Emperor Nero, St. Paul was shipwrecked on this coast, as chronicled in the twenty-seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. It is even probable that the exact scene of the catastrophe has been identified. Malta is small, and places corresponding to the spot depicted in the Biblical account are very few in number The "Bay of St. Paul" is, therefore, believed to be the genuine locality, and certainly no other inlet on the island so well agrees with the description of the "creek, into the which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship." This little bay, a few miles northwest of Valetta, is an arm of the sea about three miles in length, having an island near the entrance which may be fairly said to make of it "a place where two seas met." Upon this island stands a colossal statue of St. Paul, and near it is the ledge of rocks on which, it is conjectured, the master of the vessel "ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast and remained immovable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves." When I beheld this savage-looking reef, its crest was delicately carding the advancing swell of the Mediterranean into threads of sunlit spray; and I can well believe that, under the impulse of the strong north wind (the "Euroclydon" of Scripture) which often blows here, the waves must rush into this harbor with great violence, and break with fury on its rocks. I felt, therefore, no reasonab 1 e doubt that I was looking on the very spot where, nearly nineteen hundred years before, the sailors of the shipwrecked vessel, together with the soldiers, passengers, and St. Paul himself, "some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship, escaped all safe to land".

Raphael.

Head Of ST. Paul.

And He Shook Off The Beast Into The Fire And Felt No Harm." - Acts 28, 5.

ST. Paul's bay.

Near Calypso's Grotto.

How the exact date of this occurrence was determined, I do not understand, but the 10th of February is the accepted day, and every year an imposing festival is then celebrated here in honor of the apostle's advent. The homage rendered to St. Paul is not, however, restricted to this one occasion. He is the spiritual patron of the people, and among all the prominent names associated with the history of Malta none holds a higher place in the esteem and reverence of the inhabitants than his. In fact, at almost every turn one meets some proof of the regard in which his memory is held; for the cathedral of the ancient capital is called after him; his name has also been bestowed on several shrines and fountains, as well as on one of the most important thoroughfares of Valetta; and in the churches, streets, and squares, statues and pictures in great numbers recall his personality to passers by.