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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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GIOVANNI MARITI
Travels in the Island of Cyprus
page 187

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points the people of Famagusta showed great valour, as well as their women and children. The ravelin was so shattered by the explosion that no further effort was made to retake it, for there was nothing left as a shelter. The left flank only was left standing, and here we dug another mine. Opposite the ravelin was the Limasol gate, a lower work, which was always kept open, for it had an iron portcullis, very heavy and studded with sharp points, closed by cutting a rope. We tried to carry in the earth of the ravelin by this gate, and for four days the Turks did not approach it ; afterwards they began to entrench themselves anew on higher ground, and from the upper flanks they prevented anyone from leaving the gate, which they watched very carefully, because they were frequently attacked by our troops. FOURTH ATTACK. So on July 14 they came up to attack the gate, and after a charge at all the other batteries they marched up to plant their ensigns right in front of the gate. Signor Baglione and Signor Luigi, who had undertaken the defence of that post, were present and cheered on the soldiers who burst forth and killed and put to flight the greater part of the enemy. They fired the mine in the flank, which slew about 400 Turks, and Signor Baglione captured one of the enemy's standards, wrest-ing it from the hands of its bearer. The next day they fired the mine under the curtain but the result was of little profit to them, and they refrained from delivering a set attack, and went on widening and raising the traverses in the ditches to protect them in future attacks. They had dug out all the earth near the counterscarp, and there they encamped with their tents, which we could not see. They brought up seven pieces of artillery on the wall of the counterscarp so disposed that we could riot see them ; two on the ravelin of the great tower of St Nappa, one on the Andruzzi, and two facing the battery of the curtain. They came with planks covered with raw hide 184 The Siege of Famagusta

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