This is the evidence of Mela, a Roman and a contemporary; who must have known the boundaries of his own country more accurately than a foreigner; and the opinions of his own times better than writers three or four centuries after.

Pliny's evidence must have the fame weight for the like reason: indeed, his authority is fuperior. He differs from Mela in fome degree; dividing the Sinus into two feas, as Strabo and Diodorus had done before him; allotting the lower part to the Ionian, the upper to the Adria. 3 In eo [ finu] duo maria, (quo diftinximus fine) Ionium in primâ parte, interius Adriaticum. He moreover marks out more particularly the upper Ionian fea, by informing us, it comprehended the island Safe or Safonis; as well as the island of Diomede on the other side, where it washed the coast of Calabria and Apulia. 4 In Ionio mari ab Orico M. millia paffuum Safonis piraticâ ftatione nota. And again,5 In Ionio-contra Apulum littus Diomedea.

3 Nat. Hift. Lib. 3. Cap. 26. Edit. Harduin.

4 Ibid.

And, speaking of

Hy

5 Pliny fpeaks of the island of Diomede as being in the Ionian fea; and mentions this particular circumftance, that the firft plane trees that were introduced into Europe were brought to that island, and planted on the hero's tomb. These trees are certainly very beautiful; and if any fpecies may claim the pre-eminence for their noble appearance, I should think we may give it to the plane. Yet Pliny feems to wonder at people for putting themselves to any cost to purchase merely fhade. Sed quis non jure miretur arborem, umbra gratiâ tantùm, ex alieno petitam orbe? Platanus hæc eft, mare Ionium in Diomedis infulam, ejufdem tumuli gratiâ, primùm invecta: inde in Siciliam tranfgreffa, atque inter primas donata Italia; et jam ad Morinos ufque pervecta, ac tributarium etiam detinens folum, ut gentes vectigal et pro umbra pendant. Nat. Hift. Lib. 12. If Pliny is in earnest, it gives me but a mean opinion of his tafte; though I must honour him as a naturalift. It is mentioned of Xerxes, that, in marching through Lydia, he saw one of these trees, of fo ftately a growth and of fo beautiful an appearance, that he was ftruck with admiration: and, before he quitted the fpot, he decked it with ornaments of gold, and appointed a person of confequence, one of those called the immortals, particularly to rend and look after it, μελεδώνῳ Αθανατῳ ανδρι επιτρεψας. Herod. 7. 31. The Romans efteemed them highly, and inftead of water

2

used

Hydruntum at the bottom of the gulf, he fays it was "the boun"dary of the forementioned feas:" "Hydruntum ad difcrimen Ionii et Adriatici maris.—Not difcrimen inter fe, to distinguish the one from the other, as Harduin fondly fancies. No limit nor mark can distinguish two places both on the fame fide: but it was the boundary that feparated them from the feas below; from the Tarentine and Epirotic, the Sicilian and Cretan feas; which laft conftituted the great Ionian. But Pliny feldom takes notice of it by that name; though he allows. that the Greeks called it fo: Græci Ionium dividunt in Siculum ac Creticum ab infulis. Harduin was misled by Pliny's calling it the Ionian sea, and not the Ionian gulf. But we must observe that it was feldom called Sinus Ionius or Iovios noλos, but by writers who suppose it to comprehend the whole gulf, fuch as Thucydides, Theophraftus, Appian, Herodian, Dio. When it is divided into two feas, according to Polybius, Diodorus, Pliny; it is then denominated Iovios Togos and Ionium mare. Yet,

under

used to refresh them with a profufion of wine. Of their attention in this respect we have a curious inftance in Macrobius. He tells us that the two great orators Hortenfius and Cicero were upon a time engaged in the fame caufe, where Hortenfius was to take the lead. But when the hour came, he begged of Cicero to change turns with him, and plead firft: for, fays he, I muft juft ftep to Tufculum, and give my plane tree a little wine, and I will return immediately. Saturnal. Lib. 3. Cap. 13. Nothing can give us a ftronger idea of the tafte the Romans had for plantations than to fee a zealous orator wave his priority, and for a time defert his caufe, in order to tend a plane tree. There are faid to be at Jedo the capital of Japan a fpecies of these trees in the emperour's gardens, whofe leaves are beautifully variegated with red and yellow and green, which afford a most pleasing appearance, Kampfer. pag. 524. The reader will excufe me this digreffion, as it will afford him fome relief in the course of the above dry inquiry.

I have mentioned that these trees were firft imported, according to Pliny, into the island of Diomede; which island lies pretty far in the great Illyrian gulf; and, being faid to be fituated in the Ionian fea, fhews us what Pliny means by that fea, and how far, according to his opinion, it extended upwards in that gulf: confequently what he thought were the bounds of the Adriatic, which took up but half the Sinns.

6 Nat. Hift. Lib. 3. Cap. 11. Edit. Harduin.

under whatever name it comes, it must never be confounded with the great Ionian. That began at Tænarus and the Strophades, [Infulæ Ionio in magno] and comprehended, as I before mentioned, the Cretan and Sicilian feas; which Pliny takes proper notice of: Græci Ionium dividunt in Siculum ac Creticum ab infulis. Lib. 4. Cap. 11. In respect to the upper Ionian, Strabo intimates that it was properly called Lovios noλwos, as originally poffeffing the whole Sinus; but that in his time it was esteemed but as a part of the Adriatic: nay, the Adriatic had in a manner engroffed the whole. As to the notion of Bochart, that the Sinus and Mare Adriaticum were distinguished from each other, the one being within the Sinus, and the other far without; it is a groundless fuppofition: nor is there the least shadow of authority for such an opinion in any author from Herodotus to Pliny.

