CHAPTER XIII.

Departure of the Author for Europe—Arrival at Larnaka, in Cyprus—Hospitality of M. Vondiziano, British vice-consul—Tours in the island—Leucosia—The Greek archbishop—City walls—Lepers—Cytherea—Monastery of St. Chrysostom—Famagusta—Return to Larnaka—Carnival amusements—Houses—Amour of Signor Baldo—Murder of Prince George Morusi—History of Signor Brunoni—Cypriote women not remarkable for beauty—Superstitious notions—The Greek archbishop and his dragoman Giorgaki—Insurrection of Turks—How quelled by Cara Pasha—Pusillanimity of the consuls—Thunder-storm—Lenten diet—Malignant fevers—Excursion in the interior—Idalia—Leucosia—M. Brens—Robbery in the governor’s palace—Proceedings against the suspected—Intolerance towards freemasons.

On Saturday, January 18th, 1817, at two o’clock in the morning, I took leave of Lady Hester, Miss Williams, and Mr. N.; and, after a short night’s rest, mounted my horse soon after sunrise, and departed from Abra (may I be excused for saying it?) amidst the tears and good wishes of the peasants, who followed me with blessings to the end of the villagegreen. M. Beaudin accompanied me, he having returned from Acre on the 29th of December.

We passed the tomb of Nebby Yunez (the Prophet Jonas), after it the river Damûr, and, at sunset, stopped at the Guffer el Naamy, abreast of the village of Naamy, which is on the hill, and from which the Guffer, or toll-house, takes its name. Our provision mule was better stocked than usual, and we made an excellent dinner on cold pasty of gazelle-venison, tarts, and plum-cake, besides cold fowls, and some other good things, with which Miss Williams was desirous of making my last day’s travelling in Syria agreeable.

Next morning at daylight we mounted our horses, and, about a quarter of a mile from the Guffer, we passed a cemetery, which is called Kebûr el Yahûd (the Jews’ tombs). It is nearly facing a ruined tower, called Burge el Rehán (the myrtle tower). The greater part of these tombs are oblong parallelograms, simply hollowed out of the rock; but others were elevated above its level, by having the rock cut away around them.

To go from Guffer el Naamy to Beyrout took us four hours. The ride was very beautiful during the last two hours, on a sandy soil, amidst olive plantations, and where the cultivation of the land was evidently attended to.

We were received in the house of the British agent. I was fortunate enough to find a schooner in the roads, bound for Cyprus, on board of which I took my passage.The vessel was Greek, from Eno, commanded by Captain Gregorio; but, as she was not to sail immediately, I returned on shore. M. Beaudin left me the next day. The British agent had just been very properly exercising his consular authority on a Venetian adventurer, who had endeavoured to pass himself off as a British officer of infantry, wearing regimentals. His right to the dress was disputed, and he was obliged to doff it.

On Tuesday, January 21st, just before sunset, I embarked. There were on board thirty-five passengers, Turkish pilgrims on their return from Mecca. I had paid for a berth in the cabin, which was only nine feet square; but, as my luggage was stowed away there, and there were four Turks cabin passengers besides myself, I resolved to sleep on deck, although the season was not that in which exposure to the night air is agreeable. The long-boat was hoisted in and put amidships, into which also four Turks immediately got, two of whom seemed to be very sick from the motion of the vessel, as I then thought. We put to sea with little wind. About three in the morning, a northerly breeze sprung up, and carried us on under reefed topsails. I lay down on the lee-side of the deck, wrapped up in my lambskin pelisse, which made an excellent bed.

On Wednesday, the 22nd, when daylight broke, everybody was sea-sick. About two o’clock in the afternoon, we saw Cyprus. The wind continued fresh,and at sunset we were within five or six leagues of Larnaka. We hauled off for the night. I lay down on the deck as before, but was prevented from sleeping by groans which came from the long-boat, and, on inquiring what was the matter, I found that the two Turks who were ill had the dysentery. Soon afterwards one died; and the melancholy situation of the other was augmented by the intolerable effluvia, which it was impossible to prevent. A young Turk, ragged and poor, but of very interesting mien, was remarkable for the attention which he had paid to the two sick men, and now continued to the survivor, although he was himself dreadfully sea-sick: nor shall ever my testimony be wanting to the exemplary conduct and obedience which old age invariably receives from the Mahometan youth, relation or not, known or unknown.

At daylight we anchored in Larnaka roads. The dead Turk was immediately conveyed on shore, but not to the usual landing-place, lest the knowledge of a death in so short a passage should excite suspicions of plague, and cause the vessel to be put under quarantine; a precaution, which the preponderance the Greeks and Franks had in the island enabled them to enforce, but which was so easily evaded. I did not, however, wish to leave any uneasiness, from subsequent discovery, in the mind of the gentleman to whose house I was going, and I accordingly wrote a note to say that a Turk had died of dysentery during our passage, and thatthere was no suspicion of plague in the case. Mr. Anthony Vondiziano, the British vice-consul, relied on my assertion, and received me forthwith into his house at Larnaka.

A Cephalonian by birth, he settled early at Cyprus, where he married the daughter of the English dragoman, by whom he had now six daughters. This increase of family induced him to build a pavilion, over the gateway of his courtyard and away from the house, entirely for the reception of strangers; and as so many English have lived in it, and as besides it may serve for a specimen of the modern edifices of Cyprus, a drawing of it is given.

ENGLISH CONSUL’S HOUSE AT LARNAKA.

M. Vondiziano has often been mentioned by travellers for the hospitable reception which he gave to the English. An ample fortune enabled him to do this with less inconvenience than some others who represented the British nation: but this circumstance ought not to diminish the feeling of obligation for hospitality exercised sometimes (as in my own person), for weeks and even months together.

The arrival of a traveller at the consular house is generally a signal for visits from all those who are in habits of friendship with the consul, impelled by curiosity and the desire of news. Four or five days were thus consumed, in which time I had made the acquaintance of half the people of the place.

A common subject of conversation for the entertainment of travellers is the history of those who have preceded them in the same route. Some gentlemen would be pleased to hear the things that were said of them; but I shall be excused from mentioning personal anecdotes, excepting where they have some reference to Eastern customs.[104]

As there was no vessel about to sail for Europe, I resolved to make an excursion into the interior of the island.

On Monday, January 28th, accompanied by Giovanni, (whom I had brought with me from Syria) Ileft Larnarka for Leucosia, the capital of the island, and called by the Franks Nicosia. The weather was cold, and, although I was clad in my lambskin pelisse, my fingers became quite benumbed. The first part of the road lay through a few fields of onions, artichokes, and other vegetables, cultivated for the supply of Larnaka market and of the vessels in the roads: but there were no trees whatever, and the soil had a bare appearance, being half covered with shingles. Two leagues from Larnaka we crossed the river Parthenia, and reached some low hills running apparently from the north-east side of the bay of Larnaka to the conical mountain now calledthe Mountain of the Cross. At the distance of four leagues, we arrived at Athegainos (pronounced by the modern Greeks Atheyanós), where we were to sleep.

