Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/417

Rh without the previous knowledge and consent of the emperor. Such were the terms upon which, after much negotiation, Charles was at length induced to surrender the then almost valueless islands of Malta and Gozo to a community whose indefatigable perseverance and lavish expenditure were destined to convert the former into one of the most powerful fortresses in the world.

This deed was presented to the commander Bosio by the emperor in person, and that knight instantly hurried off to place the precious document in the hands of the Grand-Master. During the journey he met with an accident from the overturning of his carriage, and the ignorance of an unskilful surgeon caused a comparatively trivial injury to terminate fatally. Feeling his end at hand, and knowing the anxiety of his chief on the subject of the Maltese donation, he sent the deed forward under charge of a Rhodian gentleman by whom he had been accompanied.

The gift of the emperor was promptly confirmed by a papal bull, on the receipt of which L’Isle Adam sent two knights of the grand-cross to Sicily to receive from the viceroy a formal investiture of the territory. As soon as this ceremony was completed, they proceeded to take possession of their new acquisition, and to place members of the fraternity in command of the various posts when handed over to them. A dispute arose with the viceroy on the subject of the free exportation of corn and the privilege of coining money within the new possession, which prevented the Grand-Master from proceeding to Malta for some months. These difficulties were at length adjusted, and then he at once set sail from Syracuse, and landed safely in his new home.

The first view which greeted the wanderers was certainly not reassuring or attractive. Accustomed as they had been to the luxuriant verdure of Rhodes, the fertility of which had gained it the title of the garden of the Levant, they were but ill- prepared for the rocky and arid waste which met their eyes in Malta. Few persons who now behold the island, occupied as it is with the commerce of Europe and Asia, presenting a busy scene of wealth and prosperity, with its massive defences rising in frowning tiers around its harbours, can picture to themselves