‘And when we had escaped, then we knew that the island was called Melita.'
Once ashore having escaped the sea they learned that the island on which they had landed was Malta. Malta, also called Melita (meaning refuge) which it was for many a sailor, lies about 60 miles south of the island of Sicily, and about 500 miles west of Crete. It Isaiah 18 miles long and 8 miles wide. The people who inhabited it in Paul's day were of Phoenician origin. Luke calls them "barbarians" (Gr. barbaroi - one who says ‘bar-bar-bar') because of the difficulties that he had in understanding some of them because in the excitement they favoured their own native tongue. But there is no suggestion of their being uncivilised.