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Walking down from Bormla, Marija, Pawlu and Isaac saw others rush past them towards Birgu. “What’s going on?” they asked, as they joined the crowd. Arriving at Birgu’s wharf they stopped in amazement as the harbour was full of big wooden ships, while sailors speaking French were landing. Napoleon had arrived on his way to Egypt! Cottonera’s Grand Harbour was the prize that attracted Napoleon like it drew every Mediterranean power since the Phoenicians.
After 268 years building fortifications all over Malta, the knights surrendered without a fight; the children saw Maltese men arming themselves to resist the French but they could not match Napoleon’s navy. Over the following days the children watched from a safe distance, hearing how Napoleon was setting up laws, abolishing slavery and all Turkish slaves were freed. Public administration and education was organised by Bonaparte himself, providing primary and secondary education.
But three weeks after Bonaparte’s departure there was a rebellion and French officer Masson was murdered - things turned nasty so the kids ducked into the tunnels they were now used to, and got safely home, though worried about what would happen to those they left behind.
Later they would find out that the Maltese, with British and Portuguese help, had driven Napoleon’s soldiers to seek protection behind Valletta’s bastions. It was only on 5 September 1800, with the last crumb of bread gone and most of his men dead of starvation or disease, that Vaubois, the French admiral, reluctantly surrendered to the British navy.
When they heard this, the children fell silent, thinking of all the French soldiers and Maltese civilians who fought, suffered and died in this futile invasion. It was the first time the Maltese rose up against an invader; they were hopelessly outnumbered but still fought valiantly. After the French, the British took over Malta, and Cottonera was a hive of activity, with English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh seamen filling the waterfront and the bars. World War II changed everything again, with enemy bombs destroying much of Senglea and Bormla, reducing their residents to homeless refugees. The children were in awe of all that their grandparents and their grandparents had gone through, with Birgu, Senglea and Bormla on the forefront of Malta’s history.
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