Athegainos was a straggling village, containing probably seventy or eighty houses: it was nevertheless one of the largest on the island, the whole population of which it is said does not exceed 15,000 souls. Each cottage was enclosed by a very large yard, hedged in by a fence of prickly acacias, forming three sides of it, the fourth being buildings. The entrance was by large folding gates. Within, was a small room for travellers, the only furniture of which was a deal table placed on trestles to sleep on, with a cushion and mat on it. The floor was mud, uneven as the soil out of doors. Beyond this was a cow-lodge; then the cottage for the family, a stable for the mules, astraw room, and a lodge; in all five: the whole built of sunburnt bricks, with flat roofs on rafters covered with canes laid close together. There was a well in the yard. Such was the construction of all the houses in the village. The peasants there had but one occupation, that of carriers, owing to their central situation between Larnaka and Leucosia. They, their wives, and children, seemed filthy in their persons and habits. They however ate with knives and forks, sat on chairs, and slept on beds raised from the ground: in all which circumstances they differed from the Christians and Turks of Syria, and by some persons will, on that account, be supposed to be further advanced in civilization.

We left Athegainos early in the morning, and, at a small distance on the left, passed a mountain of about a mile long, in shape like an inverted hog-trough. Two or three others, of the same form, might be seen in different directions. On the left was a small conical mountain, the top of which looked like a ruin, but it was the strata of the rock which assumed that appearance. Beyond it was a stream, called Zalia; but neither this nor the one passed on the preceding day flows in summer.

A long range of mountains lay before us, stretching from the north part of the island to the level of Leucosia. Our road was west, somewhat northerly. Near the stream of Zalia was a Turkish village, and over the stream a small but neat bridge. The valleythrough which the Zalia runs had scattered olive trees planted in it; and we saw near the road, on the right and on the left, two single houses of three stories high, larger and better-looking than any we had yet observed out of Larnaka. These, my guide told me, belonged to Turkish agas, or gentlemen.

The face of the country had hitherto varied but little from a level, and the chain of low hills over which we had come was approached by so gradual a rise, and quitted by so gentle a descent, as to be almost imperceptible. In about two hours, we came in sight of the minarets of Leucosia, of which I counted seven. Two of these, belonging to the church of St. Sophia, towered above the others. Within a quarter of a mile of the city, upon the brow of an elevation, we enjoyed a full view of the place, which, from the number of palm and cypress trees interspersed among the houses, wore a picturesque appearance. The walls, I observed, were broader at the base than the summit. Close to the gate of the city was an infirmary for lepers—a small house, from which pitiable objects, consuming with disease, issued, to the number of thirty or forty, importuning for alms. A long, vaulted gateway, lighted half way through by a pierced dome, led us into the streets. The custom-house officer, placed at the entrance, questioned me on my luggage, but suffered me to proceed. We turned short to the left into the Christian quarter, where lived the archbishop, towhom I had a letter of introduction. On alighting, I was ushered into his presence by several priests, and found a man about forty-five years old, handsome in person, and richly attired in a sable pelisse. His address was pleasing; and, when he had read the letter I presented, he received me with much politeness, expressing great regard for the British nation. But, as French travellers, and those of other nations, relate that the like expressions have been used to them, it will be excusable if we suppose that the natural urbanity of the priest caused him to give an equal share of civility to all strangers. His name was Cyprianus, and he had sprung from a peasant family.

Coffee and pipes were served, after which, it being now noon, the time of the first repast of the Orientals, we went to table. If a number of servants could constitute greatness, this prelate might vie with the first duke in England; for we had no fewer than twenty to wait at table, and I was told that he had fifty in the palace. The repast was what is called excellent in Turkey, but would seem strange to a European.

The archbishop received great reverence from his followers. No Greek sat down in his presence, except when commanded to do so. Such as entered the room prostrated themselves (which means that they bent forward until they touched the floor with their hands), and bared the head, a degree of servility which the Turks, their masters, have not exacted fromthem, proving that men, when tyrannized over, become themselves vile, and exercise the same or even more, tyranny towards their inferiors. The Englishman thinks he degrades himself when he kisses the pope’s toe; the Greek licks the very dust on which the archbishop walks. I say nothing of the archbishop’s privilege of signing his name with red ink, and of wearing the purple, so often mentioned by other travellers; or of his having two janissaries at his gate, which latter distinction is a concession made to him by the Turkish government, as head of the only recognized Christian church. Eastern enjoyment, or a priest’s idleness, was exemplified in the mode in which the archbishop washed his hands after dinner. The chair in which he sat was swung round by his attendants (grace having been said), and another arm-chair was brought, with the back between his knees, on the seat of which was placed a broad basin. The arms of the chair afforded support to his arms; and, whilst the water was poured on his hands, the back prevented the wet from falling on his clothes. His palace was roomy, but old and patched. Facing the palace was a handsome new building, that would do honour to any potentate in Europe. This was a college, founded from the funds of the church, for the instruction of youth, having professors of ancient and modern Greek, of Arabic, of Italian, and of church music. The exercises of some of the scholars were shown to me, and I listened with advantage to alecture of one of the professors. One scholar, a student principally in Italian, had made a progress that was quite astonishing; and I read a very clever Italian composition, written by him in his capacity of secretary to the archbishop, the fruits of knowledge acquired in one year. The edifice consisted of a vestibule, from which branched two saloons, with sofas at the extremities and tables in the middle. Out of these saloons, to the left and right, were four apartments, making eight altogether, where the professors taught. The latter rooms had desks and benches for the pupils.

I visited, in the afternoon, the church of St. Sophia, converted into a mosque by the Turks when the Venetians lost Cyprus to them. The interior was lofty, consisting of a nave, supported by five massive Saxon-like pillars on either side. At the bottom was a semicircular window, where, as well as up the side aisles, the pillars were of less dimensions. There were several old carpets spread on the ground, one of which was very large.[105]The governor’s palace, whither I next went, was an irregular building, with a large courtyard, and a corridor round the first and upper story. Such private houses as I entered were commodious, spacious, and of great neatness.

The walls of the city were of considerable thickness,broad enough, on the ramparts, to admit two carriages abreast. They had bastions at small distances, faced with sunburnt bricks, whilst the curtains were faced with stone. The bastions probably had been repaired since the time of Pococke, for they no longer represented a semicircle, as he describes them, but were an imperfect triangle, with truncated corners. On the three bastions nearest to the Famagusta gate were eight or ten pieces of cannon. There were three gates—that of Paphos, that of Famagusta, and a third which I did not note down. Some embrasures of turf, very recently made, were observable, and were constructed probably during the time of a recent insurrection in Cyprus, to which I shall presently advert. In Leucosia the guard was set every night on the walls, and the watches were cried.

On Wednesday, the 30th, I went to see the lepers at the city gate. There were among them persons of both sexes and of all ages; some with the joints of the fingers gone, some with blotches, and all more or less deformed. Most of them were people of low birth, generally peasants; some were Moslems and some were Christians. The little information I obtained from them amounted to this; that those who lost the first joints of their hands had nails growing on the second; that the heat of a fire was invariably pernicious, visibly increasing their complaint; that sleep and appetite were not diminished generally by it; that hot water had not the sameeffect on them as the heat of a fire. One told me that, when first attacked in the fingers, he thought he saved them by having the actual cautery applied to both his arms. Another said he had been in the leper-house thirty-five years. Men and women lived promiscuously, but I could not learn whether any children had resulted from this intercourse. It may, however, here be observed, that there was a woman in the village of Abra who had lost the first phalanges of both hands by leprosy, yet this woman had a daughter, who was well-looking, healthy, and the mother of five most beautiful children, all free from every symptom of the grandmother’s complaint.

