MELEDA (Serbo-Croatian, Mljet;

See also:

• LAT

Lat. Melita)  , the most southerly and easterly of the larger Adriatic islands of the Austrian province of Dalmatia . Pop . (1900), 1617: Meleda lies south of the Sabioncello promontory, from which it is divided by the Meleda Channel . Its length is 23 m.; its average breadth 2 m . It is of volcanic origin, with numerous chasms and gorges, of which the longest, the Babinopolje, connects the north and south of the island . Port Palazzo, the principal harbour, on the north, is a port of call for tourist steamers . Meleda has been regarded as the Melita on which St Paul was shipwrecked, this view being first expounded, in the loth century, by Constantine Porphyrogenitus . As at Malta, a " St Paul's Bay " is still shown .