le and "certain other prisoners" embarked for Rome in the
autumn of A.D. 60. The compass was then unknown; in weather, "when
neither sun nor stars in many days appeared," [142:1] the mariner was
without a guide; and, late in the season, navigation was peculiarly
dangerous. The voyage proved disastrous; after passing into a second
vessel at Myra, [142:2] a city of Lycia, Paul and his companions were
wrecked on the coast of the island of Malta; [142:3] when they had
remained there three months, they set sail once more in a corn ship of
Alexandria, the Castor and Pollux; [142:4] and at length in the early
part of A.D. 61, reached the harbour of Puteoli, [143:1] then the great
shipping port of Italy.

The account of the voyage from Caesarea to Puteoli, as given in the Acts
of the Apostles, is one of the most curious passages to be found in the
whole of the sacred volume. Some may think it strange that the inspired
historian enters so much into details, and the nautical terms which he
employs may puzzle not a few readers; but these features of his
narrative attest its authenticity and genuineness. No one, who had not
himself shared the perils of the scene, could have been expected to
describe with so much accuracy the circumstances of the shipwreck. It
has been remarked that, after the lapse of eighteen hundred years, the
references of the evangelist to prevailing winds and currents, to the
indentations of the coast, to islands, bays, and harbours, may still be
exactly verified. Recent investigators have demonstrated that the
sailors, in the midst of danger, displayed no little ability, and that
their conduct in "undergirding the ship," [143:2] and in casting "four
anchors out of the stern," [143:3] evidenced their skilful seamanship.
Luke states that, after a long period of anxiety and abstinence, "about
midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country."
[143:4] The headland they were approaching is very low, and in a stormy
night is said to be invisible even at the distance of a quarter of a
mile; [143:5] but the sailors could detect the shore by other
indications. Even in a storm _the roar of breakers_ can be distinguished
from other sounds by the practised ear of a mariner; [144:1] and it can
be shewn that, with such a gale as was then blowing, the sea still
dashes with amazing violence against the very same point of land off
which Paul and his companions were that night labouring. In the depth of
the wate