In the distance gleams Mons Abyla—the Apes’ Hill of sailors—a term which could have been, for a very long time, as appropriately given to Gibraltar. It is the other sentinel of the Straits; while Ceuta, the strong fortress built on its flanks, is held by Spain on Moorish soil, just as we hold the Rock of Rocks on theirs. Its name is probably a corruption of _Septem_—Seven—from the number of hills on which it is built. It is to-day a military prison, there usually being here two or three thousand convicts, while both convicts and fortress are guarded by a strong garrison of 3,500 soldiers. These in their turn were, only a few years ago, guarded by the jealous Moors, who shot both guards and prisoners if they dared to emerge in the neighbourhood. There is, besides, a town, as at Gibraltar, with over 15,000 inhabitants, and at the present day holiday excursions are commonly made across the Straits in strong little steamers or other craft. The tide runs into the Straits from the Atlantic at the rate of four or more knots per hour, and yet all this water, with that of the innumerable streams and rivers which fall into the Mediterranean, scarcely suffice to raise a perceptible tide! What becomes of all this water? Is there a hole in the earth through which it runs off? Hardly: evaporation is probably the true secret of its disappearance: and that this is the reason is proved by the greater saltness of the Mediterranean as compared with the Atlantic. In sailor’s parlance, “going aloft” has a number of meanings. He climbs the slippery shrouds to “go aloft;” and when at last, like poor Tom Bowling, he lies a “sheer hulk,” and— “His body’s under hatches, His soul has ‘_gone aloft_.’” “Going-aloft” in the Mediterranean has a very different meaning: it signifies passing upwards and eastwards from the Straits of Gibraltar.(81) We are now going aloft to Malta, a British possession hardly second to that of the famed Rock itself. [Illustration: MALTA.] CHAPTER VII. ROUND THE WORLD ON A MAN-OF-WAR (_continued_). MALTA AND THE SUEZ CANAL. Calypso’s Isle—A Convict Paradise—Malta, the “Flower of the World”—The Knights of St. John—Rise of the Order—The Crescent and the Cross—The Siege of Rhodes—L’Isle Adam in London—The Great Siege of Malta—Horrible Episodes—Malta in French and English Hands—St. Paul’s Cave—The Catacombs—Modern Incidents—The Shipwreck of St. Paul—Gales in the Mediterranean—Experiences of Nelson and Collingwood—Squalls in the Bay of San Francisco—A Man Overboard—Special Winds of the Mediterranean—The Suez Canal and M. de Lesseps—His Diplomatic Career—Saïd Pacha as a Boy—As a Viceroy—The Plan Settled—Financial Troubles—Construction of the Canal—The Inauguration Fête—Suez—Passage of the Children of Israel through the Red Sea.