A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

10 MELITA.
You have only to look over the map to judge
of how far Mr. S.'s argument (which I herewith
give you) deserves consideration. When St. Paul
departed from the island where he had been ship-
wrecked, (Acts, chap, xxviii. v. 11—13,) he em-
barked in a vessel that had wintered at that
island on its way from Alexandria to Puteoli
(Naples). Now for that vessel to have gone to
the Melita of the Adriatic, which lies off the
Dalmatian coast, would have been immensely out
of the way ; whereas Malta is exactly in the
direct course between Alexandria and Puteoli.
]\Ioreover, JNlalta was a place of trade, and in all
probability the vessel discharged there a cargo of
wheat from Egypt, and took in a cargo of cotton,
for the growth of which Malta was then noted.
Besides, St. Paul mentions that in their progress
they touched at Syracuse, which would have been
again out of the way for a vessel voyaging from
the Adriatic Melita to Puteoli. For assuming
that he sailed from the Adriatic Melita, it would
have been unnecessarily dipping down to the
southward to touch at Svracuse, and from thence
'
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he must have again steered northward in order
to regain the course by Reggio and the Straits of
Messina ; whereas Syracuse lies in the direct and
unavoidable course from Malta to those Straits,