The loosing of the rudder bands will occasion no difficulty to the nautical reader, it being still usual to tie up the helm when the ship is at anchor. Allowing for the different construction of ancient rudders, it is, however, as Grotius and others suggest, probable enough that the rudders had been fastened by bands, externally, to the vessel, and that now, being unloosed, they sunk deeper into the sea.

"Hoisted up the mainsail.”—It is difficult to see what else but a sail they should hoist up to the breeze: yet as the word aprova is unusual, there have been various opinions concerning it. "Luther makes it the mast; Erasmus the sailyard, and this we have no doubt it was, but with the sail upon it; and that the sail is consequently denoted. Dr. Bloomfield sees that the sail must be meant; and having (as we think, most unnecessarily: see the note on verse 17) cut down the mast before, is obliged to set up a jury-mast now, to support this sail. Another question has arisen concerning the particular sail which is intended: but it seems hopeless to ascertain this, while it has been considered even open to dispute whether a sail is at all to be understood.

23 And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.

24 And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.

25 And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers,

26 Saying, 'Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:

1 Isa. 6. 9. Matt. 13. 14, Mark 4. 12. Luke 8. 10. John 19. 40. Rom. 11.8.

Verse 1. "The island was called Melita."-It is well known that this was the ancient name of Malta: and after what we have stated under verse 27 of the preceding chapter, we shall not discuss but assume its identity with the Melita of the text.

This island, being situated midway, as it were, between the continents of Europe and Africa, has been reckoned sometimes as belonging to the one, and sometimes to the other. It is however rather nearer to Europe than to Africa, being 190 miles from Cape Spartivento in Calabria, the nearest point on the continent of Europe; and 200 miles from Calipia, the nearest part of Africa: it is however only sixty miles from Cape Passaro in Sicily. The island is sixty miles in circumference, twenty long, and twelve broad. Near it, on the west, is another and smaller island, called Goza, about thirty miles in circumference. Malta has no mountains, nor any very high hills; and it therefore makes no very conspicuous figure from the sea. There are no ports or bays on the African side of the island: but several very deep ones on the coast facing Sicily. The most important of these are the Calle della Melleha, the Porto di S. Paolo, and the two which are separated by the tongue of land on which stands the modern capital, Citta Valetta. The more ancient capital, in which, as appears from his intercourse with the governor, St. Paul remained during his stay, is situated about the centre of the island, upon a hill of moderate elevation, between which and the Bay of St. Paul the ground is more low and level than in most other parts of the island. The cathedral church of St. Paul, upon the top of the hill, is supposed by the inhabitants, from old traditions, to occupy the site on which the palace of Publius, the governor, stood at the time of St. Paul's visit. There are in this city numerous alleged memorials of the apostle's sojourn: the process of identifying the spots where St. Paul lodged, and where he did this and this, being pushed to an extreme, is calculated to annoy even those who are disposed to acquiesce in the conclusion that the town was really visited by the apostle of the Gentiles.

Malta is naturally a barren rock: but where some soil has been found, or has been artificially laid, the productive power is very great, and the produce of a very superior description. The island does not, however, produce nearly

sufficient corn for the sustenance of its inhabitants, who are obliged to import from abroad the greater part of that which they consume. But this is partly owing to the extreme populousness of the island, which, in proportion to its extent, contains more inhabitants than any other country of Europe.

