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eoToviuu& D. Ο. P. M. ANTONII BRAGADENI DUM PRO FIDE ET PATRIA BELLO CYPRIO SALAMINI CONTBA TURCAS COXSTAXTER FORTITERQ. CUR AM PRINCIPE« SUSTINERET LONGA OBSIDIOXE VICTI A PERFIDA HOSTIS MANU IPSO VIVO AC INTREPIDE SUFFEREXTE DETRACTA PELLIS ANN. SAL. CIOJQ.IÌXXI. XV- KAL. SEPT. ANTON, FRATRIS OPERA ET INPENSA ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΟ HUG ADVECTA ATQUE HIC A MARCO HERMOLAO ANTOXIOQUE FILIIS PIENTISSIHIS AD SUMMI DEI PATRIA PATEBXIQUE XOHINI8 ULORIAM SEMPITERNA» POSITA ANN. SAL. GIO.TO.LXXXXVI. VIXIT ANX. XLVI. To Goti the Best and Mightiest, The skin of Mark Antony Bragadino, torn from him while olire and suffering fearlessly, by the faithless hand of the enemy, on the eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Salvation 1571, when, in the Cyprian war waged against the Turks for faith and fatherland, he was overborne in the long siege of Salamis, where he commanded with constancy and valour, was brought hither from Byzantium by the care aud at the cost of his brother Antony, and laid here by hie devoted sons Mark, BTermolans and Antony, to the eternal glory of God most High, of their country, and their father's name, in the year of onr Salvation 1596. Se lived forty-six years. When Leucosia and Famagosta were taken, and the citadel of Ceraunia surrendered, access to the other towns and villages was easy enongh. They had neither fortifications nor garrisons, and being unable to offer resistance yielded without parley to the Turks. They are all now under the rule of one Pasha, who resides at Leucosia and exercises the chief authority 'with a rank somewhat like our Viceroys. Xot only is he supreme over the islanders, bnt over all their magistrates, Sanjaqs, Qadis, Snbashis and soldiers, both horse and foot, and rules all according to the laws of the Turks. While we Ave re in Cyprus the Governor was Jaffer Paelia, a Calabrian, of low birth and a renegade from Christianity, and, like all such, intensely hostile to Christinns. Besides the towns I have mentioned it is said there are still 850 villages (casali). These were populous enongh in old times, and rich and prosperous, now the Turkish tyranny has left them deserted or thinly peopled. The principal are Lapithus, Cilnrus, Carpassus, Lefeara, Constanti nam, Limnati, Silica, Arnica, Pellendria, Chilani, Colossus, Piscopia, Salines, Connclia, Orima, Serines, Arzns, Omodus, Crusocns, Solia, Morfu, Limissus and Lefca. Besides Turks, Moors and a few Jews the majority of the inhabitants are Greeks, who use the Greek language and written character, their dialect differing somewhat from that of Crete : they are Christians of the Greek rite. There are also Maronitos, Nestorians, Jacobites and Copts, fugitives from Palestine, who were driven from the realm of Saladin after the capture of Jerusalem, and settled here, each sect still observing its own rites. The Turks, according to the statements of persons worthy of credit, nnmber scarcely six thousand males, the Christians (always excepting women and children) twenty-

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