I spent the evening with the archbishop. The title of the prelate is μακάριοτάτος (most blessed.) Hisarchimandriteswas a man of peculiarly venerable appearance. But the most learned person that it was my fortune to see in Leucosia was Andreas, dragoman to the archbishop, whose business lay in transacting the affairs of government between the governor of the island and the archbishop. There were numerous baths in Leucosia.

I took leave of my host over-night, and, on the morning of the 31st January, prosecuted my journey for Cytherea, now called Cherki, the true situation of the ancient Cytherea being assigned to a spot one league south of Cherki. After riding half an hour, we passed the river Pedias, close to which was a small Turkish village, called Miamillia. The bed ofthe river was deep; for the soil through which it ran was loose and sandy, and easy to be washed away by a rapid stream. At that time, as the rains had ceased some days, the water that flowed was no more than a rivulet. The road was parallel to the chain of mountains, called (from a five-fingered inequality on the ridge which was on our left) Pentedactylus. In two hours’ time we reached Cytherea.

I had a letter of introduction to a farmer, named Petráki, the chief person in the village. Though a rustic, he had nevertheless a spacious house and six house-servants, always a serious consideration to the traveller, who, as he casts his eye over them, and marks the alacrity with which they run to serve him and neglect their master, is obliged to check his self-complacence, by the recollection that all this is but a larger draft on his purse when he departs. I ate some excellent pork, boiled down to a jelly and dressed with a sour sauce in the manner of the French. The female part of the family, although seen occasionally bustling about in the duties of the house, did not sit down to table with us.

Cytherea was a long, straggling village, producing a great quantity of cotton and oil, and making abundance of silk. The oil was esteemed the best in the island. From the foot of Mount Pentedactylus issued a copious spring, in a stream which, in its course, turned twenty-four mills, besides irrigating the grounds and orchards. My host told me that thedelicious atmosphere of Cytherea brought on him frequent visits from the Turks of Leucosia, who came as often as two or three times a week to take the air, and were generally entertained at his expense. He expressed himself an ardent well-wisher to the cause of the Franks, and prayed for the moment when they would relieve Cyprus from the yoke of the Turks: but his prayers for the emancipation of the Greeks, I fear, were mercenary; for he said he should like to know whether any great changes threatened the Turkish empire, as, in that case, he might be spared the expence of abarattery, or license, which he was about to purchase.

A barattery was formerly a patent, which might be purchased from the Turkish government by Christian subjects. It cost 3000 piasters; and by it the purchaser was entitled to leave his property to his children, to wear certain coloured clothes and yellow shoes, and to some other privileges, not permitted to rayahs or unredeemed Greeks. It was the practice in the golden days of the European ambassadors at Constantinople to make a traffic of these baraterries; but the evil grew to such a height, that the Porte was obliged to interfere.

The peasants’ cottages were built of bricks dried in the sun, and, apparently, were comfortable enough. I could discover no antiquities or inscriptions.

Early in the afternoon, we remounted our mules, and, partly retracing our steps, proceeded in a north-westdirection to the monastery of Chrysostomus, up the side of Pentedactylus, at the summit almost of which is built the monastery. The foot of the mountain is of a barren argillaceous soil, producing nothing but a few stunted firs, and some oleanders in the watercourses. This whitish gray coloured soil ceased, and after it came the upper chain, which was of a reddish coloured rock.

We arrived at St. Chrysostom’s about sunset. The spot was not devoid of beauty, being a semicircular flat, indented in the side of the mountain. In front of it was a miserable hamlet. Two or three cypresses, with some vines and lemon trees, made up an orchard, which could not fail of being an embellishment to the place in the summer season: at present, it was robbed of its verdure. We found in the monastery one monk, an old woman, and a boy. Some rice, which I had with me, a little leben, procured from the hamlet, and some rammakins, dressed in oil, afforded a comfortable supper: and, after the priest had entertained me with a description of the milordi who had been there, my guide, the muleteer, produced from his wallet a violin, which he played on in a manner by no means disagreeable—yet he was but a rough peasant. I was then left to repose, wrapped up, as was my custom, in my lambskin pelisse, and without bed or covering. In this way no fleas molested me.

The following morning, at sunrise, I visited the ruins that overhang the monastery, and which go by the name of τὰ σπητια της ρεανος. The ascent was difficult, and, for nearly the whole way, impracticable to mules. On reaching the summit, which here was a peak, I enjoyed an extensive prospect both to the south, over the land I had traversed, and to the north along the coast. Between the mountains and the sea, to the north, there was a sloping plain from one to three miles in breadth, and running east and west as far as the eye could see. Towards the west it appeared to be well wooded; and it had already been described to me as affording the most beautiful scenery in the island. From this point was seen Lapithus, whose true name is Lampua. It is called, by the Turks, Lapta. The high mountains seen to the west are called Τρυγῳδὸς, pronounced Truothos.

Having satisfied myself with the view, I turned to the ruins. They consisted of four or five stone houses, of tolerably solid but modern structure, built one above the other, and which once were connected by steps in the rock, now crumbled away. The uppermost was a church, and those beneath seemed to have been parts of a monastery; both because such places were commonly built on the most elevated spots, and because there was nothing castellated in the walls. The situation was certainly as well fitted for a place of strength as for a monastery; but ruins, in Syria atleast, of the nature of a fortress always showed crenelated battlements, loopholes, or something appropriate to defence, of which this had none.

We descended to the monastery, where I breakfasted, and then departed for Famagusta. Cytherea lay in my route; and, in passing through it again, as I beheld its verdant foliage and its purling rivulets, there seemed to be nothing but the hand of love and refinement wanting to make it yet one of the most picturesque spots in nature. Its situation, at the foot of a mountain, on a slope, with an extensive plain in front, is not unlike Bâlbec, but in more diminutive proportions.

We kept along the lower chain of hills, in an easterly direction, and passed through two Turkish villages. Round one of these the land was cultivated with the utmost neatness. In Cyprus the husbandman’s annoyance is the squill plant, which springs up amidst the corn almost every where. Here it had been so carefully destroyed, that not one was to be seen. My guide lost his road, and it was necessary to make inquiries at one of the cottages; but, wherever we knocked, a voice from within cried out either—“There are no men at home;” or, “The men are at plough;” and, as Turkish women do not appear before strangers, we were considerably embarrassed. At last, however, we met an obliging peasant, who, taking me for a Mahometan Arab, walked nearly a mile to put usright, and excused himself that he could go no farther, on the plea of having his cattle to drive in.

About one league farther on, in a south-easterly direction, we reached a Christian village, called Marathon. The sun had set, and there was a gleam across the landscape, just enough to give to every thing around an illusive appearance. The women were returning from the well with water on their heads; and their white dresses, as they floated in the wind, gave them a look not unlike what my imagination pictured the maidens of earlier times to have been on this once happy island. Alas! an unseemly reality soon dissipated these visions of fancy. I was led to the house of a Greek papas, who, seeing the guest with whom he was about to be burdened for the night, bawled, in a stentorian voice, to a dirty wife and half a dozen children, and, by his rough hands, uncombed beard, and the dexterity with which he housed his cows, showed himself to be more of a labourer and husbandman than of an ecclesiastic. His lodging, nevertheless, was commodious, and, when he found that he should be paid, his welcome was hearty.

