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CLAUDE DELAVAL COBHAM
Exerpta Cypria
page 221 View PDF version of this page BEAUVAU. DELLA VALLE. sn
timo at this very port of the Salines. I call it a port, though it is a roadstead, comprised in a wide hay, protected nearly on every side by land, but large, roomy and safe for craft of all kinds. It is in fact bhe usual port and anchorage of the island. It lies on the south coast, 200 miles from Alexandretta, and is the place where the Turkish forces landed when they took Cyprus. Immediately on my arrival there came off to eall on me Signor Doinetrio Todorini, a leading Greek merchant, not a Cypriot, who offered me his house, aud Sr. Giovan Francesco Parente, a Venetian, an old friend with whom I used to correspond in Aleppo. Some misfortune had befallen him there, and for the moment he was living in Cyprus. Besides his own greetings he bore me those of Sr. Alessandro Goiieme, Venetian consul, who excused himself on account of some business to which he was summoned by the Qazi, and promised to come later. The next morning early Sr. Goneme came, with Sr. Parente and others of his household, and although I was inclined to remain on board in spite of their prayers and entreaties they were determined not to return to the shore without me. 1 landed therefore with a single servant, leaving on the ship.-Padre Orsino, the women and others. Τ found on the seashore a few houses aud stores, just those which are called "the Salines," from the salt-works not far off. The Turks have here a small fort, square, with a platform and a few pieces of artillery. It stand« on the seaside, but the protection it affords is insignificant. Here horses awaited us, and wc mounted and rode a short mile inland to another tomi called Larnaca, where most of the Franks live. Wo went to the house of the consul, the best in the place, and, as it was still early, after a little rest went to the little church of the Franciscan monks, called S. Maria, a little behind the town, and there heard mass and the funeral office sung for the soul of Sr. Giovan Maria Parente, brother of Sr. Giovan Francesco, who passed on the day before to a better life. Late in the evening 1 called at the house of Sr. D. Todorini, aud slept the night at the consul's. I should not omit to say that the \renetians have always a consul here: he is not one of their nobles, but a man of that class of honourable citizens which often supplies the Republic with Secretaries. So, although the consul in Cyprus is not under that of Aleppo, as a vice-consul would be, yet the consul in Aleppo, being a noble and of wider infineuce in those parts, has a certain precedence over his Cyprian colleague.
[The trri-ter goes hack to hin ship to post lettn-s, ami lands again m the morning of September' Τ to hear mass ami to return nome visits.']
In the house of Sr. Hocco Andreaiii, a Venetian merchant, J saw and examined a live chanutìleon which one of the children of the house had tamed, and kept for his amusement tied to a string. In India there are many such ; they go climbing about the trees, but as I am shortsighted, and never had one in my hands, I did not observe the animal well in that country. Here, however, I took it in my hands (it is a quiet pleasing beast) and saw that it was of the size of a racano, anil very much the same shape, but uglier, with a misformed head and cloven feet, with two paws between which rises its leg: each paw has two fingers or claws, so close as to be hai-dly separated one from the other : its colour greyish, but unevenly marked a-nd shaded. I was told it sometimes changed colour, not indeed as the vulgar say according to what you put near it, but as it may chance to be hot or cold, or walking and resting, and the like. I did not see it change, though I tried in several ways to make it do so.
On the 8th the consul took me for a ride to another village abont two leagues or six miles from Larnaca. It is still called Kiti or Citium, and was anciently a city and bishopric, now it is ruinous, consisting of a few huts only. We wished particularly to see a Greok doctor, Sr. Aluise Cncei, who lived there in a garden of his own. He had considerable
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