Acts 28:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Escaped,— That is, Got safe to land. There were two islands called Melita; this was that which lay between Africa and Sicily, being about twelve miles broad and twenty long, and sixty distant from Sicily to the south. It took its name from the abundance of honey found therein,—for meli in Greek signifies honey. It also yields a great deal of cotton; and though the soil is but three feet deep above the rock, it is very fruitful. It is now called Malta; and the place where St. Paul and his company were driven on shore, is at this time shewn to travellers, and goes by the name of St. Paul's shore, or haven. The people of Malta were originally a colony of Carthaginians, as appears from several old inscriptions in Punic characters, and from the language of the present inhabitants, the number of whom is said to be above 90,000. St. Paul's shipwreck here engaged a kind of religious veneration for the island; in consequence of which it was given in the year 1530, by the emperor Charles V. to the knights of St. John in Jerusalem, when they had been expelled from Rhodes by the Turks: they were 1000 in number, of whom 500 always resided in the island, and were called Hospitalers, Knights Templars, or Knights of Malta. They were at one time composed out of eight nations, but afterwards of onlyseven, because the English knights became extinct on the reformation. They were, by the statutes of their order, under a vow of celibacy, were obliged to repress all pirates, and to wage perpetual war with the Turks and other Mahometans. This island now belongs to Great Britain.