As it was now full moon, we took advantage of its light, and departed next morning two hours before daylight. We passed several little villages and hamlets on our way: and, keeping an easterly direction, we reached the sea-shore about eleven o’clock, near toa large red brick monastery, called St. Barnabas. We then turned short to the right, towards Famagusta, compelled to take this circuitous route, owing to the swamps made by the River Pedias in this season of the year. These were so extensive, that the former possessors of the country had constructed a long causeway and bridge over the extremity of it, where the water of the river discharged itself by an outlet into the sea.

When we were safe over the bridge, we arrived, in about half an hour, at the monastery of St. Luke, which is abreast of the city of Famagusta. It belonged to the Greeks, and was a sort of spacious cottage, kept by a single monk, who received us with a forced smile, not having the most distant idea that I was a Frank. Nor could I, for some time, persuade him that I was one, so much did my dress, my tanned face, and the language I spoke in to my servant, disguise me: for the priest did not understand Arabic, and therefore was not able to detect my foreign accent.

It was customary for Christians to take up their lodgings either there or in the village of Merash, close by, there being, as I was told, a law that no Christian should lodge in the town of Famagusta. Prohibitions of this sort, however, were probably not strictly enforced towards Franks; as no inhabitant of Famagusta would, I am persuaded, have been so uncivil as toeject a Frank traveller, who demanded merely a night’s lodging.

After dinner, I walked with the priest to the town. We made the circuit of the fortifications, which are very considerable. We then visited the port, the ancient church of St. Sophia, now a ruined Gothic edifice, and afterwards betook ourselves to the coffee-house, to smoke a pipe. Some Turks, who were sitting on the benches at the door, made me welcome, and severally desired the waiter to present me with a cup of coffee, which is a mark of civility they show to a friend, or to one whom they have not seen for some time. I came away with much good will in my heart towards them.

On the following morning, the 2nd of February, we departed betimes, in order to arrive early at Larnaka, as the appearance of the sky indicated the approach of a storm. We marched two hours by moonlight, as on the preceding day, over an uncultivated champaign country. When the sun rose, we found ourselves abreast of a Christian village. The land around it attracted my notice by the high state of its cultivation. The soil itself seemed rich, being of a fine red mould. Soon afterwards, we again came upon uncultivated plains, which lasted for two leagues more, and then reached the village of Ormethia, on the sea-shore, where the English consul had a country-house, at which I alighted. Giovanni procured such provisionsas the place afforded, and I rested and ate something. One league before coming to Ormethia, there grew a low shrub like the juniper, which covered the soil as far as the village. From Ormethia to Larnaka, the road lay by the sea-side. At three o’clock I reached Mr. Vondiziano’s, having been absent seven days. Cyprus afforded more accommodation for travellers than Syria; for at every little distance there generally was a convent, where was to be found a sufficiency of most necessaries. In most parts, the roads were good.

I had arrived in Cyprus in the middle of carnival; and, as the Catholics formed the greater portion of the Franks, this festival was celebrated with much gaiety. There were two faro-tables constantly open, to which fathers, mothers, and children, resorted together. In adjoining rooms were balls; and dissipation exerted its most baneful effects on the morals and constitutions of young and old. At the end of the faro-room, an elevated sofa afforded the spectators an opportunity at once of smoking and of enjoying the game. The transition from the sober and grave habits of those I had just left in Syria to the tumultuous assemblies of those I was now among, formed a striking contrast, which somewhat shocked me, and was, upon the whole, favourable to the Mahometans.

The Frank society was composed of a few individuals of every nation in Europe. In Europe, the Turks are cried down as barbarians; no doubt because arts, and sciences, and polite letters, are so little cultivatedamong them; but in Cyprus the epithet was applied to them because they did not gamble, dance, and drink wine: and, affecting an opposite extreme, the Franks ran into excesses unknown in the countries they sprang from. But, in a society made up of parts so heterogeneous, and which could never, from the constant clashing of its religious and social institutions, amalgamate, no wonder that the whole had a tendency to confusion, which could only serve to let loose men’s vicious propensities without confirming their virtuous dispositions.

Each consul was the head of the subjects of the nation he represented: he was a king to them, and nothing to others. Hence the friendship of the consul was immunity from laws, and his enmity a bugbear to the poor only; for the wealthy did not hesitate to change masters, when those they acknowledged were no longer sufficiently complaisant; and there were persons, who, by what is called “changing protection,” had been English, French, Swedish, Ragusan, and Danish, subjects, in the course of a few years.

Larnaka, as to its buildings, represented, in some manner, a large country village in England. The houses were straggling, and built of sun-dried bricks; they were, nevertheless, not devoid of neatness in their exterior; and, in their interior, they were commodious, spacious, and, in some instances, handsome. They were mostly of two stories, having generally a large courtyard, with a coach entrance for theircalèches. All had window casements, with weatherboard blinds. There were no fireplaces in their rooms, nor was it ever cold enough for two days following to make a fire desirable. In some of the best furnished houses, there was much richness and even elegance displayed in the furniture, as far as French clocks, fine chandeliers, lamps on pedestals, good prints, tables, beaufets, and sofas, can be so considered.

I made a ground-plan of a house at Citi, near Larnaka, considered as one of the best country-houses in the neighbourhood. It was built of sun-dried bricks; and, being neither plastered nor whitewashed externally, had a sombre appearance, like the cottages on the banks of the Nile; indeed, throughout Cyprus, there were many marks of its intercourse with Egypt. This house was two stories high. The whole of the buildings were walled in. A garden, containing orange and lemon trees, attached to it, was irrigated by a Persian wheel, turned by a mule. Citi is about two leagues and a half from Larnaka; and its name is a corruption of the ancient Citium.

The calèches in use in Cyprus were like clumsy cabriolets, being a rude single-horse chaise, without an apron or splashing board, guided by a driver who sat on the shaft. All the houses had large ovens. The water of Larnaka is not what I should call bad, but Pococke has pronounced it to be so. Lamb, mutton, game, and pork were plentiful, and beef was generally to be had.

The Christian inhabitants of this island had little purity of blood. The Franks were not Europeans, and the Greeks, intermarrying perpetually with the Franks, had ceased to have the characteristics of their own nation. I do not, however, wish to speak disrespectfully of persons who were generally so very kind to me.

The habits of living of a Greek family in Cyprus may be gathered from that with which I was staying. Many Greek families, although mixing in free intercourse with Europeans, retained much of their nationality. Their wives very seldom frequented places of diversion, had fewer parties, and, when at home, confined themselves to the gynæceum and nursery, where they were employed in household affairs, and the care of their children. During more than a month, there were two persons only who came and dined in a family way with Mr. Vondiziano, and these were relations. His wife’s brother was preceptor to his eldest girl; and for the three next there was a priest, who taught them to read the New Testament and some homilies, which works were in Hellenic Greek. They learned to write likewise, and I believe a little ciphering. We retired to our separate rooms, generally about seven o’clock at night, and the whole family was often in bed at eight, to rise with the sun next morning.

