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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 424

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January In the morning we pursued our journey along the shore, and through a flat and marshy country, rendering the approach to Lamica difficult on this side. I saw but one village, situated close to a rauge of low hills, running from W. to E., and distant abont four miles from the sea. I remained nine days at Lamica, at the house of M. Vondesiano, the British Consul in Cyprus, and during that period made several short excursions into the neighbourhood, although there was but little to attract admiration or call forth remark. The island is 140 miles in length and 63 in breadth ; at the widest part a range of moun-tains intersects it from E. to AV., terminating towards the E. in a long promontory called Cape St Andrew (ancient Denaretum) and rising in a lofty peak called St Croix (Mount Olympus) bearing nearly N.AV. of Lamica. The soil is naturally fruitful, and although a very small proportion of the laud is under cultivation, the merchants of Lamica annually export many cargoes of excellent wheat to Spain and Portugal. The population does not exceed 70,000 souls, and is said to bo daily decreasing ; half of this number are Creeks under their Arch-bishop, aud the remainder Turks, with the exception of the Franks at Lamica. The evil consequences of the Turkish system of government are nowhere more apparent than iu Cyprus, where the Governor, who is appointed yearly by the Capudan Pasha, the ex-officio proprietor of the island, has recourse to every method of extortion ; so that the Turks would labour under the same grievances as the Christians, were not the latter, in addition to the demands of the government, compelled to contribute towards the support of a number of lazy and avaricious monks. All affairs connected with the Greeks are under the superintend-ence of the Archbishop and Dragoman of Cyprus (an officer appointed by the Porte) who are accountable to the MnteselKm for the contributions, miri, ite. The most fertile as welt as the most agreeable parts of the island are in the vicinities of Cerina and Baffo, the aucieut Paphos, where, according to Tacitus, Venus rising from the waves was wafted to the shore. Here we hud forests of oak, beech and pines, groves of olives and plantations of mulberries. Cyprus is remarkable for the fineness of its fruits, wine, oil and silk ; the oranges are as delicious as those of Tripoli, and the wine, which is of two kinds, red and white, is sent down the Levant, where it is manufactured for the English market. The silk is also of two kinds, yellow and white, bnt the former is preferred. The wheat is of a superior quality, aud rice might be cultivated in several parts of the island, were the agriculturist permitted to accumu-late a sufficient capital to enable him to clear and prepare the land ; but the Greek peasantry, who are the only industrious class, have been so much oppressed by Turks, monks and bishops, that they are now reduced to the extremity of indigence, aud avail themselves of every opportunity to emigrate from the island. The Governor and Archbishop deal more largely iu com than all the other people of the island put together; they frequently seize upon the whole yearly produce, at their own valuation, and either export or retail it at an advanced price ; nay it happened more than once during the war in Spain, that the whole of the com was purchased in this manner by the merchant* of Malta, and exported without leaving the lower orders a morsel of bread. The island abounds in game, such as partridges, quails, woodcocks and snipes ; there a re no wild animals excepting foxes and hares, but many kinds of serpents, and, amongst others, that of the asp, which is said to have caused the death of the renowned Cleopatra. All sorts of domestic fowls, as well as sheep and cattle, are bred iu Cyprus, where it is the beast of the natives, that the produce of every land aud climate will not only flourish but even attain the highest point of perfection. Lamica is situated on the site of the ancient Citium, the native city of Zeno, the philosopher, and at the head of a bay, constituting the best roadstead in the island. It is the second town in Cyprus, the emporium of its commerce and the residence of innumerable EXCERPTA CVPIUA.

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