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m OAUMoxT. ΡΕίιυ ÏAFITR. Hl PERO TAFUB. The eighth Volume of the Coleceion de Lilirwi Espauttlea raro* « rurhutos, Madrid, 1871, contains the Andaneas e riaje* de Pero Tafur por diversa* paries del mnmh aeidos, a transcript from a manuscript of the eighteenth century preserved at Salamanca. ΟΙ thè author little is known. His name points to an illustrious lineage, and lie must lia ve enjoyed very fully the confidence of Don Juan II., king of Castile, whose letters commendatory and his own tact won for him a warm reception and a shower of Orders at the courts of Pope Eugenias IV., the Emperor Albert Ih, king Jean IL of Cyprus, the Mamluk ruler of Egypt el Ashraf Seif ed Din Bars Bey, and the Emperor of Constantinople, John Palaeologua II. Political event* mentioned in his narrative fix the date of his journeys between 1485 and 1439. The work is interesting throughout: the editing, preface and notes of the Marques Jimenez de la Espaila are beyond praise. We left Beirut, keeping along the coast of Syria np to Armenia, where they say Antioch stood, which they pointed out to ns thence; and advancing along the coast we saw the castle of Cuseo, which was anciently called Colchos, whence came Medea, and was the island home of the ram with the golden fleece. And that castle belongs to the kings of Cyprus, aud on its account they all call themselves kings of Armenia. In that part of Armenia is a lofty range which they call the Blaek Mountain, on which it is said that the ark of Noah rested after the deluge. Opposite that eastle is the island and kingdom of Cyprus, and that part which is over against Armenia is the city of Famagosta, an ancient city, which the Genoese captured when they took the king of Cyprus and earned him to Genoa, him and hie wife, and there the Queen bore a son called Janus, father of the king that now is. This place is depopulated on account of the bad air and bad water. They say there is a lake there, which they call Constanze, and that makes tho unhealt-hiness of the district, though the whole kingdom of Cyprus is generally unhealthy. We arrived there at daybreak, and anchored to take certain merchandise. I took my leave of the captain and of my friends, and had all my things taken on shore, and made them look out for animals for myself and my servants and what there was to carry, and left at once, and took the road to Nicosia, which is ten leagues distant. This is the greatest and most healthy city of the kingdom where the kings and all the lords of the realm always live. And because it was late I had to wait in a village two leagues away, and on arriving I was seized with so severe a headache that I thought I should die. And that same pain went down to my breast, and stomach and belly and hips and thighs, and so to my knees and feet, and lasted all that night and np to vespers the next day, so that I thought that if each lasted three hours I should die. That evening I left the place and went to the city of Nicosia, where the king holds his court, and went to an inn where I remained that night. On the morning of the next day, while I was hearing mass in a church of S. George, there came to ine an esquire of Madame lud«, sister of king James, who sent for me. And when mass was over I went with the esquire to the lady's palace and there made my reverence, and she received me very kindly, asking who I was and whence I came and whither I was going : and after much talk she ordered that I should be lodged in her house and given all that was necessary for myself and my servants. This lady was very noble, and never married but remained a spinster, and was always of the king's counsels, and generally ruled the kingdom as ehe would. She would be about fifty years old. And after I had rested that day the lady went on the next to see the king her nephew, and the Cardinal [Hugues de Lusignan, son of Jacques 1. and Agnes

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