There is a story of somewhat ancient date, which was told me by Mr. Vondiziano, touching two merchants,Englishmen, who, when residents in Larnaka, finding their affairs unprosperous, resolved to quit the island with éclat. Their names I will conceal out of delicacy to their children. They invited a very large party to a splendid fête, and, in the midst of it, disappeared, and, embarking on board a vessel prepared for the purpose in the roads, they sailed for Europe, leaving their creditors all the spoils in biscuits, wax-candles, and French wines.

I was fortunate enough to procure some antiquities at Larnaka, one of which, of whitest marble, in shape like a tailor’s goose, the handle finished off by two lions’ heads, was dug out of the ruins of Citium, and seemed to intimate that the ancients confined their doors against blasts of wind in the same way that is done now-a-days. It is now in the possession of Newman Smith, Esq. of Croydon Lodge.

Soon after my arrival, the whole island was thrown into commotion, by an event which it will not be amiss to relate, as illustrative of the state of society in Cyprus. The dragoman of the Austrian consul, a Greek by birth, and of the Greek persuasion, but enjoying by his post a Frank protection, had an only daughter twelve years of age, beautiful as the day. Her father, adhering to the customs of his nation, kept her confined to the house, secluding her from the sight of everybody but her relations, and allowing her the privilege of going to mass three times a year only, in company with them, on the grand holydaysof their religion. Her charms, however, were the talk of every circle. She was sought for in marriage by several Greek gentlemen; but the father’s ambition led him to hope for still more advantageous proposals, and each suitor was declined in turn.

There was a Ragusan merchant resident in Larnaka, about thirty-five years of age, very rich, and, from his wealth, held in much consideration. He was the brother of one of the consuls. The maiden excited his desires, and he resolved to attempt the illicit gratification of them. The father possessed a little farm in the country, to which he went occasionally to superintend his agricultural business. Constantine, (for that was the Ragusan’s name) had secured in his interests a Turkish woman, who, under the cloak of a suppliant, obtained admission into the house. She made known his passion to the girl, whose vanity was gratified by the admiration of a man so distinguished in her eyes, whilst she felt besides a predilection towards Franks, because they were known to allow their wives greater liberty than the Greeks.

During the absence of the father at his farm, the maid-servant, who was her duenna, betrayed her trust, and Constantine was introduced into the house, where he effected his dishonourable purposes. He repeated his visits, as occasions offered, for some time, until she found herself pregnant. Alarmed at her condition, she informed her lover of it, and begged him to bring her a potion to procure abortion. He soothedher alarms, and desired her to be under no apprehension; assuring her that, in bearing him a child, she would but secure a testimony of their love, and a pledge of the promise he had given her of soon making her his wife.

Her increasing size could not escape the observation of her father, who, unsuspicious of the real cause, was amused with a story of female complaints, for which some old woman’s nostrum was pretended to be applied. Some months passed on in this way, until, on the 8th of February, a few days after my landing on the island, the distressed girl escaped from her father’s house to that of a friend, and there, with tears in her eyes, and overwhelmed with shame and confusion, disclosed her situation.

The news spread like wildfire, and the outcry against Constantine knew no bounds: but, with the assurance of impunity, he appeared at a public ball the same evening, and, as some persons maliciously remarked, was the admiration of the fair sex more than he ever had been. The Greeks, however, in a body, took up the cause, with a determination to make him their victim, unless he rendered ample satisfaction to their injured honour. They made a party affair of it: for, of seven vice-consuls who resided at Cyprus, three were Greek, who held together against those who were of Frank extraction. Constantine was called upon to repair the dishonour done to the young lady, and, through her, to the Greek nation, by marriage. Thearchbishop of the island was written to, and application was made to the Turkish governor, who put Constantine under arrest, so that he seemed to have no alternative but to comply.

He alleged, however, in excuse of what he had done, that he was not the only one who had enjoyed the favours of the girl—that the father, who lived in concubinage with his maid-servant before the eyes of this young creature, could not expect her to escape the influence of so bad an example. He cited the Germanic law, to which they were both amenable, and by which a fine of money only was awarded to the aggrieved party, in case of seduction, which he was ready to pay. He asserted that he had made no promise of marriage, and, consequently, could not be compelled to take her for his wife. He insinuated that the girl was artful enough to have planned the whole affair, in the hope of thus ensuring herself a good match, aware that, both in the order of events and from her father’s situation and small fortune, she could not expect to be so well married in any other way. Finally, he declared, that, whatever might be the consequence, he repudiated her. He knew, he said, the vindictive spirit of the Greeks; and, if they had resolved on assassinating him, why, let the worst happen: he had made his will, and would abide by the event. Added to all this, several of the inhabitants spoke of the practice the young lady had of secretly going to the house-door, and of salutingyoung men as they passed by; whilst, whenever she saw ladies coming, she disappeared, as if conscious of doing something improper.

The father and the Greek party, on the contrary side, said that the girl was too young and too innocent to have acted otherwise than from the impulses of nature and the suggestions of her seducer; whilst the go-between, when interrogated, testified to the admission of Constantine only to the house. They produced two rings given by him as tokens of a promise of marriage.

The affair was thus advocated with the utmost bitterness of party spirit on both sides. Constantine, finding that threats were thrown out against his life, stirred very little from home: and it was thought that resort would be had to the ambassador of Austria at Constantinople to decide on the case: but here another difficulty intervened. Whenever the consuls were at variance, the Turks took advantage of their quarrels, and it was only by their union that they could make a stand against them. The girl, therefore, was at last sacrificed to political reasons, and Constantine consented to pay a certain sum as her dowry to any one who would marry her. This, with the distribution of a few douceurs, quieted the outcry. A person was not long wanting, who offered himself as her husband; but his low rank in society and mercenary character precluded the unfortunate victim from the hopes of happiness for the rest of her life.

In 1812, when, as it was said at the instigation of the French ambassador, much persecution was exercised against the family of the Morûsis, at that time enjoying the highest dignities which the Porte awards to her Greek subjects, one of them, Prince George Morûsi, was banished to Cyprus, where he lived for a few weeks unmolested, and in great privacy. I was making a visit with Signor Vondiziano to a person named Bosovitch, inhabiting a large house at the strand of Larnaka, when, the conversation turning on beheading, a person who was present said, “It was on this sofa I saw the Prince George Morûsi so barbarously murdered;” and he proceeded to relate the way in which it was done. “We had just risen from dinner, and the prince had reseated himself to smoke his pipe, when a slight bustle was heard on the staircase, and an armed Turk, with two others behind, entered the room. They looked steadily for half a minute at us, and the prince, who beheld them, dropped his pipe, turned pale as ashes, and fell back almost inanimate: for he apprehended immediately what business they were come upon. The first Turk advanced to him, and shot him through the body. We were three of us present: we leaped from the sofa, and, as the murderers paid no attention to us, we got out of the room into the passage. There everything was in confusion; and, in the midst of it, the chaplain of the prince pulled me aside. ‘Secrete these things immediately,’ he said, and gave me a watchwith some jewels and rings; all which I afterwards restored to the family at a proper time. Whilst this was doing, the Turks, to make their work sure, had strangled the prince with a girdle, and had dragged the body into the passage. They then retreated by the street door, no one daring to follow or cry after them.

