I have presumed to direct this letter to her, begging her to read and forward it to its rightful owner. We have a heavenly day, "blue above and blue below," for our departure. By the bye, they have an admirable garrison library here; the catalogue is well drawn up on the plan of that of the Royal Institution by Harris. I think I should like to spend a month or two here; nowhere, I suppose, could one enjoy at once such a climate and such a library. Adieu.

LETTER II.

Voyage to Malta-San Giovanni-Ruins and Catacombs of Alexandria.

TO THE COUNTESS OF BALCARRAS.

Malta.

WE left Gibraltar, my dear Mother, on Saturday afternoon, the 12th, and have had charming weather, and a delightful voyage to Malta. Sunday and Monday we were coasting Spain and Barbary, and admiring the mountain ridges that frown from either shore, awakening memories how interesting! of Juba and the Romans, on the one hand- of the Xarifas and Fatimas, the Zegris and Abencerrages, of poor Boabdil, and of Gonsalvo de Cordova, on the other!

About eight on Monday night we touched at

Algiers thrilling name! The crescent moon

was gleaming over it, but not very clear; the crescent is pale, pale all over the East now. We landed a young Dane there, the son of the Danish Consul at Tangiers, and one of the Royal Guard of Denmark; he was going to join the French expedition against Constantina, and I really felt sorry when he left us on such a perilous adventure. I found him full of information, and very intelligent, particularly on the subject of Northern Antiquities; he sang me several of his Danish songs as we walked the deck.

Still coasting the Barbary mountains — so runs the log-book; pass Bona, old Hippo Regius, dear to the memory as the home of St. Augustine-but during the night, alas !-Bizerta-the Cani rocks-Porto Farina, Cato's Utica, and Cape Carthage, behind which lies the site of Dido's palace, Cyprian's garden

where the soldiers seized him, generous, nobleminded Cyprian! Then across the Bay of Tunis, with a beautiful view of the mountains hemming it in to the south; before weathering Cape Bon, pass the vast and lofty islandrock of Zembra, reminding one, when directly north of it, of the volcanic isle of Sabrina. Bid adieu to the Barbary coast, and for awhile nothing but the sea-circle for our horizon; presently Gozo in sight-rough rocky hills, but the lights and shadows beautiful - skim past it through the waves on which Telemachus floated, if Gozo be the Isle of Calypso, which I don't believe it was-and lo, Malta, with her deep harbours, picturesque tiers of houses, impregnable batteries, and English shipping! How changed—

But I had little time, or, in truth, inclination, at that moment, to think of days by-gone, for scarcely had we anchored in the quarantine harbour, when dear William came alongside to

greet me; he had secured me rooms in Beverley's Hotel, and we adjourned thither without delay; he is remarkably well, and we look forward with great pleasure to the prosecution of our tour together.

Oh! the rapture of a first visit to San Giovanni! those gorgeous and chivalric tombs of the Grand Masters and the Knights of St. John! I shall not be content now till I see Rhodes, invested with more familiar interest to a clansman of Radulphus de Lindesay, Lord David of the Byres, and Sir Walter,

"Lord of Sainct Johne, and Knicht of Torphicane,
By sea and land ane vailzeant Capitane,"

as Davie Lindsay calls him.

I visited the armoury in the old palace · neither worth seeing; spacious galleries and chambers, but nothing after Venice. The library too, full of the fat old folios of the seventeenth century. They seem a curious set, these Maltese: their language is most disso