CHAPTER V.
THE PRESS AT MALTA.
1822-1833.
The location of the press at Malta, was not the result of design, but because printing could not be done safely, if at all, either at Smyrna or at Beirut.

Its operations were begun under the impression of a more extended taste for reading and reflection in the several communities of the Levant, than really existed; and it is doubtful whether the larger part of the earlier publications were well suited to the apprehension of the Oriental mind.

However this may be, it was decided, in the year 1829, to make it a leading object, for a time, to furnish books for elementary schools; making them, as far as possible, the vehicles of moral and religious truth.

The wisdom of this course was seen among the Greeks.

A first book for schools of sixty pages, called the Alphabetarion, went into extensive use.
Twenty-seven thousand copies were called for in Greece before the year 1831.
There had been more or less of printing since 1822; but it was not until the close of 1826, that the arrival of Mr.Homan Hallock furnished a regular and competent printer.