“When they were out of sight, we went immediately to the governor, and told him what we had seen. He pretended astonishment and horror at the deed, and immediately gave orders to his police officers to search the town and bring the assassins before him. This farce was carried on some days, although every one knew that the soldiers were the governor’s men, and that he had authority from the Porte for what he had done.”

Let me now narrate a story of a different nature, and of a more innocent and enlivening cast. The conversation of Larnaka turned much upon it, as soon as Signor Constantine’s affair had blown over. Signor Brunoni’s history was singular. He was about to quit Cyprus for Italy, and was reputed to carry with him a fortune estimated at half a million of piasters, or £15,000 sterling.

An Italian by birth, he belonged originally to the fraternity of monks of St. Francis, called in the Levant the monks of the Holy Land. He was a lay brother; and, it is said, disgusted with his calling, he obtained from Rome a dispensation to throw off hisfrock. As soon as he returned to the world, he professed himself a doctor; and, being of a handsome presence and of insinuating manners, he established himself so effectually in the good-will of the people of Leucosia, the capital, that, at the end of twenty-five years, when he left the place to reside at Larnaka, on the sea-coast, he was escorted on his way to town by the principal inhabitants, as a testimony of the respect they bore him.

On coming to Larnaka he continued to exercise his profession, and, at the same time, turned merchant. But his neighbours were surprised to see that, on a sudden, he threw a capital into his business, superior to that of the oldest and wealthiest merchants. Shortly afterwards he sent his eldest son, a lad, to Italy, under pretence of giving him a good education; but reports soon reached the island that the son had purchased, in his father’s name, a large estate for some thousands of pounds. Many were the surmises and conjectures how he had amassed so much wealth, when at last a trifling circumstance led to the discovery. Signor Brunoni offered for sale to a friend a large silver lamp, saying it had been the property of the pope, but was sold during his holiness’s troubles, and had, from hand to hand, come into the possession of his son, who, thinking it would suit some devout person of Cyprus, had sent it to him. Some one, to whom it was shown, on examining the lamp, discovered on the back of it the name of Seneca, and recollectedthat a wealthy Venetian family of that name once flourished in Cyprus. He talked of the coincidence, until it was asked whether Signor Brunoni might not have found a hidden treasure: and then it was that, by degrees, the following account came to light. It appeared that, adjoining to his own residence at Leucosia, lived a poor single woman, in a small house, but which was her own property. This woman hired herself to Signor Brunoni as a servant; and, after living with him some years, she, in a moment of confidence, showed him some papers she had in a chest, which she had inherited from her father with the house. One of these was an indication to a treasure buried under the house. Brunoni pretended to take time to look over them, copied them, and secretly resolved to make the search. He first purchased the house for a trifle, then joined it to his own as a surgery, and succeeded, to his great joy, in finding what he was in search of.

The woman lived with him always afterwards, and, when he quitted the island, he settled a pension on her. But what renders the truth of the story more probable, if confirmation were wanting, is, that discoveries of this sort were by no means rare. Venetian families would transmit from Venice notices of treasures concealed by their ancestors in Cyprus, and left by them at their expulsion by the Turks in the fifteenth century. But a griping government, and the impossibility of searching houses and places whichhad passed into the hands of strangers, had prevented those entrusted with these documents from acting upon them. Instances occurred very frequently of several coins of the same stamp being offered for sale in quick succession. Many a man had been known to disappear on a sudden from the island, and it had been ascertained afterwards that he had fled from his country, to enjoy, without risk, the fruits of a fortunate discovery. For if it were but whispered that an Ottoman subject had found concealed treasures, the government claimed them; and the distrust which existed in the official authorities, lest a part should be withheld, often subjected the finder to blows and even torture.

It would appear affectation in my readers to say, that they do not feel a desire to know whether the women at Cyprus retain any of those charms and of that amiability which once drew down the protection of the goddess of beauty on the isle. I reluctantly confess that the favours of that deity were no longer so manifest as of old, although votaries were not wanting at her shrine; but yet some exceptions ought to be made.[106]

The voices of the Cypriot women had something in them peculiarly dissonant, and they all seemed to speak in a false tone, nor did use ever make these shrill accents agreeable. They were not, in general, beautiful, nor was their dress graceful, being in no sense calculated to display their shapes. Seen from behind, they resembled nothing so much as a horse in a mantua-maker’s show-room, with a dress appended to it. In their habits they were indolent; they were not good although niggardly housewives. They were oftener to be seen at the windows and doors of their houses than elsewhere, looking at passengers with the most idle curiosity. They were addicted to the grossest superstitions. For example: when oil is spilt from a lamp, a cruet, or otherwise, some dire misfortune is supposed to overhang the family; and, upon one occasion, having the misfortune to upset a lamp, I saw the eyes of the servants turned upon me, as on one whose presence foreboded evil. A neighbour would in vain attempt to obtain a light from the adjoining house, if applied for after sunset. These superstitions are harmless enough; but they become hurtful when they interfere with the cultivation of a useful study. Thus, a labourer on the estate of a gentleman of Larnaka struck upon the head of a statue, as he was ploughing. Curiosity induced him to clear away the soil from it; but when he saw the features (as it was of remarkably white marble), he took them for those of a spirit, and ran away. Hebethought himself of going to the priest, who, hearing his story, accompanied him to the spot, and there found the head; which, under pretence of exorcising, he carried home, and presented to his patron, a Greek. His patron was proud of a handsome piece of ancient sculpture, and gave it a conspicuous situation in his house. It so happened, that, immediately afterwards, there was an epidemical disorder in Cyprus. The effects of it were felt in every house, and the possessor of the marble head did not escape. At last his sisters, unmarried ladies, who lived with him, conceived that the bust had brought the malady upon them. In vain he attempted to convince them of the absurdity of such a notion: they persisted, and he was obliged to give the bust away.

They rule their servants by caprice, and educate their children by fits of anger and indulgence.

The manufactures of Cyprus are chiefly coarse printed cottons for furniture, which are of lively chintz patterns, and remarkably cheap. The principal articles imported at this time into Cyprus were German looking-glasses, queen’s and other earthenware, sugar, syrups and liqueurs, cloth, Lyons’ stuffs, Manchester goods, glass, &c.

The Greek spoken at Cyprus is as corrupt as that in any part of the Turkish empire. An attempt to enumerate the words that have been introduced into it from other tongues would be to select almost all the expressions of eating, drinking, visiting, and business,common to the Turkish, Arabic, Italian, and French languages. An example of each will suffice.

Arabic.—Τι χαβαρι εχει; what news is there? fromkaber,news.

Italian.—Καμνειν μιαν βισιταν], to pay a visit: fromvisita.

French.—Το εκαμεν εξακταμεντε, we have done it exactly: fromexactement.

Turkish.—Γοκσα; or not? fromyok.

Ditto.—Ρεζιλες, disputes.

The ῤ is aspirated in pronunciation at Cyprus, which is not done, I believe, elsewhere in the Greek islands.

Living at Cyprus was extremely cheap: but the term means nothing, when applied as relative to England; for all countries almost are cheap in comparison with it, and hence to Englishmen a great advantage is afforded wherever they travel. Compared with the adjacent districts of Syria and Caramania, living in Cyprus was cheap even then.

