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Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
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CLAUDE DELAVAL COBHAM
Exerpta Cypria
page 188

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aud fifteen seyas are worth a ieg»««. The rroir«, both of France and Spain, is worth twelve seyas, and the dollar (Spanish pieces-uf-eight) ten. These are their only coins except certain mangonris made of copper, of which sixteen make an aspre. The aspre is worth about six French deniers obole, the seya four sole and four deniers. Yon must cany none of these small coins to Tripoly or Hierusalem, for they are not current there, and from month to month they rise or fall in value. [The vessel leaves Larnaca on the evening of May 17, awl coasts along in the direction of Limassol until a srirt)cco freshens so mnch that it anchors dose to the shore. The author lands] to recover the appetite I had lost on board, and to enjoy the sight of a fine plain filled with caper-bushes, olives, carobs, and a strong-scented wood called in Greek Sqtrina, from the seeds of which oil is made : bnt I marvelled especially to see the fields full of thyme, which our sailors cnt for fuel, while in our country we keep it to adorn and embellish the borders and labyrinths of onr gardens. AVonderful indeed is the excellence and fertility of the island, and still more wonderful to see it so thinly peopled, for one wonld scarcely find five or six poor houses in all this plain! [The Seigneur de Villamont visited Jerusalem (where he was dubbed a hiight of the Holy Sepulchre) and Damascus, and oil September 10 embarked at Tripoli for Damietta. Eight days later he reached Limateci, ill icith fever, and remained in Cyprus until October S, 1589, ahm he sailed again for Damietta, pp. Ò53—0\] ÏHEVET. André Thevet, " Angoumoisin, Cosmographe da Roy," after publishing his Cosmographie de Levant. 4to, Lyon, 1556, Cosmographie Universelle, 2 vols, fol., Paris, 1575, and other works, left in 31$. (Bibl. Nat. cita Paris, nos. 15452 and 16458) his Grami Insulaire. From tins work Möns. Ch. Schäfer edited an account of Cyprns. part of which is here translated. It fills pp. 296—309 of Le Voyage de la Terre Sainte composi par Maitre Denis Possot, royal ovo, Paris, 1890. (Pp. 804—309.) As to the things remarkable and rare to be found in the island, as well as the lords who have ruled over it, and lastly by what means the Turk has pounced on it, I have to my thinking, discoursed at such length in my Cosmography (Cosi». Universelle, Paris, 1075, vol. 1.104—201) that it wonld be only wasting paper in repeating myself, if I set myself to say all that shonld be said. I shall do better to warn you that Abraham Ortelins was ill informed where he speaks of what happened in this island in the year 1570, for he writes that the Tnrks made themselves masters of Famagosta, and slew all the Christians, Latin and Greek, with the sword, so that old and young without exception felt the violence of these infidels. And still yon see that the Greeks and others live in entire liberty. Yon must consider too that in this island are found many kinds of fruits, as cherries, chestnuts, oranges, leinons, almonds and nuts. So too you have palm-trees, the tallest in the world, but they do not (as somo fancy) bring their fruit to maturity, like those of upper Africa, Arabia Felix and Egypt. I never saw any, nor can they ripen there any more than in Crete, Rhodes or the Mediterranean islands generally. I say this, because 1 know that many persons have fallen into error, and have mistakenly written that these palm-trees produce very good fruit which we call dates. Among others a certain Cypriot who calls himself Frère Eatienne de 17» EXCERPTA CYPRIA.

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