of talk about two ancient
lakes called----; I knew the name, but little more. We passed in the
evening two rocky islands, or skerries, rising straight out of the
water, called Gli Fratelli or The Brothers.

_November_ 20.--A fair wind all night, running at the merry rate of nine
knots an hour. In the morning we are in sight of the highest island,
Pantellaria, which the Sicilians use as a state prison, a species of
Botany Bay. We are about thirty miles from the burning island--I mean
Graham's--but neither that nor Etna make their terrors visible. At noon
Graham's Island appears, greatly diminished since last accounts. We got
out the boats and surveyed this new production of the earth with great
interest. Think I have got enough to make a letter to our Royal Society
and friends at Edinburgh.[489] Lat. 37 deg. 10' 31" N., long. 12 deg. 40' 15"
E., lying north and south by compass, by Mr. Bokely, the Captain's
clerk['s measurements]. Returned on board at dinner-time.

_November_ 21.--Indifferent night. In the morning we are running off
Gozo, a subordinate island to Malta, intersected with innumerable
enclosures of dry-stone dykes similar to those used in Selkirkshire, and
this likeness is increased by the appearance of sundry square towers of
ancient days. In former times this was believed to be Calypso's island,
and the cave of the enchantress is still shown. We saw the entrance from
the deck, as rude a cavern as ever opened out of a granite rock. The
place of St. Paul's shipwreck is also shown, no doubt on similarly
respectable authority.

At last we opened Malta, an island, or rather a city, like no other in
the world. The seaport, formerly the famous Valetta, comes down to the
sea-shore. On the one side lay the [Knights], on the other side lay the
Turks, who finally got entire possession of it, while the other branch
remained in the power of the Christians. Mutual cruelties were
exercised; the Turks, seizing on the survivors of the knights who had so
long defended St. Elmo, cut the Maltese cross on the bodies of the
slain, and, tying them to planks, let them drift with the receding tide
into the other branch of the harbour still defended by the Christians.
The Grand-Master, in resentment of this cruelty, caused his Turkish
prisoners to be decapitated and their heads thrown from mortars into the
camp of the infidels.[490]

_November_ 22.--To-day we entered Malta harbour, to quarantine, which is
here very strict. We