Cyprus still felt the effects of an insurrection which had convulsed the island some time before. To understand the causes of it, it is necessary to premise, that the Greeks enjoyed so much influence in Cyprus, as to be able often to displace a governor who had become obnoxious to them; not by an act of authority (for they had none in the eye of the law), but by representations to the Porte, backed by money. At the head of the Greek party was thearchbishop. The one who held the crosier before the reigning archbishop was so infirm, that he employed, in all transactions with the government, his dragoman, named Hadji Georgaki, a man of great talents, which he perverted to the purposes of intrigue. To such a height had this man’s power grown, that he was supposed, by his machinations, to have removed more than one motsellem, or governor; and it was thought that no one could hold that dignity long, who had not previously entered into a friendly understanding with him.

In this way, Hadji Georgaki’s measures were generally uncontrolled, and he proceeded to the length of oppressing Turks and Christians indiscriminately, which was ill borne by the Turks, who submit reluctantly to authority exercised over them by an infidel; but not unwillingly by the Greeks themselves, who cared not to lose a portion of their substance, if their oppressors were to be fellow-sufferers. At length, however, the complaint of the Turks found its way to Constantinople, and Hadji Georgaki thought fit to go in person to the capital to counteract the machinations of his enemies; which, by force of bribes, he succeeded in doing, and returned triumphantly to Cyprus.

The hatred of the Turks against the dragoman now knew no bounds; and, finding they could not obtain justice from the Porte, they resolved to take the cause into their own hands. They accordingly laid aplot to seize the person of Hadji Georgaki, and to take away his life, but he was apprized of it in time to escape to Larnaka, where (after concealing himself some days in a consular house) he embarked for the Archipelago, and betook himself again to Constantinople. The Turks, having lost their victim, and committed themselves too far to recede, hoisted the standard of rebellion, and were headed by the governor. The Greeks were oppressed without appeal, and complaints poured into Constantinople, demanding relief.

The Porte now saw that energetic measures must be resorted to, and looked about for a proper man to execute its commands. Cara Pasha, a subtile chieftain, versed in intrigue, and who would stick at no means to effect his ends, was selected for the purpose. He embarked from the opposite coast of Asia with a large body of troops, and, landing, marched strait for Leucosia: but Leucosia, a fortified place, was so well defended by the rebels, that he found himself unable to carry it by assault. He accordingly sat down before the city, having seized on the flour-mills at Cytherea as the best means of straitening the besieged, who had no means, except by hand and mule-mills, of grinding corn within the walls. The archbishop and the chief Greeks found themselves shut in with the rebels. The former, fearing for his personal safety, and pretending to be alarmed only for that of his flock, wrote letters to the differentconsuls at Larnaka, begging them to intercede with the pasha for a truce, and to endeavour to settle the affair any how so that he might escape; signifying that, if hostilities commenced, he and the Greeks should be massacred. For it was the artifice of the rebels to hold out the threat, knowing how much could be done by the archbishop, if made a party in the affair.

The consuls, pleased with the importance they were likely to acquire in becoming mediators, set off, to the number of five, for Leucosia. They made known their business to the pasha, who eagerly availed himself of an opportunity which he thought was thus afforded him of getting within the walls. He accordingly treated them with great distinction, and expressed himself disposed to accede to any thing which their negociations might effect. A correspondence was immediately entered upon, and thirty days passed in messages to and fro; the rebels endeavouring to obtain permission to leave Leucosia with their property, and the pasha, on his side, offering them their lives and property, but with the condition that they should remain where they were. The rebels were at last brought to consent to these terms, on a solemn promise being made to the consuls by the pasha that their lives should be saved.

On an appointed day the gates were thrown open, and the pasha and the consuls marched in together in procession. The day was spent in merriment, andmost persons thought the pasha honourable in his intentions. Night came, and the consuls retired to their respective houses, where they were to sleep. It was then that the pasha began to play his treacherous game. Despatching soldiers in different directions, he secretly caused to be seized, at the same moment, thirteen rebels, who were brought to the palace and beheaded immediately. Their relations flew to the consuls, whilst these executions were yet going on, and told them that the pasha had not respected the compact made between them. Monsieur Regnault, the French consul, as first in rank among them, despatched his dragoman to the pasha, and bade him hold his hand and respect the treaty. The dragoman, a timid Levantine, arrived whilst the bow-string was yet at work. Fainting and trembling, his tongue faltered, and his representations were unheeded by a man, who, in having made the consuls the tools of his perfidy, could well ask them why they meddled between the Porte and its subjects.

The next morning, when the day dawned, the pasha sent for the consuls. Monsieur Regnault at first refused to attend on him, but his timid associates advised him not to offend so sanguinary a man, and he accompanied them. The pasha received them not like one convicted of treachery, but as a magistrate vested with an authority in which they had no part. He read to them the firman of the Porte, commanding him to exterminate the rebels; and excused the modein which he had effected it, by saying that no faith could be kept with them. He then invested each consul with a pelisse of one thousand piasters value, and, when they had suffered this, they went away, held their peace, and returned humbled to Larnaka.

To add to the disgrace which this whole transaction brought on the consuls, when the pasha afterwards came to Larnaka, previous to his embarkation for Latakia, they invited him alternately to their houses, where he made himself drunk with brandy, which he asked for incessantly; and, retiring to vomit, returned to drink again. These scenes were renewed from house to house, and often lasted through the night. And here Monsieur Regnault was destined to betray a second time the folly of meddling in affairs that did not concern him, however good and honourable the motive; for when, on the evening of the massacre, he had favoured the escape of certain rebels, and had caused them to be secreted in his house at Larnaka, the pasha sent a detachment of troops, and compelled him to give them up. Two, however, of the leaders, named Hadj Mustafa and Delli Omàr, escaped. The latter was for some time secreted at Signor Vondiziano’s, until an opportunity offered for stealing on board a ship and sailing for Syria. The whole affair cost a vast deal of money to the island, which was obliged to maintain so many troops; and the pasha enriched himself individually by presents extorted by terror, and by avanies levied on each rich person whocould in any manner be implicated in the rebellion. The troops themselves departed with their arms covered with gold.

Will it then be said, after this, by writers and travellers, that the Turks are a nation devoid of animation, activity, or enterprise? Rather let us look on them as unmoved by the tranquil occupations of virtuous minds, and by the ordinary pursuits which agitate a Christian’s bosom, because they play a deeper game, and are to be excited to energy only where the stakes are fortune and life: but we must not charge them with dullness or inactivity.

The information acquired respecting Hadji Georgaki induced the pasha to denounce him to the Porte. On his arrival at Constantinople, after his flight, he had concealed himself at the village of Arnaûtkui on the Bosphorus, until by fresh bribes he could judge himself sufficiently protected at court; after which he appeared in public. But, his work not having been well done, one day he was seized and beheaded. His house was despoiled at Leucosia, and in the floor of one room was found a trap-door leading by steps to a stone vault, where immense treasures were discovered. When at Leucosia, I descended into this place, and was satisfied more than ever that such means of concealment were often resorted to by the natives of these countries.

The archbishop, in this conflict, saw himself deprived of half the authority which before, by peculiarprivileges, had belonged to the see of Cyprus. For, up to this time, no judicial proceedings could be enforced against a Greek subject without his presence, personally or by deputy: now the motsellems of Leucosia, Larnaka, and Famagusta, were vested with the same authority as the governors of other cities of the empire.