The island was originally colonized by the Phoenicians, from whom it was taken, about 736 years B.C., by the Greek colonists in Sicily, to whom the island owed the name of Melita, perhaps on account of the excellent honey for which it has been at all times noted. An island of so much importance, as a maritime and commercial station, was not overlooked by the Carthaginians, who, about 528 B.C., began to dispute its possession with the Greeks, and after, for a time, dividing it with them, made themselves entire masters of it. The inhabitants of Greek descent however remained, and the Punic, or Phoenician, and the Greek languages were equally spoken. Malta flourished greatly under the dominion of Carthage; but ultimately partook of the disasters which befel that power. In the first Punic war it was ravaged and seized by the Romans, who however lost it again, and only became masters of it under the treaty whica placed in their hands (B.c. 242) all the islands between Italy and Africa. The Romans treated the inhabitants weil They made Melita a municipium, allowing the people to be governed by their own laws. The government was administered by a pro-prætor, who depended on the prætor of Sicily, and this office appears to have been held by Publius at the time of the shipwreck. When the Roman empire was divided, Malta fell to the lot of Constantine. About the middle of the fifth century it was seized by the Vandals, and ten years after by the Goths, who had obtained possession of Sicily. But about a century later (553 A.D.) the island was united to the lower empire by Belisarius, when sent te wrest Africa from the Vandals. The inhabitants were not allowed to enjoy the same privileges they had possessed under the Roman emperors. nor was the Greek government popular; hence the inhabitants willingly received the Arabs who, about the end of the ninth century, took the island from the Greeks, and established in it a government dependent on the emir of Sicily. The Arabs must have become largely mixed with the population to impress upon it. to the extent they did, their own language and customs. The present inhabitants have an Arabian aspect, and their language is an Arabian dialect, easily understood by the native Arabians and by the Moors of Africa. Malta was taken from the Arabs by the Normans, in the year 1090. Its subsequent changes of masters need not here be stated till 1530, when the emperor Charles V., who had annexed it to his empire, transferred it to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, whom the Turks had recently dispossessed of Rhodes. The glory which Malta acquired in 1563, by the defeat of 30,000 invading Turks-the continued distinction which it enjoyed, as a sovereign state, under the knightsthe attention which it engaged, at the commencement of this century, from its surrender to Bonaparte on his way to Egypt-from its recovery by the English-and from its being the alleged ground of the memorable war which terminated at Waterloo ;-all these are circumstances, in the history of this celebrated island, too notorious to require more than this brief indication.

2. “ The barbarous people.”—We are surprised that so acute a writer as Bryant, and after him Falconer, should lay much stress on this, for their "great argument," alleging that the inhabitants of Malta were not a barbarous people. and, consequently, that Malta is not the Melita of the text. But the Greeks first, and after them the Romans accounted all other nations barbarian; and no nation, however rich or cultivated. was exempt from the implication of "barbarous," unless it spoke the languages of Greece and Rome. But the inhabitants of Malta were, in this age, chiefly of Phoenician and Carthaginian descent, and appear to have spoken the Punic language, perhaps with a weak infusion of Greek; and they were therefore most certainly a people who would have been accounted barbarians. (See Rom. i. 14.) In like manner, the Jews contemned all other nations, under the name of "Gentiles"-not, however, on account of their language, but their religion,

4. "No doubt this man is a murderer.”-That murder was his crime, they the more probably concluded, because the viper hung upon his hand, as the ancients (including the Jews) believed that overtaking justice not only inflicted on the criminal the punishment he deserved, but inflicted it upon the offending member. There was also an opinion that criminals were often, by Divine justice, preserved from one kind of death that they might perish by another more severely commensurate to their demerits; and hence believing that Paul would certainly die, and considering that he had beca saved from drowning to die by the viper, the Maltese could hardly, on such principles, consider him less than a marderer. That he was a prisoner, if they then knew it, would also have assisted their conclusion. The ancients believed that no murderer, however he might evade human justice, ever finally escaped the avenging justice of heaven. That serpents were often the agents of this justice was believed both by Jews and heathen. The Talmud mentions the story of a man who slew his friend, but was immediately after bitten by a serpent, and died. So we are also told, that when the power of punishment was taken from the nation, still the guilty did not escape: if a man deserved to be burnt, he fell into the fire, or a serpent bit him; or if he deserved to be strangled, he fell into a river, or was taken off by the quinsy.

7. "The chief man of the island."-This was undoubtedly the Roman governor of the island. The term epare might indeed of itself denote the chief person in the island for wealth and influence. But Protos also frequently occurs as the title of a governor or prefect; and that this title was actually applied to the Roman governors of Malta, is very appositely shown by Grotius, from a monumental inscription found in this very island.

11. "Whose sign was Castor and Pollux"-Or the Dioscuri, in mythology, the twin sons of Jupiter by Leda, placed among the twelve signs of the Zodiac under the name of Gemini, or the Twins. As it was the especial province of the Dioscuri to succour persons in danger of shipwreck, it was very common for vessels to be placed under their special protection, and hence to bear "the sign of Castor and Pollux."

