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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 254

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In the mountains round are found the stones called Baffa diamonds, some of which are very beaut if ul. On May 26 at daybreak we sailed with a slight bnt favourable wind, passed Cape S. Epiphanio at night, and on the morning of the 27th saw the coast of Asia Minor. HEYMAN. The Honourable J. JEgidius van Egmont (Van der Nijenburg), Envoy Extraordinary from the United Provinces to the Court of Naples, and John Heyman, Professor of the Oriental languages in the University of Leyden, are the names which appear on the title-page of two volumes of Travels through pari of Eurojìe, Asia Minor, the Islanda of the Archipelago, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Mount Shuti. eie., translated from the Low Dutch, and printed at London, 1759. The Dutch original, published at Leiden in two vols. 4to, 1757,1758, bears the title : Egmond Van der Nyenbnrg, J. iEg. and J. Heyman, Beize» door eeti gedeelte tv» Europa, Klein Asien, Verseheide Eilanden ran de Archipel, Syrien...briefsaewyse samengestelt door Joli. ÌVilh. Heyman. In the Dirteli Preface the editor, Dr J. W. Heyman, explains tliat he lias combined, and arranged in the form of letters, the notes of travel left by his uncle. Professor J. Heyman, who visited tlie East in the years 1700 to 1709, and by Mynheer v, Egmond v. der Xyenburg, who traversed much the same ground between 1720 and 1723. We transcribe from vol. τι. cliapter xvm. pp. 281—295 fin the Dutch, t. 290—804), correcting here and there the anonymous translation to bring it nearer to the original. YOYAGE TO THE ISLAND OP CYPRUS; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THAT ISLAND. We left Rhodes with a fair wind, which soon brought us in sight of η reeky island, called Castro Rosso, situated near the continent, aud inhabited by Greeks and Turks. Soon after we found ourselves opposite to the gulph of Satalia ; and on the sixth day after our departure from Rhodes we made the island of Cyprus, and sailed near cape San Pifani, and Fonte Aiuorosu, anciently called Acamas. Not far to the Eastward lies the city of Arsinoe, now known by the name of Lescari, and famous for the cavern of Jupiter. About noon we had sight of Baffe, one of the principal towns in the island of Cyprus, and not far from the site of the ancient Paphos. But at night we stood off to sea for fear of running too near Cape de Gat, where a shoal stretches some leagues into the sea. The next morning we came to an anchor in the bay of Salina, which is capacious enough to contain a whole fleet, and situated between two promontories, of which that on the west is called Cinti, and that on the east Pila. The ships lie at anchor about a league from the shore, that in case of a storm, especially at south, they may be in no danger of being stranded. A boat belonging to the island lauded us at Salina, a small village, called by the Turks Dousla, and fortified with η kind of ravelin, planted with eight pieces of cannon for defending the road against the corsairs. Hence we travelled to Leniica, the place where most of the Franks reside. The island of Cyprus was by the Greeks called Makaria, afterwards Cyprus, either from the great quantity of copper dug there, or a fragrant shrub, called by the Greeks and Latins Cyprus, and by the Arabians Alhamia, or Henne, which grew in great plenty here, and to this day is greatly valued in every part of the east. 244 EXCERPTA CYPRIA.

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