Part 29 (1/2)
MALTA.
A Home of Scouting.
Malta was a home of Scouting, since the Knights of St. John, who settled there after the Crusades, were typical Scouts.
They knew how to Be Prepared
I remember reading the diary of a traveller who visited Malta in their time--some three hundred years ago. He said that one morning a pirate s.h.i.+p was sighted off the island. The Grand Master at once ordered one of the fighting s.h.i.+ps to get ready, and called upon the knights to man it. Any who desired to go were to parade in front of the Castile Palace (now the Mess house of the Royal Artillery). Some fifty or sixty would be sufficient, but instead of this over three hundred turned up on parade with their retainers and men-at-arms ready to start then and there.
In the Armoury can be seen among many others the suit of armour worn by the Grand Master Wignacourt.
One cannot but admire the beautiful fitting of the different folds of armour, made so that the arms and legs could be bent and yet thoroughly protected against wounds; also the whole is beautifully engraved with ornamental designs. Among these a quick-sighted Scout will at once notice the fleur-de-lys, or Scout's badge, on the breast.
NEVER SAY DIE.
The badge also occurs on another badge of the knights, that is, on the Maltese Cross, which all of them wore. This cross was eight-pointed in shape, and was originally derived from the skull and crossbones; it came from the crossbones, and served to remind the knights that it was their duty to fight to the death and never to give in.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A notice on the walls of the fortifications of Malta, where caper-plants grow plentifully, says: ”No one is allowed to cut capers here except the Commanding Royal Engineer.” This is how I picture him.]
Their motto might well have been that which the Boy Scouts use to-day: _Never say die till you are dead_--struggle on against any difficulty or danger, don't give in to it, and you will probably come out successful in the end.
THE MALTESE CROSS.
Most of the Oversea Scouts wear, in addition to the Scout's badge of the fleur-de-lys, the badge belonging to their country. For instance, the Canadian Scouts wear the maple leaf, and the New Zealanders wear a leaf of the tree fern.
If the Maltese Scouts want a badge of their own they could not do better than adopt the Maltese Cross of the knights, and then stick to, and act up to the meaning of it.
HOW MALTA CAME TO BE BRITISH.
When Napoleon was trying to conquer the whole of Europe a hundred years ago, he proceeded to take Malta.
But the Maltese people rose, and held the rest of the island against him, and sent and asked the British under Lord Nelson to come to their a.s.sistance.
This was promptly done, and the British Fleet laid siege to the French in Valetta, so that no supplies of food could be brought to the French, and some British troops were landed to help the Maltese.
Thus the French were defeated, and the Maltese handed themselves and their island over to become a colony of the British Empire.
One celebrated officer who largely helped to defeat the French in Malta was Admiral Troubridge.
Someone was condoling with Nelson once on his losing his right arm in action. The gallant seaman replied cheerily:
”My good sir, I have got three right arms. Here is one (raising his left arm), and there are my other two (pointing to Capt. Ball and Capt. Troubridge).”
At the time of the British investment of the French in Malta, the Maltese themselves were suffering from famine, and their state was so deplorable, and the British authorities so slow to help them, that Commodore Troubridge could bear it no longer, and to ease their sufferings he caused some grain s.h.i.+ps at Messina to be seized and brought to Malta and their contents to be given out to feed the starving people.