Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/419

Rh building and language, still remains to mark this period of occupation. Indeed, the Maltese may be said, as a race, to partake more of the Arabic than of the Italian type to this day. At the close of the eleventh century, count Roger, the Norman, expelled the Saracens, and established a principality in Sicily and Malta, which was subsequently converted into a monarchy under his grandson. From that time the island followed the fortunes of the kingdom of Sicily through many changes of dominion, until at length both fell into the possession of Spain after the tragedy of the Sicilian Vespers.

Its decadence during these successive stages had been continuous, and when the emperor handed it over to L’Isle Adam there was not much left to tempt the cupidity or aggression of neighbouring powers. It contained neither river nor lake, and was very deficient in springs. Its surface was almost bare rock, with but little earth, and its vegetation was in consequence poor and insignificant. Scarce a tree was to be seen throughout the island, with the exception of a few caroubas and shumacks, and the eye roamed in vain for a patch of green to relieve the glare of the white rock. The wretched villages in which the inhabitants dwelt, termed casals, partook of the general air of poverty and misery which everywhere prevailed. Its western side was rugged and inhospitable, offering no shelter to shipping, or even to boats, but the east and north were broken up into numberless creeks and harbours, some of which were of sufficient capacity to afford anchorage to the largest fleets.

This was, indeed, the great point of attraction to the knights. They had for so many years been accustomed to look to maritime enterprise as the principal source from whence their wealth and prosperity were to be derived, they had made their name so widely known, and so highly esteemed in the waters of the Mediterranean, that they were not prepared willingly to resign the position which their naval superiority had given them by the establishment of their new home in any