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CLAUDE DELAVAL COBHAM
Exerpta Cypria
page 429 View PDF version of this page KINXEIH. LICHT.
419
LIGHT.
Henry Light, " Captain of tho Royal Artillery, was in garrison at Malta in the year 1814, and obtained leave to travel in tho countries he describes." Ho was absout between February 14 and November 2, visited Kgypt. exploring the Nile to Philie, Jerusalem aud its neighbourhood, parts of the Lebanon, aud Cyprus, His journal and memoranda were sumptuously published under the title Travels in Erjypt, Nnbia, Holy Land, if ou ni Libanon and Cyprns, 4to, London, 1818.
His stay in Cyprus was short, and he seems to have been more anxious to find a way to leave it. than to observe very closely what was going on around him. Still on some points his notes are interesting, Where the author writes sharatreei and cndesqufçre, we have corrected tiltaitrar and qai'muqani.
I landed at Lamica on the 26th of September (ISM), having seen the shore appearing on the east in a tract of low land, and in the west in a range of high mountains, the evening before.
Here, in expectation every day of obtaining a passage in a vessel where the accommodations wonld be better, 1 was detained three weeks : and was at last, from so much time having elapsed, obliged to give np the thoughts of my expedition, and determine on taking the first conveyance to Malta.
•My residence at Lamica was not uninteresting. I had apartments in a detached pavilion of the vice-consul's, who was a Zantiot, and had amassed a considerable fortune from his office during the latter periods of the war, when every vessel coming to Cyprus bore the British flag.
Though Lamica gives the name to the road in which vessels anchor, yet it is distant from the shore nearly a mile, and is detached to the east from the town which may be called the port, and bears the name of La Scala, about the same distance. This place contains tho custom-house, and is the mart for trade. It consists of a long street, chiefly a bazar, where common necessaries of life and articles of dress are sold ; is inhabited by Greeks and Tnrks; the latter commonly employed in the affairs of the custom-house, the former in trade. The houses are low, built partly of mud and partly of stone, whitewashed. "Hie space between La Scala and Lamica is barren, as indeed is the greatest part of the plain at the foot of the mountains, whieh for several miles east and west of La Scala is either uncultivated or marshy land, intersected by salt lakes. The foundations of an ancient town are often found between La Scala, and Lamica. The effects of tlm marshy land are evinced in the countenances of the natives, who suffer every year from agues and fevers, that diminish the population, and regularly appear in the hot months of Jnne, -July, August and September. When the Venetians had possession o£ the island, care was taken to drain the marshes and confine the water to the salt lakes, which produced an immense revenue; but, like all other sources of riches of the Turks, are neglected, though still productive enough to be a considerable article of trade.
Though the langnage of Cyprus is said to be more corrupt than of any other part of the east where Greek was once spoken, yet Τ could not but be pleased to hoar ancient Greek words used for figs, cheese and milk by the market people who passed me; and I was conducted to the vice-consul's house by a Cypriot, to whom I made use of an ancient Greek phrase, pronounced as the modem Romaic. On my arrival I was shown into a house fitted up in the European manner, though built partly in the Eastern style; and on presenting my letter of
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