From all the writers above we gain this uniform evidence ; that the Adriatic fea was comprehended within the great Illyrian gulf, and never reached farther. Strabo in particular, who gives it as great an extent as any body, determines it, as I have before shewn, by two fixed boundaries that cannot be mistaken : 8 την μεν εν δεξιᾷ πλευραν ἡ Ιλλυρις ποιεί, την δ' ευώνυμον

Iraλa: it was included between Italy and the opposite continent. Where then was St. Paul fhipwrecked? certainly between Italy and Illyria, that is, the oppofite continent. Is 9 Malta to be found in this fituation? It is far off, in a sea that

8 Vol. 1. pag. 185. Edit. Amftel. 1707.

9 If Malta could ever be deemed fituated in the Adriatic, fome writer or other must have taken notice of it as fuch. But it is always referred to Africa, and mentioned as an African island.

Infulæ funt in Africam verfe, Gaulos, Melita, à Camarina LXXXIV. M. pafs. à Lilybæo CXIII. Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib. 3. Cap. 8. Edit.

Harduin.

Mela speaks to the fame purpose: Africam versùs Gaulos, Melite, CoJura. Lib. 2. Cap. 7.

Scylax fays, Melite was a small island near Hermaum Promontorium to the eaft, reckoned among the appendages to Carthage.

Ptolemy

that has no affinity, no connection with these coafts. But the other Melite, taken notice of by Scylax, Agathemerus, Pliny, &c, is fituated in the Adria, agreeable to the Apoftle's account: therefore Melite Illyrica is certainly the ifland there mentioned.

This is a true account of the Adriatic sea in it's full extent; as I have taken it from the beft authors that were either before the Apostle, or contemporaries with him. Whatever alterations may have been introduced in respect to it's limits a century or two afterwards, cannot affect the present subject. The extravangances of later ages are ftill lefs to be heeded: yet thefe are the authorities Bochart has recourfe to; quoting no one writer of the Apostle's age, or before him, excepting the poets.

But there is another circumftance that writers upon this fubject either totally omit, or pass over very flightly; which, however, is well worth our confideration, as it is a great confirmation of what I have been hitherto advancing. It is observable that, in speaking of the natives, the facred writer never calls them Μελιταίοι Οι Νησιωται, but Βαρβαροι. The ancient Greeks called all nations, that were not of Grecian original, indifcriminately Barbarians. This continued for a long

Ptolemy - Πελαγιαι δε νησοι εισι της Αφρικής αι δε Κοσσυρα νησος και πολις, Γλαύκωνος (by miftake for Γαυλωνος] νησος και πολις, Μελίτη νησος, εν ή Μελίτη Toλis. Geogr. Lib. 4. p. 100. Bertii. 1618.

Cellarius-in Africo mari Melite. Lib. 2. Cap. 12.

Bochart himself ranks Malta among the African iflands: E pelagiis Africa infulis tres recenfentur ad orientem Hermæi promontorii, Melita, Gaulos, Lampas. He mentions the authority of Ovid, whose evidence amounts only to this; that, in his paffage to Pontus, he wrote verses on both fides of the Grecian continent, that is, both in the Adriatic fea and the Ægaan. But how does this relate to Malta, or make it an Adriatic ifland? Ovid's teftimony, when he speaks to the purpose, makes for the contrary_fide of the question:

Fertilis eft Melite fterili vicina Cofyra;

Infula, quam LIBYCI verberat unda maris. Faft. 3. 567.

long time: but, after they had been conquered by the Romans, and as it were beat into good manners, they by degrees laid afide that faucy diftinction, and were more complaifant to their neighbours. Hence we find that Polybius, Diodorus, and others who wrote after the decline of the Grecian power, feldom make use of this expreffion; unless the people they treat of are notorious for their ferity and rudeness. But, fuppofing a Grecian writer might continue this partial diftinction, and look upon every country, but his own, as barbarous; yet St. Paul cannot be imagined to have acted fo: he was no Greek ; but a few of Tarfus, and in the fame predicament as those that are spoken of. Whenever the Apostle calls a people barbarous, you may be very fure it was the real character of the nation. As these therefore are the only people in all the travels of St. Paul that are characterized in this manner; let us fee to which of the two islands the title can with most propriety be applied.

We are informed by Diodorus Siculus and others that Melite Africana was first a colony of Phenicians; and was afterwards inhabited fucceffively by Carthaginians, Greeks and Romans. Who will be fo hardy as to denominate any of these nations barbarous? They were each of them renowned for arts, of great power and wealth, and of particular elegance and refinement. As the ancestry was good, the pofterity did not fall off, The teftimony of Diodorus Siculus will fufficiently vindicate them from barbaroufnels: ' Τες δε κατοικεντας ταῖς εσιαις ευδαίμονας τεχνιτας τε γαρ εχει παντοδαπες ταις εργασιαις" δε τις οθονια ποιοντας τη τε λεπτοτητι και τη μαλακότητι διαπρεπη τας τε οικιας αξιολογες και κατεσκευασμένας φιλοτίμως γεισσοις και κονιαμασι περιττότερον. Εςι δε ἡ Νησος αυτη Φοινικων "The inhabitants of Malta are very happy in their "circumftances; for they have all forts of artificers for every "kind of work: but they excel most in their manufacture of

κρατιστες

αποικος.

Hift. Bibl. Lib. 5. pag. 204. Edit. Stephan.

"linen,