12. "Syracuse."-This was a very famous city, on the eastern coast of Sicily. It was founded by the Corinthians about 700 years before Christ; and the enterprising colonists, being greatly enriched by commerce, soon raised this. their principal seat, to great importance and magnificence. In its best state it was accounted the largest and richest city belonging to the Greeks. It was twenty-two miles in circuit, and was considered to rival Carthage in wealth. It was often styled Quadruplex, being divided into four parts, each of which was equal to a large city. The ancient writers are untired in expatiating on the fine prospects of Syracuse-its port, banked up with marble, and surrounded with elegant buildings-its magnificent public structures and monuments-and its splendid and commodious residences. Syracuse long maintained its power as an independent state; and the Carthaginians and Athenians assaulted it in vain. But about 200 years before Christ, it was taken by the Romans, although not until the siege had been protracted for three years by the mechanical contrivances of Archimedes. Syracuse remained a flourishing commercial town under the Romans; and although now no longer the chief city of the island, it still survives as a considerable town, belonging, with the rest of the island, to the kingdom of Naples. As there has always been much intercourse between Malta and Sicily, the ship had probably taken in some lading or passengers to discharge at Syracuse.

13. "Rhegium."-This was the name of a town and promontory situated about midway on the Italian side of the strait which separates the southern extremity of Italy from the northern of Sicily. The island has here the appearance of having been broken off, by some convulsion of nature, from the peninsula; and hence the name Rhegium, from the verb payvów, or pnyvus, to break. The town is said to have been originally built by a colony from Chalcis, and was rebuilt by Julius Cæsar, after his defeat of Pompey; whence it is called by Ptolemy Regium Julium. It still subsists under the name of Reggio.

"Puteoli."―This port was within the Gulf of Cuma (now Bay of Naples), near its northern promontory, and stood upon a high hill within a creek which furnished a good harbour. It was near and just opposite to Baia; and was the place where the ships from Egypt and the East usually touched and landed their cargoes; as well, perhaps, to avoid the necessity of doubling the formidable promontory of Circeium, as because no other commodious port existed nearer to Rome. Puteoli was noted for its hot springs, celebrated for the cure of various diseases; within its limits there were thirty-five natural baths, of different sorts of tepid waters; and from these baths or pits of water, called in Latin "putei," the town is said to have taken its name of Puteoli. Baiæ, on the other side of the creek, is frequently mentioned by the Latin writers as the resort of the emperors and wealthy Romans, for relaxation or health. Baia was the Bath of Italy; and Puteoli partook of its prosperity, being, in fact, connected with it on one side by a continuation of country seats, as Misenum was on the other: and the canton which comprehended the three places, thus connected, was popularly regarded as a little Rome. Puteoli was well known to the Jews, from their being accustomed to land and embark there in their journeys to and from Rome.

15. "Appii forum, and The three taverns."-Both places were on the Appian way to Rome. The sense is, probably, that some of the brethren had come as far as Appii-forum, and the others not farther than the Three Taverns. Appiiforum was fifty-one miles from Rome, and the Three Taverns thirty-three. Appii-forum was the name of a town, which was originally a city of the Volsci, and doubtless derived its present name, on some account or other, from Appius Claudius, the consul, who paved the famous way from Capua to Rome, called from him the Appian way, on which this town stood. Some think that the town bore his name on account of his statue, which is supposed to have been set up in or near it. The place is now called Cassarilla di St. Maria.

The "Three Taverns" had perhaps better have been given as a Latin proper name, and not translated. Luke himself does not translate Tres Tabernæ into Greek, but sets it down as a proper name, in a Greek form (Tgiwv rußigvwv). There has been some speculation on the sense in which the word taberna is to be understood. Most commentators think there were three inns or places of entertainment at this spot; and others suppose they were merely shops for the sale of refreshments. It appears, however, that it was the name of a town; for it was the seat of a bishoprick in the time of Constantine, as we learn from the fact, that among the nineteen bishops who were delegated by that emperor to decide the controversy between Donatus and Cæcilianus, one was Felix, bishop of Tres Tabernæ. As a town, it is possible to accommodate interpretations by supposing that it was distinguished for, and obtained its name from, three superior establishments for the accommodation of the numerous travellers on this road. Scaliger, however, is of opinion that the Tabernæ (for there were other places with the name) were frontier towns, built to repress the inroads and insults of foreigners.

16. "With a soldier that kept him.”—That is, as a Roman citizen, enabled perhaps to assert his privilege through the kindness of Julius, he was allowed to remain in military custody—that is, with his arm chained to the arm of a soldier. Irksome as this restraint was, it was much better than a prison; as the soldier had no right to domineer over his prisoner, or to control any other of his actions than such as tended to crime or escape. The length of the chain rendered the connection the less offensive; and we are not aware that there was anything to prevent the prisoner from walking out with the soldier, if he pleased.