The archbishop had once been an οικονομος, or commissary, and served as purveyor in the camp of the vizir, who conducted an army against the French in Egypt.

From the 3rd of February continued rain had fallen. The weather had become exceedingly tempestuous, and a succession of storms rendered it impossible for vessels to take in their cargoes; for Larnaka has no harbour, and vessels coming for a freight lie at anchor in the bay, and receive their merchandize by boats from the shore. There was a polacca brig loading for Marseilles, by which I had resolved to take my passage: but there was little prospect that she would be ready for some time, for the reasons assigned above.

On the 24th of February, after a very tempestuous night, the house of Mr. Caridi, (whose wife was sister to Mr. Vondiziano) was struck by lightning, which, after taking an irregular course through four chambers, breaking in its way a looking-glass, singeing a coverlet, and bursting a door, entered the wall of the house, which wall was of burnt brick. It so happenedthat there was a New Testament in Greek lying by the mirror; the mirror was broken, but the Testament remained uninjured. This book immediately acquired a degree of sanctity equal to what a τέμενος, (temenos) would have done among the ancients. But what amused me greatly was to see Mr. Caridi obliged to keep open house for three days, that people might view the book and compliment him on the miracle. His wife was much inclined to make a vow to go to Mount Athos, and return thanks for the signal deliverance. The same house was soon afterwards visited by another hurricane, when a gust of wind carried away a staircase, which led from the ground floor to the upper story, and which was on the outside, as is customary in the island.

Lent had now begun, and I resolved to live with Mr. Vondiziano’s family as if I had been of their own religion, in order to see how I could bear a meager diet. Yet he would not suffer me to do so entirely, apprehensive that it would not agree with my constitution. The eldest of Signor Vondiziano’s daughters, about twelve years old, had been so schooled by their confessor, that she fed on bread and olives only. Our meals consisted generally of rice soup, made with oil, instead of meat or butter; fish done in oil; wild and garden artichokes; salads, peas, beans, or other vegetables, fried in oil; botarga, caviare, olives, anchovies; and some other things, which I forget. The children vied with each otherin undergoing privations of this kind: and the maid-servants were their abettors. Signor Vondiziano, under the plea of a weak stomach, obtained an exemption for himself twice a week.

In this way time wore on, but the weather did not change for the better: even the passage between Syria and Cyprus was interrupted. The drought of the preceding year was now more than overbalanced by the flooding rains; and, from the standing pools which they made, fevers and endemic maladies were anticipated.

The inhabitants of Larnaka, and, after them, travellers, have attributed the malignant fevers, which almost annually infest that town to a small lake of stagnant water, which lay between Larnaka and the Marina. As this lake is not more than a few hundred yards across in its longest diameter, it seems inadequate to the production of such extensive effects. There would appear to be sufficient reason in the sudden change of temperature which takes place at sunset, wherever in these latitudes there are low flats, in which heat is confined by day, and vapours are condensed by night. Even in the winter, after a sunny day, there was, at the close of it, such a chill suddenly pervading the atmosphere, as to give an instantaneous check to perspiration in any one incautiously exposed to it. In the spring and autumn, this must necessarily be more sensibly felt; as the quantity of vapour carried into the atmosphere is greater fromthe greater heat, and the system is then more easily acted upon, at one time from the sudden cessation of a renovated circulation, at another from the sudden contraction of relaxed pores.

Tired of waiting for the vessel’s departure, I resolved on another excursion into the interior; and, on the 21st of March, I set off with two mules, which cost me eleven piasters and a half per diem, for Leucosia. I was desirous, this time, of taking the road through Idalia; but my guide, who wished to pass the night at his own village, turned from the road which led to Idalia into that to Athegainon, imagining that, when once there, I could do no more than fume and talk, without any positive mischief to him. But I knew a Greek’s shifts well enough to suspect that the direction he took was not the right one, as I had previously instructed myself respecting the way. Accordingly, I suffered him to take the lead for about two hundred yards, and then suddenly, without apprizing him, turned off in a northerly direction. He did not look round, until I and my servant were almost out of sight; when, discovering what I had done, he came hurrying after me.

Idalia, now called Dali, is five leagues from Larnaka, west by north. It proved to be a village of eighty houses, twenty of which were Turkish, and sixty Christian. It had fourpapases, or priests. I was lodged at the ξενοδοκε̃ ιον, or public lodging, than which nothing could be more wretched. I went the following morningto see the site of ancient Idalia, to the south-east, over a fine plain of whitish soil. Half a dozen stones of rude workmanship, at a spot where the hills form a bogáz, or ravine, were all that now remained. My guide was very anxious that I should sit down and look around me; because, he said, the last Englishman who had been there had done the same: and I was inclined, therefore, to believe, that he had no other reason for calling these scattered stones ruins of Idalia, than because this Englishman had told him so. On my return to the village, I inquired for coins and statues, as is customary with travellers, and found, at a papas’s, a small woman’s head, in marble. I mounted my mule to depart, and, in passing a heap of stones and rubbish by the church, I observed what I thought to be the drapery of a statue peep out. I alighted, and found a statue in high relief, about twenty inches long, without a head, done in alabaster. This I brought away with me.

The road lay through hills, where I occasionally caught a glimpse of Leucosia; but did not enjoy the complete view until within a quarter of an hour’s distance from it. The day was beautifully fine. On my arrival at the monastery, the archbishop received me civilly, but with a settled gloom on his countenance, the cause of which will be presently shown. His dinner, as being Lent fare, was no better than the repasts which I had left behind me at Larnaka.

I visited, on the following day, Mâlem AnthonyBrins, a native of Tripoli in Syria, who may pass as a person of some mark in the eyes of Europeans, as having been Monsieur Volney’s teacher in Arabic, when living at Mar Hanneh, on Mount Lebanon.[107]

Brins was now a merchant, living in affluence at Leucosia. His house was spacious and agreeable. Ali Bey had paid him a long visit during his stay at Leucosia. He spoke of that traveller as ill able to support the character of a Moslem, either by his exercise of the rites of the Mahometan religion, or by his general language and demeanour.

Let us now revert to the cause of the archbishop’s gloominess. About a week before this my second visit to Leucosia, a large sum of money, amounting to about twenty purses, or nearly £500, had been stolen in the night from the room where Andréa, the archbishop’s dragoman, sat every day for the purpose of transacting the business of the island between the governor and his master. In the bottom of the chest which was rifled, human ordure was left, as if to addinsult to theft. It is to be observed that the palace of the governor, in which this room was situated, was enclosed in a quadrangular court, and had but one outlet.

At break of day, Andrea’s servant went, as was his custom, to put the room in order, when, finding the door forced and papers scattered in confusion on the floor, he ran back in dismay to inform his master, who hastened to see what had happened. The palace was soon in an uproar, and the extraordinary event of burglary committed in the very residence of the governor was considered as without a parallel.

When the first tumult was over, Andrea’s servant, the porter of the gate, who was a Turk, and three Christians, employed near these rooms, were apprehended. Thetufenkgi bashi(or head of the police, whose apartment was immediately under the treasury, and where it was supposed no noise could have been made without his hearing it), was suspected; as was Signor Andrea himself. Over these two persons, though not imprisoned, a guard was set to see that they did not escape.

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