VOYAGE OUT. 5 coated in order to give them the effect of bronze, and thus to prevent the French soldiers looting them, still remains. After leaving the Church of St. John, we went to the market, a very dirty and not at all interesting spot, with nothing much to he got there but Mandoline oranges, not yet ripe enough to be good eating. From the market we went to the Governor’s palace, where there is a very fine ball and council room. The walls of the latter were covered with tapestry eight hundred years old, representing the four quarters of the globe. We also saw, in the same room, several chairs, including the Grand Master’s, all relics of the Knights of St. John. Passing on, we came to the armoury, filled with old armour that had belonged to the same knights. On the walls of this room, were the colours of the 63rd and another regiment, looking strangely out of place amongst all this armour, for somehow one expects old colours to be put away in some church, and not in a store like this. Inside the courtyard of the palace was a lovely garden, filled with large trees, and looking all the brighter for the want of anything of the kind in the rest of the town. There was a very large poinsettia in full blossom, also orange trees with plenty of oranges on them, and a lovely bougainvillea in full flower, climbing up the west wall. I saw also a blue ipomma on the opposite side. Flowers in Malta are very cheap, and we were offered a large basket of roses and heliotrope for a shilling. I bought a large bunch for a penny, and they lasted
