2. Objections to jifalta.—The case is established to ' demonstration. Still it may be worth while to notice one or two objections. It is said, in reference to xxvii, 27, that the wreck took place in the Adriatic or Gulf of Venice. It is urged that a well-known island like Malta coidd not have been unrecognised (xxvii, 39), nor its inliabitants called "barbarous" (xxviii, 2). And as re- gards the occurrence recorded in xxviii, 3, stress is laid ' on tlie facts that Malta lias no poisonous serpents, and hardly any wood. To these objections we reply at once tliat Adkia, in the language of the period, denotes not the (iulf of Venice, but the ojien sea between Crete and Sicily; that it is no wonder if the sailors did not recog- nise a strange part of the coast on wliich they were ' thrown in stormy weather, and that they did recognise the place when they did leave the ship (xxviii, 1) ; that ' the kindness recorded of the natives (xxviii, 2, 10), ' shows that they were not "barbarians" in the sense of I being savages, and that the word denotes simply that they did not speak (ircck; and, lastly, that the popula- [ tion of Malta has increased in an extraordinary manner i in recent times, that proliably there was abundant wood there formerly, and tliat with the destruction of the wood many indigenous animals would disappear.
o. Ohjeclious to Mclcda.— In adducing positive argu- ments and answering objections, we have indirectly proved that Melita in the (Julf of Venice was not the scene of the shipwreck. Hut we may add that this isl- and could not have been reached without a miracle un- der tlie circumstances of weather described in the nar-
rative; that it is not in the track between Alexandria and Puteoli; that it would not be natural to proceed from it to Kome by means of a voyage embracing Syra- cuse ; and that the soundings on its shore do not agree with what is recorded in the Acts.
4. History of the Controversy. — An amusing passage in Coleridge's Table Talk (p. 185) is worth noticing as the last echo of what is now an extinct controversy. The question has been set at rest forever by Mr. Smith, of Jordan Hill, in his Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, the first published work in Avhich it was thoroughly in- vestigated from a sailor's point of view. It liad, liow- ever, been previously treated in the same manner, and with the same results, by admiral Penrose, and copious notes from his 3ISS. are given in The Life ami K/ii.tths of St. Paul. In that work (2d ed. ji. 42C, note) are given the names of some of those who carried on the coiitrf)- versy in the last century. The ringleader on the Adri- atic side of the question, not unnaturally, was padre Georgi, a Benedictine monk connected with the •Vene- tian or Austrian Mileda, and his Paulus Xaufra//ii.i is extremel}- curious. He was, however, not the tirst to suggest this untenable view. AVe find it. at a much earlier period, in a Hyzanti..e writer, Const. Porphyrog. JJe Adm. Imp. (c. 30, vol. iii, p. 164, of the Bonn e<i.).
II. Descriptiiin and History of the Locality. — (In this portion we chiefly use the statements found in Kitto's Cyclopedia, s. v.). — 1. The immediate Scene. — Tlic name of St. Paul's Bay has been given to the i)lace Avhere the shipwreck is supposed to have taken place. This, the sacred historian says, was at " a certain creek with a shore," i. e. a seemingly practicable shore, on which they purposed, if possible, to strand the vessel, as their only apparent chance to escape being broken on the rocks. In attempting this the ship seems to have struck and gone to jjieces on the rocky headland at the entrance of the creek. This agrees very well with St. Paul's Bay, more so than with any other creek of the island. This bay is a deep inlet on the north side of the island, being the last indentation of the coast but one from the west-
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em extremity of the island. It is about two miles deep, by one mile broad. The harbor which it forms is very unsafe at some distance from the shore, although there is good anchorage in the middle for light vessels. The most dangerous part is the western headland at the en- trance of the bay, particularly as there is close to it a small island (Salamone), and a still smaller islet (Sal- monetta), the currents and shoals around which are par- ticularl}' dangerous in stormy weather. It is usually supposed that the vessel struck at this point. From this place the ancient capital of Malta (now Citta Yec- chia. Old City) is distinctly seen at the distance of about five miles; and on looking towards the bay from the }op of the church on the summit of the hill whereon the city stands, it is evident that the people of the town Hiight easily from this spot have perceived in the morn- ing that a v.'reck had taken place ; and this is a circum- stance which throws a fresh light on some of the cir- cumstances of the deeply interesting transactions which ensued. See Shipwreck.