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2(1« EXCERPTA CYPRIA. thence in a solenn» procession unto the old, to pay their vowes and celebrate her solemnities. But her Temples both in the one and in the other (as throughout the whole Hand) were razed to the ground by the procurement of Saint Bnrnaby. West of tins stood Cythera, a little village at this day called Conucha, sacred also mito Venus, and which once did give a name unto Cyprus. That, aud not the Hand that lies before Peloponnesus, being meant by this: (Virg. JRn. Χ. Mine Amatlms, high Paphos, Cythera Idalian groves. The uttermost promontory that streteheth to the west, with the siipereminent inonntaine, now called Capo Saint Pifano, bore formerly the name of the Athenian Acamas : East of which stood the Citie of Arsinoe (at this day Lescare) renowned for the groves of Jupiter. This Hand boasts of the births of (Esclapiades, Solon, Zeno the Stoiche, and author of that sect, Apollonius and Xenoplion. At the first it was so overgrowne with wood that besides the infinite waste made thereof in the melting of metals it was decreed that every man should iuherite as much as he conld make champion. A country abounding with all things necessary for life, and thereof called Macaria, whose wealth allured the Romanes to make a conquest thereof, a prey that more plentifully furnished their coffers then the rest of their triumphs. It affordeth matter to build a ship from the bottome of the keele to the top of her top gallant, and to furnish her with tackling and munition. It prodticeth oyle, and graine of several sorts, wine that lasteth until the eight yeare ; grapes whereof they make raisins of the sunne, citrons, oranges, pomgranats, almonds, figs, saffron, coriander, sugar canes: sundry hearbs as well physical! as for food, tnrpentine, rnbarbe, cohiquintida, scammouy Ac. But the staple commodities are cotton wool I es (the best of the Orient) chamolets, salt and sope ashes. They have plentiful] mines of brasse, some small store of gold and silver, grecne soder, vitrioll, allume, orpiment, white aud red lead, iirm and diverse kinds of precious stones, of inferiour vaine, amongst which the emerald and the turky. Bnt it is in the summer exceeding hot and unhealthy, and annoyed with serpents. The brookes (for rivers it hath none) rather mérite the name of torrents, being often exhausted by the sunne, insomuch as in the time of Constantine the Great the Hand was for sixe and thirtie yonres together almost utterly abandoned, raine never falling during that season, ft was first possesed by the sonnes of Japhet, payed tribute first to the ^Egyptian Amasie; then conquered by Bel us, and governed by the posteri tie of Tencer, untili Cyrns exptilsed the nine Kings that there ruled. But after the Grecians repi issest the soveraigntie, and kept it untili the death of Nieocles, and then continued under the governili eut of the Ptoleineis, till the Romanes tooke it from the last of that name; restored agnine to Cleopatra and her sister Arsinoe by Antonius. But he over-throwne, it was made a province of Rome, and with the transmigration of the Empire submitted to the Bizantine Emperonrs : being ruled by a succession of Dukes for the space of eight hundred yeares, when conquered by our lÎïehard the first, and given in exchange for the titular kingdom of Jerusalem unto (tny of Lnsignan, it continued in his familie until in the yeare 1473 it was by Catherina Cornelia, a Venetian Lady, the widow to king James the bastard, who had taken the same by strong hand from his sister Carlotte, resigned to the Venetians, who ninetie seven years after did lose it to the Infidels, under whose yoke it now groneth. Bnt is for the most part inhabited by Grecians, who have not long since attempted an unfortunate insurrection. Their Kcclesiasticall estate is governed by one Archbishop and three Bishops: the Metropolitan of Nicosia, the Bishops of Famagosta, Paphus and Amathus, who live upon stipends.

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