View PDF version of this page

KINSKI«. 415 consola from the different European powers, who parade the streets with as mnch self-import-ance as if they were ambassadors. Lamica consists of an upper and a lower town, both together containing a population of five tin rusaiid souls; of which nninber forty families AIO Franks, and the remainder Greeks and Alahomedans. The houses heing built of mud are mean in the extreme, bnt those of the Franks are comfortable within, and most uf them are adorned by a lofty flag-stuff, where, on Sundays and holidays, they hoist the colours of their respective nations. The upper town contains the convent and cathedral of St Saviour, the residence of the bishop; and the Marino or Port the chapel of St Lazarus, a very old structure, without beauty or magnificence, bnt consecrated by the Greeks, as the spot to which Lazarus lied for refuge frani the rage of the Jews. A stone coffin or sarcophagus, in a vault, is said to have once contained his ashes until they were carried off by the French to Marseilles. At a short distance from the chapel of St Lazarus stands the castle, an edifice originally erected by tho Princes of the House of Lusignan, but now crumbling to ruins. The exports are wheat, barley, cotton, silk, wine and drugs; the imports rice and suga1', from Egypt, and cloth, hardware and colonial produce from Hnlta and Smyrna. This traffic is carried on by Levantine ships under English colours; there is no harbour, consequently the ships lie at a considerable distance from the shore, but the anchorage is tolerably good, and accidents seldom happen. The prevailing winds blow from the X.E. and S.W.; the latter being in general accompanied by heavy falls of rain. An adjacent eape is still denominate Chitti, whilst the ruins of Citimn are recognized in heaps of tumuli and hillocks of rnbbish ; from whieh bricks of a superior quality and medals are frequently dug np by the natives. Between the upper and the lower town is au elevated spot, on which a building appears to have been erected, and immediately at the foot of this mount is the ancient basin of the Port, the mouth of which is now blocked up with sand and gravel ; so that the water becomes stagnant in the summer. Traces of the fosse as well as of the aqueduct may be discovered ; for Lamica has no good water in itself, and is still supplied from a distance by an aqueduct constructed by a Turkish emir about half a century ago. The military force of Cyprus amounts to three hundred men immediately about the person of the Governor, and four thousand janissaries, without courage, arms or discipline, dispersed over the different parts of the island. I bade adieu to Lamica, and its motley inhabitants without a sigh of regret, and on the morning of the 14th of January set out for the capital. For the first three miles I travelled through a dreary and uncultivated plain, having the bay on my right hand, and the monntain of St Croix, with the ridge of Olympus, to the N.W. ; crossing at the fourth mile a streamlet, I entered a range of low rocky hills, and at the ninth mile saw the lofty chain which bounds the plain of Nicosia, on the N. This range branches from Olympus, first towards the N., and then, tiirmng towards the E. and W., terminates on the W. at Cape Epiphany, and on the E. at Cape St Andrew. At the twelfth mile descended into a noble plain, bounded on the N. by a low branch of Olympus ; and at the fourteenth, halted to refresh onr horses at the Greek village of Atteno. If we except a few fields in the immediate vicinity of Lamica, the country, during the whole of the journey, was in a state of nature; the soil was marly, and covered with the weed so often mentioned before. After an hour's repose we again mounted our horses, directing our course across a plain, thickly overspread with large pebbles ; which I was informed increased the fertility of the land by preserving a certain degree of moisture, and at the same time protecting the rising grain from a blighting wind common to this island. At the fourth mile crossed, on a stone bridge, the southern branch of the Pedio, flowing gently through a valley interspersed with groves of olive trees; the first we have seen.

View PDF version of this page